Guinet, and others, against Popery, that seem rather indelicate. But
is that a reason why the moral anatomy and structure of the body Papal
should not be dissected? The external body of Popery, like the human
body, may be fair to the eye, lovely to the senses, and beautiful to the
imagination; but like the human body, it has its deformities, and I
see no reason why its defects should not be anatomized, studied, and
exposed, if necessary to the moral welfare of the human family. How can
the evils of Popery be known, unless they are exposed to public view,
and seen by those who are competent to judge of their evil tendencies?
And who are more competent to form a correct estimate of their nature
and character, than such men as Eugene Sue, Guinet, and others, who have
studied Popery? Guinet and Michelet are now living. They are both Roman
Catholics by birth and education. They understand the doctrines of
Popery thoroughly. It is idle--it is worse than idle--for American
Protestant writers to attempt to prevent the circulation of Michelet's
works, or those of Eugene Sue, in the United States. But it will be
said, and it is said, that there is much romance about them, and that
many passages are to be found, in Guinet especially, savoring strongly
of infidelity. Admitting even this to be the case, it does not follow,
by any means, that the enemies of Popery, which some Protestant journals
and lecturers pretend to be, should reject and censure the many and
undeniable truths which they contain on the subject of Popery. The fact
is--and I regret that it is so--many of the journals which come out
with flaming notices of their determination to stand by the Protestant
religion, and oppose the introduction of Popery into this country, are
not always sincere in their professions. Many of them are theorists.
I may add here, _en passant_, that few of those "heroes of discussion
meetings," and editors of newspapers, are at all qualified for the task
which they undertake. It is, however, a source of consolation to
me, that there axe some public lecturers and editors of Protestant
newspapers, who are sincere and disinterested in their opposition to
Popery; who see its destructive fruits now springing up in the fairest
fields of our Republic; who know that Popery is corrupt in itself, that
corruption of mind and morals is the natural result to be expected from
its prevalence amongst our people These worthy men and well-informed
editors of many of our presses, are determined, cost what it will, that
Popery shall be fully understood in this country: that it shall no
longer be hid in a corner, and that those Jesuit wolves who profess it
shall no longer be permitted to appear in sheep's clothing.
Among the presses which now boldly stand forth in defence of the
Protestant religion and the civil rights of man, I am happy to enumerate
the Boston Recorder, the Olive Branch, and others, among the various
presses in the city of Boston. There are also many among the political
presses in our country, which are doing good service to the cause of
Protestantism and the civil rights of man. J. T. Buckingham, of the
Boston Courier, has generously and disinterestedly thrown himself and
his fine talents between the intrigues of Papists and their designs upon
our institutions, and the civil rights of his countrymen. These presses
have not blushed to quote largely from Eugene Sue; they have not
tried to hide from their readers, nor prevented them from reading, the
faithful _expose_ which Eugene Sue, Guinet, La Manais, Michelet, and
others, have given of the iniquities and treasonable designs of Popish
priests and Jesuits against Protestant governments and the civil rights
of man. These presses have not put their hands to the plow and looked
back. They love their God and their country too well to crouch before
the _puerilities_--as the learned Bishop Eastburn of Boston expresses
it--or the treasonable designs of Jesuits. The reader will here indulge
me, and I trust the editors of the Boston Recorder will pardon me, for
quoting largely from their paper of January 15th, 1846. "M. Pascal, a
devoted member of the Romish Church, has set forth in his provincial
letters the opinions of several distinguished Jesuits, as to the duty of
loving God, and especially in answer to the question, 'When and at what
time is a man obliged to have an actual love or affection for God?' One
Jesuit, Saurez, says, 'It is enough if we love him a little before we
die, without fixing any time.' Another, Vasquez, says that 'it is enough
to love him at the point of death.' We marvel at such answers. But this
is Jesuitism seeking to relieve itself of the painful obligation of
loving God. No order of men,--no society that ever existed, has been
so universally execrated as that of the Jesuits. Everywhere intriguing,
plotting, and dangerous, they have been everywhere dreaded, hated, and
opposed. And not by Protestants alone. The society of Jesuits has been
at different periods expelled from all the States of Europe; and last of
all, France has denounced and rejected it The order, as every one knows,
began with Loyola, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and was
intended as a spiritual crusade against heresy; the particular heresy
aimed at being the Reformation, under Luther, who was contemporary with
Loyola. In 1773, the institution of the Jesuits was suppressed by a bull
of Clement XIV. They were accused of 'too great avidity of terrestrial
goods,' of 'criminal plots,' of having in their favor only the exterior
of regularity, disgraced in their maxims, and to render themselves more
powerful, given up to commerce, stock-jobbing, and politics.'
"But the time came when Rome needed the arms of the Jesuits, and their
society was re-established in 1814. The Romish Church still defends the
Jesuits, and stands before the world as their accomplice." The Recorder
continues, and indirectly severely censures those presses and those
timid and irresolute editors who seem to think that they cannot
conscientiously read, or permit their readers to receive into their
houses, the writings of Eugene Sue or Michelet, against the degrading
and traitorous doctrines of Popery.
"The attempt of the Jesuits," continues the pious and talented editor of
the Recorder, "to get the control of education in France, aroused some
powerful spirits, among whom the most distinguished were Michelet and
Guinet, Professors in the College of France. These men are Catholics,
but too excellent and conscientious to receive the appellation in
its bad sense. They are high authority, and we quote a few of their
opinions, publicly uttered in college lectures within the last year or
two." What think you of the above language, you editors of the would-be
evangelical Protestant presses?--you who have pledged your sacred honor
and fortunes to stand by the Church and the Gospel of Christ, and still
censure Michelet, Guinet, and even my own humble efforts to oppose the
spread of Popery among mankind. "Michelet," continues the Recorder,
"calls the spirit of Jesuits the spirit of intrigue--of holy detraction.
God give us, he says, political tyranny, military tyranny, and all other
tyrannies, ten times over, rather than that such a police--that of the
Jesuits--should sully our France." Will the reader permit me to add my
petition to this, and will he join me in beseeching the Throne of Grace
to receive it graciously? God give us, American citizens, political
tyranny, military tyranny, and all other tyrannies, ten times over,
rather than that Jesuitism should disfigure the fair face of our
beautiful Republic The Recorder continues his observations on the
writings of Michelet. "He (Michelet) challenges men to study, and tells
them that at the end of ten years they will find in the history of
Jesuits but one meaning--_the death of liberty_." "This bold lecturer,"
(Michelet) continues the Recorder still, "bounds in passages like the
following: 'What is the nature of the Jesuit? He has none; he is fit for
everything. The Jesuits are a formidable machine for war, invented for
the most vile combat in the sixteenth century. The simple and natural
means which have generally succeeded with the Jesuits is to _catch
wild birds by means of tame ones?_" "I speak," says Michelet, "of
Jesuitesses, polished and gentle, adroit and charming, who always, going
before the Jesuits, put everywhere oil and honey, smoothing the way."
How true this is; and is it not strange, beyond account, that Americans
cannot see it? When Jesuits first came into Boston, they sent before
them Jesuitesses, young, polished, gentle, and charming. These tame
Popish birds were not long amongst us, when they caught whole flocks of
our wild Yankee birds, and are now catching them in almost every State
in the Union. But the Yankee, with all his cuteness, cleverness, and
supposed cunning, will be caught He is no match for the Jesuit. "The
Jesuits," says Michelet, again, "have employed the instrument of which
Jerome speaks--poor little women, all covered with sins." He alludes
to the Sisters of Charity, the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, the Mother
Abbesses, &c., all which are directed and governed by the Jesuits.
Was there ever a truer picture of the operations of Jesuits than this?
And the Americans who cannot see its truth and fidelity, must be blinder
than the bats which flutter in the caves and caverns of their mountains.
Had we not, the other day, on Mount Benedict, in the vicinity of Boston,
the capital of New England, some of those _poor little women, covered
with sins_--meek, and gentle, and angelic-looking little beings? Sweet
little innocents! They had a nunnery there, too. They had a fashionable
school attached to it. And our Protestant Jonathans--poor dolts--sent
their daughters to these poor little women--these Sisters of Charity--to
be educated in the principles of Christianity! True it is that none are
so blind as those who will not see.
The reader will bear with me in quoting a few more passages, which the
Boston Recorder selects from the writings of Guinet, on the subject of
Jesuitism. "The nations which are sickest in Europe, those which have
least credit and authority, are those in which the society of Jesuits
has its hearth. The mission of Jesuitism, in the sixteenth century, was
to destroy the Reformation; the mission of Jesuitism, in the nineteenth
century, is to destroy the Revolution, which supposes, includes, and
envelopes, the Reformation. What cannot fail to strike you, is the
rapidity with which this society has degenerated. Where shall we find
any thing like it in any other order? The public voice has been raised
against it from its very cradle. Already the society was driven out from
a part of Spain in 1565, from the Low Countries and Portugal in 1578,
from all France in 1594, from Venice in 1606, from the Kingdom of Naples
in 1622. I speak only of Catholic countries. We may add, that France
condemned the Jesuits in 1762, and actually drove them from the kingdom,
and that she has since repeated her sentence of reprobation in 1845."
"Now let it be considered," says the Recorder--and I look upon that
venerable journal, and its editors, as high authority--"that these very
Jesuits, dreaded and loathed, in the old countries, looked upon as the
offscouring of all things, the dregs even of Catholic states, are coming
to this country by hundreds, [The Recorder might have said by hundreds
of thousands] seeking here a field for their horrid operations,
determined to regain all and more than they have? lost at home. It is
well understood that the Catholic officials who profane our soil, are
of the Jesuit order,--desperate men, 'fit for everything,' whose very
breath is the 'death of liberty.' Their mission is to deceive and
victimize the American people. The people, therefore, ought to be aware
of their character and operations.
"Some will say," continues the Recorder, farther, "it is not so,--there
is no danger--these priests are a very harmless people. In this
provoking stupidity lies our danger. Before they get their eyes open,
the language of Michelet will be applicable. *Are these Jesuits? A man
asks this question, whose wife they already govern by a confessor of
their own--the wife the house, table, hearth, bed. To-morrow they will
have her child.' There is little reason to suppose that Jesuits will
be forcibly expelled from this country. So much the greater is the
necessity that they should be watched, exposed, and resisted. Their
movements here, are of special moment to Americans. We are called upon
to watch around the 'altar of our liberty.' The Jesuits and the Pope,
would rejoice to see us directing our attention to Italy,--to draw
our attention there, even while they are choosing and fortifying their
position here. Mr. Hogan may be right in suggesting that this is their
'plot.' If so, while they are plotting, let the Americans be adopting
vigorous means of self-protection--such means especially, as religion
and education can best furnish." Thus speaks that truly evangelical and
independent press, the Boston Recorder, of Jesuitism, and the writings
of Sue, Michelet, and Gurnet. And it is to me a source of consolation
and cheering encouragement, to find that it does not disapprove of
my own humble efforts upon the same subject, nor of any of those
authorities which I have called to my aid.
I fully agree with the Recorder, that education--biblical education--is
the best means and defence we can make against the intrigues of
Jesuitism in this country. Our sole and only hope of success against
them, is the general diffusion of education, and that education must be
of a scriptural character. Until the people can read, they cannot
think; and until they can think, they cannot reason, nor consequently
distinguish between error and truth. A vast number of the citizens
of this country are foreigners, from Popish countries, who have no
education but such as they received from their priests; and the history
of the world informs us of the wretched character of that instruction
which they have received from that source. We all can see the condition
of the poor Irish, who for centuries back, have been walking by the
light of some 'magic lantern, held by their priests.' We can see how
prevalent the influence of Popish priests has been, in the education--or
rather want of education of the Irish,--by referring to a _Report of
Commissioners appointed to take the census of Great Britain and Ireland
in 1841_. I here quote from the London Quarterly Review for June, 1845.
"On the present state of Irish education, and its previous progress,
the Commissioners have taken great pains to collect and communicate
information, of which the result is, that the diminution of ignorants,
that is, of persons unable to read and write, is, during the last fifty
years, from forty-eight to thirty-five per cent, of males, and from
sixty to forty-five per cent, of females." What must have been the
condition of this poor people previous to the last fifty years, when
they were educated exclusively by bishops, priests, monks, and nuns? And
how grateful should they feel to the Protestants of Great Britain and
elsewhere for the great diminution which has since taken place in the
number of males and females who could then neither read nor write. It
is creditable to government--the Protestant government of Great
Britain--that out of the number of Irish, which are now in the military
service of Great Britain, sixty per cent, of those between the ages
of sixteen and twenty-five can both read and write. How is this to be
accounted for? Popish priests have nothing to do with the education of
the children of those who are in the service of Great Britain. They
are indebted to Protestant teachers, and Protestant officers, for the
blessings of education which they enjoy. How are the people educated in
Popish France? We can learn from the lectures of Michelet, Professor of
Literature in the College of France; it is wretched in the extreme.
But some of our sympathizers and mawkish journalists may question the
authority of the gentleman. I would refer them to other authority M.
Boulay tells us that more than half the population of France can
neither read nor write. He assures us this is a fixed fact--and he is no
contemptible authority. What does Bishop Fenwick's Corporal Trim think
of this? He assured us, the other day, on his honor and consistency,
that the inhabitants of Catholic countries were the best educated people
in the world Ah! Corporal, thou shalt never die while imposture and
Popery live in the United States. Let us compare the condition of the
Irish, who are educated by Popish priests and Jesuits, with that of
Americans, who have received their education from Protestant teachers,
and we shall see--as the London Quarterly Review expresses it--in
strong contrast, the effect of an almost total, and a very partial Papal
eclipse. Taking the whites--in America--as the analogous population, we
find that persons above the age of twenty years, who can neither read
nor write, are not quite four per cent (3.87.) To make this, however,
a fair subject of comparison, we must consider that the numbers under
twenty are not half the whites, (1.38,) so that we must reckon the
ignorants to be eight pet cent, of the whole. How different this from
the forty per cent of the Irish Papists, and the fifty or sixty per cent
of the French Papists, all of whom are educated by Jesuits and Papists!
What becomes here, of Corporal Brownson's assertion, that "the people
are better educated, in general, in Popish than Protestant countries"?
The fact is, my friend Brownson, you had better shut up shop; you are
a man of no bottom; you possess no solid and useful information;
and easily humbugged, as you and your brethren the Jesuits think the
American people to be, no man can retain long among them, the character
of a learned and honest man, if he have not some solid bottom of his own
to stand upon. It is a bold attempt on the part of Jesuits, to try to
persuade the American people, by means of their agent Brownson, that
the mass of Papists are better educated than Protestants. But, as the
learned Dr. South expresses it, "there is, in the effort to do what is
glaringly false, such a mixture of the fool, as quite spoils the project
of the knave." And I am much mistaken if the knavish Jesuits who infest
this country, do not soon find that the observation of Dr. South is
correct.
Jesuits and their agents in the United States, have taken and are now
taking, great pains to persuade our Protestant citizens, that Papists
are not only better educated than Protestants, but better provided
for in every other respect They have always charged Protestants with
neglecting the poor, and over-working them in every department of labor.
Some of the _Puseyite philosophers_ of the present day, unite with
Jesuits in urging this charge against Protestants. This is peculiarly
worthy of the attention of the Americans, and shows as clearly as any
other circumstance can, the extent and depth of Jesuit intrigue amongst
us. The great mass of the people, in every country, is composed of the
laboring classes, or, as we term them, operatives. And Jesuits know full
well that if they can persuade the great body of Americans, that Popery
gives more encouragement to labor, and requires less of it for a given
price, than those who profess Protestantism, it is an important point
gained; in truth, if this be admitted,--if the Popish Church gives more
encouragement and better pay to laborers, than the Protestant Church,
I, for one, would not and could not withhold from her my full and
hearty commendation thus far. If it be true,--as that great Idealist and
Puseyite, Mr. Ward, of England, contends,--that the poor and neglected
and oppressed, in those countries where Protestant government prevails,
are much better provided for under Popish governments, the fact ought
to be well understood, and in place of wishing to overthrow these
governments and prevent the farther growth of Popery, we should pause,
and look seriously into the question.
But is it true that labor is more encouraged and better paid, under
Catholic than Protestant governments? Is it true that operatives--say
for instance those who work in factories--are more humanely dealt with,
better paid, and not required to work as many hours, under Popish
as under Protestant governments? I call the attention of American
Protestants to this question. It is one of vital importance.
Both Puseyites and Jesuits allege this as positive, We have them here
on the platform of unequivocal allegation of fact. "We have them on the
hip." I am now willing to grapple with Jesuits and Puseyites upon this
question. It cannot be evaded by them. It must be yes or no. Jesuit
sophistry can avail them nothing, and if I can show our operatives, and
laborers in our factories, that those Jesuits and Puseyites who are now
overspreading our Republic, are trying to deceive them and reduce them
to farther hardships, I trust they will rise as a body, men, women,
children, and all, and hoot them from our shores. It is wrong to deceive
any one; and no honest man or true Christian will do so; but it is cruel
to deceive the poor laborer or operative, who lives by the sweat of his
brow.
If the reader will accompany me across the Atlantic, I will show him
the condition of the operatives in some of those countries where the
government is Popish, and where the religion of the people is that of
Jesuits and priests. Let us visit France, a Catholic country. Let us
examine a Report made by M. Delambre, the head of the department of
Manufactures, in the office of the Minister of Commerce, in 1838. From
that Report it appears, that the actual work of children, in factories,
is never less than twelve hours, and extends from that minimum amount,
to fourteen hours, in the twenty-four. It is also stated by him, that
in the chief manufactories, it is not unusual with them to work all
Saturday night and Sunday morning. So much for Popish clemency and
Jesuit lenity to the poor operative. Let us cross over the Channel to
England, a Protestant government and a Protestant country. How is it
with operatives and children in factories there? I refer the reader, for
an answer, to Horner on the Employment of Children in Factories, page
28. "In England, under a Protestant government, no child under thirteen
can be employed for more than eight hours a day; nor can any young
person, just emerged from childhood, be employed more than twelve hours
a day." On Saturday the hours of work were only nine, when Mr. Horner
wrote, and I am informed by the London Quarterly Review, of January,
1845, to which I am indebted for much of the information which I here
give on the subject of factory laborers,--that a new Act of Parliament,
fixing the maximum of labor, for children, at six and a half hours per
day, has recently been passed. What becomes, now, of the assertions of
Puseyites and Jesuits on the subject of Popish charity and humanity to
the poor? The truth is, that I may challenge them to show me mankind, in
any condition or any situation, or any clime or country, under Catholic
or Protestant government, where they are not more oppressed, more
degraded, more abused, and more ignorant under Catholic than Protestant
governments. How then can it be, with this fact before their eyes, that
Americans--Protestant Americans--give any countenance to Popery and
Jesuits in the United States? or how can we account for the still more
extraordinary fact, that one of the most learned Christian Associations
that ever have been established in this country--_The Christian
League_---does not devote its whole and undivided energies to the
removal of Jesuits and Jesuitism from amongst us. I cannot account for
the fact I have conversed with a learned member of this Association, a
gentleman of distinguished talents and deserved popularity. I asked him
why the Association did not spread its forces, extend its lines, and
devote its funds of intellect, as well as of money, exclusively to the
removal of Jesuitism from our happy country. His answer was, "we do not
deem it prudent to do so; we cannot fail to kill Jesuitism in Italy, and
there will be an end of it."
Gendemen of the Christian League! I once before entreated you to
withdraw your troops from Italy. You can do no good in that country. But
suppose you did kill Popery in Italy--suppose that Jesuitism was dead
and buried in that ill-fated country--I tell you that it will rise in
this, and that in the shape of a tremendous, unformed spectre, in a far
more terrific guise than ever before overpowered the imagination of man.
I may not live to see it; many of you may not live to witness it; but
that does not alter the truth of my prediction.