The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-01-16 00:00:00

POPISH RELICS

We are repeatedly assured by those who have an inter-
est in keeping Popish immutabilities out of the public
view, that the Church of Rome is gradually relaxing the
superstitious thraldom over the human conscience, to
which she has been so long indebted for her influence
over the minds and persons of her vassals. But that she
remains the same spiritual sorceress may be ascertained—
amongst other proofs—by a curious exposure for sale, by
the Custom House authorities at Dover, of formularies
issued from Rome to authenticate certain contemptible
pieces of trumpery, called " relics" in those precious
documents. These articles passed from the Custom
House into the possession of a sound member of the
Church of England, greatly to the vexation and indigna-
tion of two Roman Catholics who attended the auction,
but arrived just too late to become the purchasers of the
venerated lot. These " relics" each about the size of a
pin's head, were certified to consist of a piece of the " true
cross," and the Virgin's veil, together with a rosary
"blessed at the shrine of St. Anthony, at Padua," and
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formulary, which is the same for eaci, „r
" relics," a blank space being left for the names of the
reputed owners to whom these humiliating memorials of
mortality and mortal weakness are supposed to have be-
longed; and rather than that we should hazard an incor-
rect translation, we have retained the literal sense of the
word " Venerationi," although we entertain a decided
opinion, in which we doubt not that our Reformed readers
will concur, as to the meaning intended to be conveyed by
the ambiguous expression :
"Constantine, of the Church of St. Silvester In Capite,
"Priest-Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, of the Patri-
cian Order,
" Vicar-General of our most Holy Lord the Pope, and Judge
in Ordinary of the Court of Rome, and its district, &c.
"To all and singular who shall see these present letters, we
do certify, and testify, that we, for the greater glory of
Almighty God, and veneration of his Saints, have identified
these sacred pieces of the
" Veil of the B.

" which, having been produced from well-authenticated places,
we have reverently placed in a silver-plated case, protected by
glass, carefully closed, tied with a red silken string, and sealed
with our seal; and we have consigned them, * * * with a
power of retaining them, or of giving them to others, of trans-
mitting them beyond the City of Rome, and of exhibiting them
for the public veneration of the Faithful in any Church, Ora-
tory, or Chapel whatsoever. In token whereof we have caused
these letters testimonial, subscribed with our hand, and con-
firmed by our seal, to be prepared by the under-written keeper
of our Sacred Relics.
" Rome, from our palace, the 18th day of September, in the
year MDCCCXLIV. _

" C. CARDINAL, Vicar.
" Gratis.

(Name illegible) "Keeper."
And the Church which exports for sale, as a commercial
speculation (for we do not see how else the consignment
could have reached Dover), such awfully blasphemous
trash as this—which cane upon its deluded votaries to fall
down and venerate (we will not say worship) a rag of
Manchester cotton, certified by the Vicar-General of the
Pope, the " infallible" head of the scarlet abomination,
as a portion of a veil worn eighteen centuries and a half
ago by the Virgin Mary—this corrupt Church we• Pro-
testants are to be called upon to endow, forsooth !
We shall shortly begin to expect that some of our
friends of the new Oxford school will afford to the cura-
tors of our national and local geological museums, an
opportunity of enriching their various collections by
means of a public sale of some " well authenticated"
specimens of flint from the bed of Saint Rose.