"If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."-Isaiah viii. 20. RELIGION OF MONEY, OR THE MONEY RELIGION. DISPENSATIONS. "1st. Dispensation of every kind for the celebration of marriages, and for the rendering valid of faulty marriages." For example. By espousing a heretic, you expose your own soul and those of your children to damnation; and this is the reason, without doubt, why the Church is opposed to such unions: but take a dispensation, give money-your marriage shall be allowed, and you shall be free to expose yourself to the being damned. Eternal shame! Shame to the men who pretend to believe in Satan to carry on their trade by alarmed consciences, and who next consent themselves to open to them, with a key of gold, the doors of hell. "2nd. Dispensation of the vows of virginity, &c." Yes! Reader, you have rightly read; and I have rightly copied. It is written in the circular: "Dispensation of the vows of Virginity," and that circular is addressed to the clergy! Let us be short, and to the point! A priest cannot be dispensed of celibacy, but he can of virginity. He cannot marry, but he may....No, I will not defile my pen with these Roman turpitudes. VOL. V. I leave to the reader, father as he may be, brother, or husband, the business of forming the conclusion; and if he has the courage after this to send his daughter, his sister, or his wife to the confessional. "3rd. Dispensation from the celebration of masses for which any one has become responsible, and which he cannot celebrate, or have celebrated, for want of means. francs." 27 In La Religion d'Argent, I had affirmed that a town priest who undertakes masses to say at 30 sous each, might discharge himself from going through them for half-price, on a priest of the country. It appears that I have not said enough, and that even this broker-priest may be dispensed, not only from the saying, but also from the causing to be said, the masses for which he is paid in ready money, provided that he turns over to the Pope the sum of 27 francs. Therefore, guileless Roman Catholics pay, as you do, your curate for chanting or mumbling over a mass for such or such an object: he will receive your money; he will remit 15 or 20 per cent to the Pope, and your mass will not be said, either by him or by others. It had been much better to have kept your money to yourselves. "4th. Dispensation from the recitation of the Breviary and other prayers or works of obligation. 21 francs, 60 centimes." "2nd. The power and faculty to bless priestly ornaments, and to give other benedictions reserved to the bishops, &c. francs, 50 centimes." 12 Again the Pope is cutting away the grass from under the feet of the bishops. I am not at all astonished that they are anxious for and stir up actions at law against the Agency. That the Pope releases from works of act, because there might result from it the obligation, such as fasts, devotions of nine refutation of a bad book, a refutation which days, &c. I understand, for I was aware might turn to the salvation of souls. But before that these punishments have only no! the Pope, who sells every thing and been invented to render dispensations indis- all sorts of things, lays out nothing in any pensable; but there is in that article another case. We must then come back to our monstrosity which deserves to be remarked: first supposition. The books prohibited by the Pope therein gives dispensation from morality are authorized by Rome; and the saying " prayers." This is the strongest priests themselves can have them, as a sort proof that he does not believe that God of dainty, for a certain payment of money. hears those who pay to him, and that according to the Romish Church, address to God is not prayer in the true sense of the word, merely a recital of works imposed as an infliction. At college, the professor gives for a pensum, a page to be copied ten, fifteen, or twenty times; in the same way, in the church, the priest imposes fifteen or twenty paters to be repeated. But it turns out that the collegian has gained in the week notes of exemption; he gives them over to the master, and in consequence has no more pensum to copy out. Just so, the faithful has money; he gives it to the priest, and immediately he has no more pater to repeat. If the Pope and his clergy assure me that it is not thus, and that they have confidence in the efficacy of prayers to obtain the favours of God, I answer them--If you believe that God hears the prayers of the faithful, and at the same time you dispense the faithful from praying, it follows that you deprive them of the favours of heaven to get possession of their money; you yourselves too help forward their damnation. POWERS AND FACULTIES. "1st. To read prohibited books, and to keep them in your possession, &c. 21 francs 60 centimes." As I copy such words, the pen falls out of my hand. Nevertheless, my readers, let us have the courage, both of us, to go on to the end. If such or such a book is prohibited by the Pope, it is doubtless because the reading of it would be pernicious. How then will 21 francs 60 centimes uninfect the reading? I understand not, and I must conclude that the Pope consents even to defile the soul of his priests, provided that the priests will give him money. Nevertheless we will endeavour to find a good motive for the permission to read bad books. Perhaps, in fact, it may be to furnish a means for refuting them. But if the priest wishes to read a dangerous work with an intention so praise-worthy, why make him pay for the permission to accomplish what is good? Not only would it be proper to give it him gratis, but it would be still more christian-like to encourage him in such an "3rd. The power and dispensation to give the papal benediction to the dying." I declare that the Pope would sell himself if he could find a buyer! Enough! enough! have not courage to go on copying any longer. Know only that in the remainder of the circular, if you wish to print an useful book, in place of assisting you, the Pope levies a tax upon you in exchange for his approbation, Thus then, when you see at the head of a Roman Catholic work these words, "with approbation of the Pope or of the Bishops," know full well that this simply signifies that the bookseller has turned over into the pocket of the Bishops or of the Pope, a sum which it says "varies according to the formalities which must be gone through.' Do you wish to have a saint in your family? My tariff gives you in addition the price it costs to introduce the cause of the beatification and the canonization, so that at some period you may get honoured as the saints of the calendar your cousin or your uncle, and bye and bye the multitude may come and kneel before your golden calf, prepared for the purpose by the Pope himself. In conclusion, the price-current offers you relics even of the true cross; only it is said in a parenthesis, that, as to this last article, "it is obtained with difficulty," as a bookseller would advertise you in his catalogue that there only remains of such a work a very small number of copies. At its close, the prospectus advertises you that for the regular making up of orders, the amount of the billet ought to be at least 25 francs; that several persons may unite to make a common order, but that one person alone ought to sign it. This last article brings us back to our travelling agent. He had presented himself to an Abbé, and had received an order; from thence he had gone to another priest, had shewn him the commission of the first, had obtained from him a second; and thus to one and another, until the orders given in the diocese made it worth while to open a correspondence. Some weeks later a packet arrives at *** Let the reader know for certain that I can put a proper name in the place of these stars, and that if I do not do it, it is because my intention is in no way to attack persons, but only things. I respect or I grieve for the clergy of Rome; I abhor its institutions. The packet of relics, of indulgences, and dispensations, comes then to the Abbé, who, full of joy, prepares himself to sell in retail what he had just bought wholesale: but, oh disappointment! the Bishop refuses his approbation. But, my Lord, these relics and these pieces are thoroughly authentic. That's true. They have then the same virtue which those have which you yourself draw from Rome to resell to us?-That is also true? Then why hinder me from going to the source, and compel me to pass by your intervention?-Because...-Because why? -Because....I do not undertand.-So much the worse. But then, my Lord, what is to be done with these relics ?-Return them to the travelling agent.-And if he does not wish to take back his merchandize? -You won't pay him. this for yourself. For myself, I have desired to perform towards you a two-fold duty: to show you your error,-I have done this, and to set the truth before you. This I am about to do. In condemning the doctrines of the Church of Rome, I do not in the least degree in the world condemn those of Christianity; on the contrary, I separate these two things as the wheat from the tares. Christianity is the good grain; Catholicism, or Romanism, the bad. The one will enter into heaven; the other will be cast into the fire. But by what mark, you will say to me, can I distinguish true Christianity, since Catholicism itself professes to be this? The answer is easy. The good grain was sown by the sower, the bad did not spring up until afterwards brought in by the enemy. It is thus, the good grain of Christianity is that which has proceeded from the hand of the master-from Christ and from his apostles; and the bad grain of Catholicism is that which was brought in later by the Roman clergy, too friendly to honours, to power, and to gold, not to be enemies of the truth. In other words, the truth, that is, the gospel, proceeded from the mouth of Jesus Christ, and from the pen of his Apostles; the false is the whole of that which the priests have added to that gospel. But there is such a contradiction between that gospel and the doctrines of Rome, that it is impossible not to be struck by it. From the height of his throne the Pope cries to you-"Bring, bring me money, and I will save your souls." From the height of his cross Jesus says to you-"You are saved by grace; it is a gift of God." The Pope, in alarm at the hearing of that word written in the Bible, interdicts the reading of the sacred book; but, thanks to God, societies are formed, and in spite of the thunders of Rome, they spread abroad the divine word over all the quarters of the globe. My readers, let us leave there the agency Pope, in a rage, says to you-" They deand its agent, and let us come to what is ceive you, do not read." True Christians more important to Rome, and to her trade. answer-"Do not so much believe us in Tell me, tell me, with your hand upon your what we say, but read."—" No; shut your conscience, Is that, yes or no, a religion of eyes."-"On the contrary, search."-"Trust gain? Does not the colour mount up into to me, for I'm Pope."-Trust rather in the your face, when you think that it is the reli- Gospel; it is the word of God."-" I tell gion of your countrymen, that of your family, you, that you must have dispensations for perhaps your own? So many turpitudes! will reading bad books; pay me, and then you they not at length open your eyes to the light shall read the Bible." We, on the contrary, plain good sense, stifled by custom and pre- we say to you-Here is the Bible, read it judice? Can you any longer without weak- without paying; as Christ speaking to all ness, without shame-what did I say?-can the people, as the Apostles writing to all you without danger to your eternal destiny the Churches; we have nothing to keep remain in a church which makes a trade of secret; we proclaim the truth in the streets, your soul's salvation? You must answer on the house tops: and that book which The Abbé was forced to yield to the Bishop. But at least he was willing to stand out against the agent, and he refused to pay. To strengthen himself in his refusal, he joined with him those of his fellows who happened to be in the same plight. The travelling agent, although the representative of a house which pretends to act solely for the glory of God, becomes angry, institutes a suit, and the matter is carried before the tribunal which condemns him. The I will confess you, you shall perform penitence, or what is better still, you shall buy it of me, the successor of St. Peter. Peter rises up, and in the Scripture cries to you" Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money."-Acts viii. 20.) Buy, buy, my chaplets, which have been blessed; my ecclesiastical dispensations, my plenary indulgences. No! "Come without money, and without price." "Come unto me, saith Christ, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." "I am meek and lowly in heart." "I came to save that which was lost." "Believe, trust in me, and ye shall be saved." (Isaiah lv. St. Matthew xi. 29, 30. See the first chapters of the Gospel of St. John.) No! no! it is false. Buy-buy! And the thunderbolt from heaven falls, and makes silent the thunders of the Vatican. Luther, Calvin, rise up with the Bible in their hand: God sends them aid in the discovery of printing: the sacred scriptures are multiplied in all tongues, and the nations astonished ask, the one from the other, how they could sleep for so long a time beneath the yoke of Rome. The breath of God goes forth over the earth, and in a few years, the third part of Christendom abandons the Pope to follow Jesus Christ; whilst the rest, too careless to take the pains to examine, remain in the Church, and receive therein in outward form baptism, the host, and extreme unction, all the while remaining in unbelief, and living in sin. Catholics of Rome, for the most part, this is your position; consider whether you ought to remain in it. You may well and without danger set at nought the Pope; but take heed, none can set at nought God. What I advise you is simple enough: it is, Read the Bible. What I ask of you is rea When the Romish clergy had pretended that our Bibles were falsified, the author of these lines answered by the newspapers that he was willing to get distributed a Catholic or Romish translation of the New Testament, if the clergy would approve it. He received for answer an anonymous letter, which bid him keep silence. sonable enough: it is, Examine. You already know that you are deceived by Rome; but to recognize an error is not enough; we must, in addition, find out and believe the truth. I finish then with these words which I take from the word of God, and which are worthy of your whole attention. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Then as you have heard this declaration, Jesus adds, "Light is come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light." Are you of this number? If so, hear how Jesus explains your preference for darkness: "Because," saith he, "their works are evil." But on the contrary, do you desire to find and to receive the light; then it is respecting you that he says, that their "deeds are wrought in God;' and it is in regard to you that he adds, "Whosoever believeth in me shall be saved." THE TEMPORAL BLESSINGS OF POPERY. "Now look at Italy, at the states of the church, where the Pope is both absolute king and absolute high-priest. The patrimony of St. Peter's is the worst governed country in Italy, and therefore of course in Europe. More people are put to death every year by the Pope's authority, than are executed in the three kingdoms, and in France. The soil is rich, the climate beautiful; the people wretchedly poor, savage in their habits, ignorant; the government keeps back purposely agriculture and trade and commerce; the only roads kept in good order, are the few which bring travellers and pilgrims to Rome, in the interior of that fine country the roads are hardly passable for carts; no sign of liberty anywhere, the press not free, not a single arena of public discussion on any question; the people, and gentry, and noblemen, &c., all hate the government; every year, plots and rebellions, put down in blood, and by treachery, and by Austrian assistance; the government does not blush to use any road to its end; letters are notoriously opened by the police in the post office; the confessions of religious penitence, elsewhere inviolate, are notoriously laid at the service of the minister of police by a degraded priesthood; no public honor, all men ashamed of their country, and of its institutions, formerly the most glorious in the world; the whole country seems to groan under an insidious and invisible tyranny." The above is from a review in the Dublin Warder of a recent pamphlet on Ireland by Mr. Porter, written with a view to bring about, in a somewhat modified way, some of the worst of Mr. O'Connell's dreams. We call them dreams, for such they will be, and nothing more, if the Protestants of the United Kingdom faithfully discharge their duty. It rests with them to realize or to defeat O'Connell's predictions. It is astonishing to behold the infatuation of those who can, ex animo, write as in the above extract from Mr. Porter's pamphlet, of Popery and its effects in Italy, and yet would advocate the adoption of measures that would extend to other countries the evils prevailing there. The present contest in Ireland is not a national one, but a party one-a politico-religious one-the contest is not between Ireland and England-but between England and Rome. SCENE AT A BURIAL GROUND. An instance of the gross bigotry and intolerance so often exhibited by the lower orders in this country, and by others who ought to set a better example, occurred in this town yesterday, and was near producing serious consequences. It appears that the wife of a corporal belonging to the 69th regiment, before her death on Sunday last, requested, though a Roman Catholic, as we have been informed, that her remains should be interred with those of her child in the new church-yard, the burial place of Protestants exclusively. Her husband, being a Protestant, wished to carry out the intentions of the deceased, and perhaps it was his own desire also that the body of the mother should be placed with that of the child in the burying ground attached to the Protestant Church; but others, total strangers to the man and his deceased wife, would not permit this; the body should be deposited, not where they wished, but where a mob and its leaders pleased. When the funeral procession was turning into the gate of the churchyard, the mob, brought together for the purpose, made a rush to prevent the coffin from being brought in, and demanded that it should be taken to the old church burying place, where Roman Catholics are interred. The soldiers who were present resisted this insolent dictation, drew their bayonets, and soon cleared a passage for those who bore the coffin. As soon as it was got inside, the gate was closed, and the mob made several attempts to force it in. They might have succeeded, and serious results might have followed, but for the timely arrival of Mr. Barron, R.N., and Col. Blake, with a strong body of police. The mob then gave way; the Roman Catho lic curate who accompanied them on the occasion also thought proper then to become a peacemaker. Thus, the remains of the deceased could, under the protection of an armed force alone, be interred where herself and her husband wished, despite of the sovereign will of the priest, and the mob collected to prevent it. A happy country, is it not !—Mayo Constitution. ANECDOTES OF THE BIBLE. M. De Pressense, an agent of the Bible Society, relates the following anecdotes: Paris, June 8, 1843. "In a village, the inhabitants of which were nearly all Roman Catholics, a religious awakening has been manifested, immediately after the visit of the Bible colporteurs, produced by their sales and the addresses which they delivered. Several of the inhabitants have been truly converted; and now pass under the designation of Bible people, since, to every objection and to all attacks upon them, they reply, with mildness and pru. dence, by quoting passages from the Bible. However, as it is written that all who will live godly in Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution, the enemies of the Truth, not content with ridiculing and taunting the Bible people, have recently done them bodily injury. It happened in the following manner :-A wedding was celebrated among these friends. Desirous of supplicating a blessing from the Lord on their union, all who were of the same mind, and determined to love and serve the Lord, set out early for a place in the neighbourhood where a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ resided. |