cils: And their, Prince, as well as ours, was defender of the faith and head of the church. The Bishop of ROME had no more authority there, than any other prelate. The Spanish Church had no dependence on that fee till the VIIIth century. Till after the Moorish times, it had no image-worship; no prayers addressed to faints, or angels; no purgatory; it did not maintain seven facraments; it knew not tranfubftantiation, which certainly is of no older date than the time of Pope INNOCENT III. in the Lateran council, held after the year 1200; by confequence the cup was always given to the laity, and never refufed till after that doctrine prevailed in the beginning of the XIIIth century. There was They likewise no adoration of the hoft, no auricular confeffion. had no prayers then in an unknown language. The antient Gothic Liturgy, then in ufe, was called Mozarabic, or Mufarabic, from those chriftians, who lived under the Moorish government in SPAIN. It was first printed by Cardinal XIMENES. And there is to this day, an annual Mozarabic mafs celebrated with great pomp and folemnity, in the metropolitan church of TOLEDO, at which the present King of SPAIN has affifted in perfon. Every one knows, that the term mass came from the custom of dismis~ fing the people with the-Ite-missa est.

pe

pure, uncorrupted, As the SPANISH Church certainly remained and unpapistical till towards the VIIIth century; fo from that riod downwards, Paganism artfully, and by almost imperceptible infinuations, gradually ftole in, wearing that mask or vizor, which we now call Popery. Whatever triumphs Christianity may formerly have gained over the Gentile worship; Paganism, in all catholic countries, is now entirely revenged; the triumphed in her turn from the moment fhe established herself in the form of Popery. Concealed under this drapery, the prefides in the very tabernacle and fanctuary of chriftians, and is worshipped fitting between the horns of the altar. When you enter a Roman catholic, apoftolic, papistical, christian temple, at your firft view you see learnedthat all is Pagan. The late Dr. MIDDLETON hath ly, elegantly, and effectually proved this point to demonstration. But I never relished that ingenious performance fo much, as when refemmy own eyes bore teftimony to the truth of his obfervations. The

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very

resemblance is so striking between the use of the ancient Thura, and the modern Incense; their afpergillum, lavacrum, &c. and the prefent holy water; the bleffing of horses, and the ancient benediction of cattle; the fame profufion of lamps and wax-lights; between the ancient votiva tabula, avaluara, and the modern votive limbs, offerings, and pictures: the multitude of fhrines, croffes, and altars in the churches, roads, hills, and high places; and particularly of images, which have often brought to my mind that fatirical joke of PETRONIUS, who faid he never walked the streets, but he could much more easily meet with a god than a

man.

Facilius eft deum, quam hominem invenire.

And I am sure, if you spit out of a window in SPAIN, 'tis ten to one but you spit upon a faint. The Spanish Flagellantes, by PyTHAGOREAN tranfmigration, are exactly the old, self-lashing priests of Jove, or the AJAX MASTIGOPHORUS on an Athenian stage and are indeed a moft shocking fpectacle. The custom of churches being permitted as fanctuaries for villains, prevailed at ROME in the time of the Emperor TIBERIUS: For the senate very justly exclaimed against it. See TACITUS. Annal. III. CESTIUS's opinion was,

Neque quenquam in urbis templa perfugere, ut eo fubfidio ad flagitia utatur.

And yet, what a ROMAN Senator blufhed at, is fanctified by a Roman-catholic Pope. The quires of churches in all popish countries are a fort of religious fairs or markets, where people continually come and go in fucceffion, and maffes are conftantly faid till twelve o'clock at noon, but not after. The mafs for the dead is exactly copied from the parentation of the heathens. The dress of the officiating priest has conftantly put me in mind of those

remarkable words:

Tanquam veftis illa prophetica, quæ licet vera ederet miracula, operanti ornamentum potius quam adjumentum videretur *.

The prefent King of SPAIN, while he was at NAPLES, fent orders to the officiating prieft on St. JANUARIUS's day, that the

See TAC.TUs.

blood

blood should be made to liquefy in such a precise number of minutes, for he would ftay no longer. This is exactly the old quack experiment mentioned by HORACE, which he faw at GNATIA: Dum flammâ fine thura liquefcere limine facro

Perfuadere cupit

THERE is one reason why the Church of ROME ought not to make fo free with the argument of miracles: because if they maintain theirs to be as genuine as thofe of the Apoftles, it will be an easy matter to prove thofe recorded of the Emperor VESPASIAN (who is faid to have healed a withered hand, and restored the blind to fight) to be at least of equal authority: A Roman hiftorian records the one, and a Roman catholic writer maintains the other: Utri creditis, QUIRITES! This folly of theirs, instead of strengthening their own caufe, tends evidently to weaken it, and it faps the rotten foundations of popifh policy. If the mifchief ended there, it would be well: but it tends alfo to fubvert the great proofs of Christianity, and to affift the gates of hell, inftead of oppofing them. The character of the present Papists. is exactly that which TACITUS hath given of the old GERMANS, De actis deorum credere, quam fcire.

THE number of holydays enjoined by the Pope is become fo exceffive, as to be a fcandalous encouragement to idleness. If it was thought defpicable by the bufy minds of the Roman people, to fee the Jews, from the inftitutions of MOSES, give but one day in feven to complete indolence, though for the cause of religion: If their active virtue abhorred to fee, as one of them calls it, feptima quæque lux quieti data; what would he have faid, had he feen fuch a number of days confecrated in his own ROME to the fame purpofe? But this practice likewise had its birth in Paganifm; and made CASSIUS fay in the reign of NERO, that if they were to decree fuch a vast number of feftival days, the gods would take up the whole year in being thanked, eoque oportere dividi facros, et negotiofos dies, queis divina colerentur, et humana non impedirent.

THE

THE abfurdity of their Reliques is beyond measure ridiculous; fuch as the thigh of St. LAWRENCE, with the skin burnt, and marked with the prongs, which he was turned with on the gridiron. There are faid to be the heads of two thousand martyred virgins in the convent of our Lady of ATOCHE near MADRID, where the British standards, taken at the battle of ALMANZA, still remain.

Ir is certain, that their blind zeal in matters of religion has destroyed many fine remains of heathen learning, and claffic antiquity: It still continues the fame ravage under the direction of monks and inquifitors; leaves are cancelled, prefaces torn, and books prohibited, fecreted, or burnt, because they are against the Catholic faith. As they formerly thought the Bible would appear to more advantage, when the pagan poets were destroyed; fo they are still of opinion, that popery will always appear beft, when every evidence of its impofture is fuppreffed or spirited away. These are lengths in which the zealots of the church of ROME have certainly gone too far: And on the other hand LUTHER himself, when he began the reformation, went too far in burning the canon law. This fuperftitious zeal of theirs against Pagan writers, and modern heretical authors, cannot be placed in a more ridiculous light, than they have placed it themselves in one of the pictures, which I faw at the EscURIAL: where several angels were flogging St. JEROM for the wicked delight he had taken in reading the works of that vile heretic MARCUS TULLIUS CI

CERO.

As the feveral pagan gods were multiplied by being worshipped as different deities, though in reality they were the fame: as a JUPITER, an HERCULES, &c. were fet up in almost every country: So where popery prevails, and particularly in SPAIN, the Bleffed Virgin MARY, the mother of our Lord, is multiplied into almost as many diftinct divinities, as there are feparate diftricts and places. Thus there is our Lady of ATOCHE, our Lady of ALCALA DE HENARES, Our Lady of TOLEDO, &c. And the little pictures or images of these are worn as Amulets by the common people, who have as much faith in them, as the antients

had

had in a Talisman, or Abraxas. I have seen one of these last, which Prince EUGENE himself wore, a ftrange inftance of human weaknefs in one who rofe fo much above the common level, and made fuch a fhining figure as a hero on the theatre of EUROPE. The Spaniards have marvellous fuperftitions relating to the different properties of thofe different Virgin MARIES: If you pray to this, The is a good preservative against thunder and lightning; if you pray to that, an admirable specific against the cholic and rheumatifm. But the Bleffed Virgin of PILAR, or our Lady of the Pillar, MARIA DE COLUMNA, in SARAGOÇA, is the most capital Virgin MARY, the greatest object of devotion in all SPAIN.

THERE cannot be much fimony in the Church of ROME, because the Pope, or the King, difpofes of all church-preferments; for there can be no traffic fuppofed between the inferior ecclefiaftics and his Holiness, or his Majesty. Statutes of mortmain are highly requifite and neceffary in this country. The prefent King of SPAIN hath, it is faid, attempted fomething like them, by taxing all donations to religious ufes ever fince the year 1730. These were anciently fuch a grievance in ENGLAND, that it became a form in fome wills: dentur, affignentur, vendantur-exceptis Religiofis & Judais.

PHILIP V. in 1716, obtained of the Pope an indulto for raifing money upon the clergy. The Pope granted him one for five years, that is to fay, a million and a half in the Indies, and a million on the churches in SPAIN. It is a mistake to call this the los millones, which is a different tax, as will appear in the account of the Spanish Revenue. This is called fubfidio.

THE Crufade against the followers of WALDO (a merchant of LYONS) or the Albigenfes, in 1160, gave birth probably to the INQUISITION. Pope GREGORY IX. firft devised that horrid tribunal, but INNOCENT IV. was the firft, who had abilities and courage fufficient to bring it to a due maturity, and give it a just eftablishment. The form of it, and the number of its members, differ greatly in different countries. In SPAIN it was eftablished chiefly by Cardinal XIMENES, who knew perfectly well what political ufe could be made of it. The Spaniards still sup

*

* See more upon this article in the next Letter
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