-

Thus the roman

generally alienated from it. catholics, if it had been their principle to propagate their religion, or even to ward off its impending ruin, by violence, might have easily established their ascendancy; but this is neither their doctrine nor their practice, the roman-catholics, therefore, remained in peace. Such a remark, at the present time*,- if you had made it, would not have been lost upon us; we should have gratefully received it. With this feeling, we read your candid acknowledgment, that the insurrection, in Edward's reign, was "a conflict, not between the adherents of the old "religion and of the new, but between men who fought for plunder, and those whose property was "at stake."

*The subject now calls me to return to the charges of "ignorance and corruption" with which you so often, and so contumeliously, upbraid our church. Here, let me request you to consider the proceedings, so highly injurious to sacred and profane learning of every kind, which attended the introduction of the new religion in the reign of Henry VIII, and its progress during that of the infant Edward, whom you so highly celebrate; and to compare them with those which attended the rise and progress of the catholic religion in this country. You recollect the expression, as just as it is beautiful, of Collier, which I have already cited,-that, on the introduction of catholic faith into England, "every thing seemed

* See the italic words in "the Book of the Church," vol. 1, p. 379-At this time, the British roman-catholics are petitioning for emancipation.

brightened, as if nature had been melted down "and recoined." In proportion as the catholic faith advanced, humanity, civilization, the arts and the sciences, advanced with her, and were equally encouraged by the monarch, the pastors, and their flocks. I request you, (always bearing in mind that printing was then unknown), to say, whether, in your opinion, these advances in useful and ornamental knowledge, and this encouragement of them, were not greater than the most sanguine hopes could have expected? All were extinguished by the Danish invasion; but no sooner was the Norman government settled, than all the useful and ornamental literature revived: the dominions of Henry II. became, if the expression may be allowed, the Athens of the feudal territories; and, notwithstanding the long years of havoc, which urged their way during the contests between the house of York and the house of Lancaster, arts, sciences and literature, were constantly on the increase. Compare this with the Vandal scenes which began in the reign of Henry VIII, and were consummated in the reign of his son. "I judge it to be true," says the most anti-catholic Bale*, "and I utter it "with heaviness, that neither the Britons under "the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the English

people under the Danes and Normans, had ever "such damage of their learned monuments, as we "have at this our time. Our posterity may well

Declaration upon Leland's Journal, ann. 1549; Fuller's Church History, book vi. 333.

"curse the wicked fall of our age; this unreason"able sport of England's most noble antiquities."

Can it then be honourably said, that the rise and first progress of the new religion in this country, were as edifying or as salutary as the rise and first progress of the catholic religion had been?

But the catholic religion had superstitions and corruptions:-this is your constant theme. That, during the legal establishment of the catholic religion, there were some superstitions and some corrupt practices, I admit; and I have shown, that this has been admitted by our best roman-catholic writers, though all deny that either superstition or corruption existed in the extent you describe.Admitting, however, for the sake of argument, that both existed in the very extent described by you,I have no fear of closing with you even on this ground.-Permit me to ask you, whom I suppose to be a protestant of the thirty-nine articles, a single question: Which is the greatest obstacle to the rise, the progress, or the revival of religion,-superstition and corruption, or laxity of creed and indifference? I leave you to answer this question, and to draw the inference.-The jews repeatedly offended God by their idolatries and superstitions. In the roman-catholic religion, idolatry never has existed; and small, very small, has been the number of its members tainted by superstition. Now, if the idolatries and superstitions of the jews did not prevent their continuing the constituted depositaries of the law, why should a few superstitious

practices prevent the church, established by Christ, from continuing the constituted depositary of his gospel, and entitled to his promises to her?

Believe me, Sir, the time is come, when it is for the interests of all protestants and all catholics, who sincerely wish well to their respective religions, to abstain from contention, and to unite in the defence of their common christianity. All my writings, such as they are, have at least the merit of inculcating this salutary truth.

t

LETTER XIV.

QUEEN MARY.

SIR,

I HAVE now to consider the chapter in the "Book of the Church," which relates to the reign of Queen Mary. Permit me to offer you some observations, I. On her persecutions of the protestants: -II. On archbishop Cranmer and bishop Latimer : -III. And on the queen's general character.

XIV. 1.

Persecutions of the Protestants in the Reign of Queen Mary.

J

In your account of the burning of Joan Bocher, in the reign of Edward VI. you mention, that the active part which Cranmer took in it is the saddest. page in his history; the only one, which admits of no excuse. Permit me to introduce the subject of this letter by asking, what excuse you can suggest for the provision for the persecution of the romancatholics, which Cranmer inserted in his "Code "for the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws of "England?" By this, a belief of transubstantiation, of the supremacy of the pope, or of justification by faith only, was made heresy; and it was ordained, that individuals, accused of holding any

* Under the title "de Hæresibus," c. I. 7. 19. 21; and "de Judiciis contra Hær." c. 1. 1, 2, 3, 4.