Anti-popery; or, History of the popish church : giving a full account of all the customs of the priests and friars; and the rites and ceremonies of the popish religion

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ANTI-POPERY

Preface

When I first designed to publish the following sheets, it was a matter of some doubt with me, whether or no I should put my name to them ; for if I did, I considered that I exposed myself to the malice of a great body of men, whp would endeavor on all occasions to injure me in my reputation and fortune, if not in my life; which last (to say no more) was no unnatural suspicion of a Spaniard, and one in my case, to entertain of some fiery zealots of the Church of Rome.

But on the other hand, I foresaw, that if I concealed my name, a great part of the benefit intended to the public by this work might be lost. For I have often observed, as to books of this kind, where facts only are related, (the truth of which in the greatest measure must depend on the credit of the relator,) that wherever the authors, out of caution or fear, have concealed themselves, the event commonly has been, that even the friends to the cause, which the facts support, give but a cold assent to them, and the enemies reject them entirely as calumies, and forgeries, without ever giving themselves the trouble of examining into the truth of that which the relator dares not openly avow. On this account whatever, the consequences may be, I resolved to put my name to this, and accordingly did so to the first proposals which were made for printing it.

But, by this means, I am at the same time obliged to say something in vindication of myself, from several aspersions which I lie under, and which indeed I have already in a great degree been a sufferer by, in the opinion of many worthy gentlemen. The first is, that I never was a priest, because I have not my letters of orders to produce. This, it must be confessed, is a testimonial, without which no one has a right, or can expect to be regarded as a person of that character; unless he has very convincing arguments to offer the world, that, in his circumstances, no such thing could reasonably be expected from him ; and whether or no mine are such, I leave the world to judge. My case was this :

As soon as it had pleased God by his grace to overcome in me the prejudices of my education in favor of that corrupt church, in which I had been raised, and to inspire me with a resolution to embrace the protestant religion, I saw, that in order to preserve my life, I must immediately quit Spain, where all persons, who do not publicly profess the Romish religion, are condemned to death. Upon this I resolved to lose no time in making my escape, but how to make it was a matter of the greatest difficulty and danger. However, I determined rather to hazzard all events than either to continue in that church, or expose myself to certain death ; and accordingly made choice of disguises as the most probable method of favoring my escape. The fisrt I made use of, was the habit of an officer in the army : and as I was sure there would be strict inquiry and search made after me, I durst not bring along with me my letters of orders, which, upon my being suspected in any place, for the person searched after, or or any other unhappy accident, would have been an undeniable evidence against me, and consequently would have condemned me to the inquisition. By this means I got safely to London, where I was most civilly received by the late Earl Stanhope, to whom I had the honor to be known when he was in Saragossa. He told me that there where some other new converts of my nation in town, and that he hoped I would follow the command of Jesus to Peter, viz. When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren.

Upon this I went to the late Lord Bishop of London, and by his lordship's order, his domestic chaplain examined nie three days together ; and as I could not produce the letters of orders, he advised me to get a certificate from my Lord Stanhope, that he knew me, and that I was a priest, which I obtained the very same day ; and upon this certificate, his lordship received my recantation, after morning prayers in his chapel of Somersethouse, and licensed me to preach and officiate in a Spanish congregation composed of my Lord Stanhope, several English officers, emd a few Spanish officers, new converts. By virtue of this license, I preached two yesrs and eight months, first in the chapel of Queen's Square, Westminster, and afterwards in Oxenden's chapel, near the hay-market. But my benefactor, desirous to settle me in the English church, advised me to go chaplin to the Preston man-of-war, where I might have a great deal of leisure to learn the language ; and being presented and approved by the Bishop of London, the lords of the Admiralty granted me the warrant or commission of chaplain. Then his lordship, though he had given his consent in writing, to preach in Spanish enlarged it in the warrant of the Admiralty, which license I shall take leave to insert here at large.

Whersas the Reverend Mr. Anthony Gavin was recommended to me by the right honorable Lord Stanhope, and by the same and other English gentlemen, I was certified that the said Reverend Mr. Gavin was a secular priest, and master of arts in the university of the city of Saragossa, in the kingdom of Arragon, in Spain, and that they knew him in the said city, and conversed with him several times : This is to certify that the said Reverend Mr. Gavin, after having publicly and solemnly abjured the errors of the Romish religion, and being thereupon by me reconciled to the church of England, on the 3d day of January, 1715-16, he then had my leave to officiate, in the Spanish language, in the chapel of Queen's Square, Westminster ; and now being appointed chaplain of his Majesty's ship the Preston, has my license to preach in English, and to administer the sacraments, at home and abroad, in all the churches and chapels of my diocess.

Given under my hand, in London, the 13th of July, 1720.

Signed JOHN LONDON.

TJie certificate, licence, and warrant, may be seen at any time, for I have them by me.

After that, the ship being put out of commission, and my Lord

PRE PACE.

Stanhope being in Hanover with the king, I came over to Ireland on the importunity of a friend, with a desire to stay here until my lord's return into England : But when I was thinking of going over again, I heard of my lord's death, and having in him lost my best patron, I resolved to try in this kingdom, whether I could find any settlement ; and in a few days after, by the favor of his grace my Lord Archbishop of Cashel, and the Reverend Dean Percival, I got the curacy of Gowran, which I served almost eleven months, by the license of my Lord Bishop of Ossory, who afterwards, upon my going to Cork, gave me his letters dismissory.

I was in Cork very near a year, serving the cure of a parish near it, and the Rev. Dean Maule being at that time in London, and I being recommended to him to preach in his parish church of Shandon, he went to inquire about me to the Bishop of London, who, and several other persons of distinction, were pleased to give me a good character, as the Dean on my leaving him did me the favor to certify under his hand, together with my good behaviour during my stay in Cork.

Now my case being such as I have represented it, I freely submit it to the judgment of every gentlemen of ingenuity and and candour to determine, whether it could be expected from me, that I should have my letters of orders to show : and yet whether there can be any tolerable reason to suspect my not having been a priest. I think it might be enough to silence all suspicions on this account, that I was received as a priest into the church of England, and licensed as such to preach and administer the sacrements both in that kingdom and this ; and I hope no one can imagine, that any of the bishops of the best constituted and governed churches upon earth, would admit any person to so sacred a trust, without their being fully satisfied that he was in orders.

I shall, on this occasion, beg leave to mention what the Bishop of London said to me, when I told him I had not my letters of orders, but that my Lord Stanhope, and other gentlemen of honour and credit, who knew me in my native city of Saragossa,

PREFACE.

would certify, that I there was esteemed, and officiated as a priest. Bring such a certificate, said he, and I will receive and license you ; for I would rather depend upon it, than any letters ofordersjovi could produce, which, for ought I ^ould tell, you mi^it have forged.

i hope what I have here said may convince even my enemies, of my being a clergyman : And how I have behaved myself as such, since I came into this kingdom, I appeal to those gentlemen I conversed with in Gowran, Gortroe and Cork, and for this last year and a half, to the officers of Col. Barrel, Brigadier Napper, Col. Hawley, Col. Newton, and Col. Lance's regiments, who I am sure will do me justice, and I desire no more of them ; and upon an inquiry into my behaviour, I flatter myself that the public will not lightly give credit to the ill reports spread abroad by my enemies.

Another objection raised against me is, that I have perjured myself in discovering the private confessions which were made to me. In one point indeed they may call me perjured, and it is my comfort and glory that I am so in it, viz : That I have broke the oath I took, when I \vas ordained priest, which was, to live and die in the Roman Catholic faith. But as to the other perjury charged upon me, they lie under a mistake ; for there is no oath of secrecy at all administered to confessors, as most protestants imagine. Secrecy indeed is recommended to all confessors by the casuists, and enjoined by the councils and popes so strictly, that if a confessor reveals (except in some particular cases) what is confessed to him, so as the penitent is discovered, he is to be punished for in the inquisition ; which, it must be owned, is a more effectual way of enjoining secrecy than oaths themselves.

However, I am far from imagining, that because in this case I have broken no oath, I should therefore be guilty of no crime, though I revealed every thing which was committed to my trust as a confessor, of whatever ill consequence it might be to the penitent ; no, such a practice I take to be exceedingly criminal, and I do, from my soul, abhor it.

But nevertheless there are cases where, by the constitution of the church of Rome itself, the most dangerous secrets may and ought to be revealed : Such as those which are called " reserved cases," of which there are many ; some reserved to the Pope himself, as heresy ; some to his apostolic commissary or deputy, as ince&t in the first degree ,• some to the Bishop of the diocess, as the setting a neighhour^s house on fire. Now in such cases the confessor cannot absolve the penitent, and therefore he is obliged to reveal the confession to the person to whom the absolution of that sin is reserved ; though indeed he never mentions the penitent's name, or any circumstance by which he may be discovered.

i- Again, there are other cases (such as a conspiracy against the ^if^ of the Prince, or a traitorous design to overturn the government) which the confessor is obliged in conscience, and for the safety of the public, to reveal.

But besides all these, whenever the patients's case happens to have any thing of an uncommon difficulty in it, common prudence, and a due regard to the faithful discharge of his office, will oblige a confessor to discover it to men of experience and judgment in casuistry, that he may have their advice how to proceed in it : And that is what confessors in Spain not only may do, but are bound by the word of a priest to do wherever they have an opportunity of consulting a college of confessors, or, as it is commonly called, a moral academy.

I believe it may be of some service on the present occasion, to inform my readers what those moral academies are, which are to be met with through Spain, in every city and town where there is a number of secular and regular priest : But I shall speak only of those in the city of Saragossa, as being the most perfectly acquainted with them.

A moral academy is a college or assembly consisting of several Father confessors, in which each of them proposes some moral case which has happened to him in confession, with an exact and particular account of confession, without mentioning the penitent's name : And the proponent having done this, every member is to deliver his opinion upon it. This is constantly practised every Friday, from two of the clock in the afternoon, till six, and sometimes till eight, as the cases proposed happen to be more or less difficult. But when there is an extraordinary intricate case to be resolved, and the members cannot agree in the resolution of it, they send one of their assembly to the great academy, which is a college composed of sixteen casuistical doctors, and four professors of divinity, the most learned and experienced in moral cases that may be had : and by them the case in debate is resolved^ and the resolution of it entered in the books of the academy by the consent of the president and members.

The academy of the holy trinity, founded and very nobly endowed by Archbishop Gamboa, is one of the most famous in the city of Saragossa; and of it I was member for three years. I was very young and inexpert in cases of conscience, when I was first licensed to be a confessor; for the Pope having dispensed with thirteen months of the time reqiured by the cannons for the age of a priest (for which I paid sixty pistoles) I was ordained before I was twenty three years old, by Don Antonio Ibaunez de la Riva de Herrera, Archbishop of Saragossa, and Viceroy of Arragon, and at the same time licenesed by him to hear confessions of both sexes. In order then the better and more speedily to qualify myself for the office, I thought it my most prudent way to apply as soon as possible, to be admitted into this learned society, and as it happened, I had interest enough to succeed.

Now among many statutes left by the founder to this academy one is this, viz : That every person who is chosen a member of it, is, on his admission, to promise upon the word of a priest, to give the whole assembly a faithful account of all the private confessions he has heard the week before, which have any thing in them difficult to be resolved ; yet so as not to mention any circumstance by which the penitents may be known.

And for this end there is a book, where the secretary enters all the cases proposed and resolved every Friday ; and every third year there is, by the consent of the president and members of the academy, and the approbation of the Great One, a book printed containing all the cases resolved for three years before, and which is entitled, " compendium casuum moralium academiae S. S. trinitatis." The academy of the holy trinity is always composed of twenty members, so that every one may easily perceive, that each of the members may be acquainted in a year or two, with many hundreds of private confessions of all ranks and conditions of people ; besides those which were made to themselves : Which remark I only make, by the by, to satisfy some men, who, I am told, find fault with me for pretending to impose on the public for genuine, several confessions which where not made to myself, and consequently for the reality of which, I can have no sufficient authority.

Now after all that has been said on this head, I believe I need not be at much trouble to vindicate myself from the imputation of any criminal breach of secrecy ; for if the reader observe, that on the foregoing grounds, there is no confession whatever which may not lawfully be revealed, (provided the confessor do not discover the penitent,) he cannot injustice condemn me for publishing a few, by which it is morally impossible, in the present circumstances, that the penitents should be known. Had I been much more particular than I am in my relations, and mentioned even the names and every thing else I knew of the persons, there would scarce be a possibility (considering the distance and little intercourse there is between this place and Saragossa) of their suffering in any degree by it : And I need not observe that the chief, and indeed only reason of enjoining and keeping secrecy, is the hazards the penitent may run by discovery, but I do assure the reader, that in every confession I have related, I have made use of feigned names, and avoided every circumstance by which I had the least cause to suspect the parties might be found out. And I assure him further, that most of the cases here published by me, are in their most material points, already printed in the compendiums of that moral academy of which I was a member.

As for the reasons which moved me to publish this book, I

PREFACE.

13[ shall only say, that as the corrupt practices, which are the subject of it, first set me upon examining into the principles of the church of Rome, and by that means of renouncing them ; so I thought that the making of them public might happily produce the same eflfect in some others.

I did design on this occasion to give a particular account of the motive of my conversion, and leaving Spain ; but being confined to four hundred pages, I must leave that and some other things relating to the sacrements of the church of Rome, to the second part, which I intend to print if the public think fit to eacourage me.

I must beg the reader's pardon for my presumption in writing to him in his own language, on so short an acquaintance as I have with it. I hope he will excuse the many mistakes I have committed in the book: I shall be very well pleased to be told of, and I shall take the greater care to avoid them in the second part.

Preface To This Edition

The preceding preface, which was written by the original author of this valuable work, is published in his own words, in order that the reader may understand his motives and views in disclosing the important facts which had come to his knowledge in relation to Popery. Having abjured the errors of the Romish religion, he felt constrained to warn others of the insidious arts to which he had been himself the victim, and to point out the absurd contrivances by which the priesthood of that denomination impose upon the credulity of the ignorant and unsuspecting. In doing this he has given to the world a mass of facts which cannot be disbelieved, nor controverted, and which must satisfy every intelligent mind of the gros.s fallacy of the doctrines of that ancient church, and the dreadful corruptions practised by those who administer its concerns.

To make this compilation more complete, we have added to the original work of Mr Gavin, an account of " The Inquisition of Goa," by the celebrated Dr. Buchanan, who travelled and resided in Asia ; an account of "The Inquisition at Macerata in Italy," by Mr. Bower.

HISTORY OF THE POPISH CHURCH.

PART I. OP THE ROMAK-CATHOLICS' AURlCtJLAll CONFESSION

Auricular confession being one of the five commandments of the Roman-Catholic Church, and a condition necessarily required in one of their sacraments ; and being too an article that will contribute very much to the discovery of many other errors of that communion, it may be proper to make use of the Master-Key, and begin with it : And first of all^ with the Father confessors, who are the only keykeepers of it.

Though a priest cannot be licensed, by the conons of their church, to hear men's confessions, till he is thirty years, nor to confess women till forty years of age, yet ordinarily he gets a dispensation from the bishop, to whom his probity secrecy, and sober conversation are represented by one of the diocesan* examinators, his friend, or by some person of interest

* Those that are appointed by the bishop, to examine those that are to be ordained, or licensed to preach and hear confessions.

with his lordship ; and by that means he gets a confessor's Ucense, most commonly, the day he gets his letters of orders, viz. : Some at three-and-twenty, and some at four-and-twenty years of age, not only for men, but for women's confessions also. I say, some at three-and-twenty; for the Pope dispenses with thirteen months, to those that pay a sum of money ; of which I shall speak in another place.

To priests thus licensed, to be judges of the tribunal of conscience, men and women discover their sins, their actions, their thoughts, nay, their very dreams, if they happen to be impure. I say, judges of the tribunal of concsience ; for when they are licensed, they ought to resolve any case (let it be ever so hard) proposed by the penitent : And by this means it must often happen, that a young man who, perhaps, does not know more than a few definitions (which he has learned in a little manual of some casuistical authors) of what is sin, shall sit in such a tribunal, to judge, in the most intricate cases, the consciences of men, and men too that may be his masters.

I saw a reverend father* who had been eight-andtwenty years professor of divinity in one of the most considerablet universities of Spain, and one of the most famous men for his learning, in that religion,

* Fr. James Garcia.

fThe University of Saragossa, in the Kingdom of Arragon, in Spain, which, according to their historians, was buih by Sertorious.

kneel down before a young* priest of twenty-four years of age, and confess his sins to him. Who -would not be surprised at them both ? A man fit to l3e the judge, to act the part of a criminal before an ignorant judge, who, I am sure, could scarcely then tell the titles of the Summ^ Morales.t

Nay, the Pope, notwithstanding all Ms infallibility, doth kneel down before his confessor, tell him his «ins, heareth his correction, and receives and performs whatever penance he imposeth upon him. This is the only difference between the Pope's confessor, and the confessor of Kings and other persons, that all corifessors sit down to hear the Kings and other persons, but the Pope^s confessor kneels down himself to hear the Holy Father. What, the holy one upon earth humble himself as a sinner ? Holiness and sin in one and the same subject, is a plain contradiction in terms.

If we ask the Roman-Catholics, Why so learned men, and the Pope, do so ? They will answer, that they do it out of reverence to such a sacrament, out of humility, and to give a token and testimony of their hearty sorrow for their sins. And as for the Pope, they say he does it to show an example of humility, as Jesus Christ did, when he washed the Apostles' feet. ' This answer is true, but they do not say the whole

* The thing happened to me when I was 24 years of age. fin this Moral Summ. Chap, xviii. of the requisites of a true penitent.

truth in it ; for, besides the aforesaid reasons, they have another, as Molina tells them, viz : That the penitent ought to submit entirely to his confessor's correction, advice, and penance ; and he excepts no body from the necessary requisite of a true penitent. Who would not be surprised (I say again) that a man of noted learning would submit himself to a young, unexperienced priest, as to judge of his conscience, take his advice, and receive his correction and penance ?

What would a Roman-Catholic say, if he should see one of our learned bishops go to the college to consult a young collegian in a nice point of divinity ; nay, to take his advice, and submit to his opinion ? Realy, the Roman would heartily laugh at him, and with a great deal of reason ; nay, he could say, that his lordship was not right in his senses. What then can a protestant say of those infatuated, learned men of the church of Rome, when they do more than what is here supposed ?

As to the Pope (I say) it is a damnable opinion to compare him, in this case, to our Saviour Jesus ; for Christ knew not sin, but gave us an example of humility and patience, obedience and poverty. He washed the apostles' feet ; and though we cannot loiow by the Scripture whether he did kneel down or not to wash them : Suppose that he did, he did it only out of a true humility, and not to confess his sins. But the Pope doth kneel down, not to give an example of humility and patience, but really to confess his sins : Not to give an example of obedience ; for, being supreme pontifex, he obeys nobody, and assumes a command over the whole world ; nor of poverty ; for Pope and necessity dwell far from one another. And if some ignorant Roman-Catholic should say, that the Pope, as Pope, has no sin, we may prove the contrary with Cipriano de Valeria,* who gives an account of all the bastards of several Popes for many years past. The Pope's bastards, in Latin, are called nepotes. Now mind, reader, this common saying in Latin, among the Roman- Catholics : Solent clerica Jitois suos vocare sohrinos aut nepotes : That is, the priests use to call their own sons cousins or nephews. And when we give these instances to some of their learned men, (as I did to one in London,) they say, Jlngelorum est peccare, hominumque penitere : i. e. It belongs to angels to sin, and to men to repent. By this they acknowledge that the Pope is a sinner, and nevertheless they call him His holiness, and the most Holy father.

Who then would not be surprised to see the most holy Jesus Christ's vicar on earth, and the infallable in whatever he says, and doth submit himself to confess his sins to a man, and a man too that has no other power to correct him, to advise and impose a penance upon the most holy one, than what his holiness has been pleased to grant him? Every body indeed that has a grain of sense of religion, and reflects seriously on it.

I come now to their Auricular Confession, and of

* The lives of the Popes, and the sacrifice of Mass.

the ways and methods they practise and observe in the confessing of their sins. There is among them two ranks of people, learned and imlearned. The learned confess by these three general heads, thought, word, and deed, reducing into them all sorts of sins. The unlearned confess the ten commandments, discovering by them all the mortal sins which they have committed since their last confession. I say mortal sins ; for as to the venial sins or sins of a small matter, the opinion of their casuistical authors* is, they are washed away by the sign of the cross, or by sprinkling the face with the holy water. To the discovery of the mortal sins, the father confessor doth very much help the penitent ; for he sometimes, out of pure zeal, but most commonly out of curiosity, asks them many questions to know whether they do remember all their sins or not ? By these and like questions, the confessors do more mischief than good, especially to the ignorant people and young women ; for perhaps they do not know what simple fornication is ? What voluntary or involuntary pollution ? What impure desire ? What simple motion of our hearts ? What relapse, reincidence, or reiteration of sins ? and the like ; and then by the confessors indiscreet questions, the penitents learn things of which they never had

* Parez, Irribarren^ and Salazar, in his compend. Moral. Sect. 12. de vitiis etpeccatis, gives a catalogue of the venial sins^ and says, among others, that to eat flesh on a day prohibited by the church, without minding it, was so. To kill a man, throwing a stone through the window, or being drunk, or in the first motion of his passion, are venial sins, &c.