The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-04-04 00:00:00

THE IMMORALITY OF ROMANISM.

SUBSTANCE OF A LECTURE DELIVERED BY MR. J. I
PARSONAGE, PRESIDENT, ON FRIDAY EVENING,
THE 24TH ULT.
THE Lecturer commenced by observing that, though
noble and elevating principles and maxims are inculcated
by heathen philosophers, and many of their fables teach
excellent morality, yet the only source of pure divine
morality is the inspired Word of God. The ceremonial
law was typical; all its value and virtue consisting in its
prefiguring Christ, and shadowing forth the way in which
sin is expiated and sinners saved. At the rising of the
Sun of Righteousness, the Jewish ceremonies, like so many
stars, were thrown into shade, never to appear again; but
not so with the moral law, which Christ came not to de-
stroy, but to fulfil. The moral law is still the rule of
conduct, and is binding on all Christians, not as a rule of
justification, but of obedience. The spirituality of the law
Christ explained fully in his sermon in the Mount, teach-
ing us that a man may be a murderer in the sight of God, '
though his hands be not embrued in human blood ! The
Church of Rome however. sets asid% the moral law
,cuer, aim substitutes a law ot nerown .‘,.
God says, " Thou shalt not steal." To steal, then, is a ,
sin, no matter how trivial the article stolen may be 4 and
sin is the transgression of the law; therefore a thief is
under the curse of God, as St. Paul declares, Gal. iii.— ,
" Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them ;"
but the Church of Rome says no, you may steal, under
certain circumstances, and yet only commit a venial or
trifling sin. Thus the Church of Rome is Antinomian—
opposed to God's law, which is holy, just, and good. He
then contrasted the equivocation and falsehood taught by
Aiphonsus Liguori, a canonised saint of Rome, with the
sublime morality inculcated in the Catechism of the
Church of England, and quoted the summary of our duty
towards God and towards man, and said it needs must be
so : the one is Popish morality, the doctrine of casuists
and Jesuits ; the other is the pure morality of the Bible.
The lecturer then asserted that Liguori's " Theology of
Morality," which he had before him, contained such in-
decent and obscene doctrine, that he dare not pollute their
minds by reading it. The lecturer also referred to a small
book of devotion recently published in Liverpool for the
use of Roman Catholic ladies preparing for the con-
fessional, and which, amongst other things, treated of the
secret sins of married women. No wonder, said the
lecturer, that Dr. Achilli, or any other confessor, should
be charged with seduction and adultery, such filthy com-
munications being made to them. It would be a miracle
if they were not corrupted. The lecturer then alluded to
the days of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, who were
charged with persecuting Roman Catholics, and asked if
Protestants had sainted those monarchs for it ? Certainly
not ; but the Church of Rome has sainted the persecuting
Boniface and the cruel inquisitor Dominick ; the mur-
derers of the holy Albigenses and Waldenses she has
canonised ; and impostors, such as Simon Stock and
Frances De Sales, she sets before her people as examples
of holy living ; and what is the consequence ? Go to the
assizes of any town in Ireland, and whom will you find
condemned for the most appalling crimes but Roman
Catholics. These are the nightly incendiaries, the houghers
of cattle, the dark assassins, and the shedders of their
brother's blood ! And why ? Because they are ignorant
of the only book under heaven that can civilise their
manners and hum.anize their savage and ferocious tem-
pers ; they know not that religion of which the poet sung—
Sweet peace she brings wherever she arrives ;
She builds our quiet as she forms Our lives—
Laytthe rough paths of peevish nature even,
And opens in each heart a little heaven !
"By their fruits ye shall know them." In what part of
Liverpool is the greatest Sabbath desecration to be seen P
Where does the most degrading immorality abound ? In
the Romish districts of the town. Yet the successors of
St. Peter would send us to Hockenhall-alley, North-street,
Fontenoy-street, Lace-street, and Crosby-street, to learn
morality. The lecturer, in alluding to the pretensions of
Rome, said, if the Pope be Christ's vicegerent, and the
cardinals and bishops the successors of the Apostles, what
is the moral effect of their doctrine and practice ? Here
the lecturer read, from a book entitled "Letters from the
Continent," &c., by Edward Baines, jun., published 1827,
part of the 20th letter, in which Mr. Baines describes the
scenes of the carnival at Rome, of which Lord Byron said—
'Tis known—at least it should be—that throughout
All countries of the Catholic persuasion,
Some weeks before Shrove Tuesday comes about,
The people take their full of recreation,
And buy repentance ere they grow devout.
Mr. Baines corroborates the poet's statement in these
words : " Yes, on the approach of the carnival, Rome
shakes off its dignity and sadness, and delivers itself up
to revelling and banqueting, to fun and foolery." . . .
Mr. Baines also describes the brilliant masquerades, and
contrasts the English women with the Roman women.
Of the former he says, " In our English women there is a
degree of timidity and reserve—a delicacy, dignity, and
purity—which sets them off more than all the softness of
their eyes, their fair and roseate complexions, or the slender
symmetry of their forms— .
Their innocence and virgin modesty,
Their virtue, and the conscience of their worth;
none of which, I am sorry to say, are likely to
be improved abroad—form their highest and loveliest
attributes." And then Mr. Baines says, " Don't
you wish to know the character of the Italian
women ? As I should not like to be rude, I shall
not tell you." Popery makes women moral only in
appearance, while Protestant teaching reaches the heart,
making the tree good, that the fruit may be good also.
And now, let me ask, what do we find at home ? Are
Romanists, especially females, in Liverpool, who are well
instructed in the "Moral Theology" of St. Alphonsus Liguori,
more moral than those ladies who live under the very nose
of the Pope—who are intimate with the cardinals and
bishops, and all the numerous orders under the authority
of his Holiness, and have the privilege of counsel and
advice from these holy men ? They are simply neither
better nor worse. After dwelling for some time upon this
topic, the lecturer asked what could be suggested to
improve the moral state of society ? If the Pope and car-
dinals, bishops, priests, and monks could not reform
society, but need reformation themselves, he would pro-
pose that the imprisoned nuns, of whose piety Roman
Catholics so frequently boast, should be all set free to
mingle among the people, and that they should no longer
be laid up within high walls and iron doors, but scattered
abroad and spread from one end of Italy to the other ; for
if they be what their priests represented them, in a moral
sense they are salt and light, and should be scattered for
the enlightenment and regeneration of sinners, that they
may, shine forth as brilliant examples, and exercise a

counteracting influence upon the ungodly masses of mart—
kind. Mkt-these nuns are such delicate plants—so sensi—
tive, that,. should a few English gentlemen intrude 'apart
their holy retirement, they might perhaps never recover
the shock; And yet men do visit them—men in the same-
order -,
and, of like passions as he whom the other day the
President of the High Criminal Court in Dordogne, France.,
addressed. thus : " You have exercised your influence over
Hortense._ This girl, who is to-day penitent for her
crime, was made the victim of your perfidious solicita—
tions, as a priest and as her Father Confessor, while yam
were curate at Batas." Now, if priests act thus some—
times with women who have every means of resisting.-
them, what protection is there for those who are entirely
under ecclesiastical power ? Romanists protest against
fair investigation, and this strengthened the lecturer's
suspicions respecting the treatment of poor nuns, au&
confirmed his belief in the horrible disclosures of Maris.
Monk, of Hogan, and others. Protestant seminaries anti
institutions invite investigation. We fear not the light_
Roman Catholics do; and we, therefore, urge an honesty
bold investigation of all nunneries, believing as we do that
the deeds perpetrated within their high walls and iron.
doors are evil, and cannot bear the light. After further
allusion to the cruel decrees of Popish Councils and the'
barbarous conduct of several Popes, the lecturer said—ls
this the Holy Catholic Church ? Where is her obedience
to the Saviour's golden rule, "As ye would that melt
should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law
-
and the prophets." The lecturer then alluded in pointerl
terms to the Itornanising acts of the pervert Anderclon„
who, while continuing to receive the stipend of a clergy—
man of the Church of England, was, by the dissemination
of Popish books, performing the work of the Jesuit. He
next alluded to a case which he said he had on good
authority,' in which a certain curate of Liverpool gives
pictures of the crucifixion to dying persons to aid them in.
their devotions, and teaches his people to make distinctions
in meats, and lends books which contain doctrines akin to
Popery. This gentleman, he maintained, had a Romislt
bias, and should be watched closely. It was one of the-
objects of the Working Men's Reformation Society to dis—
seminate Protestant principles, and to oppose Popery ant"
semi-Popery by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word.
of God. After some further remarks, the lecturer con—
cluded amidst great applause.