EU. Not the less true, however, for being strange. But, tell me, since you are not released from the authority of your parents, and you have not a right to sell either a dress or a field, how can you prove that you have a right to put yourself under the perpetual control of strangers?

CA. The authority of parents, they say, cannot prevent the claims of religion.

Eu. Did you not make profession of your faith in your baptism?

CA. Yes.

Eu. And are not they religious persons who follow the precepts of Jesus Christ?

CA. Undoubtedly.

Eu. Then what, I pray you, is this new religion which makes void what the law of nature has sanctioned,-what the ancient law has taught, what the gospel has approved, and the doctrine of the apostles established and confirmed? I tell you, that such a religion is the invention of a parcel of monks, not the decree of God.

CA. Do you then think it unlawful for me to become the spouse of Christ without the consent of my parents?

Eu. You are already espoused to Christ-we have all been espoused to him; and who, I pray you, ever thinks of being married twice to the same person? The subject in debate is merely a question of place, dress, and ceremony; and certainly I cannot think that the authority of parents is to be slighted and set at nought for things like these.

CA. But the persons I speak of affirm, that there cannot be an act of greater piety than to disregard one's parents on such an occasion.

Eu. Demand, then, of those doctors, to produce you a single passage out of the holy scriptures in which any such

doctrine is taught. If they cannot do this, then require of them to quaff off a cup of good Burgundy-you will find them at no loss on such a subject. It is the part of true piety to fly to Christ for succour from wicked parents; but what piety can there be in flying from virtuous parents to a convent,— when to do this (as experience often shows) is but to fly from the good to the bad? Indeed, in former times, when a person was converted to the Christian faith, his parents, though idolaters, were still considered to have a claim on his obedience, as long as that obedience involved no compromise of his conscience and his faith.

CA. Do you then condemn the life of a nun altogether? Eu. By no means: but as I should not willingly advise any who have entered upon such a mode of life to seek a release from it, so I have no hesitation in earnestly exhorting every maiden, especially such as are of a noble and generous nature, to take care how they heedlessly place themselves in a state from which it will be impossible for them afterwards to retreat more particularly as, in the places I allude to, a virgin's honour is not unfrequently exposed to the greatest danger; and as nothing, moreover, is done there, but what can be as well accomplished at home.

CA. I cannot but confess that the arguments with which you have pressed your point are both numerous and weighty; yet my desire continues unchanged and unchangeable..

Eu. Well, if I cannot succeed in persuading you to act as I wish, bear this at least in mind, that Eubulus gave you good counsel. In the mean while I will pray, from the love I bear you, that this passion of yours may be attended with better fortune than my advice.

I.—Page 128.

TYRANNICAL CONDUCT OF THE CHURCH OF ROME TOWARDS PERSONS OF BOTH SEXES BOUND BY RELIGIOUS vows.

The history of religious oppression under the Church of Rome is far from being well known. That, under her spiritual government, Christianity has at all times contributed towards the happiness of mankind, I am ready to acknowledge; because no human power can completely quench the healing spirit of the gospel. But it would be difficult, indeed, to ascertain whether the at once gloomy and pompous superstition which, under the guidance of the popes, has been so intimately blended with Christianity, has not produced more bitterness of suffering in the human breast, than even the hope of immortality can allay. Woe to the ardent and sincere, amongst the spiritual subjects of Rome! for she will sacrifice them, body and soul, to a mere display of her spiritual dominion.

Nothing, however, is more difficult than to collect the evidence of individual suffering, produced by Roman Catholic tyranny. Enough transpires in the monasteries of both sexes, to form an estimate of the wretchedness that dwells in them. But hopelessness and shame smother the sighs of their female inhabitants. Yet knowledge of human nature, a moderate degree of candour, and the consideration of the laws which have enforced, and still ensure, an internal compliance with the engagements of the religious profession; are sufficient to give an awful, though momentary view, of the mass of misery which perpetual vows have produced.

There was a time when the will of a parent could bind a

S

child for ever to the monastic life. That liberal Council of Toledo, whose laws about the Jews have been inserted in a preceding note, declares that "a monk is made either by paternal devotion, or personal profession. Whatever is bound in this manner, will hold fast. We therefore, shut up, in regard to these, all access to the world, and forbid all return to a secular life." Monachum aut paterna devotio, aut propria professio facit. Quicquid horum fuerit alligatum tenebit. Proinde his ad mundum revertendi intercludimus aditum, et omnem ad sæculum interdicimus regressum. (Concil. Tolet. IV. Can. 48.)

By the more modern discipline of the Church of Rome, this practice has been abolished; but, as it happens in all palliations of essential evils, the abolition of the barbarous power granted to parents, by removing that which shocked at first sight, only makes the remaining grievance more hopeless. There is, indeed, little difference in allowing boys and girls of sixteen to bind themselves with perpetual vows, and devoting them irrevocably to the cloister from the cradle. The Church of Rome, in her present regulations, only adds the artfulness of seduction to the unfeelingness of cruelty. I will here give her laws upon this subject, in the original language of the Council of Trent; and subjoin the brief statement of two cases, as instances of their practical operation.

Can. 9. De Matrimonio.-" Si quis dixerit, clericos in sacris ordinibus constitutos, vel regulares castitatem solemniter professos*, posse matrimonium contrahere contractumque validum esse, non obstante lege ecclesiastica, vel voto; posseque omnes

* The reader will here observe the difference between the secular and the regular clergy. The former do not bind themselves with vows: their celibacy is enforced only by the law which renders their marriages null and

contrahere matrimonium, qui non sentiunt se castitatis, etiamsi eam voverint, habere domum, anathema sit, cum Deus id recte petentibus non deneget, nec patiatur nos supra id quos possumus, tentari."

Sessio xxv. cap. 5. “Bonifacii octavi constitutionem, quæ incipit: Periculoso, renovans sancta synodus, universis episcopis, sub obtestatione divini judicii, et interminatione maledictionis æternæ, præcipit, ut in omnibus monasteriis sibi subjectis, ordinaria, in aliis vero, sedis apostolica auctoritate, clausuram sanctimonialium, ubi violata fuerit, diligenter restitui, et ubi inviolata est, conservari maxime procurent: inobedientes atque contradictores per censuras ecclesiasticas, aliasque pœnas, quacumque appellatione postposita, compescentes, invocato ad hoc, si opus fuerit, auxilio brachii sæcularis. Quod auxilium ut præbeatur, omnes Christianos principes hortatur sancta synodus, et sub pœna excommunicationis, ipso facto incurrenda, omnibus magistratibus sæcularibus injungit. Nemini autem sanctimonialium liceat post professionem exire a monasterio etiam ad breve tempus, quocumque prætentur."

Ib. cap. 19.-"Quicumque regularis prætendat se per vim et metum ingressum esse religionem, aut etiam dicat ante ætatem debitam professum fuisse, aut quid simile, velitque habitum dimittere, quacumque de causa, aut etiam cum habitu discedere sine licentia superiorum, non audiatur, nisi intra quinquennium tantum, a die professionis, et tunc, non aliter nisi causas quas prætenderit deduxerit coram superiore suo et ordinario. Quod si antea habitum sponte dimiserit, nullatenus ad allegandum quamcumque causam admittatur; sed ad monasterium redire cogatur, et tamquam apostata puniatur ; interim nullo privilegio suæ religionis juvetur.”

How strictly these laws are preserved in vigour by the