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and seminary priests conspiring most horribly." In the indictment the names of Garnet, Gerard, and Tesmond were specified, and they were charged with aiding in the conspiracy on the ground that the King was a heretic, and thereby accursed and excommunicated. The speeches for the Crown distinctly allege the connection of the Jesuits with the plot. If they did not originate it, they were, at all events, acquainted with the proceedings, and, instead of dissuading the parties concerned, they assisted them with their counsel and spiritual authority. Garnet, more especially, is identified with the history of this transaction; for the others escaped, but he was taken soon after and brought to trial, and executed as a traitor. These particulars may be sufficient so far as concerns the conspirators themselves.

case.

(3.) But we must also observe what are the fixed and unrepealed principles of the Church of Rome bearing on this The deposing power of the Pope, and the persecution and extermination of heretics, are doctrines explicitly laid down by the highest authority, and never abrogated. The decrees of general councils are absolutely binding in the Roman Catholic Church. Now the 3rd and 4th Lateran Councils, in 1179 and 1215, under Popes Alexander III. and Innnocent III., formally decreed the extermination of heretics. These decrees have never been repealed. On the contrary, the 4th Council of Lateran is expressly referred to as a general council, in the last that was held, that at Trent, A. D. 1545 to 1563; and in the concluding Article of the Creed of Pope Pius IV., the members of the Church of Rome profess to "receive unhesitatingly" all that has been "delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils." The Catechism of the Council of Trent plainly affirms that heretics and schismatics are in the power of the Church. In the Canon Law, which Romish ecclesiastics swear to receive, it is asserted that the kingly power is subject to the pontifical-that the Pope has a right to depose sovereigns, to dispose of their kingdoms, and to absolve subjects from their oaths of allegiance-that all oaths to the pre

judice of the Church of Rome are null and void-that Romish ecclesiastics may resist their sovereigns for the good of their church, &c. &c.. In conformity with this the Popes have, on numerous occasions, deposed and excommunicated sovereigns. The persecuting and deposing power is directly asserted also in the Roman breviary on the festivals of Pius V. and Gregory VII.; and it is a circumstance worthy of notice that though, so far as the Roman Pontiffs are concerned, those services remain unchanged to this day, yet parts of them have at times been suppressed by the civil power even in Roman Catholics countries, on account of their being at variance with the safety of the state. Omitting other considerations, I would mention, as a further illustration, that, on the occasion of the election of a new Pope, after being attired in his pontifical robes, and placed on the high altar, and having received the homage of the cardinals, he is seated in the balcony in the portico of St. Peter's, and the mitre being removed from his head, and the tiara, or triple crown, being placed thereon, he is addressed in these words

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"Receive the tiara with three crowns, and know that thou art the father of princes and of kings, THE RULER OF THE WORLD, on earth the vicar of our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." This ceremonial, so far from being an antiquated thing, was gone through in 1846, at the accession of the present Pope; and the address being made to him when the mitre was removed, and the tiara put upon his head, demonstrates that there is to this day a claim to universal temporal dominion. Moreover, though the advocates of Romanism in this country may affirm that such is not the spirit of the church, and may even say that it is a misrepresentation to charge her with inculcating persecuting principles or maintaining this power and authority of the Pope, yet, apart from the distinct and positive proofs to which I have referred, and which are much more conclusive than mere denials, I may add that the great theological writers of the Church of Rome--such as Bellarmine, Bailly,

Delahogue, Dens-treat these points as a branch of theological science, and assert the very same thing that I have asserted. Cardinal Bellarmine particularly affirms that such is the true doctrine taught by "all Catholics," though he intimates, as others do, that prudence must regulate the proceedings.

Putting, then, all these things together, I think we have a chain of evidence establishing the guilt of the Church of Rome in this transaction. If it be said that there was no direct sanction of the Church to this particular treason, that may be true in a certain sense; but when the papal bulls before-mentioned are taken into account, together with the persevering determination at Rome to get rid of the Protestant sovereigns of this country, and with them, if possible, of the Protestant religion-when the principles maintained in the Roman Church are remembered, and the fact that Romish ecclesiastics were identified with the proceedings-it must, I think, be considered that the sanction was strong enough, even though the details of the plot may not have received their imprimatur from Rome. If, again, it be affirmed that the case of the conspirators does not correspond to the doctrine of the Pope's deposing power, (for that was a power exercised by himself,) nor to the regulations respecting the extermination of heretics, (for they were to be handed over to the secular power,) and that, therefore, the connection I have endeavoured to establish between the principles of the Church and the proceedings of the men will not stand good-I reply that, when the doctrine of the Pope's deposing power was believed to be true, and that power known to have been exercised, so far as it could be, with reference to our own sovereigns, as well as to many foreign princes-when the parties knew that the Church had decreed the extermination of heretics, and acted upon that decree whenever she had the power and thought the exercise of it advisable-and when Romish ecclesiastics joined in the movement and gave the solemn sanctions of religion to it-it was not, I conceive, any very

great violation of the more regular method of proceeding, if, by another method, similar in spirit, though different in form, they desired to help forward the same consummation.

The connection is sufficiently close-the influence of recognized principles sufficiently apparent. Nor would the case have been singular, either in regard to the character of the transaction or its approval, in the event of success, by the Romish authorities. The awful tragedy of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, perpetrated in France in 1572, is one out of many in point. Did the Pope reprobate that atrocious deed, whereby thousands of French Protestants were slaughtered? No; he applauded the deed publicly-great rejoicings took place at Rome-there were solemn processions to the churches, and thanks offered to God for this great blessing-a special legate was sent by the Pope to the King of France to thank him for his zeal in the extirpation of heretics, and to encourage him to persevere in the work-a jubilee granted to all Christendom-and medals struck at Rome to commemorate the event, having on one side the effigy and name of the Pope, Gregory XIII., and on the reverse a representation of an angel slaying the heretics, with the inscription, "Slaughter of the Huguenots, 1572." And, arguing from such a case as this, there is no reasonable doubt that, though the Pope and the King of Spain congratulated James I. on his escape, it was, when we consider all that had been previously done, a piece of odious hypocrisy, and that they would both have rejoiced and approved of the plot if it had been successful.

Were the principles of Rome susceptible of change or improvement, we might not keep so tenacious a hold of past history; but it is the boast of Roman Catholics that their church is unchangeable. She is committed irrevocably to the principles she has once authoritatively sanctioned. She is, therefore, capable of the same deeds as ever, if she possessed the power, and thought it prudent to exercise it. And, in point of fact, so far she has had power she has exercised it, through her different instruments, even of late years. In

Roman Catholic countries the long-established principles of intolerance and persecution (though conveniently disclaimed in this country) have been acted on in our own day. Witness the expatriation of the Zillerthalers from the Austrian dominions, for their conscientious adoption of a faith different from Rome-the outrages in Madeira-the refusal of the Spanish Government to grant simple toleration to an English chapel at the Havannah--the position assumed by Romish bishops with respect to mixed marriages, as in Prussia and elsewhere-the severe measures adopted of late times, as of old, against the Waldenses-the refusal of religious liberty in so many Roman Catholic countries—these are all acts showing that the spirit is still there, and only waiting suitable opportunities to display itself. And we say, therefore, that, though the spirit of the age may in some degree keep these principles in check, though papal bulls are not now, practically speaking, invested with such terrors as belonged to them of old, and though the papal throne itself seems to totter amid the convulsions now shaking the kingdoms of Europe, yet there is amply enough to make it needful that we should remember what the Church of Rome is, and that we should instruct and warn all men of her past history, her unrepealed principles, and her still strongly cherished hopes and aspirations.

3. And this naturally brings us to a third reason for such a commemoration as this—namely, the peculiar character of the present times. Not that I wish to exaggerate the circumstances of the days in which we live. In tracing the history of the Church of Christ from the first, and of the Church of England in particular, I cannot but see that seasons, dark and trying, have been again and again experienced that events foreboding consequences the most disastrous have occurred-and yet that God, in his great mercy, has brought the Church, and the religion of which she was the guardian and teacher, safely through the struggle. Therefore, in looking at the character of the present times,

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