A vindication of the Catholic church in a series of letters addressed to the Rt. Rev. John Henry Hopkins,...

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LIBRARY OF CON'GRESS.

Letter I. Origin Of The Controversy

First -work of Bishop Hopkins — Author's reply — No Rejoinder — Letter to Protestant Bishops — Bishop Hopkins' Challenge — Author's OflFer — Suspension of Hostilities — Unexpected Renewal — Dr. Ives — Failure of Dr. Jarvis — Conversions — Exaggerations — Conspiracy Against our Common Liberties — Dr. Hopkins' Change of Tactics, . . . . . . .13

LETTER IL

RULE OF FAITH,

Dr. Hopkins' Complaint of Misrepresentation Unfounded — Symbols — Thirty-nine Articles — Early Councils — Episcopalians Reject the Athanasian Creed — Leave an Article in Apostles' Creed discretionary — The Substance of the Creed Anterior to the Bible — Meaning of Thirty-nine Articles undetermined — Articles of Peace — Individual placed Above the Church — Explanation of Dr. Hopkins — Church Authority in Privy Council — General Convention cannot Claim Assent of the Mind — Council Erroneously Appealed to — Vain Boasting of Prayer-book, ..... 19

Letter III. On The Scripture

Position of Dr. Milner — Rant of Dr. Hopkins — DiflFerence between Catholics and Episcopalians — Dr. Hopkins evades Objection — St. Augustin would not Believe the Gospel but for the Church — Common Law — Canon of Scripture — When Settled — Jerom's Authority — Ancient Tradition — Canon of Laodicea — Corruptions of Text — God a Rock — Vulgate Editions of Sixtus V. and Clement VIII., 32

Letter IV. Interpretation Of Scripture

Tradition not a distinct Revelation — Testimony of Ire- ' nseus — Tertullian — Clement of Alexandria — Origen — St. Cyprian — St. Athanasius— Artful Misquotation — St. Cyril of Jerusalem — St. Jerom — Mistranslation — St. Augustin — Prohibition of Scriptures — Act of Henry VIII., 47

Letter V. On The Sacraments

Confirmation — Penance — Extreme Unction — Orders — Matrimony — St. Augustin — Canadians, . . . .61

LETTER VL

ON TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

Jeremy Taylor — St. Augustin — Catechism of Church of England — Sixth Chapter of St. John— Explanation of St. Augustin— TertuUian's Style— The Martyr Ignatius — St. Justin— St. Ambrose— St. Cyril of Jerusalem—

CONTENTS. XI

Second Council of Nice — St. Cyprian — St. Jerom — Words of our Lord — Wilberforce — Dr. Hopkins on Testimony of Senses — St. Cyril of Jerusalem — Anglican Divines, . 70

Letter VII. On The Sacrifice

Definition of Sacrifice — Prophecy of Malachi — St. Justin St. IrenjBus — St. Augustin — Anglicans — Mede, Overall, Hickes — Priest and Altar — Sacrifice always Acknowledged — Assertions by Wilberforce — Anglican Orders Invalid — Sacrifice Ignored — Alms for Mass, . . 88

LETTER YIIL

ON COMMUNION UNDER ONE KIND.

Custom Introduced by Force of Circumstances — Belief of Greeks — Like Change in Mode of Baptism — Sacrifice needs Consummation — Discipline Varies — English Parliament and Calvin — Popes Leo and Gelasius — Communion Under Both Kinds enjoined to Discover Manicheans — Facts which Prove Communion in One Kind, . 98

Letter IX. On Penance

Agreement of Church of England and Catholic Church — Force of Greek Term — Circumstances to be Confessed — Confession not Private — Liberty to Choose Confessor — Attrition — Chillingworth — Form of Absolution — Change made by American Convention — Minister Arraigned for Exercising Power of Forgiveness — Tertullian's Testimony — Origen — Athanasius — Basil — Ambrose — Augustin — Irenaeus — St. Chrodegang — Council of Lateran — Council of Worms — Vicarious Satisfaction — Manner of Confession — Advantages, . . . 104

XU CONTENTS.

LETTER X. ON PURaATORY

Misstatement of Dr. Hopkins^Proof from the Macchabees — Testimony of Beveridge — Admission of Dr. Hopkins — Arguments of Dr. Milner — Views of St. Ambrose — St. Cyprian distorted — St. Augustin's Sentiments — Greeks and Latins — Anecdote — Prayer for tlie Dead under Edward VI., 122

LETTER XL

ON INDUXGENCES.

Plenary Indulgence first granted by Urban II. — Questors of Indulgences — Argument from St. Paul — False Statement of Dr. Hopkins — Usage in Spain — Act under Edward VI. for enforcing Abstinence — Treasure of the Church, . 133

LETTER XIL

ON DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

Charge against Dr. Milner — Addresses to Infant Jesus — Mariolatry — Temple of the Trinity — Address of the Angel in Syriac — Title of Mother — Miracle of Cana — St. Cyril of Alexandria — Newcome — Silence of Scripture — Virtues of Mary — St. Bernard — St. Ambrose — Mother of God — St. Augustin — Assumption of the Blessed Virgin — St. Basil — St. Gregory the Great — St. Epiphanius — Injurious Supposition — Ancient Liturgies — St. Irenaeus — Mary, Advocate of Eve, 139

CONTENTS, Xlll

LETTER XIII.

ON THE INVOCATION OP THE SAINTS.

Ambiguous Term used by Bellarmin — St. Justin — Dr. Milner's Argument not fairly Met or Stated — Intercession Admitted by Dr. Hopkins — Litany of St. Joseph — Canonization — Gibbon's Acknowledgment — Miracles — Voltaire's Tribute to Monasteries, . . . .162

LETTER XIV.

ON RELICS.

Councils of Trent and Nice — Consecration of Altars — Brazen Serpent — Relics of St. Stephen — Miracles testified by St. Augustin and St. Ambrose — Shrine of St. Thomas a Becket — Offerings — Scriptural Examples — Associations — Eloquent Passage of St. Ambrose — Purchase of the Body of St. Isidore — Custom of Kneeling to Sovereigns — Interested Motive — Kissing of Gospel — Testimony of St. Jerom, 174

LETTER XV.

ON IMAGES.

Use of Sculpture or Painting as Memorials — Second Council of Nice — Testimony of St. Gregory — Fact of St. Epiphanius — Eusebius — Garbled Quotation from Clement of Alexandria — St. Ambrose — Picture of St. Stephen — Optatus — Serenus breaks Image — Good Shepherd ^ — Honor referred to Originals — Bowing at the Name of Jesus — Miraculous Images — Omission of Second Commandment — Alleged Forgery, 186

CONTENTS.

LETTEE XVI.

ON THE PRIMACY.

Text of Promise — Distinction Abandoned — Ambitious Tendencies checked — Linus, Bishop after Peter — Origen — Cyprian — Eusebius — Ambrose — Author of Books on the Sacraments doubtful — St. Jerom — St. Augustin — Appellate Power — Council of Constantinople did not place the Bishop on a level with the Pope — Misstatement of Proceedings at Chalcedon — Popess Joan — Acknowledgment of Succession by Beveridge — African Appeals — Misnomer — Letter of St. Peter to Pepin — Scandals — Causes of Slander — St. Augustin's Beply — Boniface VIIL— Blunder of Dr. Hopkins, 198

LETTER XYII.

ON TEMPORAL POWER.

Parliament Gulled — Confederacy of Christian Nations — Application of People — Grounds of Sentence — Investitures not Sole Cause of Contest — Bull of Pius V. — Excommunication of Napoleon — Mr. Brownson's View — Bishops not Responsible — Dr. Nevin's Avowal, . .217

LETTER XVIIL

ON ABUSES.

Summary of Scandals — Authority of Fleury — St. Augustin — Butler's Analogy — Marriage of Clergy — Henry VIII. enforces Celibacy — Elizabeth averse to the Marriage of Clergymen — St. Augustin Explains the Forbearance of the Church — Simony — Military Character of Bishops — Dr. Nevin on Church Influence — University of Paris — Mistranslation and Misrepresentation — The Wicked are Known ; the Virtuous are Unperceived — English Schism not occasioned by Abuses, . . . 229

CaNTENTS XV

LETTER XIX.

ON PERSECUTION.

Avowal of Dr. Hopkins — First Instances of Burning Heretics by Emperor of Constantinople — Appeal of St. Augustin — Decree of Lateran — St. Leo — Third Council of Lateran — Crusades against Sectaries — Force of Latin Term — Civil Authorities required to clear their Territories of this Heretical Filth — Mixed Character of Councils — Nature of Inquisition — Star Chamber — Persecuting Spirit of Archbishops of Canterbury, . . 243

LETTER XX.

ON HENRY VIII.

Dr. Hopkins denies that his Passion for Anne Boleyn led to the Schism — Testimony of Sir James Mackintosh — Case of Josephine — Documents Signed at Orvieto — Despair of Success — Opposition of the Clergy — Policy of Henry — Fisher and More — Cruelty of Henry towards his Wives — Persecutions — Tyranny — Plea of Dr. Hopkins — Countess of Salisbury — Plunder of Monasteries, . . 271

LETTER XXL

ON CRANMER.

Slander of Jesuits — Concubinage of Cranmer — Cruelty — Pliancy — Time-serving — Perjury — Vain Pleas — Signs Death-Warrant of Sudeley — Treason— Repeated Prevarications, 289

LETTER XXIL

ON THE CHITRCH OF ENGLAND.

Alleged Misrepresentation— Origin of British Churches — Curious Mistake — False Charge of Force being Employed

XVI CONTENTS.

— Canterbury — Ordination of Matthew Parker — Ordinal of Edward VI. — Invalidity of Orders — Cranmer's Views — Bishops Ecclesiastical Sheriffs — Jurisdiction from the Crown — Matthew Parker had no Ecclesiastical Mission — Illustration adduced by Dr. Hopkins — Republicanism —Parent Church, 302

LETTER XXIIL

ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The Church an Obedient and Faithful Spouse — Her Permanence Miraculous — Her Catholicity denied by Dr. Hopkins, affirmed by St. Augustin — Maxim of Vincent of Lerins — Her Unity — Eeligious Orders — Republican Features — Death-bed Conversions, .... 322

YINDICATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHUECH.

Letter I

MORE than seventeen years have passed away since I had the honor of addressing you a series of letters, " On the Primacy of the Apostolic See, and the Authority of General Councils," in reply to your work comparing "The Church of Rome at the present day, with The Church of Rome in its Primitive Purity." As you had addressed "the Roman hierarchy," in behalf of Christian unity, urging us to discard our distinctive tenets, I felt authorized to review your book, and vindicate the claims which we recognize in our head, and in the general councils of bishops. You did not think proper to publish any rejoinder. In 1841, I imitated your zeal for unity, by writing a short letter to the Protestant Episcopal Bishops, inviting them

14 ONTHEORIGINOF

to follow up to its legitimate consequences the movement towards the Catholic Church which had begun in England. At length, in 1843, you addressed me in a chivalrous spirit, challenging me to a public discussion of all the points at issue between our respective communions, and allowing me to bring with me to the encounter as many of my colleagues as I chose. I declined this trial of strength as undignified and unsatisfactory, but ofiered to open a correspondence with you on the various questions, through the columns of the Catholic Herald and l^ew York Churchman. This proposition was not agreeable to you, so that you broke ofi'the correspondence, intimating, however, that you would treat the matters of controversy in books, to be published at your convenience. On the refusal of the former Protestant diocesan of Philadelphia to allow you to deliver in the churches of that city " Lectures on the British Reformation," you gave them through the press as " intended to be delivered." Of these I did not feel bound to take any notice, as they had no reference to me, or my work on the Primacy. When Dr. Ives, the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of ]N"orth Carolina, who has since passed to our communion, was engaged in recommending the practice of confession, you published " A History of the Confessional," with a view to counteract his dangerous tendencies and influence. This also did not concern me. In the mean time I published two

THIS CONTROVERSY. 15

editions of my work, whicli I divested of its epistolary form, and of all direct reference to you, enlarging it so as to serve as a general treatise on the Primacy. You and I thus appeared to have bid each other adieu, though, as you justly suppose, I had not forgotten you, and you evince by your late book that you have not forgotten me. (Manet alta mente repostum.) I was somewhat surprised, on my late return from Rome, after a short absence, to learn that you had addressed to me a series of letters, filling two large volumes, and purporting to be a review of Milner's End of Controversy. My recommendation of this work in my letter to the Protestant Bishops as calculated to place before them the main points at issue with their proofs, induced the late Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, some years ago, to undertake to answer it ; but his failure is manifest from the fact, that you have chosen the same arduous task, as if nothing had been attempted. He, indeed, interpreting the Apocalypse, ventured to calculate the overthrow of the Papacy, in the year in which he was writing (1847), whilst you, more wisely, avow your conviction, that it will continue until the second advent of our Redeemer. You call my attention to the fact that my recommendation did not pass unheeded ; which is certainly gratifying, especially as it has taken so many years to prepare your elaborate reply. You remind me, likewise, of my anticipations, that "numbers would break

16 ON THE ORIGIN OF

from your ranks," in case you and your colleagues hesitated to join our communion, and you insinuate that I must feel mortified and disappointed, although you acknowledge that more than a dozen clergymen of the United States, with a Bishop at their head, have passed over to us, whilst in England more than a hundred, among whom are two archdeacons, of high learning and character, have abjured the Queen's supremacy. Besides, many respectable laymen, some of them in your immediate neighborhood, have followed these examples. To counterbalance these defections, you boast of sixty thousand Irish Catholics that have embraced the religion of the crown ; but I fear that you have been deceived by some interested parties, whose exaggerations were directed to obtain new supplies from their patrons, in order to furnish the converts with soup, and other aids for the diffusion of their tenets.

The number of emigrants, or their descendants, who you suppose are lost to the Church in this country, is greatly overcalculated, for a case of formal apostacy is extremely rare, and many who for years neglect all practices of religious duty, are often regained with their whole families. Indeed, if the defections were numerous, the alarm which is now excited in regard to our increase, would be altogether void of pretext, and you would have no occasion to join in the hue and cry which is raised against us, or to

THIS CONTROVERSY. 17

point to our principles as perilous to the safety of the country. You might rather assume the more amiable character of pacificator, and implore the public to wait with patience, since we should soon disappear from the land under the less violent process of dissolution or amalgamation. But you are alarmed that men of high position and distinguished intelligence should pass over to us, even at the sacrifice of every worldly interest, and you feel that in the changes which take place, the advantages are greatly on our side ; whence you abandon calm discussion, and appeal to vulgar prejudice. At a moment when we are likely to fall victims to a vast conspiracy against the common liberties of the country, which are assailed in us, you reappear on the field, and join in the general onslaught. The tone of your former work was courteous, almost to affectation ; the select topics of which you treated, were supported with a show of learning and argument ; but your controversial tactics have undergone an unhappy change. The same professions of kindliness are, indeed, repeated with increased solemnity ; the same attempt is made to sustain your positions by a display of authorities ; but, for the most part, you rely on the scandals and abuses of past ages, to discredit and disgrace the Church, and you meet the learned statements and reasoning of Dr. Milner by abusive epithets, and unwarranted imputations. On reading your letters, I deter- 2*

18 ON THE ORIGIN OF, ETC.

mined not to give any special reply to them, but to refer to them in the preface and notes to a fourth stereotyped edition of my work on the Primacy, which was then in press, and which anticipated most of your charges. As, however, my manuscript arrived too late at the office, the plates being already finished, I am induced to answer briefly the chief points which you have brought under discussion, but still beg to refer to my larger treatise. Although I cannot complain of any gross violation of personal courtesy, your raillery being pardonable in a struggling controvertist, your charges are so gross and groundless, that in refuting them I may appear wanting in respect ; yet I trust that I shall not forget what is due to your position, as well as my own, and to the interests of truth, which are best maintained when charity is not violated. " "When I am under the necessity of answering others verbally, or in writing, even should I have been provoked by insulting charges, I endeavor, as far as the Lord gives me grace, to restrain and repress my feelings of indignation, that I may edify the hearers or readers, so that I seek not to prove superior to my adversary in railing, but profitable to others by exposing error,"* St. Augustin is my guide and model.

* Contra litteras Petiliani, 1. iii. n. 1.