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persons have liberty to do,) has power to take from them all their goods, and free liberty to enjoy them.-Constit. Innocent IV. cap. 2. Concil. tom. xi. p. 605); and Innocent III. declared, this punishment we command to be executed on them, by all princes and secular powers, who shall be compelled to do so by ecclesiastical censures." (7th Decretal, lib. v. tit. 7. cap. 10.)*

It would require a large volume, to give even an abridgement of the various canons against heretics and heretical states, framed by Gregory VII. and his successors. The few extracts which I have given from them will show Protestants what they may expect from the virtues and morality of the Popish priests, should they acquire an ascendancy; and Doctor Dromgole candidly tells us, that "the columns of Catholicity are collecting, who challenge possession of the ark"

I shall now briefly describe the Papal hierarchy, which was framed with singular ingenuity, for the peculiar purpose of enforcing those canons against every state hesitating to submit to the mandates of the holy see. It is stated in the general councils of Constance and Basil, that all the Popes are obliged to swear, that they will uphold and enforce the faith maintained in the general councils to the least tittle, even to the shedding of their blood.-(Concil. Con. Sess. 39, Basil, Sess. 37.)-The words of the oath are, generalium conciliorum fidem, usque ad unum apicem, et usque ad animam et sanguinem defensare et prædicare. †

Every Popish priest is obliged to take an oath, containing the following paragraphs" The holy apostolic Romish church I acknowledge to be the mother and mistress of all churches; and to the Romish Pontiff, successor of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ, I promise and swear true obedience. All doctrines delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, and especially by the

Doctor Dromgole says to his fellow-religionists, "you are not called upon to depose, that high trason, rebellion, perjury and murder, on the score of conscience, are not articles of your religion, but that they make no part of your particular belief." The reader may infer from the extracts which I have given from the canons of their church, whether they are articles of their religion. Part of the resolution moved by Doctor Dromgole, and which passed in the board without a division, is, "that no settlement can be final and satisfactory, which has for its basis, or at all involves any innovation or alteration to be made, by authority of parliament, in the doctrine and discipline of the Catholic church in Ireland." The reader will find in these pages the nature and tendency of its doctrine and discipline. I proved in my first letter, p. 7, 8, 9, that the Christian eniperors and kings made laws and ordinances for regulating the doctrine and discipline of the church, and the conduct of the clergy; and that none of them were valid without their sanction, particularly in England.

+ The 4th Lateran and the council of Constance are particularly mentioned in the Pope's oath.

most holy council of Trent,* I receive and profess; and whatever is contrary thereto, and all heresies, condemned, rejected, and anathematized by the church, I equally condemn, reject, and anathematize. This true Catholic faith, OUT OF WHICH THERE IS NO SALVATION, which at present I freely profess, and sincerely hold, I do promise, vow, and swear, that I will constantly retain and conserve, to my last breath; and, as far as I am able, I will be careful that it is held by, taught, and preached to, my parishioners, or those the care of whom shall belong to me in my function." Now what kind of subjects are Papists likely to make to a Protestant state, when their clergy are bound by oath to infuse into them such doctrines as are contained in the general councils, which they do at a tender age? Dr. Dromgoole, with great truth and candour, condemns and spurns the oath of allegiance prescribed to be taken by a priest, because it "makes bim swear that he will not do any thing that may tend, directly or indirectly, to disturb or overthrow the Protestant church in these kingdoms " "How gross the ignorance that would propose such an oath, unless it was meant to insult?—and how absurd and presumptuous to suppose it would be accepted ?" He assigns this reason for rejecting such

• The council of Trent, held in the year 1545, was the last of the general councils, and it confirms all the preceding ones, for it has thus decreed:-"Be it known, therefore, to all men, that the most holy canons are to be exactly, and, as far as possible, indiscriminately observed by all." (Sess. xxv. cap. 20.) It has declared the 4th Lateran not only to be a general council, but affirms one of its definitions to be the voice of the whole church. (Sess. xiv. cap. 5, and Sess. xxi. cap. 9.) Leo X. under the sanction of that council, passed a bull, renewing and ratifying the following constitution of Boniface VIII.:-" We declare, say, define, and pronounce it to be NECESSARY TO SALVATION, for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

Lewis Delahogue, professor of divinity at Maynooth College, wrote a tract, entitled, De Ecclesiá Christi, which was printed in the year 1809, by Hugh Fitzpatrick, for the use of the students thereof; in which the Council of Trent is declared to be in the highest estimation, "as it is a compendium of all the preceding councils, and therefore it is strongly recommended to the perusal of the students in divinity of that seminary." + Doctor Dromgoole grievously complains, that an oath of allegiance to a Protestant state is an insult to the understanding, and galling to the conscience of his fellow-vota. ries; but, according to the canons of his church, it may be easily got rid of.

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an oath of allegiance, because a Popish priest "is bound to propagate the Gospel in these kingdoms, by the advice, in conjunction, or under the influence of the Pope of Rome; and this goes, not indirectly, but directly, and at once, to the destruction of the establishment."

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It is most certain, that a Popish priest who takes an oath of allegiance to a Protestant state must be guilty of perjury, as it is in direct contradiction to his canonical oath, of which I have given some paragraphs.

The oath of fidelity to the Pope which a Romish bishop takes, contains the following paragraphs: -" I, A. elect of the church of B. from this hour forward, will be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the Apostle, and to the holy Roman church, and to our Lord Pope C. and his successors, canonically entering. The Roman Papacy, and the royalty of St. Peter, I will, saving mine own order, assist them to defend against all men. The rights, honours, privileges, and authority of the holy Roman church, and of our lord the Pope, and his successors aforesaid, I will be careful to preserve, defend, enlarge, and promote. I will not be concerned in council, act, or treaty, wherein any thing disadvantageous or prejudicial to our said lord or the Roman church, their persons, rights, honours, state, and power shall be devised; and if I know of any such thing to be treated of or intended, by any person whatsoever, as far as I am able I will prevent the same, and, as soon as possible, will give information thereof to our said lord, or to some other person by whose means it may come to his knowledge. The rules of the holy fathers, the decrees, orders, or appointments, reservations, provisions, mandates apostolical, with all my might I will observe, and cause to be observed by others: all

Here the Doctor candidly acknowledges the duties of a Popish priest, as prescribed by his oath, which evidently enjoin, as a religious duty, THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH. But he commits a gross error in saying, that he is bound thereby to propagate the Gospel; for instead of this, he is sworn to infuse into his flock the sacred canons and general councils of his own church, and they evidently resemble Mahometanism much more than the divine truths of the holy Gospel. They also enjoin, under a religious sanction, a furious spirit of proselytism; and its practical effects, from the destructive civil wars raised by the inordinate ambition of Gregory VII. to the sanguinary scenes which took place at Vinegar-hill, Wexford-bridge, ard Scullabogue, in 1798, and in Dublin on the 23d of July 1803, afforded unequivocal proofs, that the Popish clergy use unabated zeal in inculcating them into their flocks, in conformity to their oath.

In the course of the debate on the 25th Edward III. called the statute of provisors, the Pope was called, in the House of Commons, "the common enemy of the King and realm." (2d Institute, p. 585.)-The following among other reasons were assigne l for this: "The treasure of the realm was transported, the secrets of the realm were discovered, and the clerks within the realm were impoverished." (Idem, p. 585,)

heretics, schismatics, and rebels against our said lord and his successors aforesaid, I will, to the utmost of my power, persecute and impugn.”*

With a hierarchy thus constituted, it cannot be a matter of surprise that the Pope has been able to convulse states and prostrate thrones, how remote soever, as it affords him an army in the bosom of every country, well appointed with church militant officers, who are bound by duty and by oath to obey his orders. In consequence of this, whenever the Pope. declared a sovereign prince excommunicated and deposed, and transferred his territories to another monarch, who under his holiness's warrant might be inclined to invade and seize them, he had less reason to dread the assaults of foreign enemies than domestic treason from his own subjects, whom the clergy could, and were bound, in obedience to the Pope, to raise in rebellion against him. Dr. Dromgole, therefore, praises the spirit of proselytism by which his clergy are actuated, in the following words:-"Do not even the virtues and morality of the priesthood go indirectly to propagate the faith which they profess? Do they not operate more powerfully than words? For what is more powerful than example? -Was war then to be waged against the virtues? Were they too to be abjured? No! if the church of England trembles for its safety, it must seek it elsewhere; we have no securities to give." He here alludes to

• How can a Romish bishop bear true faith and allegiance to a British monarch, when he is bound, not only by cath, but by the infallible canons of his church, to persecute and impugn him and his Protestant subjects, as heretics and rebels to his Lord the Pope? He is bound, also, to obey all the Pope's mandates; and how can he preserve, defend, enlarge, and promote the rights, honours, privileges, and authority of the holy Roman church, and of his lord the Pope, but by the subversion of an heretical state, such as England is regarded by his sectaries. In consequence of this cath of fidelity to the Roman Pontiff, William Rufus told Archbishop Anselm that he could not preserve his allegiance to him and his temporal sovereign at the same time. (Speed, P. 441, 442.)

This oath was the first cause of a rupture between Henry VIII. and the Pope; for the former having come to a knowledge of it, sent to the speaker of the House of Commons, and informed him, "that he found that the clergy of his realm were but half subjects, or scarce so much; every bishop or abbot, at the entering on his dignity, taking an oath to the Pope derogatory to that of his fidelity to the King; which contradiction he desired his Parliament to take away." Whereupon these oaths, by the King's command, being read and considered, the Parliament so handled the business, as it occasioned the final renouncing the Pope's authority about two years after. (Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII.)-When Archbishop Cranmer was consecrated, he refused to swear the usual oath to the Pope, without first signing a protestation against the exceptional parts of it. (Strype's Life of him, book i, chap. 4.)

+ The Doctor condemns, in the following words, the oath of allegiance prescribed by the existing laws to be taken by Roman Catholics :-" Which of you, gentlemen, that recollects his feelings when taking our present Catholic oath of allegiance, that

an oath of allegiance to be taken by Papists for the security of the Pro testant church, which he explicitly declares the clergy cannot take, as they are bound by duty and by oath to subvert it. I shall now prove, by authorities the most unquestionable, both ancient and modern, that the canons which I have quoted are held to be in full force, and obligatory, on the consciences of Roman Catholics. "It would be blasphemy in any person to assert that the sentences, canons, and decrees of a general council were not dictated by the Holy Ghost." (Consil. Basil. Binii, tom. viii. p. 123, 131.)-" They are infallible, and cannot err." (Idem, p. 135.)—The Rev. Charles Plowden, a Popish priest, who lives and officiates at Bristol, says, in page 31 of a pamphlet entitled "Considerations on the modern opinion of the fallibility of the Pope," published in London, in the year 1790, "The bishops of all nations, from whom we have derived our faith, conceived the infallibility of the holy see, in dogmatical questions, to be as necessary for the constitution of the church as councils themselves." Hence we consider its decrees, on matters of faith and morals, as irrefragable decisions.

In page 48, he says, "that true councils represent the whole church, and are certainly infallible, and that the judicial decrees of the Popes enjoy the same privilege." Mr. Francis Plowden, his brother, and a barrister, says, in his Case Stated, published in 1791, "The decrees of a general council, in matters of faith and morality, when approved of by the Pope, are not liable to deceit or error, and that all Roman Catholics must implicitly adhere to them." The Rev Dr. Milner, in page 97 of his Ecclesiastical Democracy, published in 1793, says the same, and “that the 4th Lateran Council,* called by way of distinction the Great Council, has decided, that the Roman church, by the ordinance of God, has the sudoes not consider it sufficiently galling and insulting, or that can, with patience, anticipate any further multiplication of such oaths. That oath is built upon the foulest and most profligate imputations, having their birth in periods of fierce religious controversy, civil wars, and blood."-What occasioned those civil wars, and that blood? The sanguinary and intolerant doctrines of the Romish church and its hierarchy, which, the Doctor confesses, require a Popish priest, "by the advice, in conjunction, or under the influence of the Pope of Rome, not indirectly, but directly, and at once, to destroy the establishment." Considering the practical effects of such doctrines, and the hierarchy which I have described, for 300 years in Ireland, and these candid acknowledgments of Dr. Dromgole, should not the guardians of the state be alarmed, and require test oaths, and every possible means to secure it?-Let the reader compare that oath of allegiance with the blasphemous and treasonable oaths which Popish bishops and priests are required to take to the Pope.

The pious and learned Doctor Jeremiah Taylor, bishop of Dromore, observed, in his Polemical Discourses, page 520, that this council made transubstantiation an article of faith, and rebellion and treason the duty of subjects.

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