CHAPTER XII.

THE books at length arrived for which Mrs. Gracelove had sent to Derwent Cottage. They contained the printed and published documents, written and promulgated by the authority of the Romish Church; with the testimony of which, in favour of her argument, she felt she could enter the lists against her half sceptical opponent with triumphant success.

The moment was favourable for the resumed discussion; for, immediately after breakfast, Mr. Sandford had taken his gun and gone out shooting; Miss Sandford had proceeded on a visit to a friend in the neighbourhood; and her brother and sister, several years younger than herself, were at school. Thus the tête-à-tête was complete, and required nothing to secure it from interruption.

"I have received my packet," said Mrs. Gracelove to her friend, as she closed the door of the library into which she had entered, and where the latter was seated," and shall now, with your good pleasure, lay before you the most conclusive proofs of the truth of my assertions, made three days ago, when the subject was first named between us. You will remember I charged the Roman Catholics with idolatry; with worshipping saints, and angels, and images; and with not only worshipping the Virgin Mary, but with offering to her a more decided and fervent adoration than even to the Redeemer of the world Himself.

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Such, indeed, was the accusation you made," replied Mrs. Sandford; " and I trust I have sufficient wisdom both to feel and to declare myself convinced, should your testimony bear anything like a relative proportion to the strength of your assertions, and the confidence you entertain of proving your case. At the same time, I must acknowledge," she added, "that it gives me much pain to think there should exist any objection whatever against Mr. Merton; for I assure you, my dear Mrs. Gracelove, we are all very partial to him, and the young lady, as you may suppose, not the least so."

"Before entering on my task," said her honoured guest, "let me remind you, that all I shall advance will be on the authority of the Church of Rome itself. The evidence against that Church will proceed, if I may be allowed the expression, out of its own mouth. No surmise of my own will be given; no opinion expressed which is not supported by undeniable facts drawn from the decrees of councils-the Roman Breviary, Catechism, Psalter, devotional books, and the rescripts of popes.

“I will now read to you," continued our worthy friend, “ a decree passed in the 25th session of the Council of Trent respecting saint-worship. It is as follows:- This holy synod teaches all the bishops, &c., diligently to instruct the faithful respecting the intercession and invocation of saints, the honour due to relics, and the lawful use of images; teaching them that the saints reigning with Christ offer their prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them; that those who deny that the saints are to be invocated, -or who say that the invocation of them, to pray for us, idolatry,—or that it opposes the word of God, and the honour of the one Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ,—or that it is foolish to supplicate with the voice or mind the saints reigning in heaven;-that those persons entertain impious sentiments.'

is

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Pray remark," said Mrs. Gracelove, "what the Church of Rome here commands her bishops and other ecclesiastics to teach on the subject of saint-worship:-1st. That the saints are reigning with Christ;-2nd. That it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them;-3rd. That they are to be invoked mentally as well as orally; and that whoever presumes to think differently entertains impious sentiments.

"This same 25th Session gives the following instruction with regard to relics: Those who affirm that veneration and honour are not due to the relics of the saints; or that it is useless for the faithful to honour them and other holy monuments; and that it is in vain to frequent their tombs for the sake of obtaining the help of the saints; those persons are altogether to be condemned, and as the Church long since condemned them, so does she now condemn them.' In the same 25th session, it is said, ' that many benefits are conferred by these relics from God upon men.'

"Observe, then," continued the faithful monitress," with respect to relics:-1st. There is a kind of worship or veneration to be paid to them; —2nd. Benefits from God are to be obtained through them ;- 3rd. The places where they are de posited (as the sepulchres and monuments of the saints) are to be religiously visited;-4th. That those who say anything against this relic-worship, this working of miracles by relics, these pilgrimages to relics and tombs, where they may be found, are to be altogether condemned, and are actually by the Church condemned. Thus, my dear Mrs. Sandford, you have here accurately extracted from the decree of the last general council of the Romish Church, the doctrine respecting the worship to be given to the souls of the saints reigning in

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heaven, and to

their bodies in a state of corruption in the earth. The angels do not worship the former, nor do the worms spare the latter, yet-Romanists are to worship both!*

* Vide Tract XVI. Ref. Soc.

"I will now give you," she continued, two or three extracts from the Catechism of the Council of Trent, which, it is to be observed, is the Directory to the Romish Clergy as regards their instruction to the people. In that Catechism, part 4, is contained the following instruction on the subject of prayer:- That the saints are to be prayed to, is a truth so firmly established in the Church of God, that the pious mind cannot experience a shadow of doubt on the subject.' In the same page, prayer to the Virgin is thus taught :—' To this form of thanksgiving, the Church of God has wisely added prayers to, and an invocation of, the most Holy Mother of God; by which we piously and suppliantly may fly to her, that by her intercession she may conciliate God to us miserable sinners, and obtain for us the blessings which we want for this life and the life to come."'

"In the chapter on prayer, whence these extracts are taken, the reader is referred to another part of the same Catechism, with regard to the first commandment, and where we find the following passage:- In the exposition of this precept, the faithful are also to be accurately taught, that the veneration and invocation of angels, and saints, and happy souls, who enjoy the glory of heaven; and the worship (cultum) which the Catholic Church has always paid even to the bodies and ashes of the saints, are not forbidden by this commandment.'

"Some of these expressions," interrupted Mrs. Sandford, "are rather startling, I allow. But ought they not to be taken in a purely figurative sense, without resting on the merely literal import? I beg pardon, however, for the interruption," she added, "as I think it will be better to listen patiently to all your references, and extracts from Romish books, before I venture on giving my opinion."

"Unless language be altogether figurative," replied her

friend," divested of all substantial meaning and reality, these phrases and declarations must signify what the terms imply, and nothing else. When a man speaks of a 'horse-chestnut,” she said, with a good-natured smile, "we are not to understand him to mean a chestnut-horse.' The only other alternative would be, to suppose that he did not know what he was saying; but, like the Cumaan Sybil of old, uttered his crude ideas in all the raving wildness of a disordered imagination.

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"But," she continued, "I will proceed with my task; and we can discuss the points afterwards, should you think it necessary. I will now give you some striking specimens of prayers to saints, extracted from Roman Catholic books of devotion.

"In the last edition of the Breviary, published at Lyons in 1816, we read as follows:-'O most pious Virgin Mary, remember that it has never been heard that any one running to thy protection, imploring thy help, seeking thy suffrages, has been forsaken: I, animated by this confidence, run to thee, O Virgin Mother of virgins; I come to thee, before thee I stand a groaning sinuer. O Mother of the Word, do not despise my words, but propitious hear and grant. Amen.' Again:'O my holy Lady Mary, I commit myself unto thy blessed faithfulness and singular guardianship, and unto the bosom of thy compassion; I commend my soul and my body to thee to-day, -and every day—and at the hour of my death; I commit all my hope and consolation, all my distresses and miseries, my life and the end of my life, unto thee; that by thy most holy intercession, and by thy merits, all my works may be directed and disposed according to thine and thy Son's will; by thy most holy virginity and immaculate conception, O Virgin most pure, cleanse my heart and my flesh. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.'*

* Office of the Immaculate Conception, B. M. V. Roman Breviary, part Vernal, p. 640.