of a man, and the charity of a christian, acknow ledge that you have been misled. "Your lordship says, that "these five doctrines "have always been considered as forming part of the "faith of papists;" but by whom?-by catholics? Most certainly not; they have always disclaimed them. By their adversaries? But you must be aware that little credit is due to adversaries, especially when the passions of those adversaries have been heated, and their judgments warped, by theological controversy. 66 "But what is the meaning of the words "have always been?" They seem to imply, that the doctrines in question were not only considered formerly, but are also considered now, as making part of the catholic faith. It is however impossible that so unfounded a notion can exist at the present day. Your lordship cannot be ignorant, that, in 1788, the catholic universities of Louvain, Douay, Paris, Alcala, Valladolid and Salamanca, when those learned bodies were consulted to satisfy Mr. Pitt*, spurned the imputation as most foul, false and calumnious. You cannot be ignorant that, in 1791, Pius VI., in his letter to the roman-catholic archbishops of Ireland, not only condemned these doctrines, but declared that they had been imputed to the holy see merely for the purpose of calumniating it t. You cannot be ignorant, that the British and Irish catholics seized the first opportunity, which See the Appendix. + See substance of Sir John Cox Hippisley's speech, May 18, 1810. Appendix. was offered to them, of disclaiming such doctrines upon oath. You cannot be ignorant, that that very oath had been prescribed by the legislature, as satisfactory evidence of the religious principles of those who should take it.-What better proof can be desired or devised? The declaration of the chief bishop of the catholic church, the testimony of the catholic universities, the oaths of the catholics, both laity and clergy, of the united kingdom, and the authority of the legislature, all combine to show, that these five doctrines form no part of the catholic faith. Certainly the most obstinate prejudice must yield to evidence so general and conclusive. "I have the honour to be, &c. "London, June 12, 1821. YOU have now reached a subject, upon which I wish you had given us an elaborate and impartial volume, instead of a short and partial chapter,the preliminaries of Luther's reformation. In Germany, they are often styled Reformatio ante Reformationem. It is intimated, in the preface to Beausobre's "History of the Reformation," that he had written a work on this subject: I have made many inquiries for it, both in the London and the foreign markets, without success. A good account of this portion of ecclesiastical history is one of the greatest wants of literature. It is known, that, on the death of Manes, the founder of the heresy, which derives its origin and name from him, his European followers retreated into the East; that they returned into Europe about the beginning of the ninth century: and, during that and the following centuries, spread themselves, under the various appellations of Cathari, Paulicians, Albigenses, Popellicans, Bogards, and Brethren of the Free Spirit, into several sects, equally hostile to church and state. On the religious tenets of the ancient Manichees, Beausobre, doctor Lardner f, and Mr. Alban Butler +, have left us nothing to desire. But, in respect to their tenets on civil power and property, these authors are almost entirely silent. The religious tenets of the Manichean sectaries, in the middle ages, have been ably discussed by Bossuet |, father Persons §, Mr. Alban Butler T, and Basnage ; but these writers have said little on their political tenets. I beg leave to mention, that those, who desire to investigate this subject, should consult Monetæ adversus Catharos et Valdenses, libri quinque, fol. Roma, 1743. ** I wish you to undertake this investigation; but I fear you could not complete it, in the manner you and your friends would wish, without ransacking foreign libraries. The great point for investigation is, whether these sectaries did not, by their disorganizing tenets, prelude to the doctrine of Liberty and Equality, so frightfully propagated in our time? *Histoire Critique de Manichée et de Manichéisme: 2 vols. 4to. + Credibility of the Gospel History, XLIII. Note in his Life of St. Augustine. Variations, livre xii. § Three Conversions of England, part iii. c. 3.6. Note in his Life of St. Dominick. **Hist. des Eglises Reformées, 2 vols. 4to. XI. 1. Rise of the Reformation-Persecution under the House of Lancaster. WHEN I inserted, in my " Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish Catholics," an account of "the preliminaries of the reforma"tion," I gave to the subject all the attention, and made every research, that the time, which I could bestow upon it, allowed. I have frequently reconsidered this part of my work, and have not discovered any thing which appears to me to require alteration. 66 I shall, therefore, now re-state what I have inserted in that work,-the opinion of Mosheim †, that, "before the Reformation, there lay concealed, "in almost every part of Europe, particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and Germany, many persons who adhered tenaciously to the following doctrine, which the Waldenses, Wickliffites, and Hussites, had maintained; some in a disguised, others in a more open and public "manner :-that the kingdom of Christ was an assembly of true and real saints, and ought, therefore, to be inaccessible to the wicked and unrighteous, and also, exempt from those institu"tions which human prudence suggests, to oppose "the progress of iniquity, or to correct or reform transgressions." "From these principles they inferred, that all + Cent. xvi. c. 3. 5. 2. 5. *Vol. 1, p. 93. |