they are thus said to have performed. Yet, Sir, you have called it calumny to accuse a Church of superstition, in which such things are believed; and a clergy of imposture, by whom they were invented, and by whom the people are taught to believe them!

These are instances of vengeance upon the enemies of the faith in general; but the heathen goddesses have not shown themselves more terribly vindictive in cases of personal offence, than the all-seeing and all-powerful Virgin of the Romish mythology. A powerful baron, who had possessed himself of the town of Mans, refused at the bishop's prayer to restore the domains of the church, and despised his censures, as he had done his intreaties. The Virgin punished the offender first with a sharp illness, which had not the effect of awakening him to a sense of his guilt. She then came in person to his bed-side, and with a hammer knocked him on the head. The apparition and the blow brought him to his senses, instead of frightening him out of them: he repented, made restitution, and was absolved; and bore a scar on his forehead as long as he lived.* A certain Prince William of Burgundy was more severely

* Andrade, 544. Surius in Vita S. Domueli quoted.

punished. He had deprived one of her convents of the estates with which his ancestors had endowed it; her service was neglected in. consequence, the revenues which should have supported it being thus cut off, and a monk heard her say she would leave the place. He ventured to ask, whither she would go, and she replied, "to my Son, that I may complain of this William who will not let me rest!" Shortly afterwards, William and his wife and children were intercepted by their enemies, thrown down a precipice, and dashed to pieces.* The Bavarian Prince Arnold for a like offence was carried off by the Devil bodily, in broad day, and dropped into a lake, before his own castle, in sight of a great multitude of people; nor could his body ever be found. And a Genevan preacher, who was holding forth against her worship, was taken out of the pulpit by the Devil, before the whole congregation, and carried away through the air, body and soul, to hell, there to be everlastingly tormented. What was the wrath of Diana, or of Juno, compared to this? To complete this part of the character

Ib. 523. This happened in the year 1594, in the sight of innumerable persons, whereof some were converted!

with which the Romanists have invested this object of their adoration, it is only necessary to add that she has always manifested singular favour toward the holy tribunal of the Inquisition, as being the strong hold of the faith, the firmest column of the Roman-Catholic Church, and its surest defence against heretical pravity.* The pleasure which she receives from the burnt offerings of that precious tribunal was proved by a miracle. Gabriel Patreolus relates it, upon the authority of Bernard Lutzemburg, though they have omitted to state in what city occurred; and the Jesuit inquisitor Andrade relates it as a proof of the favour with which the Virgin regards the proceedings of the Holy Office. A certain heretic, Guido Delacha by name, dealt with the Devil, but concealed both his heretical notions and his diabolical dealings so well, that he lived and died with the reputation of a saint, and in that reputation his body was deposited with all honours. The Inquisition however got scent of his opinions, proceeded against him after his death, disinterred his remains, which else were in a fair way of being enshrined and worshipped, and brought them forth in an auto-da-fe to be burnt,

Andrade, 518.

H H

according to its practice on such occasions. In this instance the Devil proved staunch to his old friend; for the coffer, wherein the bones were contained, was taken out of the flames by some unseen power, and suspended in the air above them at safe distance, in sight of all the people. The multitude exclaimed, "a miracle!" their old prepossession concerning his sanctity was confirmed, as well it might, and they accused the Inquisitors, and the Bishop at their head, of injustice and cruelty. The Bishop and the Inquisitors in this danger immediately adjourned to the Church and performed the mass of Our Lady; just at the instant of the elevation, a voice was heard in the air pronouncing audibly and mournfully these words, O Guido Delacha, we have defended thee as long as we could; and now we can do it no longer, for one who is mightier than us hath conquered! With that the coffer was let fall into the flames, and the heretical remains were consumed.*

These fables, Sir, are set before the public in countries where the Bible is prohibited, and where your Church maintains the exclusive power which it would fain obtain every where,

* Andrade, 518.

and without which it will no where be contented. It is no exaggeration to affirm that more lying fictions have been written of the Virgin Mary, and published as truths, . . as proofs of the Roman Catholic doctrines,.. than all the stories that are extant of all the Greek and Roman gods, goddesses, and demigods, if they were collected from all the writers of antiquity. The books which are filled with them would form no inconsiderable division in an ecclesiastical library. The history of her images in the Portugueze dominions alone extends to ten volumes, each whereof, if translated, would fill three such as the present. Every celebrated image has had its history,..I had almost said its biography, separately written; and I know not whether these histories contain more proofs of credulity, or of deceit,.. of popular weakness, or of priestcraft. In fraud it is, in gross and palpable fraud that they have all originated. I could specify fifty cases in which the trick is as obvious as in that of the last new N. Senhora, who to the discomfiture of the Cortes was installed at Lisbon. What think you of your Lady of the Pillar at Zaragoza, who came, pillar and all, from heaven, before Our Lady was there herself? What think you of your Lady of Loretto, who was