tiate the charge of idolatry in this practice against the church of Rome, to prove, that the object of such veneration, or worship, call it relative or not, is venerated or worshipped, as the supreme God, a precision of definition which is necessary to exonerate the children of Rome from the charge of idolatry, and which, well knowing, they fail not to use. It is sufficient, that, like the Israelites when arraigned of the crime, they worship the supreme God, through their images or idols, the very form of offence forbidden by the second commandment of the decalogue. It is not necessary that they should be proved guilty of the extreme degree of idolatry it is enough if they be proved guilty of the essence. A drunkard is chargeable with drunkenness, although he be not intoxicated so often as is possible. And

farà la Disciplina per un miserere, porterà il cilicio, ò visiterà gl' hospedali, ò alcun Infermo, ò accompagnerà li morti alla sepoltura, ò la sera dirà il De profundis, ò tre Pater noster, e 3 Ave Maria per le Anime del Purgatorio, o sentirà sermoni, ó fara paci, ò simili, ancorche alcuna per obligo, e pregara per l'esaltatione di Santa Madre Chiesa, consegua per ciascuna di dette cose dieci anni d' indulgenza, et essendo confessato, e communicato indulgenza Plenaria, e remissione di tutti li suoi peccati.

3o. A' chi fara reverenza divotamente à Croci, o Imagini, ò in qualsivoglia hora del giorno, si accommandarà à Dio, ò alla Madonna, ò al suo Angelo Custode, al Santo, ch' haverà in devotione, ò renderà gratie a Sua Divina Maestà de' beneficii recevuti, o nel principio di qualsivoglia buona opera, ò in tempo di qualsivoglia tentatione, farà 3 volte il segno della Croce, ò dirà 3 volte Deus adjutorium meum intende, ò farà qualche opera di pietà, guadagnera per ogn' una dieci anni. 40. Ogni volta che dolendosi de' suoi peccati fara proposito di confessarsi à suo tempo, guadagni dieci anni d' Indulgenza, e facendo l' esame della coscienza, consegua la remissione della terza parte de' suoi peccati, et effettualmente confessandosi, e pregando per il felice stato di Santa Chiesa, guadagni il doppio.

5o. Ogni volta, che si confesserà, ò communicherà, ò dirà Messe per devotione, ò per obligo, e pregherà per l'esaltatione di Santa Chiesa, e per l'estirpatione dell' heresie, consegua Indulgenza Plenaria, e remissione di tutti li suoi peccati, e pregando per le Anime de' morti, liberi ogni volta un' Anima del Purgatorio per modum suffragii a sua intentione. 6o. Chi farà dire tre Messe di morti in uno, ò più giorni, liberi dodici volte l'anno per ogni volta un' Anima del Purgatorio per modum suffragii à sua intentione.

it is not necessary, for the same purpose, that the rites and forms of idolatry should be strictly the same as those of the heathens: it is sufficient, that there is a substantial identity: it makes no essential difference in the instance of the drunkard, whether he offend by simple fermented liquor or by ardent spirits. There are three important historical points on this subject-In the primitive times, Christian writers condemned image-worship altogether, and the heathens never reproached them with any practical self-contradiction; when, in later times, professed Christians were guilty of the practice, the heathens did reproach them with it; and the heathens vindicated their own practice by precisely the same arguments as those now used by Romanists -they worshipped their idols only mediately *.

The ultimate formation and publication by his own authority of the Index of prohibited books, was committed to the pontiff. It is not likely, that the author should have much remaining to say on this subject. And yet there is a use which the index subserves, not particularly noticed by him, and not always, although rather obvious, considered as it ought to be. If no such supremely authentic catalogue existed, upon any charge against the church of Rome, of doctrines or forms, such for instance as those highly objectionable ones, which appear in Cassander's Consultatio, under the head de Meritis et Intercessione Sanctorum, where certain blasphemous hymns to the Virgin Mary are referred to, it might be answered by the representatives of the Roman church,-true, these are perfectly unjustifiable excesses, and our church, instead of sanctioning, utterly disavows and condemns them. But here is a book

* See Whitby's Tract of the Error of the Church of Rome discovered by the worship of Images. I refer to the Tract in its original form, but believe it is in Gibson's collection. But Faber's Difficulties of Romanism, last edition, and Garbett's Nullity of the Roman Faith, may stand in the place of every thing on this, and all the main points of controversy with papists. I ought not, however, to omit the triumphs of Wake and Stillingfleet, in their various works on the Idolatry of the church of Rome. The latter, in particular, has driven the enemy from all his posts.

deliberately and repeatedly, up to the present time, republished with constant additions,-the very plan, not only most suitable for, but on every ground most urgently calling for, the expression and publication of such disclaimer and condemnation ; and yet such documents and customs, necessarily notorious and known, pass, not only without censure, but without notice. If the church of Rome had employed her best ingenuity to devise by what act she could most effectually bind upon her own back the responsibility of such iniquities, she could not have adopted one more perfectly successful.

The reformation of the Breviary and Missal was likewise committed to his holiness's care. Although there was complaint enough, and with justice, of the atrocious corruptions of the Roman formularies of public worship, which had already produced a purification too searching for Rome in the breviary of cardinal Quignon, the partial and confined adoption of that reformed liturgy, left it still in Germany a grievance, that the liturgical books were full of foolish and apocryphal matter. In the Consultatio of the emperor Ferdinand on the subject of reformation, prepared in March, 1562, and intended for the consideration of the council, but not read, for which an apology was made, the twelfth article runs as follows: Cum negari nequeat temporum vitio multa inepta, apocrypha, parumque ad sincerum cultum pertinentia in cantiones et preces Ecclesiæ irrepsisse, sacro Concilio enitendum erit, ut libri Missales, Graduales, Antiphonarii, Agendæ, et Breviaria religiose et diligenter recognoscantur, et repurgentur, utque nihil in Ecclesia legendum, canendum, orandum, seu populo proponendum permittatur, quod non sit ex divinis literis desumptum, aut hisce omnino consentaneum, prout vel ex sanctis Patribus, vel probatis historiis ecclesiasticis demonstrari possit, prout antiquis Conciliis cautum esse cognoscitur. There is more about the singing*. Had it not been for this secular re

* Schelhornii Amoen. Eccles. i. pp. 490, et seq., particularly 533-4. Le Plat has copied the document in his fifth volume, and inserted from Raynaldus the apology for not reading it, at pp. 328-9.

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monstrance, in all probability nothing would have been done; and in consequence of it how little was done!

Of the Catechism, for which the council provided in the same way, I have said something in another place *.

At the last session of the council a sermon was delivered by Girolamo Ragazzone, a Venetian, which was much commended, and is generally postfixed to the editions of the canons and decrees of the council. He, as well as other panegyrists and apologists down to Campian and Butler, have endeavoured to persuade the world, that this last was among the purest and most beneficial that was ever assembled ‡. We are

*Life and Pontificate of Saint Pius V, &c., pp. 38, 9.

It is called by Servantio una bellissima oratione.

con

C. Butler, Esq. in an Appendix to the end of the first volume of his Historical Memoirs, &c. on the Council of Trent, observes, that a 6 'siderable proportion of the prelates, by whom the council was attended, were distinguished by learning, virtue, and enlightened zeal for religion, 'has never been denied. Perhaps no civil or religious meeting ever pos. 'sessed a greater assemblage of moral, religious, and intellectual endowment.' He proceeds to show, from the acknowledgment of Courayer, that several excellent regulations were made,' &c. Let us hear another Roman Catholic, Dr. Alex. Geddes, speaking on the same subject. Some few of 'those prelates were, for the time, learned, aud most of them virtuous, or at 'least pious, men. Nor can it be denied, that among several trifling, and some eventually pernicious regulations, they also made many useful ones, ' and would have undoubtedly made many more, if they had not been 'cramped by the pope's legates, supported by a firm phalanx of transalpine bishops, and a subtle crew of scholastic divines, of whom the greater part were friars, devoted to the Roman see, and ever ready to defend its most extravagant claims.' And so on. Letter to Right Rev. John Douglass, Bishop of Centuriæ, and V. A. in the London District, Appendix, p. 54. Note. Mr. Butler's usual method of defending what is indefensible is somewhat of this sort. The man, it is true, has been convicted, by undeniable evidence, of robbery and murder, aggravated by circumstances of atrocious and wanton barbarity; nor have there been any subsequent indications of compunction. It ought not, however, to be forgotten, that he was a person of very fascinating manners, and the life of every convivial party to which he was admitted; nor would he, in all probability, have been concerned in the unfortunate transaction, had he not been overcome by singular and almost irresistible temptation.

There is much artifice in the general List, subjoined to the editions of the Canons and Decrees of the Council, of the Prelates and others who attended it. The last column designates the country of each. That of Italy is subdivided into almost the minutest portions imaginable-evidently for no