concluding, that no hopes can reasonably be entertained that the minds of the Irish Roman Catholics can be satisfied with any thing short of the intire possession of the Church Establishment in Ireland; nor can I conceive that even that possession would entirely satisfy them. In support of this opinion, I contend that no Papist (according to the present tenets of the Romish Church) can give rational security for his allegiance and peaceable behaviour to any government that is not Roman Catholic, and much less to ours.

"It is a Popish tenet, decreed by the Council of Constance, that No FAITH IS TO BE KEPT WITH HERETICS, NOR THOSE SUSPECTED OF HERESY.' (See L'Abbe's Collection of Councils.) This infamous Canon was never publickly or authoritatively disclaimed by the Church of Rome: consequently it still remains an established maxim of that Church: and, while this is the case, it is infallibly certain that its members can give no reasonable security for their allegiance or peaceable behaviour to any government, Protestant, Mahometan, or Pagan, and therefore should not be admitted to any participation of power.bos lo mogo

"We are aware that some impotent attempts have been made by Dr. Copinger, titular bishop of Cloyne, to obscure some of the ferocious acts of Popish Councils. But what are the glosses of this unauthorised individual, when compared with the dignity and authority of the Council of Constance? In this Council the Pope presided, and the Emperor was generally present. It was composed of thirty Cardinals, four Patriarchs, two Pope's Legates, twenty-seven Archbishops, two hundred and six Bishops, thirty-three titular Bishops, above one hundred and fifty other Prelates, and two hundred and three Abbots, with a great number of Laymen, Auditors, Secretaries, &c. This was the famous Council which made that infamous.canon, Faith is not to be kept with Heretics, nor those suspected of Heresy. All Romish Divines (Dr. Troy, titular Archbishop of Dublin, among the rest) have repeatedly avowed that the decrees of general Councils are infallible authority. We are, therefore, justified in asserting, that the Church of Rome is in sentiment this day identically what it was at the close of the Council of Trent. This was the decided opinion of that intelligent and zealous Roman Catholic, Mr. Plowden. In a publication entitled, The Case Stated,' (page 17,) he asserts,If any one says, or pretends to insinuate, that the modern Roman Catholics, who are the objects of the late bounty of Parliament, differ in one iota from their predecessors, he is either deceived himself or he wishes to deceive others. Semper eadem is not less emphatically descriptive of our religion than of our jurisprudence.' In a word, the Church of Rome is what Dr. Milner styles it, THE UNCHANGEABLE CHURCH,

consequently her members will keep no Faith with Heretics, and, therefore, should not be admitted to any participation of power in the British State, f

"I further contend, that the members of the Romish Church ought not to be admitted to power in any Protestant State on account of their received and acknowledged doctrines contained in the fourth Lateran General Council. This Council, in express terms, not only teaches but decrees, that all the subjects of a prince, excommunicated for Heresy, are absolved from their allegiance, and that such prince is deposed, and his dominions transferred to such Catholic potentate as may be able to seize on them. The decrees of this Council are specially recognised, acknowledged, and confirmed, by the subsequent general Councils of Basil, Constance, and Trent; they are warranted by the constant practice of the Romish See ever since their promulgation; and they are declared by all, or the majority of Romish Divines, to be infallible authority, in points of doctrine and morals. It may be asserted, there is not a remote probability that the Church of Rome will ever pretend to excommunicate the Sove reign of this nation. We reply, this has been repeatedly done in various forms: for instance, in the celebrated Bull pronounced yearly at Rome, on the Thursday in Passion Week, in which we find the following passage. We EXCOMMNNICATE and CURSE all Hussites, Wickliffites, Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, Hugonots, and Heretics; and whosoever shall receive, defend, and favour them.' It requires no great share of penetration to perceive from this passage the irreconcileable difficulty of being at once a good Papist and a good subject of a Protestant Sovereign. The decrees of the fourth Lateran Council enjoin the utter extirpation of Heretics, (that is, all Christians differing from the Church of Rome,) and the dethronement of Heretical Sovereigns, and all others who either refuse or neglect to purge their dominions of them. The same Council decrees, that all engagements Entered into with Heretics, THOUGH SANCTIONED BY OATH, are mullities in themselves. To shew the high estimation in which the Irish Romanists hold these decrees, we need only observe, that Dr. Troy, the titular Archbishop of Dublin, lays it down in a publication so late as 1793, that the decisions of general Councils are of infallible authority in the Romish Church. But Dr. Burke, titular Bishop of Ossory, and public historiographer to the Dominican order in Ireland, delivered his sentiments in the most frank and undisguised manner: Would it not exceed the greatest imaginable absurdity, that a Catholic Priest, who instructs his Catholic people in the will of God, from Scripture and tradition, by his discourse and actions, and nourisheth them with the Sacrament of the Church, should swear fidelity to King George as long as he professeth a heterodox religion, or has a

wife of that religion?-then, and in that case, the same Catholic Priest ought instantly to abjure the very King to whom he had before sworn allegiance,' (Hibernia Dominicana, page 723.) This is the very temper and disposition of the men who are now seeking the chief places in the Imperial Parliament; and these are the very principles on which the Romanists acted when General Humbert made good his landing in the county of Mayo, in Ireland, in August 1798. Previously to this expected event, having completed their arrangements for rebellion, the priests and their congregations were eager to take the oath of allegiance, the better to conceal their treasonous designs, and put the Protestants off their guard. The Magistrates accordingly attended their places of worship, and, with the greatest solemnity, administered the oath of allegiance on the Lord's-Day, beginning with the Priests at the Altar. But the landing of the French was their signal for rising; and these very Priests, and their congregations, regardless of their oaths, rushed to the standard of our enemy, and took up arms against their rightful Sovereign and their country. This organized plan, for putting Protestants off their guard, was practised by their Committee, when they voted the sum of two thousand pounds for erecting a statue to our most gracious Sovereign,' at the moment in which they meditated his dethrone

ment.

"Again, I contend that those who acknowledge the doctrine of Priestly Absolution, can give no security for allegiance to any Protestant Government. Oaths of allegiance are no security at all, they are lighter than air, while Bishops and Priests can absolve them from the crimes of perjury, murder, and high-treason. They are, therefore, dangerous subjects in a Protestant State, and should not be admitted to power.

"I also contend, that those who acknowledge the supreme authority of the See of Rome, can give no security for their allegiance to the British Government; but the Papists universally acknowledge this; therefore they can give no security for their allegiance and peaceable behaviour. The oath taken by every Roman Catholic Bishop will cast additional light upon this subject. I. N. from this time forward, will be faithful and obedient my Lord the Pope and his successors. The counsels with which they trust me I will not disclose to any man, to the hurt of the Pope or his successors. I will assist them to retain the Popedom and the Royalties of St. Peter against all men. I will carefully preserve, defend, and promote the rights, honours, privileges, and authority of the Pope. I will not be in any council, deed, or treaty, in which any thing prejudicial to the person, rights, or power of the Pope is contrived; and if I shall know any such

to

* They never erected a Statue, and the money was applied to very different purposes.

things treated of by any person whomsoever, I will, to the utmost of my power, hinder them, and with all possible speed signify them to the Pope. I will, to the utmost of my power, observe the Pope's commands, and make others observe them. I will impugn and persecute Heretics and Rebels to my Lord the Pope,' &c. I can entertain no reasonable doubt that the Roman Catholic Bishops will be faithful to this oath of allegiance to their Lord the Pope, AND HIS SUCCESSORS; the first of whom, in all probability, will be the uncle and vassal of the French Emperor. Great encouragement to raise the Roman Catholics to places of trust, and seat them in the Privy Council! I shall only add, that to every rational and unbiassed Protestant this needs no comment. As to that part of the oath which obliges them to impugn and persecute all Heretics to their Lord the Pope and his Successors, from an accurate retrospect of their ghostly conduct, we are justified in concluding that, as soon as opportunity and ability will admit, they will discharge this part of their pastoral duty with great fidelity.

"I must contend, that those who maintain the spiritual power of the Pope can give no security for their allegiance to any Protestant Government: but the Irish Papists, in common with all the members of that Church, maintain this; therefore they can give us no security for their allegiance and peaceable behaviour. This spiritual power of the Pope, or foreign influence, is held in such high estimation by the Roman Catholics in Ireland, as to have been styled in their general committee CHRISTIANITY ITSELF. It is maintained by all Roman Catholics that the power of granting pardons for all sins, past, present, and to come, has been for many centuries one branch of the Pope's spiritual power; but those who acknowledge this doctrine can give us no security for their allegiance; since they believe that the Pope can pardon rebellions, perjuries, high-treasons, and every species of crime what

soever.

"Those who hold the Popish doctrine that Heretics ought to be put to death, can give no security for their allegiance to a Protestant State. But the Council of Constance has decreed, that Heretics ought to be put to death, Non obstantibus salvis conductibus Imperatoris, Regum,' &c. * notwithstanding the public faith engaged to them in the most solemn manner. What the doctrines of any Church, as such, are, can be known, so as to be relied upon, only by its articles and canons. They are the code of its legislation; and though, as in every other code, there may be points suffered to lie dormant, interpreted occasionally with lenity, or wished abrogated by individuals, still, whilst the letter * Father L'Abbe's Concilia Maxima, last Vol, page 169.-Paris, 1772. VOL. XXXVI. MARCH, 1813. * 2 A *

of the statute subsists unaltered, it is in force, and nothing but the formal repeal by the competent power annuls it.'-Roberts's Review, page 46. That these dormant ferocious decrees might be again revived, and their slumbering energies roused to vigorous exertion, a titular Archbishop of high authority in the Church of Rome, lays it down in a publication written in 1793, that the decisions of general Councils are of infallible authority in the Romish Church. This publication was circulated in 1794, the very year in which they sent Edward Lewins to Paris as their ambassador, where he still remains. The object of their negociation with the French Government was to obtain an army to invade Ireland, in order to separate it from England, that they might subvert the constitution, divide the lands, and enjoy the estates. This doctrine of assassination was the Catholic principle on which the Irish Papists acted, soon after the landing of the French in the county of Mayo. Notwithstanding their recent voluntary oaths of allegiance, a great number of the gentry, yeomen, and farmers of the adjacent country, repaired to General Humbert, and openly and loudly petitioned him for permission to enclose in the Church all the Protestants who were then in their power, and burn them alive, entreating him to indulge them thus in one hour's revenge for a hundred years of slavery.' To this same Catholic principle, decreed by the famous Council of Constance, we have to ascribe the various massacres of Protestants which have taken place from that time to the present hour. To this I ascribe the murder of thirty thousand persons on St. Bartholomew's day, in France, an event that filled all Europe with consternation, the infamy and horrors of which, have been dwelt upon by so many elegant writers of all religions, and has held Charles IX. up to the exccration of ages. To this identical principle we most justly ascribe the more sanguinary designs of the Irish Papists against their unsuspicious inoffensive Protestant neighbours. The Secret Committee of the Irish Lords in its Report of 1797, states, that it had been decided by the conspi rators, that all persons, who from their principles or situation might be deemed inimical to the conspiracy, should be massacred, and that it had appeared to them that the first proscribed list had been calculated by one of their leaders at THIRTY THOUSAND

PERSONS."

In page 10, we find a short extract from a Romish Catechism by Dr. Butler, titular Archbishop of Cashel; in which the unscriptural and absurd doctrine, that none can be saved out of the Church of Rome, is inculcated. "This exclusive salvation, (adds our author,) is more largely inculcated by Dr. Troy, titular Archbishop of Dublin, in his Pastoral Instructions, where he gives the united authority of the Roman Church to prove this point. Catholics,' says he, page 78, ' are unanimous in asserting