CATHOLICISM COMPATIBLE WITH
REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT,
AND IH PULL ACCORDANCE WITH
POPULAR INSTITUTIONS:
OR,
REFLECTIONS UPON A PREMIUM TREATISE,
ISSUED BY THE
AMERICAN PROTESTANT SOCIETY,
UNDER THE SIGNATURE OF " CIVIS."
By FENELON.

I
F35-

NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD DUNIGAN,
NO. 151 FULTON-STREET.
18 4 4.

CATHOLICISM

COMPATIBLE WITH

REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT,

AND IH. FDLl ACCORDANCE WITH

POPULAR INSTITUTIONS:

OR,

REFLECTIONS UPON A PREMIUM TREATISE,

ISSUED BT THE

AMERICAN PROTESTANT SOCIETY,

UNDER THE SIGNATURE OF " CIVIS."

By FENELON.

NEW-YORK :
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD DUNIGAN,
NO. 151 FULTON-STREET.
1 8* 4 4.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844,
Br JAMES B. KIRKER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New- York.

I
F3r

h. lcd wig, printer.,
70&72vesey"-st.

TO THE REV. DR. SPRING.
Rev. Sir,
The following pages are inscribed to you by an hereditary
Protestant and American citizen. He addresses them to you,
because you have endorsed, as one of a Committee of the " Ame
rican Protestant Society," the views of a writer who has advocated
principles, and presented statements, as irreconcilable with the
truths of history, as they are foreign to the spirit of that Gospel,
of which you are the professional defender, as well as the genius
of that Constitution, which you pretend to admire with unqualified
reverence. Wanting in Christian charity, and exhibiting, in a
lamentable degree, a disposition to sectarian proscription, the above
author has presumed to hold up for popular suspicion, if not direct
odium, a communion, which is coeval with the advent of our com
mon Redeemer, and which, with all of its imputed errors and
corruptions, exercises no partial influence in the moral government
of a sinful world, or the immortal destinies of its countless in
habitants. But a reign of terror, receiving its first impulse from intolerant
bigotry, and sustained by fanatical violence, has commenced in this
land of civil and religious freedom ! In a country, to which op
pressed humanity has ever looked from every quarter of the globe,
as a refuge from the evils of tyranny and violence, and whither the
sincere votary of our common religion has wended his steps, as
to a sure and abiding asylum from persecution for conscience'
sake, there has been established a domination, which it would

4
seem, can only be satisfied with the upturning of all that is im
pressed with the seal of age, of wisdom, or even of a Holy Faith !
Recent events, in our land, compel the mind of every impartial
Christian and American, to dread an issue, which it cannot be
disguised is impending over us ; an issue which, with all its tre
mendous woes, will be no more than the natural result of an or
ganized, systematic warfare of religionists against fellow-believers
in the truths of an Everlasting Gospel.
To attempt, to avert this dreaded evil, to aid in lessening the
asperities of sectarian strife, to correct error, and to defend a per
secuted people, is the purpose of the humble writer who now ad
dresses you. He has every respect for your character ; he admires
your personal virtues, as he sincerely does homage to your ac
knowledged talents and professional faithfulness. But he believes,
that in common with too many, who it is conceded are sincere, you
cherish opinions and feelings, that are as alien to truth, as they
are opposed to the benign spirit of Christianity ; and therefore, if in
attempting to exhibit the errors, which in a public capacity you
have sanctioned, he should be so happy as to arrest your attention,
and that of others, he will rejoice, that he has been instrumental
in removing prejudice^ * in defending truth, and promoting that
evangelical charity, which is the fundamental principle of the
religion of man's Redeemer.
Fenelon.

CATHOLICISM
COMPATIBLE WITH REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I.
Progress of Christianity retarded by its professed friends. — 'Religious Intolerance and
Proscription ; their mournful effects in every age and land.
The history of Christianity has its records of alternate depression and
prosperity i now traced in tears and blood, and now again gilded with
the registries of glories and conquests. Like that of her adorable
Founder on earth, it bears a remarkable analogy to the trials and tri
umphs of His incarnation : for the events which have signalized her
progress in a militant state, are not without their parallels in the
varied circumstances of His humility, from the manger in Bethlehem
to the hill of Olivet. The celestial harmonies, which announced His
advent to a ruined world, were succeeded by the cries of holy innocents,
and the lamentations of bereaved mothers, " who would not be com
forted." Preserved, however, from the sanguinary decree of Herod,
the descendant of the Royal David passed his childhood in an exiled
home in Egypt ; or amid toilsome labours and the privations which
poverty exacts, the Hope of Israel spent his youth in obscurity, or
humble occupations. If on the shores of Jordan, he was cheered
with the assurance of Divine approval, yet his journey from thence in
his mission of love was that of pain and anguish, of persecutions and
revilings. Although hailed with hosannas on his entry into the city of
Jerusalem, the Anointed of the Lord was warned to flee from the mur
derous purpose of a malignant priesthood, and to seek safety in the
desert or wilderness. The splendours of the Transfiguration were
followed by the agony and bloody sweat of Gethsemane ; and these
again by the treason of Judas and the denial of Peter. His cross and

Passion, his bitter Deafh'and Burial, -preceded his glorious victory over
the tomb ; until at last his Triumph and Ascension to a Mediatorial
throne closed his earthly course in a world, purchased by his precious
blood, and redeemed through his atoning merits.
Equally diversified have been the events, which mark the course
of our blessed religion, since its introduction upon earth. Nursed
amid scenes of violence, and guarded only by the despised fishermen
of Galilee, her priests were dragged from her humble altars to ignomi
nious deaths. All of her primitive household are enrolled on the ex
tended lists of holy martys and faithful confessors ; and for centuries
her struggles for existence, compose the narrative of slaughterings,
not more numerous than they were circumstanced with horrors, appal
ling to the human heart. Persecution after persecution, each rivalling
that which preceded it in degree and bitter torture, was the destiny of
her infancy ; and this was exchanged only for treason to her divine
spirit, when in comparatively brighter seasons of moral conquest and
wordly support, her stern requirements were relaxed or her integrity
impaired by human policy. Princes, indeed, threw aside their purple,
and humbled themselves along with the communion of saints in her
sacred courts ; but princes too often brought with them the sceptre of
worldly power, and its very touch upon the altar's footstool gave
warning of danger, if it did not bring harm to the simple and una
dorned faith, which is not of this world. If one era in her history is
illuminated with her spiritual triumphs, or signalized by the hallowed
and hallowing influences of peace within her borders, it almost inva
riably is followed by a gloomy period, in which treason to her pure
spirit, or violent dissensions within, or persecutions from without,
caused her people to tremble for her safety. Let the history of the
Redeemer's household be traced from the day of Pentecost, until the
present period of her being, and it will be found that in no one age has
there been an immunity from threatening danger, if not of active
violence, throughout the eighteen centuries of her existence. Her
days of persecution, in which the fire and axe destroyed their unnum
bered victims, were those of sanguinary, torturing cruelties to mar
tyred saints and devoted witnesses. Pagan power and Jewish malig
nancy were ever awake to crush the feeble congregation of early
believers, or root out from the earth the living seeds of that spiritual
kingdom, over which a once crucified Saviour now triumphantly reigns.

And what if the massacres of God's faithful children were at length
terminated, and that there was peace from without for the assembly of
believers ? In her own bosom there, however, were awakened those
passions, which in their active influence, are more fatal to her pure
faith, to the spirit and genius of the precious gospel, than even the
persecutions of her enemies.
Indeed, these persecutions, circumstanced as most of them were,
with the tortures and agonizing deaths of countless victims, were,
however, ruled by Him, who is our Triumphant Head, to the confirma
tion of the hopes, and the establishing of the constancy, ay, to the
very increase of the faithful. The blood of Christian martyrs has
ever been the seed of the Church of God ; making every drop that
flowed in violence from the believer's veins, prolific in teeming har
vests of devoted converts. The word of the Most High, in those days
of certain and death-dealing doom to early disciples, grew mightily and
prevailed. As one saint was led away to death, there were raised up
others in his honoured place ; and the martyr of yesterday was succeed
ed by ardent bands of fresh converts of to-day. True is it, that these
were dark and gloomy and fearful periods for the Church of the Saviour
of men. Her very altars were crimsoned with the gore of her primi
tive people ; whole bands of whom were cut off by the tyrant's sword.
Yet they were not so destructive to the prosperity and onward course
of the gospel, nor so fatal to its holy spirit, as were the internal, do-
mestic dissensions, among its professing friends. The storms of per
secution, the combined assaults of Jew and Gentile, and of all its ene
mies, may have shaken the towers of the Lord's Zion, and caused the
bravest of the soldiers of the cross to fear for their strength and per
manence. But though rocked by the tempests of outward violence,
they were not riven nor dislodged. It was, however, when there was
comparative peace in Christendom, that the religion of the gospel was
most in danger. It was when the sword of the oppressor from with
out, was indeed stayed, but when the communion of saints was not
imbued with one spirit, one desire, and one hope ; when within its
mystic circle there were cherished no longer those sacred dispositions
and tempers, which are the very sacraments of renewed hearts ; that
the greatest injury befel the cause of human redemption. Then was
the course of the gospel arrested, or its progress was through terror and
travail, through darkness and gloom ! Strifes and envyings took place

of harmony and peace, until at length the voice of violence was raised
in the very sanctuaries of Jehovah God : whose praises should have
alone echoed through His courts, when sung by brethren in sacred
union, and animated by one holy spirit of love.
The history of Christianity is replete with mournful instances of the
deep vital injury sustained by her through the dissensions and strifes of
her professed votaries. Hardly is there one era of her existence, which
supplies not matter for painful, solemn reflection upon the suicidal
wrongs she has been doomed to endure in the house of her very friends.
The heart sickens at the recital of controversies among brethren,
commenced in bitterness, continued in wrath, and too often terminat
ing in blood or wide-spread ruin. It is a solemn, awful lesson which
they read to us, who pretend to reverence this best gift of a merciful
Saviour ; a terrible truth to be told of those, who forgetting the first and
plainest principles of the gospel religion, should have dared to pollute its
hallowed cause by a spirit worthy only of unregenerated savages, or a
conduct which Gentiles might blush to avow. But the lesson is there,
with all its moral ; it is there to warn us and those who are to come
after us, to beware of a presumption, such as they were guilty of, and
which would essay to judge and condemn, to punish and injure those
who differ upon matters, in most cases, wholly speculative. Yes, un
fortunately the lesson is there, meeting our glance whenever we turn to
the pages of ecclesiastical history ; and forcing the conclusion from
wounded hearts, such as the excellent Tillotson must have been moved
by, when he exclaimed, " Better there were no revealed religion and
that human nature were left to the conduct of its own principles and
inclinations, which are much more mild and merciful, more for the
peace and happiness of human society, than to be actuated by a reli
gion, that inspires men with so vile a fury, and prompts them to com
mit such outrages " — i. e. as to devote the mass of mankind to the
flames of hell.
It was confidently believed by the friend of the mild and merciful
religion of Jesus, that the spirit of fury, which sectarianism and bigotry
too often exhibited in far-gone years, was extinct in Christendom ; and
that violence and dogmatism, persecution and harsh injustice would no
more be the resort of any, who claimed an interest in the Saviour's
family on earth. It was thought that in this day and generation, the
signs were distinct as to a better state of feeling among Christians ;

and that intolerance, the bitterness of controversy, and much more, per
sonal wrong or systematic persecution, would never again be known. A
millennial quiet and peace prevailed among believers ; and though reli
gious discussion was rife, yet it was restrained within the canons of
courteousness and kindliness of feeling. Especially had the American
Christian ground for the hope, that no event could occur in this be
loved land, to mar or interrupt the harmony, which should ever be
found, among brethren, who bow in religious awe before the same Al
mighty Creator, who look for salvation in eternity through the same
Common Redeemer, and who are supposed to be influenced by the
quickening motions of the same Holy Spirit. It was in this land, so
highly favoured in all that can minister to man's happiness, if man
would but be grateful to Him, who has poured so many blessings in our
laps ; it was here, where there has been raised in towering majesty, a
structure of civil government, which, granting unto the greatest
verge, religious liberty to all the responsible creatures of God, gave
security to the sacred rights of conscience ; here in this home for op
pressed humanity ; this refuge for the persecuted; this asylum from
the hands of tyranny ; here, here it was that it might well be supposed no
popular injustice would be tolerated against any denomination of Chris
tians ! For did not our institutions, established by ourselves, and the
foundations of which were moistened with the blood of fathers and
patriots, such as the world had seldom before seen, did not our institu
tions proclaim an equality — an entire, full equality — of civil and reli
gious immunities 1 And so long as they remained, who was he that
would dare to predict, that the plainest provisions of these institutions
would ever be violated ; that treason would upturn them ; that conspi
racies against their integrity would ever be the resort of fanaticism ?
Who that would respect his claims for reason, would have dared a
few years since to prophesy, that there ever could be a possible contin
gency, which would show a passive disregard to the noble features of
our political, social compact, by the most abandoned and profligate ?
And yet, what has been the history of the last few months in this once
happy land ; in this country of boasted freedom, and equal laws and
privileges ? Has religion received no wrong even in our very midst ?
Has her holy cause not been outraged ; her sacred principles violated ;
her best and truest interests endangered ? Has not a communion of
Christians been barbarously hunted and driven, as if they were indeed

10
the " foes of God and man," according to the language of a certain
divine of this country ; were they not maddened with every cruel taunt
and every opprobrious epithet ; were they not marked out as victims
of savage cruelty ; and were not they slain, their temples burnt, the
very graves of their fathers and families despoiled ? Have not the
horrors of civil war been realized to our own citizens ; the curse and
the wo of rebellion been familiar to the people of a neighbouring
metropolis ? And it was religion, the religion of the pure and spotless
and meek and holy Jesus, in whose name all this, and far more, was
done ! Alas ! humanity still weeps, and long, long will weep over
the terrific, horrible events which the frenzied madness of bigotry has
caused ; and religion, covered with ashes, and clothed in the garments
of mourning and grief, now sits among the desolations ; the prostrate
altars and countless graves, the smoking temples and deserted hearths,
which her people have made in the fury of maddened zeal !
Who can recur to the awful events, to which it is agonizing to the
heart to allude but in a partial degree, without being convinced
of the correctness of the proposition, expressed a few pages back, viz.,
that the cause of Christianity has ever received its greatest detriment
at the hands of its professed friends ! The persecution of one sect by
another ; the mournful results of blind fanaticism when called into
action ; the evils of an intolerant bigotry were tremblingly told us in
our childhood by the good and holy men that served in the courts of
the Lord. It was reserved for this day, however, to behold the practical
illustration of their baneful influence, and in our own beloved and
honoured land ! But have we beheld the last act in the dark, horrid
drama ? Are our fears vain and unfounded, when we tremble at the
idea of a recurrence of such scenes as cause angels to weep, and devils
rejoice 1 Have we the security that the mighty, popular ocean, whose
waves threaten to engulf society and all human institutions entire in its
power, has been effectually bridled and constrained ; or are we yet to
dread, that again it may cast aside the laws, like an angry sea bursting
and breaking down the strongest dikes and ramparts ?
The same causes will ever produce the same results. They must
be removed, else will they again operate as before they operated : but
it may be with more of evil and wo. What then was the cause of
the terrible outrages perpetrated in Philadelphia in May and July last ;
and from the consequences of which a whole age will not be sufficient

11
to recover us? It is capable of the most positive proof, that to
THE SYSTEMATIC, ORGANIZED OPERATIONS OF COMBINED SECTARIES
against a certain body of Christians, are to be referred the
whole of the melancholy events, that have shaken in dreadful violence
the pillars of our social edifice ! These operations were commenced
some years ago ; for as early as the year 1834, the first bitter fruits of
the organization were seen in the burning of the Convent of the Ur-
suline Nuns in Charlestown, Massachusetts, And from whence did the
infuriated mob commence their march of glorious and proud chi
valry, against the peaceful abode of unprotected women ? Was it not
from a meeting-house in Boston, where, but an hour before, they had
been harangued into wild and furious zeal against " Papists ? " There
stand the bare walls yet, to serve as monuments of cruel persecution :
whilst to this day, no reparation has been rendered ; no justice done to
the society thus outraged and aggrieved ! But it was not the incen
diary's torch that was alone put in requisition. The press was enlisted
in the crusade, and it sent forth its libels and inflammatory legends to
satisfy the voracious maws of an excitable public. Even Maria Monk,
that paragon of virtue and chastity and truth, was made the source of in
formation as to the conspiracy of Catholics to subvert this Protestant
country. Nothing was left undone or unsaid to beget a feeling of
hostility towards the " Papists ; " to create towards them the most
unfavourable impressions, or to put them under the ban of popular
odium. Demonstrations of violence towards Catholics were made in
this city and Baltimore ; and they were only removed and rendered
harmless by the becoming energy of the magistrates. The measure of
persecution, however, was not yet full. Protestant associations were
formed, and through their organization, the means of annoyance towards
the " Romanists " were rendered more effectual ; whilst regularly from
certain pulpits there could be heard incessant abuse against the above
people. The Bible, too, was dragged by force into the strife ; and in
face of known facts, it was reiterated from one end of the land to
another, that the Holy Book was about to be wrested from our hands,
and those of our children, by the " emissaries of the Pope."
The above will be admitted to be but a very mild representation of
the violent course pursued against a body of fellow Christians. To
what did that course finally tend ; to what issue must it, of necessity,
have reached ? It is known, ay, to our shame, too well known !

12
Temples of the living Jehovah fired by mobs ; — the sacred retreat of
benevolent ladies, daughters consecrated to the labours of a godlike
charity, assailed and consumed ; altars desecrated, and their minister.
ing priests driven from their peaceful homes, and pursued by vengeful
and maddened zealots ! But the sad tale is not yet told. There was
more than arson and sacrilege ! There was rebellion, and there was
murder ; there was stern, determined resistance to the laws of man, as
there was contempt for the statutes of the Almighty Jehovah ; contempt
for His sanctuaries, and the lives of His creatures !
Again does the question present itself to both the mind and heart of
every Christian, — Have we reached the end of these alarming, terrible
doings ? No, we have not reached them, and never will we do so, if
the past course of certain zealous, though mistaken Christians, be not
changed ; if there be not in our breasts, more of an infusion of Chris
tian charity, that eternal principle which is to survive, when faith shall
have been swallowed up in sight, and hope in fruition ; and which is to
glow in the home, where angels throng, ever brighter and purer, and
more glorious, for ever and ever. With this virtue, this chief of gos
pel graces, operating in our hearts, — with a determination to concede
to others what ourselves claim ; and with a resolution to refrain from
all bitterness towards those who differ from us, in the sacred matters of
religion and conscience, we may aid in the good work of forcing back the
waters of strife and bitterness, and again living together as brethren in
the gospel, and fellow-citizens of a country of equal laws and equal rights !
These reflections have presented themselves from a perusal of a trea
tise recently issued by the American Protestant Society of this city, en
titled, "Romanism incompatible with Republican Institutions," by
" Civis." It was with sincere, deep regret, that there was seen in thepub-
lication above referred to, an additional evidence that the assault is not
to be intermitted, so long as the public can be agitated with this ex-
citing subject of Catholicism. Not that Protestants are to refrain from
examining the creed of any communion, provided it be done in a Chris
tian temper, and from motives which regard the establishing of truth.
Besides, discussion upon the faith of this or that body, will never be
avoided by any society of worshipping Christians, who believe their
doctrines capable of being defended. But how is the verity of the
Catholic's creed to be impugned, by even showing that he is a mon
archist, that his religion will not allow him to be as good a Democrat

13
as a Presbyterian, or Methodist, or Baptist 1 Does Christianity, in the
inspired volume of its records, any where teach that this or that form
of civil government is to be adopted by its followers ? Let the finger
be placed on the commandment of our one great and common Mas
ter, that his people shall be Republicans, and then, and not before, will
it be acknowledged to be necessary to examine the claims of Catholics
to be as good citizens as others in this land.
In view of the declaration of our divine Lord, " my kingdom is not
of this world," it cannot but be considered as remarkable that such a
point of controversy should be made at the present. What is the object ?
Cui bono ? What is the end to be gained by such publications or such
premises 1 Has Lord George Gordon arisen from the grave, or Titus
Gates, or some such wild fanatic, to warn us about conspiracies against
the precious liberties of our country ? Is the public to be alarmed
with stories about traitors in disguise, who, with wicked notions about
government, are coming into the country to steal from us our blessed
constitution, and sell us to the Pope, or some of the crowned potentates
of Europe 1 Or to be serious, is it intended by such treatises, to excite
additional hostility against Catholics ; to follow them not only to the
horns of the altar, but to the ballot-box ; to disfranchise them as citi
zens, and shut them out from any or the least privilege 1 If such be
the object, it must be pronounced most wicked and ungenerous. In
the name of a God of mercy and justice, is it right, is it fair, thus to
array the greater portion of the people against a small minority, who
are as good citizens as others ; to prejudice popular opinion, and hold up
to contempt, and if not contempt, to suspicion, a body of citizens whose
crying fault is, that they worship God according to the demand of their
consciences ?
But " Romanism is not Republicanism," according to the writer of
the above treatise ; and the impression is attempted to be made that the
Catholic cannot identify himself with our institutions or those of any
Republic. Let the case be examined, however, and its true state be
sought in a spirit of candour. The Catholic has his rights ; and
should not be condemned unheard. Republicans will not allow him or
any other, thus to be dealt with. Let him be tried by his actions ; by
his conduct in reference to the question at issue. Let it be shown that
he cannot, on account of his religious principles, be a good citizen in a
free government, and then, and not before, let him be separated from

14

others, who are obedient and faithful to the laws, and who can properly
estimate the blessings of civil liberty, the rights of conscience, andthe
sacred principles of universal justice !

CHAPTER II.
The loyalty of Catholics under whatever government they may be placed. — Histori
cal evidences from Protestant writers.
In approaching the inquiry whether Catholicism can in any manner be
consistent with Republican Institutions, it will be necessary to analyze
the members of that communion, in their political character, as ex
hibited in popular or monarchial governments ; to examine them in
their relations as citizens or subjects, and then to judge whether they
can duly appreciate the peculiar privileges, which a government, such
as ours, confers upon its people. In this investigation the scrutiny shall
be most rigid and faithful ; and to beget a proper confidence in the truth
of the remarks about to be presented, as well as to strip the matter of
all that might partake of doubt, reference will be had to people, with
whom and whose history all of us are more or less acquainted. Allusion
is made to English and Irish Catholics ; the latter of whom have been
the special objects of abuse by American Protestants. It is intended to
show, that under circumstances the most trying to their consciences
and national feelings ; that amidst oppressions and wrongs sufficient to
rouse the most sluggish and stoical, these people never withdrew their
allegiance to the throne, from which they were visited with every injus
tice and contumely. It will be seen that they were faithful to the
state : whilst to be faithful to their God, subjected them to imprison
ment and to penalties, the mildest of which was, the confiscation of
their worldly possessions. It will be seen too, that a series of persecu
tions, sanctioned by express statutes, could never make them bad sub
jects ; and that whilst they were good Catholics, when to be so was
full of imminent danger, even to life itself, they were the devoted ser
vants of a crown that was enriched with the most precious offerings of
their desecrated altars, or the costly treasures which Catholic piety had
devoted to the holy cause of religion.
This reference to the history of the above people cannot be made
by a Protestant without pain ; nor can the observations which he must

15
be compelled to present, if he would be faithful and just, be other
than such as are accompanied with some measure of shame. Yet the
statements will be sanctioned in every particular by Protestant histo-
rians ; and the reflections which may be offered, will be as much divest
ed of a religious bearing, as can consistently be done. The object is
to show, that English and Irish Catholics have, under very peculiar
circumstances of unabating oppression and persecution, been faithful
subjects to the government of Great Britain for three centuries past ;
and that their loyalty should be taken as an earnest of their willingness
to be good citizens in a land, which gives the privileges they have long
sought, but could not obtain.
Turning to the epoch of the Reformation in the sixteenth century,
an event which is regarded by Protestant and Catholic Christians with
the most opposite feelings and sentiments, it is the record of history that
Henry VIII. commenced the religious work with the spoliation of the
monasteries and abbeys, to replenish his exhausted treasury ; and that to
reward certain favourites among his nobility, he allowed the sequestra
tion of extensive lands belonging to the Church, — the Catholic Church.
This beginning of the licentious monarch, the very first of a long
series of similar aggressions, and which only terminated when nothing
more remained to satisfy his rapacity and sacrilege, was succeeded by
the most atrocious measures of persecution and violence against a
communion of which himself was the exalted defender, and over which
he claimed to be the visible head in the realm of England. Even in
the reign of this voluptuous monarch, when wholesale rapine sought its
gratification only in holy places, and when the desecration of all that
men in that and our day, regarded as placed, by religious appointments
above secular touch, the bloody spirit of human sacrifices, in order to
propitiate the boundless pride of royal opinion, or cancel the crime of
differing from the vain representative of both clerical and kingly power,
was exhibited in dreadful energy. The fire was then lit up, which
gleamed over all Europe : and from the awful glare of which, there
were reflected the hideous spectacles of countless expiring victims, who
would not desert, what a presumptuons tyranny over conscience had
decreed mortal errors. Then was seen for the first time in Christen
dom, a temporal prince usurping the seat of ecclesiastical authority ; a
sovereign of an earthly throne stained with every licentiousness, and
moist with the blood of unoffending queens, " lording it over the herit-

16
age of the Lord." Martyr after martyr was led to the stake ; and
whether Elizabeth Barton, the holy maid of Kent, or the faithful Bishop
of Rochester ; whether Sir Thomas More, the friend of Erasmus, or
the long array of Carthusian monks, of reformed Franciscans, and of
German Anabaptists, be found there awaiting their doom of torturing
death ; the scene is one calculated to harrow the feelings of the heart
of any Protestant, who, attached as much as he may be to the principles
of his faith, can, however, have no sympathies with deeds so monstrous,
so revolting to religion, humanity, and justice.
Whatever may be the opinion of the reader as to the necessity for
the existence of religious houses, the motives on the part of the king
and parliament are legitimate subjects for examination. Let then the
following extracts from Protestant historians be taken with the respect
which they demand. Speaking of the contemplated suppression of
these monasteries, Tytler observes, (p. 388,) " Whilst, in the privy-
council, where the matter was first debated, no one opposed a general
reformation, the expediency of their entire destruction came to be much
questioned. It was argued that, admitting their excessive multiplica
tion, their immense wealth, and luxurious idleness to be an evil, it
sprung out of the perversion of an otherwise useful institution. When
kept within due bounds as to numbers, and compelled to follow the
strictness of their original rules, such establishments, it was contended,
were nurseries of devotion, retreats for learning in a dark and barbar
ous age, and hospitals for the sick and infirm, where the universal
charity, and practical benevolence inculcated by the Christian faith,
might be found in their present exercise. Nor was it concealed that
their entire suppression would be a great wrong committed against
their founders, who had as much right to give their lands to that use
as their heirs have to enjoy the remainder." Mackintosh (vol. ii., p.
217) upon the same subject remarks : " It never can be forgotten in
such cases, that revenue, not reformation, plunder, not punishment,
were the objects of which the visiters were in quest ; so that proofs of
innocence were altogether unavailing, and not even proofs of poverty
could save the smallest houses from the paws of the inferior beasts of
prey. Some, indeed, sought favour by a more promising road; by
blackening themselves, their fellows, and their order, and thus helping
to render destruction popular, by averring that ' the pit of hell was
ready to swallow them up for their ill life ;' by professing that they

17
were now convinced of the wickedness of the manner and trade of
living that they and others of their pretended religion had followed."
Collier in his Ecclesiastical History (vol. ii., p. 149) says: "It was
thought necessary to lessen the reputation of the monks, to lay open
the superstition of their worship, and draw a charge of imposture upon
them ; " and Fuller observes with no small measure of sagacity, that
" the visiters were succeeded with a second sort of public agents, but
Working in a more private way, encouraging the monks in the monas
teries to impeach one another. For seeing there was seldom such
general agreement in any convent, but that factions were found, and
parties did appear therein, these emissaries did make an advantageous
use thereof; many being accused did recriminate their accusers, and
hopeless to recover their own innocency, pleased themselves by plung
ing others in the like guiltiness." These extracts will be sufficient
to show the violent outrage upon the feelings and religious opinions of
a portion of the people of the kingdom, which was committed by
abused power ; not to say how great, under other circumstances and
with another people, would they have been considered, even as fully
justifying resistance. Yet no resistance followed; and perhaps there
is not a similar instance of violent, reckless oppression on record, which
was so tamely, so patiently endured. Although their altars were robbed
of those treasures, upon which religious reverence — or, if you will, su
perstition — had placed an inestimable value; although the high and
lofty ones in the hierarchy of their Church were burnt, imprisoned, or
degraded ; although the block and the stake were employed in the de.
struction of their fellow-worshippers; yet no rebellion among these
people raised its front, or even menaced the sovereign or his ravaging
aristocracy. Passing over the intermediate reign of Edward, which was not un
marked with stringent measures against Catholics, and reaching that
of Mary, the state of the case is altered. In an ascendant position, and
smarting under recent cruel wrongs, retaliation was resorted to by the
friends of the ancient faith. It was called a righteous retribution ; but
they were men of like passions and prejudices with their persecutors,
who called it thus. Heaven is witness, that it is not now attempted to
be justified ; but that the condemnation of an impartial mind and heart
is strongly expressed ! For then again began persecutions and martyr
doms, oppressions and revisitings of wrath. The reign of this queen is
2

18
a matter of painful history ; it cannot be vindicated by the Christian 5
and it is left with all its errors and crimes, its bigotry and violence, to
a world's judgment and condemnation.
Yet did she who followed her in the royal succession, exhibit in tho
plenitude of Christian charity, in the pride and bearing of a purer faith,
a better example of Christian government ? Was the private or pub
lic character of Elizabeth farther removed from this plague-spot of
persecution for opinion's sake 1 Was her reign unmarked by violence
or bloodshed ? Were there no martys, no witnesses for what they called
truth — no burning — no confiscations — no rapine ? Go to the register
of that reign, and contrast it with the one that preceded it ; and weigh
them both in stern, rigid and impartial truth. It will be seen that the
latter sovereign ruled with the sceptre of cruelty, and that measures,
exceeding in vindictiveness all that had been previously enacted, were
now her resort. A new penal code against Catholics was adopted ;
fines and imprisonments were even resorted to ; the torture was em
ployed in dreadful activity, and the fires of Smithfield were lit up and
constantly fed with new victims. Then was it that the Catholic
parent was forbidden to educate his family in the principles of his reli
gion, under the penalty of confiscation, imprisonment or death ! Then
was the Catholic made to suffer like punishments for serving the
God of his soul's adoration, even in the privacy of his domestic altar ;
and then, too, was the Catholic deprived of his political rights, and
outlawed as to civil privileges. He was oppressed and persecuted,
trampled upon, and made throughout the kingdom, the object of con
tumely and scorn. There could be no fellowship with him, without
incurring danger or suspicion ; there was no rest, nor abiding place for
the soles of his feet, if he essayed to exhibit the least attachment to
the religion of his father's creed ! Yes, ingeniously cruel in the extreme,
were the ordinances enforced against him by the state ; and the wonder
now is, not that there was so long an array of martyrs, but that under
such dreadful circumstances, the persecuted Catholic of Elizabeth's
reign, did not woo the death with ardour ; that he did not rush into
the flaming pile, to escape from a misery which was worse than death ?
And yet hear we, that this same marked and persecuted Catholic,
from the day when the Eighth Henry first began his work of the Re-
formation, and which was followed by such great evils to the follower of
the ancient faith, was ever disloyal or rebellious? It will not do to

19
bring forward the Duke of Norfolk's conspiracy to meet the ¦challenge
Contained in the above observation. The duke was a Protestant ; and
so were Murray and Maitiand, Leicester and Sir N. Throgmorton, his
associates ; all known enemies of the Catholic faith. Their object
was a political one exclusively. The Earl of Northumberland's in-
surrection of the northern counties, had indeed involved in it some
Catholics, but their real and foremost design was the liberation of Mary,
and the establishing of her right to the royal succession. This is the
testimony of Camden, Strype, Diggs, Haynes and Mendin, and other
historians of the times ; all of whom acquit the Catholics as a body
from any or the least participation in the measure, which Elizabeth
most fearfully revenged^
But there is one historical fact, which carries with it the most con
clusive evidence of the loyalty of the Catholics to the established go
vernment under which they were then living, and which goes to the
extreme point, in confirmation of the assertions above made ¦; to put
an end too, in the view of every candid mind, to the charge that the
" subject of the Pope, owing allegiance to him, cannot by any means be
faithful to any other state than Rome :" If one fact be worth a thou
sand theories, then this is invaluable ; for it carries with it an entire
refutation of the many pretended arguments brought against the Church
Cf these people. The incident now referred to, is the following. Pope
Pius IV. had endeavoured at two distinct periods of his pontificate,
to open the path toa reunion between the two Churches; but his at
tempts were vain, for they did not go beyond the weapons of reasoning
and persuasion. Pius V. his successor, however, in an evil moment,
fulminated his celebrated Bull, " Regnans in excelsio," and resolved to
awaken the long-neglected thunder of the Vatican. Queen Elizabeth,
in his judo-ment, was an enemy -of the Catholic faith; and after reciting
¦her outrages against religion and humanity, formally excommunicated
her as guilty of heresy, &c. &c. But now comes the all-important
question ; was this instrument of papal power received by the faithful
in England, and did they withdraw their fealty to the spiritually -de
posed sovereign ? Did the persecuted Catholic hail it as a warrant for
the raising of the standard of rebellion against an unrelenting persecu
tion ? Did he echo the denunciations which it contained against his
queen ; and did he "bend the knee and cross himself" when the fatal
¦missile was held up to hira ?

20
None of these things did the " blind and degraded slave " of that
pope do. The Protestant tells him, that he is in subjection to the tern-
poral power of " the papacy," and yet he disregarded it in this instance,
and dared to be disobedient in neglecting its authoritative directions.
Elizabeth lived and died a queen ; and she died too a natural death ;
though surrounded by Catholics, and having for her enemy this very
pope, whose influence over an ignorant people is represented to be so
great and irresistible. Let history now speak : let Protestant history
show what was the conduct of the Catholics in the case before us ;
and then let there be an exercise of plain judgment and honest charity.
In allusion to the matter, Hume says, " that whosoever will read, with
an impartial mind, the history of this memorable epoch, will discover
that, while the Catholics shed their blood for the truth of their religion,
they were equally ready to pour it forth for the liberties of their native
land ; thus giving to the world that noblest, sublimest proof of genuine
patriotism ; of unflinching fidelity to their country and their God;"
And again, " Some of their gentlemen, when they could not obtain
commissions in the army and navy, served in them as volunteers.
Some equipped ships at their own charge, and gave the command of
them to Protestants." It is the testimony of another, that " The sacred
sentiment of affection, even toa country in which they were oppressed
extinguished their (well-founded) resentments ; they joined the rest of
their countrymen, heart and hand, against foreign domination." Hal-
lam says, " The bull of Pius V., far more injurious in its consequences
to those it was designed to serve than to Elizabeth, forms a leading
epoch in the history of our English Catholics. It rested upon a prin
ciple never universally acknowledged, and regarded with much jealousy
by temporal governments, yet maintained in all countries by many
whose zeal and ability rendered them formidable, — the right vested in
the supreme Pontiff to depose kings for heinous crimes against the
Church." Nor is this all! The deprived Catholic Bishops hastened to
repudiate the imputation of acknowledging the papal power in this or
similar instances by the following proceedings. Soon after the publi
cation of the bull of Pius, the following quere was put : " Whether
Queen Elizabeth was divested of the kingdom by the deposing bull of
Pius V., or by any other sentence passed or to be passed, or her subjects
discharged from their allegiance ? " To which it was answered that,
"notwithstanding the bull, or any other declaration, or sentence of the

21
Pope, passed or to be passed, we hold Queen Elizabeth to be the lawful
Queen of England and Ireland, and that obedience and fealty is justly
due to her, as such, by all her English and Irish subjects. (Signed)
Richard Watson, John Feckenham, Henry Cole, J. Harpsfield, N.
Harpsfield." But this is only one instance among many others, upon which atten
tion has been asked, in reference to this abused people, who under cir
cumstances the most unfavourable, have exhibited a disposition to full,
loyal obedience. In every period have they shown an enduring pa
tience under oppression, and under every dynasty, have they stood
around the Protestant throne to sustain and defend it. When Charles
I. was led to the block, a Protestant martyr to Protestant regicides ; a
suffering victim to rebellion, that had mantled itself in the most odious
hypocritical affectation for religious and civil liberty, where were the
Catholics of England ? Did they hew the block, or forge the axe for
the unholy work of dethroning and murdering a king, because Puritans,
to effect their rebellion, and produce a second and better Reformation,
presumed to brand him a tyrant, and execute him as such? The
Catholics then were a proscribed people in their own land ; and yet
they knew their duty better to God, and their king, than to become the
abettors of the foul treason. And in succeeding years, what was their
conduct ? They asked, they supplicated again and again, that the
penalties imposed upon them, and the restrictions exercised against
them, might be removed ; year after year did they petition that they
might be emancipated from the cruel and degrading provisions, by
which Parliament was closed against them, and no representation of
their body was permitted ; no rank or station or place could be reached
by patriotism, personal integrity, or the greatest ability. And in all
this time, was there no rebellion on their part ! The grievances, of
which they complained, were borne in noble fortitude, until slow justice
at length rewarded them for their constancy in suffering.
Are these people, thus proven as amongst the most faithful and loyal,
to be branded as " slaves " unfit to live under any government, but that
which is superlatively despotic ? Or will they be brought forth to bear
the charge of being restless and plotting factionists in Ireland ? And
what have Americans to do in the movements of a foreign people who
are engaged in a legal, constitutional attempt, to procure a separation
from a political connection, which they regard as injurious to the pros-

22
perity of their country ? Have Irishmen committed any overt act of
rebellious violence ; although interested so deeply as the people are in
the desired measure ? What can the strongest advocate of monarchy
show, that should cause Americans to withhold their sympathies from
Irishmen, in their present moral struggle ? Are they less to be pitied
than was the modern Greek, or the Pole, in whose cause were
mingled the ardent wishes and fervent prayers of the whole American
nation ? If they were in the midst of a violent revolution, if the hor
rors of a civil war were now raging over their land ; if they had called
up the spirit of unsparing massacre, and if they were dealing ven
geance to the brim around them, then might some measure of condemn
ation be meted out. But it is not so ; it never has been so ; and may
the God of nations grant in His unbounded love that it never, never
may be so ! Enough, however, has been seen in the past, to make us
trust, that as the Catholics of England and Ireland have, for three
hundred years, been peaceable and faithful subjects, that they will con
tinue exhibiting the same qualities and practising the same virtues.
The merit they have already honestly won : it cannot be that they will
allow it to be lost by future folly or crime. Better were it, that they
should continue calling forth the sympathies of the impartial, in their
silent, patient endurance of many social evils, than give occasion to
the enemies of their religion, to point them out as hostile o every
established government.

CHAPTER III.
Catholicism compatible with Republican Governments, as evidenced by History,
&c. Catholics the friends of Popular Institutions. Pope's Sovereignty— no
attribute but that which is spiritual. Protestant Inconsistency, in its exclusive
claims to an admiration for Republics, &c. &c.
Having thus presented the Catholic in his civil character as the
subject of a harsh government, and of a Protestant throne ; having
seen his conduct to be always loyal and obedient, faithful and patri
otic ; having shown that no political wrongs could draw him from his
allegiance to his country, as no persecutions could wean him from
his love to his religious faith, it will now be proven that the Church of

23
his prayers has nothing in her constitution, her polity, her doc
trines and precepts, incompatible with Republican institutions. In the
view of the present writer, the task, when stripped of much needless,
incongruous matter, in which the question has unnecessarily, but
perhaps purposely been invested, is not a difficult one ; since many
and direct appeals might at once be made to past and existing facts.
They would supply more than the needed proof. But as in a matter
of this supposed importance, assertions however general and indefinite
are boldly made by the mistaken and prejudiced, they should receive a
full attention ; and it will not be denied in this case. So far as they
can be understood, the charges of the incompatibility of " Romanism"
with Republicanism shall be candidly stated and impartially weighed.
The first and most serious charge brought against " Romanism," by some
Protestant friends of Republican government, is, that the Catholic owes a
full and entire allegiance to the Pope as the Head of the Church ; and that
therefore he is of necessity prevented from rendering perfect obedience
to the institutions and laws of a free country, or indeed those of any
other. The argument would be conclusively true, provided the propo
sition was correctly stated. The Catholic, clerical and lay, does
owe obedience to the See of Rome ; but it is a moral, not a civil or
political obedience. The Pope's sovereignty is wholly, entirely, and
exclusively a spiritual attribute ; it partakes not in the least of a tem
poral power. He is the Head of a Church which extends to every
region wherever her worshippers are found, and as such, exercises a
necessary supervision over her welfare, and that of all her people. In
virtue of his sacred office, the interests of the Catholic Religion on
earth are reposed in his hands ; and for the better furthering of these,
he is invested with certain powers, requisite to the better discharging
of his important functions. He is the guardian of the faith of the
Church ; and he accordingly corrects errors of doctrine. He is to
promote the purity and holiness of the lives of his people ; and accord
ingly he censures profligacy and rebukes crime.
This executive power, which must be reposed somewhere by every
community, religious or civil, has been committed to the Bishop of
Rome. It is there in the hands of a single individual. Among most
Protestant sects, it is vested in Presbyteries, Synods, Assemblies, Con
ferences, Conventions, &c. All these, in some form or other, exercise
similar powers with the Pontiff. They decide upon errors of doctrine ;

24
they set forth articles of religion or confessions of faith, and excom
municate or depose or censure the wicked and rebellious. The differ-
ence then consists, not so much in the extent of the functions exercised,
as in the representatives of authority. If then it is declared that the
Pope claims obedience from Catholics, it cannot without injustice be
implied that any other obedience is demanded than that required by
some one or another of the above-named ecclesiastical bodies ; a spi
ritual obedience to a recognised spiritual authority. This will be con
ceded to be requisite for the order of every communion of Christians.
Presbyteries and Conferences have degraded ministers ; have exercised
discipline upon the sinning ; and pronounced errors of doctrine to be
heretical. Such too are the functions of the Pope : and the authority
which he employs in the ruling of the Church of God is of a like spi
ritual nature with that of the above Presbyteries and Conferences.
Where then exists the difference between this spiritual power exer
cised by certain clerical bodies of Protestants, call them what we will,
and the spiritual power vested in the Pope alone 1 The latter, from
the extent of his Church, has indeed a larger field over which this power
is spread ; but in degree, it is not greater than that of any single
Protestant communion ! It will not be said that there is besides this
ecclesiastical authority, a temporal domination, which he employs in
subjecting secular matters to his control, and that he can and he does
use it in the open or secret services of his " slavish subjects." This
is a fiction sometimes heard, but too ridiculous for a moment to be
entertained by any rational mind. A few pages back it has been seen
that the Pontiff, Pius V., issued a Bull against Elizabeth ; and that it
was disobeyed by the Catholics of England ; those of distinction and
ecclesiastical rank, as well as those of inferior station. They paid not
the least respect to it ; although the subject-matter partook in a large
measure of spiritual concerns. It was innocuous altogether ; and on
its first appearance, was pronounced to be an assumption of power,
never recognised, and never before practised, but by Gregory VII.
The Pope claims and can claim no temporal allegiance. He cannot
demand obedience in secular matters. Catholics would resist such a
claim as quick as any Protestant, because they are as unwilling, to be
trammelled with multiplied obligations. The Pontiff has their rever
ence, in affairs belonging to their souls ; his advice — for advice alone
could be presented by him in respect to worldly things, would be valued

25
in proportion to its worth and importance ; the same as that of a private
individual, but not more. Is then the Catholic debarred from the
opportunity of becoming a citizen on account of his faith ? It has
been shown that he cannot, in justice nor common sense, be so. He
cannot, no more than the Presbyterian, who submitted to the require
ments of the Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland ; nor than the Church
man, who recognised the spiritual authority of his Bishop ; nor than
the Methodist, who was subject to some Conference of his society in
Europe. All these come here, after having been liable to some kind
or other of ecclesiastical control ; and even to this control are Chris
tians of all denominations, who may have been born in this country
ever amenable.
If therefore Catholicism, in this respect, is not incompatible with
Republicanism, let another objection be met, which is presented by
those who would regard themselves as exclusive friends of popular go
vernments, merely because they are Protestants ; and it is, that Ro
manists cannot be Republicans, since the government of their Church
is monarchial if not despotic. And of what concernment is it, what
may be the form of Church polity, when it has not the most remote
connexion with the State ; when it is not desired by her best friends
that it should assimilate in any respect to it, but in that solitary one of
moral righteousness ? The government of the Church is of that form
which is coeval with her foundation. It is ruled now, as it was ruled
in apostolic days ; and it cannot be changed for this plan or that ;
since to the institutions of religion there can be no additions nor
improvements. Whatever is proven to be new in Christianity, must
necessarily be false ; since it is not only the last dispensation of God
to man, but declared by Him, when promulged, to be perfect. But
human establishments admit, nay, require alterations and amendments,
and improvements. Let the polity of the Catholic Church then be
what it may, it must be the best, else would it not have been thus
constituted. But it can have no influence upon a decision as to what
particular form of civil government is the best ; since that has been
left to our own judgments. Yet if in the opinion of those gentlemen,
who are republicans par excellence, monarchies or despotisms are so
odious, cannot they see that Catholics, who are like all other men, even
like themselves, would be glad to get rid of the supposed tyranny, to
which they are subject, and rush to Democracy ? Is it too much to

26
believe, that, having had full knowledge of the miseries of arbitrary
dominion, they would become the most enamoured of the blessings of
Republicanism 1
How often has it been reiterated ? so often indeed that it is distress
ing to hear the incesssant change that the genius of the Catholic reii-
gion is adverse to all the institutions of our country. Yet never has
there been adduced one argument for the truth of the bold assertion.
And has Catholicism never existed in similar countries ? Has she nev
er been identified with republics ? so far identified, as that Catholics
were their citizens ? Of what religion were the brave founders of the
Swiss republics, who so gloriously defeated the countless legions of im
perial Austria, tenfold more numerous than themselves? And when
did these mountain republicans descend from their cloud-capped fortress-
es to battle on the plains beneath for their beloved, though rude homes,
their families and freedom ? Was it not two centuries before the Ref
ormation ; two hundred years before Protestanism was heard of, and
long before she dared claim to be the only friend of civil and reli
gious liberty ? And there are the same Cantons ; the best among the
hardy children of the rocky homes. There they are, the same Catho
lics and the same sons of republican freedom ; won, as heroes of mighty
daring and emprize alone could have won them, after five centuries of
political being. " Romanism is incompatible with republican institu
tions : " and yet who has not read of those Catholic Venetian republics
that banded together as one man, and met and defied and conquered
the barbarous Goths and Vandals that had destroyed the Roman Em
pire, and given to pillage and the flames the " Eternal City ? " These
were Catholics ; and they too were republicans ; and was there no reli
gion there, no love of freedom, no holy aspirations for the sacred cause of
humanity, no sacred throbbings for that which dignifies and ennobles
our nature ? " Romanism is incompatible with republican institutions : '
yet of what religion were they who established the various republics of
Florence and Pisa, and Milan, and Genoa, and others ? They were
Catholics, and they founded their governments in the very vicinity of
the Vatican, beneath almost the shadows of the walls of Rome. " Ro
manism is incompatible with civil and religious liberty : " and yet who
were the giant men, the splendidly great of the world in an enslav
ed age, rose up in their moral might and extorted by force of arms and
a determined resolution the Charter of Liberty from Henry II. , and

27
Magna Charta from the heartless, dissolute John ? England is now
Protestant ; and she is among, and deservedly among the highest of
this earth's nations ; the first in all that ennobles man, and raises him
far above the degrading and degraded rank of barbarism, and igno
rance, and crime. But who were they that gave her the conquering
impulse to this moral elevation ? Who regenerated her and endowed
her with the vast and ever-increasing energies which now fill, to over
flowing, her people ? They were Catholics ; Catholic priests and Cath-
olic barons ! And although Britain now is Protestant, and has been so
for three hundred years, yet has she not advanced, even with the light
that Catholicism threw over the course, in her progress to a still greater
to a more perfect liberty ; a better constitution ! Has Protestanism,
then, done for her what an abused and persecuted faith bestowed in
days which are now by her own subjects termed dark and gloomy ?
And who were they that struggled unto death for restricting the
power of the Spanish monarchs? To what Church did the patriotic
and freedom-loving Poles ; those countless martyred heroes, worthy of
the best and brightest days of Sparta and Greece, belong, when they
drew the sword in fearful wrath against oppression ; against the wrongs
of the mighty and combined, and which Protestant England would not
avenge ? And were they Catholics who paltered with the liberties of
Denmark, and bartered away " for a mess of pottage " her free privileges
to Christian V. ? Were they Catholics who prostrated themselves like
the vilest slaves, even after they had tasted in licentious fulness what
they called liberty ; after they had murdered their king, because he was
clothed with royal attributes? Were they Catholics who bent their
necks beneath the polluted tread of Charles II. ? Were these Catho
lics when they enacted in their Parliament of regicides and fanatics,
the truly republican principles of passive obedience and non-resistance
to a monarch whom they had made absolute in power 1 No, no ; they
were not Catholics, though the slander is echoed in every conventicle,
that " they are essentially inimical to all civil liberty and free institu
tions." And is the converse true with respect to Russia ? that nation
of unmitigated despotism ; that land of midnight darkness, and more
than midnight evil ; that Russia which crushed in wanton cruelty the
pierced and bleeding heart of Poland, when she essayed to seek freedom
for her noble children ? Russia is not Catholic ; she is a schismatic em
pire. In what consists the freedom of conscience, according to the laws

28
of Protestant Sweden, when only a few years since a citizen was despoil
ed of his property and driven into banishment for returning to the faith
of his ancestors ? In Protestant Prussia, was there not recently exer
cised oppression of the worst kind ? the most violent tyranny over the
mind and soul of man in the cruel proceedings of its Protestant king
against the Archbishop of Cologne, who would not lend the countenance
of his sacred office to measures which his conscience condemned ?
These were not Catholic outrages ! But was it not Catholic justice
that directed Belgium in modern times to proclaim liberty to all, and
that has guarded the sacred privilege with the strongest barriers ?
But leaving Europe, let the attention be directed to this continent,
which is the thrice-blessed home of all our hearts' best affections ; the
hope, as to this world, of twenty millions of immortal beings ! We
occupy, by the gracious ordination of a beneficent Providence, that
land, in which for but a brief period past, there were deposited in its
virgin soil the seeds of governments, promising the fullest measure of
earthly happiness to the greatest number, and the largest share of
liberty to the most humble of their people ? It is here then, that man
steps forth in the proud consciousness of his dignity ; the sovereign of
an innate power, which he feels belongs to him ; the master of his
own will ; that knows no restraint but the laws of the great God, who
has created him, and those of which, in common with his fellow-men,
himself has been the legislator. Our birthright is freedom ; our con
stitutions and laws partake of the sacred spirit ; even the vital, sus
taining air we breathe, is largely mixed with this principle of liberty.
In the enjoyment of the blessing from our cradles, we therefore ought
to judge aright as to the moral and religious influences which operate,
either for better or worse, upon the institutions of this highly-favoured
empire. Equally able ought we to be, to decide from our own expe
rience, and from observation around us, in respect to the fitness of this
or that system of faith, which may be professed by our fellow-citizens
with the constitutional establishments of our country.
Passing over the reflections arising from the discovery of this conti
nent, and the religion of those, who so signally achieved it ; without
directing attention to the historical fact, that he who first landed in a
new world, planted that emblem of man's salvation, which was the
standard of his Church ; and without stopping to inquire what was the
faith of Ferdinand and Isabella, and Columbus, and Cortes, and Las

29
Casas, and Pizarro ; beings with human weaknesses, indeed, and yet
of great and towering virtues ; the question will at once be approached,
" is Catholicism compatible with our free institutions ? " Fortunately
for an affirmative response, there presents itself, on the very threshold
of the inquiry, a case, which is as signal and prominent, as it is con
clusive. It is that of Cecil Calvart, or Lord Baltimore, the Catholic
Proprietary of Maryland : illustrating the truth, that the true Christian,
he who is most imbued with the spirit of the everlasting gospel, is ever
the friend of his fellow-men ; and most the friend, when the object of
his benevolence most needs its exercise. And what is beheld in the
conduct of this illustrious nobleman, in relation to the settlement of
his colony, and the principles upon which it was established ? Let the
hypocritical retailers of the slanders, that are now rife in this land, be
reminded that he was the first intrepid asserter of the liberty of con
science in the New World ; that before Roger Williams, in 1635, or
William Penn, in 1681, Calvart founded a colony in 1632 ; the charter
for which proclaimed that in Maryland alone, was the beacon-rock of
civil and religious freedom ! It was this pilgrim-champion of social
liberty ; this noble leader of the van-guard of glorious captains in the
war, which was then first waged against tyranny and oppression, that
announced in the wilds of America, that the Living God alone, who
first gave man a conscience, is the Only Judge of the integrity of its
use, or the faithfulness of its application. Towering pre-eminently
over the prejudices of the age in which he lived, his unfettered mind
had the good sense to discover, and his breast possessed the justice and
honesty to act on the conviction, that attempts to control the religious
opinions of men, so long as they were consonant with public peace, or
happiness, was a direct invasion of the incommunicable prerogative of
the Almighty and Infinite God ! Let the friends of civil and religious
liberty read the oath of the governor of this colony, and then pro-
nounce whether a Catholic should be oppressed as he is now oppressed ;
should be held up to popular odium, as he is now vilified, by men who
have assumed to themselves all the religion, and all the patriotism, to
be found in this land of equal laws and equal privileges. Here it is ;
and it is the best legacy which can be bequeathed to generations yet un
born ! " I will not by myself or another directly or indirectly trouble,
molest or discountenance any person professing to believe in Jesus Christ,
for or in respect of religion ; I will make no difference of persons

30
in conferring offices, favours or rewards for or in respect of feligw>%
but merely as they should be found faithful, and well deserving and
endowed with moral virtues and abilities : my aim shall be public
unity ; and if any person or officer shall molest any person professing
to believe in Jesus Christ on account of his religion, I will protect the
person molested and punish the offender."
But are the claims of the Pilgrims of Plymouth to be forgotten ? It
would, perhaps, for the sake of their present, persecuting descendants,
that they should not in reckless audacity, as now they require, be
brought forward. Yet, let them be considered, and that in justice !
Who then, were the men, that came to this land, mouthing the perse
cutions which they had experienced for religion, for conscience' sake
in the Old World ; the burden of whose song, was the unrighteous
violence, which they had endured there, because they would not, and
because they dared not, compromise between God and Mammon?
Who were the men, that proclaimed themselves as of a purer faith ;
of holier lives ; of a more ethereal piety, sublimated almost to a celes
tial mysticism, — than these same Plymouth saints ? And yet possessed
of all these special gifts from above ; although persecuted to the very
block and stake, according to their own telling, they had never learnt
mercy ! They chattered about superior principles of religion ; they
denounced Catholics, because of the tyranny of Rome ; they were
wrathful against Prelacy, because it established ordinances against
wild misrule, and presumptuous, spiritual pretensions in the state. The
whole world was stained with blood, because this saint of the conventi
cle had expiated his treason at the pile ; not because Servetus had been
burnt, nor Gruet was beheaded, nor Stafford went to the block, nor
Charles I. was murdered, nor Grotius and thousands of others were
obliged to banish themselves, to avoid similar fates ! No, no ; these
damning deeds were done by Protestants, who were the reformers of
the times, of morals and religion ; and it behooved them not to con
demn their brethren ! But they came here on a crusade of mercy ;
they came here to raise up altars, such as Jerusalem and Rome had
never known ; to build up a Church, of which the blessed Apostles
themselves had no idea, could ever be founded and sustained by such
entire integrity to the holy principles of her Great Head.
And yet, with all these pretensions to a sanctity and purity, such as
the world had never imagined ; with all this superior illumination, and

81
with all the loud cry of past sufferings for conscience' sake, what was
the result of the mighty throe, and heaving, and travail of this stupend
ous enterprise ? They were the friends of civil and religious liberty !
And yet they established a commonwealth, which had a penal code
against non-conformists, as tyrannical and cruel as that, which has been
ascribed to the Inquisition. They were the declared friends of civil
and religious liberty; and yet they exiled Churchmen, and hung
Baptists and Quakers ! They pretended to pity the blindness of the
poor Catholic ; and yet they warned him, not to come among them,
who alone held the divine light, which could direct them to the true
path, under the threat of a death-bringing doom ! Never, no never,
was there a more foul conspiracy against the cause of civil and reli
gious liberty ; never a more hypocritical, false plot against the equality
of human rights, and the sacred privileges of conscience, than was the
establishment of the Plymouth colony 1 It was not, and the challenge
is given for historical evidence, it was not to found a state, in which
freedom, such freedom as now Americans enjoy, was to be the cardi
nal principle of the civil compact. It was a religious despotism ; and
one too, of the worst kind ; for it pretended to rest upon the sacred prin
ciples of toleration, whilst it proscribed with mortal penalties, all who
dared to differ from its canons of faith. Say not that they were men,
and as such were fallible ! Yes, they were men, fallible men ; and
they ought to have been conscious of the humbling truth! They
should not, however, have strided upon the world, as if it was not
worthy of them ; nor heralded their own superior, unapproachable
sanctity, and wisdom, and devotion to liberty.
Nor let it be said that their patriotism has been proven, and that it
is recorded in the history of this happy land. But who are the chroni
clers of the events that have tianspired in our country ; who have
taken to themselves " the pen of the scribe ? " Let what they have
done in our Revolutionary struggle, be mentioned to their praise ; but
let not the meed of honour be denied to others, equally, if not more
deserving of it. They were, according to their showing, almost the only
true Protestants on the earth, and as such the ardent friends of civil and
religious liberty. In the war of Independence, then, they should have
been the foremost among the warring columns : the vanguard among
the bravest, — the forlorn hope of the Republic ! Concede that they were
so : though the concession is liberal. Were there not, however, others

32
that struggled and fought, and bled, and died, in the important con«
test ; the issue of which was to be freedom or slavery, — the inalienable
rights of man, or the assumed rights of tyrants ? Where then were
the abused and slandered Catholics ; the people who cannot appreciate
the blessings of civil and religious freedom ? Where then were these
" minions " of the Pope ; who is hostile to the principles of liberty ?
Did they flee the battle-ground ; turn their traitorous backs to the
champions of civil and spiritual emancipation, and seek safety, and
repose, and the Church's benediction, at Rome ? Why the child of the
lowest form in our public schools has heard of Carroll in the Hall of
Independence, pledging his fortune, which was immense ; his honour,
which was never soiled by even the breath of suspicion ; and that life,
which was devoted to his country ! The youth of America are no
strangers to such names as that of another Carroll, who was employed
in a confidential mission to Canada, in favour of our Independence,
and afterwards became the exemplary Archbishop of Baltimore. There
is no lad of this day, whose breast does not throb with young, fevered
emotions, when there are recited to him the deeds of Rochambeau, and
Kosciusko, and La Fayette, and Lauzun, and De Grass, and Pulaski,
and De Kalb, and Duportail, and Fleury, and Barry, and Fitzsimmons !
These were Catholics : and they were side by side, and shoulder to
shoulder, and heart with heart, with Washington, and Greene, and
Hamilton, and Morris ! And who is he that can appreciate the high
daring, the desperate courage, the never-tiring enterprise of a Wayne,
but must reverence the brave companions of this first of revolutionary
captains ; this " ever fighting " chief ; although he may be reminded
that a large portion of his invincible brigade were Irish and German
Catholics !
And though of the same relative proportion in respect to numbers
then as at present, to the everlasting honour of the Catholic population
in this country, it is boldly asserted, that they all, without one excep
tion, were on the side of the Colonists ; were the unflinching friends
of the cause of national independence, and of civil and religious
liberty ! Not one was recreant ; not one was a traitor ! Can the
same be said of the professed friends of the Revolution among the
Protestants ? Was Benedict Arnold a Catholic ? In the war of 1812,
waged for our nation's honour, when again this much abused people
rallied on the side of patriotism, who among them was found sympa-

33
thizing with the enemies of our insulted country ? Not one ; whilst
General Hull, a Protestant, basely surrendered the army confided to
him to the foe, and was adjudged to death ! These are painful re
miniscences ; but they must be called up, when justice is to be ren
dered, and when unmerited odium is to be removed from a portion of
our citizens, who have done much service to the state !
Nor is it only that the Catholic population in time of war have been
found on the side of our country. In seasons of calm, they have ever
been remarkable for their respect to the laws, and their attachment to
existing institutions. When, it may confidently be asked, were they
ever known to disturb the government, by combinations among them
selves, in order to procure some special good for their communion ; or
when have they agitated the nation, with violent or inflammatory pro
ceedings, that they might promote some theory, or further some abstract
principle, which, as a distinct people, they entertained ? Yet this has
been done by the Protestant portion of our citizens ! In the war of
1812, which were the states of the Union that were in a quasi rebellion ?
Who was the governor that declared " it was unbecoming a moral and
religious people to rejoice in national victories ? " At the season, when
the times were unpropitious, and when all around us was dark and
gloomy ; when a stern enemy was at our doors ; who fomented internal
strifes, and banded together as conspirators at Hartford, to do deeds,
which their fears alone prevented them from accomplishing ? Are
they Catholics, who are ever and ever convulsing the country with
some measure or other at variance with the constitution or the estab
lished order of things ? Are they Catholics, who yesterday were call
ing upon us to form a National Peace Society, and before night were
vociferating for the rallying of a National Anti-Masonic party ; and
who to-day are moving on to rebellion itself, in the furthering of Abo
litionism ? Are they Catholics, who have raised a banner on which is
inscribed, " abolition or separation : " or was he a Catholic, who
on the floor of Congress dared to present a petition for the dissolution
of these United States ? O no ! There cannot be found one wretch
among them so lost in infamy ; so vile and degraded from common
manhood, that would allow the thought of such damning deeds in his
breast for a flitting moment !
The Catholic, wherever found in America, is the warm, ardent, and
devoted friend of American institutions. So soon as the laws permit
3

34
him, he shows this attachment, by the solemnities of a judicial oath,
and his acknowledging that this government of equal rights and jus
tice has his only full and true allegiance. He is in haste to absolve
himself from all foreign thraldom and jurisdiction. Is it so with all alien
Protestants ? Does the Irish Protestant, when he comes to our land
to enjoy the blessings which it yields in so great a degree, exhibit this
same eagerness for citizenship ? Does the " Orangeman " ever be
come naturalized : or in other words, can he become a citizen, bound,
as it is known he is, by an irrevocable oath of fealty, to a foreign
power ? And yet, who has ever heard him pronounced incapable of ap
preciating our blessed institutions ? Is it because he is a Protestant, that
he is necessarily a Republican patriot ? Shame, shame, for such per
version of the plainest principles of reason and justice ! Shame for
hearts that have conceived, and the spirit which encourages and sus
tains such cruelty as has been meted out to a class of men, that are as
good citizens, and so far as human judgment can decide, as good Chris.
tians as their persecutors and oppressors !

CHAPTER IV.
Protestant Professions of Civil and Religious Liberty at variance with their
obligations to Ecclesiastical Requirements. — Catholicism favourable to Learning,
the Sciences and Arts ; as well as promotive of Missions and Scriptural Knowledge.
" Romanism is incompatible with Republican Institutions," is the
cry of certain sectaries, who if not instrumental in producing the
disgraceful proceedings in Philadelphia, have yet defended them.
Destitute of ingenuousness however must they be, who, after the above
statements and evidences, will still continue making the libellous asser
tion. It has been shown that Catholics have ever in this country
been on the side of the constitution and the laws ; that they have
always stood by the friends of civil and religious freedom, and social
order. Whilst they have reverenced their religion, they have in every
instance, and under all circumstances, identified themselves with the
nation, and all and every of ite institutions. In their public or pri
vate relations ; in the halls of our federal or state legislatures ; on
the judicial bench ; in the battle-field ; they have been found the honest
and fearless advocates of the eternal principles, which are the glory
and strength of America. He who at present fills that lofty seat of

35
honour and important trust, which was once held by the illustrious
Marshall, is a Catholic. When has there been heard a whisper against
the integrity of Chief Justice Taney, or his violation of a tittle of the
principles of justice or liberty ? The Hon. Judge Gaston of North
Carolina, was a Catholic, and no man ever did more honour to his
country, none loved her more, none served her better ; for with a pure
heart and towering attributes of a mighty mind, he was enabled to
serve her well and effectually. These, and a host of others that could
be named, by their conduct have shown, that if the "Pope" makes them
good Catholics, his " Holiness," however, cannot prevent them from
becoming good Americans, good patriots, good judges, lawgivers, and
soldiers !
But has Protestantism always been on the side of Democracy ? Is
it true that it is essentially Republican, and that it has never domineer
ed over the consciences, over the freedom of men ? Let the reader go
to the annals of the Reformation ; on every page, nay in every line of
them, he will be shocked with the unchristian spirit that was displayed
by those who appeared as the correctors of errors, the dispensers of
Divine light, the enemies of persecution, the advocates of religious lib
erty to the greatest verge. But professing all this, and much more,
how have they to this day come up to their promises 1 Go to Geneva,
that central seat of Protestanism, and read of the bloody deeds of Cal
vin, that spiritual autocrat, who allowed no liberty of conscience in his
usurped dominions ? Was liberty of conscience permitted in England 1
Did John Knox allow it in Scotland, where Archbishop Sharpe, a Prot
estant prelate, met his awful death ? Was liberty of conscience conced
ed to the Anabaptists in Germany ? Or, confining ourselves to our
own land, have Protestants granted this sacred privilege whenever it
was in their power ? Has it not been shown that the colony of Ply
mouth was a spiritual despotism, as severe as any ever known? Did
not the North Carolina Constitution, and that of New Jersey, until with
in a few days, most effectually prevent all but Protestants from holding
offices of honour, trust, or profit ? And does not the Constitution of New
Hampshire at the present moment contain the very same provisions ?
Delectable consistency is this on the part of those who are eternally
pratin^ about civil and religious liberty, and who would be considered
as the exclusive friends of both ! Precious example of profession and
practice is it ! Important discovery, that shows how to evidence sin-

36
cerity of attachment to republican institutions by striking at their fun
damental principle !
But while Catholicism is not incompatible with these principles, and
so must it be confessed by every candid and impartial Protestant, let
it be inquired by him whether all his brethren of the faith are calculat
ed to become good citizens in this country ? There has been no little
ingenuity called in requisition to show, that the Catholic cannot, on
account of his religious faith, " his slavishness to Antichrist," and " his
admiration for the great Apostacy," ever become a thorough American ;
nor, that he can ever identify himself with our liberal establishments.
And yet it has never been shown wherein this incapacity is to be seen.
His conduct has ever been adverse to such an imputation ; for he has
proven himself the constant friend of every law enacted for his govern
ance, and of every maxim of the Constitution. He has never exhibit
ed an inclination to make sectarian religion an ingredient in the civil
.government of the state ; to combine confessions of faith with the pro
visions of our laws ; or to allow the magistrate to square his administra
tion of justice by the articles of this or that creed, by the confessions of
this or that church. He never has asked for this, though represented
as " a blind follower of Rome." Have not Protestants, however, done
so 1 and with certain of them is not this virtual union of church and
state a matter of no mean importance in the doctrines of their com
munion ?
To have the case fully before the reader, the article of the Constitu
tion which relates to our religious rights is given below ; an article
which the Catholic has ever respected and obeyed.
" All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Al
mighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences ; no
man can, or right, be compelled to attend, erect, or support, any place
of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent ; no hu
man authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the
rights of conscience, and no preference shall ever be given bt law to
any religious establishment or any modes of worship."
With this noble provision of the charter of our rights, let there be
read the following article, to be found in the Larger Catechism Cf the
Presbyterian Church, as set forth by the Westminster Assembly of Di
vines :
" The duties required in the second commandment, are, the detest
ing, disapproving, opposing all false worship, and according to each

37
one's place and calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry."
— Vide Larger Catechism, question 108.
Such are the duties of the Protestant, Presbyterian Christian, who
lives under a Constitution that contains the declaration above given.
They are thus defined in one of the symbolical books of his faith, the
authority of which he will not deny.
But there are other and stronger evidences of a disposition on the
part of certain Protestants to withdraw themselves from a full and
entire allegiance to the liberal institutions of the country. In proof
that a branch of the Presbyterian Church, in outward fellowship with
the larger body of that denomination, however, is thus disposed, there
are given below certain proceedings of the " General Synod of the
Reformed Presbyterian Church," held in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the month
of October, 1834, and found in an overture contained in the Appen
dix :
" We proceed now to establish the charge of immorality against
the Constitution of the United States.
" 1. It does not acknowledge or make any reference to the existence
or providence of a Supreme Being.
" 2. The United States' Constitution does not recognise the revealed
will of God..
" 3. The Constitution of the United States acknowledges no subjec
tion to the Lord Jesus Christ.
" Again, (3) The Constitution of the United States contains the in
fidel and anti-christian principle, that a nation, as such, ought not
to support nor even recognise the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Do these propositions savour of attachment to Republican institu
tions? Is there to be found in them a proof that Protestantism is ex
clusively their friend ? Can there be seen in them, no squinting to
wards Church and State ? What, if the Pope had said this, in one of
his Bulls or letters, would have been the consequence, what the fate,
not only of all the churches of Catholics in the United States,, but of
every man, woman and child among them ? But Protestantism is
compatible with American laws, with civil and religious liberty ; and
the Church of Rome can have no affinity with them. Well, be it so ;
the public will judge, and in time render a righteous verdict.
In explanation of the above propositions, a commentary is supplied

38
by a reverend gentleman of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, who
deservedly is regarded as one of the most able in that body. It is to
be found in a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Samuel B. Wylie,
Pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian congregation in the city of Phi
ladelphia, and at present, it is believed, Vice Provost of the University
of Pennsylvania. The published discourse has the imprint of " Thomas
& Edwards, Montgomery, N. Y., 1832;" and from this edition 'the
extracts are made. The title of the Sermon is, " The Two Sons of
Oil, or the Faithful Witness for Magistracy and Ministry upon a
Scriptural Basis ; and the subject is handled with all the ability that
could be looked for, when such a theme was to be discussed.
" Its officers, (the officers of civil government,) likewise are enjoined,
under pain of perdition, to make aU their administrations bend to the
honour of Immanuel : and the body politic indispensably bound to
modify their constitutions by his word, when in his goodness he has
revealed it unto them." Ps. ii. 10-12. — Sons of Oil. p. 7.
" They (the civil and ecclesiastical branches of government, see p.
7,) agree in being both bound to take the moral law, as the unerring
Standard of all their administrations.
" That the civil branch is thus bound, is evident, not only from the
voice of nature, which announces the moral law as the supreme rule,
regulating our relation to God, as our Lord and Sovereign, and re
quires the body politic to graft upon it their civil constitutions," &c.
—P. 15.
" Should not they, (men,) in every part of their administration, con
sider themselves as Christians, and remember their amenability to the
Divine law ? By ti.is every action shall be tried. Rom. ii. 12." 
P. 15.
" Rom. xiii. 4. He (the civil magistrate) is the minister of God."
" Now, how can he be God's minister, and yet be regardless of the
honour and laws of Him from whom he has derived his authority ? " 
P. 17.
" They (civil magistrates) ought to support the laws of God, by their
secular authority, as keepers of both tables of the law." — P. 23.
" This law (the law of God) he is obliged to execute, under pain of
Jehovah's displeasure. Deut. xvii. 18."  P. 24.
" Nations, as well as individuals, are bound to act agreeably to the
Divine law."— P. 63.

39
" 1. The Federal Constitution, or instrument of national union, does
not even recognise the existence of God, the King of nations." — P. 34.
" 2. Did not the framers of this instrument act not only as if there
had been no Divine revelation for the supreme standard of their con
duct ; but also as if there had been no God ? " — Pp. 33, 35.
" 3. The government gives a legal security and establishment to gross
heresy, blasphemy, and idolatry, under the notion of liberty of con
science."— P. 35.
" 4. We further object to the civil government of this country, be
cause its officers are sworn, by necessary implication, to support what
God Almighty forbids."— P. 39.
" 5. They make no provision for the interest of true religion. See
Federal Constitution, Art. 3, Amendment." — P. 40.
" 6. Another reason why we cannot fully incorporate with the na
tional society, is, because we consider them in a state of national re
bellion against God." — P. 41.
" How does the government of any country view a province or
county, which refuses to receive the laws, which they have constitu
tionally enacted ? They consider them in a state of rebellion, &c.
And shall nations refuse to recognise the laws of the Moral Governor of
the Universe, and be accounted guiltless ? " — P. 42.
" 7. Deists, and even atheists, may be chief magistrates. See the
Federal Constitution."— P. 42.
" Nay, at not a very distant period, even so late as the year 1797,
the good people of the United States of America, concentered by rep
resentation in the senatorial council and chief magistrate, disclaimed
the religion of Jesus, and cast away the cords of the Lord's anointed —
in the ratification of the treaty of peace and friendship with the Bey of
Tripoli." — " The American plenipotentiary availed himself of it, as an
important circumstance in the article of negociation, that the Ameri
can government was not predicated upon the Christian religion," &c. —
" Take it in the words of the treaty itself : ' The government of the
United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian
religion,' &c. See this quotation in Art. XI. of the treaty, &c, as
filed in the Laws of the U. S., vol. 4."—" And, what is further worthy
of notice, by the sixth article of the Federal Constitution, this treaty is
made the supreme law of the land." — Pp. 43, 44.
Is there still more wanted to show the meaning and object of the
organ, and exponent of this sect, now existing among us : a still

40
further illustration of the views entertained by them ? The author of
the discourse in showing why the Reformed Presbyterian Church can
not yield obedience, for conscience' sake, to the present civil authority
in North America ; says :
" Another objection we have, is, that most, if not all of the State
Constitutions, contain positive immorality. Witness their recognition
of such rights of conscience, as sanction every blasphemy which a de
praved heart may believe to be true. Moreover, the State Constitu
tions necessarily bind to the support of the federal, as the bond of na
tional existence ; and hence the immorality contained in that instru
ment, becomes common to them all." — P. 35.
" The recognition of such rights of conscience, is insulting to the
Majesty of Heaven, and repugnant to the express letter of God's word,
Deut. xvii. 18. God prescribes to the magistrate the Divine law, as
the supreme standard of all his administrations ; and which obliges
men, in every station, to conduct themselves accordingly. Deut. xii.
32 : ' What thing soever I command you, observe to do it : thou shalt
not add to it, nor diminish from it.' But, in the framing of these Con
stitutions, the revealed law of God is not attended to ; though even the
law of nature requires the adoption of every new communication, which
God, in mercy, may be pleased to reveal." — P. 35.
" It would be too tedious to examine each of the State Constitutions
on this head. One may suffice.
" We shall select that of the State of Pennsylvania. See the pre
amble, together with the third and twenty-sixth sections of the ninth
article. Here, the Constitution recognises, and unalterably establishes,
the indefeasible right of worshipping Almighty God, whatever way a
man's conscience may dictate ; and declares, that this shall, for ever,
remain inviolatte. We believe, that no man has a right to worship
God any other way, than he himself hath prescribed in his law. We
also think it criminal, for a man's conscience to approve any way re
pugnant to this sacred rule : and that this crime cannot legitimate-
another, or make an action right, which God expressly condemns, under
pain of eternal wrath." — P. 36.
" Here, there is a certain right established. To do what ? To wor
ship God whatever way a man may think most proper. But he may,
and often does, think a false way most proper. Well, he has a right to
worship the false way ! But, worshipping the false way offends God.
No matter, he has a right to offend God ; for, if worshipping falsely,

41
and offending God, are equivalent, seeing he has a right to do the one,
he has a right to do the other ! I ' Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in
the streets of Askelon, lest, the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest
the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.' 2d Sam. i. 20." — P. 37.
Again it is inquired, what would be said by certain Protestants if views
like these had ever been promulged by Catholics ? And yet, when cor
dially submitting to the ordinances of the country, are they denied the
credit of being good citizens ; but, on the contrary, denounced as incapa
ble of understanding and appreciating our institutions ! And this too in
the face of the charter of Lord Baltimore, granting liberty of conscience
in the widest extent; this too in face of the whole history of the
Catholics in America ; and this too when Catholics were ready to de
fend with their last drop of blood the same Constitution, which, Reform.
ed Presbyterians, good Protestants as they consider themselves, were
discarding as an unholy thing.
After having thus reviewed the transactions in Protestant Plymouth,
the doings of their descendants, the respect entertained for republican
institutions by certain of the denomination ; after proving that Protes
tants, by their own actions, and the true interpretation of their views
, by their own friends, refuse the enjoyment of religious freedom to any
but themselves — another accusation brought against Catholicism will
be considered ; i. e., that it is opposed to the progress of education, and the
universal dissemination of knowledge. It was to be hoped that such a
charge would have been the last made by those who pretend to be con
versant with the history of the human mind, and the course of its de
velopment. Will they allow themselves to be reminded, if they ever
knew the fact, that the Catholic Church was the very cradle and
refuge of the arts and sciences in a rude and troubled age ? Do they
not know that, in the period when baronial violence prevailed to a de
gree which the authority of that Church could merely mitigate, and
not totally restrain — that in the Dark Ages, as now they are termed,
the relics of classic literature were preserved in the cloisters of her de
voted servants ? Are these sciolists in knowledge and smatterers in
ecclesiastical history to be told now for the first time, that the slander
ed monk was the only chronicler of ages ; and that when military prow
ess and romantic and chivalrous enterprise took captive the hearts of
these same barons, that the Catholic Church, among her priesthood,
alone retained the vestiges of literature and science? It need not
now be related, who were the eminent and majestically great in all that

42
ennobles and enriches and blesses the present generation that were of
this slandered communion. The scroll of their illustrious names is too
extended to be copied here. Sufficient however is it to say, that they
alone la-id the foundation of every science — and deep and broad and
firm was it — upon which the present race have raised the superstruc
ture ; and if that superstructure be now fair and beautiful and tower
ing, it is because that foundation was laid by master hands and master
spirits. Did not statuary and the sister art of painting make the Cath
olic Church their very homestead : and did they not lend their won
derful powers in unstinted measure to the adornment of the materi
al temple ? And since that tempestuous, desolating Revolution which
swept away altars and their consecrated accessories, has not the votary
of these beautiful and elevating arts mourned not only their loss through
barbarous violence, but has he not the melancholy consciousness to
know that they have not been replaced in the long interval of time by
equal hands or powers ?
But is it meant that Catholicism interposes to prevent popular edu
cation from being spread over the land of her influence ; and that it
is her fixed policy, her every aim to keep the mass of her children in
blindness and ignorance ? Is it not in violence to existing facts staring
the accusers in the face at every turn, that this charge is made and
ever and again reiterated ? From whence but from Catholic countries
have been derived the best systems of public education, that have
been eagerly seized upon and applied by our own people ? Know we
not that Austria and France and Switzerland, and the Catholic princi
palities of Germany, have furnished the models of those portions of
our own system which are most deservedly admired and valued ? Are
these lands obscured in gloom, or know they nothing of education ?
Even in abused Ireland, does there not exist at this moment a better
establishment than is even found in England ? Let it not be said that
it is the latter which must have the honour of conferring it. And were
they not Irish prelates and priests, Catholic noblemen and patriots, that
struggled with the greatest earnestness for the blessing ? And has the
pope, that enemy to education among the masses, exerted his authority
to suppress it ? Let any case be brought forward where he has done
so ! He may have required that religious teaching should invariably
be combined with secular education ; and it is to be regretted that his
injunction in this respect is not pursued in our common schools ; that
the souls of children should not be of at least as much, if not more impor-

43
tance than their minds. Then would the friend of religion want cause
for regret that the education of the young among us must necessarily
be either destitute of this holy science of Heaven, or that it will inevita
bly lead to the sectarianism of the dominant party. Far better for the
cause of God and human happiness would it be, that the whole system
was abolished, and that of parochial schools substituted.
Another grievous sin in Catholics, according to certain Protestants,
is, that the former do not engage in the religious enterprises of the
day. It is surely no small wonder that this accusation should be made
by the very people, who in the same breath, are warning the land of
the dangers of " Papacy ; " who are eternally predicting the slavery
of our people by the rapid increase of " Romanism." But let the
alarmists reconcile their absurdity. If Catholics are increasing, it
must be through some energy similar to that which impels honest Pro
testants ; if they have no enterprise, they must soon be conquered, by
those who claim to possess it in such a vast degree. The operations of
the Catholic Church are, however, controlled, as they ever have been,
by principles of action, that cannot be affected by popular excitement
or agitation. They are not made to depend upon the feelings nor
plans of the age. Having in view the eternal interests of man, she
keeps this object steadily and constantly before her ; and whilst em
ploying the means supplied her by her Great Head, she waits in faith
for the blessings of increase. Yet, never since such tremendous inter
ests have been committed to her keeping, has she paused in her exer
tions, or faltered in her duty. Other denominations have done much ;
but has not Catholicism done more for souls in a ruined world ?
Has it not shown itself in the broadest sense of the term, to be emphati
cally missionary, in the extensive measures pursued in the conversion
of the nations 1 Has not the wide earth been considered as the inheritance
bequeathed her by the Lord ; and has it not been compassed by the
heralds, who have been sent forth, in His name, to gather the lost and
wandering ? Look at the results, which, through God's smiles, have
attended their exertions ; and when weighing them in justice, let there
not be denied the honour, which is justly the due of those, who have
not been unmindful of their responsibilities, their sacred obligations.
And when looking at them too, let it not be forgotten that all the mis
sionaries derived their appointments from that Church, which now is
the subject of abuse and persecution. What then is seen ? In the
second century we witness the great conversions wrought in Africa,

44
Gaul, and Britain. In the third, the reduction of the Goths, and other
barbarous nations, to the standard of Christ ; and in the fourth, the
conversion of the Ethiopians and Iberians. In the fifth, we behold the
Scots, the Irish, and the French, subdued to the yoke of the gospel.
In the sixth, the southern and northern Picts, the Bulgarians, Swabians,
and the Saxons. In the seventh, the light of the gospel was further
extended to the English ; and the Franconians and Netherlanders re
ceived the same faith. In the eighth, Hesse, Thurengia, Westphalia
and Saxony, embraced Catholicism. In the ninth, Holstein and part of
Sweden, the Sclavonians, Moravians, Bulgarians, and Bohemians, sub
mitted to the influence of Catholicity. In the tenth century, the
Danes, the Goths in Sweden, the Poles and Prussians, in part, and the
Moscovites. In the eleventh, the Hungarians and Norwegians, entered
the pale of the Catholic Church. In the twelfth, Courland, Samogatia and
Livonia, received the faith of Christ. In the thirteenth, the same faith was
preached to the Tartars. In the fourteenth, Lithuania was converted.
In the fifteenth, the Canary Islands, together with a considerable num
ber of the inhabitants of the kingdom of Congo and Angola, bowed in
submission to the Christian dispensation ; and not to continue the cal
culation, even in 1840 — '41, more savages were converted at the
Rocky Mountains, by one or two humble Catholic missionaries, than
were ever converted in foreign lands by the united labours of all the
Protestant missionaries that ever left the United States.
These are the triumphs of the Cross, which have been achieved by
that Church, which it is now the order of the day to vilify and abuse !
Has she not, however, sung the requiem over the solitary grave of the
martyred missionary in our trackless wilds of this western world ? Has
she not carried the glad tidings of a crucified Redeemer among the
empires of the east ; and forced her way, — heedless of every obstacle,
and fearless as to every issue, — to an inter-communication with a na
tion, as peculiar for its civilization, as for its hostility to the guidance
and control of the gospel 1 Was it not Catholicism, that by her love of
labour, and her patient, indomitable industry, converted a cheerless and
arid desert into a sweet and fruitful garden ; or reared the standard of
man's redemption among the ice-clad mountain tops 1 But what has
not this Church done, in behalf of the children of earth ; included as
they all are, in the charter given her, by Him, who now reigns in the
kingdom above ? Have not her deeds been long, — ay, for by-gone cen
turies, — the theme of gladsome praise, as they are the subject of man's

45
wonder and astonishment ! With . that banner, " whose breadth is
charity, whose length is eternity, whose height is almighty power, and
whose depth is unsearchable wisdom," she has gone forth to conquer,
as she was commanded ; and she has hallowed the very summits of the
rock, by transforming them into the abodes of piety and virtue ; or
amid the dreary regions of the Alps, on the limits of eternal snows and
frosts, far beyond the habitations of man — she has planted a refuge, a
shelter and protection from the inhospitable clime ; — a refuge for the
sufferer, be his creed what it may !
But why repeat what is known to all who are conversant with the
progress of our holy religion ? Although that progress has been, as it
was from the beginning predicted, through toil and travail, and bitter
ness, yet has it never been interrupted by faithlessness on the part
of those, who at this present time are the persecuted and oppressed.
True is it, that they have long been upon the spiritual wastes of the
world ; for a long time has the Catholic Church contended with the ig
norance and sins of a world for which the Saviour gave his most pre-
cious blood ; and the numbers, which she gathered in the fold of the
redeemed, ought to have been great. Yet, will Protestantism compare
with her, in respect to the amount of labour in behalf of the gospel 1
Let all be conceded which is claimed ; and will the triumphs be as
many and as glorious, and as enduring ? Grant that the Reformation
gave new impulses, that it awakened new energies ; that they who
favoured it, felt themselves moved to the work of bringing the wander
ing into the congregation of Christians ; the results, nevertheless, are
not so vast, they are inferior to those, which have flowed, through divine
aid, from the exertions of Catholic missionaries throughout the world.
The next objection against this faith, and the one most frequently
uttered, is, that Catholicism is hostile to the spread of Scriptural know
ledge ; that it does not permit the Bible to be read by its people. The
charge is a serious one, and if true, must want a defence from all, who
reverence the word, revealed in infinite mercy, to benighted man. But
is it true ; does the Catholic Church withhold the Holy Scriptures from
her children ? Has she hidden the sacred deposit in the cloisters of
her priests, and to them alone committed the treasure? It is indeed
true, that she has committed it to them as the ordained interpreters of
its contents; that she has insisted that those portions of it, which re-
late to faith, shall be received with docile minds, and with reverential,
teachable dispositions. Conscious of her responsibility.and knowing the

46
pride and haughtiness of men's minds, she has endeavoured that the doc
trines which she holds, shall be entertained by her people in unity and
singleness of belief. She repudiates the right of private interpretation :
since it Conflicts with an authority, which has been conferred upon her
by her Great Founder. But that she forbids the Catholic from using
the Bible to his soul's comfort, that she prevents him from turning to
its pages, and there to learn the precepts for holy living, or the histo-
ries of patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles, and evangelists, or to read
the life of Him, from whom he has received the promises of eternal
glory, or to derive from it the sanctifying consolations which it so
largely yields, is not true. She has set it forth with no restriction,
save that above mentioned ; and whilst she opens its pages to all,
she invites them with earnestness to " come to the waters of life and
drink freely."
But to show the incorrectness of the accusation, let the question be
asked, was it not the Catholic Church, long before the Reformation,
that published the Bible in the vulgar, vernacular tongues of many
nations ? Has she not ever manifested a desire to spread the knowl
edge of it throughout the world ? Even before the art of printing was
discovered, did she not multiply the editions to an amazing extent ?
And when Faust, who was a Catholic, supplied in his invention, the
facility of increasing, to a boundless extent, copies of this book, did
she not seize upon the glorious opportunity for its wide dissemination 1
It is no object with the writer to become the panegyrist of the Catholic
Church ; all that he aims at is to beget more of the spirit of charity, and
to do justice to a communion, which he believes is wrongly, unneces
sarily traduced, and especially in this question of the Bible. Let then
the following facts be received by all, who take an interest in a matter,
in which all should be concerned. They are conclusive in proving
that Catholicism has ever been faithful in supplying the means of reli
gious teaching to her members. They are facts too, which cannot be
presented without exciting no small measure of astonishment, that the
Church, under such disadvantages, as the want of the press must have
occasioned, should yet have been enabled to distribute these various
editions. As early as the fourth century St. Augustine observes, that " the
number of those who have translated the Scriptures from Hebrew into
the Greek, might be computed," but that the number of those who

47
translated it from the Greek into the Latin, which was then the Ian*
guage of the Western Empire, was beyond all computation."
Again, in 1552, says a statement prepared by one of the most
erudite men of the present day, "when the Maronite Christians re'
turned to the communion of the church, under Pope Julius III., a new
edition Of the Syriac version was printed at Vienna, and transmitted
to Syria."
Pope Paul III. in 1548, published at Rome an Ethiopic version of
the New Testament in Ethiopia, for the use of the Christians.
In 1591, an Arabic version of the whole Bible was published at
Rome. And in the year 1671, another edition, in three volumes, folio,
of the same version, from the press of the Propaganda.
Again in 1591, an Arabic version of the four Gospels was printed
at the Medicean press in Rome, for the use of the Arabic Christians,
in communion with the church.
Even in the Chinese language, notwithstanding it is so difficult
and so few can read it, a harmony of the four gospels was prepared by
the Jesuits, and is mentioned with praise by the ' British and Foreign
Bible Society ' in their first report.
The fact is, that as soon as printing was invented, that church
availed herself of the discovery, for the purpose of multiplying copies
of the Scriptures in every language. Luther's translation in Germany
in 1522 and '30, had been preceded nearly a century : 1st, by the Catho.
lie edition of Faust, printed at Mentz in 1462 ; 2d, by that of Bemler,
printed at Augsburg, 1467; and 3d, by the four versions which Beau-
sobre mentions in his fourth book of the History of the Reformation.
The French Protestant version is that of Olivetan, assisted by Cal
vin, and published in 1537. It had been preceded by different Catholic
versions, viz., the New Testament by Julian, the Augustinian Monk,
printed in 1477, by a version of the whole Bible, by Guyards des
Moulins, printed in 1490 — and by that of Estaple, who printed the
New Testament in 1523, the Old Testament in 1528.
The Italian Protestant version was printed in 1563. It had been
preceded by, 1st, the Catholic version. by Malermis, in 1471 ; 2d, by
that of Bruciofis in 1532, on which the Protestant version was gener-
ally founded.
In Belgium, the first Protestant version was that of Luther, pub
lished in 1527. It had been preceded by a Catholic version of the
four gospels, printed in 1472 ; by another Catholic version of the whole

48
Bible, printed at 'Cologne, in 1475 ; again at Delft in 1477 : at Gouda
in 1479, and both at Antwerp in 1518.
It is useless to extend the testimonies, when it is well known that
in Italy alone, and with the Pope's approbation, more than twenty edi
tions of the Bible have been published in the vulgar tongue.
But there is also the express declaration of Pope Pius VI., who, in a let
ter to Martini, on his translation of the Bible into Italian, says, ' that
the faithful should be excited to the reading of the Holy Scriptures ; for
these are most abundant sources, which ought, to be left open to every one,
to draw from them purity of morals and of doctrine, to eradicate the
errors which are widely disseminated , in these corrupt times.' This
letter is prefixed to every Catholic Bible.
With these facts before us, will it be said that Catholicism is inimi
cal to the circulation of the Scriptures? And as regards the general
use of the Bible in Catholic families, the many large editions of that
sacred book, published in numbers at the cheapest price, by Catholic
publishers in this city, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other places^ must
prove, that no Catholic need be without a bible; andthatinall.probability
Catholics are as well supplied as Protestants themselves. It is true that
unauthorized versions and spurious translations are forbidden ; and to
prevent these, and only these, the present Pontiff issued the late Ency-
cical Letter : which has purposely been mistranslated, and made to ex
press a language and meaning never to be found in the original docu-
ment. Let then an end be had in reference to these unfounded accusations.
Catholicism is not incompatible with Republican Institutions, nor has
the Catholic Church been remiss or faithless to any of the eternal in
terests confided to her. She may have her errors ; but she can never
be made to see and desert them by an uncharitable course on the part
of her separated brethren. In her day of universal dominion she may
have persecuted: wrong is it for Protestants to imitate her in this re
spect, particularly when Protestants claim for themselves doctrines
more pure and consonant with the Religion of Love and Charity. Let
all remember, both Protestants and Catholics, that we are hastening
onwards to that throne, on which is seated an Eternal King ; to that
tribunal, over which a Righteous Judge presides in Heaven ; let all
then reverence the prerogative of Him, who has declared " Vengeance
is Mine : I will repay I " Fenelon.

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