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LETTER VI.

Rome the enemy of mental improvement: the direct tendency of her Prayer-book, the Breviary, to cherish credulity and adulterate Christian virtue.

I COULD not connect the subject of my preceding Letter with any other, without doing the greatest violence to the overpowering feelings which the recollection of celibacy and monachism, never fail to raise in me. I now proceed to show the natural opposition which exists between the spiritual power assumed by the church of Rome, and the improvement of the human understanding. After this I shall close my subject with numerous proofs of her disregard of truth, in the dissemination of a timid, superstitious, and credulous spirit, the best security of her influence among mankind.

The long list of illustrious writers, members of the Roman Catholic communion, with which the first part of my charge will be met, is well known to me. I would allow that list to be doubled: I

would grant every one of your boasted authors the whole weight of learning and abilities which you allot to them by your own scale of merit; yet it would remain to be proved, that vigour of mind and comprehensiveness of knowledge were, in such instances, attained in accordance with the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, and not, as I am ready to show, in the very teeth of its spirit. The resources of the human mind, when once in motion after knowledge, are innumerable. Fear and restraint may force it into devious and crooked paths, not without injury to its moral qualities; but no power on earth can prevent the exertion of its activity.

It is curious to observe the invariable accuracy with which certain principles, true or false, will work; and how perfectly analogous their effects will be when applied to the most different objects. We see the assumption of supernatural infallibility, gradually leading the popes to attempt the subjection of all Christian powers. A criminal ambition might often mix in their political plans and views; but the impulse which threatened the thrones of Europe, was independent of the in

dividual temper of the popes. The mildest, humblest individual, believing himself an infallible guide to salvation, must have considered the removal of every obstacle to that paramount object, a part, not only of his privilege, but his duty. He would, therefore, strive to reduce all human power, so as to suit his views of spiritual rule. The declaration that Christ's kingdom is not of this world, would not prevent a conscientious Pope from checking any temporal power, which he conceived to oppose the interests of the next. On the same grounds, and from the very same principle, has Rome been, at all times, the declared enemy of mental independence. She, it is true, confines her open claims, in this case, to points of Christian faith, as to spiritual supremacy in the former. But remove opposition in both, and you will see her become as great a tyrant over the human intellect, as she was at one time over the governments of Christendom. There is, in fact, a greater connexion between the learned and scientific opinions of men and their religious tenets, than between moral practice and civil allegiance. Hence the rights of the Roman Catholic

church to prescribe limits to the mind are still openly contended for, while the indirect dominion of the popes over Christian kings and their people, is only timidly whispered within the walls of the Vatican.

But how does it happen that Italy and France have produced men of extraordinary eminence, notwithstanding their mental subjection to Rome?

-I might answer this question by another: How is it that the talent of Spain and Portugal has been rendered abortive?—The tendency of moral as well as physical agents must be estimated, not by that which they fail to affect, but by the condition of what is fairly submitted to their action. Will you have an adequate notion of the fetters laid by Rome upon the human mind? examine the intellect of such as wear them really, not ostensibly. Would you ascertain the true practical consequences of any law? observe its results, where it is not eluded. The Roman Catholic restraints on the understanding, have been and are still actively enforced in Spain; whereas the weakness of the papal government has never been able to put the Italian inquisitions into full activity.

LETTER VI.

Rome the enemy of mental improvement: the direct tendency of her Prayer-book, the Breviary, to cherish credulity and adulterate Christian virtue.

I COULD not connect the subject of my preceding Letter with any other, without doing the greatest violence to the overpowering feelings which the recollection of celibacy and monachism, never fail to raise in me. I now proceed to show the natural opposition which exists between the spiritual power assumed by the church of Rome, and the improvement of the human understanding. After this I shall close my subject with numerous proofs of her disregard of truth, in the dissemination of a timid, superstitious, and credulous spirit, the best security of her influence among mankind.

The long list of illustrious writers, members of the Roman Catholic communion, with which the first part of my charge will be met, is well known to me. I would allow that list to be doubled: I

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