their prophet, who had marched to Rome to overthrow the Pope, because he had invited the Christians to make war against the Mahometan religion. The following incident must have reminded Pius VII. that, in this, he was guilty of the greatest ingratitude towards the royal family of France. Louis XVIII. the legitimate successor of a long race of kings, who had been regarded for many ages as the eldest sons of the church, the founders of all its temporal power, the liberal benefactors to whom the holy see owes all its princely possessions, on the 6th of July, 1804, prote-ted against the usurpation of Buonaparte. This protest appeared in the Moniteur, and in the news-papers of every country in Europe. Should not this have made his Holiness pause, before he placed this bloodstained tyrant on the throne of St. Lewis? On the contrary, he did every thing in his power to prove that this deed of shame was an act of cool deliberation, and, as if glorying in it, he did his utmost to proclaim it to the world in the most ostentatious manner. On the 26th of June, 1805, some time after his return to Rome, he convened a consistory of the cardinals, and in his allocution to them, he said, "that he, the successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ, went to France, for the purpose of decorating his beloved son in Christ (Napoleon) with the ensigns of imperial dignity; that he assembled them to communicate to them the salutary consequences which, by the blessing of God, have resulted to him from that journey."-"What pleasure, what joy we experienced in our first interview with the Emperor, whose fame has sounded to the extremities of the world, and whom God has chosen to restore his true religion."—"The consecration and crowning of the Emperor, and of our most dear daughter Josephine, his august consort, were celebrated in the most solemn manner." She was the cast off concubine of Barras, the consul, who prevailed on Napoleon to marry her, in consideration of receiving promotion in the army. If any thing could heighten the ridicule of this burlesque business, it is this-Pius VII. recently ordered public thanksgiving at Rome, for the restoration of Louis XVIII. A consistory is regarded as the Pope's council, and the most dignified and august assembly which he can address. Gregory XIII. in a consistory of the cardinals, applauded and approved of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in which forty thousand Protestants were deliberately butchered in France, as an auspicious event, and he ordered that a jubilee should be celebrated in all Christendom for the advantages resulting from it to the holy see.-Thuanus, lib. 68, sec. 4. When Henry III. King of France, was assassinated by Jaques Clement, a friar, in obedience to the bull of Pope Sixtus V., by which hẹ absolved his subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and ordered them to rise in arms against him, that Pontiff convened a consistory of cardinals, in which he applauded the virtue and firmness of Clement, and his fervent zeal towards God.-Idem, lib. 95, sec. 10. Notwithstanding this time-serving policy of Pius VII. and his dereliction of religious principles, to promote his temporal interest, his votaries have frequently praised him for his firmness and magnanimity. When the titular bishops of Ireland assembled in synod, at Maynooth, the 27th of May 1814, for the purpose of condemning Quarantotti's Rescript, they resolved to send to Rome two prelates, "to convey their well known and unanimous sentiments to the chief pastor, from whose wisdom, zeal, and tried magnanimity they had reason to expect such a decision as would give general satisfaction." years Some events which have happened within the last fourteen should rouse the vigilance and alarm the fears of the British cabinet. The Pope has exerted his deposing and dispensing powers, which have been sanctioned with the approbation of the English and Irish Roman Catholic bishops, though they and their flocks have unremittingly insisted, and even such denied by their oath of allegiance, that the Roman Pontiffs had any power. Doctor Milner says, "that bishops alone have a right to judge and decide on all matters relative to faith and discipline; the claims of all others, however high, powerful, or numerous, are vain and schismatical."—Eluçidations of the Veto, p. 48. It is stated in the catechism, framed under the infallible Council of Trent, that "the words of the pastors of the church are to be regarded as the words of God."-" Verba pastorum ecclesiæ, tanquam Dɛ verba recipienda."-" See Index ad parochos ex concilio Trident. editus, et Pii V. Pont. Max. Jussu promul gata." "Lugduni 1676, 8vo. cum approbatione et permissu superiorum." According to this, the reader may conceive what unbounded influence a Popish priest must have over the besotted multitude.* In the month of May 1813, when a bill for the relief of the Roman Catholics was before Parliament, the titular bishops assembled in synod at * It is an awful consideration for the cabinet of Great Britain, that the Pope still claims such monstrous powers, and that they are recognised by the Popish clergy of Ireland, who have unbounded power over their flocks; and this cannot be a matter of surprise, when we reflect that the latter are taught so early as the age of six years, in the confession-box, that the words of a priest are to be regarded as the words of God. In every future, (as in every past war,) the main body of the Irish Papists will join the enemy of the empire, should he land in Ireland. See Melancthon's Fifth Letter, page 434 of Vol. I. Dublin declared, "that it would be impossible for them to assent to it without incurring the guilt of schism, inasmuch as it might, if carried into effect, invade the spiritual jurisdiction of their supreme pastor, and alter an important point of their discipline, for which alteration his con currence would, upon Catholic principles, be indispensably necessary." The Roman Pontiffs were invested with unlimited power over all states and individuals, by the general councils of the church, which are held to be infallible, and revered by Romanists as much as the Holy Scriptures. I will now shew the reader what jurisdiction the present Pope claimed, in his correspondence with Buonaparte in all his power, and himself in exile: he declaimed against Protestant worship, "as pregnant with fatal consequences, and unfriendly to human happiness." He reproached the French government "for its protection of heretics, sectaries, and schismatics." He considered such an indulgence to Protestants as an alliance between "Christ and Belial, light and darkness, truth and error, sincere piety and impiety," and he declared that "out of the church there is no salvation." He claims a right "to interfere among all the nations of the earth in secular concerns, about books, marriages, bastardies, divorces, convents, monasteries, oaths of allegiance, and the personal attendance of his own bishops and ministers." He also severally condemns, "as replete with spiritual dangers, the sacrilegious nuptials of Catholics with heretics, which, he says, are forbidden by the same laws which prohibit the marriages of Christians and infidels." The reader will find all this in the recent official correspondence, between his Holiness and the French government, published in three volumes 12mo. by the bookseller of the English Vicars Apostolic, Messrs. Keating and Brown, Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, in which are irrefragable proofs of the inflexible bigotry, of the bitterness and systematic intolerance of the present Pope against all Protestants, even while he was in a state of degradation, and his own existence depended on the will of the Corsican tyrant, who seemed a warm advocate for religious toleration, which he established universally in his territories. These arrogant claims of His Holiness alarmed Buonaparte, and induced him to declare to the legislative assembly, in Dec. 1809, "that the spiritual influence in my states by a foreign sovereign, is contrary to the independence of France, to the dignity and safety of my throne." Buonaparte knew the spiritual and temporal power of the Pope to be inseparable, though Papists, by a gross imposition on the credality of Protestants, have attempted to prove the contrary. By the canons of the Romish church, "all temporal lords and governors are for. bidden to take cognizance of the crime of heresy, or to revise or suspend the sentence against heretics, that crime being purely spiritual." Sixti VOL. III. [Prot. Adv. Dec. 1814.] S Decret. lib. 5, tit. 2. Council of Constance, sess. 45. Now, there is nothing that can occur in that way, from the expelling of a monarch from his throne to the burning of a heretic, that is not regarded by the Romish church as spiritual. The present Pope has recently manifested another instance of extraordinary arrogance, in attempting to abolish the benevolent fraternity of Freemasons, and to restore the society of Jesuits in all states; and he declares in his bull, that he re-establishes the latter by virtue of the plenitude of his apostolical authority in all states. M. d'Alembert very properly called the Jesuits" the Pope's janissaries," because they were bound to do any thing, how desperate soever, in obedience to his mandates, and to promote the interest of his see.-Actuated by such designs, they were so fatal to the peace of Europe, and to the safety of sovereign states, by their factious and intriguing spirit, that all the Popish princes of Europe, the Pope excepted, abolished the order in their respective territories, for the sake of self-preservation; and dreading their restoration should a germ of them remain, they, [the sovereigns] in the year 1773, threatened to deprive Ganganelli, Clement XIV. of all his territories, even to the gates of Rome, unless he completely extinguished the order. He at length reluctantly complied, having pleaded that the Jesuits had been approved of by nineteen of his predecessors, and had been authentically confirmed by the Council of Trent.-Should not all the princes of Europe, particularly the Protestants, be alarmed at the Pope's arrogance in restoring this order of men in all states, and so soon after the Allied Sovereigns had rescued him from the lowest state of degradation, and put him in the full enjoyment of his liberty and his states. What opinion should the English cabinet entertain of this measure, since it is well known that the British empire was often endangered by the Jesuits? Another incident is very alarming at this time: the titular prelates have sent two of their body to Rome, to receive the orders and mandates of the Pope, which they are bound by their consecration oath implicitly to obey ;* and I have given ample proofs of his inflexible bigotry and intolerance towards Protestants. MELANCTHON. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF ARCHBISHOP KING. (Continued from p. 88, and concluded.) DR. Hopkins, the preceding bishop of Derry, had fled to England on the approach of the troubles, after having in vain endeavoured to prevail See a Popish priest's canonical oath in p. 43, and a bishop's oath in p. 44 of the present volume. on the men of Derry to yield to King James, and admit Lord Antrim's regiment within the walls of that city. When the 'prentice boys had shut the gates against the Irish, who had advanced within sixty yards of one of them, the Bishop with several other persons came into the market place, and made a speech to the multitude, to dissuade them from so inconsiderate an undertaking; representing to them both the eventual danger of resistance to themselves, and its unwarrantableness, as being an act of disobedience to their sovereign. But the dangers they saw before them made a stronger impression on them than any they feared in future; and Mr. Mackenzie, in his narrative of this remarkable siege, observes, that their dull heads conld not comprehend how it could be a crime to shut the gates of their city against those whom they believed had been sent thither to cut their throats. On the death of this prelate in London, on the 22d of June 1690, it was generally supposed that Dr. Walker, the celebrated defender and governor of Derry, would have succeeded to the diocese; but he being killed at the battle of the Boyne, Dr. King was promoted to it, by letters patent of King William and Queen Mary, dated the 9th of January 1691. After his consecration, he immediately repaired to his diocese, which be found in a most miserable and distressed condition; the villages and plantations all destroyed, the churches burned or dilapidated, the clergy withdrawn, and the parishes not able to support a resident ministry, owing to the poverty of the people, and the want of tillage and cattle. The Bishop, in a short time, obliged the clergy to reside or resign; he proceeded against some by ecclesiastical censures, to force them either to reside in person or to appoint and maintain sufficient curates; and out of his own revenues he supported many incumbent vicars, until the im provements of the respective parishes afforded them a sufficient and de cent maintenance. When he was settled in his bishopric, he zealously laboured by all methods of gentle and Christian reasoning, and by instances of overflowing meekness, charity, and good offices, to persuade the dissenting Protestants of his diocese (who had grown very numerous, by new colonies from Scotland,) to conform to the established church; and this work of his ministry was attended with considerable success. To further this good design he published an excellent treatise on the "inventions of men in the worship of GOD," concluding with particular addresses to the conforming clergy, the dissenting ministers, the conforming laity, and the dissenting laity of the diocese of Derry. This work was written methodically and truly, in a calm and affectionate manner, leaving his ad |