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demonstrate it; and therefore it is a matter of no ordinary importance when we are able to refer, in proof, to the writings of a learned Roman Catholic divine-a man of unexceptionable credit in his own communion—a man who held ecclesiastical benefices, and who was never condemned or excommunicated by the Roman see-in fine, a man whose writings are to this day quoted by Romanists themselves without any hesitation as those of an approved writer.

Such was M. JEAN BAPTISTE THIERS, a Romish ecclesiastic who lived at the beginning of last century, and who combined with the quality of Doctor of the Sorbonne the office of curé or incumbent of Vibraie in France. Thiers was a writer of extreme diligence, and possessed by an unusual love of truth, and though enmeshed by the sophistries of the system in which he had been educated-though a genuine "papist" in every sense of the term-he exhibited a sincere zeal in detecting and exposing the impostures of which he became aware, which earned from him a very small measure of gratitude from those of the "faithful," whose delusions he fearlessly exposed. Thiers was not a Jansenist; but yet this inconvenient habit of prying into history, and of criticizing practices, caused him to live and die curé of Vibraie.

The Traité des Superstitions is one of the most elaborate and valuable works of this author, and it is replete with matter bearing on the subject which we have proposed to ourselves-the Superstitions of the Church of Rome. We have deemed it so far worthy of our readers' notice, that we have selected and translated some of the principal passages bearing on this subject, omitting occasionally, for the sake of brevity, sentences which have no material connexion with the matter, or making a selection amongst the multitude of proofs and instances adduced; but in no case, that we are aware of, adding anything to the original text.

We commence with the following extract from the preface of this work:

"It is surprising that since superstitions were destroyed by the very deep humility of Jesus Christ, by the preaching of the Apostles, and by the faith of the martyrs who died for the truth, and who live with the truth,' as St. Augustine declares, they should be so universally spread abroad-in the Christian world, as we see them at present. Forbidden as they are by Scripture, Councils, Popes, Fathers, and Divines, they have, notwithstanding, their followers and supporters in all parts. They obtain access to the great; they are common amongst the middle classes; they are in fashion amongst the common people; every kingdom, province, diocese, town, and parish, has its own superstitions. One person practises them without reflection; another is guilty, who does

not believe that he is so. Malice, ignorance, simplicity, vanity, often passion, indiscreet zeal, false piety, interest, have frequently caused superstitions to enter even into the most holy practices of the Church, sometimes in one way, sometimes in another; because, according to the same St. Augustine, there is more than one way of worshipping devils-Non uno modo sacrificatur transgressoribus Angelis; and, frequently (which cannot be said without pain), they are either permitted, or authorized, or observed by persons of high character-by the clergy, who ought with all their power to have prevented them from taking root in the Church, in which the Enemy sows them during the night, as tares amidst the good corn.

"Thus the power of the Cross is destroyed, the adorable mystery of our salvation is trodden under foot, the solemn promises made at baptism are violated, the most sacred things are profaned, the purest sources of religion are poisoned, true piety is changed, and God is forsaken in order to have recourse to the devil.

"The more attentively I consider these disorders, which so evidently afflict the Church, the more I see that they are the effects of a want of faith in the greater number of Christians; of the little feeling they have concerning their eternal salvation, or the greatness, power, and truth of God; of the small knowledge they have of his law; the imperfect instruction they receive on the subject of superstitions, which is one of the most important in Christian morals. The pastors scarcely ever speak of them; and frequently what they do say of them, is so dry, so weak, or so vague and general, that the people, far from being convinced, are neither touched nor instructed.

"And yet pastors have a great interest in reproving and reforming the people from superstitions, in showing them their deception and falsehood, and in making them understand how injurious they are to the Divine Majesty, and prejudicial to their salvation; for if they do not perform this duty, they render themselves (in the opinion of Dionysius the Carthusian) partakers of their crimes, and are responsible for it before God. Pertinet ad Pastores, he says, ut laicos de superstitionibus corripiant, corrigant, et informent, ne subditorum excessus redundent in eos.

"But since all pastors have not always the knowledge and the assistance necessary to perform this essential duty of their office, I have believed that I should be rendering them a service, if I were to place before the public what I have collected from Holy Scripture, and from tradition, on the subject of superstitions. This is what I am doing in this Treatise.

"I have stated the superstitions at full length, when I thought it would have no bad effects, and that it was in some degree necessary to omit nothing, in order that they might be understood. But I have often concealed under asterisks and an &c., certain words, because I feared to teach what was wrong, in opposing it. Yet this precaution has not prevented me from being accused of having made more persons

superstitious, than those whom I have converted and reformed. I might defend myself against this unjust accusation by the example of the modern casuists, who, in explaining the sixth commandment, and that which concerns the duties of married persons, have gone into the detail of a number of singular cases, calculated to pollute the imagination, corrupt the heart, and excite the flesh against the spirit, supposing that they were obliged to mention them in express terms, in order to cause hatred for impurity. But God preserve me from availing myself of an example which I cannot approve of, being strongly persuaded that these divines have not had sufficient care for good morals, and Christian decency, in treating on such a delicate subject.'

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These latter observations apply most forcibly to all Romish Treatises on Moral Theology which we have seen, especially to that of Alphonso de Ligorio.

We shall now proceed with our extracts from this very important work, arranged under different heads.

"THE NATURE OF SUPERSTITION.-The Church holds nothing more dear and precious than the Faith. It is this Divine virtue which is the foundation of the whole. Christian edifice. It is this which illuminates our spirits with heavenly light, and gives us the knowledge of God and of ourselves, in which consists our salvation and our perfection. Hence the Apostle Paul recommends expressly to Timothy, and in his person to all the Church, to preserve the deposit of the Catholic faith entrusted to him: Depositum custodi.

"As it is certain that heresy violates the integrity of this deposit, and schism breaks its unity, it is beyond doubt that superstition destroys its verity, by the false maxims and evil practices which it spreads abroad in the world.

"God, who is a 'jealous God,' in the language of Scripture, and who cannot endure that we should give his glory to others, does not desire that we should serve or adore Him according to our fancy, but in the way in which He Himself desires to be served and adored. Religion directs our conduct in this matter; and in teaching us to render to God what is due to Him, forbids us to render to creatures the worship which is only due to Him, and causes us to give it to Him in a manner worthy of Him. Superstition, on the contrary, renders to creatures the honour which is only due to the Creator, or, if it be offered to the Creator, it is not offered in a right way. For this reason Lactantius has well observed, that religion relates to true worship, and superstition to false worship Religio veri cultus est; superstitio falsi.

"A person is really superstitious, when he does not give to God that which is his own; when he gives to a creature more than ought to be given; when something different from what God demands is given to Him, and in a different way from what He demands; when supreme worship is offered to any besides God.

"It is, hence, clear, that all superstitious practices ARE FORBIDDEN BY THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF THE LAW, by which God commands us to have no strange gods before Him, and not to render to others the honour which is due to Him."-i. 1-5.

We here entreat the reader to bear this important principle in mind, that superstition is a transgression of the First Commandment. It is admitted to be so by all Romish theologians.

"SUPERSTITIONS IN REGARD TO MIRACLES.-If it is superstitious to render Divine worship where it is not due, or in a wrong manner, it is certain that the unlawful or pernicious worship of the true God, that outward worship which is opposed to the truth of the Church's faith, is superstitious, and that it cannot be rendered without mortal sin, according to the doctrine of Cardinal Cajetan, Cardinal Tolet, and many other divines. The unlawful or pernicious worship of the true God, is that which expresses something that is false, in whatever manner it does so. Si per cultum exteriorem, says St. Thomas, aliquid falsum significetur, erit cultus perniciosus.

"1. The guilt of this sin is incurred when false miracles are invented So that we or proposed, in order to be believed and spread abroad. cannot exempt from blame, amongst persons who are enlightened and truly pious, the authors of the Aurea Legenda and the Speculum Exemplorum, if we have any regard to what has been said of these two works by Melchior Cano, who assisted at the Council of Trent, and was afterwards Bishop of the Canaries; that is to say, that we find more frequently monstrous miracles than true ones in the Speculum Exemplorum, and that the Aurea Legenda was written by a man who had a mouth of iron, a heart of lead, and a mind without discretion or prudence."

What are we to say to such pretended miracles as Mr. Faber has been bringing before the Roman Catholic world in his late series of the Lives of the Saints? Even Romanists have been so far scandalized by these monstrous fabrications, that the further publication of his work has been prevented. Here is a manifest case of superstition.

"2. There is no less superstition in pretending false revelations than false miracles. This leads the same Cano to say, that those persons do a great injury to the Church of Jesus Christ who imagine that they cannot publish the good actions of the Saints without mixing up with them false revelations and false miracles, in which the impudence of these men has not even spared the Holy Virgin nor our Lord. This abuse has arrived at such a pitch, that certain persons, in order to afford more publicity and colour to their peculiar opinions, and sometimes even to their passions and interests, have had no difficulty in putting forward revelations directly opposed to those which were alleged to support the

contrary. This gives to irreligious persons an opportunity of scoffing, and to good people a cause of sorrow.

"3. It is also a superstition to put forward counterfeit relics for true ones, because this is to cause a religious and holy worship to be paid to objects which do not deserve it. Gregory of Jesus mentions a hermit named Didier, whom Raguemodus, Bishop of Paris, caused to be imprisoned, because he carried in a bag the roots of various herbs, the teeth of moles, the bones of mice, the claws and grease of a bear, which he wished to pass off as the relics of St. Vincent and St. Felix!

"The monk Glaber, who lived about A.D. 1040, mentions a certain impostor in his time, who, by giving the names of prophets, martyrs, and confessors to bones which he found in the graves, imposed shamefully on the piety of the people, and made them fall into superstition, while he pocketed their money. There are certain impostors who show to old women a stone, which is called in Latin Amiantus, and who frequently sell it at a high price to them, as a piece of the wood of the true Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; which they believe the more readily because this stone does not burn in the fire, and it has lines interlacing each other like wood."

The following remarks will be peculiarly instructive to those persons who connect the idea of monasticism in all cases with that of sanctity.

"All the precautions of councils and bishops cannot prevent there being even now monks, and monks who are wealthy and possessed of property too, who carry on a scandalous traffic in uncertain, pretended, or absolutely false relics.

"The monks of S. G. D. P. bind a 'girdle of St. Margaret' on pregnant women, of which they could not tell the history without exposing themselves to the ridicule of the learned world. Yet they assure these women that they will be happily delivered by the miraculous virtue of this girdle. And in this assurance the women offer oblations and presents to their chapel of St. Margaret, and cause gospels and masses to be said, the payment for which goes to the profit of the monastery, which is one of the most wealthy in the kingdom.

"The monks of V., under the plausible pretence of a popular tradition, imagine that they have in their church one of the tears that the Son of God shed at the death of Lazarus; and they have so well convinced the neighbouring people of it, that in the unhappy times in which we live, this fabulous relic brings them an income of 4000 livres, by gospels, masses, novenas, presents, oblations, and other suffrages. In order to justify it, they have printed a book, entitled, ‘A true History of the Holy Tear which our Saviour wept over Lazarus, how and by whom it was brought to the Monastery of V., together with many beautiful and remarkable Miracles which have happened in 630 years, during which it has been miraculously preserved in this holy place. Vendome. With approbation of Superiors.'

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