The Greatest Writer of the 19th Century » Brownson's Writings » Willotoft, or Protestant Persecution

Willotoft, or Protestant Persecution

Brownson's Quarterly Review, January, 1852

Art. II.  Willotoft, or the Days of James the First.   A Tale. Baltimore: Murphy & Co.    1851.    12mo.    pp. 294.

We have heard this little work improperly ascribed to an estimable and well-known clergyman of our neighborhood, but who is really its author we do not know, and we presume he does not wish us to know.    But be that as it may, we have read the book with much pleasure, as an interesting and valuable contribution to our American Catholic literature.    The author has a cultivated mind, a high order of ability, and a dash, at least, of real genius.    His style, though slightly inclining to the florid, and sometimes den-cient in flexibility and naturalness, is that of a practised writer, and not surpassed in force and  beauty by that ot any of our popular writers.   In its graver parts it is marked by a calm and subdued strength, which is refreshing in these days, when almost every writer scorns repose, and is perpetually striving to appear stronger than he is.    The introductory chapter gives a general view of the subject of the work, and we copy it entire.

« If there be one truth more strongly enforced than any other by the history of England for the last three centuries, it is the folly of attempting to crush the Catholic religion by the sword of persecution. Wise, indeed, was the saying of Gamaliel the 1 harisee, to those who would have punished St. Peter and the Apostles for preaching the Church of Christ, ' If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught: but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it.'
                     
" Through what dangers, what persecutions, has not the Catholic Church passed unharmed ? The Iloman Empire threw itself with its gigantic power against it: but the blood of the Martyrs was the seed of Christians. And after three centuries of fearful persecution, the despised emblem of the cross shone, resplendent with jewels, upon the Imperial Crown of Constantine, and from the silken folds of the Labarum floated over his victorious Legions; while throughout the mighty city, thenceforth destined to be the seat and centre of Christianity, that same glorious emblem rose above the countless temples of false gods, which had been purified and consecrated to the worship of the one true God.

" The history of the Church, from that day, has been but a succession of dangers and persecutions, followed in each instance by increased energy and renewed success. The fires which her enemies have heaped up around her have only purified her, and she has always come forth like gold refined by the furnace, brighter and more glorious. She has stood the test of Gamaliel for near two thousand years, and she has not been overthrown. She has not been overthrown, but she has gone on increasing in efficiency and spiritual energy, and spreading her missions and her teachings to every quarter of the world : and the number of her children is greater now than it has been at any former period. ' If it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you be found even to fight against God.' *(footnote: * Act. v. 39.)

" History has verified these words.

" The commencement of the Reformation in England, its history, and the causes that produced it, are too well known to be repeated here.    It is an old story, it is long, and there arc few who have not read it well.    The tyranny of Henry the  Eighth  was only aimed at the supremacy of the Pope, who had refused to sanction his divorce from the wife of his youth, when, disgusted with her fading beauty, his wandering eye had fixed upon the lovely form of an°ambitious lady of the court.    He punished with death those who admitted the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, and those who denied the other doctrines of the Catholic Church.   Upon his death, the power of the crown passed into the hands of the Reformers, and in the name of Edward the Sixth, severe laws were passed against the Catholics, which, executed by Mary in a few instances upon those who had  aided to frame them, won  for her the  name of 'Bloody,' while Edward and  Elizabeth, who made the land red with Catholic  blood, received  the titles of 'sainted' and 4 good.' Such is the justice of Protestant historians.    The laws which were put in force against Catholics and Dissenters would  have added to the reputation^ a Nero or a Caligula, and were only erased from the statute-book which they disgraced  long  after  they had  been rendered inoperative by the controlling power of public opinion. Yet in their day, executed by bigots or by designing men, they formed perhaps the most terrible and effective system that was ever adopted to crush out a national faith or feeling from the hearts of a people.

"It is not strange, therefore, that, in the course of a few generations, the proscribed and persecuted Catholics diminished in number, although the faith of the few, and the zeal of their pastors, never drooped nor faltered. In the northern counties in particular, and throughout the retired districts, the pure faith of their fathers was preserved by the children, in spite of fines, and penalties, and death.

"In the old English manor-house, the farm-house, and the humble  dwelling  of the  cotter and day-laborer,  the  persecuted  and hunted priest found food, and rest, and refuge     By day he lay concealed wheresoever a kind Providence afforded him shelter, and bv niaht he went forth upon his duty of love, girt like a pilgrim, with his staff in his hands, traversing on foot the weary paths and by-ways that connected the solitary dwellings of his scattered flock.

 " The exercise of his priestly functions, nay, his very presence in England, rendered him liable to banishment or death ; and the same bloody guerdon awaited those who dared to give him shelter and comfort.    Yet never were there wanting laborers in this fear-ful vineyard, and never did the fire of the true faith go out in the darkest days of persecution.    No sooner did one holy priest expire upon the scaffold or in the dungeon, a martyr to his religion, than others, as devoted, landed on the shores of England to supply his place, to cheer his saddened and  drooping (lock, to tread in his footsteps, and to die  perhaps like him upon the scaflold.     I Hub, when the light of faith had been extinguished upon the cathedral altar, and in the stately minster and gorgeous chapel, it was rekindled with brighter and   purer flame in the lowly and secluded dwelling of the scattered faithful.    Thus, too, did it happen, that, in spite*of the severest penalties and the most constant persecutions, many Catholic families were still to be found in that scourged land at the ben;inning of the seventeenth century.  
                    
« Yet It was always necessary for the Catholics, even in those periods of repose, when the laws against them were permitted tor a time to slumber, to act with great circumspection and to conceal their compliance with the requisitions of their faith. Even when it served no purpose of the government or of parties, to excite against them the prejudices of the people and to enforce the ful power of the penal laws, there were always upon the watch artful and unscrupulous men, who were ready to seize upon those laws to turn them to their own emolument. And a still lower class the mere informers, were prompt to detect the signs and tokens ot the proscribed faith, for they fattened on the rum of their victims.
                     
" Those gentlemen, therefore, who still adhered to the old Church felt that it was their interest to live secluded and maintain as little intercourse with their neighhors as was consistent with prudence ; for too great a degree of retirement might have tended to excite the very suspicion and inquiry which they desired to avoid.

" By adopting this course, some of the least prominent Catholics were for a considerable period enabled to escape the fines and penalties which were the usual fate of the bolder, less prudent, or perhaps wealthier and more prominent of their brethren. Others, again, were protected by the influence of powerful friends from the persecution which generally awaited those who remained firm in the practice of their faith. There were many instances of devoted zeal and cordial and hearty assistance, on the part of Protestant gentlemen, towards their Catholic relatives, and to friends not bound to them by the ties of blood. But the protection thus aflbrded was precarious, and liable at any time to be withdrawn, or to become powerless at the very moment when most needed. Living thus in constant dread of searches and visitations of the most unpleasant character, the Catholics found it necessary to secure around them every means of concealment or escape, and there are few of the old houses, occupied by them in those stirring times, that have not their hiding-places and their secret passages, as reminiscences of times past we hope never to return.

" During this long season of persecution, at times, the power of the laws was allowed to slumber, and, by a sort of connivance, the Catholics were permitted to remain unmolested. The rapidity with which the faith spread during these periods of repose soon reawakened the jealousy of the enemies of the Church, and again called into action the power of law to sustain the church which had been established by law.

" But public opinion, at length, began to revolt against persecution.    Toleration was granted to Dissenters, and, by degrees, its effects slowly and gradually extended towards the Catholics.    The struggle for religious liberty as involved in the question of Catholic emancipation, long and doubtfully sustained, and at length in part successful, proved how strong was the  intolerant feeling of the dominant power.    But the Church had already begun to recover from her wounds and to recruit her strength, and with comparative freedom came renewed energy and abundant success.    The Established Church saw with dismay, not only the poor and lowly, but the high and noble, and the choicest spirits of her own ministry, hastening to return to the fold of the ancient faith.    She beheld a new hierarchy about to rise up in place of the ancient bishops who had, long ago, been martyred or exiled.   She feared the unity and power which''the spiritual reaction would thus obtain; and she appealed once more to the power of the government to restrain by force what she felt herself unable to prevent by reason and argument. But it was too late to return to the rack, the scaffold, and the axe. The Ecclesiastical Tillcs Bill was the result : a law '"tended to destroy, as far as possible, at this day, the existence of the Catholic Church in the British dominions.  
   
" It is not strange that a church established by net of larlament, sustained by the scaffold and the sword, should now, in its decline, have recourse to an aet of Parliament to perpetuate its ex..tence, and call in the power of the law to maintain itself against the power of the truth.

° But fines and confiscations cannot now effect what the dungeon the torture, and the scaffold failed to do in times gone by.     The milk-white hind, though often doomed to death, is still fated not to die.

"In conclusion, It is only necessary to add, that this little.book is addressed to the Catholics of England, to picture the sulermg. endured in other days for their faith, to remind them of the pat.en courage of their forefathers in the midst of persecute, and to « > their persecutors how vain and impotent must always be the efioils of those who ' are found even to fight against God.     --pp. v.--x.

The work is dedicated by an American, we are told, to the Catholics of England, "to remind them of"* instancy of their forefathers in the midst of persecution.      It is a tale of tragic interest, designed to show the persecu-to so which Catholics and their Protestant inends were subjected in the days of James the First of England, and the evil passions which combined with the laws to ha.ass them.    It portrays in lively colors the labors, sacrifices, and martyrdom of the devoted clergy, who braved the laws and the hostility of the people to bear to the faithlnl the   uccms of religion; and to keep alive the embers of fait    in once CathoFic England.   We cite a passage which w.l1 giveMje reader some faint conception how matters then stood with both the faithful and their clergy.

"There is a Catholic house on our road, Father Maurus,' said Edward  Hurlstone, as they walked  in the direction of Oxford, 'which we shall probably reach towards noon,     There we can obtain refreshments and a moment's rest.'

» ' Nay ' replied Father Maurus, ' I will not enter the house of these people to bring destruction upon them. Thou shalt lead them to me in the fields, where I will catechize and instruct them while we rest.'

'"They are poor people, Father, and few will think of persecuting them.'

"But thou knowest that of late the poor, as well as the rich, have been persecuted, and I would not willingly expose these good persons to danger.'

" They continued their journey steadily, until the sun rose high in the heavens and the day was half spent.

" At length, as they were ascending a little eminence, the summit of which was crowned by a wood, Edward Hurlstone said :

" ' We are now within a mile of the house of which I spoke. From the summit of this hill we will see its pretty thatched roof, with its chimney sending up a clear column of smoke into the cold March air.'

" In a few minutes they reached the top of the ascent, and could plainly see the little cottage surrounded by leafless trees and shrubbery, but every thing seemed silent and deserted around it. No cheerful column of smoke played above its desolate roof,  but the same cold, lifeless, wintry aspect hung over the little valley.

" ' It is strange,' said Edward Hurlstone ; and the two travellers quickened their steps, and soon reached the little gateway that opened into the cottage yard. Edward Hurlstone called out from the gate, but no answer was received, and they entered the yard. The door was ajar, and they went through the house : it was deserted and empty.    Nothing but the bare walls were left.

" ' Alas, what can have befallen these unfortunates ?' said Father Maurus.

" ' The fate of the faithful,' replied his companion sadly. "' Then let us pray for them.    Prayer alone must now refresh us,' said the priest.

" I am not unprovided,' replied Hurlstone, 'I still have in my wallet some of the provisions which good Mrs. Wells pressed on me.    She knew well we might soon need them.'

" They knelt down then, beside the cold and forsaken hearth, and, making the sign of the cross, commenced a silent prayer. Cautiously and silently a door leading to the cellar now opened a little ; a pale, wan, but youthful face appeared from behind it. The boy, at length, glided quietly out and knelt beside them.

" ' My poor lad,' said the priest, rising as soon as he perceived him, and placing his hand kindly upon his head, ' what has befallen this house ?'

" ' They have taken them all to the prison!' said the boy weeping.

" ' Why have they taken them?"

" ' Because they would not go to the parish church. The parson said they had not been going, but that now all must go and conform or pay the fine. And father could not pay the fine, so they sold all the furniture in the house  and threatened him, if he did not go to church the next Sunday, they would fine and imprison him. We did not go the next Sunday, for father and mother said it was better to go to prison and die there Catholics, than to become
Protestants for all the money which the parson or the magestrate had, and be punished in the next world for ever.     Then the constables came and seized on father and mother and brother, and took them away to jail, for where could father get money enough to pay  the fines? * (footnote: * £20 a month for a man over sixteen.    £ 10 for a married woman.)    I hid myself and have kept in the cellar ever since.'

« ''Where did they take your father and mother?'          

« ' I heard them say they must go to the jail at Needham.

« ' It is not very far from here,' said Edward Hurlstone.

« " You are right; I must visit them,' replied the priest. But this poor boy.    You are hungry,  are you not ?

« " I have had some bread and some food which were left in the cellar- this has lasted me till this morning, and I was praying to the Holy Virgin for assistance, for I did not know what to do when that was gone.

" ' You shall share our meal,' said Edword Hurlstone, as he drew out the provisions from his wallet and spread them on the floor. ' Your prayers have been heard. It is providential that we have come, for I know where you can find a home, till your parents may be free once more.'                                  

« 'Follow the noble example of your pious parents, my child," said Father Maurus, 'be faithful to God, and he will not desert you. If you do not relieve you from the persecutions and trials of world, he will give you if you persevere to the end a glorious place among his saints in heaven. Be firm and faithful, my son, and God bless you,' said the priest, making the sign of the cross over the brow of the young sufferer for the faith.

« ' There is a good and charitable Catholic residing not far from Needham, who will, I doubt not, take charge of this youth,   said Edward Hurlstone.

" 'We will need to see him, then,' replied the priest, and after a frugal meal upon the cold provisions, Father Maurus and his companions turned their steps towards Needham. Edward Hurlstone was right. The Cathlic farmer, whose house they reached before sundown gladly received his reverend visitor and his two followers, and cheerfully consented to take the youth into his household. It now remained for Father Maurus, before resuming his journey toward Oxford, to visit if possible the poor souls who were confined for their faith in the neighboring jail of Needham. Edward Hurlstone promised to secure the means : and they both set out for the town as the shades of evening began to fall.


The jail at Needham was a building not erected for the purposes of a prison,
but sufficiently adapted to it, without possessing those ample guards and defences which were common to the castles and donjons of other times, which, now that their military use had seemingly passed away, were applied to less chivalrous objects. It was a large, square building, large for the town, with grated windows and surrounded by a high wall.

" ' It will be difficult,' said Father Maurus, ' in one night to ascertain where they are confined.'     
                                      
" ' There is a Catholic in the town, who beyond all doubt can give me some advice as to that,' said Edward Hurlstone : I learned this from our entertainer. I will go to his house. In the mean while, you will await me in the neighborhood.'
           
" In a short time Hurlstone returned with the desired information. The persons charged with recusancy, of whom there were a number, were confined in a portion of the prison where the outer wall approached to within ten feet of the building.

"  We must wait until it is later,' said Hurlstone, ' when we will be joined by this person, who will bring what we need for our purpose.'
                                                                          
" The time wore slowly on.    At length silence reigned through-out the town and over the prison where sad and  innocent hearts were mourning almost undistinguished from the guilty, save as patient sorrow is divided from reckless hardihood.    They were now joined by their expected assistant, who brought upon his shoulders u ladder some twelve feet long, which was of sufficient height to enable a man to reach the top of the wall.    After carefully reconnoitring the premises to discover if the keepers were at repose in the jail, for there were none upon the walls, the ladder was placed, and' Edward Hurlstone first ascended to the top.     Grasping the little battlement at the summit with his muscular hands, he drew himself up by a powerful exertion, and soon stood panting on the wall.    Father Maurus next ascended the ladder, and Edward Hurlstone, planting his knee firmly against the battlement, drew him up to the summit!    Their assistant below now raised the ladder, and Hurlstone, grasping it from above, brought it to the top of the wall. Then bracing one end against the projection of the battlement, he dropped the other gently against the wall of the building immediately under the window of the room in which the recusants were confined.    Lightly springing upon it, he traversed the rounds until he reached the window.     He looked through the grated bars.    A dim light, furnished by the unwonted kindness of one of the keepers, was burning in one corner, by which knelt a prisoner praying in a low voice beside a form stretched out in severe illness upon a miserable bed of rags and straw.    The sunken eyes, the hollow cheeks, and thin lips of the sufferer told the tale of approaching dissolution : and Edward Hurlstone said, as he looked:

"  Happy coming ; it is in time for good.'

" Then he glanced round the miserable cell. Several were sleeping, as if overcome by fatigue and watching; others were kneeling in fervent, but silent prayer. The windows were un-glazed, and he whispered cautiously:
               
" I Hope! brothers!'       
                             
"The whisper penetrated in the cell, and the silent kneelers turned their heads towards the window. Then one of them quietly arose, approached it, and said :

"  Who art thou? '                                                                    

"  A friend ' be of good cheer. Let your brother pray on. He silent the rest.    There is one here who will bring you comfort!'

"  Thanks to God ! Thanks to God ! In our need he has sent us aid ! Oh, how we prayed for it, but almost despaired of it,' replied the man. 
                               
« ' God is powerful and merciful,' said Edward Hurlstone reverently.    " Is the sick man in immediate danger ?' "

 ' He will not live over to-morrow !'

" ' Bring him tenderly to this window : and prepare him for what he will receive : awaken the sleepers: you may all confess and be absolved.'                                                                          .
" The sleepers were awakened : four stout men silently raised the sick man and bore him to the window. Edward Hurlstone returned to the side of Father Maurus, explained to him what he had done, and cautioned him to step carefully upon the frail causeway. Father Maurus reached the window, passed his hand through the bars, and, making the sign of the cross, said '              

" ' The blessing of God be upon you, faithful Christians !"

 " Then the head of the dying man was placed closer to him, he heard his confession, pronounced the absolution, administered the viaticum, and anointed him with the holy oil of Extreme Unction. At length his office with the dying man was finished, the sufferer was brought back to his place, saying, ' Now, come, O Lord, for I am happy to die!' and the priest turned to the living.    One by one, the   prisoners confessed  and   were absolved: and  with a parting blessing and a short exhortation to faith and perseverance, the missionary turned away and rejoined Edward Hurlstone upon the wall. The  ladder was again lowered  against the wall, Father Maurus descended, and  was followed  by the faithful  Edward  Hurlstone. Their assistant in this charitable deed of Christian daring pressed them to tarry in his house till morning, but they returned in the dark to the dwelling of their previous entertainer, where he promised to visit them in the morning to hear mass." pp. 244-250.

This is no exaggeration, and the reader must remember that it is a scenc from Protestant England, the bulwark of Protestantism, which claims to have been an uprising of the human race in favor of religious liberty. But we must usually interpret Protestantism as old women do their dreams, by the rule of contraries, and, when it talks of religious liberty, understand it to mean not the freedom of religion, but freedom from it, and liberty to oppress it.
           
A considerable portion of the work is taken up with an account of the conversion, labors, and martyrdom of William Scott, a real historical personage, we are told. He was an Anglican law-student, but, being converted to the Catholic faith, became a Benedictine monk, was placed on the mission in England, and finally hanged, drawn, and quartered for daring to exercise in the land of his fathers the functions of his ministry.    We copy the closing scene.

" The indictment against him was read, and the clerk demanded whether he pleaded " Guilty or Not guilty ?'

" 'It containeth falsehood,' said the priest calmly, 'and therefore I say,

" Not guilty!"  '

"  Are you a priest or not ?' said the Recorder, taking up his
words.

" Whether I am a priest or no, I am not called on to say. Let those who accuse me make out that I am a priest.'

" Then you impliedly admit that you are a priest, and therefore you are guilty,' said the Lord Chief Justice Cook. ' And in cases of praemunire, it hath been adjudged sufficient to find a man guilty that he neither admitted nor denied the charge.'

"  My Lord, if that hold in cases of praemunire,' replied Father Maurus, recalling his old studies to mind ; " it is certain that in cases of life and death you are only to proceed according to what has been made out legally by witnesses.'

" If you were no priest, you would not hesitate to avow it,' said King, the Bishop of London.

" It doth not become your Lordship, nor any one of your cloth, to mingle in cases of life and death,' replied Father Maurus
quickly.

" Still thou dost not answer the question.    Art thou a priest or
no ?' persisted the Bishop.

" My Lord,' replied Father Maurus.    ' Art thou a priest ?'

" No ! '  replied the prelate indignantly.

" No priest,  no bishop ! ' said the priest sententiously.

" 1 am a priest,' said the Bishop, " but no massing priest.'

" If you are a priest, you are a sacrificing priest; for sacrifice is essential to priesthood, and if you are a sacrificing priest then you are a massing priest. " For what other sacrifice have the priests of the new law, as distinct from mere laics, to offer to God, but that of the eucharist which we call the mass ? " If then you are no massing priest you are no sacrificing priest, if no sacrificing priest, no priest at all, consequently no bishop.'

" This is sorry trifling, Sir! ' said the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.    " It is plain enough to my mind that you are a priest.'

" And certain circumstantial matters having been testified to, the
court directed the jury to find the prisoner guilty.

«  My Lords,' said Father Maurus, "I am sorry to see my cause confided into the hands of twelve ignorant men, who know not what manner of thing a priest is.    For you, gentlemen of the jury,   he said   " I grieve for you that my blood shall fall upon your heads! But that you may avoid the sin of putting to death an innocent man let me bid   you  remember, that  no evidence has been brought against me to prove me guilty of the matters whereof I stand in-dfcted :  that nothing but mere presumptions are laid before you ; and that, by the law of England, I stand before you as an innocent man, until my accusers shall prove me guilty  for your own salvation, let me pray you, gentlemen, to weigh this solemn matter
well.

" Nothing more said the priest, and the jury withdrew.   In a few moments they returned with their verdict.

" Guilty !'                                                                       

« " Thanks be to God !' exclaimed the holy priest, throwing himself upon his knees. After a moment he added : ' Happy message! Joyous tidings! How have I sighed for the privilege of suffering for so glorious a cause ! '

" Then, arising and turning to the people, he exclaimed :

« ' When I was charged with being a priest, I was silent, for I would have the law take its due course, and I wished it to be seen whether they would condemn me upon bare presumptions, without any witness. It is done ! Wherefore, now, to the glory of God and all the saints in heaven, I do confess that I am a monk of the Order of St. Bennet, and a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. Herein do I glory ! But be ye all witnesses, I pray ye, that I have committed no crime against his Majesty or my country. I am only accused of priesthood, and for priesthood alone am I condemned !

"'Prisoner, have   you  any  thing to say,  wherefore   sentence of death should not pass upon you ?' asked the Recorder impatiently.

"What I have to say will not prevent that which you have already resolved upon,' said Father Maurus mildly. ' Yet perhaps, I may not without sin give up my life without a struggle. I am condemned for receiving orders, and returning to England. Now it can be no crime to receive orders, for it is a sacrament of God's Church, bestowing grace upon him who receives it; and neither can I be condemned rightfully for returning into England, which is an act innocent in itself, and what, as a free-born Englishman, I had full title to do. Now, therefore, thou canst not of two innocent and praiseworthy acts make a crime. Nay ! and thou addest as many good and innocent acts together as thou wilt, thou canst not thereof compose a crime !                    .
"  Tush! Sir! this is Jesuitical cant,' said the Recorder, interrupting him.

" Father Maurus was silent; but the joy of his heart was displayed upon his beaming face. When the Recorder drew on his black cap preparatory to passing sentence of death, he smiled sweetly and sadly. How that mild beaming countenance stole upon the hearts of the crowd around ! They melted,  they sympathized ; at length they applauded, carried away by the sublime disregard of death and suffering which the martyr displayed. But their applause only drew from the Judge a severe reprimand upon the forward bearing of the prisoner.

" Sentence was pronounced.   " Hanged ! drawn and quartered !'

" Bound hand and foot, heedless of chains, sorrow, death, the rejoicing priest was borne back to his dungeon, only to leave it again for the scaffold and the knife.

" On the morrow marched out from Newgate one of those dark processions, then not unfrequent in England's capital, with its victim bound to the hurdle. Slowly it crept along, until at length it reached the bloody hill of Tyburn. It passed along under the gallows, and paused as the hurdle reached its foot. The victim was unbound, and with a firm step he mounted to the scaffold. In the open space in front a large fire was burning, and all the horrid instruments of execution were ranged around. Down upon the scaffold floor knelt the doomed priest and prayed ; then he arose with a glowing countenance, stepped forward, and addressed the multitude.

" ' Good friends, I would have you that are here bear testimony to the manner of my death, that I have been a true and faithful liege unto my king and country, and that with my dying breath I have prayed for his Majesty and for his kingdom. I am about to die the death of a traitor,  bear witness, ye, that my treason lieth in this, that I have observed the laws of God rather than of men. My offence is, that I have had at heart too much the spiritual regeneration of England, that I have como to preach the truth to my brethren who are in that darkness out of which the spirit of God hath led me happily, as this hour and this presence bear me witness. 0 good souls! I have prayed daily that God would avert from this realm his stripes and punishments which impend over it for the blood of the saints which it has poured out : but I fear me the time shall come when your children shall groan under his hand ; when the evils of that system of individuality resulting in worldli-ness, which hath been established in England by the new religion, shall work out its appointed destiny ; when the poor shall toil, and groan, and sweat, and starve ; when mammon shall reign in this blessed land, where once Christ and his Church held sway. When your descendants shall be the slaves of gold, and the gold-power, tied to wheels, and harnessed to the draught, and broken to the yoke like oxen. Then, O Englishmen ! will ye turn back yearning to the faith of your fathers,  that faith which made England great and her people free and happy!    For the honor and glory of my Master, in the regeneration of England I have labored     Oh, may my blood arise to heaven as a prayer for the accomplishment of
that hope.

" O God, who didst preserve thy Church for three hundred years amidst the darkness of the Catacombs, making the blood of martyrs fruitful of Christians, and d.dst at length bring foith he , thy holy Spouse, triumphant over the powers of evil, to guide, en-lighten, and save ; in thy unspeakable mercy hear our prayers o thee, and in thy chosen time send down thy grace upon England and restore her to the faith !                                 

"'O my countrymen, there is no treason in my heart! If my death would benefit my sovereign either in soul or body I would not be less willing to lay down my life than I now am for God's honor and the testimony of the truth !'

« Then, with his outstretched hands, he bade farewell to all such in that crowd as might be his friends, and bade them to bear to his family, if any there knew him and them, his parting words, his last prayer for the salvation of their souls.

" At this instant, a choking voice arose from the crowd.

" ' Brother, die happy ! thou hast conquered !' and the speaker darted away from the cruel scene.                                               

« The condemned raised his hands towards heaven in thanks ,for he knew the voice of his brother.
                             
« The executioner approached him and adjusted the cord around his neck, and, at the same time, asked his forgiveness.

« ' Forgive thee ?    Yes, and thank thee !' exclaimed the priest.

" Thou art about to bestow on me a great favor, to bring me to exceeding happiness.

Then he knelt and prayed silently and fervently. The sheriff waved his hand in signal to the executioner : the trap fell :: in the midst of prayer the victim was hurled into the deatl struggle. Then the cord was cut, and the yet living man fell to the earth. The butchers rushed upon, held fast his convulsed limbs and the knife of the executioner ripped open his body. Then while the hangman's hands were grappling with the throbbing heart, the, voce of the martyr still faintly prayed that God would send down his mercy upon England and bring her back to the true faith, Ere the prayer died upon his lips, that true heart was consuming in the flames.

"Not in death did the horrid tragedy pause. The limbs of the senseless corpse were severed and fixed upon poles set over the city crates,-to blacken and wither in the winds of heaven. Reader, such sad beacons looked down from many a city gateway in Old England then, to greet the traveller on his journey's end, to warn the wavering of the fate of those who listened to the faith their fathers had believed,-bloody sentinels around the strongholds of heresy to keep within its walls  its  unwilling servitors, --terrible apostles, preaching the new  gospel  faith and uprooting the old. For ever?

"Oh, no !    For there is a God !
" Thus triumphed a Martyr!"  pp. 279-285.

The polemical portion of the work is given in the form of conversations between   Scott  and  Father  Tichbourne and young Alton, who tries to persuade him to give up all religion.     The conversation with Alton is brilliant, and the argument  for  infidelity  is put  with   great   eloquence and force ; but. we are sorry to add, is not very thoroughly refuted.    Scott, indeed, exposes one of Alton's sophisms, but he is far enough from meeting the real  point of the argument.    It strikes us that, in these times of doubt, when the tendency is not to simple heresy, but to the rejection of all religion,'the author would have done well not to have put the argument o( the infidel so strongly, unless  he  had allowed himself more space, and undertaken more seriously to refute it : for in the minds of more than one of his readers that argument will tell as much against all religion  as against Protestantism.    Few men in these days, unless orthodox   and  devout  Catholics, are  much   shocked by the grossest   infidelity,   and   there   are   few   Protestants   who would not renounce all religion  sooner than become Catholics.    Indeed, the tendency of the age is to approve Protestantism  precisely because, in  principle, it is the rejection of every thing the* Catholic understands by religion. 

Believing firmly  ourselves, we  very  naturally suppose that, when we have shown that Protestantism involves the total rejection  of Christianity, we have orlered what in  Protestant minds must weigh heavily against it : but. unhappily. we have only orlered what not a few of them will regard as a capital argument for it.    It seems to us, then, that when we put the infidel's argument in its strongest form, and its most dazzling light, we should at the same time point out clearly to even ordinary capacities its utter fallacy.

The controversy between the young student and Father Tichbourne is, upon the whole, much more satisfactorily conducted. Father Tichbourne's argument is unhackneyed, ingenious, and perfectly conclusive against the Anglicanism professed by Scott: but that, we apprehend, is an Anglicanism seldom, if ever, found in an Anglican mind. Anglicans are Protestants, and as really Protestants as Puritans or Unitarians are, and, with  all their talk about the Church, no more admit the Church, in the Catholic sense, than does any other class of modern Protestants.    Some of them may affect great respect for the Church's teachings, but it is all affectation. No Anglican believes  a Church teaching.     The very essence of Anglicanism, under the point of view from which we must here consider it. is to make doctrine the test of the teacher, and not the teacher the test of doctrine.     It  obtains   somehow   or  nohow,   without the Church, what it calls Orthodoxy, and then calls this or that the true Church because  it  prolesses  to  believe it.  It is always a great mistake to suppose that the real question between a genuine Anglican and the Catholic is ever, as the author supposes, whether the  Anglican or the  Catholic  is  the Church our Lord instituted.     No Anglican is so great a simpleton as  to rest  his cause  on  the decision of that  question.    The   Anglican's  radical  conception of what the Church is. and was designed to be, is fundametally  different  from  the  Catholic conception, and till you have compelled him to admit the Church the Church in the Catholic sense, it is idle to enter into any discussion with him a   to which organized body is the true Catholic Church.  The truth is, Anglicanism never acknowledges that our Lord instituted a teaching church,   in  the  proper  sense   ot  the term  and hence evidence of the identity of our Church as a corporate body with the Apostolic Church is no evidence to them that it is the true Church, out of which salvation  is not possible.    It is not till the Anglican is more than half converted from his Anglicanism, that arguments tending to identify our Church as a corporation, or an organic body, with the Church of the Apostles, will have anv real weight with  him.    Father Tichbourne's reasoning, it  strikes us, is,    therefore. much better adapted to those who are nearly prepared to abandon  Anglicanism than to Anglicans in general.

The author's good Anglicans, his conscientious Anglicans. seen to us, also, to be adorned with more Christian graces and virtues than we can reasonably expect in the adhering member of any heretical establishment. Does the author award to Anglicanism the note of sanctity and hold that all the change a true Anglican needs is a change in belief on few points of doctrine? We are at a loss to understand why the author, and, indeed, our English and American Catholic popular writers generally, are accustomed to
manifest a respect for Anglicans which they never show to those whom Anglicanism denominates Dissenters. All our author's good Protestants, and especially all his converts, are Anglicans, while all his villains are either renegade Catholics or Puritans. For ourselves, we confess that we have less respect for Anglicanism than for Puritanism. The Puritan, of course, has always a bad minor, but he sometimes has a good major, and his conclusion is generally logical; the Anglican, on the contrary, has a bad major as well as minor, and his conclusion never follows from his premises. Anglicanism is the most absurd and ridiculous, as well as the most haughty and cruel ism to which Protestantism has given birth. Puritanism in New "England was never so intolerant as Episcopalianism was in Virginia and Maryland, and if Puritans persecuted us in England, the laws they put in force against us were all enacted by Anglicans. It is idle, however, to draw comparisons between sect and sect, and the proper course is to regard all Protestants, taken generally, as gentiles, or as apostates, and to predicate of them only such virtues as are possible in the natural order. Hence it perhaps would not be amiss if our novelists, who can convert whom they please in their romances, should convert some wicked people as well as those good and pious souls who are only innocently in error, and insist on conversion to Catholicity as the conversion of sinners, not merely as the conversion of the just. They would thus do something to check the pride of us who are. converts, and bear some slight testimony against the Pelagian tendency of the age.

In one instance our author raises a delicate question, which, we think, he had better not have done, unless he was prepared to answer it dillerently.

" ' I would know first,' a new idea starting up in his mind as he was about to warn the priest of his danger, ' whether you hold that the Pope can absolve citizens and subjects from their allegiance to their king and country.'

"' As I live, it is no doctrine of the Catholic Church,' said Father Tichbourne, solemnly. ' Popes have stood up as umpires between the sovereign and the people, but they have ever been found upon the side of liberty. They have excommunicated the licentious tyrant,  they have proclaimed the point where obedience ceased to be a virtue. And there,' continued the old man, rising up to his full height,' there the duty of obedience ceases.'

« ' Whilst you are discussing this point with me, a danger hangs over you;--perhaps the officers of the law, of our common sovereign, are seeking you as a violator of that law,- as a traitor to your country.    Will  you submit to that law, or will you avoid or resist it?

"I am a man of peace,' replied Father Tichbourne, calmly, " I can resist no force. I may well avoid the hand of unrighteous violence. The law of God is more binding than the law of man ; therefore the law of man forbids me in vain to obey the law or bod. I will suffer its penalty without complaint; that is the only obedience I will yield to it."  pp. 43, 44.

Father Tichbourne comes very near being forsworn, and saves himself only by a special pleading more ingenious than satisfactory.    The Popes, in some circumstances, can depose   sovereigns and absolve subjects from  their  allegiance, for they have frequently done so, and the argument ab acta ad posse, we believe, is allowed to be valid.    An author may, if he chooses, observe the disciphna arcam, and no doubt sometimes should, for we live in a wicked world, in which we are to be as wise as serpents, while we are as harmless as doves ; but he has no right to raise a question and give it an untrue or only a partially true answer.    His duty is to answer truly.    How far the powei of the Pope extends, it is for the Pope himself, not for us, his spiritual subjects, to determine.    We know he lias exercised the deposing and absolving power, and we cannot reconcile it to our Catholic conscience to say that he has exercised that power without possessing it.     lhat he lias ever deposed a sovereign or absolved subjects except in accordance with the law of God, or ever will, or ever can, we do not believe, for he does not make the law which binds sovereigns and subjects, he only keeps and administers it. That he always in regard to sovereigns and subjects exercises the powers with which God intrusts him on the side of right, of justice, and therefore of liberty we  of course firmly believe, for we hold him to be the Vicar of Christ on earth, and under the especial protection of the Holy Ghost, and because we have, and can have, no better evidence ot what is right and just than his decision.    The author himself says the Popes « have excommunicated the licentious tyrant and proclaimed the point where obedience ceased to be a virtue, and there the duty of obedience ceases. What more do we say ?    What is the use of quibbling on
terms? Do the Popes proclaim or declare with judicial authority ibr the Catholic conscience where obedience ceases to be a virtue, and therefore where the duty of obedience ends ? If no, then all you say is mere verbiage ; if yes, then he does absolve the subject from his allegiance, and has authority to do it, and you might just as well have said so in so many words, as to have begun by solemnly denying it, and to have ended by explaining away your denial.

We know how offensive the Catholic doctrine on this point is to statesmen and men of the world, but nevertheless, if we mean to be Catholics, we must stand by it.    We did not make the doctrine, and are not responsible for it. God will take care of his own doctrine ; all we have to do is to be faithful to it through good report and through evil report, in life and in death.    Catholicity asserts the independence and supremacy of the spiritual order, and its right to resist the secular order whenever it encroaches on that independence, or by its acts denies that supremacy, and  it personifies the authority of that order on earth in the Supreme Pontiff, the successor of St. Peter.    This is the simple fact, and there is no use in shrinking from saying so, or in timidly seeking to  disguise it.    We should be neither afraid nor ashamed of God's truth, or of God's institutions. Martyrdom is an evil only to those who inflict it; for their sakes, from charity to them, we should seek to avoid it as far   as   we   can   conscientiously,  not  for  our  own  sakes. Why praise we the martyrs, if we think martyrdom an evil?    We cannot serve two masters, and we cannot, as good Catholics, serve the state any farther than it conforms to  and subserves the  spiritual  order; and what conforms to and subserves that order the Church  is  established to teach us, and does teach us through her pastors, more especially through her chief pastor, the Pope.   He is no loyal Catholic who denies this in word or deed, and he is a very timid Catholic who seeks to disguise or explain it away. It is the truth, and are we afraid to stand by the truth and take the consequences?     What have  English   Catholics ever gained by their denials, equivocations, or special pleadings on this point?    They have never gained a moment's credit with their Protestant enemies, and they have been stripped of their estates, imprisoned, exiled, or hung, drawn, and quartered, just as they would have been if they had proclaimed the supremacy of the Pope in the fullest and least equivocal terms.    The history of English Catholics--who for three hundred years have done all they could do but absolutely give up their faith, to prove their loyalty to Protestant princes, and who have during all that time been punished as traitors to the government-should teach us a lesson, and make us refuse hereafter to burn one single grain of incense to Caesar, that is, the temporal power.  If we must suffer persecution, let us at least have the consolation of knowing that we have not in the least prevaricated; it. is too bad to sacrice a portion of God's truth to please the state, and be persecuted into the bargain.

As the subject of the work before us is Protestant persecution, we are naturally led to ask why it is that Protestants, wherever they have had the power, have invariably persecuted Catholics.    The fact is notorious, and the historu of Catholicity in all Protestant countries is only a reproduction in substance of the history of the Church under the Pagan Emperors.   Some ascribe Protestant persecutions to bigotry and fanaticism, and these may have had their influence; our author hints that they were not unfrequently owing to the desire to get possession of the estates of Catholics, and in this he may be right; but we are inclined to think the principal cause lies in the very tact that Catholicity  asserts the independence   and  supremacy of the spiritual order, and teaches that the secular should in all things be subordinated, and made subservient to it.     Protestants  have, indeed, sometimes   persecuted   Protestants, but only in the heat of passion, from the love of power, or to save themselves in  the eyes of Catholics from the reproach being divided into sects, and unable to maintain even the appearance of unity.    But persecution of Protestants by Protestants has long since virtually ceased.   Sects the most widely separated from each other in doctrine and rites are very good friends, and meet together in a World's Convention, not in perfect harmony  indeed, but without cutting each other's throats.    Laws against Protestant dissenters  have  nearly everywhere been  repealed, or  have fallen into desuctude, and the struggle between sect and sect has dwindled into a mere worldly rivalry     But the hostility of Protestants to Catholicity has hardly suffered any abatement.  To the genuine Protestantism of the age Catholics are as much a subject of hatred and of persecution, so far as it has the power to persecute, as they were in the days of Elizabeth and James the First. In the early Colonial days, Massachusetts set a price on the head of Father Rale, and sent out an armed band that shot him down at the head of his flock. If similar things are not done now, it is not because Protestantism has grown one whit more tolerant of Catholicity. Our Irish friends complain, and often justly, of the prejudices they have to encounter, and suppose it is because they are Irishmen. It is no such thing. Their being Irishmen is nothing against them in the eyes of the American people. Their ofi'ence is that they are Catholics. Though Catholics in this country outnumber the most numerous Protestant sect, they are hardly recognized publicly as an existent body. Little attention is paid to their bishops and clergy, and in public measures seriously affecting them; no public authority thinks of consulting them, as would be the case if they were Protestants. Secretly every thing is done that it is supposed can be done with prudence to oppress us, and to prevent Catholicity from becoming naturalized in the country. This secret hostility is preparing to become, and assuredly will become, open and even violent persecution, the very moment that the Protestant community becomes convinced that Catholicity has really taken root in our soil, and, if suffered to grow in freedom, must become the dominant religion of the country. If it has been heretofore tolerated, it has been because it was despised, because it was supposed to serve the purposes of a police for Irish laborers in our towns and on our public works, and because it was not believed to be capable of making any serious inroads upon the native American population.

Now whence comes this inveterate hostility of Protestants of all sects and classes, sorts and sizes, to Catholicity? Why is it that Protestants are more hostile to us than one Protestant sect is to another? It certainly is not from purely religious motives, for Protestantism does not care, and never did care, enough about religion, properly so called, to persecute any body for its sake. It is not because Protestants feel that our souls are in danger, for they have always conceded that salvation is attainable in our Church; and all they contend for, as any one may see by reading their great English defender, Chillingworth, is, that Protestantism is a safe way of salvation; that is, that a Protestant can be saved as well as a Catholic.    They only claim, in regard to the world to come, to be as well off as we, and never as a body think of questioning our chance of eternal salvation.    It is not zeal for the honor of God, or profound love of truth, for we see them fraternize with infidels, and men who scoff at all they call truth.    The English govern-merit, which persecutes Catholics, contributes, or lately contributed, to the support of Hindoo idolatry in India, and we have never heard of its persecuting Hindooism and its adherents, or Mahometanism and its professors.    The most numerous class of British subjects are Pagans, and the next largest class are Mahometans; and yet she enacts, as iar as We are aware, no Ecclesiastical Titles Bills against them. It surely, then, is not zeal for the honor of God, or the love of religion.    What, then, is the cause ?          

The cause is undoubtedly secular.    This, in fact, is always the cause alleged.    Protestantism always denies that she persecutes for religious causes.    In England she executed the clergy as traitors, and prohibited the ancient religion because dangerous to the state.    Lord John Russell, in his recent legislation against Catholicity, professes to respect religious liberty, and to legislate only to protect the prerogative of the  Queen.    In this country, what is the great argument against us?    It is, that we owe allegiance to a foreign potentate, and cannot be loyal to the republican institutions of the country.    In England, Catholicity is said to be opposed to the prerogative of the crown; here, to the prerogative of the people.    Always and everywhere are Catholics burned, massacred, hung, drawn, and quartered, their estates confiscated, or the profession and practice of their religion subjected to vexatious restrictions in the name and alleged interests of the secular order.    This is the uniform pretence of the Protestants themselves, and we may well take them here at their word, and believe that in this they are honest.

There must, then, certainly be something in the Catholic religion, essential to Catholicity, that is repugnant to the Protestant view of the rights of the secular order; for if it were not so, Protestants would finally have softened towards us, and become as willing to tolerate us as they are to tolerate downright infidels. Protestantism may vary its forms, but it cannot change its essential nature and live. It professes to be an uprising of the human race in behalf of liberty. This profession, in any respectable sense of the word liberty, is ridiculous, for it is notorious that Protestantism everywhere favors despotism, now of the throne and now of the mob.    Yet there must be a sense in which what it professes is true.     Catholics must not suppose that Protestants use our terms in our sense.    Protestantism was an uprising in favor of what Protestants mean by liberty; but they mean by liberty, not freedom from all restraints not imposed immediately or mediately by God himself, but freedom from all religious authority, from all religion except that which man concocts for himself.   In politics, as against us, they mean by liberty the absolute independence and supremacy of the secular order, and the subordination and subjection of the spiritual.    Protestantism, therefore, was an uprising in favor of liberty, indeed, but of the liberty of the flesh, the world, and the devil,  the three powers which Catholicity labors incessantly to restrain and reduce to subjection.

The hostility to Catholicity is not that it is, as some pretend, incompatible with this or that form of civil government, but that it holds civil government in every country, whatever its form, as much bound to obey the law ot God as the meanest of its subjects.    It is not merely that it teaches this, for nearly every Protestant sect teaches the same, so far as words go ; but it is that Catholicity is a church, a corporation, a kingdom, extending through  all nations, with  its centre  of unity and its  supreme  chief. If the Church had no visible centre of unity, if it had no supreme ruler on earth, if it were broken into  national churches, each confined to a particular nation, and complete within itself, it might teach all the doctrines and observe all the rites it now does, without ever being the object of fear to Protestant governments, or the subject of Protestant persecution.    Hostility is excited against it, and the secular order strives to extirpate it, because, having such visible centre and supreme ruler on earth, it has the power, when the people of any particular nation sincerely and firmly believe it, to render its teaching effectual, and to force the government to regard it, and desist from its attacks on the spiritual order, or its acts against the law of God.    It is the Papacy that is dreaded, and we are persecuted, not because we are supposed to believe error, but because we are Papists.    Catholicity without the Papacy, if such a thing were conceivable, would be no object of per-secution, nay, would be even acceptable to almost eye y secular government, as an auxiliary to the civil power.      The war is against Peter, on whom Christ founded his. Chuicl, because Peter is the keeper and administrator of the> supreme law of nations as of individuals.    As long as lcter sits in his chair at Home, no state is free to practise injustice, to violate the rights of its neighbors, to'oppress   to sub eets, or to trample on the law oi God with impunity. Peter must, then, be dethroned, and war to the death be de-clared against him, and all who own him as the viccgcicnt of God on earth.    Here is wherelore  Protestant, govern-ments and people wage sueh deadly war against us, and wherefore they never tolerate us, or leave us to enjoy om rights, where they are predominant, and we are, or are 1.1a y to be, strong enough to exert any important influence on public affairs.

Here is the main secret of that unrelenting hostility with which   Protestants  pursue  Catholics.     And what is our remedy?    How are we to disarm this hostility?  By denying the supremacy of the spiritual order, and asserting the absolute independence and supremacy oi the state, that is, sacrificing to Caesar?    In the first place, to do so would be to give up our faith as Catholics, and to become to all intents and purposes Protestants; and in the second place, were we to do so, and still profess to be Catholics, it would conciliate us no favor, for no Protestant would believe the sincerity  of our disavowal oi the  hated supremacy. Shall we solemnly protest that we are loyal subjects, and are bound in conscience to obey the civil authority in all things not repugnant to the law of God?    To what end? Protestants care nothing for our protestations; :or they have a theory that a Catholic will stick at no lie where his religion is concerned.    Moreover, what we solemnly protest in so protesting, is precisely what they object to us, and in protesting it we only aggravate our offence.    Protestants entertain no doubt of our loyalty as subjects, that we will always uphold the constituted authorities in all not repugnant to the Divine law; but this is precisely what they do not want us to do, and what they oppose us for.    What they want is the power when they have the state, to do what they please with it, and when they have not, to make a revolution in order to get it, two things which our doctrine of loyalty to the powers that be, and of the supremacy of the law of God, directly forbids them. It is not because Catholicity does not favor wise, just, and stable civil government that Protestants oppose it, for that they know it does, but because it condemns both civil despotism and revolutionism. Protestantism in power is civil despotism,  the despotism either of the monarch or of the mob ; and Protestantism out of power is revolutionism. When we limit our obedience to the state to those things not repugnant to the law of God, and add, with the Apostles, We must obey God rather than men, we deny the civil despotism it would establish, and assert the principle of civil and religious liberty; when we assert our duty to obey the powers that be, our obligation in conscience to demean ourselves as quiet citizens and loyal subjects, never resisting authority save when it commands us to do what the law of God forbids, we deny the right of revolution, we condemn " the sacred right of insurrection," which Protestantism asserts when out of power. Catholicity interposes and protects the subject when the prince attempts to tyrannize, and also interposes and protects the prince when his subjects are disposed to rebel; precisely what Protestantism wars against, for it must always have either despotism or anarchy.

It is clear, then, let us do our best, we cannot commend ourselves to the Protestant world, or convince them that, if we are good Catholics, we are not the enemies of the supremacy of the secular order which they always assert. The truth which we must as Catholics hold, and the virtues which we must insist on, are necessarily at war with what they as Protestants do and must seek as the supreme good ; and if we are strong in a country, the Church through us will prevent civil tyranny on the one hand and rebellion on the other, keeping both prince and subject, both the state and the citizen, within the sphere of their civil rights and duties, and therefore will be able to defeat them. What Protestantism uniformly seeks is intrinsically false and unjust, and therefore in proportion as we are faithful to our religion we must be odious to Protestants, and in a greater or less degree be persecuted by them. Protestantism cannot afford to leave us in peace. It is for this world, and makes men live for this world alone; it is, as we have shown in the foregoing article, essentially heathenism, and as such asserts necessarily the supremacy of the secular order. Catholicity, on the other hand, asserts the supremacy of the spiritual order, and makes religion the only real business of a man's life. How, then, can we commend ourselves to Protestants, or remove their objections to us, without abandoning our religion ? How, then, can they ever regard our prosperity otherwise than as dangerous to them ?

It is always labor lost for us to attempt to prove to 1 rot-cstants that we are their very good brothers, and, in their sense, as good as they are.    We are even disgusted when we find Catholics in one country urging their religion because favorable to monarchy, and in another because favorable to democracy;  citing  the  examples  quite   too numerous of the uncatholic  conduct of our  ancestors in disobeying the Church in order to satisfy the civil tyrant, whether king or people, that in a conflict between Church and State we may be relied on to side with the state, and plunge our sword into the heart of our spiritual mother.    It is to such conduct on the part of our Catholic ancestors, it is to their readiness to side with the secular against the spiritual authority, that we owe the despotism and anarchy, the schism and heresy of our times, and the almost universal lapse of the modern world into heathenism.     To approve this conduct is as useless as it is uncatholic.    The true policy for Catholics is not to seek to commend themselves to the lovers of the world, but to calculate always on being persecuted.    All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution.    If we are good Catholics our home is not in this world, and this world does and must hate us.    There is no help for us.    Heresy will persecute orthodoxy, error will persecute truth, and the secular will persecute the spiritual.    It has always been so from the beginning, and will be so unto the end.    All we can do is to love our enemies, pray for them who persecute us, and bless them that curse us, and proceed on our way in the path marked out by our religion, without turning to the right hand or the left, looking for no peace on earth, and seeking none till we arrive in heaven, our home.    Our business here is to prepare for heaven, to love, obey, and bear witness to the truth, and therefore to that which condemns the world.    There is no compromise or conciliation practicable, or to be thought of.    We must either be true to our religion, and thus have all who are not of it for our enemies, or we must be false to it, and have God for our enemy and hell for our doom.

We know we are told that the age of persecution is past, that advanced civilization has rendered it henceforth impossible to renew old penal laws, and to disturb a man for his religion.    Even some Catholics, and Catholic journals, join in the disgusting cant as to religious liberty, toleration, and the liberality of the age.    Where are our eyes ? Have we forgotten the arrest of the Archbishop of Posen, and the imprisonment of the Archbishop of Cologne, a few years since, by the king of Prussia ?    Have we not seen, within the last four or live years, the Jesuits and other religious orders persecuted in almost every country of Europe, the Holy Father driven into exile, pious and devoted priests and religious massacred or assassinated, and are not the illustrious prelates of Luxemburg, Lausanne and Geneva, Turin, and Cagliari still in exile, and their flocks a prey to the spoiler ?    What age was more civilized, in your sense of civilization, than that of Nero, Domitian, and Diocletian, or what people in modern times have come up in civilization to that of the people of the Roman empire under the Pagan Emperors ?    Who so ignorant of history as to rely on what is called civilization as a protection against persecution of the true religion ?   Who knows not that, the more advanced that civilization is, the more hostile it becomes to the Church, and the more cruelly does it persecute the true believers.    Do not deceive yourselves.    The age is not one whit more tolerant of religion than was that of Nero or Decius, and the religious liberty which  Protestants talk about is, as we have  often told you, only the liberty of heresy and infidelity, freedom from religion, and the liberty to oppress it, to subject it to the state or the mob.    Open your eyes, and see the whole so-called liberal party throughout the world   mad   against  religion, and   combining to destroy its organization, and to deliver men to the tender mercies of the unrestrained despot or the lawless mob, and then repose in the liberality of the age, and our enlightened civilization, if you can.   The age claims to be philanthropic, and who knows not that the characteristic of a professed philanthropist is to have a heart harder than the  nether mill-stone?    No, my brethren, join not in the cant of the day, trust none of the professions of religious liberty you hear come they from what quarter they may; and above all, put no confidence in our cold, material, selfish, heartless modern civilization.  Read the New Testament, read your tract on Grace, and rely no longer on the liberality of heresy or infidelity, on the world or its children.  Recall what you have seen in England during the last two years, and learn that you sole reliance is on the truth your Church teaches you, and on her celestial Spouse. We are persecuted, we shall be persecuted, and we must make up our minds to be persecuted, and to thank God we are accounted worthy to suffer for his sake; for if we sutler with him, we shall reign with him.

These considerations explain why it is Catholics are always the object of Protestant persecution, and why they always must be, as long as Protestantism in any form survives;- they should also serve to show how idle it is, by any prevarication or disguise of Catholic truth, even if it were not sinful, to attempt to conciliate Protestants. Catholics and Protestants stand opposed to each other as the spirit and the flesh, and there is and will be war between them as long as the world stands.    We cannot help it and all we have to do is to cling fast to the faith, stand by the Church with true and heroic courage, and suffer without complaint whoever we may be called upon to suffer, trusting that our good God will abundantly reward us hereafter for all we may suffer for his sake here.

We  have been carried away so far by this discussion that we have wellnigh forgotten our author.    He has written his book to show the folly of attempting to put down Catholicity by persecution.    We agree perfectly with him that it is folly, because the wisdom of the world is always folly with God.    But the world cannot reign unless it can put down Catholicity, and therefore it must always attempt to put it down, either by seducing or forcing Catholics from their allegiance.    It can never succeed, for it fights against God; yet never will you persuade it that it is not wise, or induce it to desist from its folly. It is in its nature to fight against God, for it hates him, and it always will renew its bootless war.   But we wish our readers here to bear in mind that it is not religious bigotry, that it is not zeal for religion, that chiefly lights the fires of Protestant persecution,  but zeal for the world, and determination to subordinate religion always and everywhere to the secular power.  And therefore we lose all the breath we expend in declaiming against bigotry and intolerance, and in favor of religious liberty, or the right of every man to be of any religion or of no religion, as best pleases him, which some two or three of our journalists would fain persuade the world is Catholic doctrine. Such declamations only tend to render Catholics indifferent to their faith, or to inoculate them with a false and fatal liberalism, as experience every day proves. They produce no effect on Protestants, save so far as they may be regarded as indications of a tendency amongst us to abandon our religion, and turn Protestant or infidel. It is always folly to talk or reason of Protestants, taken as a body, as if they had religion, or cared a pin's head for religion of any sort. Set them down always as modern heathens, and go and preach to them as the Fathers did to the Gentiles, or you will never touch them. They will persecute you, if they have the power and regard you as of sufficient importance to be persecuted, until you succeed in convincing them that heathenism is false and Catholicity is true, and that they are to live for heaven and not for earth. The great error into which we fall is that of considering Protestantism as a form of religion, and adhered to from religious motives. If such was ever the case, it is not now. With here and there an individual exception, Protestants constitute not a religious, but a political and social party, and what they say in reference to religion is said only in furtherance of their secular movements or desires, whether they themselves are distinctly conscious that it is so or not. We do it too much honor when we condescend to dispute with it as a form of religious error ; and the great reason why we do not dispute it more successfully is, that no small portion of us sympathize with it in its political and social views, that is, are ourselves Protestants, without knowing it. The atheistical politics which are the essence of Protestantism have pervaded the modern Catholic world, and are nearly as rife amongst us as among Protestants themselves. Our first work should be to unprotestantize ourselves,  a thing we shall not very readily do, if our popular writers take care to deny or suppress Catholic truth as applicable to the secular order. Atheistical politics are wellnigh universal, and till we abandon them ourselves, we shall make poor headway against Protestantism.    When we ourselves are afraid to assert the supremacy of the Church, and the subordination of the state, and to maintain that the secular is for the spiritual, and not the spiritual for the secular, when we are afraid to acknowledge the supremacy of  Peter in his successors, and deem it the part of prudence to explain away or half deny the Papacy, what have we got to say to Protestants?   We yield every thing to them that they care for, and what have we to oppose to them?    We tell our readers again and again, that the theological matters discussed between Protestants and us are not the real questions at issue.    They care nothing, as a body, for doctrines. They  have no doctrines that they  cannot give up  at a moment's warning, if necessary to secure their secular success.    The whole question turns on the unity and catholicity   of the  Church,  as the  means  of maintaining the supremacy of the spiritual order.    As that unity and catholicity are effected and secured by the Papacy, the real object of attack is the Pope and his spiritual authority, under God, over the whole secular order.    The whole question is here.  Give up or deny that authority, and you give up or deny all that Protestantism really opposes, and embrace practically all that is living in it, and are Protestants in the only sense in which Protestants are worth counting.    We must therefore, if we mean to be Catholics, be truly--we like the word--Papists, and fearlessly assert the  Papal supremacy.     We   shall  then get rid  of  our  Protestant, heathen, or   atheistical   politics,   and   have   a   Catholic ground  on which to  oppose  Protestantism.    This is the first thing necessary for us.    This done, we become politically and socially, as we are in faith and worship, a united body, able to  move in one  solid and unbroken phalanx against Protestantism, and to produce some effect on the minds and hearts of  Protestants.    The question will then be discussed on its merits, and we may hope that God will bless our efforts to persuade our Protestant brethren that they should no longer abandon themselves  to the world which satislieth not, but make it their sole business to live for God and heaven.

However, we must never forget that every age is a martyr age, and that the martyr spirit is the only spirit worthy of the true Catholic. We like, therefore, the little book before us, as showing how men can even in modern times die martyrs.    It is well fitted to make us love the faith for which our fathers suffered so much, and to strengthen us to endure whatever persecutions for it the enemy shall be permitted to institute against us. Notwithstanding the few criticisms we have ventured on it, it is an excellent little book. Our objection to it is, that it takes too favorable a view of Anglicanism in regarding it as a form of religion, and is not quite Ultramontane enough to suit our taste. Aside from these objections, it is a good book, written with great power, serious intention, and in the true Christian Spirit. We thank the unknown author for it, and hope he will not let his pen lie idle. These are times when none who can speak for the truth are permitted to be silent, and especially none who can speak so well as our author.