CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. CHAPTER CXLIV. SUITABLE ESSAYS RECOMMENDED; IT NOT being the dE- SIGN OF THE PROTESTANT TO DISCUSS THE SUBJECT. TREATMENT OF THE SICK. SATURDAY, April 14th, 1821 HAVING finished what I had to say about the Jesuits, I shall take the opportunity of a pause, or break in the thread of my discussion, to say a few words to some correspondents, who wish to know if I intend at this time to take up the subject of what is called "Catholic emancipation." My friends will be satisfied when I inform them, that it is not lawful in such a work as mine to discuss matters pending in parliament, or indeed any topic of a purely political nature. The late act relating to cheap periodical publications, lays me under the necessity of keeping within the circle which I prescribed to myself at first; that of exposing the errors of popery as a religious system, and of showing how these errors tend to the ruin of the souls and bodies of individuals, and to the great injury of civil society, when men holding them have power in their hands. To such of my readers as have access to the Morning Post London newspaper, I strongly recommend a series of letters under the signature of PHILOPATRIS, as perfectly conclusive and unanswerable on the subject of my correspondents' inquiry. I think the author would render essential service to his country by publishing them in a cheap form, that they might be extensively circulated. In the Morning Post, there is also in course of publication, a series of letters addressed to Mr. Wilberforce, well worthy of attention. And in the number of that paper for the 30th of last month, there is a powerful letter by the Reverend Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart., a gentleman who has written more against popery within the last eighteen months, than almost all his brethren together. I have been informed that his exertions have had a powerful effect in convincing the Protestants in Ireland of the very great danger to their own safety, that will result from the admission of Papists to authority over them, and even some of the priests have felt the power of his pen; one young gentleman, in particular, who was preparing for orders, has abandoned his purpose, and avowed in a letter to Sir H. which is printed in The Religious Retrospect, attached to the Antijacobin Review, for Nov. last, that he has convinced him of the errors of popery. One thing is certain, we hear nothing now of Irish Protestants petitioning to have their enemies set over them, which was common enough of late years; and the change is said to be owing in a great measure to this gentleman's labours. I have of late received a good deal of information from Ireland, with respect to the practices of Papists in that kingdom. One gentleman writes me as follows: "SIR-I concluded my former letter with an affecting, but well authenticated account of one of the numberless instances of those stratagems resorted to by priests and Papists in Ireland, for the purpose of * See PROT. Chap. CXXXV. VOL. II.-33 supporting the tottering fabric of popery; and it is astonishing what effect the pretended conversions of Protestants have upon the minds of that community. Many objects are hereby gained by its votaries: the estimation of that religion, which, as they pretend so many Protestants embrace, is enhanced, and considered the exclusive one; and it cuts off the inquiring or the wavering from any idea of examining into the principles of the reformed religion, which they are assured by their priests, will not bear the test of a death-bed; and thereby giving them an unlimited ascendancy over the purses and consciences of their flocks. To gain these desirable objects, every engine is set to work, and every device practised. Of many take the following: The priests call at the houses of the better description of sick Protestants, in country places, apparently to inquire after their health. This has all the appearance of good nature; but their real object is to make their flocks believe that they have been sent for by the sick; and as the wisdom of our forefathers, knowing the proselyting system of popery, enacted a law, enforced by a penalty, to prevent Roman Catholic priests from visiting sick or dying Protestants, unless sent for by a Protestant messenger over the age of sixteen years; the priest says that the circumstance must be kept secret, but that the sick person has died in the Catholic faith (as they call their profession.) A case of this nature lately occurred in my neighbourhood, when it was asserted by a priest, that a Protestant clergyman on his death-bed had sent for him, and had changed his religion. The priest being charged with this report, refused to give any satisfaction, until two Protestant attendants proved upon oath, that the priest only called to inquire after the man's health, and never opened his lips on the subject of religion. Indeed, this practice is so general in country towns and country places, that contrary to the acknowledged hospitality of the Irish, the writer has known of many instances where directions were given, not to admit a priest inside the doors if he should call. Nurse-tenders also are instructed to countenance these practices by admitting the priest at night into the house, and if possible to the sick. In a case of this kind which came under my own observation, a Roman Catholic gentleman of my acquaintance, and a relative of a Protestant lady who was sick, was so indignant, that he declared that he himself should be the first to prosecute the priest, if he persisted to persevere in such unworthy schemes of clandestine interference. The "A Protestant, a man in comfortable circumstances, had married a Roman Catholic, (a custom too prevalent in Ireland, and encouraged by the priests;) the sons went to church, the daughter to mass. writer has been assured by the sons themselves, that they were obliged to watch their dying father, to prevent the introduction of a priest which the man detested; and when every attempt made by the daughter proved abortive to prevail on the dying man to have a priest sent for, she left him in a rage, to die and be damned! One of the fraternity having spitefully assured him, that unless he sent for the priest, he should not be buried near his wife, (who was dead,) the dying man mildly replied, 'The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' "The Roman Catholics, sir, complain of persecution on account of their religion; but is it not a most grievous persecution which they thus carry on by every means at present in their power against the poor dying Protestants? Surely a tyrant would allow his dying enemy to die in peace; but this privilege is not allowed to many Protestants who detest popery. What, sir, may we expect from men of like principles with increased power? or what may be expected from a people where popery is predominant? No longer should we find them privately plotting the advancement of their religion by persuasives, or even by threats of future punishment-we should again see present and temporal, not future and spiritual, punishment applied-we should again see Smithfield in a blaze. "I have frequently charged some of the better description of Roman Catholics with believing that the priest has power to forgive sins; but this they have denied, although they allowed that the poor and ignorant of their profession thought so, but they acknowledged that they believed that the priest had power to forgive the sins of a dying person, being confessed and anointed; this they call being prepared! which still brings us to the same conclusion, that they are made to believe that it rests with the priest whether any person shall go to heaven or to hell. Indeed, that this is the opinion of Roman Catholics is most evident; because they will not allow a Roman Catholic, at least, to be buried in consecrated ground in country places, who has not been prepared by the priest. Many instances could be adduced of their coffins being thrown by night out of their graves, and even over the walls. Their enmity, instigated by their priests, is particularly excited against the bodies of those Roman Catholics who had renounced popery, to deter the living from following their example. In cases of this nature, Protestant clergymen have been prevented from reading the burial service, and more than once knocked down. "The last ceremony to be performed by the priest to the dying, after confession and the sacrament, is the application of what they call the consecrated oil to particular parts of the body; after which the person is not on any account to speak one word, otherwise the entire ceremony must be gone through again; in this stage the person is said to be prepared. "A man formerly in my employment, of dissipated morals, having been considered in a dying state, the priest was sent for, who, a short time after informed me, that he had prepared him. He also told the persons about the sick man, that he was now as free from sin as the child new born; and that he would soon as certainly be in heaven. Unfortunately for the priest's prediction, the man recovered, but has not since evidenced the least change for the better in his religious or moral conduct. "Whatever pretended sanctity may be thought to reside in the use of this holy oil, as well as in other popish ceremonies of even higher supposed sanctity, I am convinced that many of the better informed Roman Catholics, as well as many of the priests, are not so well satisfied with their efficacy as to place unlimited confidence in them in general you will find that Roman Catholics of liberal education, look with indifference upon those things so highly valued by the commonalty. I have heard several express perfect indifference, bordering upon contempt, in speaking of them, and I shall hereafter show that some of the priests themselves are of the same way of thinking, whatever they may pretend to the contrary. We are told that a drowning man will grasp at a straw, and it is thus that many Roman Catholics, convinced that all is not right in the sight of God, laying hold on the promises and performances of the priest, go down to the grave with a lie in their right hand; but if perchance, these straws of popery are not thought sufficient to bear up the mind of the dying Papist, to believe that he can safely depend upon them, and he requires some legitimate proofs of their efficiency; the priest will either not condescend to give him any, or refer him to the legends of the saints and the infallibility of the church 64 A young gentleman, a Roman Catholic of my acquaintance, while studying physic, was attacked by a pulmonary complaint which brought on consumption. His attendance at chapel while in health was very regular, and he passed for a moral and religious young man. As his complaint gained ground, it became necessary for him to examine the grounds of his dependance for future happiness or misery, and he then found that his attendance at chapel was merely from habit, not conviction; he feared to trust to the mere ceremonial of a religion, which he saw had more of show than substance in it; I found him, on visiting, in a state of great unhappiness of mind, and on asking him whether his priests could not give him any ease? he said, 'Ah no! they are extremely ignorant, they indeed promise great things, but they cannot convince my judgment; they cannot support their promises by any legitimate proofs, that they are well founded; he then begged I would give him my opinion on this subject. In fact, I found that this young gentleman had, in consequence of seeing through the tinsel ceremonies of popery and the conduct of the priests, become an infidel. He first doubted the system of popery to be the way of salvation held out to guilty man, and from thence he declined by a natural gradation into a disbelief of all revealed religion. Under these circumstances I saw it was necessary first to convince him from the Bible, that there was a religion revealed, and next to open or reveal the way of salvation as contained in that revelation. On requesting to see a Bible, (though the family were considered highly respectable,) they assured me they never had such a thing! and on inquiring whether one of their Bibles could not be procured, they told me they did not know, but perhaps the priest might have one. I did not however send. ficient for me here to observe, that by arguments drawn from the prophets, this young gentleman was convinced that they all wrote of Christ, and therefore, that they must have been divinely inspired; consequently that Jesus was the great sacrifice for sin, and the only intercessor for guilty man, when applied by the Holy Spirit and received as the gift of God, by faith. 66 Suf The wisdom of our forefathers having a more experimental knowledge of the intolerant spirit of popery, had fenced the vine of the reformation by guards and fences, to prevent the wild beast in the apocalypse from breaking down the hedges and devouring its tender branches. A law had been enacted to prevent the public processions of the host, and of the images of saints in these kingdoms: this was not only a just enactment to suppress an open display of idolatry, but also a wise measure to defend his majesty's loyal subjects from insults and injuries to their persons. However, of late years, the Papists have revived these processions in Ireland, and we have now a yearly display of the cere mony of bearing the host in public procession with all the glitter and paraphernalia of a sumptuous canopy, with gorgeous plumes and incense; priests, nuns, friars, monks, all in their costumes; and every thing else that is calculated to arrest the attention of admiring crowds and prostrate devotees: it is true that these ceremonies are, at present, carried round the chapel yards; but in country places, many of these yards are not enclosed, and border the public roads; so that the traveller or curious stranger is in danger of being insulted and knocked down, unless he take off his hat in obeisance to the idol. I have known several instances of insults offered, and injuries sustained on these occasions, by Protestants, who justly conceived that taking off the hat was an act of adoration, and I have also known many Protestants, to their shame I speak it, who, to gratify an idle curiosity, have conformed to the dictates of these devotees, by thus worshipping the idol which they had set up. The Papists take particular notice of Protestants who attend to see these ceremonies, and they are instructed to believe that such are favourably inclined to popery in their hearts. We may soon therefore expect that, with an extension of Roman Catholic privileges, their circuits of procession will be extended also through our streets and cities, when every person who shall not prostrate himself to the host, will be laid prostrate by the club of a fanatic. I am not now stating a theory or an idle fan›cy, I have my eye on some countries in Europe, where popery is predominant, and where the statements I have made have really occurred. "On these days of procession, the parish priest invites the assistant priests and his acquaintances to a sumptuous entertainment prepared at his house. The writer, some years ago, dined with them more than once on these days, and he can bear testimony, that every rarity to gratify the palate had been provided, even from a distance of several miles round; with the best wines that could be procured. One of these days falling upon a Friday, which is called a fast day, he has counted eleven different kinds of the best fish dressed in every possible way, with pies, puddings, peaches, grapes, &c. &c. A curious incident occurred on one of these occasions: the company having assembled in the priest's drawing-room, were coming down a dark staircase to dinner; when one of the priests pinched the writer, (who being dressed in black he mistook for a priest,) and whispered, that this was the best procession, to which I answered, I thought so too.' My intelligent neighbour, finding his mistake, pushed through the crowd to conceal himself. "I said that many of the priests do not believe the efficacy imputed by them to many things counted holy. Surely the above anecdote speaks a volume in confirmation of this assertion, and as I myself was the person, there can be no mistake in it. Now, sir, if one of the highest, if not the highest mystery, as I believe they call these things, can be so disrespectfully spoken of by a priest, what must they think of those other mysteries counted less sacred. If it be said that this was the language or opinion of an individual priest, I admit it; but surely we must draw a fair deduction from the thing itself, that he would be afraid to speak in this way, if he did not know that other priests held these things in the same contempt. Why, therefore, it may be asked, do the priests countenance and support such rites and ceremonies? the answer is obvious, they are a means for keeping the people satisfied with a religion which presents them with such finery and shows, and |