when I learnt from a letter in the New* Times that a passage of some importance in the creed of Pope Pius IV. is omitted in your version. The omission might have escaped my notice, even if the original had been at hand; for in such things one who is entitled to expect credit for fidelity, is generally ready to give it. It may have arisen from oversight when you inserted this creed in a former† publication, from which you would naturally reprint it now without apprehending that any revision could be necessary. But it is a noticeable omission; for in the words which have thus been dropt the Roman Catholic "promises, vows, and swears, that he will, as much as may be in his power, procure that this (Roman) Catholic faith, out of which none can

Tuesday, April 5, 1825.

+ Historical and Literary Account of the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, or Symbolic Books of the Roman Catholic, Greek, and principal Protestant Churches. 1816.

Hanc veram Catholicam Fidem, extra quam nemo salvus esse potest, quam in præsenti sponte profiteor, et veraciter teneo, eandem integram et inviolatam, usque ad extremum vitæ spiritum constantissimè (Deo adjuvante) retinere et confiteri, atque a meis subditis, vel illis quorum cura ad me, in munere meo spectabit, teneri, doceri et prædicari, quantum in me erit, curaturum, ego idem N. spondeo, voveo ac juro. Sic me Deus adjuvet, et hæc Sancta Dei evangelia.

be saved, be held, taught, and preached by those who are subject to him, or who in virtue of his office shall be under his care." The clause is important in itself, and for the sake of those readers who may need either to be informed or reminded that it is enjoined as a religious duty upon the Romanists to promote the Roman Catholic faith as much as may be in their power. There is no mention in this creed of the means whereby they are to promote it; but there is in those Decretals, all things delivered and declared in which, are received in that comprehensive confession. In those Decretals it is declared that heretics, however unwilling, are to be brought to salvation by *force; that the Church is to persecute them; and that the enemies of the Church are to be coerced by arms.

you

The creed, Sir, which have thus brought forward, comprehends all those obnoxious opinions which, in the name of the British Roman Catholics, you are so eager to renounce or to disavow. It comprehends an acknowledgement of the temporal authority of the Popes,

* Hæretici etiam ad salutem inviti sunt trahendi. P. 2. Caus. 23. Quest. 4. ff. 299.

+ Ecclesia ratione etiam persequitur hæreticos. Ibid. ff. 300. Ecclesiastica religionis inimici etiam bellis sunt coercendi. Ibid. ff, 301.

of their power to depose Kings, and to absolve subjects from their allegiance. It includes an assent to the propositions that heretics are to be persecuted; *that faith is not to be kept with them; that simulation is lawful, and that the guilt of homicide‡ is not incurred by killing excommunicated persons, if zeal for religion be the motive. For these principles have been laid down in the Canons, or proclaimed by Councils; and upon these principles the Papal Church has acted,....so far in strict conformity to its own creed. In my heart, Sir, I believe that you heartily disavow them, and that the great body of the British Romanists are sincere in disclaiming such intolerable opinions. But they are distinctly asserted in your Canons and by your Councils; and they are comprehended in this Creed which you yourself present as

*See note, p. 25.

+ Simulatio utilis est, et in tempore assumenda. (Dec. Pars 2. Caus. 22. Quest. 2. ff. 285.) A truly curious passage occurs in the Decretals under this text: ipse Dominus noster, non habens peccatum, nec carnem peccati, simulationem peccatricis carnis assumpsit: which the marginal gloss expounds thus: simulationem, ut falleret Diabolum,...dicit enim auctoritas, si Diabolus eum Filium Dei scivisset, nunquam eum a Judæis crucifigi passus fuisset. St. Augustine is the Auctoritas.

‡ Non sunt homicidæ qui adversus excommunicatos zelo matris Ecclesie armantur. Dec. p. 2. Caus. 23. Quest. 5. ff. 306.

"an accurate and explicit summary* of the Roman Catholic faith," to be received "without restriction or qualification." It is impossible, Sir, that you, and the body for which you speak, can assent to all that this creed includes; your feelings, your opinions, your solemn protestations are in opposition to it. But in rendering to you and to them this willing justice, I must add that there are some among you whose temper and whose doctrines are in perfect accord with these principles. There are men among you upon whom the mantles of Gardiner and Bonner have descended; who equivocate like Jesuits,...and who would persecute like Dominicans, if the power were in their hands. And these are the consistent Romanists,... Romanists in heart and soul as well as profession, who assent to all that the thirteen additional articles of their creed comprehend, and would joyfully act up to the very letter of their law. But for yourself, Sir, and those who with you renounce in full sincerity these abominable tenets, and who are therefore reduced to the uncomfortable necessity of denying in your public declarations what you profess and swear to in your Confession of Faith, this

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religious grievance must surely be more painful than the political disabilities which those tenets have rendered necessary for our safety. Is it unreasonable to suggest then that the British Roman Catholics might with more propriety apply for relief to the Court of Rome than to the British Parliament; and that instead of agitating these kingdoms with their demands. for political power, they would do well to petition the Head of their Church for a revision of the Creed of Pope Pius IV.?...for a removal of the restrictions which it imposes upon their understanding, their loyalty, and their conscience?..for emancipation from the moral and intellectual bondage in which it holds them?

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CREED OF POPE PIUS IV.

Now, Sir, for the rule which you suggest

THAT NO DOCTRINE SHOULD BE ASCRIBED TO THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AS A BODY, EXCEPT SUCH AS IS AN ARTICLE OF THEIR FAITH.

""

Among the many misconceptions of their tenets," you say, "of which the Roman Catholics have to complain, they feel none more than those which proceed from a want of the obser

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