stigma of falsehood on the subject of indulgences? I have sold them
myself, in Philadelphia and in Europe! The first year I officiated in
Philadelphia as a Roman Catholic priest, I sold nearly three thousand
of these indulgences, as the agent of _holy_ mother, _the infallible
church_; and though several years have elapsed since, many of those who
bought them are still living in that city.
Some explanation is necessary here, as I cannot presume that Americans
are yet acquainted with a doctrine called Pious Frauds, held and acted
upon by the _infallible_ church.
The Pope of Rome and the Propaganda, taking into consideration the
_savage ignorance_ of Americans, deemed it _prudent_ to substitute some
other _name_ for the usual name _indulgences_, and something else for
the usual document specifying the nature of the indulgence which was
given to _pious sinners_ in "the New World:" they thought it _possible_
that Yankees might have the curiosity to read the _written_ indulgences.
This, said they in their wisdom, must be prevented; and here is a case
where our doctrine of _pious frauds_ comes beautifully into play. After
singing the "_Veni Creator spiritus_"--as usual in such cases--they
resolved that indulgences should be in future called _Scapulas_, and
thus _piously_ enable all Roman Catholic priests and bishops to _swear
on the Holy Evangelists that no indulgences were ever sold in the United
States._ This is what _holy mother_ calls _pious fraud_.
All the indulgences which I sold in Philadelphia were called _scapulas_.
They are made of small pieces of cloth, with the letters I. H. S.
written on the outside, and are worn on the breast. I will give you
an idea of the revenue arising from the sale of those scapulas in the
United States, by stating to you the price at which I sold them.
The scapula costs the purchaser one dollar. The priest who sells it
tells him that to make it thoroughly efficacious, it is necessary that
he should cause some _masses_ to be said, and the poor dupe gives one,
five, ten, or twenty dollars, according to his or her means, for
those masses. I may safely say, that, on an average, every scapula or
indulgence sold in the United States costs at least five dollars. What
think you now of the word, the honor, or the oath of a Popish priest?
Are you not ashamed to be so long their dupes? Do you not blush at the
reflection, that you have given so much of your money, your sympathy,
and hospitality, to such arrant knaves? Sad is the reflection to me,
and dark are the thoughts, that I should have ever belonged to a church,
which imbodies in its doctrines all that is degrading to humanity, and
reduces man, from being "little lower than the angels," to a thing, such
as a Papist priest, in full communion with the Pope, having nothing in
common with his fellow-beings but the form of humanity.
You, Americans, who have thoughtlessly united yourselves with these
priests in their church, come out, I beseech you, from among them.
Entail not upon your children the curse of Popery. Flee from them as
Lot did from Sodom. To err is the lot of man. To fall and to trip in his
passage through life, is the lot of even the best of men. You have erred
in joining the Romish church, but you will doubly err by continuing in
membership with her. The country which gave you birth is a glorious
one; it has all the advantages of nature; it is fertilized by salubrious
seas, and its own beautiful lakes. There is nothing you want which the
God of nature has not given, and blessed for your use. There is but one
dark speck upon the horizon of your national prosperity and greatness,
but that is a deep one. It is a sad one, and may be a bloody one. Popery
hovers over it, like some ill-omened bird, waiting only a favorable
opportunity to pounce upon its prey; or some foul exhalation, which,
being checked in its soaring, turns to a fog, causing darkness and
scattering disease, wherever it falls. Alas, fellow-citizens, it has
already fallen amongst us, and is growing with fearful rapidity; like
the more noxious weed, it loves a rich soil; it cannot fail to flourish
in ours.
Take heed, Americans, lest you allow this weed to come to maturity.
Eradicate it in time; let it not ripen amongst you; allow not its
capsule to fill, blossom, and ripen; if you do, mark what I tell you: it
will burst, scattering its noxious, sickening, and poisonous odors amid
the pure breezes of that religious and political freedom, which have so
long, so gracefully and sweetly played over this beloved "land of the
free and home of the brave."
If you will look around you, and visit our courts of law; if you extend
your visits to your prisons, your houses of industry and reformation;
if you go farther, and examine your penitentiaries, what will you find?
Permit me to show you what you will behold in one single city, the city
of New York. This, of itself, were there no other cause of alarm, should
be sufficient to arouse your patriotism, for you must not forget that
nearly all the foreigners, enumerated in the document which I here
subjoin, are Roman Catholics, or reduced to their present condition
while living in Catholic countries. But let the document speak for
itself. It is official, and may be relied on.. It came from a committee
of the Board of Aldermen of the city of New York upon the subject of
alien passengers. Taking this as your data, you may be able to form some
idea of what you suffer in money, in virtue, and in your morals, from
the introduction of foreign Papists among you.
"The Foreign Poor in our Alms-Houses, and the Foreign Criminals in
our Penitentiaries.--We hasten to lay before our readers a highly
interesting document, from a committee in the Board of Aldermen, upon
the subject of bonding alien passengers in New York. From the document,
it appears that the bonds of nine firms in this city exhibit the
enormous liabilities of $16,000,000: that of the 602 children supported
by the city, at the Farm Schools, 457 are the children, (many, if
not the most of them, illegitimate) of foreign parents; that of the
latest-born infants at nurse, at the city's expense, 32 are foreign, and
only two American, and that of the whole number of children, 626 have
foreign parentage, and 195 Amer-can; exhibiting the average of more than
three foreigners to one native, and an alarming increase of the ratio of
foreigners in the more recent births.'
"The whole number of inmates in our penitentiary is 1419, showing an
increase of 400 since July last; of these 333 are Americans, and 1198
foreigners. The number of prisoners and paupers, to support whom we
all pay taxes, is 4344, showing an increase, since July last, of nearly
1000.
"In view of these alarming facts, and remember* ing that over 60,000
immigrants were commuted and bonded here the last year, the committee
make some forcible appeals to the country, which cannot be without
their effect. The enormous taxation to which we are subject, in order
to support foreign paupers and criminals, is a great and growing evil,
which presses heavily upon industry, as well as upon the character,
morals, and politics of the country."
This is a frightful picture of things, especially in a country abounding
and almost overflowing with the means of sustaining and abundantly
supplying fifty times the population it contains.
Examine well the results of Popery, in a religious, moral, and political
point of view, especially during the last thirty years, and you will
find that there is no vice, no crime, no folly or absurdity, which time
has brought into the old world, as Milton expresses it, "in its huge
drag-net," that Papists are not introducing among you; and there is no
consequence which followed it there which we shall not see here, unless
you are to a man "up and doing," until this noxious weed is rooted from
amongst you. I wish these unfortunate Papists no evil; far be such
a sentiment from my mind. I would be their best friend; but who can
befriend them, while they permit themselves to be controlled and deluded
by their priests.
A Roman Catholic priest is, _pro tanto_, the worst enemy of man. He
degrades his mind by rendering him the slave of his church. He debauches
his morals, and those of his wife and children, by withholding from them
the word of God. He weakens his understanding, by filling his mind with
absurd traditions. He evokes, and indirectly invites, the indulgence of
his worst passions, by promising him the pardon of his sins. He checks
the noblest aspirations and finest charities of his soul, by instilling
into it the rankest hatred and animosity towards his fellow-being, whom
God has commanded him to love as he loves himself, but whom the priest
tells him to curse, hate, and exterminate. In a word, he almost degrades
him to a level with the beast, by teaching him to lower that holy flag,
on which should be written, _Glory be to God on high_,--and raising
above it the bloodstained flag of Popery.
This American Protestants know full well. They feel it. It is known and
felt in every Protestant land; but it seems as "if some strange spirit
was passing over people's dreams." Though found to be unsound, and even
bad policy; though destructive to agricultural, commercial, and every
other interest, yet we see no efforts made to arrest its advance amongst
us. Neither are there any means taken, as far as the writer knows, in
other Protestant countries, to suppress this religious, political, and
commercial nuisance; on the contrary, we find that even in Great Britain
further stimulants are being applied to Popish insolence.
Sir Robert Peel, the premier of England, has, or is about introducing a
bill into parliament, with a view of making further appropriations for
the Romish college of Maynooth, in Ireland; and, much to my surprise,
as well I believe as to that of every man who correctly understands
the spirit of Popery, he has some supporters. Even some of the British
reviewers give him high praise.
"The credit to which Sir Robert Peel is entitled," says one of the
British Quarterlies, "is greatly increased by reason of the prejudices
of some of his supporters; but (continues the same Quarterly) his
resolution is taken and his declaration made. This should read, in
my humble apprehension his resolution is taken, and his infatuation
complete."
I have been a student in that college; I know what is taught and done
in that institution. I am well acquainted with all the minutiae of its
business and theological transactions; and I could tell Sir Robert
Peel that he either knows not what he is doing, or is a traitor to his
government! Does Sir Robert know that in that college are concocted all
the plans and all the measures which O'Connell is proposing, and has
been pursuing during the last thirty years, for emancipation, and now
for the repeal of the Union? Does he know that Maynooth is the focus
from which radiate all the treasons, assassinations, and murders of
Protestants, in Ireland? Is he aware that this very Maynooth is the
great Popish eccaleobion, in which most of those priests who infest
Ireland, and are now infesting the United States, are hatched? Does he
know that Daniel O'Connell and that college are the mutual tools of each
other? O'Connell, riding on the backs of the priests into power and into
wealth, and they alternately mounted upon Dan, advancing the _glory_ of
the _infallible church!_
It is not probably known to Mr. Peel that thirty years or more have
elapsed since it was _secretly_ resolved in Maynooth that _none but a
Catholic should wear the British crown, and that he should receive it
as a fief from the Pope_ of Rome. Every move and advance which O'Connell
makes in remans a step gained towards this object, and upon this his
ambitious eye rests with intense avarice. For this, Maynooth and its
priests thirst with insatiable desire. It is not many years since
O'Connell and Maynooth asked for _emancipation_, and they obtained it.
Protestants of England were duped into the belief that Papists would now
be satisfied, and unite in supporting the government; but, scarcely was
this granted, when the great agitator, _with the advice and consent
of Maynooth_, asked for--what, think you, reader? Nothing less than a
dismemberment of the British government--nothing less than a repeal
of the Union; or, in other words, to permit one of the most turbulent
demagogues that ever lived, Daniel O'Connell, to become king of Ireland,
and to receive his crown from the Pope of Rome.
This is now the _avowed object of repeal_; but there is another object,
not yet seen nor dreamed of by those who are not Roman Catholics; and I
beg the reader to keep it in his recollection. It is this. O'Connell,
by agitating Ireland, and scattering firebrands throughout England,
believes that he and the Catholics will ultimately succeed in dethroning
the sovereign of England, and placing the crown on some Popish head.
Were the college of Maynooth further endowed through the efforts or
folly of Sir Robert Peel, does he believe, or can any man, acquainted
with the genius of Popery believe, that this would satisfy O'Connell
or the Pope's agents in Ireland? The very reverse would be the case.
It would only imbolden them still further. It would only increase their
insolence; it would only add a new impetus to their treasonable demands,
and give an increased momentum to their disorganizing meetings.
Should the British Government grant all O'Con-nell asks, or should
parliament pass a bill for the repeal of the Union, is it to be supposed
that O'Connell and the Irish bishops--the sworn allies of the king of
Rome--would be satisfied? Not they. The truth is--and I wish I could
impress it upon the minds of every Protestant in England as well as in
this country--nothing short of the _total overthrow of the government
of Great Britain and the Protestant religion_ will content the Popish
church, whose cats-paw Daniel O'Connell is. Should Providence, in his
inscrutable designs, grant them this, our experiment in the science
of self-government is at an end. We shall become an easy prey to any
_alliance_ which should be formed against our republican institutions.
The jackals of Popery are amongst us: they have discovered us; and
Popish priests, the natural enemies of free institutions and of the
Protestant religion, will soon destroy our republic and our religion.
It is useless to deny the fact. It cannot be denied. It were folly to
conceal it. The _extirpation of heresy_, or, in other words, of the
Protestant religion, is the grand object which O'Connell and the Pope
have now in view; and, to effect this, they have judiciously divided and
advantageously posted all their forces. These forces are well officered
by Jesuits and priests, men without honor, principle, or religion; whose
time is spent in advancing. Popery and the grossest indulgence of their
own passions. The Pope and O'Connell have, in this country, an army
of nearly two millions of reckless desperadoes, who have given already
strong evidences of their thirst for American Protestant blood. It is
necessary to watch them well. Americans must recollect that these men
receive their orders from Rome, through O'Connell, who, I sincerely
believe, is this moment the worst man living, though the Pope calls him
_the greatest layman living_. He is upon earth what the pirate is upon
the seas, _inimicus humani generis_--the enemy of mankind. During the
last thirty years he has kept the poor of Ireland in a state of poverty
and excitement bordering upon madness. He has filched from them the last
farthing they possessed. He has withdrawn them by thousands from their
ordinary pursuits of industry: he has sown amongst them mutual hatred
and a general discontent with their situations in life. But that is not
all. He has pursued the poor people even to this country. He robs them
here of their little earnings. They make remittances to him of hundreds
and thousands of dollars; and this, while many of them, to my own
knowledge, and not a hundred yards from where I write, are shivering
in the cold blasts of winter,--all _for their good_, while O'Connell
himself is feasting in Ireland, and enjoying the sports of the chase, on
about three hundred thousand dollars a year.
This is not all. The great agitator, this national beggar, Daniel
O'Connell, has recently discovered that there were some little
glimmerings of Protestantism in France; that Louis Phillippe was neither
a Don Miguel, a Ferdinand, nor a very strong advocate of Popery, opens
upon him a battery of abuse. This foul-mouthed brawler was not content
with sowing discord among the poor Irish, and scattering treason
among the people of Great Britain, he tries what he can do with the
inflammable people of France, who are now in the enjoyment of more
domestic happiness and national glory than they have had for the last
century. But even this is not enough; the genius of the great national
beggar, fertile in schemes, treasons, rebellions, scurrility, and
Popery, must cross the Atlantic and denounce Americans, who, since
the declaration of their independence, have been the best and warmest
friends of his poor countrymen; they have received them, employed them,
giving them bread and clothing in abundance. They permitted them to
bring with them their priests and their religion; they shielded and
protected them in their lives and liberties. This country was to the
Irish, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they might have enjoyed
it, and been happy, had it not been for their accursed religion and its
priests.
The great Dan saw and felt this. A stop must be put to it. The _holy
church_ saw that this state of things, would not answer her purposes.
The harmony, which existed for so long a time between the hospitable and
generous Americans and the forlorn Irish, must be broken, lest Papists
should become Protestants and forget their allegiance to the Pope; and
accordingly, the great agitator, this enemy to order, to God, and to
peace, commenced denouncing Americans, as _usurers and infidels,_ who
had not even a national law of their own. He calls upon the Irish to
come out from among them, and have nothing to do with them.
Soon after this, the Pope sends over some bulls making similar demands
upon the Irish and all other Catholics, under pain of excommunication;
and what is the result? The name of an Irishman is now a by-word, in the
United States, especially if he is a Roman Catholic. It is associated
with every thing that is low, vulgar, and bigoted. No longer do the
Americans receive the Irish with open arms: no longer do they welcome
them to their shores; nor in fact is it safe for them longer to do so.
And what occasioned this? That demagogue, O'Connell, and the Pope of
Rome.
Does Mr. Peel reflect, when he is moving in parliament for an additional
appropriation for the college of Maynooth, in Ireland, that he is
only adding fuel to the political fire, which these men are trying to
enkindle, and have actually enkindled in a great part of Europe, and in
the United States? Has the fact escaped his notice, that the Pope and
the greatest layman living, as his royal holiness calls O'Connell,
have no misunderstanding with Spain, Portugal, or any other government,
strictly Popish?
They have no feeling of compassion for the degraded Italian, the
ignorant and half-starved Spaniard or Portuguese, or the wretched
Mexican slave. O, no! It is only for a Papist under a Protestant
government, that their compassion is moved. Their condition must be
_ameliorated_, or in plain English, these governments must be overthrown
and Popery must reign supreme. Let Mr. Peel reflect upon this single
fact, and he and his supporters cannot fail to see, that, in giving
further aid to the Popish college of Maynooth, he is but "sowing
dragons' teeth, from which armed men will spring up." He is only
throwing an additional force into that Trojan horse, which his
predecessors had introduced into unfortunate Ireland, and which Popes
and priests have secretly stolen into these United States.
I know O'Connell well. I have had, in my younger days, some personal
acquaintance with him; and I can tell Mr. Peel, that with the college of
Maynooth to back him, he,--Mr. Peel and his party--are no match for
him in craft and intrigue. All O'Connell's plans for the extirpation
of Protestanism are devised in Rome. They are submitted to the
_Propaganda_, and from thence sent to Maynooth to be there revised and
corrected. As soon as this is done, a copy is forwarded to each of the
metropolitan bishops of Ireland, who return it with such observations as
they deem necessary, and all things being prepared, _secundum ordinem,_
the usual _Veni, Creator_ is sung; the project, whatever it may be, is
sanctioned; every priest in Ireland is prepared to carry it into effect;
and all that now remains to be done is, to give the _great beggar_ his
secret orders. What can Peel, or his few supporters, do against such
a party as this? Nothing, unless the government changes its mode of
proceeding against O'Connell, Maynooth, and the Irish bishops. But it
is to be feared, that this will not be done while Peel is at the head of
affairs.
England, once indomitable, and always brave; England, proud of her
religion and of her laws, seems recently to forget her ancient glories.
She is showing the white feather; she is dallying with Popery, and
singing lullabies to quiet and put asleep Daniel O'Connell and his Irish
bishops, whose treason and political treachery can only be stopped, and
should have been stopped long since, by consigning the _greatest
layman that ever lived_, and a few of his right reverend advisers, to
transportation for life.
Americans may think this wrong, but though I have not the least
pretension to the faculty of prophesying, I think I can safely tell
them, that, in less than twenty years, they will have to enact much
severer laws against Roman Catholics than any which are now recorded
against them on the statute book of Great Britain. It must be borne
in mind, that Popery never bends, and therefore it should and must be
broken. It was in this college of Maynooth, and from those bishops and
priests, with whom Sir Robert Peel is dallying, I first learned that the
king of England was an _usurper_. It was they, who first taught me that
the Pope of Rome--_virtute clavorum, by virtue of the keys_--was the
rightful sovereign of England, as well as of all the kingdoms of the
earth. It was in the college of Maynooth, I was taught to keep no faith
_with heretics_, and that it was my solemn duty to exterminate them; it
was there I first learned, that any oath of allegiance, which I may take
to a _Protestant_ government, was null and void, and need not be kept.
It was at this same college of Maynooth, that nine tenths of the priests
in this country received their education; and is it not deplorable
to reflect, that such men as Sir Robert Peel, in England, and several
equally distinguished in this country, should be so entirely blindfolded
and unmindful of the interest of their respective countries, as to give
any countenance, aid, or support to Popery, or Popish institutions among
them? I trust, however, and fondly hope, that this imprudent, impolitic,
and ill-advised scheme of Sir Robert Peel's, will be resisted and thrown
out of parliament, with such marks of disapprobation as becomes every
honest Protestant and true Briton. Will those who sympathize with Popery
in the United States, look back to the page of history? and if they
will not take instruction from me, let them take it from the past. Let
them listen to the voice of the dead, and learn a lesson from them. Let
them read the history of France. Who urged on all the oppositions that
have been made, from time to time, to the government and constituted
authorities of that country? What were the causes, remote or immediate,
of all the blood that has been shed in France for centuries back? The
Pope of Rome and his agents.