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husband or wife was not eminent for conjugal virtue; for every parental and every domestic merit? Surely, when so much pains are taken to disgrace the Roman Catholic religion, by bringing forward the miserable legends by which some of her silly children have often deformed their accounts of her saints, justice requires that the heroic virtues of those saints should be equally produced. If this be not done, one side only of the question is brought forward, and great injustice done to the Roman Catholic Church; -she glories, and she justly glories in her saints;

When Milton assigns to the Paradise of Fools, "Eremites and friars,

" Black, white and grey, and all their trumpery,"

You tell us that "he has given all, their proper place."

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He has not "given all, their proper place."-I am surprised that You should cite Milton as an authority on such a point. What place would

he have given You and Your brother prebendaries ? Read the ribaldry with which he has treated Your prelates?

The friars, whom it pleases You to mention thus contumeliously, were incessantly employed in the service of the poor : in preaching to them, in teaching them their catechism, in attending them on their sick beds, and preparing them for their passage to eternity, in aid of the the curates. Was there an epidemic illness, a fire, or an inundation? friars were sure to be there. In hospitals, in prisons; amid the wounded and the dying in the field of battle, friars were always found. Those, who had no other friend, always found one in a friar. Many friars reached the highest eminence in the arts and sciences. Surely you have heard of Father Roger Bacon. The best interpreter of Descartes, was father Mersenne, a minim friar: the best edition of the Principia of Newton, is that of Jacquier and Le Seur, both minims : St. Thomas of Aquin, Bartholomew de las Casas, were Dominican friars, Cardinal Ximénes was a Franciscan. An hundred other friars illustrious for talent, virtue and learning, might be quickly mentioned. Is it decent to call, or to wound the feelings of Catholics by calling, such men, trumpery?

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luanbaud LETTERS XII. & XIII.

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IN your twelfth letter, you assert, (page 146, 147), that, "the only real points in debate at the time "of the Reformation, were these; - Are the doc"trines of the church of Rome supported by "Scripture and antiquity? Shall the Pope or "Monarch be supreme over the people?" The first of these points included the question of the Pope's spiritual supremacy. It was wrested from him, in many parts of Europe, by the Protestant reformers; but these, instead of establishing evangelical liberty, strove, equally by the sword and the pen, to substitute themselves and their creeds, in the chair of authority. Their attempts filled Europe both with war and debate.*

• Proceeding in the order of investigation which I have suggested in the letter to which You now refer, You inquire, whether England has been benefitted by the Reformation, I. In Temporal happiness; II. Spiritual wisdom; -III. Or morals;IV. And, whether the revival of letters was materially promoted by the Reformation. On each of these topics You conclude for the affirmative.

* See the article in the Edinburgh Review, No. LIII. Art. 8, on the "Toleration of the first Reformers."

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Christianity," you say, "not Romanism, ex"tricated us from Paganism." You have not shown that the Creed of St. Augustine was not. I have referred to a work, which abundantly shows, by the confessions of Protestant writers of the first eminence, that it was, the creed of the Council of Trent.

You ask, (page 148), " if your parochial clergy "will not bear comparison with the monks?"-The proper persons to whom your parochial clergy should be compared, are the parochial clergy of France. I beg leave to transcribe what I have said of these in another publication. *

" A French country curate was truly the father " of his flock. There was not in his parish a sub"ject of joy or distress in which he did not "feelingly participate.

-"Le pauvre l'allait voir, et revenait heureux.

VOLT. Henriade.

"Generally speaking, his income was small. "If it fell short of what the French law termed "the portion congrue, about eighteen pounds a

year of our money, but taking into calculation "the relative value of specie, and the relative "price of provisions, about sixty pounds a year " of English money, in its present worth, the state " made good the deficiency. It is evident, that " with such an income, the curé could spare "little. Whatever it was, he gave it cheerfully, thriftily, and wisely; and the soothing word,

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* History of the Church of France, Ch. II. Sect. 3.

"the compassionate look, the active exertion to

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serve, were never wanting. In the house of

" mourning the curate was always seen; the

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greatest comfort of the aged was to perceive " him enter their doors. The young never enjoyed their mirth or pastime so much, as when they saw him stand near them and smile. But "the curé never forgot that he was a minister of "God. The discharge of his functions, particu

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larly of his sacred ministry at the altar, was at once the pride and the happiness of his life. "There was scarcely a curate who did not

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thoroughly instruct the children of his parish "in their catechism, and his whole flock in their " duties; who did not every Sunday and holiday " officiate at the morning and evening service ; "who did not regularly attend his poor parishioners

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through their illnesses, and prepare them, in "their last moments, for their passage to eternity. "The last act of his life, was to commend his "flock to God, and to beg his blessing on them. " In every part of France, the peasant spoke " of him as his best friend; ''Notre bon curé,' " was his universal appellation. This is not an exaggerated picture of these venerable men. "Their merit was at once so transcendent, and

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so universally recognized, as to defy calumny. "On every other rank of men, the philosophers " and witlings of France exhausted abuse and "ridicule; but they left untouched the worthy and edifying curé. Voltaire himself, in more pas

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