D 1. Io sono il Signore Iddio tuo: non avrai altro Dio avara di altro Dio avarti me. 2. Non pigliare il Nome di Dio in vano. 3. Ricordati di sanctificare le Feste. 4. Onara il Padre, e la Madre. 5. Non ammazzare. 6. Non fornicare. 7. Non rubare. 8. Non dir falso testimonio. 9. Non desideare la Donna d'altri. 10. Non desideare la Roba d'altri. M. Chi ha dato questi Comandamenti ? D. L'istesso Dio nella Legge vechia, e poi Cristo nostro Signore il ha confermati nella nuova. TRANSLATION. Short Christian Doctrine, composed by the order of Pope Clement VIII. By the Rev. Father Robert Bellarmine, of the Company of Jesus, and Cardinal of the Holy Church. Revised and approved by the Congregation of Reform. Rome, 1836. By Peter Aurelj, Printer and Bookseller, in Via Sediari, No. 24. With license and privileges of the Superiors. London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside. 1839. ON THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD. M. Let us come now to that which is to be done, in order to love God and our neighbour. Repeat the Ten Commandments. D. 1. I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have none other God before me. 2. Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain. 3. Remember to keep holy the festivals. 4. Honour thy father and thy mother. 5. Do not kill. 6. Do not commit adultery. 7. Do not steal. 8. Do not bear false witness. 9. Do not covet thy neighbour's wife. 10. Do not covet your neighbour's goods. M. Who gave these commandments? D. God himself, under the old dispensation, and Christ our Lord has confirmed them under the new. The above catechism was purchased at Rome in the year 1838, and is the catechism in general use in the schools of that mystical Babylon. The principles it inculcates speak for themselves. The fact is not a little important, that two of the laws of God are blotted completely out of the Decalogue. Not a trace of the second commandment is to be found; for the fourth is substituted a command of the "Man of Sin," to remember to keep holy the days which God has set apart for labour, and which he has set apart for idleness and idolatry; while the day which God has commanded to be kept holy, he has not thought proper to mention. The original Bulls of Clement VIII. and Benedict XIII. are given to authenticate the work, and the whole catechism is printed verbatim from the copy brought over from Rome by the gentleman who gave it to the editor; the latter gives his name, merely to take on himself the responsibility of the document. translation, it is hoped, is tolerably correct. The R. J. M'GHEE. SIR R. PEEL'S MANIFESTO. To the Editor of the Protestant Magazine. July 24, 1847. SIR,-If it is not too late, might not some notice be taken with advantage, in the forthcoming number of the “ Protestant Magazine," of Sir Robert Peel's address to the electors of Tamworth? 66 The Right Hon. Baronet says, "I look back with cordial satisfaction to the part which I took in support of those measures, and to the spirit in which they were conceived. It was a spirit of justice and kindness towards our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects in Ireland, a spirit which will, I trust, animate our future legislation with reference to that country." It thus appears that Sir R. Peel grounds his support of all those measures which have for their object the encouragement and advancement of Popery, on the fallacious assumption that Romanists are fellow-subjects. When this sentiment is viewed in connexion with what fell from Lord John Russell in his recent speech at the London Tavern, on which occasion he observed, "I think the Roman Catholics are entitled to all the privileges which the rest of the country possesses," it shows how little confidence is to be placed in the leading statesmen of the day, and how utterly incompetent mere politicians are to contend with such a subtle enemy as Popery. They will not believe that the Papal system is a thousandth part so bad as it really is. They will not believe, although Lord Arundel had the candour to admit it, that "the Church of Rome was antagonistic to Protestantism, and would continue so until Protestantism was extinct." And they will not believe that to encourage and endow an idolatrous priesthood is a thing most offensive to God and injurious to the best interests of the country. The conduct of our leading statesmen proves that their professions of Protestantism are thoroughly hollow and hypocritical. Sir R. Peel never ought to have stood forward as the champion of the Protestant cause, because he never was sincerely attached to that cause. He now evinces no distrust of the Roman Catholic religion, though at one time he professed to do so. 'There was a time when he believed that Romanism was "something more than a scheme for promoting mere religion,” but he has turned his back on his principles, such as they were, and treacherously betrayed the cause he once espoused. There is one thing we may be quite sure of, namely, that those persons must be either knaves or fools, who, without any reference to principle, clamour for "equal civil rights." Are Jesuits, who are perpetually plotting our ruin, entitled to such rights? What becomes, then, of this much vaunted axiom, which befits only the apostles of infidelity? [Our correspondent has drawn attention to an important point. Popery will never be content with equality. Supremacy is her object, and to extinguish Protestantism altogether is her great desire. Sir R. Peel and Lord J. Russell are alike entrapped by Popery, and leading the mind of the English people to bow down before the idol their ancestors cast down, and to revere the power they despised as weak, denounced as unscriptural, and proscribed as dangerous. But Popery is no plaything. Politicians may think it malleable, and easily to be moulded to their plastic touch. This, however, is a delusion. They will find in Popery a tyrant, where they sought a slave, and see the cringing sycophant transformed into an imperious despot. Popery resisted will ere long be Popery overcome. Popery truckled to will ere long lead to Popery rampant. Its nature will not be changedits power will be increased-and it will be an increase of power for evil purposes. Hence we implore our fellow Protestants to watch over the education of the rising generation, no less than over the proceedings of their senators.-ED. P. M.] FACTS FOR THE TIMES; OR, he was excommunicated by Pope THINGS TO THINK ON FOR BY SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY, FORMERLY (Continued from page 142.) the murder of the French emperors, and from whence they were sent (assuming various disguises, just as they may deem such necessary), in order to foment rebellion and disaffection among the subjects of the King. One of the most notorious of those miscreants was the Jesuit Sammier, who traversed Europe with the view of exciting hatred in the breasts of the Popish sovereigns against Henry, who was detested, solely for tolerating his Hugonot subjects within his dominion; and on which ground * A work was written in justification of Henry's abdication, entitled, "De Justa Abdicatione Henrici Tertii." Sixtus V., and subsequently assassinated by a monk named Jacques Clement (who was prepared for the act by a sort of consecration). After the perpetration of the horrid deed, solemn processions were made to the Church of the Jacobins, in thanksgiving for so signal a favour conferred on the Church; and the Pope (Sixtus which he declared this act of the V.) finally pronounced an oration, in monk "admirable and meritorious," and completed a design, which he observing that "he had attempted could never have done by human policy, but by the express ordinance and succour of God!"† The next deed of Popish persecution I shall mention is the murder of Henry IV. of France, successor to the former unhappy monarch. This emperor having apostatized from the 1693, and embraced the errors of Protestant faith on the 23d July, Romanism, it might be imagined that child of the Papacy. But no! His he, at least, would be the beloved change of principles availed him Orat. Panegyric in Antichristo. nothing. Having published the Edict of Nantz, thereby securing to his Protestant subjects the free exercise of their religion-he was, in consequence, despised and repudiated, and repeated attempts were made to assassinate him both by Barriere † and Jean Chatel, each a disciple of the Jesuits. At length he was stabbed, when stepping out of his carriage, by one Ravaillac, a friar, on the 14th May, 1610; this murderer, in order to fit himself for the bloody deed, having previously attended mass, reconciled himself to God, and confessed to a priest, to whom he disclosed his iniquitous design. Thus fell, by Rome's cruelty, two Kings of France in succession. Well did one remark, "O Rome! Rome! guilty, apostate Rome! Had I verily seen the finger of heaven pointing to thy form-had mine eyes visibly beheld the hand of Jehovah-of him who hath on his vesture and on his thigh written, 'King of kings, and Lord of lords,' tracing the name, 'MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH,' with a torch lighted in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, on thy seared brow; not with deeper more heart-drawn cre * This edict, which had been sealed by the most solemn oaths and compacts, was perfidiously revoked by Louis XIV., who destroyed multitudes by drowning, burning, shooting, breaking on the wheel, starving, and other cruel tortures-500,000 inhabitants were compelled to quit France in consequence of this revocation. Yet, for all these cruelties, Louis was congratulated by Pope Innocent XI. in a letter dated Rome, Nov. 10th, in the tenth year of his pontificate, which says, "The Catholic Church shall most assuredly record in her sacred annals a work of such devotion towards her, and celebrate name with never-dying praises." your He was arrested in August, 1594, on a charge of attempting the king's life, and confessed on the scaffold, that he had consulted Aubrey, a priest, who greatly commended his design, and sent him to Varade, chief of the Jesuits, for instructions, who confirmed him in his "holy resolution," and exhorted him to be firm and of good courage, and to receive the sacrament for his consolation. Commolet, another Jesuit, assured him that his intention was holy and meritorious! He was finally executed at Melun. dence could I have believed it, or more fearfully shuddered at thine approaching doom!"‡ It would greatly exceed the intended limits were I to bring before the reader's notice the multiplied acts of oppression and intolerance which have characterized and stained the annals of the Church of Rome in every age of her imperious usurpation! However, the Inquisition cannot be silently passed over -that infernal tribunal, where hundreds of thousands found their innocence betrayed their property confiscated their piety derided—and their persons doomed to destruction,—and all to satiate the wild caprice of a faction! and appease the ferocious spirit of Rome! In turning over the dark and soulsickening page of the Inquisition, I feel the blood chill in my veins, and a melancholy seizes my mind, from which a momentary shudder in part recovers me! What, gracious heaven! permit me reverentially to exclaim, what has produced so dire an evil, or permitted it so long to triumph? Thou who holdest in thy grasp the fierce thunderbolts of stern justice, how is it that the cries, and the tears, and the agonies of the dying, and the innocent blood of the slaughtered messengers of thy fury, upon the dead, did not evoke those burning guilty heads of the demonial corpswithering the uplifted arm, and bowing the imperious head of the persecuting zealot, and the tiared priest? But it is not for me to scan the mind of Heaven, or inquire why the poisoned shafts of retribution have not pierced their victims yet! Llorente, in his "History of the Inquisition," thus records the number of individuals who have been mercilessly sacrificed to Papal cruelty :Condemned and burnt.. Burnt in effigy Placed in confinement 31,912 17,695 with rigorous punishment.. 291,450 Total.... 341,057 The history from which I quote is Rev. Robert Trail, A.M. prisoners of the Inquisition were searched, and a certain number of victims produced. On that memorable occasion the seat of the chief inquisitors was raised some steps higher than those occupied by the King and Queen of Spain. At length the mournful procession advanced, bearing the standard of St. Dominic in the van; and so vast was the crowd that many of the victims passed close to the chair of the queen. Among the rest was a young and beautiful Jewess, who seized a moment to address the queen; and who, in the intense agony of her soul, shrieked, "Mercy, mercy, great Queen, I am about to be burned alive for professing the only religion I was ever taught. Save me, for the love of God!" The young bride was deeply affected by a scene so tragically touching. She glanced at the King, and then at the chief Inquisitor, but felt it were vain to intercede for her relief. So hardened were their hearts! The procession moved on solemnly and slow. The sacrifice was pleted! And Elizabeth declared at her dying hour, that she heard distinctly ringing in her ears, the screams of the burning Jewess:-" Misericordia por amor di Dios!" com When we add to these horrid barbarities the several other instances of Rome's cruelty, as furnished by the pens of candid historians, as well as those sad occurrences of modern and recent dates,* of which her tyranny has been the precursor, and in most instances, the sole cause, what a hideous mass of intolerance, persecution, and bloodshed, presents itself to our astonished gaze? Who can contemplate it without horror, or view it without tears? Who can make a truce with so implacable an enemy, or press so poisonous a serpent to his heart? Who can gaze upon this scaly leviathan, without feeling sensations of disgust beyond the power of language to describe? Significantly does the inspired record delineate Rome's true character when it affirms, that she is "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus."+ Oh! with what trembling does my heart survey, In dreams of other times, Rome's direful sway! And hear her curses, like a dark wild flood, Rolling from hell in perjury and blood; And feel her grasp-oh! 'tis as when the grave Folds in its cerements all your soul would save; Cold as its bosom, where no flower will bloom Hushed as its stillness-dreary as its gloom : No peace in life she leaves you-none in death; Nor checks one sigh upon your parting breath! But, yet a moment! yon gay sun that flies High in his blazing chariot thro' the skies, Not oft shall run his bright diurnal round, Ere, swept from earth, no vestige of her found! *We allude to the massacre of 200,000 Protestants in Ireland, during the reign of Charles I.; to the persecution of the Zillerthals, in 1837; to Dr. Kalley and Maria Joacquina, in Portugal, and Šignor Ciocci, in Rome. + Rev. xxii, 6. |