by informing us, that "the fourth and peculiar vow "of the jesuits placed them, as missionaries, at the ab❝solute disposal of the Old Man of the Mountain," -alluding to the celebrated, and perhaps fabulous, Prince of the Assassins, mentioned by some of the historians of the crusades. "The popes," you proceed to say, "richly deserved this title of the "Man of the Mountain ;' for the principle of assas"sination was sanctioned by the two most powerful "of the catholic kings, and by the head of the catholic church. It was acted upon in France "and in Holland; rewards were publicly offered *for the murder of the prince of Orange; and the "fanatics, who undertook to murder Elizabeth, "were encouraged by a plenary remission of sins, granted for this special service."

Here, you first allude, I suppose, to the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day, ordered by Charles IX. But how can this massacre, or the murder of the prince of Orange, to which you afterwards refer, be justly imputed to any principle of the roman-catholic faith? The plea of Charles IX. was, that the admiral de Coligni and his associ

"et pieta. Sive vita et mors eorum, qui ex societate Jesu, in "causa fidei et virtutis propugnatæ, violenta morte sublati "sunt. Auctore R. P. Tanner, e Soc. Jesu, S. S. Theol. Profess. "Praga, 1675; and, Fasti Societatis Jesu opera et studio, "R. P. Joannis Drewe, S. S. Praga, anno 1750."-It appears, that in Africa, 68,-in Asia, 131,-in America, 55, jesuits had, before the middle of the last century, suffered death,— often after grievous torments,-for propagating the christian faith; the number of those who have since suffered death for Christ cannot be inconsiderable.

ation had been guilty of treason and rebellion, and were then actually engaged in treasonable and rebellious practices; that, by these, they deserved death as traitors; that they would have been condemned to suffer capitally, if the king had been powerful enough to bring them before a proper tribunal; and that, as this was not in his power, the circum stances of the case justified his putting them to death without a trial, by making it a necessary, and, therefore, a justifiable act of self-defence.

In this light he represented his conduct to the see of Rome, and the foreign courts. I reject the plea as much as yourself; but is it surprising that, in the state of ferment and exaltation in which all minds then were, the plea should have been received by several? Still, how does this prove the princi ple of assassination to be a tenet of the romancatholic church? Does the order given by the epis copalian government of Scotland, for the general massacre of the non-conforming presbyterians, does the massacre at Glenco, the massacre at Munster, the assassination of cardinal Beaton, or the assassination of archbishop Sharp, or the assassination of Francis duke of Guise, prove the principle of assassination to be a tenet of the protestant faith ? Far from me and mine be the weakness that receives such an argument; or the wickedness, that, reject ing it themselves, would wish to have it accredited by others. You must remember the magnanimous speech of the duke of Guise to his huguenot assassin "Your religion taught you to murder me; mine "teaches me to pardon you."

With respect to the murder of the prince of Orange:--that has nothing in common with assassination in the ordinary acceptation of that word. The prince had been tried as a rebel, and condemned for contumacy. If he had professed the catholic religion, and conducted himself in the manner he had done towards a protestant (sovereign, would not this have been the case in every protestant state? The consequence was, that an order, (then very usual in such cases, in states on the Continent), was issued, through all the Spanish dominions, offering a reward to any one who should execute the sentence. What has this, I again ask, in common with the principle of assassination?

You say, that "the fanatics, who undertook to "murder Elizabeth, were encouraged by a plenary "remission of sins, granted for this special ser"vice." I deny the fact most explicitly; I call upon you to mention the names of those fanatics, or the name of any one of them, and to produce evidence of the grant of the remission of their sins. If you have in view cardinal Como's letter to Parry, read it and his trial; then tell me candidly, whether you think that Parry produced the slightest evidence, from which it could be reasonably inferred, that either the pope or the cardinal was aware of any project of assassinating Elizabeth? I beg leave to refer you to what I have written on this subject, in the "Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish and Scottish Catholics*."

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*

In further proof of your charge of assassina

* Chapter XXXII, sect. 5.

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tion, you inform that "Father Campian, in an "oration delivered at Douay, said: As far as con"cerns the jesuits, we all,-dispersed in great num"bers throughout the world, have made a league " and holy oath, that, as long as any of us are alive, "all our care and industry, all our deliberations " and councils, shall never cease to trouble your "calm and safety." Permit me to observe to you, that the document to which you refer, is not an oration delivered at Douay, but, as it is justly styled by Strype, "Campian's letter to the privy “council, offering to avow and prove his catholic "religion before all the doctors and masters of "both universities, and requiring a disputation." This circumstance alone makes some difference;

but it is more important, that the word, "to "trouble your calm and safety," are an absolute interpolation. They do not occur in Strype*, or in doctor Bridgewater's version of the letter: "Omnes nos qui sumus de Societate Jesu per "totum terrarum orbem, longe lateque diffusi, "sanctum fœdus inesse, ut curas quam nobis inje "cistis, magno animo feramus, neque unquam "vestra salute desperemus, quamdiu vel unus quisquam de nobis superest, qui Tyburno vestro fruatur, atque suppliciis vestris excarnificari, carceribusque squalere et consumi possitt."

Strype's Annals, III. App. 6.

de

+Epistola Edmundi Campiani, sacerdotis Societatis Jesu, "ad Reginæ Anglia Consiliarios, quæ profectionis sua in Angliam, institutum declarat, et adversarios in certamen provocat, ex Anglico sermone Latine tradita." Bridgewater's Concertatio, p. 1, 2.

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XV. 4.

Justification of the Persecutions, on the ground of the traitorous Principles of the Foreign Seminarists, and the general Disloyalty of the Roman-catholics.

FROM the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth, until so late even as the thirty-first year of the reign of his late majesty, no school, for the education of catholic youth in catholic principles, could be supported, without exposing both the masters and the scholars to the very heavy penalties of forfeiture of goods and chattels, with one year's imprisonment, for the first offence; to the penalties of a premunire for the second; and to death for the third. This made it absolutely necessary to establish foreign seminaries for educating persons for the sacred ministry.

You consider them as seminaries of disloyalty. Mr. Hume avers, in still stronger language, that "sedition, rebellion, sometimes assassination, were "the expedients by which the seminarists intended "to effect their purpose against their queen." To these atrocious charges, seven unquestionable facts may be opposed:-1. that, of two hundred catholics who suffered for their religion in the reign of queen Elizabeth, one only impugned her title to the crown: 2. that they all, to the instant of their deaths, persisted in the most solemn and explicit denial of every legal guilt, except the mere exercise of their functions: 3. that their accusers were uniformly persons of bad lives, and of the lowest character: 4. that