Rev. Mr. Gandolphy's Letter on the Bull against Bible Societies. 163 affairs, to an instrument lately printed be a bull, addressed by pope Pius VII. in your respectable paper, purporting to to the archbishop of Gnesn, primate of Poland. "History, Mr. Editor, furnishes us with many examples of forged documents, which, for a time, have produc of an unhappy victim seated on a block, to which he is held down by a man, while his feet are placed on a heap of burning fagots, On one side stands a bishop habited in his pontificals, with the mitre on his head, and a crosier in his hand; on the other is a monk, with a firebranded an impression, but in the end they in one hand, and a book (Query, Is it meant for the bible?) in the other; and, to complete the whole, at the feet of this religious is placed one of his brethren, who, in his zeal for religion, has laid down his beads to make use of A PAIR OF BELLOWS!!! Whether bellows were as much in use by papists in those days as false representations and lies are by bible-mongers in our own, I am not able to determine; but such is the pretty gay which adorns this danger-proclaiming document to frighten the stout hearts of the enlightened people of England; nor are its contents of a less shocking nature, as the editor gravely assures his readers, that "CATHOLIC PRIESTS are the agents in this horrible, this diabolical cruelty;" and that "DEVILS and ROMAN CATHOLICS stand by and enjoy the scene." Enough has been said to prove the liberality of the supporters of such base tricks; let us now examine the integrity of these genuine popery-haters. 1 before alluded to the publication of the bull against the bible-societies, a copy of which I inserted in my last number, and gave my decided opinion of its being a spurious instrument. On the 9th instant, the Rev. Mr. Gandolphy published a let ter in The Day and New Times paper of that date, respecting the genuineness of this bull, in which this respectable writer says, Having a decided aversion to whatever is surreptitiously or clandestinely obtained or falsely advanced, for the purpose of practising deceit towards the public, on any point of religion, I beg leave to recall the attention of your rea ders, at this critical moment of catholic have never failed to disgrace the party that could venture to support a cause by such desperate and forbidden expedi ents. To bring forward a forged and invalid voucher, which every one is at liberty to question and expose, and to rest a defence upon the same, is to prepare a certain verdict against oneself. "The multitude may not be always equal to detect the deception which is attempted; it is indifferent, however, with the learned; for there is a peculiar style and form in all original documents, and particularly in papal bulls, that render imitation easy in one sense, but difficult in another, and the learned generally carry about them the key of detection. There is no better mode of proving the authenticity of papers, in the first instance, than that of compa rison. "I will not enter upon a minute investigation of the style and contents of this bull before us, addressed to the primate of Poland, as it is said to be; but merely observe that it carries in the very face of it all the evidence of forgery and of English manufacture; 'whilst, on the other hand, I think I can show satisfactorily that it is not of Roman origin. "I happened to be in Rome, Mr. Editor, on the very day this bull to the archbishop of Gnesn is reported to have been signed, and can undertake to affirm, that on that very day the pope was never once in the church or palace of St. Mary Major, or St. Mary the Greater. Every one who has any knowthe 29th of June, the festival of the ledge of the Roman court is aware, that martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul, is more distinguished than any other day of the year, by the splendour of the church service and exhibitions; which, in fact, continue nearly the whole of the day, or from nine o'clock in the morning until ten at night. To be prepared, therefore,for the fatiguing ceremonies of St. Peter's day at Rome, the pope's practice is to move on the preceding even ing, together with the secretary of state, from the palace of Monte Cavallo to the Vatican, adjoining to St. Peter's church, and situated at that extremity of the city which is the most distant from the church of St. Mary Major, or the Greater. Now, I can declare, on my certain knowledge, that during the whole of June 29, 1816, the pope never quitted the Vatican palace and St. Peter's church, and that he only returned to his palace at Monte Cavallo on the following day. There are actually many other travellers in London, who can support me in the same declaration. I have, moreover, reason for believing, that the pope did not transact any business at St. Mary Major's during the whole of last year. 66 Hav circumstanee for our bull-manufac- Having, as I conceive, therefore, established an alibi for the pope against the date of this bull, and not wanting other motives for believing this document to be a forged instrument foisted into the public journals, I cannot hesitate, Mr. Editor, to condemn and expose in the most undisguised manner, this new attempt at deception; and, I trust, your readers will perceive that the fictitious bull has been merely manufactured to, prejudice the protest- "As a postscript to my FIRST EDIant mind at this moment against the TION, these words were subjoined :claims of their catholic feilow-sub-If any private individual possesses a jects." copy of the pope's bull or brief, and withholds it from the British public without substantial reasons, he is earnestly requested to convey a fair transcript of it to SCRUTATOR, at Mr. HATCHARD'S, 190, Piccadilly.' Five days after the publication of that request, I received a packet from Mr. Hatchard, which came to him by the post, containing THE PAPAL BULL, and directed to 'SCRUTATOR.' Not long afterwards, four more copies were consulted, which agreed substantially together: and it cannot be disbelieved This letter, from the pen of Mr. Gandolphy, it appears by a subsequent publication of the forger of the bull, is considered insufficient to invalidate the authenticity of his "cutting instrument," as he terms it; and he has had the audacity to send forth another bull, said to have been sent to the archbishop of Mechlin on the 3d of Sept. last, on the same subject. But, unfortunately for the inventor, a reference to the "Almanach Royal de la Cour, des Provinces Méridionales et de la Villa de Bruxelles, pour l'An. 1817," "Doubtless, the Romish prelates in will shew that the see of Mechlin or the British empire arealready acquaintMalines has been for some time VA-ed with this new brief or rescript; and CANT, and is now governed by a vicar-general. Consequently, his holiness is made to address an official instrument to a character not in existence! This is rather an ugly that all of them came from the same original at Rome, differing only so much as the several transcribers might be supposed to vary. it is fit that every protestant should now read its appalling contents, that a clear proof may not be wanting of the real sense of the church of Rome itself on so weighty and interesting a subject! Here, then, we have its plain meaning ing a certain papal brief, or redeliberately, officially, and publicly descript, which is known to have been clared, upon the most indubitable authority" LET HIM THAT READETH UNDERSTAND." "After my corrected copy of this bull (obtained by carefully collating several MSS.) had been printed in Latin and English, I saw LUTHER's translation of it in the Times of April the 10th. If I had fully approved of his version, and been willing to adopt it, I could not then have done so; but, I thought that performance was not sufficiently close and literal to be placed by the side of the Latin, although it conveyed the general sense and spirit of the original: I therefore sent my own printed copy, in both languages, for insertion in several of the newspapers and journals. Still, however, incorrect copies continue to be widely circulated and quoted. 66 April 18, 1817," issued from Rome last June, against This number, as I stated in my last, I have every reason to conjecture was left for me at my Repertory, in Drake street, by the editor personally, the day after the date of the above article, namely the 19th. Whether an edition of the Antibiblion was ever published in any other shape than the copy I hold, which purports to be the second edition, enlarged, I have my doubts; particularly as Mr. Scrutator did not notice such a work when he informed the editor of the Morning Chronicle, that he intended immediately to publish, the Latin and Eng-ed in Poland; and the inventive gelish version of the bull at Mr. Hatchard's, with notes and illustrations. But admitting a first edition to have been disposed of, let us compare the dates and see how rapidly the sapient writer has been enabled to bring forth this "cutting instrument," which is truly of a keen nature, as it possesses the faculty of cutting its inventor for the simples. The date of this Antibiblion is March 31, 1817, and commences by expressing the surprize of the editor of seeing of late "obscure allusions, in several journals, magazines, and newspapers, respect nius of Mr. Scrutator soon contrives a method to get over this difficulty; not reader by referring to the original letter of Mr. Pinkerton, but to an article written by himself, under the signature of "LUTHER," and inserted in The Times, eleven days interior to the date of this first edi tion of the Antibiblion.--This mysterious business is partly unravelled, he says, by a correspondent who calls himself "LUTHER," in the "Times" newspaper of March 20th, He then gives large quotations from this writer, from which the subjoined extract is taken :-"What has been pretended bull, since he is very li beral in citing its contents, but the time was not yet arrived for its appearing in print; a little more chicanery must first be played off, and the public curiosity be further whetted, before the charm was disclosed.-Accordingly the editor, concludes his article, with the following words :-"The forging of a pope's brief is not to be imagined. I am therefore constrained to believe that the official document itself, which is thus quoted in the " Times," has a real existence. If so, where is it? and why has not this anony mous writer given more of its precicious contents? I beg to inquire, whether a copy of it does not now lie in the archives of that noble so anciently avowed by the church of Rome, respecting the danger of circulating the scriptures of truth, and the impropriety of their being read by any nation in its own tongue, has been recently promulgated with all the influence of pontifical authority, and with all the force which language can convey. It was only in the CLOSE of the last year that, on occasion of a bible society being about to be established in Poland, the present pope, with the full concurrence of all the cardinals of the Romish see, whom he expressly states that he had first convened in council, issued a bull against bible societies in general, and against that intended to be formed in particular." Let me here observe, that the letter of Mr. Pinkerton, in-ciety (in Earl Street) which elecserted in the same number of the "Antibiblion," from whence the above extract is quoted, expressly states, that on the 9th of May last, the Polish bible society was finally and unanimously established;" that "the catholic bishops of Kuavia, Cracow, and Culm, with one of the uniat bishops, were chosen vicepresidents; and that twelve directors, (of whom three were protestants) two secretaries, and a treasurer, were likewise appointed. Now, if Mr. Pinkerton speaks truth, Mr. Luther must be a fabricator of lies; for the latter says, it was at the close of the last year the bull was issued, in consequence of a bible society being about to be established; whereas the date of the bull is the middle of the year, and the foundation of the society was accomplished shortly after its commencement.— But these are trifling mistakes in a writer who assumes the name of an arch-bibliac, openly acknowledging to have received advice from the father of lies--From the rest of Mr. Scrutator's quotation of the modern Luther, it is evident the latter writer was in possession of a copy of this trifies the world? The attempt to conceal it long must be useless; for it has been repeatedly cited in our journals, &c. and different people make the pope's bull a topic of conversation in public assemblies. Then, I ask, why should its entire and undisguised meaning be thus painfully withheld? That which was deemed by his holiness proper to be issued officially in Poland, is necessary to be published for the information of all the world, and especially for PROTESTANTS OF THE BRITISH EMEIRE."-Ah! reader, here we have the clue for the promulgation of this fabricated instrument.-It was not for the information but the illusion of the Protestants of the British empire," at the critical juucture of the discussion of the catholic claims in the imperial senate, which prompted the authors of this nefarious scheme to commence their operations. If the sentiments contained in this instrument, sentiments openly avowed by several of the prelates and other divines of the established church, had been issued in the plain form of a pamphlet, they would not have had the desired ef of treachery, and expose the foul manœuvres resorted to by protestant bigots to support their system of intolerance. In the middle of of February the papers stated, that Mr. Brougham announced to the fect; it was therefore necessary to sir Henry Parnell to bring forward -- |