66 Why this is a more exquisite miracle than the other!" And yet there are others more exquisite than this. Shall I tell you of the Valencian gallant,..but no; that story is positively too good to be told in prose; and these may suffice as samples of the miracles by which the Romanists are persuaded to put their trust in the Rosary and in the Virgin Mary,.. of the fables which are related, not as fables, but as truths by the Romish Clergy, in treatises of divinity, in books of popular devotion, and in sermons,..of the manner in which they delude the people. Beausobre has well said that les plus hardis imposteurs étoient les plus applaudis : le mensonge n'avoit point de frein, et n'en a pas encore dans les lieux où la Réformation n'a point pénétré."* As the vain repetition of words, which in themselves are no prayer, addressed to one unto whom, if there be any force in reason, if there be any truth in Scripture, prayer ought not to be addressed; as this vain repetition, connected with a mechanical practice of piety, a scheme of finger and thumb worship, Sur les Adamites, p. 321. "Le † Madame de Sevigné used to say that the Rosary was not a devotion, but a distraction. In one of her letters she says, bon Abbé prie Dieu sans cesse ; j'écoute ses lectures saintes; mais quand il est dans le chapelet, je m'en dispense, trouvant que je rêve bien sans cela."-t. vi. p. proves the charge of superstition and creatureworship upon the Church of whose usages it makes so conspicuous a part; the means whereby it is recommended prove also the charge of imposture upon all persons concerned in inventing, sanctioning, and circulating these fables as miraculous proofs in favour of a superstitious and idolatrous usage. "O wicked imagination, whence camest thou in to cover the earth with deceit !"* 66 SLAVES OF THE VIRGIN MARY. THE Society of Slaves of the Virgin is another branch from the same root of superstition. The origin of this fraternity has been traced with little foundation to the Hungarian King St. Stephen, who is said to have made over himself, his new kingdom, and all his subjects in fee simple to the Virgin; the Hungarians at that time calling themselves her slaves in conformity to his pleasure, and always entitling her their Mistress or Lady, and bowing the knee and the head whenever her name was mentioned. Hence Hungary was called the family or house * Ecclesiasticus, xxxvii. 3. † Yepes, vi. ff. xliv. Acta SS. Sept. i. 531. ib. Sept. vi. 722. hold of the Blessed Virgin.* St. Gerard has the credit of having been the King's adviser on this occasion. Little, however, is heard of any such fraternity till it was brought into vogue in Spain by P. M. Fr. Antonio de Alvarado, Abbot of the Royal Monastery of Yrache in Navarre, in the early part of the seventeenth century. For the Benedictines, to whom civilization in their earlier, and literature in their later ages, have been so deeply beholden, used to vie with the Mendicant Orders in bringing forward extravagant legends, and introducing new practices of superstition to gratify and to delude the people. In this instance they were so successful that ere long there was scarcely a village in Spain without one of these fraternities:† and the rules of the Society, with its service and manual of devotions, were published in our own language for the use of English Romanists. The edifying example of Marino, brother of St.. Peter Damian, was set before them, who, "unclothing himself of his garments, and putting about, his neck the belt wherewith he was * Macedo. Divi Tutelares, 359. This Jesuit assures us that the English used to stand in the same relation as the Hungarians to the Virgin Mary, and that England, in former times, was called her Dowry.-Ib. 453. + Yepes, ff, li. girded, delivered himself up to the Sacred Virgin, before her altar, as a bondslave, and, treating himself as such, whipt himself there before her, intreated her to accept him as a slave, submitting the neck of his prostrate heart to the empire of her powers," and laying a certain sum upon the altar, promised yearly to pay it as the tribute of his servitude. In return for this the Virgin visited and comforted him at his death; "a most lively and memorable example to excite posterity to the like devotion." The two religious monks of St. Bennet who recommended the society to their countrymen, assured them, they may piously believe it was invented by divine inspiration. The persons who enrolled themselves were to wear some little material chain or manacle of iron," about the middle, neck, or arms, for blessing and sprinkling which chain there is a form of prayer. Among other exercises they were to offer up a crown, consisting of these five precious jewels, in honour of their Lady's five principal virtues, the jasper of faith, the emerald of hope, the ruby of charity, the diamond of fortitude, and the pearl of chastity. They were expected also to pay some annual tribute (how little soever it be) in token of the homage and servitude due to her sovereign empire, at some altar dedicated to her honour,"..one object in all these inventions being to bring grist to the mill. The Collyridians could not have gone farther in their worship of the Virgin whom they deified, than these Bondsmen were instructed to do in the prayers which were prepared for their use. We read in these that "the mystery of the Incarnation is divided between the sacred Trinity and the Virgin, who share the glory of this great work between them! that the person of the Virgin is greater than all human and angelical persons together; that she constitutes an order, empire and universe apart, which is conjoined to the hypostatical union! and that as the Father and Son are united by the Holy Spirit, so the Father and the Virgin are united by the Son!"* And now, Sir, I have produced proof that in the Roman Catholic Church the Virgin Mary is represented as something more than a creature; that the people are taught to put their trust in her more than in God, and to believe that she can command her Son. Every fact which I have stated, every false miracle which I have ad * Jesus, Maria, Joseph, second appendix, pp. 538. 587. |