THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.
If we may quote the Eastern Church, the Roman Catholic Church is the
greatest heresy of modern times. In the Encyclic Epistle of the Eastern
Patriarchs, the Papal system is referred to as "the chief heresy of the
latter days, which flourishes now, as its predecessor, Arianism,
flourished before it in the earlier ages, and which, like Arianism, shall
in like manner be cast down and vanish away." "I die in the faith of the
Catholic Church before the disunion of East and West," were the last
words of Bishop Ken. Under the Stuarts, in solemn conclave the Anglicans
accused the Romanists of idolatry. In the opinion, then, of the oldest
Church, the only Church with an indisputable apostolical succession, and
in the opinion of some of England's greatest Churchmen, the Church of
Rome is an heretical one. Such is the conclusion to which also we are
driven by the very slightest historical inquiry. Lady Herbert wonders
that an Anglican Churchman can go to Jerusalem and not become a Romanist.
Why, as the priest takes you from one sacred station to another, shows
you where the Saviour fainted beneath the load of the cross, where Saint
Veronica wiped His face with her handkerchief, where the print of the
Saviour's foot yet remains,--when we all know that the Jerusalem of the
Saviour's time is some eighty feet below the surface, and that all these
assertions are absolutely false, you feel indignant, and, if you have the
smallest iota of intellect left, after listening to the priestly legends,
return a considerably sounder Protestant than you went. In like manner,
history leads you to a similar conclusion as to the Roman Church.
History, with an impartial pen, tells us how the Roman heresy sprang up,
and grew, and reigned in every land. History robs Romanism of all its
terror and of all its power. We see it, with plain, unblinded eyes, to
be a heresy gradually enlarging its claims in accordance with the
increasing ambition of its prelates, and the increasing credulity of its
devotees. Gradually, as the memory of apostolic teaching and preaching
passed away, the Church of Rome, after the fall of Jerusalem, continued
to advance among the western Churches certain vague assertions of
authority. In proportion as its clergy asserted their claims, other
changes of an unscriptural character were made. First of all, the
doctrine of baptismal regeneration was asserted; then a mysterious
veneration began to attach itself to the celebration of the Lord's
Supper; the sign of the cross was held to be vital to the expulsion of
the devil; and prayers for the dead became common. A great step was
gained when the doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy was enforced; when
Gregory the Great, as the Romanists may well call him, inculcated
purgatory, and pilgrimage to holy places; instituted the Canon of the
Mass, and added splendour to the ceremonies of the Church, and claimed
the power of the keys for the successors of St. Peter. On the foundation
thus raised it was easy to base the most astounding claims; whether you
are asked to believe that the Church of Loretto flew through the air from
Syria to Italy, or, as in our time, the liquefaction of the blood of St.
Januarius, and the immaculate conception of the Virgin. After a certain
point gained, the rest is sure to follow. Give up the Bible, believe in
the priest, and the Roman heresy is the natural result.
In the Catholic Directory I find the statistics of Romanism as it exists
in London. The province of Westminster, established by his Holiness Pope
Pius IX. (Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince
of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church,--such are a few
of the titles he assumes), Sept. 29,1850, comprises the diocese of
Westminster, with twelve suffragan dioceses. Westminster comprises
Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex, with, for Archbishop and
Metropolitan, the Rev. Edward Henry Manning, elected and consecrated in
1865. In London also there is another Church dignitary, the Rev. Thomas
Grant, Bishop of Southwark, elected and consecrated in 1851. The patron
saints of the diocese of Westminster are "our blessed Lady, conceived
without sin; St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles; St. Edward, King and
Confessor." In addition to the Virgin in Southwark, the patron saints
are St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Augustine. The ecclesiastical
statistics of Westminster diocese are, priests--secular, regular,
oratorians, oblates of St. Charles, and unattached, 221; public churches,
chapels, and stations, 123; and the average attendance at the four
schools of the diocese was, for 1866-67, 12,056. Of course this includes
more than the London district; but then in Southwark diocese I find St.
George's Cathedral, and, besides, about thirty chapels or stations; and
of the 160 priests in the diocese, we may reasonably conclude that a
fourth are engaged in London and its suburbs. Last year thirty-eight
secular clergy were ordained for England. Of these, thirteen were for
the dioceses of Westminster and Southwark.
A correspondent of the _Weekly Register_, writing to show the increase of
Catholicism in London during the last thirty years, points out that in
1839 there were in the metropolis and the suburbs the following Catholic
churches:--St. Mary's, Moorfields; St. Mary's, Chelsea; the French
Chapel, King Street, Portman Square; the Chapel of the Benedictine
Convent at Hammersmith (now removed to Teignmouth, Devonshire); St.
Mary's, Kensington; St. Anselm's, Lincoln's Inn Fields; St. Patrick's,
Soho; St. Aloysius, Somers Town; St. James's, Spanish Place, Manchester
Square; and the Assumption, Warwick Street, Golden Square; in all ten
churches or chapels. There are now, in addition to the above, St. Mary
and the Angels, Bayswater; the new church at Bow; the Oratory, Brompton;
St. Bridget, Baldwin's Gardens; St. Joseph, Bunhill Row; the Servite
Fathers, Chelsea; St. Peter's, Clerkenwell; SS. Mary and Michael,
Commercial Road; the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street; St. Thomas,
Fulham; the German Church, Whitechapel; the church built by Sir George
Bowyer, in Great Ormond Street; St. John the Baptist, Hackney; Holy
Trinity, Brook Green; Nazareth House, Hammersmith; the chapel at
Hampstead; the Dominicans' Church, Haverstock Hill; the Passionist
Church, Highgate; the Augustinians' Church, Hoxton; the Sacred Heart,
Holloway; St. John the Evangelist, Islington; the Italian Church, Hatton
Wall; the Carmelite Church, Kensington; the church in Kentish Town; the
church at Kilburn; Our Lady and St. Joseph, Kingsland; the new French
Church, Leicester Square; the Rosary, Marylebone Road; St. Francis,
Notting Hill; St. Charles, Ogle Street; the Polish Chapel, Gower Street;
St. Mary's, Poplar; the Holy Family, Saffron Hill; St. Anne's,
Spitalfields; Our Lady's, St John's Wood; St. Vincent de Paul, Stratford;
the English Martyrs, Tower Hill; Our Lady of Grace, Turnham Green; St.
Mary's, Horseferry Road, Westminster; and SS. Peter and Edward, Palace
Street, Westminster--in all forty churches or chapels in thirty years
(without counting many private chapels or convents, &c.), or fifty
chapels, where thirty years ago there were but ten. And it should be
borne in mind that of the new churches many, such as the Oratory,
Commercial Road, Farm Street, Islington, the Italian Church, Bayswater,
Brook Green, St. John's Wood, and others, are of a size and beauty which
thirty years ago would have been deemed a folly even to hope for. There
are now as many masses said at the Oratory, Bayswater, and Farm Street,
as thirty years ago there were in all the chapels in London, so great has
been the increase of priests in London since 1839. On the south side of
the water, in the diocese of Southwark, the change for the better is even
more manifest than in that of Westminster; but, the congregation being
poorer, the churches are also smaller. In what is now the diocese of
Westminster, there were, in 1839 (writes the same correspondent), about
seventy priests, and of these but two were regulars--Jesuits--who lived
almost as private individuals in the Marylebone Road. There are now a
hundred and thirty secular priests--fifteen Oratorians, sixteen Oblates
of St. Charles, sixteen Jesuits, ten Marist Fathers, seven Oblates of
Mary, six Carmelites, six Dominican Fathers (besides as many more not yet
ordained), six Passionists (in addition to ten or twelve not yet
ordained), five Servite Fathers, five Fathers of the Society of Missions
(Italians), five Augustinians, two Franciscans, and three Fathers of
Charity--in all, between regulars, seculars, and priests not attached to
any particular mission, there are two hundred and forty-one priests in
this diocese. Of convents for women there were in 1839 two within what
is now the diocese of Westminster; there are at present thirty-eight.
In calculating the amount of Roman Catholic influence and activity, we
must remember that in their churches and chapels service is always being
performed; and that thus one Romanist place of worship for all practical
purposes may often be considered as equivalent to a dozen Protestant
places, especially where the incumbents are of the class of old-fashioned
clergymen who have a relish for port and what used to be considered a
gentlemanly religion. For instance, let us see what is the round of
services at the cathedral, Blomfield Street, Moorfields. On Sundays and
holidays there is mass at seven, eight, nine, ten, and high mass at
eleven. At three there is catechism, at four baptism, and on Wednesdays
and Fridays at eleven A.M.; vespers, sermon, and benediction at seven.
On week-days mass is performed at half-past seven, eight, and ten. On
Thursday, rosary, sermon, and benediction at eight; on the other evenings
of the week rosary and night prayers at that hour. On the first Friday
of the month there is sermon and benediction in honour of the Sacred
Heart; on the second Friday of the month the Way of the Cross. There are
the confessions, sometimes twice a day; and the Confraternities of the
Blessed Sacrament, of the Sacred Heart, of Holy Angels for Children.
Then there are the Societies, such as the Holy Family Total Abstinence
Society, Holy Family Provident Society, Benevolent Society for the Relief
of the Aged and Infirm Poor, and the Night Refuge for Homeless Women of
Good Character. Nor is this the only way in which Roman Catholic
influence is felt in this district. On good works the Roman Church has
ever laid great stress, and thus we find from the centre in Blomfield
Street the priests have specially assigned to them Newgate Prison, Old
Bailey; Debtors' Prison, Lower Whitecross Street; St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, Metropolitan Free Hospital, Royal London Ophthalmic
Hospital,--an amount of exertion incompatible with spiritual ease and
worldly enjoyment. I mention this to show that you are not to judge by
what you see; attendance at any particular time is no criterion as to the
state of the Catholic community. You may depend upon it that it is
always much stronger than it seems. Those present are but a tithe of the
Romanists in any particular locality, and the admirable organization of
their priests peculiarly fits them for aggressive purposes. I believe
they are most successful in the low neighbourhoods, in the guilt gardens,
in which a great metropolis like ours abounds. Their charities in London
are very extensive. There is a Catholic Poor School Committee, a
Westminster Diocesan Education Fund, an Aged Poor Society, an Association
for the Propagation of the Faith, a Society of St. Anselm, for the
Diffusion of Good Books. The Associated Catholic Charities, for
educating and apprenticing the children of poor Catholics, have six
schools in London. The Immaculate Conception Charity assists the clergy
in providing for children whose faith or morals are exposed to imminent
danger through the death or helplessness of their parents. The Society
of St. Vincent de Paul, whose chief object is visiting poor families at
their own homes, has sixteen branches in London, besides a large
Orphanage, at this time containing eighty boys, and a Catholic Shoeblack
Brigade. The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul have an
establishment in Westminster. The oldest Roman Catholic charitable
institution is the Benevolent Society for the Relief of the Aged and
Infirm Poor, founded in the year 1761. During the six winters the
Providence Row Night Refuge for Homeless Women and Children has been in
existence, 92,194 nights' lodgings, with suppers and breakfasts, have
been given gratuitously. The only condition requisite for admission is
that the applicant be homeless and without food and money. Such are the
charities in London of the Roman Church.
As regards the pulpit, the Romanists are not wise in their generation.
In London, where oratory can do so much, they fail to provide themselves
with a grand and effective preacher. They have no Father Hyacinthe in
London. Surely Italy might have sent us a Roman Catholic Gavazzi.
Ireland supplies us with orators in abundance, but where are her eloquent
priests? Cardinal Wiseman was florid and heavy. Archbishop Manning is
more than sixty years old; and oratory, unlike wine, does not improve
with age. His position, his talents, his zeal, incline you to hear him
with respect, nothing more. As I have listened in some of the fine old
cathedrals of the Continent to fiery priests, thundering away to crowded
and attentive audiences, it has often occurred to me that it is just as
well we have no such preachers in London to bring the Roman Catholic
Church into fashion; to make it the sensation of the hour; to do for it
what Irving did for Presbyterianism when he drew around him to the Scotch
Church in Hatton Garden all the beauty, the fashion, the genius, the
intellect of his day.
The ordinary public service of a Roman Catholic Church requires little
description; nor do you see it here as you do, for instance, in the
magnificent cathedral of Antwerp, where, in the dim dusk of an autumn
eve, while a flood of music floats down from the choir, and the gorgeous
priests, with tapers and incense and costly banners, are sweeping, dimly
seen, along the fretted aisles, the writer has often felt there is a
strange, weird effect produced, which, here you can never dream of. All
is poor, something like a theatre by daylight, or a fancy ball when the
delusions of gas have been dispelled by the too candid and impartial rays
of the sun. There are the tapers and the usual processions, the
vestments of various colours, and the music ever flowing, while at the
altar end the priests are bowing and kneeling and scattering incense, and
performing the service of the mass. If you have to listen to a sermon,
it will not be a long one; and if you be a Protestant, it will strike you
as verbose in style and un-English in tone. Nearest to the altar will be
the upper ten thousand, who come in broughams, and have fashionable
aspirations. At the other end will be the very poor, such poor as you
see nowhere else, scarcely educated enough to count, as they do on their
knees, their beads, and certainly not competent to intelligent
appreciation of the service. Of course the people kneel to the altar and
cross themselves as they come in, and join in the worship with an
appearance of piety (I mean the elder ones--young ladies who have eyes
will use them, whether they be saints or sinners), which is pretty well
for such an undemonstrative people as ourselves, but is nothing to that
of the Moslem, who plumps on his knees, regardless of all, exclaiming
_Allah hu akbar_! as the Muezzin calls to prayer.
On the Continent it fares ill with the Papacy. In France--in Italy--in
Austria--even in Spain it has lost its power. Its chief strength at this
time seems to consist in the sayings and doings of an increasing section
of the Church of England. It appears there is a society actually in
existence to form a union with Rome, and Mr. Malet, the Vicar of Ardley,
in Hertfordshire, was lately sent on such a mission. As to the idea of
Christian union no one can find fault with that. It is lamentable that
the Christian Church should be divided into sections that turn against
each other the energies that should be devoted to the destruction of a
common foe. That all should be brethren in Christ who believe in Him and
lead a Christian life, is manifest, the common reader will say, in his
desire after Christian unity. Mr. Malet comes then, of course, to all
Christians, of whatever sect or denomination, and holds out to them the
hand of fellowship? Alas! no; he does nothing of the kind. First of all
he tells us he will not call himself a Protestant, then he dresses
himself like a monk, and has his friends to call him "Brother Michael."
He then gets letters from the Archbishop of Canterbury and Dr. Manning,
and goes to Rome humbly to ask the Pope to recognise the Church of
England. Of course, at Rome, he is favourably received, and is delighted
with all he saw, and seems to have swallowed all he heard, not even
excepting the most monstrous fable or the absurdest legend. From Rome
Brother Michael finds his way to Jerusalem--that Jerusalem that crucified
the Lord of life, that stoned the prophets, that persecuted and slew the
teachers and apostles and converts of early times--that Jerusalem where
there is more downright lying in the name of God, and under the plea of
religion, if it be possible, than in Rome itself--that Jerusalem where
the rival monks to-morrow would cut each others' throats if the Turkish
soldiers did not keep them quiet;--and then to the Greeks and Roman monks
he offers a similar request; and "the aged pilgrim," as he terms himself,
returns delighted, believing that the Church of England will be permitted
to join with the Pope in asserting all the frauds of the Papacy, and with
the Greeks in celebrating that pious fiction of the holy fire once a year
in Jerusalem. "The aged pilgrim" sees many favourable signs in this
country. One is the reprint of Edward VI.'s Prayer-book for twopence;
and another the fact that incense may be bought in many shops at the West
End, and that half a pound lasts a long time. Now what must the
cultivated, intellectual, and sceptical spirits of the age think of a man
holding such opinions? What must be the effect of his teaching on such
men, but to estrange them more and more from the Church and its
institutions? Brother Michael falsifies history as much as he does
religion. Actually he tells us there would have been no vice and crime
in the country, no godless education, no pauper Bastilles, if Henry VIII.
had not put down the _Holy Brotherhood_. Of course he means by the "holy
brotherhood" the lazy and dissolute monks. Why, if we were to sully our
pages with but a tithe of the abominations and obscenities and
rascalities recorded of the "holy brotherhood" in indisputable historical
documents, every father of a family would hide away this volume. The
less Brother Michael says about "the holy brotherhood" the better.
Again, let us take another illustration of High Church literature:
"Innovations: a lecture delivered in the Assembly Rooms, Liverpool, by
Richard Frederick Littledale, Priest of the Church of England." The aim
of Dr. Littledale is to show that prayers for the dead, the choral
service, the sign of the cross, the weekly offertory, the daily
celebration of Holy Communion, the elevation of the Host, turning to the
east, the division of the sexes in churches, the mixed chalice, incense,
vestments, and lights are _not_ innovations. He knows so little of
history that he tells us that the conversion of our forefathers is due to
Gregory the Great (the man under whom Popery was introduced into
England); calls Edward VI. "_a tiger cub_," and speaks of Cranmer, the
martyr for his religion, as having "_been arrested in his wicked career
by Divine vengeance_." He says, "of the depth of infamy into which this
man descended" he has not leisure to speak; and all the Reformers,
according to him, were equally bad. Dr. Littledale says, "Documents,
hidden from the public eye for centuries, in the archives of London,
Venice, and Simancas, are now rapidly being printed, and _every fresh
find establishes more clearly the utter scoundrelism of the Reformers_."
The Doctor admits the Church of England was in need of a physician in
Henry VIII.'s time. His language is, "A Church which could produce in
its highest lay and clerical ranks such a set of miscreants as the
leading English and Scottish Reformers must have been in a perfectly
rotten state--as rotten as France was when the righteous judgment of the
Great Revolution fell upon it." The Rev. Thomas W. Mossman, West
Torrington Vicarage, Wragley, Yorkshire, goes further still. In a letter
to Dr. Newman, he says he believes that a time will come to pass that
Anglicans will also see that it is God's will that they should submit to
the Holy Apostolic See, and that it is their duty as well as their
privilege to be in communion with that Bishop who alone is the true
successor to St. Peter, and by Divine Providence the Primate of the
Catholic Church. He speaks of the "lurid murky flame of Protestantism
enkindled in the sixteenth century;" and hail the light "once more
beginning to beam upon us from the Eternal City, where the Prince of the
Apostles and the Doctor of the Gentiles shed their blood." When such are
the utterances of leading clergymen,--if the Church of England were
Church of the nation as it claims to be, the language of Dr. Manning
would be undeniably true. "Protestantism is dead in England. We may
save the time which controversy wastes, and instead of going out into the
battle-field, we may go into the harvest-field to reap and to bind and to
gather our sheaves into our garner."
Dissent, however, has not been taken into account. It is rarely a
Dissenter becomes a Roman Catholic. It is impossible, if he understands
his principles, that he should. To too many it is the Church of England
that leads to that of Rome.