thought so by the Apostles. Should you smile at the remark, and remind me that two of them relate to the Council of Trent, I must take the liberty of asserting, what has again and again been proved, that the points contained in the other eleven were just as little known to the Apostles, and as little dreamt of by them, as the proceedings of that notable assembly.

To the whole thirteen, however, we are to understand, that the English Roman Catholics fully and unequivocally assent. Do they know to what they have assented? Or am I mistaken in supposing, Sir, that the Bishop of Chester's remarks upon this confession of faith must have occasioned, in one of your generous feelings and practical toleration, thoughts, which, as Burnet says, can be "of no easy digestion"? You remember how fierce an uproar was raised in England against what was called the &c. oath : but could Sir Edward Coke himself have extracted as much from the most productive &c. in Littleton, as is included in this comprehensive and indiscriminating assent? I say nothing of" ecclesiastical traditions, and all other constitutions, and observances;" nor do I press you upon "the unanimous consent of all the fathers;" nor upon the contradictory decrees of different councils; nor will I inquire with what mental

reservation this true obedience to the Pope is promised, when we know, beyond all possibility of denial, that no reservation was intended or allowed by him who drew the bond. But I must remind you, Sir, that among those things delivered, defined, and declared, by the canons, and general Councils," which the Romanists, according to this your statement, receive at this time without distinction, the most daring assumptions of temporal power by the Papacy are contained; and the most intolerant opinions respecting those whom the Romanists call heretics are explicitly avowed. That the Pope may absolve subjects from their allegiance, depose Princes, and give their dominions to Catholics, to be enjoyed by them when they have exterminated the heretics, is a maxim which has been decreed by the fourth Lateran Council and acted upon by the Popes;* and this sentence all temporal lords are declared to incur who do not, to the utmost of their power, assist in rooting out those

* See the canon de Hæreticis in the Bishop of Peterborough's excellent Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome, p. 218. And see also his irrefragable proofs, that this abominable canon applies to temporal lords in general, principal. as well as feudal, by the very letter as well as spirit of the law; and that it has been specially applied to the sovereign of England.

who hold heretical opinions within their jurisdiction. The Council of Constance, in the ever-memorable cases of John Hus and Jerome of Prague, pronounced that faith was not to be kept with heretics; and upon this decision, and the alleged authority of the Decretals, the Emperor Sigismund submitting, "like a good son of the *Church," allowed the safe-conduct which he had given to be broken, and the men who had confided in it to be burnt alive. Your Creed proclaims, with the Council of Trent, that the Church of Rome is the Mistress as well as Mother of all Churches; and if the significant word required any exposition, it would be

* L'Enfant's History of the Council of Constance, Book i. § 57. Book iv. § 32.

Men who, like the members of that Council, had been trained in the morality of the Casuists, the law of the Canonists, and the religion of the Romish Church, would desire no better authority for requiring this detestable breach of faith than the Decretals afforded them. For example: Non est observandum juramentum quo malum incautè permittitur. (P. 2. Caus. 22. Quest. 4. ff. 286.) Non omnia promissa solvenda sunt. (Ibid.) Non observentur juramenta quæ fiunt contra divina mandata. (Ibid.) Aliquando non expedit promissum sercare sacramentum. (Ibid.) This is proved in the Decretals by the example of Herod's oath to the daughter of Herodias; and in the logic of a persecutor it would be held as great a sin to let a heretic escape, as to put a prophet to death.

I quote from the Paris edition of the Decretals. 1518.

found in the acts of the same assembly, when they sanctioned the declaration of Pius V., that heretics and schismatics are still in the power of the Church, as persons to be called by it to judgement, punished, and doomed by anathema to damnation.* The Church of England is anathematized by all persons who acknowledge the creed of Pope Pius IV., and by all who acknowledge themselves Roman Catholics that

* Do. 179. The same principle is now taught at Maynooth. The Bishop of Peterborough (p. 180) quotes the following words from the treatise De Ecclesid Christi, which contains the sum and substance of the theological lectures delivered at that college:-Ecclesia suam retinet jurisdictionem in omnes Apostatas, Hæreticos, et Schismaticos, quanquam ad illius corpus non jam pertineant. p. 394. "The Church retains its jurisdiction over all apostates, heretics, and schismatics, though they no longer belong to its body." Well "there can this able Prelate may say, be no necessity for sending to a foreign university to know whether the Church of Rome considers the members of our Church as amenable to its jurisdiction on the charge of heresy and schism. Now, if such a tenet is maintained in the college of Maynooth, when the Romanists are petitioners for political power, we cannot doubt what would be the fate of Protestants, if the Church of Rome should again acquire in these dominions the ascendancy to which it is aspiring. Nor is even the sovereign of these dominions exempted from that claim of jurisdiction; for he is equally included in the title of heretic and schismatic; he is equally included among those whom the Church of Rome has declared to be worthy of punishment."-Comparative View, p. 203.

creed is held. Here we have an example of that convenient substitution of terms to which I have before alluded. The word anathematize may be used, as well as received, with so vague a notion of its import, that they who assent to it manifest rather a lack of discretion than of charity: but translate it into plain English, and I think, Sir, your heart will hesitate as well as your tongue before you pronounce the Church of England accursed. Accursed, however, it is declared to be in the creed which you have laid before us as the authentic profession of the British Roman Catholics. That same creed proclaims, that out of the Roman Catholic faith none can be saved. Is it not the bounden and religious duty of those who hold this article of faith to persecute, whenever they have the power? Is not the principle as intolerable as it is intolerant? And ought the persons by whom it is avowed, ever to be entrusted with political power in a Protestant kingdom? Were you, Sir, to consult your heart and your intellect alone, there is no man living from whom I should with more confidence expect such an answer to these queries as must be given by every unsophisticated understanding.

The foregoing remarks were in the press