of a French translation of the New Testament, were, at the recommendation of Bossuet, distributed among the converted protestants, by the order of Louis XIV *. Several years ago, I was furnished, by an English bookseller, with a list of twenty-three editions of the roman-catholic translation of the New, or of both the Old and New Testament; and many have been printed since that time. For several years past, the romancatholics have been censured, with great severity, for not encouraging, to the extent recommended, the promiscuous reading of the English Bible, by the laity, without note or comment. Are we not entitled to our opinion upon it? Has not experience justified our caution? Have not several eminent lights, of the protestant church, always condemned, do not several of them now condemn it? Have not many of the most respectable advocates, for the general distribution of Bibles, now declared a different opinion?

XII. 5.

Whether the Conduct of the religious Orders justified the Dissolution of the Monasteries?

A PERSON, who would publish a true and full account of this important event, and state candidly in it, the advantages and disadvantages which, at the era of the reformation, attended monastic

* Vie de Bossuet, evêque de Meaux, par le cardinal de Bausset, ed. 1814, tome iv. p. 83.

establishments, would deserve well of the literary world. To the best of my power, I have attempted to do it in my "Historical Memoirs of the English, "Scottish, and Irish Roman-catholics;" and you will oblige me by perusing what I have written in that work upon this subject.

In a preceding letter, I have inserted the encomiastic account given of monasteries by M. Mallêt, an intelligent and candid protestant. I shall now transcribe what is said of them, by an abler writer, not unknown to yourself *.

"The world has never been so deeply indebted "to any body of men, as to this illustrious order; “but historians, when relating the evil of which

66

they are the occasion, have forgotten the good "which they produced. Even the commonest "readers are familiar with the history of that arch "miracle-monger St. Dunstan; whilst the most "learned of our countrymen scarce remember the names of those admirable men, who went forth "from England, and became the apostles of the "North. Tinian and Juan Fernandez are not more beautiful spots on the ocean, than Malmsbury, and Lendisfarne, and Jarrow, in the ages "of our heptarchy. A community of pious men, "devoted to literature, and to the useful arts, as "well as to religion, seems, in those ages, like a green oasis amid the desert; like stars in a moon"less night, they shine upon us with a tranquil

66

66

66

* Quarterly Review for December 1811.

86 ray. If ever there was a man who could truly "be called venerable, it was he to whom that ap"pellation is constantly fixed, Bede, whose life "was past in instructing his own generation, and preparing records for posterity. In those days "the church offered the only asylum from the "evils to which every country was exposed: amidst ❝ continual wars the church enjoyed peace; it was "regarded as a sacred realm by men, who, though

66.

they hated each other, believed and feared the "same God. Abused as it was, by the worldly"minded and ambitious, and disgraced by the "artifices of the designing, and the follies of the

fanatic, it afforded a shelter to those who were "better than the world in their youth, or weary of "it in their age: the wise, as well as the timid and "the gentle, fled to this Goshen of God, which enjoyed its own light and calm, amid darkness and 99 storms.'

66

66

After perusing this splendid tribute, evidently given by no mean hand, to the useful and the edifying habits of the inhabitants of the monasteries, it is difficult to believe, that the lives of a great proportion of them were so scandalous, or even so useless, as to justify a total suppression of them.

The best account of this extraordinary event, which has come to my hands, is given in "Collier's "Ecclesiastical History." He sheds a generous tear over the sufferers; and, while he admits the criminality of some individuals, and the disorders

of some houses, he honourably and successfully advocates the general integrity of the body.

In my opinion, the report of the commissioners, employed in the visitation of the monasteries, is wholly unworthy of credit. We see how little attention to truth, and how great a violation, both of the substance and forms of justice, were shown, even in the proceedings in parliament, and in the highest courts of justice, against the most exalted and most distinguished personages, whom the king wished to oppress, and whom all, except the king, wished to preserve. How much less, then, must necessarily have been the attention paid, either to truth or justice, when monks and nuns were to be persecuted? where obscure individuals were appointed to report upon their conduct? where the king was determinately bent upon their ruin? where his courtiers were indifferent to their fate? and where plunder of them was the general aim and immediate expectation of many, and the sanguine hope of almost all?

XII. 6.

Alleged Negligence of the Church of Rome, in remedying Ecclesiastical Abuses.

66

You remark, that "much might have been done

by the timely removal of abuses, so gross, that "the romanists of the present age are reduced, in "the face of notorious facts, to deny what they find "it impossible to defend."

Do we really deserve this abusive language? In the passage which I translated, in a former page, from Bossuet, are the abuses in the church denied? Are they even palliated? Is not this passage alone, particularly if we take into account the documents which it cites, and, therefore, incorporates, a complete refutation of the most contumelious charge, which you, in this place, bring against us? In the fifth of his excellent letters to doctor Sturges, doctor Milner expressly acknowledges "the increasing spirit of irreligion and im

morality among different nations, and in none more "than our own, during a considerable time pre

vious to the reformation." Are not these as full confessions of the abuses in the church, as you can require? We believe that they were not so extensive, or so enormous, as you represent them. We think your description of them a hideous caricature; but their existence, to a great and lamentable height and extent, we never deny. If you look into Mr. Alban Butler's "Lives of the Saints," one of the most popular works which have issued from the roman-catholic press, you will scarcely find in it the life of any saint, who flourished during the middle ages, in which, on the one hand, the then existing disorders, and, on the other, his exertions to remove them, are not mentioned.

Thus, contrary to your strong accusation, do our writers acknowledge the existence of abuses in our own church. But why are you silent on the unceasing efforts of the roman-catholic church to remedy them?