the Protestant Reformed Church, there are no doctrines but such as are sanctioned and recommended by the Gospel; whereas, in the Romish Church, the doctrines of our Saviour have long been discarded for the errors of Popery. "The true Church of Christ" appeals to the understanding-the Atheist may be converted to its faith, but the Bigot, who has been taught to erect his hopes of salvation on the basis of Superstition-who has been taught to surrender the most exalted attribute of his nature (REASON) at the feet of Idolatry-such a one dare not listen to the internal workings of conviction, since, conscious of the victory, he shrinks affrighted at her power, and turns to the priest, who has misled him, a sincere penitent, for having, but an instant, yielded up the reins of prejudice to common sense. then marvel whilst one class of Christians protested only against the abuses which an unchristian lust of spiritual and secular power had extended throughout their whole church, that those by whom they were committed should protest against a reformation of them? Can we As we have nothing to reply to in the third paragraph, we beg to ask a few questions. Instead of the Pope telling us that none but his Church "can be true," and that "she must" be so, &c. &c., would it not have been wiser (if he could have done so) to have shown us, by the Scriptures, when Peter went to Rome, how long he was Pope, and whom he appointed to take the supremacy, &c.? We can find nothing of the kind in the Scriptures. CHRIST says to his Apostles, "But be ye not called Rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren; and call ye no man your Father upon earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant," &c. (Matt. xxiii. 8, 9, 11.) This is the language of Scripture; let Papists read the whole chapter-it is written against ambition; and such scriptural proofs will best determine the purity of the Pope's Church. But, as we have been told that "reformation came into the world too late," it may not be improper here to show that a "reformation" of Popish abuses had commenced at a somewhat earlier period than the Pope or Dr. Challoner has thought fit to notice; we will also show what means were adopted by the Church of Rome to crush an innovation so destructive of its influence. Had not the Pope nor the Doctor ever heard of such people as the Waldenses or the Albigenses, who were coolly murdered for their "Reformation," which commenced in the year 1160? However, as these gentlemen have not taken any notice of this great victory obtained over Protestantism by Popery, we will endeavour to give such of their own readers, who may peruse what we write, some little information on the subject. Of their heresy, Venema gives this account in his Historia Ecclesiastica-" They held the Holy Scriptures to be the only source of faith and religion, without regard to the authority of the Fathers, and of tradition; they held the entire faith according to all the articles of the Apostles' Creed. They rejected all the external rites of the dominant Church, excepting Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as temples, vestures, images, crosses, the religious worship of the holy relics, and the remaining sacraments; these they considered as inventions of Satan, and of the flesh, and full of superstition. They rejected purgatory, with masses for the dead, acknowledging only two terminations of the present state-heaven and hell. They admitted no indulgences, nor confessions of sin, with any of their consequences, excepting mutual confessions of the faithful for instruction and consolation. They held the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist only as signs, denying the corporal presence of Christ in the Eucharist. They held only three ecclesiastical orders-Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. They considered monasticism a putrid carcass, and vows the invention of men; and declared the marriage of the clergy to be lawful and necessary. Finally, they pronounced the Roman Church the whore of Babylon, and denied obedience to the Pope and his authority over other churches; nor would admit that he had the power of either the civil or ecclesiastical sword." Such were the doctrines of "reformation" preached in 1160, and as we shall show from the best authorities, that none of the "abuses" were introduced into the Christian religion (thereby rendering it unchristian) until many ages after the Resurrection, it will be found more difficult to prove, than merely to assert, that those "who came into the world 1500 years after Christ, came into the world 1500 years too late" to restore to the church her PRIMITIVE sanctity of doctrine and discipline. The Waldenses, whose religious professions we have quoted as above, were the followers of Peter Waldus, a native of Lyons; and who, for their hostility to Popery, were banished by the Papal authorities of France, and took refuge in Piedmont. The natives of Albi, in the province of Languedoc, professed the same, or a similar creed, to the Waldenses, and were esteemed as a people possessing more learning and intelligence than any other Christians of that age: their numbers rapidly increased as their professions of faith spread abroad; and the inhabitants of their immediate neighbourhood, disgusted with the vices of Popery, as they were exemplified in her ministers, became willing converts to the belief of the Albigenses; the "heresy" engendered by whose creed the Pope (Innocent III.) resolved to exterminate by the murder of all its professors." The preaching of a first Reformation," says M. de Sismondi, "amongst the Provençals was the occasion of the devastation of this beautiful country." Innocent III., in the year 1206, as Henault says, commenced his preparations for the work of blood; forgiveness of sins, with indulgences to commit more, were promised to all who joined this holy crusade, as it was called, by the Pope and his agents: of these, the Abbot of Citeaux, Arnold Amalric, (of the order of Bernardins,) was one of the principal; another of these was Saint (Saint!!!) Dominic*, a Spaniard, who commenced the order of (St. Dominic) the Inquisitors, assisted by the pious efforts of St. Francist. About the year 1209-10 Massacre appears to have arrived at the height of her own sanguinary office : : "The fixed population of Beziers did not, perhaps, exceed "15,000 persons; but all the inhabitants of the country, of "the open villages, and of the castles which had not been "judged capable of defence, had taken refuge in this city, "which was regarded as exceedingly strong; and even those "who had remained to guard the strong castles, had, for the "most part, sent their wives and children to Beziers. This "whole multitude, at the moment when the crusaders became "masters of the gates, took refuge in the churches; the 66 great cathedral of St. Nicaise contained the greater num"ber: the Canons, clothed with their choral habits, sur"rounded the altar, and sounded the bells as if to express "their prayers to the furious assailants; but these supplica"tions of brass were as little heard as those of the human "voice. The bells ceased not to sound, till, of that immense "multitude which had taken refuge in the church, the last "had been massacred! Neither were those spared who had "sought an asylum in the other churches; 7000 dead bodies 66 were counted in that of the Magdalen alone. When the "crusaders had massacred the last living creature in Beziers, "and had pillaged the houses of all that they thought worth "carrying off, they set fire to the city, in every part at once, " and reduced it to a vast funeral pile. Not a house remained * This monster, Dominic de Guzman, was born at Calaroga, in Old Castile, A. D. 1170, and was an Inquisitor of Languedoc, where he founded his order in 1215. He died in 1221, at Bologna, and was CANONIZED!!! Father Francis was also another agent of this Papal butcher in his work of blood, and coadjutor of Dominic, who, whilst the latter was engaged in the murders of Albi, (as Dr. Chandler expresses it)" battled it with the heretics of Italy." This is the "blessed St. Francis," whose piety Romanists thus distinguish-"Christ prayed, Francis prevailed!" See Bp. Hall, v. i. p. 279. (The blasphemy commencing with nihil Christus fecit, &c., we dare not repeat.) The blessings of this saint are, at this day, worn by many of our Irish Romanist fellow-subjects about their persons, to protect them from temptations of the devil, sickness, sudden death, &c. "standing, not one human being alive. Historians differ as "to the number of victims. The Abbot of Citeaux, feeling 66 some shame for the butchery which he had ordered, in his "letter to Innocent III. reduces it to 15,000, others make it ❝ amount to 60,000.” The persecutions of this devoted race continued without intermission until (with the exception of a few individuals who escaped) it was exterminated. "The crusaders took possession of the castle of Minerva "the 22d of July, 1210; they entered, singing Te Deum, "and preceded by the cross and the standards of Montfort. "The heretics were, in the mean time, assembled, the men "in one house, the women in another, and there, on their 66 knees, and resigned to their fate, they prepared themselves, "by prayer, for the punishment which awaited them. The 66 Abbot, Guy de Vaux-Cernay, to fulfil the capitulation, "came, and began to preach to them the Roman Catholic "faith; but his auditors interrupted him by an unanimous 66 cry-We will have none of your faith,' said they,' we "have renounced the Church of Rome: your labour is in "vain; for neither death nor life will make us renounce the "opinions that we have embraced.' The Abbot of Vaux"Cernay then passed to the assembly of the women; but he ❝ found them as resolute, and more enthusiastic still in their "declarations. The Count of Montfort, in his turn, visited "both. Already he had piled up an enormous mass of dry "wood: Be converted to the Catholic faith,' said he to the "assembled Albigenses, or ascend this pile.' None were “shaken. They set fire to the pile, which covered the whole 66 square with a tremendous conflagration; and the heretics "were then conducted to the place. But violence was not "necessary to compel them to enter the flames; they volun"tarily precipitated themselves into them, to the number of more than 140, after having commended their souls to that "God in whose cause they suffered martyrdom. Three 66 |