belonging to the church of Rome." Among which domains are enumerated, "Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Peter's Patrimony in Tuscany! &c: also all those who adhere, favour, defend, counsel or assist them."

22. "Our present process, and all and every thing contained in these letters, shall continue in force, and be put in execution, till other processes of this kind be made and published by us, and the pope of Rome, for the time being.

23. "None may be absolved from the aforesaid censures by any other, than by the Roman pontiff, unless he be at the point of death; nor even then, unless he giveth caution to stand to the commands of the church, and give satisfaction. In all other cases none shall be absolved, not even under pretence of any faculties or indulgencies, granted and renewed by us, and the said see, and the decrees of any council, by words, letters, or any other writing, in general or in particular, to any persons ecclesiastical, secular or regular of any orders, even of the mendicant or military orders; or to any persons invested with episcopal or any greater dignity; or to the orders themselves, and their monasteries, convents, houses, and chapters; to colleges, confraternities, congregations, hospitals, and ecclesiastical places; or even to laymen, although they should be emperors, kings, or other persons eminent in any secular dignity.

24. "If by chance, against these presents, any shall presume to bestow absolution upon any of them, who are involved in excommunication and anathema-we include them in the sentence of excommunication, and shall afterwards proceed more severely against them, both by spiritual and temporal punishments, as we shall think most conve

nient.

25. "We declare and protest, that no absolution, though solemnly made by us, shall in any way avail the foresaid excommunicated persons, comprehended under these present letters; unless they desist from the premises, with a firm purpose of never committing the like thing; nor those, who have made statutes against the ecclesiastical liberty, unless they shall first publicly revoke these statutes, orders, and decrees, and cause them to be blotted out and expunged from their archives, and registers, wherein they are preserved, and farther certify us of this revocation. By any such absolution or any other contrary acts, tacit or express, or even by the toleration of us and our successors, how long time soever continued; none, nor any of the premises, nor any right of the church of Rome, however and whenever obtained, can be prejudged, or receive any infringement.

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26. Notwithstanding any privileges, indulgences, grants, and letters, general or special, granted by the holy see to any of the aforesaid persons, or any others, of whatsoever order, quality, condition, dignity, and pre-eminence they be; although they should be bishops, emperors, kings, or in any other ecclesiastical or secular dignity, or to their kingdoms, provinces, and dominions, for any cause, even by contract or for reward, and with any clauses even derogatory of those which should derogate from them; or even containing that the said persons shall not be excommunicated, anathematized, or interdicted by any apostolic letters; as also, notwithstanding all customs even immemorial, and prescriptions how long soever, and any other observances, written or not written, by

which the said persons may help and defend themselves against these our processes and censures. All which grants, as far as relates to this matter, and the whole tenor of them, accounting them expressed in these presents, as if they had been verbatim inserted, nothing omitted-we utterly abolish, and wholly revoke, and notwithstanding any other pleas which may be alleged to the contrary."

The twenty-seventh section provides for the publication of the bull, so that "the persons concerned may neither pretend excuse, nor allege ignorance, as if they had not come to their knowledge."

28. "Moreover, that the processes themselves, and these present letters, and all and every thing contained in them, may become more manifest, by being published in many cities and places, we intrust, and in virtue of their obedience, strictly charge and command, all and singular patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, ordinaries of places, and prelates, wheresoever constituted, that, by themselves or some others, they solemnly publish these present letters in their churches once a year, or oftener, if they see convenient, when the greater part of the people shall be met for the celebration of service; and that they put the faithful in mind of them, and declare them."

29. "All patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and prelates, as also all rectors, and others having cure of souls, and priests, secular and regular, of whatever orders, deputed by any authority to hear confession of sins, shall have a transcript of these present letters by them, and shall diligently study to read and understand them."

The thirtieth section provides that "regularly attested copies of this bull shall possess equal authority with the original."

31. "Let no man, therefore, infringe, or boldly and rashly oppose this our letter of excommunication, anathematization, interdict, &c., command and pleasure. But if any one shall presume to attempt it, let him know that he shall incur the displeasure of Almighty God, and of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

"Romæ apud Petrum, anno 1610. In the eighth year of the popedom of our 'Most Holy Father in Christ, and our Lord Paul V. Pope,' the aforesaid letters were affixed and published at the doors of John Lateran, and the Prince of the Apostles, and in the field of Flora. "JACOB. BRAMBILLA, Mag. Curs. Cursores."

"BALTHAZAR Vachá,

It is generally supposed, that the above terrific bull, and all other papal decrees of a similar character and spirit, are become obsolete, and are dead in practice, from the the combined antiquity of their character, and the lapse of ages through which they have passed. This is a profound and mischievous delusion. Popery is infallible, and consequently immutable.

The Council of Trent, Sess. 25. De Reformat. Cap. 20, thus enact, "Præcipit synodus, &c. The synod commands, that the canons of all general councils, and other apostolic sanctions, in favour of ecclesiastical persons, the privileges of the church, and against the violations of them, all which things they renew by the present decree, ought exactly to be observed by all."

The profession of faith required of all the Roman priests, and by

which they are solemnly sworn, is recorded in Bulla Pii IV. super forma juramenti profess. fidei; et Concil. Trident. Sess. 24. De Reformat. Cap. 12. Omnia a sacris canonibus, &c. All things defined by the canons and general councils, and especially by the synod of Trent, I undoubtedly receive and profess. And all things contrary to them I reject and anathematize; and from my dependents and others who are under my care, as far as possible, I will withhold. And this Catholic faith I will teach, explain, and enforce upon them."

To this confession must be subjoined the canonical oath which every prelate takes at his consecration, and which is equally obligatory upon every inferior ecclesiastic. Pontifical. Romanor. De Consecrat. Elect. in Episcopum. page 57. "Ego P. P. ab hac hora in antea, &c. I, P. P., from this time forward, will be faithful and obedient to my lord the pope, and his successors. The councils, with which they trust me, I will not discover to any man, to the injury of the pope and his successors. I will assist them to retain and defend the popedom, and the royalties of Peter, against all men. I will carefully conserve, defend, and promote, the rights, honours, privileges, and authority of the pope. I will not be in any council, fact, or treaty, in which any thing prejudicial to the person, rights, or power of the pope, is contrived; and if I shall know any such things, I will hinder them to the utmost of my power, and with all possible speed I will signify them to the pope. To the utmost of my power, I will observe the pope's commands, and make others observe them. I will impugn and persecute all heretics, and rebels to my lord the pope." With many more articles of a similar character, and especially the condition to enforce the observance of the same principles and rules by all those who attend the confessional; and to obtain their promise of fidelity before they shall receive absolution.

The oath which the Jesuits especially swear, in addition to all the other official obligations, is recorded in the hundred and forty-third essay of the Protestant, from all which testimony, the true principles and effects of popery and Jesuitism, in their connexion with civil society, can correctly be ascertained.

This subject, however, admits of additional illustration, by a reference to the memoirs of Scipio de Ricci; who was the Roman prelate of Pistoia and Prato, in Tuscany; and the principal cause of the partial reformation, which was attempted by Leopold, the grand duke of that province, during the latter period of the eighteenth century.

The celebrated bull, in Cana Domini, which has been already introduced, contains the arrogant "pretensions of the Roman pontiffs, to interfere with the civil obedience of" his subordinate priests. The operation of this bull has been the source of nearly all the wars, and desolations, and miseries of Europe and its dependencies, during the last eight hundred years. Rucellai, secretary to the Tuscan government, and consequently a Romanist, solicitous for the improvement of his degraded and papally enslaved country, addressed a memoir to Prince Leopold, in which he combats the pontifical usurpations, and illustrates the arbitrary "spirit which dictated that eternal monument of priestly ambition the bull In Cana; the consequences of the enforcement of it in Tuscany, and the means to oppose it; and he also urges the civil authority to resist all those attempts of the court of Rome."

The following extracts from Rucellai's memorial lucidly unfold this very important, and to American citizens, novel subject.

"A government, writes Rucellai, owes it to its own dignity and to justice, to defend both itself and its rights, against the invasions of the bull In Cana, and their subjects against the civil consequences of the measures with which it threatens them. The foundation of the Romish authority is contained in the Body of Canon Law, and especially in that part of it entitled, Pontifical Authority. It is composed of bulls, letters, and replies of the pope, and of decrees of Assemblies at his court; and is the instrument by which Rome converts the priesthood into an engine for the attainment of its political views, even in other States.

The Bull, known by the name of In Cana Domini, is a summary of all those ecclesiastical laws which tend to establish the despotism of the court of Rome; a despotism which was the work of many ages, which was watered with the blood of many millions of human creatures, founded with the spoils of many debased sovereigns, and raised on the ruins of many overturned thrones.

"The Bull In Cana was the origin of those scandalous differences between the priesthood and the Empire, which happened in the eleventh century. Those differences were totally unknown until the church began to speak a language invented by the court of Rome, in order to abuse with impunity the power of the kings, by means of the factions which they brought forth and fostered. It was also the origin of the Inquisition, which it supported in its greatest enormities, and of the crusades, censorships, interdicts, &c. All these, it employed, first to balance, and then to pull down, the different powers of the Empire; to strip it of one part of its Italian states, and out of them to erect itself into a species of new monarchy.

"Sovereigns, not unfrequently deposed by the subjects of the priesthood, and being incessantly threatened by their devoted fanatics, were compelled to trust their defence to Civilians; but the Roman court found little difficulty in getting rid of all of them, by declaring them attainted and convicted of heresy; which, at that period, was the most dreadful of all crimes.

"Scarcely had the governments of the new Italian republics, which appeared in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, lost all fear, in regard to their independence from foreign assault, than they began to dread encroachment on the part of the sacerdotal body, and immediately they changed their system and conduct. Without openly declaring their opposition to the intolerable pretensions of the court of Rome, they endeavoured to invalidate them by means of new laws, all of which were passed nearly at the same time, whose object was to restrain the papal authority, and the personal immunities of the clergy."

The example of Tuscany will elucidate this important topic. "About that period, the bishops and the tribunals of the Inquisition, were deprived of their prisons and armed servants, and steps were taken to prevent the latter, as much as possible, from doing mischief. The power of the prelates was limited, and the Roman court was restrained from appointing them according to her caprice. The temporal portion of benefices became dependent upon the public authority. Opposition was indirectly made to the too frequent transferences of property into the hands of the clergy; and measures were adopted to subject any novel

acquisitions which they might make, to the same changes as other property similarly situated. This indirect method, however, of opposing the Roman court, was soon neutralized by that same court, so well skilled in the art of invention.

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The papal ministers advanced what is termed, ecclesiastical privilege, an occult right, which comprehends every pretension that Rome has put forth till the present time, or which she may choose to urge in future. By means of this pretended right, it is impossible to imagine a single human action, over which she may not exert her influence and authority, if it is in any conceivable way connected with her interests. Every thing that was in the least degree inconsistent with, or contrary to this ecclesiastical privilege, either directly or indirectly, from that moment, was comprised in the bull In Cana, and as such it was anathematized.

"This occurred respecting the laws of Tuscany, for restricting the papal power, which have just been enumerated. The Roman court maintained that they were null and void, because they had not been enacted by legitimate authority. The states in which they had been promulged were excommunicated, laid under an interdict, and attacked by the temporal forces of the reigning pontiffs, or by the subjects of other states, whom the court of Rome had armed against their sovereigns, because those governments had ordered the laws passed in favour of their subjects to be put in force.

"Rome thus extended its despotic,authority over all Italy. But those authorities, although they took the pretensions of the papal court for what they were, without any examination of their merits, yet they guarded the government against any abuse which might result from them, by demanding that every order or prohibition and document emanating from the pontifical authority, whether of a temporal or spiritual nature, should be subjected to a censorship. It was the duty of the censors to examine whether they were contrary to any existing law of the state, and to take care that they should not become binding, until, with due consent from the sovereign, they had been lawfully published in his dominions.

"This legal publication was denominated the Exequatur: and the necessity of it is the basis of the jurisdiction and rights of the governments, in every state where the Roman religion prevails. If the law were strictly executed, and every infraction of it regularly punished, the power of Rome would cease to be a subject of alarm, as well as a source of mischief.

"The Roman court instantly perceived the consequences which would necessarily result from enforcing this law, and consequently condemned it. The pontiff declared all those who should order its execution, or who should execute it themselves, to be under the censures of the bull In Cana; but this produced not the desired effect, and Rome was obliged to tolerate the existence of the Exequatur.

"All the papal cunning is now employed in endeavouring to elude the Exequatur, which it sometimes does, even under the most enlightened governments; which ought, therefore, always to be on its guard, in order to detect its attempts, and to restrain the priests who abet them."

To prove that this bull In Cana Domini, is still enforced wherever