THE FRAUDS OF ROMISH MONKS AND PRIESTS SET FORTH In Eight LETTERS Lately Written By a Gentleman in his Journy into ITALY Aud Publish'd for the Benefit of the Publick LONDON Printed by Samuel Roycroft for Robert Clavell at the Peacock at the West-End of S. Pauls 1691. IMPRIMATUR Nov. 5. 1690. C. Alston R. P. D. HEN. Episc Lond. à Sacris TO THE Right Honourable THE EARL OF NOTTINGHAM HIS MAJESTIES Principal Secretary of State c. My Lord IT would be a great Presumption in me who am a Stranger in this Country to appear in Publick manner without the Protection of some Great Name That of Your Lordships is deservedly such seeing to the Greatness of Your Birth You have added the highest Qualities of Wisdom and Vertue and discharged the Public Trusts of Your eminent Station so much to the satisfaction of all good Men. I find wheresoever I go great Numbers of those who highly Honour the Memory of Your Lordships Father and speak of him as of a Friend and an Ornament of the Church a Pillar of the State an Oracle of the Law a Judge and Patron of Learning and Learned Men an Encourager of Persons of Sound Principles and good Lives a Bountiful Support of those of our Country who have fled hither for meer Conscience sake and a Worthy Example of Sobriety Justice and Charity Your Lordship following so Excellent a Father with equal Steps I presume to make this my Humble Application to You in behalf both of my Self and of this Book which with an honest Design I have Written and Published resting secure under Your Lordships Patronage and resolving by the Blessing of God always to make good the Character of My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and most Obedient Servant G. D. E. E. A. P. TO THE READER IT must be granted That the Publick have been just in the kind Reception they have given to the LETTERS of Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Salisbury concerning his Voyage to Italy The Truth of his Relations hath been own'd by all those who have had the Curiosity to Visit those Countries and given occasion to the Learned to make curious Reflections upon them But above all I have observed That the Passages He hath inserted by the By about some of their Religious Practices have particularly pleased the English Nation who above all abominate Popery 'T is this Consideration at first that begat a Desire in me to publish many other Particulars on this Subject especially upon the Lives and Practices of Romish Priests and Monks which were known to me as having been a Secular Priest of the same Church and could not come so easily to the Knowledge of others The Reason why I was so Inquisitive is set down at the Beginning of my First LETTER I shall only add That those who are acquainted with the Spirit of Rome will find no difficulty to believe the Matters of Fact here related and much less to venture their Credit in denying them since they are still expos'd to Publick View and as many as go thither may be so many Witnesses of them If at any time I make use of some Expressions which may seem to have too much Lightness in them I desire my Reader to attribute this to the Subject and to consider That as Serious Things ought not to be exprest in a Jocular Style so neither is it possible to utter Ridiculous Matters with a Becoming Gravity Nor do I believe That the Papists will have any reason to Complain of me as they commonly do of those that Leave them saying That they make it their chief business to Expose them without Bounds or Measure For the Truth is I have still Matter enough in store to fill another Volume as big as this which might serve for a Second Part But I choose to stop here and give them an occasion rather of Commending my Moderation than of Complaining of my doing Too much Lastly Forasmuch as those Observations made in my Travels have much conduced to the Change of my Religion so I trust in God the Publication of them will have a good effect upon others by Opening the Eyes of the People of the Roman Church by Discouraging those that Seduce them and by putting Protestants upon Rendring hearty Thanks to God for having delivered them from so Miserable a Slavery This Candid Reader is the principal Aim I had in Publishing this Book Farewel G. D. E. E. A. P. ERRATA PAg. 38. lin 31 read many Fir-trees p. 63. l. 17 Navona p. 155. l 11. miseri p. 174. l. 15. Vicenza p. 237. l. 20. chastest p. 246. l. 3. seipso p. 264. l. 14. Cielo p. 298. l. 5. four years l. 14. two years p. 326. l. 4. cover'd again p. 399. l. 5. who l. 7. dele h◠〈◊〉 with afterwards THE CONTENTS OF THE Principal Relations Contain'd in the Ensuing LETTERS The First LETTER p. 1 OF Relicks and the ill Vse that is made of them in the Church of Rome to deceive the People 2 Some curious Relations on this Subject 5 A description of the Famous Abby of Citeaux and of the Great Chartreuse of Grenoble 23 The Disorderly and Voluptuous Life of those Monks and the Artifices they make use of to advance their Temporal Profit by abusing the Credulity of Seculars 36 The Second LETTER 42 OF the Corrupt Ambitious and Revengful Spirit of the Roman Clergy 43 The Inquisition is a ready Means to satisfie their Cruelty and Revenge 57 Dreadful Examples to this purpose 62 The Doctrin of the Reformed Churches little known in Italy 73 Protestants represented to the People under the Name of Infidels and No Christians 76 The English Church more proper to convince the Papists of their Error than any other Reformed Church 80 The great Caution the Pope takes to prevent the Importation of Protestant Books into Italy 82 The Government of Priests insupportable 84 The Third LETTER 86 OF the Hospitals and Pilgrims of Italy 87 The Monks and Priests have converted the Revenues belonging to them to their own use 90 Superstition of the Italians at Luca Pisa and Florence and more particularly of the Famous Devotion of the Annonciade or Picture of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin 109 The Description of some Famous Monasteries viz. the Great Camaldule Valombrosa and Averne seated on the highest Mountains of the Apennine 119 The Spirit of these Three sorts of Monks 124 The Great Jubilee of our Lady of Portcuncule 136 A Story concerning the Bodies of S. Dominick and S. Francis at Assise 138 The Old Franciscan Convents compar'd with those of this Time 140 The Fourth LETTER 143 OF Journying to Loretto 144 The manner how Gentlemen and Ladies go in Pilgrimage to this place 150 Ridiculous Fables about the Chappel of Loretto 156 The Cheats that are in vogue there and the vast Gain the Popes and Jesuits draw thence 157 What properly an Italian Miracle is 165 Many curious Relations to this purpose 172 The
representing their Actions in the worst Light they can and always concealing the good that is amongst them they presently cry with open Throat that the Protestants are a sort of People that love nothing but their Bellies abhorring and abominating whatever serves to mortifie the Flesh If we reject Episcopacy they hate cry they all manner of Subjection and love nothing but Independency If we refuse the use of Common Prayer we are not joyn'd in the Band of Charity neither is there any Union amongst us If we do not from time to time consult the Ministers in cases of Conscience we reduce all to the private Spirit In a word If we celebrate Marriages and Funerals without any Prayers or Ceremonies they say that Protestants go together like Beasts and are Buried like Dogs At this rate did this Calumniating Jesuit with a renowned Malice from the beginning of his Sermon to the end endeavor to make them odious and execrable Neither was it a hard matter for him to obtain his end in a Country where they are so little known and where they are never mentioned but under the notion of Devils Hereticks new Christians and Infidels But the case would be much altered if retaining what is good and lawful or only indifferent amongst them as far as may be the Protestants would singly apply themselves to oppose those points of Doctrin or Practice amongst them which first occasioned the Reformation for so they would not be able to condemn them in any thing but by producing the points of Doctrin and Practice in Controversy with the oppositions made against them which is a thing they are very loath to do for fear of discovering their own Nakedness An evident proof of what I here alledge is the great care they take to hinder any Books of Controversy from coming into Italy not so much as those which have been Pen'd by the most Famous men of their own Party I was extreamly put to it when I was at Rome to meet with the works of Mosieur Arnau'd which he had dedicated to the Pope and which I dont believe were ever yet Translated into Italian their design herein being to prevent by all means imaginable the true state of the question from being known for their Objections are so weak and the answers they make to those of the Protestants so pitiful that any unprejudiced mind may easily from their own Books perceive on what side the Truth lies If ever there was any Author that straind his Wits to calumniate and blacken the Protestants it was without doubt Father Maimbourg the Jesuit in his Books of Lutheranism and Calvinism When I was at Venice I undertook the Translation of all his Works and had already translated several of his Volums when I took in hand those of Lutheranism and Calviaism but I was not a little surpriz'd when the Inquisitor of Venice would not give me leave to continue the Traduction and some time after I received an Order from the Pope forbidding me to Print those two Books with another of the same Authors Treating about the growth of the power of the Bishops of Rome The single Title of Bishop which was given him in this last Treatise in stead of the Magnificent Titles of Pope and Sovereign Priest together with some curious enquiries concerning the rise and progress of that prodigious Grandeur to which the Bishops of Rome are mounted at present were a powerful motive to the Pope to condemn it But I could not penetrate what reason he had to pronounce the same Sentence against the other two except it were as I have hinted before to prevent the occasion of renewing in the minds of the Italians the state of the Question between the Catholicks and the Protestants For notwithstanding both these Books be fraught with Scoffs injurious Reproaches and Calumnies coin'd on purpose to render a party contemptible whom they had resolved by all manner of means to run down in the conceit of the People yet for all this Innocent the XIth did not believe that this beating of them down would prove of as great advantage to the Church of Rome as the Publication of some Points of Doctrin that are there necessarily inserted might prove dangerous and mischievous to it You can no way imagin Sir the extream precautions the Popes make use to prevent any Protestant Books from being brought into Italy As there is no other way to enter that Country by Land without passing the Alpes they keep men express at all the passages thereof to examin the Travellers that come that way and search them whether they have any forbidden Books about them amongst which number are accounted all those that Trat of Controversies In a Journy I made from Venice to Lions I took my way in my return to Italy through the Land of Valois at the entry of this Country which is a kind of straight or narrow passage of the Mountain there is a famous Abby of the Canons Regular of S. Austin called S. Maurice The River Rhôsne which is extreamly impetuous and violent in this place and which a little lower disembogues it self into the Lake of Geneva leaves only a very narrow way by which one must necessarily pass to enter Italy The Abbot of S. Maurice had built a Gate at this Pass and forasmuch as he is the Master of it the Popes who know it to be one of the Keys of the Alpes which opens a way to Italy have charged him to have a careful Eye upon all Passengers coming that way that they do not bring with them any forbidden Books because Geneva which they stand in great fear of is no further from it than the length of its Lake The promise the Pope had made to the Abbot of making him a Bishop in case he were found faithful in the discharge of his Commission had made him very exact when I past that way He caused all Passengers to be stopt without Exception those that were on Foot were searched at the Gate by the Guards and those on Horse-back that had any appearance were conducted into the Abby where the Abbot entertained them very Civilly and made them Eat with him whilst they were searching their Portmantels The Abbot with whom I discoursed after Dinner for a good while told me that the Pope allow'd him Mony towards the Entertainment of Passengers because without that the whole Revenue of his Abby would not have been sufficient for it And that he had sent him most pressing Letters to recommend to him an extraordinary care of that Post whence he easily conceived how much they apprehended the Books of Protestants at Rome And being himself well acquainted with the temper of Italy he told me that if the Italians and more particularly the Popes Subjects might but have the least Communication with Geneva it might be greatly feared they would utterly cast off their Obedience to the Pope Indeed there are none have more reason to know the weakness of that God
under Every Saturday there is a vast Concourse of People comes to this Image from the City of Bononia and adjoyning places To make the Way more commodious for those devout Pilgrims the Bononians have undertaken to make a Covered-way which begins at the Gate of the City and is intended to be carried on to that of the Church where the Image resides Above half of this Way was already finished when I was there The Whole is compos'd of great Portiâ—â—'s of Brick very large and high Roof'd the Roofs being all curiously painted and the bottom is Paved very neatly with great square Bricks When this Portal is once finished it will be one of the most Curious pieces of Workmanship that is in all Italy Many particular Noblemen have signaliz'd their Zeal for carrying on of this Work having each of them made several Arches of it at their own Charges on which they have caused their Arms to be painted But in the mean time tho' this Work be already so far advanced yet some are afraid they shall never see it brought to perfection because the remaining part is the most difficult to compass and will cost much more than what is already done for this Portal is now to be carried on up the Mountain till it reach the Church of our Lady on the Top of it and to this end they must be obliged to Dig very deep to find firm Ground whereon to lay a solid Foundation A good Curate perceivinâ— that the Devotion of Contributing to this vast Expence began to grow cold found out a very ingenuous way to excite the Drowzy and Lethargic Charities of the People making use of the following Device He acquainted his Parishioners That he felt himself inspir'd by the Virgin to make a Procession to the Miraculous Image with Twelve Wagons loaden with Materials for carrying on this Structure he desired them to shew their Zeal in contributing to so good a Work and that for his part he would take care to range the Procession in Order according to the Model the Virgin had been pleased to give him of it in a Dream His Parishioners very punctually executed the Orders he had given them lading four Wagons with Bricks four with Lime and four with Sand. The Curate seeing their forwardness sent every where for Flowers and sweet Herbs to cover the Wagons and to make Garlands for the Oxen that drew them he got their Horns and Hoofs to be gilt and set himself at the Head of this Convoy with the Cross and Banner having procur'd several young Girls with Timbrels in their Hands to play upon them and Dance about the Wagons as David did before the Ark. In this Equipage he pass'd through all the Streets of the City He had the Approbation of the Italians who are much delighted with new and well contriv'd Inventions and especially wherein Women or Girls come to play their parts The good Success this Curate met with besides the general Approbation put all his Brethren upon doing something in Imitation of him and if possible to go beyond him So that about a Fortnight after there was to be seen a general Procession of all the Parishes with above 200 Wagons loaden with Bricks Lime and Sand drawn by Oxen with gilded Horns I never saw a more Extravagant Procession than this was nor a more pleasant one The March advanced in very good order with Crosses Banners Priests and the Girls that Danced towards our Lady of S. Luke and helpt to build a great part of that Portal As soon as it is finished they will be able to go at all Seasons and in all Weathers from Bononia to the place of Devotion without wetting or dirting themselves any more than if they were in their own Houses But that I may not wander too far from my Subject of Processions I shall further acquaint you that the Monks do far excel the Priests in their Inâ—vention on these Occasions There is scarcely an Holiday or Sunday passeth over their heads withâ—out some Procession or other made in their Monasteries The Dominicans make a Procession of the Rosary every first Sunday of the Month and the second Sundays the Carmelites make one in honour of the Scapulary the third Sundays the Soccolanti celebrate a Procession in honour of S. Anthony of Padua 'T is in these Monkish Processions that all is put in practice wherewith Lewdness and Vanity are capable of Inspiring the most loose and effeminate Souls so far are they from being Religious Employments and fitted for Devotion as they pretend them to be By the small taste I shall here give you of them you may be able to judge of all the rest I shall begin with a Procession of the Rosary which I saw at Venice made by the Dominicans of Castello which was order'd in this manner Next after the Cross and Banner went about Two or Three hundred Little Children drest like Angels and others like little He and She Saints amongst which they did not forget to place a good number of Little S. John Baptists These were followed by Thirty or Forty young Women representing so many Saints of their Sex One of them represented S. Apollina and to distinguish her from the rest she carried in her hand a Bason gilt and enamell'd in which there were Teeth another represented S. Lucia and carried in a Bason two Eyes a third S. Agnes who carried in her Arms a Living Lamb and so of the rest every one of them being Characterized by their Marks of distinction There were some of them that were prepar'd on purpose to make People Laugh and above all the rest a Saint Genevieve who had a lighted Wax-Taper in one hand and in the other a Book wherein she read or at least made shew of doing so and round about her there were Seven or Eight young Boys drest like Devils all over black as a Coal with great long Tails and very extravagant and ridiculous Countenances and great Horns on their Heads these skipped about the Saint and made a Thousand Ridlculous postures Apish Tricks and Faces to endeavour to distract and divert her from reading of her Breviary by making of her Laugh The Maiden who acted the Personage of this Saint had been chosen by them on purpose of a Melancholy Temperament who accordingly Acted her part very well she always kept her Eyes fix'd on her Hours without giving the least shew of a Smile tho' all the Spectators that were present could not contain themselves from bursting out into loud Laughter to see the Ridiculous Postures those Little Devils put themselves into and who were certainly most impudent and pickel'd Youths forasmuch as many times they made a shew of taking up her Coats This Saint was followed by another as fit to make the People Laugh as the former this was a S. Catherine of Sienna who had by her side a pretty Little Boy with a Broom in one Hand and a pair of Bellows in the other for they hold that
that manner cannot be saved by the Faith of their Parents but go down to a dark place they call Limbus which is made express for them and where they are to continue for ever without suffering the Punishment of Sense because they have never sinned by inducement of the Senses but where notwithstanding they must undergo Poenam Damni or the Punishment of loss which consists in the privation of the Beatifick Vision that being a Punishment due to Original Sin We cannot imagin that any Fathers or Mothers should be so pittiless and unnatural as rather to desire to spare their Mony than to rescue their Children from so Deplorable a Condition by having Prayers and Masses said for them at the said Altar so that this was the Trade driven by the Religious of that Abby We went therefore about 10 a Clock in the Morning to that Church where we saw the Miraculous Image of the Virgin commonly called the Little our Lady of S. Benignus and two Still-born Children who had already lain there two days being black and livid and very noisom The Parents who were of the best Families of Dijon had during these two days procured above 200 Masses to be said in that Church at a Crown a piece in order to obtain from God by intercession of the said Image and by the Prayers of the Religious of that Abby so much life for these poor Infants as might be sufficient for them only to receive the Sacrament of Baptism The Monks would very gladly have deferr'd their Resurrection for a day longer but the Bodies were already so far corrupted that it was almost impossible to abide in the Church by reason of the offensiveness of the stench that came from them so that as it happened we came in the very nick of time to see the performance of it Towards noon which was the time of the last Mass a young Fryar who served at the Altar going to carry the mass-Mass-Book to that side where the Gospel is read hit with his Arm either wittingly or by chance the Table of the Altar upon which the Still-born Infants were laid which made them move The Priest who was saying Mass and who probably was acquainted with the hour and moment of this interlude immediately breaking off his sacred Mysteries as the Papists please to expâ—â—ss it pronounced with a loud Voice the Sacramental Words over the Infants Baptizo c. casting in the mean time on their Bodies the water wherewith he had washed his hands At the same time a great noise was raised in the Church the People crying out A Miracle a Miracle My Eyes could not deceive me in a case I had so plainly discerned and I could with all my Heart have undertaken to undedeceive the poor People but that I knew how dangerous it is to oppose the blind Rabble kept and entertained in Error by Priests and Monks who knowing no other God but their own interest would soon have stirr'd them up under the pretence of Heresie or Incredulity to have Torn me to pieces However I could not refrain from hinting a Word of it in particular to some Persons who were present at that action and who owned they had observed the same thing Burgundy was always a Country fruitful in Superstition and we may see the Signs of it every where and consequently also there be very few Countries where the Priests and Monks thrive better or more abound in Riches I beg of you now Sir only to make this Observation that the Fathers of the Abby are the Reformed Religious of the Order of S. Bennet and consequently of a Congregation which you in France have the greatest Veneration for as well upon the account of their Learning as Duty both which as you have told me render them equally recommendable If then say I these Men who are so Holy and so Virtuous in your Opinion are so able and cunning to deceive and such profligate lovers of outward gain what may not we expect from so many Non-reformed Religious who live so licentiously and loosly to the very Eye as to make open profession of Trapanning Laymen by a Thousand kind of Artifices to have wherewith to maintain their Flagitious and Scandalous Debaucheries We staied some days at Dijon where I was Eye-witness to an abundance of Ridiculous Devotions that are in Vogue there and which it would be too tedious to relate to you as that of our Lady of l'Estan that of S. Bernard and of the Image of the Virgin kept at Talent and pretended to have been Painted by S. Luke and to be very Miraculous But forasmuch as the Devotion paid to these sorts of Images is used to increase or decrease according as the Priests or Monks do more or less Dexterously manage them this last mentioned has suffered very much being well nigh fallen into contempt insomuch as the Curate of that Parish despaired almost of ever bringing it into request again To bring this about he told us he knew but one way which was to publish a Miracle which lately hapned about that Image which was a more remarkable one than all the Cures it dayly performed The case is this said he having perceived about 10 years ago that the Devotion to the Image dayly decreased I began to enquire into the cause of it and finding the Picture to be in a very rueful condition by reason of the moistness of the place which had well nigh rotted the Cloth and the Rats also having made bold with some part of it and extremely disfigured the Face especially I conceived that this might be the reason of the abatement of the Peoples Devotion Wherefore to remedy this I made the old Cloth to be pasted upon a new one and sent for one of the best Painters of Dijon to draw over the defective places of it which was accordingly done with a great deal of care and exactness and on a first Sunday of the Month the Image thus drawn over and imbellished was set up in its former place with a great deal of Solemnity and a great concourse of People Since which time proceeded he I have been continually troubled with the Gout and moreover the Blessed Virgin to shew her self displeased that any Painter should be so bold as to put his hand to a piece of work which her Servant S. Luke had left to Posterity in order to the restoring of it to its first Luster she has some days since made the colours that had been superadded to it to scale away and fall down and thereby reduced the Image to the pitiful estate it was in before which however she is much more pleased with than to see her pourtraiture profaned with strange colours He added that he had already caused the Relation of the Miracle to be Printed and that he did intend to send Copies of it to all Neighbouring yea even into Foreign Countries and that he lookt upon this as a probable way to recal the Devotion of People to his
Tongues and made them suffer unexpressible Torments Can you ever believe in good earnest Sir that this is the Spirit of the Gospel Is this the way our Saviour made use of to convert Sinners Did he ever threaten the disobedient or unbelievers with Prisons Racks and Tortures Has he ever left us so much as one Example or Command to Authorize this sacred Inquisitional Method I trow no and consequently this cannot be the Spirit of Christianity Thus these very means the Popes take to maintain their Tyranny over the Consciences of men might serve and without doubt will so in time for just Motives to pull it down if the People would once open their Eyes and Vigorously oppose themselves to the effects of a most unjust and inhuman Violence T is Vertuâ— alone that stands in need of no support but Sin and Iniquity are always in the search of props and contrivances to uphold their tottering and crazy constution and what they cannot carry by the strength of the Lion they endeavour to bring about by the Foxes Craft Thus what the Popes and their Adherents cannot obtain by the Inquisition they strive to compass by Artifice and Lies One of the Chief Fetches they have to keep the People in their Obedience is to secure them in the Chains of profound Ignorance first of the truths of the Gospel very expresly forbidding them to read the Holy Scriptures as a Book very dangerous and pernicious to their Souls Their next care is to prevent any Books of Controversy written by Protestants from coming into their Hands T is an Inquisitional matter to have or read any of them or to be privy to any others having of them Moreover they take special care to charge the Preachers in their Sermons that in speaking of the Protestants who being very well grounded in their Principles must consequently be lookt up as the most formidable Enemies the Church of Rome has they be sure to represent them to their Auditors as men that have absolutely renounced the Faith of Jesus Christ and who do no more believe in him than Heathens and Infidels Wherefore also they indifferently call them Hereticks aud Infidels or to make use of the Italian word Questi non Cristiani So that indeed all the Common People yea and the greatest part of those that are learned too are of the Opinion that Protestants do not all believe in Jesus Christ no more than the Turks do A Canon once demanded of me in Rome by way of Curiosity What the Infidels did in France and why they were suffered there I desired him to tell me what he meant by that word which I did not understand and finding that he spoke of Protestants I told him that they were no Infidels but believed in Jesus Christ as well as the Roman Catholicks only that they rejected Transubstantiation the Mass Purgatory c. and in particular the power and infallibility of the Pope And having heard me discourse at this rate a good while In truth Sir said he if the case be as you say I perceive that those People are not such great Devils as they are represented to us here I have often heard it declar'd from the Pulpit that they were as unbelieving as the Jews themselves and you are the very first I ever heard say that the Protestants believed in Jesus Christ But Sir said I it is impossible but that you who have studied Divinity must needs have heard of the Opinions of Luther Calvin and Zuinglius in the Treatise of the Sacraments in general and in partilar of those of the Eucharist Penance the Sacrifice of the Mass c. I know said he that those Ring-leaders of Heresie pretended not to destroy but to reform the Church and as to some points they have very strong Arguments which even to this day we are hard put to to answer But nevertheless God who hath a particular care of his Church that he might make known to belivers that these men were in a bad way has so ordered it that their whole party came to nothing For as one Error draws on another they have still rowled from one Precipice to another till at last they are fallen into the Abyss of Infidelity They at first separated themselves from the Church of Rome upon the pretence of Reforming it but some time after their followers reduced all to the particular Spirit which is to believe what they please and that provided only they do Worship one God whosoever he be and lead â— morally good life that this is enough for them to be saved I perceived by this discourse Sir that this Canon had been ill informed as indeed most parâ— of the Italians are of the present State of Protestants and of their Doctrin and that at Rome all manner of slights and tricks are made use of against those who refuse to bow their Knees to Baal Tâ— tell a Lye with them is a Vertue as long as it is but employ'd as they think for a good end I remember that a Jesuit who was lately come from England boldly Preached in the Church of Lateran that all Religion there was reduced to the particular Spirit and having made an ample description of the Meetings of the Anabaptists and Quakers under the name of the Church of England when he came to speak of their Sighing and Groaning and their Women Preaching he made all his Auditory break forth into a loud Laughter and by this means without doubt tho' with a great deal of Injustice he made many there present conceive very Contemptuously of that August and Venerable Body of Protestants the Church of England so Zealous for the Glory of God and of Jesus Christ his only Son so exact and decent in the Worship and Obedience she renders to his Divine Majesty and so reasonable in her Orders and Ceremonies As long as those vigilant Pastors the Bishops of the Church of England and the Learned Ministers that are under them keep their watchful Eyes fixed on the Flocks committed to their Charge there is no cause to fear that ever the Romish Wolfe will be in a condition to snatch so much as any single one of them out of their Hands nor will any of her Emissaries as subtle Theeves as they be ever be able by night to steal into the Sheepfold to devour or massacre them as they have already so often endeavoured to do I have since made this Observation on this Sermon of the Jesuit which I heard from the beginning to the end and I could wish all Protestants might seriously take it to Heart viz. That to pull down the Church of Rome the great secret is not absolutely to reject as some do all that she practiseth but that the best way to compass her downfal is to retain all that is good in her only rejecting the evil If we absolutely reject all Fasts because they of the Church of Rome observe some of them as they desire nothing more than to blacken the Protestants
Promise the Venetian Nobleman repair'd thither with Five Hundred Notes this being the way of giving Masses in Italy they give a Note whereupon he that hath received goes and says Mass and enters it into the Sexton's Book and then returns it to him who hath given it him to receive his Mony and went up to the Procuracies of S. Mark which are the Buildings which surround the Place of S. Mark and there pleas'd himself throwing down these Notes amongst them from some of the Upper-Windows There were about Three or Four Hundred Priests below greedily waiting for them who as soon as they saw the Papers fly about put themselves in a posture to catch each of them the most they could they push'd one another they flung one another in the Dirt they Beat one another they pluck'd one another by the Hair and tore one anothers Bands and Cassocks whilst a great number of People look'd on and Laugh'd at them There can be no better way of representing this Action than by fancying to our selves a Crowd of Common People or rather of the Scum or Filth of the People to whom some pieces of Mony are thrown out of Windows as I saw some Persons of Quality did on the Day of the Coronation of Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary for this was a perfect Representation of the Behaviour of the good Priests of the Roman Church on this occasion And seeing many in the Scuffle had dropt their Cloaks and Hats some of their Companions more dexterous than they who chose rather to get a Cloak or a Hat than a Note took them up and having slily convey'd them under their own skulk'd away with two Cloaks instead of one The Notes being thus distributed or rather Chance and Force having thus dispos'd of them these good Priests departed each of them to their several Posts to say their Masses Probably Sir you 'l think very strange of this Relation of the Noble Venetian yet I dare assure you you need not question the belief of every part of it The Priests and Monks do agree the best in the World and are but as one as long as their Common Interest cements and keeps them together but they are all at Daggers-drawing when the least particular Interest divides them And as for those Priests who Thrub'd one another in the Place of S. Mark for to catch the Assignations to say Masses that is no strange thing in Italy I my self have seen it with mine own Eyes above an hundred times Alas they do far worse than this for even whilst they are in the Sextry invested with their Sacerdotal Ornaments they sometimes fight together for the Priority or Precedency in saying their Masses and call one another the most Infamous Names imaginable The Italians in this also excuse them with a great deal of Favourableness or rather with too much Indulgence What would you have them do say they they are a Company of Poor Priests that live of their Masses and have nothing else to help themselves with when that fails them all fails them And therefore they have great Reason to exert their utmost Activity for the obtaining of them However I am not a little amaz'd that the Bishops take no course to prevent these scandalous Disorders and that they ordain so many Priests without providing them some Benefices There is nothing more scandalous in a Clergy than to see those who are the Members of it to be reduc'd by a necessity of Subsistence to base and mean Actions and altogether unworthy of their Character This Disgrace cannot but with a great deal of Reason reflect upon their Heads and it is an evident demonstration either of their Negligence to remedy it or their want of Charity to procure the means of it The most part of these Poor Priests in Italy live of their Masses or else by Filching when Masses fail them They take all they can get even in the Churches themselves the Calices the Linnen-Covering of the Altar the Wax Candles the Books and in a word all that comes to hand Wherefore we need make no difficulty to believe what this Noble Venetian averr'd That some in the Scuffle had stolen the Cloaks of their Companions Another thing mentioned in his Discourse and whereon I desire you to make some Reflection is the great Division and Enmity of those Religious who went to demand the Masses They accused one another as persons without Conscience and false and faithless in discharging the Trust they took upon them and for which they were paid What the Jacobite said of the Cordelier the very same the Cordelier said of the Jacobite and so of the rest and indeed herein they all spoke Truth 'T is a matter of common practice in Italy That when any one sends Mony to a Convent for an Hundred Masses they content themselves with Singing one with the assistance of a Deacon and Subdeacon 'T is the Prior or Guardian of the Colledge that Sings it They call this a Mass Sung an High Mass a Solemn Mass and they maintain that one of these Masses is an equivalent to many Common ones They call this Making a Reduction But pray Sir What can this Singing or these Ceremonies contribute towards the rendring One Mass as efficacious as an Hundred I know a Protestant may easily solve this difficulty by saying That One Mass is as good as an Hundred and that an Hundred are of no more Value than One because they are good for nought whether singly or aggregately consider'd But you who are a Roman Catholick how can you answer this If you have never so little Sincerity you cannot but own that your Priests and Monks are not only content for to satisfie their Covetousness to make use of the Doctrin of Purgatory to induce Lay-men to lavish their Mony for the celebrating of Masses but that after all this they would by this Artifice of Reduction exempt themselves from the trouble of Saying them The deceased Pope Innocent the Eleventh was no way favouring this Trick of Reduction for being inform'd that the Carmelites of Naples had celebrated a Mass in Musick to acquit themselves of all the Masses they were oblig'd to say he sent down a Commission to examine the Registers and Books of the Sextry and upon Examination there were found no less than Four and forty Thousand Masses which were not discharged Innocent being acquainted herewith did not believe That so vast a number of Masses could ever be satisfied by one Mass only how solemn soever it might be He let them know That seeing they had receiv'd the Mony they ought to Say them with the first and because they had not Priests enough in their Convent to celebrate them they must take in some Secular Priests to their assistance The thing taking Wind and being divulg'd through Naples many Stranger Priests went and presented themselves to celebrate some of them and for Fifteen Days they admitted them within which Time they said