"flame, and the animosities of the contending parties grew more violent "" every day. These divisions still continue. The Jesuits are at variance "with the Dominicans, and some other religious orders: the Dominicans "are on bad terms with the Franciscans: the controversy concerning the "nature, lawfulness, and expediency of the Chinese ceremonies still con"tinues and were we to mention all the debates that divide the Romish

church, which boasts so much of its unity and infallibility, the enu"meration would be endless." In the year 1704, Clement XI. by a solemn edict forbade the Chinese Christians to practise the idolatrous rites of their ancestors. In 1715 this edict, having exasperated the time-serving Jesuits, was changed, and in consequeuce the Chinese converts were allowed to revert to the same idolatrous rites; to make offerings to the dead, and to prostrate their bodies before their images till the head touches the ground. Mosheim, V.7. For they esteem it lawful and expedient to submit to many inconveniences and abuses rather than risk the entire suppression of Popery in China. Ibid.-Nay, it appears from the reports made to the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, not long since, that the Popish missionaries in India did even participate in the Chinese idolatries by the accustomed rite of touching with the finger the blood of A HOG offered in sacrifice. Yet it seems the British and Irish Papalins refuse the most innocent compliance with their Protestant Sovereign's claim of the oath of allegiance from them as subjects; though the primitive Christians, the best and purest, even rendered that test of obedience to their Heathen magistrates: to whom our Saviour required tribute, and St. Paul obedience, to be paid. But, saith the Romish canon, Papa de omnibus Dei legibus potest dispensare! the Pope has power to dispense with all the laws of God!!! So truly did St. Paul predict concerning "this man of sin, this son of perdition, that he should oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is "God!!!" That I may not occupy too much of your present number, I shall send for your next, some remarks upon the great schism in the Romish church which continued 30 years, and ended in the deposition and excommunication of the infallible heads of the church, the contending Pontiffs, for their crimes and heresies!!!

R. B. N.*

Partly owing to a pressure of temporary matter, partly to an unforeseen accident, this letter has lain by us for some months.

DISPUTES OF PAPISTS, ONE WITH ANOTHER.

A supposed pledge was said to have been given by the Prince Regent, that he would support, or be favourable to the Roman Catholic question. Lord Kenmare, in a letter, has denied all knowledge of any such pledge; and at a meeting of the Catholic Board (so called) at Dublin, June 19th, a letter was read from Lord Fingal, stating, that he never had an audience of the Prince in the presence of Lords Clifden and Petre, as had been asserted, at which the supposed pledge was given, or promise made. letter from Lord Clifden to the same effect was read. A letter from Sir Francis Goold was next read, denying all knowledge of the pledge. but that he had a strong impression on his mind that the Prince expressed bimself in favourable terms concerning the Roman Catholics of Ireland, Major Bryan, however, was not convinced by all this, neither was Mr. O'Connell. Lord Fingal was said to have mentioned the Prince's favoura ble disposition towards the Roman Catholics in Mr. Fitzpatrick's inner Shop. We leave it to the ingenuity of these Noble Lords, and these Honourable Gentlemen, to settle their differences. We are convinced that the Prince has a profound veneration for the Protestant principles which seated his august family on the throne of Great Britain. May they never be infringed; may they never be tampered with! may the Papists yield to the Sovereign undivided allegiance!

P. S. We have sent several excellent papers to our printer, but he cannot find room for them in the present number. They are necessarily postponed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received a valuable paper on the rights of the Church.

We have not yet been able to insert P. C's favour of Mar. 1. 1813. Hi second, signed with his real name, deserves attention; but its length alarms us. Perhaps the learned writer will allow us to remain satisfied with Mr. Le Mesurier's admirable "Counter Address, in answer to Mr. Butler's Address;" already noticed, p. 362; and Fidei Defensor's Letter, sent to our printer two months ago, though, for want of room, not inserted till now.

The important papers of Cardinal Bourbon and the Spanish Regency, &c. in our next. It is with sensible pain that we are compelled to defer the printing of such curious documents, evidencing the genius of Popery on the testimony of Papists, [in this instance, however, to be called rather Roman Catholics] themselves.

If possible, Lists of the Majority and Minority, who voted when Mr. Grattan's Bill was withdrawn, in our number for, August.

THE

PROTESTANT ADVOCATE

For AUGUST 1813.

"Christian, or rather papal Rome, borrowed her rites, notions, and ceremonies, in "the most luxuriant abundance, from ancient and heathen Rome; and much the greater number of those flaunting externals, which infallibility has adoped, and used *tas feathers to adorn her triple-cap, have been stolen out of the wings of the dying eagle."

BRAND.

THE SPANISH REGENCY AND THE POPE'S NUNCIO.

If our readers will refer to the leading article of the 8th Number, (pp. 398. 401), they will see the notice which we took of the glorious conduct of CARDINAL BOURBON; who, exercising the functions of Regent of Spain, (in conjunction with Don Pedro Agar, and Don Gabriel Ciscar), caused the decree of the Cortes, (dated Feb. 22d), abolishing the Inquisition in that country, to be published ;-the last publication having taken place on the 21st of March. It now comes out that the reluctance manifested by the clergy of Cadiz to read the Decree in their Churches, was owing to the intrigues of the Archbishop of Nicea, the Pope's Nuncio in Spain; who SECRETLY instigated them to this act of disobedience, if not rebellion, against the supreme power of that kingdom. We think it highly expedient to print the MANIFESTO of CARDINAL BOURBON addressed to the Prelates, &c. of Spain, together with the DECREE of the REGENCY, respecting the Nuncio; and the three letters of that meddler, containing abundant proof of the very dangerous, plotting spirit by which he was actuated. Considering the noble and effectual stand which has been made against the interference of the Pope in the affairs of Spain, we hope that the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland will emulate the example afforded them, and will emancipate themselves from their present disgraceful submission to the galling burthen of the papal yoke.

MANIFESTO AND DECREE OF THE SPANISH REGENCY, RESPECTING THE POPE'S NUNCIO, &c.

To the Prelates and Chapters of Spain, the Regency of the Kingdom. Upon taking into my hands the government of the kingdom, I find myself under the painful necessity of interfering with a subject equally delicate from its publicity and VOL. I. [Prot. Adv. August, 1813] 4 D.

transcendant nature, as from the character of the persons who were concerned in it? The Chapter of the Cathedral at Cadiz, with their Capitular Vicar, and the Ordinary and Military Vicars of this town, pretending the defence of religion and a fear of acting against their own consciences, opposed themselves to the publication in the Parish Churches, of the Decree and Manifesto of the Cortes, concerning the establishment of the Tribunals for the protection of the Faith, instead of the lately abolished Inquisition. I therefore, adopted the most energetic measures in order that whilst those Decrees were duly enacted, Spain might be preserved from the convulsions which threatened her at that moment. To those measures, equally tending to maintain the dignity of the holy Church and the tranquillity of the State, we owe the extinction of a flame which might have consumed the kingdom. But the circumstance of having desired from the Chapter of this Church, and from some others with whom I had been in correspondence, an authentic copy of their resolutions and other documents, that we might take such steps as the justice of the Government and the offended Sovereignty of the nation called for, led to the discovery of a fact which greatly increased my sorrow, both on account of the character of its author, and the danger to which it had exposed the country.

Among the documents that were laid before us, there appeared a letter from the most Rev. Peter Gravina, Archbishop of Nicea and Nuncio of his Holiness for Spain, to the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral of Malaga (1),* dated 5th March last, in which he exhorted them to delay, and even to oppose the execution of his Majesty's Decrees concerning the Inquisition. The Most Rev. Nuncio appcared, by his signature, to act in that instance only in his Archiepiscopal character, notwithstanding that he was protesting against the injury which he supposed to have been done to the Holy See, in the abolition of the Inquisition, and the Decre for promulgating it in the Parish Churches, He also says, in his letter, that the Bishops now resident in this town, had it in contemplation to answer to Government-that they could not pat those Decrees into practice until they had heard the opinion of their Chapters-at the same time throwing a slut upon those Bishops by the intimation, that this was intended as a mere pretext; after which he explicitly adds-that they thus gained time to make all the proper remonstrances upon the matter. He further states, that the Chapter of this Church, sede vacante, had declined to execute the Decree; upon which he exhorts the Chapter of the Church of Malaga to adopt the opinion of all the Prelates, (thus reckoning upon their disobedience,) and endeavours to persuade them that by acting according to his advice, they would do an important service to Religion, to the Church, and to our Most Holy Father, whose authority and rights he conceived to be vulnerated, without thereby favouring the Episcopal Power. It is also added, that he had thought it his duty to remonstrate (2) in the name of his Holiness, opposing the execution of such Decrees until the Pope had given his consent or approbation; or, in defect of the Pope, the same were done by a National Council; and he, finally, closed his letter with a promise of communicating to them, under the greatest secrecy, every circumstance, as it should take place, which might contribute to regulate their conduct for the future.

Copies of letters have been also forwarded to me by the Rev. Bishop of Jaen (3), and the Chapter of Granada, sede vacante (4), similar to the above-mentioned, and which, with the same object, and under the same date, were directed to them by the Most Rev. Nuncio. From these it appears that the said Nuncio, trampling on the first principles of international Law, overlooking the boundaries of his public mission, and abusing

See below, pp. 570, 1, 2.

the veneration in which this pious people hold the Legates of the Apostolic See, has endeavoured to promote, and actually has promoted, under the cloak of religion, the disobedience of some very respectable Prelates and Ecclesiastical Bodies to the decrees and orders of the Sovereign Power. If the most Rev. Nuncio had only intended to act as a Legate of the Holy Father, and to avoid any expostulation to which he might conceive himself exposed for his silence on the present subject, nothing obstructed his way to me through the medium of the Secretary of State. I might overlook his avoiding this regular and official means of communication, when he remonstrated, as he thought proper upon the matter, and should have attributed the informality of the conduct which he chose to adopt, to inadvertency, or rather to an excess of confidence ; I should have only paid attention to his arguments, and, with the advice of the Supreme Congress, taken such resolutions as the defence of the Holy Church and the temporal good of the State, demanded with one voice from me.

The justice of the national cause makes me feel quite confident that, had this been the case, I should have satisfactorily answered the note of the Most Reverend Nuncio, and that I should have been found equal to meet those vague and common-place argu ments, which the wisdom of the Most August Congress has already defeated. His uneasiness would have been calmed when he should see that the abolition of the Inquisition can, by no means, either endanger religion, or injure the rights of the Roman Pontiff; and that all the fears which he entertains, on that account, for the primacy of the Holy Father, and the supreme authority which he holds in the Church, are most vain and ungrounded. His qualms would have been allayed, concerning the impropriety which he seems to find in the circumstance of declaring to the people, during the celebration of Mass, that a tribunal which was established, and for three centuries protected by the Popes is USFLESS, INJURIOUS, and CONTRARY TO THE LAWS OF THE KINGDOM. In fine, he would have seen that the August Congress, in this purely political question,' has acted in virtue of its sovereign authority, without injuring, in any way whatever, the rights of the Holy Father, or, much less those of the Catholic Church; so that they might, either now or in future, be in need of the remonstrances of Nuncios of Councils. But the private letters which, under the same date as the note, were written by the Most Rev. Archbishop of Nicea, and the fact of his having mentioned therein that he forwarded a remonstrance to the Government upon the subject, are circumstances which clearly prove that whilst he betrayed the secrecy which he himself recommended, he aimed not merely to avoid the charge of negligence in the fulfilment of his office, but rather to raise in the pious Clergy of Spain, and by their means in the people at large, a distrust of the temporal authorities which he thus strove to decry; and to check their influence over a class of the State, the members of which, by, reason of their conspicuous rank ought to be true examples of subordination and obedience.

This unlooked-for behaviour of the Most Reverend Nuncio has compromised the honour of the National Congress, the security of the kingdom, the authority of the Episcopal Order, the true rights of the Roman Pontiff, and the respec: which is due to the church. He, on the one hand, acknowledges in his note the authority of the Cortes, whilst on the other, by means of a secret correspondence, he sows disaffection and insubordination amongst the Spanish Clergy. In the character of a public Envoy he makes application to the Supreme Government claiming for redress; whilst as an individual Prelate, he spreads private letters tending to the discredit of that very same

This assertion of right, very nearly approaches our doctrine of supremacy.