Second Sunday in St. Crosse of Jerusalem, free and full inThe same day in St. Mary of the angels, Third Sunday in St. Peter, Wednesday of the four rogations, in St. Mary the greater. Friday in the saints apostles, Saturday in St. Peter, Fourth Sunday in the saints apostles, CHRISTMAS NIGHT. do. do. do. do. do. Manger's chapel, At the second mass St. Anastasie, At the first mass in St. Mary the greater, in the CHRISTMAS DAY. do. do. At the third mass in St. Mary the greater, do. Monday in St. Mary Rotunda, do. Tuesday in St. Mary the greater, do. The innocent's day in St. Paul, do. do. The circumcision of Christ in St. Mary transtiber, Dominica in Septuag. in St. Laurence, extra muros. do. And because, every day of the year, there is estations at Rome, with great indulgences, therefore it is granted to all those that take this bull, the same indulgences and pardons very day which are granted at Rome. DON FRANCIS ANTHONY RAMIRET, DE LA PISOINA. Explanation of this bull, and remark upon it. BULL OF CRUSADE. A pope's brief, granting the sign of the cross to those that ake it. All that a foreigner can learn in the dictionaries, as to this word, is the above account; therefore I ought to tell you that are foreigners, that the word crusada was a grant of the cross; i. e., that when the king of Spain makes war against the Turks and infidels, his coat of arms, and the motto of his colors, is the cross, by which all the soldiers understand such a war is an holy war, and that the army of the king, having in its standard the sign of the cross, hath a great advantage over the enemy; for, as they do believe, if they die in such a war, their souls go straight to heaven; and to confirm them.in this opinion, the pope grants them this bull, signed with the sign of the cross, so many indulgences as you have read in it. H Again, crus, or cross, is the only distinguishing character of those that follow the colors of Jesus Christ, from whence crusada is derived, that is to say, a brief of indulgences and privileges of the cross granted to all those that serve in the war for the defence of the Christian faith against all its enemies whatsoever. This bull is granted by the pope every year to the king of Spain, and all his subjects, by which the king increases his treasure, and the pope takes no small share of it. The excessive sums of money, which the bull brings in to the king and pope, everybody may easily know, by the account I am going to give of it. It is an inviolable custom in Spain, every year, after Christmas, to have this bull published in every city, town, and bor. ough, which is always done in the following manner: The general commissary of the holy crusade most commonly resides at Madrid, from whence he sends to his deputies, in every kingdom or province, the printed bulls they want in their respective jurisdictions. This bull being published at Madrid by the general commissary or his deputy, which is always done by a famous preacher, after the gospel is sung in the high mass, and in a sermon which he preaches upon this subject. After this is done at Madrid, (I say,) all the deputies of the holy crusada send from the capital city, where they reside, friars with a petit commissary to every town and vil lage, to preach and publish the bull. Every preacher has his own circuit, and a certain number of towns and villages, to publish it in, and, making use of the privileges mentioned in the bull, he in his sermon persuades the people that nobody can be saved that year without it, which they do and say every year again. The petit commissary, for his trouble, has half a real of eight, i. e., two and fourpence a day; and the preacher, according to the extent of the circuit, has twenty or thirty crowns for the whole journey, and both are well entertained in every place. Every soul, from seven years of age and upwards, is obliged to take a bull, and pay two reals of plate, i. e., thirteen pence three farthings of this money; and one part out of three of the living persons take two or three, according to their families and abilities. The regular priests are obliged to take, three times every year, the bull, for which they pay two reals of plate: In the beginning of Lent another, which they call bull of lacticinous, i. e., bull to eat eggs, and things of milk, with out which they cannot: And another in the holy week. For the bull of lacticinous they pay four and ninepence, and the same for the bull of the holy week; the friars and nuns do the same. Now, if you consider the number of ecclesiastics and nuns and all the living souls from seven years of age and upwards, you may easily know what vast sums of money the king gets in his dominions by this yearly brief, of which the third part or better goes to Rome one way or other. Add to this the bull of the dead. This is another sort of bull; for the pope grants in it pardon of sins, and salvation to them, who, before they die, or after their death their relations for them, take this bull of defunctorum. The custom of taking this bull is become a law, and a very rigorous law, in their church; for nobody can be buried, either in the church or in the church-yard, without having this bull upon their breasts, which (as they say) is a token and signal that they were Christians in their lives, and after death they are in the way of salvation. So many poor people, either beggars or strangers, or those that die in the hospitals, could not be buried without the help of the well-disposed people, who bestow their charities for the use of taking bulls of the dead, that the poor destitute people might have the benefit of a consecrated burying-place. The sum for this bull is two reals of plate, and whatever money is gathered together in the whole year goes to the pope, or (as they say) to the treasure of the church. Now I leave to everybody's consideration, how many persons die in a year, in so vast dominions as those of the king of Spain, by which, in this point, the pope's benefit, or the treasure of the church, may be nearly known. Ŏ stupid, blind, ignorant people! Of what use or benefit is this bull after death? Hear what St. John tells you: Happy are they that die in the Lord. It is certain that all those that die in the grace of the Lord, heartily penitent, and sorry for their sins, go immediately to enjoy the ravishing pleasures of eternal life; and those that die in sin, go to suffer forever in the dark place of torment. And this happens to our souls the very instant of their separation from their bodies. Let everybody make use of their natural reason, and read impar tially the scripture, and he will find it to be so, or else he will believe it to be sɔ. Then if it is so, they ought to consider, that when they take this bull (which is commonly a little be fore they carry the corpse) into the church the judgment of God, as to the soul, is ever, (for in the twinkling of an eye he may lay the charges and pass the sentence)-at that time the soul is either in heaven or hell. What, then, doth the bull signify to them? But of this I shall speak in another place. And now I come to the explanation of the bull, and the remarks upon it. This bull I am speaking of was granted five years ago to the faithful people of Spain, by the late pope, and which a gentleman of the army took accidentally from a master of a ship out of Biscay, whose name is Peter de Zoloaga, as it is signed by himself in the same bull, and may be seen at the publisher's. I have said already that a bull is every year granted to the king of Spain, by the pope in being, who, eithe for the sake of money, or for fear, doth not scruple at all to grant quite contrary bulls to two kings at the same time reigning in Spain. Now I crave leave to vindicate my pres ent saying. When the present king of Spain, Philip the Vth, went there and was crowned, both the arms spiritual and temporal, rep. resentatives of the whole nation, (as in these kingdoms, the house of lords and commons,) gave him the oath of fidelity acknowledging him for their lawful sovereign: And when this was done, pope Clement XIth did confirm it, nay, his holi ness gave him the investiture of Naples, which is the sealing up all the titles and rights belonging to a lawful king, and after this he granted him the bull crusade, by which he acknowledged him king, and gave him help to defend himself and his dominions against all the enemies of Christianity, and all enemies whatsoever. Everybody knows that this pope was for the interests of the house of Bourbon, rather than the house of Austria; and so no wonder, if he did not lose any time in settling the crown and all the right upon Philip of Bourbon, rather than upon Charles the IIId, the present emperor of Germany. This last, thinking that the right to the crown of Spain belonged to him, of which I shall not talk, begun the wat against Philip, supported by the Heretics, (as the Spaniards call the English,) and being proclaimed at Madrid, and at Saragossa, he applied to the pope to be confirmed king, and to get both the investiture of Naples, and the bull of the holy crusade. As to the investiture of Naples, I leave it to the history written upon the late war: But as to the bull, the pope granted it to him, giving him all the titles he gave to Philip. At the same time there were two kings, and two bulls, and one pope, and one people. The divines met together to examine this point, viz. Whether the same people, having given their oath of fidelity to Philip, and taken the bull granted to him, were obliged to acknowledge Charles as a king, and take the bull granted to him. The divines for Philip were of opinion that the pope could not annul the oath, nor dispense with the oath taken by the whole nation, and that the people were obliged in conscience not to take any other bull than that granted to Philip; and their reason was, that the pope was forced by the imperial army to do it; and that his holiness did it out of fear, and to prevent the ruin of the church, which then was threatened. The divines for Charles did allege the pope's infallibility. and that every Christian is obliged in conscience to follow the last declaration of the pope, and blindly to obey it, without inquiring into the reasons that did move the pope fo it. And the same dispute was about the presentation of bishops, for there was at the same time a bishoprick vacant, and Charles having appointed one, and Philip another, the pope confirmed them both, and both of them were consecrated. From this it appears that the pope makes no scruple at all in granting two bulls to two kings at the same time, and to embroil with them the whole nation; which he did, not out of fear, nor to prevent the ruin of the church, but of self-interest, and to secure his revenue both ways, and on both sides. But, reader, be not surprised at this; for this pope I am speaking of, was so ambitious, and of so haughty a temper, that he did not care what means he made use of, either to please his temper, or to quench the thirst of his ambition. I say, he was of so haughty a temper, that he never suffered his decrees to be contradicted or disputed, though they were against both human and divine laws. To clear this, I will give an account of an instance in a case which happened in his pontificate: I was in Lisbon ten years ago, and a Spanish gentleman, whose surname was Gonzalez, came to lodge in the same house where I was for a while before; and as we, after supper, were talking of the pope's supremacy and power, he told me that he himself was a living witness of the pope's authority on oath and, asking him how, he gave the following account I was born in Granada, said he, of honest and rich, though not noble parents, who gave me the best education they could in that city. I was not twenty years of age when my father and mother died, both within the space of six months. They left me all they had in the world, recommending to me, in their |
