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We see here a destroying angel—a sword in one hand, a cross in the other-sent to massacre the Huguenots, who have been surprised in the dead of the night. It would be impossible for the clergy to accept more fully the responsibility of this enormous crime. The angel here is not the emblem of the State, but of the Church, and the medal was not struck by King Charles IX., but by Pope Gregory XIII. It is then to this latter individual that the infamy belongs, from which he professes to derive glory. This his panegyrist admits, or rather he boasts of it, and in these terms:-" Here is the massacre of the Calvinistic rebels called Huguenots; a massacre censured by a great number of heretics, but approved of by many Catholic defenders a massacre which was met by the plaudits of Rome and Spain; and by the complaints, the accusations, and the doleful groans of Germany, of England, and of Switzerland.”

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See here, then,-for a crime the most appalling-the apology, written by a Jesuit and engraved by a Pope! But no reflections; let us leave to Bonnani the task of describing the Pontifical joy. When, therefore, 25,000 innocent persons had been butchered in a few days, partly in Paris, partly in the provinces, and the agreeable news had reached the instigator of so many 66 assassinations: This unhoped-for change," says the Jesuit," filled the Pope and Italy with joy so much the more intense, as they had feared that they should see even the Peninsula itself infected with heresy. Immediately on receiving the news, the Pope went from the church of St. Mark to that of St. Louis with solemn pomp ; and having ordained a jubilee, he invited all Christian people to pray for the religion of France, and for the monarch of that realm. He employed George Vasari, at the Vatican, to pourtray the massacre of Coligny and his partisans, as a monument of religion avenged and heresy ruined. Feeling assured that the copious bleeding which had drawn so much corrupt blood from the unhealthy body of France, would be salutary to her, he congratulated the king by his legate, and counselled him to persist vigorously in the work he had undertaken, and not to compromise by mildness what he had so happily commenced by severe remedies.

"To shew that the massacre had been acccomplished by the help of God and under his Divine inspiration (divino consilio), he caused a medal to be struck, on which is seen an angel, armed with a sword and a cross, pursuing the rebels; an image which recalls to the mind both the white crosses with which they had marked the houses of the heretics, and those which the soldiers wore in their caps."

With what infernal satisfaction the Jesuit depicts the diabolical glee of the Pope! With what delight they both of them see the blood flowing! But, once more, no commentary of our own; let us listen for the last time to the atrocious calmness with which the

Jesuit continues to explain the medal, "St. Jerome teaches us," says

he, "that angels are the ministers of the Divine wrath, which in this case made use of the weapons of the King. It was thus that an angel of the Lord smote, during the night, 85,000 Assyrians encamped before Jerusalem. Besides, nothing is more ancient than the representation of angels. God commands, in his Law, both to make and preserve these holy images even in the sanctuary of the temple.

Exodus XXV. 'Thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, which shall look one to another, in the two ends of the mercy seat.'

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But are we not restraining ourselves too long? Must we, to be impartial, appear by our silence to approve the most dastardly cruelty cloaked by the most disgusting hypocrisy? No, at length we speak out, and give vent to our whole indignation.

Here, then, are the Popes; proud, idolatrous, ambitious, criminal! No, I am mistaken; ordinary crimimals excuse or deny their acts; but the Popes boast of theirs and glory in them; they distinguish their assassins by the title of Destroying Angel, and believe themselves washed from the blood that has been poured out; they bless their ministers going forth as regicides: if they triumph, they will make kings of them, if they fail, they will make martyrs of them; and thus, perverting both the tongue and the conscience, they call virtue crime, and crime virtue, they merely term such atrocities holy severities, pious frauds, blessed crimes; and that is all! Ah! ye whited sepulchres; not thus acted the Divine Master whose name and titles you usurp; and there cannot be a keener censure of your conduct than the history of Jesus Christ. What is there in common between you and this Jesus-so meek, so humble, so pure, so holy? What resemblance between the Saviour wearing a crown of thorns burdened with drops of his own blood, and you wearing a tiara of three stages high, covered with diamonds? What connexion between his "kingdom," which he says "is not of this world," and yours, whose aim is to extend itself over worldly gold and power? What analogy between Jesus refusing to be king, and you usurping crowns? between Jesus transforming his disciples into servants, and you, of your creatures, making kings and princes? When you present your slipper to be kissed by a monarch, do you greatly resemble Jesus washing the feet of his disciples? Reposing on the down of your palaces, do you well remember Him who had not where to lay his head? Ye "meek pastors," who eagerly pursue heretics to put them to death, have you taken as your pattern the "Good Shepherd" climbing the mountain to bring back upon his shoulders the wandering sheep? Jesus forgave the Samaritans; you massacre the Huguenots! Jesus died for sinners; you cause the innocent to be put to death! Jesus, poor and humble, went about doing good; you, rich, haughty, and powerful, sow every where hatred, anathemas, and faggots!

But the Popes of our day, are they not better than those of former times? Go and ask Ciocci-escaping from the dungeons of the inquisition; go visit the palaces of the Romagna transformed into state prisons; estimate, if you can, the number of mendicants and assassins of the Pontifical States; see the misery and ignorance of the most Catholic nation upon earth, the total absence of industry and commerce, the thinking men proscribed, the learned silenced, and the rest of the world receiving from the Pope for teachers, Jesuits; for religion, relics; for precepts, novenas; for salvation, masses; for hope, purgatory !*

*These lines were traced before the accession of Pius IX. to the pontifical throne. The six months' reign of this model Pope have in no respect altered our

Ah! it is not the people upon whom we should charge their own unbelief, but their spiritual guides, destroying the faith by their vices and their crimes. Infidelity has always increased with the number and influence of the Romish clergy: Italy is worse than Spain, because it has the Pope and his court at its head; Spain is worse than France, because it has cherished the inquisition; and France is worse than the United States, because it still has a numerous body of Romish clergy. Do you think that if the Popes had been as virtuous as some of them have been criminal, Europe would be at this day so deeply plunged in demoralization and impiety? No; and I take yourself, reader, as a witness. If, as spiritual guide, were presented to you a Being, truly pure, truly holy, whose every word was a truth, every action a kindness, every promise a certainty; would you not feel yourself attracted toward such a bishop of your soul? Would you not be rejoiced to hear him, ready to obey him, and desirous to imitate him? What, then, if this Bishop, or Pope, were willing to give you, and not to sell you, the greatest favours of heaven, and to guarantee to you, from this very day, your everlasting salvation? Ah! doubtless, you would love him as yourself; you would make him, in some sense, your god upon earth! Well, then, listen: such a Pope exists, he is Jesus Christ! What Pope of Rome would dare to deny this? Yes, reader, Jesus Christ is your true Bishop, your true Master. He, and he alone, has always spoken the truth, always lived holily, always kept his promises, and given, instead of selling, not dead relics to restore health, but his living body to expiate your sins! What Pope has descended from his throne to die as an outcast for the saving of his people? It is Jesus Christ, who descended from heaven to expire on earth in the stead of those who confide in him. What Pope has published bulls really inspired by the Holy Ghost, and of which every word is certain? Jesus Christ, who has left us the writings of his Apostles in the New Testament; a book infallible, Divine, and sufficient to guide and save us. What Pope is there whose life, from first to last, can serve us for a model? Jesus Christ, who went about doing good, preaching the Gospel to the poor, visiting the sick, comforting the afflicted, and pardoning his enemies. Ah! let us at length be wise; let us leave yonder that vast succession of Popes, defiled, cruel, ignorant; and let us content ourselves with one who is pure, gentle, and all-powerful! Is not one holy God more worthy of estimation than a thousand men who are sinners? Cannot Jesus Christ supply the place of all the Popes for us? Jesus, who speaks to us in the Bible, answers us from the highest heavens, and is ready to give to us eternal life to-day, this very instant, if to-day, if this

opinion. In fact, we have seen that if policy has induced the temporal monarch to make great promises to his people on his ascending the throne, the very nature of Popery has compelled him, since then, to confine himself to slight ameliorations in the civil government, without touching the monstrous privileges of the Romish priest, who is a complete screen placed between Jesus Christ, the Sun of Truth, and the eyes of the people who must remain in darkness as in times past. Pius IX., like his predecessor, has condemned, in his encyclical letter, the liberty of the press, the works of philosophers, and even the innocent Bible Societies.

very instant, we are willing to confide in him? Yes; and, therefore, without doubt, I take for Master, for judge, for teacher, not the Pope-mere man who sits at Rome,-but Jesus Christ, the true God who reigns in the heavens.

FACTS FOR THE TIMES; OR, THINGS TO THINK ON FOR ALL PEOPLE.

BY S. PHILLIPS DAY,

FORMERLY A RELIGIOUS OF THE ORDER OF THE PRESENTATION.

THERE are FACTS which many of the present generation would feign disregard, notwithstanding the momentous import of their bearing. We allude to those principles and practices which but too powerfully illustrate the rampant genius of Rome. Why it is that the Protestant mind has become so imbecile, and the Protestant heart so tainted with a spurious liberality, as to regard the mystic BEAST OF BABYLON as an innocuous creature-suited, it may be, to the refinement of the drawing-room, the innocent recreation of the nursery, or even the solemnities of the sanctuary-is a problem, the solution of which we entrust to the ingenuous reader. Enough for us to bewail the utter declensions from those upright principles, and that undeviating policy, which heretofore influenced the statesmen and intelligent of the British Empire, in the breasts of England's children at the present day. Still, we venture to hope that that magnanimous spirit which directed and governed the minds of our forefathers, will, like the bird of fable, burst into life from its consuming embers, and spring forth in all the fulness and freshness of beauty, resuming its wonted influence in the senate chamber, and rendering still more happy and more free the homes and altars of the British people.

In undertaking the review of some of Rome's barbarities, we are uninfluenced by low bigotry or personal spleen. We love Roman Catholics as much as we hate their principles; though to some, such an assertion would appear paradoxical. Indeed, we are stimulated in our efforts by love for the truth, and a desire, however ineffectual, to disabuse the minds of those who are prepossessed in favour of Romanism, and who are, consequently, either utterly ignorant of Rome's iniquitous practices, or unwilling to believe that she really is what the concurrent and incontrovertible testimony of history, experience, and revelation confirm her to be.

The unchangeableness of the Church of Rome is the vaunt of her deluded votaries-"semper eadem "-and so far as that immutability of character is connected with a decided hatred of, and opposition to Protestantism and its professors, the fact is sufficiently notorious.

We shall now direct the reader's attention to the intolerant and antichristian spirit of the Church of Rome, as strikingly exemplified by her public and avowed sanction and approval of massacres and persecutions the most savage and relentless; having, moreover, in order to gratify her insatiable appetite, and to afford a more fitting opportunity for slaughter and carnage, entered into and formed treaties, which

she, void of all principle, faith, or religion, most egregiously broke, and rendered de jure void, as soon as the unfortunate but credulous victims of her deception were within the merciless grasp of her jurisdiction.

The chief weapon of Rome's warfare, which is a most decided characteristic of the apostasy-is the temporal sword. Truth could not be disseminated by this means. Falsehood could not be propagated by any other. Truth would need it not, but would spurn from its presence an auxiliary so inconsonant with its purity, having but to appeal to the judgment and understanding to cause itself to be received. Falsehood, as it could neither appeal to the one or the other, must necessarily summon tyranny to its assistance, and use the iron rod of authority to establish itself.

That such has been the mode of procedure with the Romish Church, melancholy, heart-distressing facts render most undeniable. A few of those facts I shall narrate-and but a few-for instances without number are recorded of barbarities-cruel and savage in the extreme -such as could only be devised by an infernal agency, perpetrated by this unholy and apostate Church.* But would (though it were vain to wish) that all her barbarous and bloody deeds could be computed-would, I repeat, that the powers of calculation could enumerate them! But no! They are countless as the sands on the sea shore-countless as the drops which compose the ocean-countless as the atoms which float in the immeasurable space around us; and although no human register is stained with all the crimson deeds she has perpetrated, yet they are not lost-they are not forgotten. No: they are entered in the great "Book of Remembrance" by the hand of the recording angel, and shall be revealed nakedly and openly when God comes to judge the earth. Then shall the mighty cry resound, "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her." (Rev. xviii. 20.)

In bringing forward examples of Rome's blood-thirstiness and perfidy, I shall, in the first instance, briefly allude to the protracted and cruel persecution of the poor, faithful, and religious people denominated Waldenses and Albigenses, who inhabited the mountains of France and Piedmont. These unoffending individuals, of whom even Roman Catholic writers of authority give the most adulatory account, were from the year 1209 (at which period Pope Innocent III.† established crusades against them, and put 60,000 to the sword), to 1218, and at subsequent periods, persecuted with the direst severity; all the thunders of Rome's artillery being hurled on them. Under that

* As a specimen at the inauguration of Henry II. of France, Protestants were fastened to stakes in the principal streets, and set on fire, to serve as torches to the procession; and the Parliament of Paris made a decree declaring it lawful to kill heretics wherever found, which was read in all the churches. Philip of Spain personally superintended the ecclesiastical fires in his dominions, and ordered his heretic subjects to be consumed in his presence.

A.D. 1208. This Papal Antichrist ordered one hundred nobles and several others of Alsatia, to be burned to death for holding that it was lawful to eat meat on certain days, and that priestly celibacy was unscriptural. This very doctrine of celibacy was forbidden the clergy by Pope Siricius in the fourth century. What a specimen of Rome's infallibility!

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