in a word, it is to be in continual torture without a moment's peace. Such is the miserable condition of a bad religious; (i.e., one who won't blindly obey), and therefore she suffers on earth an anticipation of the torments of hell. . . . The inconveniences of living in community are burdensome; the reproofs of superiors and the refusals of permission galling; the mortification of the senses painful; and the contradiction and contempt of companions intolerable to self-love. The venerable Cesar de Bustis addressed a nephew, who had entered religion, in the following words: . 'WHEN YOU BEHOLD YOUR CONVENT REMEMBER PURGATORY, WHERE MANY JUST SOULS SUFFER IN PEACE AND WITH A CERTAINTY OF ETERNAL LIFE.""-Spouse of Christ, by A. LIGUORI, pp. 41, 42.

Prophetic words, O Saint! Let all who are intending to enter a convent bethink themselves of them, and pause ere they enter this purgatory -a tacit admission that every species of cruelty is practised within those "holy" walls.

Referring to the march of the Ritualists, the reader's attention is called to the case of Ditcher v. Denison, in 1856, when Archdeacon Denison was deprived of ecclesiastical promotion for teaching "that the Body and Blood of Christ being really present, after an immaterial and spiritual manner, in the consecrated bread and wine," this being against the 28th and 29th Articles of Religion. But turn to many of the quotations given in Part I. of this work, and see how repeatedly this condemned teaching is uttered and is in almost every Ritualistic manual.

In July, 1873, a Committee of the Upper House of Convocation decided with regard to the practice of Confession, that the ministers of the Church are not authorised :—

"To require from any who repair to them to open their grief in a particular or detailed examination of all their sins, or to require private Confession as a condition previous to receiving Holy Communion, or to enjoin, or even encourage, any practice of habitual Confession to a priest, or the being subject to what has been termed the direction of a priest, is a condition of attaining to the highest spiritual life.”—Annals of our Times, p. 126.

Can there possibly be "salvation" in following those who are themselves disobedient sheep and turn from their own shepherds, the bishops? If Convocation has determined that Confession, as advocated in the quotations herein and Spiritual Direction are wrong, and the clergy are setting themselves up against their superiors, may they not themselves incur the dreadful curses and warnings they are so

kind as to promulgate for us, the laity? As the officers so is the crew. Insubordination in the members means insubordination in the body, and therefore a complete mutiny; but let it be hoped this time the mutiny, if any, shall consist merely in the members, and that the Head, even God, shall alone direct the faithful body.

It is very well to talk of the increase of Ritualism, that it is leading us to Rome and so on, but here are a few figures, that are somewhat startling, from The Tourists' Church Guide for 1894, giving the number of Ritualistic churches, etc., in the United Kingdom :

Eastward Position .. 1,662 1,876 2,054 2,258 2,433 2,690 3,138 3,918 5,037

The steady increase of Ritualism should be noted, but there is one point omitted, i.e., the number of churches where Confession is practised. Why? It is to be hoped the conclusion of this work will show, because Confession is not a devotional exercise, it is a political engine if need be, and a means of acquiring priestly power; hence it must be used secretly and slyly; hence the injunctions to be cautious and not to attract attention.

"Hence," says Wm. Hogan in Auricular Confession, p. 108, "it is that Romish bishops and priests persuade their people to go to Confession, where they have the complete mastery over their feelings, passions and judgment. They know if they can debauch and seduce one female in a family, the whole of the household is at their mercy.'

And the secrets of that degrading imposition will never be thoroughly known, because, says Hogan again (p. 45):

*The Guide is now only published every two years.

"The infallible Church teaches that when a priest is in the Confessional he sits there as God and not as man; and when he denies, under oath, that he put such questions, he means that he did not put the questions as man but as God; and when the penitent is asked whether such questions were put to her, she will say on oath they were not, because it was God and not man that asked them!"

How far this sophistry coincides with Ritualistic teaching the reader must judge, but I feel sure he will answer we want no such sophistry, for we shall never know when the truth is being told! The following appears hard on the individual, but says Hogan again, anent the political character of the Confessional, Ibid., p. 101:

"Every Roman Catholic who goes to Confession to a Romish priest is a mere political automaton, and not to be trusted by a Protestant or Protestant Government!"

And the same may be said of the disguised Jesuits, the Ritualists! It is no doubt hard on the individual, but he is not an individual-he is merely a tool. Let him cast off the yoke of priestly guidance and Auricular Confession, and no one, save a bigot, will deny him his immaculate Virgin, his Transubstantiation, his Saints, and what not. But hard and fanatical though it be, it is absolutely necessary to self-protection to debar a man guided either personally by his holy father, or through wile, daughter or sister by their holy fathers! Here again is another danger from Romanism. Says Hogan, p. 84:

"I believe . . . I baptised more children than any clergyman in the city. Among these there were hundreds of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists and Baptists, brought to me for that purpose by their Roman Catholic nurses, without the knowledge or consent of their Protestant mothers."

This was not confined to America, but took place in London in 1865-6 as proved in several celebrated trials, and the Pope, be it remembered, claims the allegiance of all baptised persons, and the Romish doctrine is that it is good to conceal the faith for the purpose of making converts (note to p. 93).

Considering carefully all these points, one stands before. a difficult problem. To what tends this absolute and degrading "holy obedience," this Confession and spiritual

direction, this regarding the priest as God, this vow of celibacy as cover to the utmost licentiousness, the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience all covered by the last, and finally the complete enslavement of all mind and intellect to one's ghostly father; not, mind you, only in the Roman Church, but in its counterpart Ritualism? One can but come to the logical conclusion that there must be some reason for the priests flying in the face of Scripture and of their divine Head, and for their endeavour to make us poor females in particular, receive with oracular devotion their mandates without doubt or scruple. To do this the writer is obliged to follow on the beaten track of so many authors, and call to mind the tactics of the Inquisition, only abolished, remember, at the beginning of this century, and of the awful disclosures of horrible engines of cruelty at Rome and elsewhere, and to earnestly remind the reader that we Protestants, or any other denomination, are heretics, and therefore banned by Rome, and that, as already shown, all other than the Ritualists are heretics likewise. That Roman bulls for our extermination as such are still in force. That the Romanist teachesregicide of a Protestant Sovereign is no murder, that torture is advocated by one of Rome's latest saints, Liguori, and finally that it is the system of Auricular Confession, now being re-introduced by the Ritualist, which is the vast inquisitorial ecclesiastical detective-agency-office for crushing that soft and gentle hand that rocks the cradle ; that instead of training our boys and girls to glorious and free manhood and womanhood, it may enslave them under a priestly yoke to witness the downfall of their once free and happy country.

Now, reader, you will be startled! and well you may, because you cannot fail to see whither the Jesuit Ritualist is leading you, and with what sort of friend you are entering that half-way house "Ritualism.”

In the Allocution of 1851, Pius IX. said:

"That he had taken that principle for basis: That the Catholic religion, with all its votes, ought to be exclusively dominant in such sort that every other worship shall be banished and interdicted."— Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, Père CHINIQUY, p. 475. "Our business is to contrive :

"First. That the Catholics be imbued with hatred for the heretics, whoever they may be, and that this hatred shall constantly increase, and bind them closely to each other.

"Second. That it be nevertheless dissembled, so as not to transpire until the day when it shall be appointed to break forth.

"Third. That this secret hate be combined with great activity in endeavouring to detach the faithful from every Government inimical to us, and employ them, when they shall form a detached body, to strike deadly blows at heresy."-Secret Plans of the Jesuits, revealed by ALBATE LEON, p. 127; Ibid., p. 474.

"It is of faith that the Pope has the right of deposing heretical and rebel kings. Monarchs so deposed by the Pope are converted into notorious tyrants AND MAY BE KILLED BY THE FIRST WHO CAN REACH THEM."-SUAREZ, Defensio Fidei, book VI., c. 4, Nos. 13 and 14.-Ibid., 472.

"The Roman Catholic theologian Dens puts to himself the question, 'Are heretics justly punished with death?' He answers: 'St. Thomas says yes. This is confirmed, because God in the Old Testament ordered the false prophets to be slain, and in Deuteronomy it is decreed that if any one will act proudly, and WILL NOT OBEY THE COMMANDS OF THE PRIESTS, LET HIM BE PUT TO DEATH."—Ibid., p. 472.

The Ritualist priest, fortunately, cannot put the rebellious laic to death at the present, but he goes as far as he can, and deals like his brother in a mild edition of curses and threats as shown herein, and in secret persecution.

Let us turn to the political heretics, foes of the Pope :

Being therefore supported by His authority whose pleasure it was to place us in this supreme throne of justice, we do out of the fulness of our apostolic power, declare the aforesaid Elizabeth, as being a heretic and a favourer of heretics, and her adherents in the matter aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of excommunication, and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ. And moreover we do declare her to be deprived of her pretended title to the kingdom aforesaid, and of all dominion, dignity and privilege whatsoever, and also the nobility, subjects and people of the said kingdom, and all others who have in any sort sworn unto her, to be for ever absolved from any such oath and all manner of duty or dominion, allegiance and obedience; And we do command and charge all and every the noblemen, subjects, people and others aforesaid, that they presume not to obey her or her orders, mandates and laws; and those which shall do the contrary we do include them in the like sentence of anathema." (Bull of Pius V.) -Popery in its Social Aspect, R. P. BLAKENEY, pp. 277-8.

As Queen Victoria does not recognise the Pope, no doubt she is likewise under the same ban, though not