him here in Boston; and what, to all appearance, could be more
philanthropic, what more practically Christian--what more benevolent
deed could the Pope's agent do, _for effect_--than take this man by the
hand and supply him with the necessaries of life. And what, under these
circumstances, could be expected from the changeling, Brownson, than
that he would devote all his mind to the justification of any falsehood
or any errors, which his benefactors might desire to propagate. I
find no fault with Bishop Fen-wick for relieving the temporal wants of
Brownson; on the contrary, I freely admit, that the act is, in itself,
and abstractedly considered, an act of benevolence and charity. We are
bound to recognize in every human creature and every human face, the
features of a brother and a neighbor. I would not, willingly, even
question the motives of the Bishop; they are known only to his God.
It would not be fair nor judicious in a physician, to take a body
apparently sound and in health, and dissect it, for the purpose of
ascertaining whether there were any hidden disease in it He should take
it for granted--as a general rule--that when all appearances were good
and healthy, there existed no physical defect; and I think and believe
it the duty of Christians to take it for granted, that, generally
speaking, the motives of a brother are good, when his actions bear upon
their face no indication of being otherwise. But when any man or any
church, holds up to the view of a whole people or nation, one who has
been for years and years an advocate of moral evil, as an object not
only of pity and pardon, but of admiration--as Bishop Fenwick does the
infidel, Brownson--every true Christian must tremble, and every true
lover of civil rights must shudder, lest each sound that he hears should
prove to be the death-knell of our religion and the civil rights of man.
Unfortunate Brownson! why prostitute thyself to the base purposes
of Popery? Thou mightest have been in want; Protestants might have
neglected thee; but what of that? What of the sufferings of this
transitory and fleeting world? Let me tell you, and let the sound of my
words ring forever in your ears, that,
"Life can but little more supply
Than just to look about us and to die."
The above beautiful sentiment of the poet, has, I fear, but seldom
occurred to you; assuredly it has made no lasting impression on your
mind. It is probable that the following stanza, part of a famous monkish
ditty, has in it beauties and substantial sentiments, far more congenial
to your tastes and thoughts:
"Hang up sorrow, banish care;
The Pope is bound to find me."
But a truce with poor Brownson, for a moment; his days will soon be
over. Like the great Mr. Shandy, he has been so long "dancing his white
bear forward, that he must soon commence dancing him back again." He has
already professed all the religious creeds in this country, and it is
fairly to be presumed that he will profess all of them back again; and
thus afford himself fresh and full room, for displaying, in connection
with them, any additional political or religious vagaries which may
spring up in his moonstricken imagination. He may address himself to his
patron, parson Fenwick, as Mr. Shandy did Parson Yorrick. "Yorrick, said
Mr. Shandy, you see that by this means--that is by going backwards
and forwards--every thesis and hypothesis have an offspring of
propositions--and each proposition has its consequences and conclusions;
every one of which leads the mind back again, into fresh tracks of
inquiries and doubtings. The force of this engine--observed Mr. Shandy,
in great triumph--is incredible, in opening heads. Brother Shandy, said
my Uncle Toby, it is enough to burst them into splinters."
Had Brownson, in the Jesuit parson, Fenwick, a guide, simple, sinless,
and guileless, as Parson Yorrick or my uncle Toby, there might be some
hopes that he could yet be brought to see and feel the full force of
truth. But Brownson will stick to the Jesuit as long as he gives him
bread, and the Jesuit appreciates his value too highly not to supply
him plentifully. The Jesuit knows well, that the little smattering of
theology, which Brownson possesses, can be made useful to him. It is of
the German School. The Germans are wild in their theories upon morals
and theology, and yet they carry with them the appearance of much honest
and persevering research, and never fail--unless in very unskilful
hands--to make a strong and terrible impression wherever they are
preached or inculcated. Brownson, though, in truth and reality, no
scholar, knows enough of this theology, and of Popish Quietism, such
as was taught by raving monks and nuns in the sixteenth century, to see
that by working them up together, and declaiming this undigested and
22 acrid mass, before an audience unprepared to analyze it, that he
can produce just such an effect upon the public mind as Popish priests
desire. It helps to create infidelity, and, of course, adds to the
number of Papists in our country.
There is a great similitude between the modern German, and the Popish
moral philosophy. A popular writer very truly and very beautifully says,
"in each we find the same senseless, useless, and aimless encouragement
of the mixed produce of the natural mind--the same indiscriminate
worship of the good and bad it may please to throw up--every lawless
thought, every idle dream, every dangerous imagination suffered to run
their unhealthy course, to end in folly and in impurity--piety professed
without religion, and virtue without principle--the dictates of their
respective creeds, their theory; and the dictates of their hearts, their
practice; and wild work between them."
Brownson has some vague notion of this compound philosophy; he has,
beside, taken great pains to make himself acquainted with those
_sesquipidalia_, or long-legged words--if I may use such a term--which
most mixed audiences mistake for learning. The Jesuit, Hughes, soon
measured Brownson; he looked into his past life and soon found him
treacherous to every party and to every principle. This is the man for
me, says the Jesuit--the Holy Church must have him, though we should be
obliged to feed and clothe him for life. The infidel soon closed with
the Jesuit,--a bargain was instantly made; but my observations upon
human nature have been very unprofitable to me, if the Jesuit does not
soon find that he has made a bad trade, as a Yankee would express it;
that Brownson is not the man he took him for, nor the scholar he
took him for; that he is but an unprincipled infidel, and a kind of
monomaniac rhapsodist on subjects which he does not understand himself;
in a word, he will find out in time that he can make nothing of him. Can
the Jesuit, Hughes, "make any thing else than what it is?" can he "make
the lily a rose, or the rose a lily?" can he "make the oak a vine, or
the vine an oak?" When he can do those things, and not a second before,
can he make a hardened infidel an humble Christian, or a treacherous
politician a safe citizen.
I find myself, once more, not only drifting from my destined port,
but, it would seem, that I had turned from it altogether. I intended
to devote these pages, almost exclusively, to giving an expose of the
abominations of auricular confessions and Popish nunneries, but
having by some accident or another, come athwart the great changeling,
Brownson, who now acts as trumpeter to Bishop Fenwick of Boston, and
is recognized by him and the Popish Church of the United States, as an
authorized expounder of their sentiments and doctrines, I felt it my
duty to notice him briefly. This man, Brownson, is now sent as a Popish
missionary or lecturer throughout the United States; and speaks upon all
subjects connected with Popery, _ex authoritate_.
I find in the January number of Brownson's Review, of the present year,
the following effusion, which, for effrontery and shameless falsehood,
equals any thing I have ever seen. "We dare affirm," says Brownson, in
his Review, January, 1845, page 12, "that no period in the history of
our race, of equal length, can be pointed out, so remarkable for its
intellectual and literary activity, as the thousand years, dating from
the beginning of the sixth century, and extending to the commencement of
the sixteenth. Now," continues Brownson, "in order to judge fairly,
what the church has done for the human race; whether in reference to
religion, morals, literature, or science, we must ascertain what it
actually effected. She (that is the church) at the beginning of the
sixth century, sets to work to establish schools, the great monasterial
schools, cathedral or episcopal schools. In the beginning of the sixth
century, arose the cathedral schools, in Spain. All the great, renowned
universities, were founded prior to the Reformation. Nearly all the
monasteries were graced and enriched by valuable libraries. In each
monastery was a _scriptorium_, and a number of monks employed in copying
and binding manuscripts." There is much plausibility in the language of
Brownson, now the jackal of Popery in the United States. I am willing
to admit that a vast number of colleges and renowned universities, were
established before the Reformation, in Rome, Italy and even England.
I would also admit that there were scriptoriums and that monks
were employed in copying manuscripts and binding books; but has the
illustrious changeling, Brownson, told us for what purposes these great
universities were established, prior to the Reformation? Far be it from
me to deny their existence, that would indeed show that I was but a poor
historian, and that I knew but very little of the corruptions of
the Romish Church. Sixtus IV., one of the infallible Popes of Rome,
established whole colleges at once, and much as I have said against
Popery and its corruptions, I have not, as yet, exhibited so flagrant an
instance of Popish turpitude, baseness and avarice, as Pope Sixtus IV.
leaves on record, by the single act of building these universities. He
established offices and titles in each college, which were put up for
sale by him, and were sold for sums, varying from one hundred, to
one thousand and twenty thousand ducats. It was this illustrious and
infallible Pope, Sixtus IV.,--and I pray you will bear it in mind, thou
great changeling,--that established a college of a hundred janizaries,
and nominated these janizaries for the trifling sum of one hundred
thousand ducats. And how, think you, reader, did he pay them their
salaries? Was it out of the bonus of a hundred thousand ducats, which he
received for chartering or sanctioning the college? Far from it. He paid
them some trifling compensation, derived from the proceeds of the
sales of bulls. These janizaries were subsequently suppressed. Innocent
III.,--and you will recollect, Mr. Brownson, that he was Pope of Rome
between the sixth and sixteenth centuries,--founded a university for a
bonus of sixty thousand scudi; (a scudi, I believe, is a fraction less
than a dollar.) The reader may form some idea of the magnitude and
splendor of this university, when I inform him, that this college had
twenty-six secretaries, and a proportionable number of other officers;
every one of whom paid in proportion to his means, for the office he
held.
Pope Alexander VI., who, as you know, was born between the sixth and
sixteenth centuries, and whom the changeling's friend Daniel O'Connell,
would call a _broth of a boy_, established a university, and to showed
his zeal for the great cause of learning and advancement of morals, he
nominated eighty writers of Popish briefs, each of whom had to pay eight
hundred and fifty scudi for his appointment. This very Pope, Alexander
VI., was one of the greatest debauchees of his age, and died by poison
administered by the hand of his own son. Pope Julius II., who also lived
between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, added to these offices one
hundred writers or copyists of archives, each of whom had also to pay
seven hundred and fifty scudi. I have taken Brownson at his word. He
affirms that no period in the history of our race, of equal length, can
be pointed out, so remarkable for intellectual activity, as that which
occurred between the sixth and sixteenth centuries. I have and do hereby
affirm, that there has been no period, in the history of Christianity,
so remarkable for intellectual depravity and Popish ignorance, as
that very self-same period. I have appealed to history and proved
my assertion by facts, not taken from prejudiced writers, but facts
recorded and gloried in by Popes themselves and Popish writers.
It is said by Papists and authoritatively asserted by their mouth-piece
in the United States, that the colleges and universities built by
Papists, in the interval between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, were
pulled down by the Protestants, Goths and Vandals, who have lived since
that period. Admitting that they have been, what then, Mr. Brownson?
What man or what people, in their sober senses, would tolerate the
colleges established by Pope Sixtus in 1482, where offices were put up
at auction, and that under the sacred name of religion; where nothing
was taught but the grossest idolatry, and nothing practised but simony
and immorality, almost as bad as that of the heathens. Would any man
at the present day, with the fear of God before his eyes, or who duly
appreciated the blessings of civil liberty, tolerate amongst ourselves,
a university such as one of those over which Popes Paul and Sixtus
presided, even in the palmiest days of Christianity? According to
Brownson, himself, assuredly not. We should pull it down were it amongst
us; we should scatter to the winds these Popish brief s, decretals and
bulk, which thousands of monks were employed in copying and binding. We
should vest in some factory, those thousands and hundreds of thousands
of scudi, which were given to Popes for chartering universities
of learning--don't laugh, reader--yes, reader, they were called
universities of learning--and we would send the lazy, crazy monks, who
were by thousands employed in them, to work on our fields or in our
factories.
It was between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, that Alexander III.,
presiding in his official capacity over a synod held at Tours, in 1167,
pronounced the Protestant religion of the Vaudois "_a damnable heresy
of long standing_." Do you call this any evidence of the _great mental
activity_ which the Popish Church displayed, and for which she and her
members were so remarkable, prior to the sixteenth century? There was
another synod at Lavoux, in the same year, where the Pope gives another
instance of the remarkable intellectual and literary activity of the
thousand years between the sixth and sixteenth centuries. The Popish
Senate at Lavoux sent a memorial to the reigning Pope, to exterminate
the Vaudois, "_an heretical pest, generated in olden times, of enormous
growth and great antiquity_." I believe it was in 1536--recollect,
Mr. Brownson, it is within your period of that thousand years, when,
according to yourself, Popery flourished in the full blaze of her glory
and love of literature--that the poor Protestants, the Vaudois, sent a
number of petitions to Francis I., praying that he would tolerate them,
and allow them to worship God as they pleased. Francis I. consulted the
Pope's legate, who was then at his court, and immediately returned for
answer to these poor Protestants, "I am not burning heretics in France,
to foster them among the Alps." Remarkable instance of the literary
activity of the Popish Church! We have another strong instance of that
intellectual and literary activity of which Brownson speaks, in
Philip II. of Spain, who, to show his zeal for the holy Catholic faith,
determined--with a view, I presume, of leaving some evidence of his
Popish literary activity of mind--to despatch an army, under the command
of one D'Oppede, with instructions to put to the sword every Protestant
man, woman and child whom he might find in the Vaudois valley; and
faithfully did he discharge his duty. He has left us, as the changeling
Brownson would term it a remarkable instance of Popish intellectual
activity* Not a man, woman, or child, was spared by this Popish army.
Anquetil, a Roman Catholic himself and in full communion with the
Popish Church, gives us a vivid picture of the remarkable intellectual
activity of this D'Oppede, and his Popish army. The reader will pardon
me for quoting the passage in the writings of Anquetil, containing
this picture; it certainly shows a remarkable intellectual and literary
activity of Popish minds, during Brownson's thousand years of their
unsullied fame as scholars. "After the King of France granted permission
to his Roman Catholic General D'Oppede, and his soldiers, to take arms
against the Vaudois," says Anquetil, "twenty-two towns and villages were
burned or pillaged, with an inhumanity of which the history of the most
barbarous nations scarcely affords an example. The wretched inhabitants,
surprised in the night, and hunted from rock to rock by the light of the
flames which were consuming their habitations, frequently escaped one
snare only to fall into another. The pitiful cries of the aged, the
women and the children, instead of softening the hearts of the
soldiers,--maddened with rage, like their leaders,--only served to guide
them in the pursuit of the fugitives, and to indicate the points against
which to direct their fury. Voluntary surrender did not exempt the men
from slaughter, nor the women from brutal outrages at which nature
revolts."
It was forbidden under pain of death to afford them harbor or succor.
In one town alone, more than seven hundred men were butchered in cold
blood; and the women who had remained in their houses, were shut up in
a barn containing a great quantity of straw, which was set on fire, and
those who endeavored to escape from the windows, were driven back
by swords and pikes. According to orders, these specimens of Popish
intellectual literary activity demolished all the houses, cut down the
wood, uprooted the fruit-trees, and left nothing behind them but an
uninhabited waste. The war-cry of the Papists, as this Roman Catholic
writer, whose authority no Papist will question, asserts, was, "Kill!
kill!" Dr. Gilli relates an instance of great heroism in one of those
poor Protestants, who was among the persecuted. One Aymond De La Voye
went through the villages, exhorting his brethren to stand firm in the
faith of their forefathers. He was soon discovered by the members of
the Inquisition. The first question put to him was, "Who are your
associates?" "My associates," he answered, "are those who know and
do the will of my Heavenly Father, whether they be nobles, merchants,
peasants, or in any other condition." Let it not be forgotten, that this
occurred before the sixteenth century, and before the Goths and Vandals
of the Reformation, as Brownson calls them, had any existence. One of
the Councillors of the Holy Inquisition asked this intrepid man
and pious Christian Protestant, "Who is the head of the Church?" He
answered, "Jesus Christ" "Is not the Pope the head of the church?"
inquired the inquisitor. "No," was the answer. "Is not the Pope the
successor of St. Peter?" "Yes," answered La Voye, "if he is like St.
Peter, but not else." But such was the remarkable intellectual activity
of the infallible Church, that no other questions were deemed necessary,
and he was immediately consigned to a tormenting death. But the
persecutions of these Protestant Christians did not stop here. So
remarkable was the intellectual and literary activity of Papists,
between the sixth and sixteenth centuries,--that golden age of
Popery,--in dispensing its blessing all over the world, that while
enormities like those I have related were being perpetrated on the
western side of the Alps, a fresh storm was brewing over their brethren
of Piedmont.
Will the reader think me tedious, if I give him a more explicit account,
taken from Moreland's history of those people, than I myself can give? I
take it from Gilli's appendix.
"There is a certain valley in the county of Piedmont, within five or six
miles of Mount Vesulo, which, from the town of Lucerna, is called
the valley of Lucerna; and in it there is a little valley, which, from
Angrogna, a small river running through it, is called the valley
Angrogna. Next adjoining to this are two other valleys; that is to say,
the valley of Perosa, so called from the town of that name, and the
valley of S. Martino. In these there lie divers little towns and
villages, whose inhabitants, assisted by the ministers of God's word, do
make open profession of the gospel.
"Moreover, I suppose that there are near eight thousand faithful souls
inhabiting in this place. But among the men, who are bred up to endure
labor, seeing they have from their childhood been inured to husbandry,
you will find very few who know how to engage in combat. From hence it
comes to pass that very few of them are ready upon any urgent occasion
to defend themselves against public injuries. Yea, and the valleys
themselves lie so remote from each other, that they cannot help one
another till it be too late. And although these towns and villages have
their counts or lords, yet the Duke of Savoy is lord over them all.
"This duke, before he came from Nice into Piedmont, diligently took
order with those counts and lords of places, that they should admonish
the inhabitants to submit to him and the Pope; that is, that, casting
off their ministers, they should admit Popish preachers and the
abominable mass. Whereupon our people sent petitions unto the prince,
beseeching him that he would take it in good part if they were resolved
rather to die than to lose the true religion of Jesus Christ.... but
they shall be ready to amend their errors, if any there were, in case it
should be manifested to them out of the word of God, to which alone
they are to submit in this business; and as to what concerneth them in
matters of behavior and tributes, and other things due both to him and
their other lords, that he would send and make diligent inquiry whether
they have at any time committed any offence, that so due punishment may
be inflicted on them, because he should assuredly know they are willing
to approve themselves with due reverence most obedient to him in all
things.
"These petitions came to the hand of the prince, but availed nothing
with him, who was become a sworn enemy with Antichrist against Christ.
Thereupon he sent forth edicts, declaring that those who should be
present at the sermons of the ministers of the valley?, if but once,
should be fined at one hundred crowns, and if a second time, then they
should be condemned to the galleys forever. Orders also were given to
a certain judge to ride circuit up and down to put the penalties in
execution, and to bind Christians and imprison them. The lords also and
magistrates of places had the same power given them, and at length the
godly were by this most impotent prince utterly given up to be plundered
by all sorts of villains, and afflicted with most grievous calamities.
"He sent also a certain collateral judge of his own, first to Carignan,
there to act inhuman butchery upon the faithful ones of Christ;
whereupon he caused one Marcellinus, and Joan his wife, he being a
Frenchman, but she a woman of Carignan, to be burnt alive with fire,
four days after they had been apprehended. But in this woman God was
pleased to manifest an admirable example of constancy; for, as she
was led to execution, she exhorted her husband, saying, 'Well done, my
brother, be of good courage; this day doubtless we shall enter
together into the joys of heaven.' Some few days after this, there was
apprehended also one John Carthignan, an honest, plain man, and truly
religious, who, after three days of imprisonment, endured the torments
of fire with very great constancy. Who is able to reckon up the several
incursions, slaughters, plunders and innumerable miseries, wherewith
this most savage generation of men did daily afflict all pious men,
because, being exhorted by their ministers to patience, they took no
course to defend themselves against injuries! Not long after also they
apprehended one John, a Frenchman, and a minister, at a town called St.
Germano, and, carrying him to a certain abbey near Pinerolo, there burnt
him alive, who left a noble example of Christian constancy. The like was
done also to the minister of the town of Maine, who was put to death at
Susa by a slow fire, while he in the mean time stood as it were
immovable, and not being touched with any sense of so incredible a
cruelty, having his eyes fixed upon heaven, breathed out his happy soul.