replied "You see that I was not quite mistaken: this would be to make abjuration." Then kneeling down he said "I ask pardon of God for all my sins, and I firmly believe that I am washed by the blood of Christ, who redeemed us with a great price. I have no pardon to ask of the king. I have always honoured him as the anointed of the Lord. I have ever loved him as the father of the country. I have ever been a good and faithful subject, of which my judges appeared to be thoroughly convinced. I have ever preached to my flock patience, obedience and submission; and my sermons, which are in their hands, are a summary of these words-Fear God; honour the King.' If I have violated his laws relating to religious assemblies, it is because God commanded me so to do. As to justice, I have not offended it-and I beseech God to pardon my judges." The priests finding it impossible to extort any acknowledgment from him, M. Rochette and his companions in martyrdom were finally conducted to the place of execution, where an immense body of spectators awaited them. To the very last moment he displayed a martyr's constancy he was hanged, and the three brothers in succession were beheaded. They were equally firm. After the two eldest had suffered, while the youngest was laying his head on the bloody block, around which lay the corpses of his brothers, the executioner urged him to escape their fate by abjuring. "Do your duty," replied the young man, with a firm and tranquil air and voice. In a moment he ceased to exist. The immense multitude silently dispersed, astonished, for the first time, to find that the laws were so barbarous, and that the martyrs of the desert were so heroic.*

In 1765, the Romish clergy of France made an effort to resist the tendency towards toleration, which was then beginning to be felt, by a remonstrance to the king:

"It is in vain (that body declares) that all public worship, other than the Catholic, is for bidden in your dominions. In contempt of the

wisest laws, the Protestants have seditious meetings on every side. Their ministers preach heresy and administer the Supper; and we altar, and the pulpit of pestilence opposing have the pain of beholding altar raised against that of truth. If the law which revoked the edict of Nantes-if your declaration of 1724 had been strictly observed, we venture to say there would be no more Calvinists in France. Consider the effects of a tolerance which may become cruel by its results. Restore, sire! restore to the laws all their vigour-to religion its splendour. Let the solemn renewal of your declaration of 1724, the fruit of your wisdom and piety, be the happy result of our remonstrance. Similar representations were made by the clergy in 1770 and 1772 against the Protestant assemblies. The hostility shown to this meagre, half toleration, has inflicted a permanent evil on France. Protestantism was suppressed to the extent of administrative power; but as no enactments could enforce

sincere respect for the victorious Church of Rome, a spread of irreligion has been the consequence. Ardent Huguenots defied authority and braved martyrdom; while the indifferent,

although they declared themselves converted, were unable to submit their conscience to

Papal tyranny, and became the leaders and teachers of the Encyclopædist school.

"The philosophic party, in its hatred of the clergy, co-operated with the enlightened members of the educated classes in producing a mitigation of the code under which the Huguenots groaned: and the writings of Caveyrac and the Abbé L'Enfant, in favour of bigotry, were received with general contempt. Louis XVI. gave an edict in 1787, which improved the This ill-fated king, although remarkable for condition of Protestants in a small degree. humane feelings, was still influenced by education, as well as by respect for the opinions and policy of his immediate predecessors; and, without the exertions of the admirable La moignon Malesherbes, it is doubtful whether

this edict would have been obtained. That eminent man was indefatigable in the council and by his writings. It is the least (he ob served on one occasion) that I can do to re pair, in the eyes of the Protestants, all the harm which M. de Bassville, my uncle, did to them in Languedoc.'

"The concessions were no more than what

could not be with safety withheld; and the terms of the edict expressly state that the non-Catholics cannot claim under its provi sions more than the law of nature forbids be ing refused.' In short, it only conferred the means of recording the civil existence of the Huguenots; nothing like a privilege was granted; and an express stipulation was made to prevent any Protestant minister from signing certificates establishing the birth, marriage, or decease of one of his flock. The

of such vigilant pursuit; but the Protestant

worship existed by sufferance, rather than by permission.

"The boon was trivial, yet the edict was opposed in its progress, and the cause of fanaticism found a zealous defender in M. D'Epres menil, who resisted to the last, and called upon the magistrates to avoid 'crucifying the Lord anew' by the sanction of such a sacrilegious

measure. It may indeed be doubted whether any concession would have been made if the different parliaments had not, on several occasions, given decrees in favour of the Protestants." (Browning's History, p. 274.)

M. Coquerel has inserted, from authentic documents, various interesting particulars relative to the organization of the churches of the desert, chiefly through the persevering efforts of two of their pastors-M. Antoine Court and M. Paul Rabant. For these details we must refer to his very interesting volumes; but we cannot withhold from our readers the following eloquent and touching "Prayer for believers, who read together the word of God and a sermon, but who are deprived of the public exercise of their religion:"

"Great God, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, but who hast promised to be present wherever two or three are met together in thy name, behold us assembled in this house, to offer unto thee our religious worship, to adore thy greatness, and to implore thy compassion. We groan in secret, because we are deprived of our public exercises, and no longer hear in our temples the voices of thy servants. But we murmur not at thy provi. dence. We acknowledge that thou mightest justly overwhelm us by thy severest judgments, therefore we wonder at thy goodness amidst thy chastisements: but we beseech thee to have pity on us. We are without a temple: but do thou fill this house with thy glorious presence. We are without a pastor: but do thou thyself be our pastor. Teach us the truths of thy Gospel. We are about to read and meditate upon thy word. Impress it upon our hearts! Grant that we may therein learn to know thee, what thou art, and what we are; what thou hast done for our salvation, and what we ought to do for thy service; the vir tues which are well-pleasing to thee, and the vices which thou dost prohibit; the punishments which thou hast denounced against the impenitent, the lukewarm, the cowardly, and the profane, and the glorious rewards which thou dost promise to those who continue faithful unto thee. Grant that we may depart from this pious exercise more holy, more zealous for thy glory and for thy truth, more weaned from the world, and more religious observers of thy commandments. Hear us for thy Son's

sake." (Coquerel, Hist. des Eglises du Désert, tom. i. pp. 97, 98.)

The French Revolution at length restored the Protestants to their civil and religious rights. In 1814 and 1815, after the restoration of Louis XVIII., some fanatical Papists led the Protestants to dread a return of the days of persecution. A blind populace was excited against the Protestants, who were falsely accused of being too much attached to the throne of the deposed usurper, Buonaparte. Fanaticism once more sharpened its daggers at Nismes and in the surrounding country, where the Protestants, not without reason, apprehended the return of a second St. Bartholomew. The circumstances connected with this transaction are somewhat minutely detailed by Mr. Browning, to whose narrative our readers are necessarily referred. Suffice it to state, that the revolution of 1830, which placed Louis Philippe upon the throne of France, secured to the Protestants their religious liberties-at least, on paper. Nevertheless, they are still subjected to various annoyances, and attempts have been repeatedly made to abridge their liberties. Their dead have been disinterred.* So lately as the 27th of October, 1843, bap

"The following disgraceful circumstance has been related in the Paris journals, extracted from the Phare de la Rochelle. It will be found at length in the Propagateur of 30th June, 1838.

"A Protestant lady, named Fleury, died at the village of Pont-l'Abbé (Charente-Inferieure), and was interred on the 2d of June by the Protestant pastor of Marennes. As cemeteries are communal property, and under the control of the mayor, independent of the clergy, the deceased was buried in the only burialground, which however the priests, according to their custom, consider a domain of the Church. The vicar had protested against the sepulture; and on the night of the 7th he had the corpse disinterred. He then wrote the following record of his own disgrace:

"A MONS. CAMBON, Pastaur à Marennes.

"Monsieur, le bel œuvre que celui dont vous êtes venu vous illustrer à Pont-l'Abbé, la veille du saint jour de la Pentecôte. Vous avez grand sujet de vous en glorifier, la mémoire en restera longtemps dans les cœurs. Le corps de Mdme. Fleury vient enfin d'être exhumé du lieu où, contre mon droit et mon opposition, vous l'aviez fait déposer. Cette opération s'est terminée cette nuit entre minuit et une heure.

tism was forcibly administered to a paralytic child, of eight years of age, by the chaplain of the Hospital l'Enfant Jesus, at Paris, notwithstanding the boy had repeatedly declared his wish and intention of adhering to the Protestant religion, which is that of his parents, who further signed a written declaration and protest that the pretended conversion of their son to Popery was contrary to their intentions, and against their consent.* In fact, although the charter declares that all religions are placed upon an equal footing in France, yet the Romish Church there has managed to turn that part of the charter, which was designed to secure religious liberty, into an intolerable edict, and has boldly told Louis Philippe, by the mouth of the Archbishop of Paris, that pledges have been given at the foot of the altar of Mary,' of the speedy restoration of that time, when all Frenchmen SHALL be united in the bonds of one faith, and Romanism shall be avenged upon Protestantism.”

"Courage, Monsieur! encore quelques actes de cette nature, et vous rendrez de plus en plus reccmmendable votre ministère, déjà si accrédité par la solidité ne vos doctrines. Le repos dont vous assurez le corps de vos fidèles après leur mort est une garantie du repos dont vous pouvez assurer leur ame.

666

Recevez, Mosieur, l'assurance de toute la consideration que vous avez su m'inspirer.

"LABRO, Desservant de Font-l'Abbé. "Pont-l'Abbé, le 8 Juin, 1838.' "This strange letter obtained a reply from the Protestant pastor, the mildness of which presented a striking contrast to the unchristian boastings of the priest. He congratulated himself that he was not minister of a religion which pursues men even in their grave, and would deprive their mortal remains of the rest they deny to their souls; and concluded by exhorting the vicar to inquire seriously, and as in the presence of his Maker, whether his conduct and sentiments were Christian, or if he had not rather stifled the voice of charity and the feelings of humanity." (Browning's His tory, p. 297.)

"Archives du Christianisme," Nov. 25, 1843, pp. 215, 216. The chaplain of the hospital l'Enfant Jesus, audaciously denied the truth of the fact above stated, and charged the Protestants with having invented it; but his falsehood was detected and exposed by the pastor, Cuvier, the correctness of whose statement was subsequently acknowledged by a committee that was appointed to investigate the transaction.

In the preceding declaration of the Archbishop of Paris the true spirit of Popery spoke out; and it furnishes a prac tical refutation of the assertion so often made by our modern pseudo-liberalists, that Popery is changed. Popery changed! As soon may the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots, or the hyena its ferocious nature. "An infallible religion changed is nearly a contradiction in terms." In proof that Popery is unchanged in its principles, it might be sufficient to refer to the authentic formularies of doctrine and instruction put forth by the Romish Church, and from the writings of her canonists and saints, not forgetting the so-called "angelical doctor," SAINT Thomas Aquinas. But we will adduce only two or three testimonies from the declarations of modern Papists, including the present Pope, Maur Cappellari, calling himself Gregory XVI., which will demonstrate the unchangeable nature of Popery :

"If any one says or pretends to insinuate that modern Roman Catholics differ in one iota from their ancestors, he either deceives himself or wishes to deceive others. Semper eadem is not more emphatically descriptive of our religion than of our jurisprudence." (Case stated by Francis Plowden, 1791.)*

"Roman Catholics (said the late Mr. Charles Butler,)-Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of their Church to be UNCHANGEABLE............. It is a tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the begin ning, such it now is, and such it EVER WILL BE." (Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 9.)

"The present Earl of Shrewsbury declares, that there is but one ground on which we' [meaning Protestants and Papists] 'can meet the authority of the Church' [meaning the Romish, not the universal Church of Christ]

the doctrines of primitive antiquity, as defined by Trent, and promulgated and received as such; because without authority there can be no doctrine, and the doctrines promulgated by authority' [meaning the assembly of Romish divines, commonly called the Council of Trent] are FINAL AND IRREVOCABLE.' (Letter to A. L. Phillips, Esq., descriptive of the Estatica of Caldaro, &c., p. 142.)

The addresses to the laity by the titular Romish bishops and vicars apostolic

Cited in Mr. Hall's "Examination of the Romish Doctrine of Purgatory and the Practice of Prayers for the Dead," p. 341.

The following are a few of Maur Cappellari's assumptions:

1. That the Papal government is the government of God.

"If he (that is, God) has established a government, if he maintains it immovable, if he demands from us absolutely that we submit to it, he must necessarily manifest it to us in such a manner that the facility of recognizing it should be in proportion to the obligation to obey it, for all those whom that obligation concerns. Therefore, the government established by Jesus Christ must be easy to be known to the whole of Christendom: and it ought to be so by its nature-that is to say, God, its founder, must have distinguished it from human governments by characters which should be inseparable from it, and from which no one could mistake its divine origin."......" He who obeys the actual government of the Church, OBEYS GOD HIMSELF; we are certain, that it watches incessantly over the deposit of faith, over the integrity of morals, over the safety of his children, to repel and destroy his enemies. Thus, the authority of the tribunals at this present is not less venerable than the authority of those tribunals formerly was, since they are essentially the same thing."

2. The Pope assumes to be an absolute and infallible monarch. After relating at some length the supplication of Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, to Pope Adrian, to re-establish in his see Theodorus, who had already been consecrated by him metropolitan of Caira, but

Societate Jesu in eod. coll. Theol. Prof., vol. viii.,

p. 535. Lovanii, 1843. 8vo.

* S'il a établi un gouvernement, s'il le maintient immuable, s'il exige absolument de nous que nous nous y soumettions, il doit nécessairement nous le manifester, de manière que la facilité de la reconnaître soit en proportion avec l'obligation de lui obéir pour tous ceux que concerne cette obligation. Donc le gouvernement établi par J. C. doit être reconnaissable à toute la chrétienté, et il doit l'être par sa nature, c'est-à-dire que Dieu, son fondateur, doit l'avoir distingué des gouvernemens humains par des caractères qui en soient inséparables et d'après lesquels on ne puisse se méprendre sur son origine divine......Qui obeit au gouvernement actuel de l'Eglise obeit à Dieu même; on a la certitude qu'elle veille sans cesse au dépôt de la Foi, à l'integrité des mœurs, à la sûreté de ses enfans, à repousser et à détruire ses enemis: ainsi l'autorité des tribunaux d'à présent n'est pas moins vénérable que l'autorité de ceux d'autrefois, puisqu'ils sont essentiellement la même chose. (Cappellari, Triomphe du St. Siége, &c., tome i. pp. 36, 37, 38.)

who had been drawn into the party of Photius, by terror of persecution, after he had evinced much zeal in defending the Catholic faith against heresy, Cappellari thus concludes his argument:

"We must, therefore, conclude, that these humble prayers addressed to Pope Adrian, before the council was dissolved, in the name of the council, and, consequently, by the council itself, are a practical recognition of the absolute, independent, inherent, and MONARCHICAL POWER of the Roman Pontiff." ... "The Pope... is A TRUE MONARCH; consequently he must be provided with the means necessary for the exercise of his monarchical authority. But the mean most necessary to that end must be that which will take away from his subjects every pretext for refusing submission to his decisions and his laws, and his infallibility alone can have this efficacy. Therefore the Pope is infallible."†

ble monarchical authority is not a dead That this pretended absolute and infalliletter (however some nominal Protestants may dream), the following incident will demonstrate. On the final cession of Gibraltar to Great Britain, the Papists residing there were secured in the possession of their civil rights and property. Certain property had been given for the maintenance of the Romish worship there, the proceeds of which have ever since been administered by laymen. On the arrival at Gibraltar (from Maynooth) of Mr. Hughes, with the title of Bishop of Heliopolis and Vicar Apostolic of Gibraltar, he attempted to seize this property into his hands. The lay trustees resisted his aggression, and defended their rights before the civil tribunals, which pronounced a verdict in their favour. Subsequently they appealed to the Privy

Il n'y a donc qu'à conclure que ces humbles prières adressées au Pape Adrien, avant que le concile ne fût dissous, au nom du concile, et par conséquent par le concile luimême, sont une reconnaissance pratique de la puissance absolue, indépendante, originaire et monarchique du Pontife romaine. (Cappellari, tome i. p. 89).

Le Pape, est un vrai monarque; donc il doit être pourvu des moyens nécessaires à l'exercice de son autorité monarchique. Mais le moyen le plus nécessaire à cette fin sera celui qui ôtera tout pretext à ses sujets de refuser de se soumettre à ses décisions et à ses lois, et son infaillibilité seule peut avoir cette efficacité. Donc le Pape est infaillible. (Ibid., p. 145.)