NINETEENTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

EUROPE.

Roman Hierarchy-French Revolution-Buonaparte Papal Bull-Restoration of Louis-Popish Usurpation.

DURING the greater part of the last century, the church of Rome remained in a state of neglected tranquillity, holy father sat quietly in his chair at Rome: France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, with parts of Germany and of Switzerland, all nominally devoted to the papal see, but as these ages glided quietly along, the Great Arbiter of events was preparing both materials, and agents for effecting a great change in the outward affairs of Europe, and of the papal hierarchy. Perhaps in no part of the continent was a greater mass of these materials collecting, during this period, than in France.

The date and leading circumstances of the FRENOA REVOLUTION, A. D. 1793, are well known to readers of almost every class. Infidelity, for many years had been gaining ground exceedingly upon the members of the catholic communion; the apostles of seepticism had sapped the foundation of the papal superstition, by measures which had excited little or no eoncern in the heart of Rome, and thus, all at once, an effect was produced like the springing of a large and deep laid mine. France was the centre of operation; but all the surrounding. states felt in their turn the mighty prowess of Gallie revolutionary arms and revolutionary principles, and wese obliged to be set at liberty from the galling yoke of Rome, whether they would or not.

594

French Revolution.

Cent. 19.

Thus the concluding scenes of the eighteenth century and the opening of the nineteenth exhibited a concatenation of events the most surprising, awful, and desirable. These events, as they transpired, made politicians stand aghast, and turn pale; but the Christian, instructed by the holy oracle, looked on with placid face, and read the moral of the whole mystery. Nothing less than the shaking of all nations can accomplish the complete overthrow of the long-established Roman hierarchy. Its rise, its progress of a thousand years, and its maturity in the subjugation of the European world, we have distinetly traced. The reformation partially dismembered the beast, but the heart, though made to tremble, remained untouched. But the French revolution nearly completed what the reformation only began. Such was the state of the papal ecclesiastical system, that any thing short of a general political change could not materially effect this vast overgrown abomination. The overthrow of popery in France, and the erection of an anti-hierarchal government in that country, gave the papal church a deep and woeful stab; and the victorious arms of the republic carrying forward their triumphs, presently reduced many of the popish states to a condition the most fearful and degrading.

It shocks the feelings of humanity to reflect on the cruelty and bloodshed which attended the reduction of popery during these contests, but it had been so predieted and so determined, and in the result we are bound to rejoice."Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her Allelulia: Salvation and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. Amen, Allelulia."

Chap. 1.

Revolutionary Triumphs.

595

Upon the reappearance of something like a regular government in France, Liberty of conscience and freedom of worship was declared to be a fundamental law of the constitution. This was confirmed by the consular despotism of Buonaparte and maintained inviolate during his imperial sway. No man ever so severely handied holy father as did Buonaparte, no man ever so completely made a tool of him. When Napoleon took it in his head to become his imperial majesty, the poor pope must have the honour to sanction the revolutionary imperial farce, and Pius the Seventh, a. D. 1804, was compelled to place the crown upon the head of that very man, who in less than four years after, dispossessed him of his ecclesiastical state, and reduced his pontifical character, so long revered, to a mere cypher in the political world, and to a bye-word in all the protestant churches.

Napoleon Buonaparte, the late head of the French nation, and the tyrant of continental Europe, not content with seizing upon the territories of the pope, also proceeded to annihilate the chief supporters of the pontifical government. "I have," says he, in his speech to the magistrates of Madrid, " abolished the court of the inquisition, which was a subject of complaint, to Europe and the present age. Priests may guide the minds of men, but must exercise no temporal nor corporal jurisdiction over the citizens. I have preserved the spiritual orders, but with a limitation of the number of monks. There is not a single intelligent person who is not of opinion that they were too numerous." Thus expired the horrid and infernal inquisition. Europe no longer paid deference to its bloody tribunal: and the same, with but little reserve, may be said of the monkish orders; for the limitation of them, by the interfer

596

Inquisition abolished.

Cent. 19.

ence of the civil power, has already gone a great way towards their subversion. These religious houses being restricted, and many of them plundered, became poor asylums for lazy, voluptuous, and proud priests. The chief support of the church of Rome has been its vast revenues: take away these, and this monstrous pile of iniquity falls by its own weight.

The sentiments of this mighty foe to the popedom are expressed thus, in a late address to some ecclesiasties. "Though our Lord Jesus Christ sprang from the blood of David, he sought no worldly empire; on the contrary, he required that, in concerns of this life, men should obey Cæsar. His great object was the deliverance and salvation of souls. We the inheritors of Cæsar's power, are firmly resolved to maintain the independence of our throne, and the inviolability of our rights. We shall persevere in the great work of the restoration of the worship of God, and we shall communicate to its ministers that respectability which we alone can give them: we shall listen to their voice in all that concerns spiritual matters, and affairs of conscience; we shall not be drawn aside from the great end which we strive to attain, and in which we have hitherto succeeded in part; nor suffer ourselves to be persuaded that these principles are inconsistent with the independence of thrones and nations. God has enlightened us enough to remove such errors from us. Our subjects entertain no fear." This invasion of the pretended rights and long-held privileges of the holy see produced nominal resistance, for of nothing more was the pope then capable. • usages of the church, however, required that such outrages should be protested against, and accordingly out comes a bull, containing a formal protest, and an act of excommunication, against the French emperor, and all

The

Chap 1.

Buonaparte and the Pope.

597

his abettors. A short abstract from this papał instrument will be acceptable, especially as it is probable the world will never witness the like again.

The pope after fully describing the outrage committed upon" the apostolic see," and after a deal of drivelling and complaining the pope lifts up" our apostolic voice" and says "Let them once again understand that by the law of Christ, their sovereignty is subjected to our throne.' Many great pontiffs have been reduced to equal extremities in behalf of the church against kings and contumaeious princes shall we fear to follow their example in this, after so many crimes, so nefarious, so atrocious, so sacrilegious?

"WHEREFORE, BY THE AUTHORITY OF ALMIGHTY GOD, and of the most holy apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own, we declare all those who, after the invasion of this holy city and the ecclesiastical dominions, and the sacrilegious violation of the patrimony of the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, by the Gallic troops, against the immunity of the church, against the church itself, and the rights of this holy see, and its temporal authority, perpetrated either by themselves or others, together with all their abettors, advisers. adherents, or others, in any manner concerned in furthering of the aforesaid violences, we DEOREE THAT THEY HAVE INCURRED THE GREATER EXCOMMUNICATION, with the other censures and penalties inflicted by the sacred canons, by the apostolic constitutions, and by the general councils; and if need be, WE DO ANEW EXCOMMUNICATE AND ANATHEMATIZE THEM; we declare that they have incurred as penalties, the loss of all and every kind of privilege, grace, and indulgence, in whatsoever manner granted to them-neither from this censure can they be liberated or absolved by any, unless by us, or by the Ro