the profanity to say, "that he had saved more souls with his indulgences than Saint Peter with his sermons."*

Among the theses or propositions posted on the doors of the church of Wittemberg in the month of October, 1517, were the following :—

"46. We must teach Christians that if they have no superfluity they are bound to keep for their families wherewith to procure necessaries, and they ought not to waste their money in indulgences." 48. "We must teach Christians, that the pope having more need of the prayer of faith than of money, desires prayer rather than money when he distributes indulgences." 50. "We must teach Christians that if the pope knew the exactions of the preachers of indulgences he would rather that the metropolitan church of St. Peter were burnt to ashes than to see it built up with the skin, the flesh, and bones of his flock." 51. "We must teach Christians that the pope, as in duty bound, would willingly give his own money, though it should be necessary to sell the metropolitan church of St. Peter for the purpose, to the poor people whom the preachers of indulgences now rob of their last penny." 79. "To say that the cross, hung with the pope's arms, is as powerful as the cross of Christ, is blasphemy." +

One object of this book is to consider the cross as an article of merchandise, and our aim here is to bring forward a few data and suggestions to verify the fulfilment of those prophetic announcements of Saint Peter, that there should be false teachers in the latter times, who through covetousness should make merchandise of the people; and we submit to the candid judgment of men whether those announcements do not * D'Aubigné, vol. i. p. 270. + Ibid. pp. 309 and 311.

apply to the Bishops of Rome, who press on the world their pretensions to be the successors of that holy apostle, and at the same time, by the open and marketable sale of indulgences for all sorts of sins, at all rates and prices, establish themselves to be traffickers and pawnbrokers in the souls of men. We advisedly use the term "pawnbrokers " as descriptive of putting souls in pledge to be redeemed at various periods of endurance by the payment of so many services on earth. We have space, however, only for a few hints on this subject, and these refer to those European nations that adopted the papal system in the sixteenth century, and have fallen into a state of decay and decrepitude in the nineteenth century.

When Luther issued his celebrated protest and thesis against the sale of indulgences, the Portuguese and Spanish nations were taking possession of, and planting settlements in, America and its islands, and in the great eastern ocean, on the permissive bull of the Bishop of Rome. There is a retributive effect on every people who submits to the withering power and influence of the sacerdotal corporation of Rome: and according to the laws of man's nature, there is an irresistible and a fatal issue to a people that accepts the gains acquired by deliberate fraud and injustice practised by that corporation. Spain, and Portugal, and Ireland have been the victims, and the pitted victims, of the Roman episcopal power. It is beyond our aim to treat this subject as an ecclesiastical, or as a theòlogical question-we treat the question as a financial one: and in what part of the habitable globe shall we look for people in a worse state of credit than the three peoples mentioned? Spanish, and Spanish-American, and Portuguese bonds, are bye-words throughout the world, and it ever will be so long as those

countries receive a single crusado from the sale of papal indulgences. The Bishops of Rome and the Kings of Spain, and the governments of Spanish-America, have, since the discovery of the gold and silver mines of that country, drawn large revenues from the sale of the crusadoes, or bulls of indulgences stamped with the sign of the cross of Christ. The bulls of the crusado were published every two years, and sent in bale loads to America, where they were purchased by all ranks and conditions of people at prices from two reals up to ten dollars each.* Servants and slaves got their souls redeemed or saved for two reals, and wealthier people had to pay as many dollars. But the price varied according to the supply and demand, on the same principles that regulated the price of salt fish and waxcandles. We cannot state the wholesale contract price paid to the Bishop of Rome by the King of Spain or his treasurer. As the demand in the Americas was steady, the number of bulls would nearly correspond with the amount of population. A fixed revenue was thus raised, and the proceeds of the crusado appeared in the financial accounts of the Spanish colonies. About the middle of last century the sale of the crusado indulgences realised a million of dollars in all the Spanish colonies, of which Mexico produced 150,000 dollars. This was in the year 1746.+ The sales of the crusado nearly doubled themselves in Mexico in about fifty years. Humboldt states the amount, in the year 1803, at 270,000 dollars, but after that country had achieved

* There is a curious etymological fact connected with the word "Bull." The document received its name from "bulla," the leaden seal which was attached or appended, and from the same metal root sprung the words "bullet" and "bulletin." The bishops of Rome deal in hard materials.

+ See Robertson's "History of America." Notes.

its independence the sales of papal indulgences had fallen in 1823 to about 33,000 dollars. We have mislaid our papers of the financial affairs of that country to a later date, and are therefore unable to state present particulars.

We observe, by the newspapers of the day, that there has been a concordat concluded between the Spanish government and the Bishop of Rome, an article of which stipulates that the proceeds of the sales of bulls of crusado shall be appropriated to the dotation of public worship, and the maintenance of the clergy.* That concordat, in its spirit and tendency, brings the Spanish people in their religious, social, moral, intellectual and political relations completely under the control of the episcopal power of Rome. The past history of that people is deeply interesting and instructive to every one who thinks and reflects on the present in connection with the future. Spain is now at the turning point of its destiny, and it may rest assured that there is a mysterious and destructive influence at work in it which can only be counteracted by a free bible, a free press, and free ports. In these lie the principles of the safety of Spain, and of its restoration to that rank among the nations of Europe which its fine races of people, its commanding geographical position, and its fertile soil and good climate enable it to take.

*Tablet, 21 May, 1851.

THE FALLIBILITY

OF THE

BISHOPS AND CONCLAVES OF ROME

PROVED FROM

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES AND ASTRONOMICAL CALCULATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The Question of the Infallibility of the Bishops and Councils of Rome stated and examined.

WE have in a preceding section shown that the claims put forward by the bishops of Rome to be the successors of Saint Peter and the vicars of Jesus Christ, are not tenable, and therefore fall to the ground, and we have demonstrated from history, and from the principles of ecclesiastical and martial heraldry, that the papal banner of the cross keys, in its devices and motto, is a banner of pretence and falsehood.

We now come to examine another of the pretensions put forward by those bishops to be infallible in their judgments, decisions, and actions.

We shall first ascertain the meaning of the word INFALLIBLE, which is boldly and pertinaciously applied to the papal power in its personal or corporate nature