to murder, and the immolation of forty thousand people was an act of justice. Piety and justice, it seems, aroused to deeds of cruelty, the idea of which after wards, says Sully, caused even the inhuman perpetrator, Charles, in spite of himself, to shudder.

The carnage, sanctioned in this manner by the French king, parliament and people, was also approved by the pope and the Roman court. Rome, 66 from her hatred of heresy, received the news with unspeakable joy. The pope went in procession to the church of Saint Lewis, to render thanks to God for the happy victory." His legate, in France, felicitated his most Christian majesty in the pontiff's name, "and praised the exploit, so long meditated and so happily executed, for the good of religion." The massacre, says Mezeray, "was extolled before the king as the triumph of the church." 11*

Spain rejoiced also in the tragedy as the defeat of Protestantism. This nation has ever shown itself the friend of the Papacy, and the deadly enemy of the Reformation; and this spirit, on this occasion, appeared in the joy manifested by the Spanish people for the murder of the French Huguenots.

England, like Germany, France, Spain, and the Netherlands, was the scene of persecution and martyrdom. Philip and Mary, who exercised the royal authority in the British nation, issued a commission for "the burning of heretics." The queen, in this manifesto, "professed her resolution to support justice and Catholicism, and to eradicate error and heresy; and ordered her heretical subjects, therefore, to be committed before the people to the flames." This, her majesty alleged, would show her detestation of heterodoxy, and serve as an example to other Christians, to shun the contagion of heresy.t

Orleans acknowledges Mary's rigour, and her execution of many on account of their Protestantism. In this, he discovers, the queen followed her own genius, rather than the spirit of the church,

⚫ Mezeray, 5. 162. Sully, 1. 27. Wilkin, 4. 177.

by which he means the popedom. This historian, nevertheless, represents Mary as "worthy of eternal remembrance for her zeal."* Such is his character of a woman who was a modern Theodora, and never obliged the world but when she died. Her death was the only favour she ever conferred on her unfortunate and persecuted subjects.

The

Popish persecution raged, in this manner, from the commencement of the Reformation till its establishment. The flow of this overwhelming tide began at the accession of Constantine to the throne of the Roman empire; and, having prevailed for a long period, gradually ebbed after the era of Protestantism. The popedom, on this topic, was compelled, though with reluctance and inconsistency, to vary its profession and practice. A change was effected in an unchangeable communion. Some symptoms of the old disease, indeed, still appear. spirit, like latent heat, is inactive rather than extinguished. But the general cry is for liberality or even latitudinarianism. The shout, even among the advocates of Romanism, is in favour of religious liberty, unfettered conscience, and universal toleration. The Inquisition of Spain and Portugal, with all its apparatus of racks, wheels, and gibbets, has lost its efficiency, and its palace, at Goa, is in ruins. The bright sun of India enlightens its late dungeons, which are now inhabited, not by the victim of Popish persecution, but by "the owl, the dragon, and the wild beast of the desert."

This change has, in some measure, been influenced by the diffusion of literature and the Reformation. The darkness of the middle ages has fled before the light of modern science; and with it, in part, has disappeared priestcraft and superstition. Philosophy has improved, and its light continues to gain on the empire of darkness. Protestantism has circulated the Book of God, and shed its radiancy over a benighted world. The advances of literature and Revelation have been unfavourable to the reign of intolerance and the Inquisition.

But the chief causes of this change in

* Orleans, VIII. P. 174, 175.

the Papacy, are the preponderance of Protestantism and the policy of Popery. The Reformation, in its liberalizing principles, is established over a great part of Christendom. Its friends have become nearly equal to its opponents in number, and far superior in intelligence and activity. Rome, therefore, though she has not expressly disavowed her for mer claims, has, according to her ancient policy, allowed these lofty pretensions to slumber for a time in inactivity, and yielded, though with reluctant and awk ward submission, to the progress of science, the light of Revelation, and the strength of Protestantism.

A late discovery has shown the deceit fulness of all Popish pretences to liberality, both on the continent and in Ireland. Dens, a doctor of Louvain, published a system of theology in 1758, and in some of the succeeding years. This work, fraught with the most revolting principles of persecution, awards to the patrons of heresy, confiscation of goods, banishment from the country, confinement in prison, infliction of death, and deprivation of Christian burial. Falsifiers of the faith, like forgers of money and disturbers of the state, this author would, according to the sainted Thomas, consign to death, as the proper and merited penalty of their offence. This, he argues from the sentence of the Jewish false prophets, and from the condemnation of Huss in the general council of Constance. This production, in all its horror and deformity, was dedicated to Cardinal Philippus, and recommended to Christendom by the approbation of the University of Louvain, which vouched for its "orthodox faith and its Christian morality." It was ushered into the world with the permission of superiors, and the full sanction of episcopal authority. Its circulation on the continent was, even in the nineteenth century, impeded by no Romish reclamation, nor by the appalling terrors of the expurgatorian index. The Popish clergy and people, in silent consent or avowed approbation, acknowledged, in whole and in part, its Catholicism and morality.

⚫ Dens, 5.1. Horne's Protest. Mem. 95, 96.

The University of Louvain, on this occasion, exhibited a beautiful specimen of Jesuitism. A few years after its approbation of Dens' Theology, Pitt, the British statesman, asked this same university, as well as those of Salamanca and Valladolid, whether persecution were a principle of Romanism. The astonished doctors, insulted at the question, and burning with ardour to obliterate the foul stain, branded the insinuation with a loud and deep negation. The former, in this case, copied the example of the latter. The divines of Salamanca and Valladolid, questioned on the same subject in 1603, in reference to the war waged by the Irish against the English in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, patronized the principle of persecution, which, in their answer to Pitt, they prescribed.* Such, on the European continent, were the candour and consistency of the Popish clergy, who, in this manner, adapted their movements, like skilful generals, to the evolutions of the enemy, and suited their tactics to the emergency of the occasion.

This complete body of theology, unconfined to the continent, was, in a special manner, extended to Ireland. The Popish prelacy, in 1808, met, says Coyne and Wise, in Dublin, and unanimously agreed that this book was the best work, and safest guide in theology for the Irish clergy. Coyne, in consequence, was ordered to publish a large edition, for circulation among the prelacy and priesthood of the kingdom."t

The work was dedicated to Doctor Murray, titular Archbishop of Dublin. The same prelate also sanctioned an additional volume, which was afterwards annexed to the performance with his approbation. Murray, Doyle, Keating, and Kinsella, made it the conference book for the Romish clergy of Leinster. The Popish ordo or directory, for five successive years, had its questions for conference arranged as they occurred in Dens, and were, of course, to be decided by his high authority. The Romish episcopacy, in this way, made this author their

* Mageogh, 3. 595. Slevin. 193.

† Coyne, Catal. 6. 7. Wyse, Hist. Cath. Ass. App. N. 7. Horne's Protest. Mem. 95.

the fundamental dogmas of the Roman church-not in the slightest degree to the

The Dublin Review. No. XXXI. Dublin, 1844.

1844.

SINCE the time of John Calvin and Martin Luther, the discussion of the Romish religion has never been carried on with more learning, ability, and ardour, than in the last ten years. In Switzerland, by D'Aubigne and Gaussen; in France, by the greatest of her living historians, Michelet, with Genin and an army of associates, and in Great Britain and Ireland, by some of the most eminent divines and scholars of the times, the controversy is agitated with an earnestness and power that more than any thing since the Reformation threaten the overthrow, of Anti-Christ. Nor have our own countrymen been inactive. The decline of the papal influence in Europe has induced the most extraordinary exertions for its increase in America; but the efforts of the Jesuit bishops among us to effect this, have been met with a promptness and energy that have astonished and appalled them.

The burthen of much declamation by nominal and ill-informed Protestants, is the sentiment insisted on before the English Parliament during the discussion of the " Emancipation" act, that the doc trine of infallibility had reference only to

⚫ Dens, 1. 1.

lates or councils, in any age—from which it was inferred that the Papacy had reformed with the progress of society. That it had once been actuated by a persecuting spirit, that its priests had once been vicious, that the Holy Book had in a dark age been forbidden to both clergy and laity, that the Virgin Mary and the saints had possibly been idolatrously worshipped, and many gross mummeries practised, is admitted; but all these things belonged to the past, and by an ingenuous and honourable controvertist could not now be referred to. But a careful survey of the Roman Catholic Countries, in 1844, will exhibit all the gross superstitions and corruptions which existed when Luther, "the solitary monk who shook the world," commenced his mission.

Among other things, we propose to give in this brief article, a few facts in regard to the mummery of the worship of the Virgin Mary, in the present and in recent years, of that Mary whom the reigning pope himself adores, and blasphemously beseeches in his Encyclical Letter, to lead his "mind by her hea venly influence to those counsels which may prove most salutary to Christ's flock." This idolatrous heresy has been most clearly exposed in the learned arti

*Horne, 95, 96.

cles by Dr. Horne and others, in previous numbers of this Review; but these additional "illustrations of the dogma" will not be uninteresting.

The Dublin Review is the leading periodical of the Roman church in the English language. The number before us, for March, 1844, contains an article on the religious and social condition of France. In the years 1830 and 1831, the Church of France" is here said to have "drank deeply of the chalice of tribulation." Some of the most eminent men in the kingdom had deserted her, and the loss of her ascendancy seemed inevitable. The organ of the Romanists exclaims

"What now will become of this poor afflicted church, persecuted as she is, like her divine Master, by the friends of the people, insulted and outraged by the populace, and betrayed by her own disciples? Oh! slow and foolish of heart must we indeed be, if we be tempted to despond, forgetting that the Spouse of Christ, in the hour of her tribulation, is ever nearest to her triumph! Scarce had the artillery of July ceased to roar, and scarce had the monarchy of the barricades been erected, when one of the sainted daughters of St. Vincent, of St. Paul, beheld in a vision the GLORIOUS QUEEN OF HEAVEN, robed in light more resplendent than the sun's, and the thousand converging rays of love darting from her hands, and who assured her daughter, that if her intercession were more earnestly and more frequently invoked! earth would not be so cold and cheerless. This vision, after a preliminary investigation, is sanctioned by the French Church; and medals, in commemoration of this signal grace of Heaven, are circulated among the faithful in France, and the rest of Europe, We shall soon see how benignly was fulfilled the promise of the QUEEN OF HEAVEN."

Then comes, by special Providence, the cholera, from Asia, sweeping down victims on every side, sending twenty thousand souls per week into eternity, and the Archbishop of Paris, "comes forth like a messenger of Divine Mercy, to pardon his enemies-reconcile them with Heaven."

"But while the Almighty was inflicting this severe visitation on the guilty city, He was pleased to temper His wrath with mercy. The supplications of HIS VIRGIN MOTHER are heard. The medals representing the auspicious vision, above adverted to, are put under the pillows of the victims of infection; and the most sudden and miraculous cures take place: and, what is still more wonderful, the

Among the subjects of deepest interest in France, as in America, is the effort of the Romanists to obtain the control of popular education. Michelet and many others have bestowed on the movement their most serious attention, and produced works of great value in opposition to the claims of the pope and his vassals. M. F. Genin, in Les Jésuites et l'Univer sitié, has given many facts to show what education would become if the Protestants abandoned their ground. If, says the Dublin University Magazine, the Jesuits startle us on the one hand at the enter prize which can hazard such experiments on the easiness of human belief, they on the other hand remind us of that fund of credulity in our common nature, upon which, in all ages, bold and crafty men have drawn with such advantage. There never existed a body so well acquainted with the weaknesses of humanity as the and the bare fact that they have pubecclesiastics of the Church of Rome; lished and circulated in this nineteenth century, narratives which sane itself a proof that there are still recipiwould pronounce wholly incredible, is in

men

through eight editions, of which the first seven amounted to more than a hundred and thirty thousand copies; and translations of it have been made into Italian, English, Flemish, German, Spanish, Greek, and Chinese. Such was the in

dustry and enterprize of those who planned and would promote this "devotion." They prepared a book of wonders; they sold it at a price which attracted purchasers, but scarcely remunerated the printers; and they took care to have it translated into several languages. We cannot spare time to dwell on many curious particulars in this Notice, illustrative of the spirit in which these material devotions have their origin; but must content ourselves with a few extracts, serving to show what are the virtues by which the "miraculous medal" is recommended.

"In the Hotel des Invalides, a soldier was

in the hospital, spitting blood during a period of six months, and at the point of death. They offer him the sacrament; he refuses obstinately: 'I have neither robbed nor murdered. They press him: Listen, my sister: after all, pray leave me quiet.'

"The rector comes forward; he is also repulsed; then a curate. At last the sick man becomes furious; he begins to swear and blaspheme. Night falls; the death-rattle is already in his throat. Then sister Radier conceived a brilliant idea: pretending to settle the dying man's bed, she slips the medal between the matresses.

6

"Next day, our patient is asked how he feels: Very well, sister. I have had a good night's rest: it is long since I had such another. But, sister, I want to confess. Oh! beg the rector to come to me.' And in his impatience he began to tell aloud his greatest faults.' The audience, as may be imagined, were exceedingly edified. At last the rector arrives, the soldier confesses for a whole hour then the sister asks him, 'Do you know what we did? What was it, sister?' 'We put a miraculous medal of the Holy Virgin between the matresses.' Ah! that, then, is the reason why I had so good a night. Indeed, I felt that there was something the matter, I found myself so much changed, and I don't know what hindered me from searching the bed; I thought of doing so.' They then took out the medal, and when he saw it, he kissed it with respect and affection. This it is,' he cried, which has given me strength to brave human respect; it must be placed in my button-hole, and I will give you a ribbon to tie it beside my decoration,' (he had the cross of the legion of honour.) The ribbon he had first offered being a little used-'Not that one, sister, but this; the blessed Virgin well deserves a new

ribbon.' The sister, wishing to treat his weakness tenderly, placed the medal so that it should not be too conspicuous. 'Oh! do not hide it, sister,' he said; 'put it beside my cross; I will not blush to show it.'"

Another example, not less conclusive: "A gentleman of Aleppo having been oblig

ed to take a voyage to seek the property of his

father, who had been assassinated, returned

home quite deranged. He insulted every one, blasphemed the holy name of God, the bless. ed Virgin, and the saints. The medal was applied, and a Neuvaine begun for him. The three first days he ceased his maledictions, &c.: but having mislaid his medal, the cure was not perfected! They found it again, however, and sewed it into his coat. Two days after, an abundant perspiration took place, which was succeeded by his complete recovery! This it had been so anxiously desired." cure made a great impression on all minds, as

Truly, observes M. Genin, this is admirable! a man is impious, a blasphemer, an atheist, mad; the medal is applied to him, his frenzy diminishes, and he returns to better sentiments. His medal goes astray; he relapses into impiety. It is found again; this time it is sewn into his coat, the patient perspires profusely, and, after this transpiration, finds himself a saint. The medal cures both moral and physical maladies without the participation of the patient, even against his will. Say, now, is not this medal an incomparable amulet! But these are the least performances of this precious talisman; its power serves even to reconcile family discord. Hear what is stated by the sister Boubat, superior of the Sisters of Charity at Chesne.

"A young pair, in consequence of some va riance, quarrelled, and so violently, that the husband turned his wife out of doors in the middle of the night. He then began to throw out of the windows every thing belonging to her, so frantic was he. A virtuous person, who with several others tried, but in vain, to calm him, adopted the idea of putting the me. dal into a press he was beginning to take down. Immediately, without the other people present being able to imagine why, he quits the press, becomes calm, peace is re-established, and it has continued uninterrupted until now."

M. Genin's reflections on these successes are neither irrational nor unjust :

"As the medal," he observes, "has the property of acting infallibly and independently of faith, there is, it seems to me, a very easy mode of terminating the difference between