The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-11-16 00:00:00

I must premi
)f_ the Madiai

that of direct political
'ers no trace. They figure

■eiigious -.
allege, that the Madiai knowingly worked
or organs of a political sect ; but in this
exists in reality the crime of attack upon the relig
state, and is therefore indirectly political."
Well, then, if they tell they were put in prison and

Ls the instruments
and in these facts

condemned for political offences, let them go and settle
the matter with the prosecutor of the Grand Duke
of Tuscany. (Applause.) Again, priests of the Church
of Rome, in this country, tell us they were not prosecuted
for leaving the Church of Rome. They tell us that they
might have left it if they pleased, and the laws of Tuscany
and Rome would not and could not punish them for leav-
ing the system. Again, I call as a witness the prosecu-
tor of the Grand Duke of Tuscany :

"It will be easy to gather that apostacy, heresy, and schism,
as long as they are the individual defection of the Catholic
citizen, cannot be judged and punished in a general way, as
real crimes ; and that the most that can be done in similar
cases is by admonition and other ecclesiastical recals. and
afterwards bu implorirg the secular power, as a precaution, to
send them into exile, lest contact with the erring should corrupt
the good."

(Laughter.) It is no crime, and vet they are to be
banished for ever because of it ! Would the Roman
Catholics of England consider it no punishment if they
were sentenced to be sent for ever from England. (Loud
applause.) Yet they have the boldness to stand forward
and tell us it is no crime, while they drive the man from
his country, his living, and his home, and make him a
beggar upon the face of the earth, for what they promptly
acknowledge is no crime. (Applause.) They tell us the
crime really is proselytism. Now, on the subject of pro-
selytism, the public prosecutor speaks thus :

"When dissent in religion proceeds from personal individua-
lity, and is declared externally with a view to the corruption of
others, or by assuming the character of proselytism, all writers,
even the most tolerant and liberal (except perhaps those who
have been or are the voice of revolution), agree in recognising
it as a crime."

Peter and John said "We cannot help speaking the
things which we have heard." Cardinal Wiseman told
the English, in introducing that papal bull, which they
hoped to fatten on the soil of England (laughter), their
desire was to restore England to its orbit in the ecclesi-
astical firmament, in cther words to proselytise England.
(Hear, and applause.) Well, they can come and proselytise
us, but if we d re to go there and proselytise I hem, then it
is something more than no crime—(loud applause)—then
it becomes a real crime. You probably recollect that
some time ago in Dublin, a meeting at which Dr. Cullen,
then Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland and Arch-
bishop of Armagh, now Roman Catholic Archbishop
of Dublin, presided ; and a Roman Catholic member
contrived to put in a little word about civil and religious
liberty. His grace put him down, and said it was a
notorious fact that " the Catholic Church all over the
world was the friend of religions toleration." (Laughter.)

Now recollect Dr. Cullen lived many years in Rome—that
he is a man of great ability—that he knows well the laws
of Rome, and the customsand usages of the States of Italy.
When, therefore, Dr. Cullen said the Catholic Church all
over the world recognised civil and religious liberty, heknew
well the customs of the Church of Rome in Tuscany, and
therefore we are to interpret his statement by concluding
that he gives to the word civil and religious liberty a
meaning totally different from that which we put upon it.
(Hear, and applause.) Now, in order to carry out this
sentiment, allow me to make you hear what the public
prosecutor of the Madiai says in giving his definition of
civil and religious liberty :
"We venerate equally with any one individual liberty of
conscience as an internal sanctuary which cannot be violated
by civil authority without the risk of disturbing the human
race. We respect religious tolerance so far as the guirdian
laws consent thereto, so far as it is compatible with civil good
order; and this is tantamount to saying so long as tolerance
exists, so long as it does not degenerate into license or indiffer-
ence, whence would arise that confusion, that clashing of dif-
ferent beliefs, which would end in the most deplorable civil
disorder."

They allow individual liberty of conscience. They are
the friends of civil and religious liberty, but there must
be no difference of belief,—(laughter ;)—because, if there
is any difference of belief, it will necessarily end in " the
most deplorable civil disorder." (Laughter.) Well,
then, if any Roman Catholic stands up and tells you he
is a great friend of civil and religious liberty, ask if it is in
the sense of the prosecutor of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
There is only another statement which I wish to give, an
extract from the speech in question, not bearing imme-
diately upon the case, but too important to he omitted.
The Church of Rome sneers at our differences. Now,
allow me to give you what the prosecutor says about dif-
ferent sects :
"The dissenting or Protestant confessions, transformed and
with various titles, though identical in substance, emerged from
their hiding places or poured forth from America, Switzerland,
and England into Italy and Tuscany, and worked hand in
hand."

There is the testimony of the prosecutor of the Grand
Duke of Tuscany. Then if they tell us that here we are
different and there agreed, either we must be different
here and there, or else they differ a little in their relilious
belief. (Hear.) The defence of the Madiai was, they
had abandoned the Church of Rome—that that abandon-
ment was caused by their reading the Word of God. By
the bye, this v:ell-informed prosecutor ascribes their con-
version to the Bible Society, and he supplied the court
with this little piece of information,—that the Bible
Society Wa3 originated in Frince, in 1792, by Johanna
Soutlicot?. (Roars of laughter.) It is a positive fact
—(laughter) ;—and it will furnish you with a sample of
the information of the gentleman, and the character of
the evidence upon which the Medial have been condemned
to imprisonment. Their defence, as I stated before, was
—they acknowledged they had left the Church of Rome ;
that they really had been guilty of the awful sin of schism,
and acknowledged that it was produced by the Word of
God. They denied that they were guilty of proselytism,
but admitted that they did give information to certain
parties who sought it at their hands, and came to inquire.
The sentence upon them is comprised in three thino's :
imprisonment for, respectively 56 and 45 months—a fine
imposed upon them, to bear the costs of the trial, and
three years' inspection of the police afterwards. Now,
perhaps I might tell you what the galleys mean
—and really we do not know what they mean. The
galleys is a punishment just es indefinable with us
as transportation. It may be comparatively kind,—

it may be worse than death—it depends upcn the

characier. of their gaoler; and from the antecedents
of the grand duke in this case I have no doubt
he will put them in the hands of a safe gaoler. Then
to be three years under the inspection of the police
is as bad as imprisonment. An Englishman's house is his
castle, a poor Tuscan's house his prison ; and any hour of
the day, or night, in health or sickness, under any cir-
cumstances, the police may come and claim admittance,
and have every document which they possess,—every
apartment opened up and submitted to their inspection.
I might tell you of their conduct after imprisonment.
It was all that the conduct of a child of Goci should be ;
but I must hasten on, as I have an extensive subject be-
fore me this evening. I shall have to trespass upon your
patience—(applause)—and therefore I will content myself
on the first point with this statement of facts :
Now I come to my first proposition :—" That the
whole case is a simple illustration of the direct tend•
encies and inevitable results of Popery as a religious
system." My friends, there are three ways in which
you may judge of a man.—(Hear, hear.) You may
judge of him by his general character, although you
have never heard him say a word, and you do not know a
a single act in his life. Or you may judge of that man,
though you don't know his character and temper, by his
words ; if you have heard him speak, that is enough.
(Cheers.) Or, although you have not heard his words
or know his nature, you may judge of him by his
acts. Sometimes a man's words don't accord with
his character or acts ; but when you find a man
whose words indorse his character, and whose acts super-
indorse both—the man is wicked both in his words and
his acts—the essence of wickedness. (Applause.) My
first ponit is, that he character of the Church of
Rome is persecuting ; the second is, that the words and
principles of the Church of Rome are persecution ' • and
my third point is, that the acts of the Church of
Rome are persecuting. (Applause,) And I need say no
more, if I have proved this, I have proved my case.
Well then " the whole case is a simple illustration of
the direct tendencies and inevitable results of Popery as a
religious system." Now, my friends, I would take up three
positions in connection with the system of Popery. You
would say that is a poor enslaved state, whose head is a
tyrant ; you would say again, that is a poor enslaved state
that has no laws but the will of that tyrant ; you would
say again, that is a poor enslaved state, because there is
an executive there who, though the head be good, and the
laws in the main be sound, who would corrupt any laws and
destroy the efficacy of any principles, which would keep
the people from slavery. Now, I say, taking the head of
the Papal system, in its pretensions and powers, it is
impossible that Popery can be anything but persecu-
tion itself. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the
Church ; He is appointed to he head over all things ; and
He governs His Church by His Word and Spirit. He is
qualified for the office. He was a man like ourselves, and
yet God,—infinite in knowledge, Almighty in Power, and
the perfection of His nature is the true antidote that He
will never abuse His unlimited power. Now the head of
the Papal System claims to possess the powers of Christ
without the perfection of Christ's nature—to counteract
those powers,—in other words, he claims to be another
God on earth. There are two parties in the Church of
Rome. There is what is called the Gallican section and
the Italian, or the Cisalpine and ultra-montane. The
difference between these is, one represents the Pope to be
inferior to a General Council, which is the head executive;
the other represents the Pope as personally infallible, and
Lord of all things temporal and spiritual, a general council
not excepted. But in this point they are both agreed,
that in respect to the executive, whether the Pope be
right or wrong in the meantime, as head of the executive,
the Church is bound to obey him. Now, in the first
place, that the Pope does really desire to be recognised as
another God upon earth, is proved by the following state-
ments :

Innocent lIT, in addressing King Richard, informed him,
"That lie held the place of God upon earth, and without dis-
tinction of persons he would punish the men and nations that
presumed to oppose his commands."
The Canon Law teaches, " It is evident that the Pope, who
was called God by Constantine, can neither bebound nor loosed
by any secular power. for it is manifest that a God cannot be
judged by men :" thus giving an embodiment to the blas-
phemies uttered by Clement VII. and his cardinals, when writ-
ing to Charles Vl,—" As there is but one God in the heavens,
so there is not, nor ought to be of right, but one God or earth."
Nor, my friends, are these mere theoretical preten-
sions ? They have been again and again exercised by the
heads of the Papacy. 63 kings and emperors from time
to time have been excommunicated and anathematised by
41 Popes. But you will say this is merely the spiritual
sword. Well, I will tell you what it is. Then you can
judge whether it is temporal or spiritual. There hap-
pened once to have been a Queen named Elizabeth, and
there happened to be a Pope Pius the Fifth ; and
I recollect a gentleman, a priest of the Church of Rome,
on the stage of the Amphitheatre, who admitted that there
was some delicate little matter between them. (Laughter.)
The Pope excommunicated the Queen because she was a
heretic, and favourer of heretics. His excommunication
consisted of depriving her of her intended right and title to
the throne of England, and all other rights whatever. He
absolved all her subjects from their allegiance, and under the
pain of anathema pronounced upon the Queen, he comman d -
ed them no longer to acknowledge her authority. Well,
now, if that was spiritual, I really don't know what is tem-
poral. (Lau;hter.) The Pope claims the power of putting
a kingdom under interdict. Now, Protestants care little ;
but the Church of Rome cares a deal. With the Church
of Rome, their whole religion is in the hands of a priest,

and when a kingdom is under interdict, the priests are
not allowed to exercise any office, except to the dying ;
and the state of the country is to them as if God, in his
infinite wisdom, had been pleased to visit that land in
temporal thirgs with the most wasting famine.

And now I ask what are the characters of those Popes
who claim those powers. You will not mistake me when
I say that despotism is the best Government, if we had
security that the despot was a perfect man. The govern-
ment of God is uncontrolled—thegovernment of God isbest,
because he is perfect ; but that which is in the hands of the
Omnipotent and living God is perfection, in the hands of a
feeble and frail man becomes an indescribable tyranny.
Therefore, you must take into account the characters
of the Popes in connexion with their claims. Genebrand
tells us that fifty popes, in 150 years, were aoostatical
rather than apostolical.
Baronius, in his annals, seems to labour for language to ex-
press the base degeneracy of the Popes, and the frightful de-
formity of the Popedom. " Many shocking monsters intruded
into the Pontifical chair, who were guilty of robbery, assassi-
nation, simony, dissipation, tyranny, sacrilege, perjury, and all
kinds of miscreancy." _ _

Those are not my words. They are the words of Car-
dinal Baronius; and any Roman Catholic present, and I
know there are some, can settle their account with him.
(Loud applause.)
Now, my second point as to the system of Popery, is,
that it is absolutely and indispensably persecution, be-
cause there are no laws that the people possess, or by
which the people are governed. She begins by asserting
her own absolute infallibility. " This one church," says
the Council of Trent, " cannot err in the delivery of faith
and discipline of manners, as she is governed by the
Holy Ghost."
Now, I say at once, if the church is infallible, the
people are bound to obey the church, whatever the church
says. It would have been murder in Abraham to kill his
son under ordinary circumstances ; but it was duty when
God commanded him. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers).
It would have been robbery in the Israelites to spoil the
Egyptians, but it was lawful when God enjDined them.
And in like manner, if the Church of Rome is infallible,
then, I say the people have no liberty. (Applause.)
Whatever the church commands, they must do ; the un-
derstanding, will, conscience, and judgment, are bound
by fetters of iron by the infallibility of the church. This
infallible church not only lays the foundation of her in-
fallibility ; but when she has done so, she puts the Word
of God under her feet—and very properly, if she wants to
make herself infallible.

•-•-----•
In the year 1816, a letter was issued to Ignatius, Primate of
Poland, in which his Holiness thus speaks of the Bible
Societies: "We have been truly shocked at this most crafty
device, by which the very foundations of religion are under-
mined." To remedy "this pestilence . . . this defilement
of the faith, most dangerous to souls . . . we again and
again exhort you that whatever you can achieve by power,
provide for by counsel, or effect by authority, you will daily
execute with the utmost earnestness."

The Council of Trent permits a man to have the Bible
if he has a written line from the priest. but if he has not
he can make no confession or receive absolution till he
gives up the Bible to the priest. Not merely does the
infallible church nuttier foot upon the Bible, butshe raises
other writings to equal authority. The Trent catechism
tells us that Scripture is divided into the Bible and tradi-
tions ; and moreover enjoins people to receive the Scrip.:
tures in whatever sense she chooses to put upon them.
Therefore the Pope we are plainly informed can defeat
the Scripture by the interpretation of Scripture.
Now I ask you what state that country would be in
the formation of the laws, in which the people had no
part ? in the understanding of which the people must ex-
ercise no judgment—but must receive as perfect right or
wrong, what is delivered to them by the infallible Church,
without ever employing the judgment which God has
given to them. (Applause.)
That is my second point. The third is the executive or
administrative part of the Church of Rome is such that
there must he tyranny in the system. As to the adminis-
tration of the Church of Rome, I do not wish to speak
disrespectfully, if I say that all tyrants have large armies.
Louis Napoleon has from 600,000 to 700,000 men,—
and the Pope also, in his way, has a large army. (liven
Victoria can go to Sootland, or anywhere else, and her
only guards consist in the loyalty and devotion of her
people.—(Loud applause.) The Pope has an army both
temporal and spiritual,—no Italians, he cannot. trust
them—(applause)—he gets Swiss. They have seen too
much of the Pope presiding upon the pontifical throne,
therefore he gets Swiss soldiers; and Louis Napoleon is
very willing to make the Pope the tool of his ambition.
He keeps a force in Rome, and flatters the priesthood
that civil despotism and ecclesiastical tyranny may go
hand in hand for the destruction of liberty in Europe.—
(Loud applause.) Now the Pope's army is the priest-
hood ; and I ask you to consider the priesthood first of all
in itself. I ask you first to consider their numbers.
Now, there are some people who are quite frightened
when they meet a gentleman in a long black coat, and
stiff cravat (laughter); and there are those who, if they
meet some ladies with long black veils, are ready to send
for the doctor (laughter) ; but, suppose you calculate
what the power of the Pope is by the priesthood all over
the world,-218,000 parishes and 44,000 monasteries.
What an army of administration he has in his hand.
Then look to their orders,—there never was an army
better disciplined than they. And then again look to
their celibacy. (Laughter). They have no family ties.
(Loud laughter and applause). At least they ought net
to have. They serve their master in any country ; and,
when times of trouble arise, they can just quietly pack up
theirknapsacks and go elsewhere. (Laughter and applause).
Then again look at this priesthood in their sworn
attachment to the head of the church. I don't mean to
say that every priest is a disloyal subject ; but I say I
know it is impossible for any man to take the oath of
allegiance to a foreign prince, and at the same time be
loyal to his own prince.
There is the oath of the bishop, the oath of the priest,
and the secret (Atli of the Jesuit, by which they are
bound neck and heels, body and conscience, to act out
the orders of the Pope, and to receive and believe the
decisions of the fathers and the decrees of the councils.
(Sensation.) They are not without their reward either.
(Laughter.) We make them pay income-tax, if they
have £l5O a year, in England ; but the law of the
Church of Rome says they shall pay no taxes, and
I could prove it. The Pope indeed tells them that
if at any time the state should come into trouble, they
may make a subscription, and hand it over as a donatioo.
—(Laughter.) They are not to appear before a civil tri-
bunal. Not long ago we heard a good deal of a dispute
between Sardinia end the Court of Rome on the subject.
—(Thar,hear.) i have facts to prove that, for their fidelity,
they have unlimited indulgences in sin.—(llear, hear.)
I have shown you the numbers, the order, and the
discipline of the Pope's armies, and their blind attach-
ment to the Bishop of Rome ; and I want now to
show you how they can carry these things into
effect amongst the people. I mean to say that
the doctrine of the presence of the body and blood
of Christ in the Eucharist is one of blasphemy. For
a man to repeat the words hoc est corpus meum—to say
that it is the body and blood of Christ—what is that ?
(A voice: " Blasphemy.") But what is it in the eye of
the Church of Rome? The man that rejects the
doctrine, despises the priest; the man who receives the
doctrine, must worship him as God ;—nay, he is
more than God, and he is the creator of
the untreatable God. (Loud applause.) Then, again,
look at the priesthood, how they are connected with men
in every stage and history of their lives. A child is born,
and, of course, the priest sent for, to exorcise the devil
out, and breathe the holy spirit in, otherwise he cannot be
saved. When he becomes a man, he desires to
he married, as most men do, or ought to do—(loud
laughter)—except the priests of the Church of Rome.
(Renewed and prolonged laughter.) They could not serve
the Pope so well were they to marry. (Laughter.) When
the man comes to be married, the marriage sacrament
cannot be performed without the presence of the
pries,. And, finally, when the hour of dissolution
comes, before he dies, he must have the sacrament of
extreme unction performed, and extreme unction can't
be performed without the priest. Therefore, there is a
man in the eves of the people, little less than God,—
necessary at his birth, necessary at his marriage, necessary
at his death.

And then we have this thing they call the confessional :
Council of Trent decrees that : " If any one shall deny that
sacramental confession was instituted or is necessary, by
divine right, to salvation,. or shall say that the practice of
private confession to a priest is foreign from the institution
and command of Christ, and is only a human invention,
let him be accursed."
(Hear, hear.)

The priest " must enquire into every circumstance of the
most proflizate life. Men and Women, the young and the old,
the married and the single, are bound to describe to the
confessor the most secret actions and thoughts, which are
either sinful in themselves, or may be so from accidental
circumstances."

(Hear, hear.) My friends, do you suppose that if I knew
every secret of your hearts, and especially your faults,
would you dare to disobey me ? Then there is the abso-
lution. What will not a man give for the salvation of his
soul, if he can purchase absolution by putting his hand
into his pocket ? (Laughter.) What is the decree of the
Church of Rome-upon this point ?

"Although the absolution of the priest be the dispensation
of a benefit belonging to another, yet it is not merely a naked
ministerial act, of either announcing the Gospel, or declaring
that sins are pardoned, but it is equ►valent to a judicial act,
wherein sentence is pronounced by himself as judge. They do
as the ministers of God truly absolve them ; the same thing
which God himself does, who is the Author and Father of grace
and righteousness."

When a man is absolved there are prayers and al m sgivin gs.
(Hear, hear.) And then there are those little things called
indulgences. (Laughter.) A very satisfactory thing it is
to a jolly Englishman, when, having committed some sin,
and the priest calls upon him, before granting absolution,
to walk, with his gouty feet, with peas in his boots, if he
can, by the payment of a certain trifle, obtain the indul-
gence of having the peas boiled before deposited in his
boots. (Loud and prolonged laughter.)
Then again, sir, when a man has quietly departed from
this world, and when his mourning friends have, with all
respect, laid his remains in their last resting-place, all his
cares and sorrows are past—past with respect to every one
but the priest of the Church of Rome. When the slave
dies, he has ended his days of slavery ; but the
priest pursues his victim into the world of spirits,
agonizing the minds of surviving relatives, by stating
that the tortures of purgatory are the same as
the tortures of hell. (Hear, hear.) Thus, by making
superstition work upon the affections, he tears from the
sidow and the orphan their last mite, in order to save the
soul of a beloved husband, brother or child. (Hear, hear,
and loud cries of " Shame.")
Now, my friends, this is Popery. I have stated it in its
first and second features—l have shown that the people
are required to submit to the laws, without having a voice
in their interpretation, and without having any power in
their regulation. I have given, in the third place, the
priesthood, their orders, their numbers, and wealth, and
that, in the undivided attachment and obedience to the
head of the church, the Pope, they possess an uncontrolled
power over the people; circumstances which are unparal-
leled in the annals of the world. These three • things
combined stamp upon Popery the brand of being the
master-piece of Satan, in the enthronement of tyranny, and
in the extinction of the rights and liberties of the people.
(Vehement cheering.)
That is my first proposition. I ask you whether I have
proved that the case of the Madiai is, after all, but a
sample and illustration of the direct tendency and inevit-
able results of Popery as a religious system.—(Renewed
applause.) I fear that I shall weary you before I have
concluded.—(Loud cries of " No, no," "Go on as long
as you like.")
The second proposition that I have to advance is,
"That the case of the Madiai is a very embodiment of