MR BLANCO White's evideNCE AGAINST THE CATHOLICS.* We have already had occasion to allude to some particulars in the singularly interesting personal history of the author of the well-known work, entitled, "Doblado's Letters from Spain." That strange and instructive story has now been told by Mr Blanco White himself, as fully, perhaps, as, while he lives, we can expect to be put in possession of it. He has introduced, with this narrative, a book which, but for such an introduction, could scarcely have been rendered intelligible and which, in its absence, must, at all events, have been infinitely less valuable on the score of authority, than we now conceive it to be. As it stands, we have no hesitation in avowing our opinion, that this is by far the most important volume which has come from the British press, in consequence of the late agitation of what is called the Catholic Question, in the Parliament and among the people of this empire. And such being our opinion, we must, at whatever risk, lose no time in endeavouring to bring its character fully and distinctly before our readers. In doing so, we shall not weary them with any repetition of anything that has been said, either here or elsewhere. If ever there was a book which treated of a hackneyed question in a new-a totally new manner-this is such an one. And we shall, of course, take care to limit ourselves, as strictly as possible, to that array of novel arguments, and, above all, of novel facts, which, if it does not (as how should it?) occupy the whole space in these pages, gives them, most unquestionably, their peculiar and distinctive character and importance. the Spanish clergy were and are, a prey to infidelity. This involved him in the deepest misery; but the intolerance of the country, the cruelty of its Inquisition, then in full force, and the political state of the continent in general, rendered it absolutely impossible for him to emancipate himself. Ten years, the unhappy prime of his. life, were spent in this condition. He took the opportunity of Buonaparte's invasion, and made his escape to England. He arrived here an utter infidel, and expected to find us a nation of infidels. He, to his astonishment, discovered that here the highest mental faculties and attainments were to be found in conjunction with deliberate belief and devotion. He inquired farther, and found that what had disgusted him with the religion in which he was bred, had been things added to the Christian system of the Bible by the devices of men. He investigated the subject with zeal and diligence. The result was, that his intelligent mind obtained conviction; he became a member of the Protestant Church of England; and after a time, he resumed his holy orders, and devoted himself to her service. All this story he now tells in a most candid, sincere, and simple tone. Mr Blanco White was born in Seville, being the grandson of an Irish gentleman who had settled in that city. His mother was a Spanish lady. He was, in early youth, destined to the service of the Spanish church, and attained considerable preferment in it. He became, as he distinctly says almost all his acquaintances among the higher and more educated portion of Mr White perceived that, in the late discussions of the Catholic Question, the Catholic writers were opposed by Protestants who really did not, in many instances, understand precisely and minutely the facts of the case. He found that great advantage was taken of these little slips by the Catholic advocates, who, whenever they had discovered some trivial inaccuracy about a date, or a document, immediately held up their adversaries as persons who were either totally uninformed as to the character of the Catholic Faith, or capable of wilfully misrepresenting it. He perceived the artful method in which certain of the Catholic writers and speakers here, were softening down and explaining away the most offensive dogmas as Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism, with occasional Strictures on Mr Butler's Book of the Roman Catholic Church in Six Letters, addressed to the impartial among the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland. By the Rev. Joseph Blanco White, M, A. B.D. London. John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1825. cribed to their church, and the specialpleading trickery by which they were endeavouring to persuade the Protestants of Britain, that, in reality, there was nothing in their system which could either shock the reason of an enlightened man, or, in any way whatever, render a Roman Catholic dan gerous as a senator, a judge, or a minister in this Protestant empire. He saw all this distinctly, and he has come forward in a style which will no doubt render him the object of much rancorous abuse and misrepresentation, because he has written a book which covers the Jesuitical softeners and explainers with utter confusion. He brings the intimate and complete knowledge of the Catholic system, which it is difficult for any one not a Catholic ever to obtain-he brings this weapon into the arena. It is easy for them to cry out, Here is a renegado, an apostate! But the answer is not far to seek. Here is a man trained in your system, a man who held for years a high situation in your Church, in that country where your Church has the greatest power, and of course exhibits herself after the fashion which she would wish to see exhibited every where. Here is a man who knows all that any of you can know of your Church. Abuse this man's motives as much as you please, BUT ANSWER HIS FACTS! Upon that issue we would willingly peril the whole of this controversy. The question to be answered by the Legislature of Britain, (to be answered, we say, because there is no doubt the whole affair must be re-canvassed next Session of Parliament,) may, we think, be divided naturally into two parts. First, Are there, or are there not, included in the Catholic Faith, as at present professed by certain British subjects, certain particulars which render it unsafe to the general interests of the empire to admit them to all the political privileges which they now demand?Second, granting that they might be so admitted, without any direct danger to the political interests of the empire, are there, or are there not, certain particulars included in their present system of belief, which make it the duty of the Legislature, in the exercise of its high calling, as guardian of the moral well-being of all British subjects, to discountenance, by everything but intolerance, the extension and preservation of that system of religious belief within this empire- and consequently, and upon grounds broader than any consideration of mere immediate political conveniencies and expediencies, to withhold from all Catholics a boon, the negation of which tends to diminish the number of the sect within this empire? Mr White has not arranged his work with reference to any such division of the question as this, but we think it is the natural division of it, and certainly consider his book as furnishing ample materials for an answer to both of its sections. Throughout this work, Mr White opposes himself, in the most direct manner, to the view of this great question taken by Mr Butler, in his recent "Book of the Roman Catholic Church;" he combats that eminent person's arguments throughout — in many cases he denies his facts. Both Mr Butler and Mr White are scholars and gentlemen, and therefore there is no unseemly asperity, far less any approach to offensive personalities, in any of the controversial writings of either. We have a high respect for the character of Mr Butler, and our deliberate conviction is, that he, a Catholic layman, has, in spite of all his talents, virtues, and services, been kept studiously in the dark through life, as to many parts of the Catholic system, by those Catholic priests, whose character and authority he, as a good Catholic, has been accustomed to reverence in a style of devotion, nothing similar to which can ever, thank God! be known among the adherents of the Protestant faith. This good and candid man, for such assuredly we believe him to be, has been deceived by the cunning reservations, and by the garbled quotations, of his ghostly guides. He is a learned Catholic layman, but he is not a learned Catholic priest. He has never been permitted to come beyond the exoteric system of Popery. Accordingly, we find Mr White meeting him on the very thresholdwith a complete and unanswerable exposure of the absurdity of the smooth and pretty-faced explanation he had given of the Catholic doctrines as to the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. Mr Butler says, that there are two different sets of opinions as to the nature of this supremacy, entertained within the bosom of the Catholic Church, and that neither of these form any part of the real Catholic Faith. The only belief which a Catholic is bound to entertain on the subject, is, says he, that, in the words of the Canon of the 10th Session of the Council of Florence, "full power was delegated to the Bishop of Rome, in the person of Peter, to feed, regulate, and govern the Universal Church, as expressed in the general councils and holy "THIS (adds he in capitals) canons. IS THE doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE POPE, AND BEYOND IT NO ROMAN CATHOLIC IS REQUIRED TO BELIEVE." Now, feed, regulate, and govern the Universal Church, are words which may be explained in various ways. They are explained in one way by Mr Butler, and in quite another way by Mr Blanco White. The former asserts, that the words cannot be understood to imply any power of control, except in regard to spiritual matters; and this, he takes for granted, in regard to the professors of the Pope's own religious faith. Mr White, without stopping to argue about the limits and differences of control in spirituals, and control in temporals, takes Mr Butler at his word, and offers to prove, and, we think, succeeds in proving, that the spiritual authority of the Pope -explain it even with the most moderate Catholics who are really acquainted with the statutes of their own church-is, of itself, and alone, a tenet of the most dangerous character. What, in the first place, is the Universal Church? Hear Mr White. "I will strictly observe the conditions proposed for similar cases by the author of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church, 'I beg leave to suggest,' says Mr Butler, that, in every religious controversy between Protestants and Roman Catholics, the following rule should be observed:-THAT NO DOCTRINE SHOULD BE ASCRIBED TO THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AS A BODY, EXCEPT SUCH AS IS AN ARTICLE OF THEIR FAITH.'* Now, it is agreed Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 9. on all hands, that a canon of a general council, approved by the Pope-i. e. a rule of belief delivered to the people, under the fearful sanction of an anathema, leaves no other alternative to a Roman Catholic but embracing the doctrine it contains, or being excluded from his church by excommunication. By one, then, of such canons, every member of the church of Rome is bound to believe that all baptized persons are liable to be compelled, by punishment, to be Chris tians, or what is the same in Roman Catholic divinity, spiritual subjects of the Pope. It is, indeed, curious to see the Council of Trent, who passed that law, prepare the free and extended action of its claims, by an unexpected stroke of liberality. In the Session on Baptism, the Trent Fathers are observed anxiously securing to Protestants the privileges of true baptism. The fourth canon of that Session fulminates an anathema or curse against any one who should say that baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, conferred by a heretic, with an intention to do that which the church intends in that sacrament, is not true baptism.† Observe, now, the consequences of this enlarged spirit of concession in the two subjoined canons. "If any one should say that those who have been baptized are free from all the precepts of the holy church, either written or delivered by tradition, so that they are not obliged to observe them, unless they will submit to them of their own accord, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.' "Having soon after declared the lawfulness of infant baptism, they proceed to lay down the XIV. Canon. "If any one should say that these baptized children, when they grow up, are to be asked whether they will confirm what their godfathers promised in their name; and that if they say they will not, they are to be left to their own discretion, and not to be forced, in the meantime, into the observance of a Christian life by any other punishment than that of keeping them from the reception of the eucharist and the other sacraments till they repent, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.'§ "Now, it is most true,' says the au † Si quis dixerit baptismum, qui etiam datur ab hæreticis in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, cum intentione faciendi quod facit ecclesia, non esse verum baptismum, anathema sit.-Concil. Trident. Sess. VII. Can. IV. Si quis dixerit, baptizatos liberos esse ab omnibus sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ præceptis, quæ vel scripta vel tradita sunt, ita ut ea observare non teneatur, nisi se sua sponte illis submittere voluerint, anathema sit. § Si quis dixerit hujusmodi parvulos baptizatos, cum adoleverint, interrogandos esse, an ratum habere velint quod patrini, eorum nomine, dum baptizarentur, polliciti sunt, et, ubi se nolle responderint, suo esse arbitrio relinquendos, nec alia interim pæna ad Christianam vitam cogendos, nisi ut ab eucharistiæ, aliorumque sacramentorum perceptione arccantur donec resipiscant, anathema sit.—Can. VIII. et XIV. de Baptismo. thor of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church, that the Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of their church to be unchangeable; and that it is a tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning, such it now is, and such it will ever be.' Let him, therefore, choose between this boasted consistency of doctrine, and the curse of the church. The Council of Trent, that council whose decrees are, by the creed of Pius IV., declared to be obligatory above all others; * that council has CONVERTED THE SACRAMENT OF BAP TISM INTO AN INDELIBLE BRAND OF SLAVERY: WHOEVER HAS RECEIVED THE WATERS OF REGENERATION, IS THE THRALL OF HER WHO DECLARES THAT THERE IS NO OTHER CHURCH OF CHRIST. She claims her slaves wherever they may be found, declares them subject to her laws, both written and traditional, and, by her infallible sanction, dooms them to indefinite punishment, till they shall acknowledge her authority and bend their necks to her yoke. Such is, has been, and will ever be, the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church; such is the belief of her true and sincere members; such the spirit that actuates her views, and which, by every possible means, she has always spread among her children. Him that denies this doctrine, Rome devotes to perdition. The principle of religious tyranny, supported by persecution, is a necessary condition of true Catholicism: he who revolts at the idea of compelling belief by punishment, is severed at once from the communion of Rome. "What a striking commentary on these eanons of the Council of Trent have we in the history of the Inquisition! Refractory Catholics born under the spiritual dominion of Rome, and Protestants originally baptized out of her pale, have equally tasted her flames and her racks.† Nothing, indeed, but want of power, nothing but the much-lamented ascendancy of heresy, compels the church of Rome to keep her infallible, immutable decrees in silent abeyance. But the divine authority of those decrees, the truth of their inspiration, must for ever be asserted by every individual who sincerely embraces the Roman Catholic faith. Reason and humanity must, in them, yield to the infallible decree in favour of compulsion on religious matters. The human ashes, indeed, are scarcely cold, which, at the end of three centuries of persecution and massacre, these decrees scattered over the soil of Spain. I myself saw the pile on which the last victim was sacrificed to Roman infallibility. It was an unhappy woman, whom the Inquisition of Seville committed to the flames under the charge of heresy, about forty years ago; she perished on a spot where thousands had met the same fate. I lament from my heart that the structure which supported their melting limbs, was destroyed during the late convulsions. It should have been preserved, with the infallible and immutable canon of the Council of Trent over it,. for the detestation of future ages." Our extract has carried on our argument much farther than we thought it was to do. It is now-proved that the Universal Church, in the acceptation of the Church of Rome, includes all who have received the rite of baptism. That was all we wished to have. The avowed right of the Papal Church to punish, by other than spiritual inflictions, every baptized being who dares to dissent from her system, has also been proved. We now begin to have some notion of the real meaning of the claim to feed, regulate, and govern the Universal Church. But we have not done with this governing and regulating. "The trial to which, as British subjects and Roman Catholics, (says Mr White,) you are still exposed, is perfectly unconnected with the temporal claims of your ecclesiastical head; it flows directly from the spiritual. Hence the constant efforts of your political advocates to fix the attention of the public on the question of temporal supremacy, in which they may make a show of independence. Hence the irrelevant questions proposed to the Catholic universities, which, as their object was known, gave ample scope to the versatile casuistry of those bodies. Their task, in assisting their brethren of England and Ireland, would have certainly required a greater degree of ingenuity, had the following question been substi tuted for the three which were actually proposed :-Can the Pope, in virtue of what Roman Catholics believe his divine authority, command the assistance of the faithful in checking the progress of heresy, by any means not likely to produce loss or danger to the Roman Catholic church; and can that church acknowledge the validity of any en "I also profess and undoubtedly receive all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, particularly by the holy council of Trent, &c. &c."-Creed of Pius IV. in the Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 8. Llorente mentions the punishments inflicted by the Spanish Inquisition ON ENGLISH AND FRENCH SUBJECTS. VOL. XVIII. gagement to disobey the Pope in such cases? This is a question of great practical importance to all sincere Catholics in these kingdoms. Allow me, therefore, to canvass it according to the settled principles of your faith and practice, since political views prevent your own writers from placing it in its true light. "At the time when I am writing this, one branch of the legislature has declared itself favourable to what is called Catholic emancipation; and, for anything I can conjecture, Roman Catholics may be allowed to sit in Parliament before these Letters appear in public. A Roman Catholic legislator of Protestant England would, indeed, feel the weight of the difficulty to which my suggested question alludes, provided his attachment to the Roman Catholic faith were sincere. A real Roman Catholic once filled the throne of these realms, under similar circumstances; and neither the strong bias which a crown at stake must have given to his mind, nor all the ingenious evasions proposed to him by the ablest divine of the court of Louis XIV., could remove or disguise the obstacles which his faith opposed to his political duties. The source of the religious scruples which deprived James II. of his regal dignity, is expressed in one of the questions which he proposed to several divines of his persuasion. It comprises, in a few words, what every candid mind must perceive to be the true and only difficulty in the admission of Roman Catholics to the Parliament of these kingdoms. What James doubted respecting the regal sanction, a member of either house may apply to the more limited influence of his vote. He asked, Whether the King could promise to give his assent to all the laws which might be proposed for the greater security of the Church of England?' Four English divines, who attended James, in his exile, answered without hesitation in the negative. The casuistry of the French court was certainly less abrupt. Louis XIV. observed to James, that as the exercise of the Catholic religion could not be re-established in England, save by removing from the people the impression that the king was resolved to make it triumph, he must dissuade him from saying or doing anything which might authorise or augment this fear.' The powerful talents of Bossuet were engaged to support the political views of the French monarch. His answer is a striking specimen of casuistic subtlety. He begins by establishing a distinction between adhering to the erroneous principles professed by a church, and the protection given to it ostensibly, to preserve public tranquillity.' He calls the Edict of Nantes, by which the Huguenots were, for a time, tolerated, a kind of protection to the reformed, shielding them from the insults of those who would trouble them in the exercise of their religion. It never was thought (adds Bossuet) that the conscience of the monarch was interested in these concessions, except so far as they were judged necessary for public tranquillity. The same may be said of the King of England; and if he grant greater advantages to his Protestant subjects, it is because the state in which they are in his kingdoms, and the object of public repose, require it.' Speaking of the Articles, the Liturgy, and the Homilies, it is not asked, (he says,) that the King should become the promoter of these three things, but only that he shalf OSTENSIBLY leave them a free course, for the peace of his subjects.' The Catholics (he concludes) ought to consider the state in which they are, and the small portion they form of the population of England; which obliges them not to ask what is impossible of their King, but, on the contrary, to sacrifice all the advantages with which they might vainly flatter them selves, to the real and solid good of having a king of their religion, and securing his family on the throne, though Catholic; which may lead them naturally to expect, in time, the entire establishment of their church and faith.'* "Such is the utmost stretch which can be given to the Roman Catholic principles in the toleration of a church which dissents from the Roman faith. A conscientious Roman Catholic may, for the sake of public peace, and in the hope of finally serving the cause of his church, ostensibly give a free course to heresy. But, if it may be done without such dangers, it is his unquestionable duty to under The postscript to this letter by Lord Meltfort, the minister of the exiled king, is in these words :"Ce qu'il y a affaire n'est que pour EVITER LES CENSURES DE ROME, non pas pour faire examiner l'affaire, CE QU'IL FAUT EVITER ET PRINCIPALEMENT LES CONGREGATIONS, ce que sa Majesté souhaite estant de satisfaire sa Sainteté en particulier des nécessitiés soubs les quelles sa Majesté est tant a l'égard de son éstablissement que pour avoir la liberté de faire élever le Prince de Galles dans la religion Catholique, ce qui est un plus grand bien à la dit religion que aucun autre que puisse arriver Il est aussi à considerer que sa Majestě a des assurances des principaux avec lesquelles elle a traité d'obtenir une liberté de conscience pour les Catholiques d'Angleterre, pourveu que sa Majesté ne le presse pas par son authorité, mais qu'il le laisse au Parliament. En fin celle cy j'entends LA DECLARATION N'EST QUE POUR RENTRER, ET L'ON PEUT BEAUCOUP MIEUX DISPUTER DES AFFAIRES DES CATHO. LIQUES A WHITEHALL QU'A ST GERMAIN.'" |