charges them, with great solemnity, not to wear short liripoops of silk, nor gowns open before, nor swords, nor daggers, nor embroidered girdles; to be very careful of their tonsure, and to keep their hair always so short, that the world may see their ears; and he threatens them with very severe censures if they do not obey these injunctions." Such was all the reformation that at first appeared to the primate of all England, as necessary among the clergy under his command.

By and by, however, he came to a better understanding of matters; for, in a letter to the abbot of St. Albans, which has been published, he charges him and his monks with the most odious vices, of which, he says, they were notoriously guilty. One of his crimes was, that he had turned all the modest women out of the two nunneries of Pray, and Sapwell, and filled them with prostitutes; that they were esteemed no better than brothels, and that he and his monks publicly frequented them as such. Such was the character and condition of these holy seminaries in the reign of Henry VII., and down to the period of the reformation. For many more particulars, see Henry's History, cent. xv.

On the breaking out of the reformation, Henry VIII ordered a visitation of certain monasteries, in order to their suppression. The following was the result, as given by Dr. Henry, cent. xvi, who refers to Strype, chap. 34, 35. "The visitors having received their commissions and instructions, were despatched into different parts of the kingdom at the same time, that the monks might have as little warning of their approach as possible. They executed their commissions with zeal and diligence, and made some curious discoveries almost in every house, not much to the honour of its inhabitants. In making these discoveries, they were greatly indebted to the violent factions which reigned among the monks and nuns, who informed against one another, and against their superiors. Accounts of their proceedings were transmitted by the visitors to the vicar-general, and contained sufficient materials to render the monastics completely infamous, and the objects of universal detestation, for their gross absurd superstition and idolatry, their infernal cruelty, their shameful impositions on the credulity of the people, their abandoned unnatural incontinency, their drunkenness, gluttony, and other vices. Some of the old abbots and friars did not attempt to conceal their amours, which they knew to be impossible. The holy father, the prior of Maiden-Bradley, assured the visitors, that he had only married six of his sons and one of his daughters out of the goods of the priory as yet; but that several more of his children were grown up, and would soon be marriageable, He produced a dispensation from the pope, permitting him to keep a mistress; and he acquainted them that he took none but young maidens to be his mistresses, the handsomest he could procure; and when he was disposed to change, he got them husbands. But the page of history must not be stained with the abominations contained in the reports of these visitors. It may be sufficient to lay before the reader a short description of their contents, in the preamble to the act of parliament which they produced: Forasmuch as manifest sin, vicious, carnal, and abominable living, is daily used and committed in abbeys, priories, and other religious houses, of monks, canons, and nuns; and albeit, many continual visitations have been heretofore had by the space of two hundred years and more, for an honest, charitable reformation of such unthrifty,

carnal, and abominable living; yet nevertheless, little or none amendment is hitherto had, but their vicious living shamefully increaseth and augmenteth,' &c. It is but justice to notice, that though the corruption of the monastics in England at this time was very general, it was not universal: some in almost every monastery were regular in their conduct, and at their own desire were set at liberty. A few convents were found to be well governed and unexceptionable: and for the preservation of these the visitors pleaded with great earnestness."

In Scotland the state of matters was no better than in England, whatever worse. "Inferior benefices were put up to sale, or bestowed on the illiterate and unworthy minions of courtiers; on dice-players, strolling bards, and the bastards of bishops." M'Crie's Life of Knox, 1st ed. P. 15. "Again, (says the same author, page 16,) the lives of the clergy, exempted from secular jurisdiction, and corrupted by wealth and idleness, were become a scandal to religion, and an outrage to decency. While they professed chastity, and prohibited, under the severest penalties, any of the ecclesiastical order from contracting lawful wedlock, the bishops set the example of the most shameless profligacy before the inferior clergy; avowedly kept their harlots; provided their natural sons with benefices; and gave their daughters in marriage to the sons of the nobility and principal gentry; many of whom were so mean as to contaminate the blood of their families by such base alliances, for the sake of the rich dowries which they brought." The author adds in a note, "We need not appeal to the testimony of the reformers, or to satirical poems published at the time, in proof of the extreme profligacy of the popish clergy. The truth is registered in the acts of parliament, in the decrees of their own councils, (Wilkin. Concil. tom. 4, p. 46-60. Keith's Hist. pref. 11,) in the records of legitimation, (Lord Hails' Notes on ancient Scottish Poems, p. 249, 250,) and in the confession of their own writers, &c." In another note, Dr. M. gives the following on the authority of Pitscottie: "They would thole no priest to marry, but they would punish, and burn him to the dead; but if he had used then ten thousand whores he had not been burnt." Hist. p. 150, 152.

As an instance of what Dr. M'Crie mentions, of bishops marrying their natural children into noble families, I need only refer to the case of Cardinal Beaton, who, having burnt Wishart to death for heresy, seemed to have the whole kingdom at his feet. He had settled with the Earl of Crawford, the preliminaries of marriage between that earl's eldest son and one of his natural daughters, named Margaret, with whom he gave a very large fortune; and had just celebrated the marriage, when, on his return to his castle at St. Andrews, he was murdered, as is recorded in all the histories of that time.

If Romish priests at present in England and Scotland are not more virtuous, they are under the necessity of being more circumspect, and more private in the practice of their vices. But in those parts of Ireland which have been least favoured with the light of the reformation, we are informed by one of themselves, that the lives of the clergy are nearly as profligate as ever. That the lives of the Roman Catholic clergy, at this day, in Ireland," says the Rev. Charles Bourke, "as well as on the continent, are not much more correct than those of the clergy at the time of the reformation, when Luther inveighed against

them, is a melancholy truth which cannot be denied." Again, "The mistresses and children of reverend gentlemen can be shown, whenever they may choose to put it to the trial.-They themselves know that I can prove this assertion incontestibly." See Popish Episcopal Tyranny Exposed, preface, and page 45.

Hence it is, I suppose, that popish writers continue so pertinaciously to accuse the reformers of unchastity. They know how vulnerable the character of their own clergy is on this point; and, in order to divert the attention of their opponents, and put them on the defensive, they become the assailants and accusers. În almost all their writings it is asserted as an undoubted matter of fact, that Luther both taught and practised this vice; though it is a fact, that among the many thousands of enemies which he had during his life, there were none that could produce the smallest evidence of any thing worse than that he married a religious woman; that is, a woman, who, like himself, was under a vow of chastity. Similar accusations were brought against other leaders of the reformation, with an equal disregard of truth; and it is not more than two years since a reverend father had the effrontery to assert in the pulpit of the popish chapel here, that Knox plundered the cathedral of St. Andrews of its sacred vessels, and used them in drunken revelry with his concubines. Knox was a married man, and after the death of one wife he took another. This is the worst that his enemies can prove against him; and yet it is under this that the above monstrous charge is made, because Papists will not allow that ladies whom priests marry can be their lawful wives, and therefore they apply the above opprobrious epithet.

I need not here discuss the lawfulness of breaking the monastic vow; but I have no hesitation in saying, that so far as it is a vow of chastity, it would, in the case of most persons, stand more chance of being observed in the state of marriage, than in the state of celibacy. This is plainly the doctrine laid down by the apostle, 1 Cor. vii. 2. As the first reformers saw it their duty to marry, so in the reformation that has lately begun in Germany, under Von Wessenberg, this privilege is allowed to the priests, which is striking at the foundation of the papal power in that quarter. This is the principal crime that the pope lays to the charge of the modern reformer, which is done in the following words, in a document signed by Cardinal Gonsalvi: "The nunciature of Lucerne lost no time in transmitting to your curia, as it was in duty bound to do, the strongest representations against such enormous and grave abuses, and especially against the greatest of all, namely, that of giving the power of marriage to persons dedicated to God by a vow of perpetual chastity." Reformation of the Catholic Church in Ger many, &c. Lond. 1819, page 24.

CHAPTER CXVIII.

CLERICAL CELIBACY CONTINUED.

DEFINITION OF A SACRAMENT. ANECDOTES. LETTER FROM "A FRIEND TO FAIR DEALING." REMARKS ON THE LETTER. FROM AN IRISHMAN."

NOTE TO W. D.

LETTER

SATURDAY, October 14th, 1820. It would be easy to fill a dozen numbers more with details of the horrible effects of clerical celibacy in the church of Rome. The general licentiousness which it occasioned was not confined to the lower orders of the priesthood. All ranks were tainted up to the very head; and the head of the church himself was often worst of all. One can scarcely open the Lives of the Popes from the sixth century to the sixteenth, but he will find the most disgusting accounts of their debaucheries, and of the oppressions which they practised in order to provide fortunes for their natural children, whom they introduced to the world as nephews and nieces. But the world does not need to be informed on this subject; and I believe my readers will think they have had enough of matter so nauseous.

There is one thing more connected with this subject, to which I will advert in few words, and then proceed to something else: it is the inconsistency of calling matrimony a sacrament, and denying it to the clergy. In all other cases the priesthood insist upon having at least their own share of the good things of the church. The ordinances of divine appointment which are called sacraments, are given to the church as benefits; and they are signs of greater blessings than appear to the eye. The church of Rome has made several foolish additions to their number; but she holds them all as good things, and profitable to be observed. She indeed uses stronger language than any judicious Protestant will do. "A sacrament," says Bishop Hay, "is an outward sensible action, or sacred sign, ordained by Jesus Christ, as a sure and certain means to bring grace to our souls." The subject is too serious for a pun, else I would defy the church of Rome to prove that all their sacraments are sensible actions: at least, not that one that sets all the senses at defiance. I will not, however, refuse this character to marriage; and if it be indeed a sacrament, and a sure and certain means to bring grace to the soul, I am sure it must be the most sensible thing the priests ever did, to take wives, and live like honest men. And perhaps it is because they neglect this sacrament, that all the other six have failed of their sure and certain effect with regard to many of them, as is but too evident from their graceless lives.

It is not my usual practice to begin a number with the end of a subject, but sometimes, as in this instance, I find it expedient.† ·

I am not sure if this word is used in the sense of wise, or judicious, or having good sense, south of the Tweed.

+ Since writing the above, I have received the following communications, which I throw into a note here. The two anecdotes are not over decent, but they are such as one must expect to meet with, in reading on such a subject. My correspondent, who resides in Ireland, has given me the names of living authorities for both:-"A Roman Catholic gentleman, in the north of Munster, somewhat advanced in years, married a young and handsome wife, of the same communion. Naturally of a jealous disposition, and convinced of the corrupt principles and practices of his clergy, he would never permit the priest of the parish, or the friar who assisted him, to hear his wife's confession locked up together in a private room, according to the

Before entering upon another general head of discussion, I shall give place to a correspondent or two. The following is from my Galloway "Friend to fair dealing," whom I suspected to be a priest, and perhaps this is the principal reason why he is so very angry. If the reader will take the trouble of turning to my ninety-fifth number, in vol. I. he will see that I inserted only a part of a former letter from this gentleman, and my reasons for doing so. This is the avowed cause of his displeasure, although it is difficult to understand why he should have taken it so much amiss. I suppose he is the first that ever supposed that a periodical writer is obliged to print all that every man chooses to address to him, whether it be to the purpose or not.

"SIR,-I had not an opportunity of seeing your method of noticing my last letter to you till very lately. You have, I see, taken the method of all those who, wishing to throw things unfavourable to their system into the back ground, represent only those features of the picture which are most for their advantage. It was a mean, cowardly artifice in you, not to give the public a full view of the arguments of your opponent, by presenting them with a faithful complete copy of his letter, and allowing them, without any fear of the consequences, to judge for themselves. I am aware, however, that some things were contained in that production, which it did not suit your purpose to give to public view. I must tell you, however, that I will permit no man to make free with altering my letters, or with giving a summary of their contents, but myself; more especially one whose interest it is that they should appear in a mutilated and distorted form. When you shall have given the public a bona fide transcript of my letter, I will proceed to reply to your answers to my queries, to refute some of your calumnious, ill-natured, ill-mannered misrepresentations of popery, and put some more queries to you. If you refuse to do that piece of justice, I will write no more to you on the subject, but after having made the public acquainted with the reasons of my silence, I will treat your arguments and production in the way they ought to have been all along treated; and which, in less than half a century, they will be treated with contempt. A FRIEND TO FAIR DEALING."

usual custom. But once a month, when the confession was to be heard, the priest attended for the purpose; and was obliged to shrive and absolve the lady in the lawn before the hall door, whilst the watchful husband sat in one of the windows of his drawing room, the rigid guardian of his wife's chastity, and his own honour." The following is of a more disgusting character:—“ A full-fed father Luke, in the county of Cavan, some years ago, had in vain attempted to seduce the affections of one of his fair parishioners. Soon after his repulse, he was consulted by the girl's father, on the disposal of her in marriage to a young man in a neighbouring county. The priest consented with reluctance, and the young people were made happy. Some months after he visited his young friend, and finding a convenient opportunity, he told her with horror in his looks, that she was pregnant of a monster. The woman was terrified, and such was her superstitious confidence in her guide, notwithstanding his former attempts upon her, that she believed his assertion; and it was not till he had made an infamous proposal, as a remedy for the evil, that she told the matter to her husband, who cudgelled the brute out of his house."

The following is from another correspondent:

Extract from the translation of Sleidane's Commentaries, translated by Jhon Dans, 1560, imprinted at London by Jhon Daye, for Abraham Veal and Nicholas England, 1560, 25th of September, L III. fol. xxxv, xxxvi. "In many of theyr Townes it is the maner, that whan they receyue a newe minister of the churche, they bidde him take a lemane, lest he attempt to defyle honest women, whiche custom although it be laughed at of many, yet it was wittelye diuised as the tyme serued and in so greate darkeness of doctrine depraued."

VOL. II.-12