sel are appointed on both sides, one undertaking to establish the miracles, and the other combating them; and thus the matter is solemnly argued dans les formes, et selon les regles, and not determined until after a long and expensive process. It is farther remarkable, that some miracle must have been performed by the deceased after his death, as well as during his life; one of these, by the way, being quite as easy to the saint as the other, and each being equally capable of proof. It is unnecessary to observe, that these judicial inquiries invariably terminate in favour of the saint and his family; since the pope and his council are equally interested in the successful issue of the suit: indeed, as an atheistical pope once observed, 'What a profitable fable has that of Jesus Christ been to us!" IGNOTUS, Letter V., originally published in The Times newspaper. Whence is it that Mr. Andrews has not tried his hand in answering this able writer, who has made such an exposure of the wickedness of popery, and its dangerous tendency, under his own eye?

One of the most usual miracles which saints are said to perform after their death, is to impart to their carcasses a good smell: and it is so much the better if they can preserve this for ages, so that on opening their graves all present should be sensible of it. I have before me a number of particulars of the life and miracles of St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, whose bull of canonization "begins not without good reason," as the author says, with that incorruption and good odour of her body which continues to this day." It is easy to imagine how a parcel of artful monks, by the use of perfumes, might deceive the simple, and impart fragrance to the body of one recently deceased, and even to a chest full of dry bones; and thus it was in their power to lay a foundation for the canonization of any person they pleased. The following is one of the miracles which procured this honour for the idol of Pazzi:-" Then, when her virgin body was after her death exposed in the church, there was a concourse of people of all ages, sexes, and qualities, to see it, touch it, and pay veneration to it. Among others, a young man of an irregular and licentious life, advanced towards the body to touch it. The saint, as if she had been alive, had a horror of that dunghill, and turned her head on the other side. This action touched the young man so to the quick, that he made a firm resolution to amend. This miracle was attested by a reverend Jesuit, who was an eyewitness of it, with many others." I dare not give more particulars of this saint, lest my readers should throw my paper aside with disgust. Suffice it to say that the story is much more gross than St. Wenefride. St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, however, has a distinguished place among the idols papal Rome; and I have received from an intelligent correspondent, an impression of a little image of her, such as her devotees wear about their neck.

I related in my last number how St. Viar was unsainted when it was discovered that he had been no better than a mender of roads, though I believe few of the saints were so honourably and usefully employed. I shall now give an account of one who was in danger of being deprived, and struck from the calendar, had the credit of his saintship not been established by the smell of his bones. The relation is given by one who was an eyewitness of this, and of innumerable other popish tricks to deceive the people, and who afterwards was so convinced of

the iniquity of the system, that he renounced it and embraced the Protestant faith. This, of course, will overthrow his credit with every good Papist, and every fact of his will be called a forgery, though he relates nothing worse than what can be proved by a hundred other witnesses. It is a rule with writers of controversy on the popish side, that nothing is to be believed that is written by a Protestant, unless he be such a one as Heylen, the companion of Laud, who was more than three-fourths a Papist.

"I can give you on this subject," says the writer in a letter to a friend, "the result of a conference, at which I was present myself, sometime ago, at Blois in France, upon occasion of several relics kept in the parish of St. Victor, two leagues distant from that city. These relics were much out of order, in old wooden cases, all wormeaten and rotten with age, which hindered them from being carried in procession, and exposed to public view. The concern, therefore, was to have them more modishly accommodated, and transported into new cases. To this end the bishop of Chartres was petitioned to perform the translation, who presently sent his order to the archdeacon of Blois for that purpose; who assembled several of the clergy to consult with the curates and priests of St. Victor about the precautions to be observed in that translation. The resolution was, that to avoid the scandal that might happen, if nothing should chance to be found in the old cases, and to prevent the declining of the good opinion and devotion of the people, in case only some few bones should be found in them, the transportation of them into the new ones should not be done in public, but as private as possibly might be, in the presence of only some prudent persons, who might be ready to remedy all sorts of accidents upon occasion: I was desired by some friends of the archdeacon, to be present with them; and I can assure you, sir, that the resolution was taken, if it should chance that nothing were found in the cases, to maintain peremptorily that the bodies of the saints were there whole and entire. And to allay somewhat the scruples that might start by occasion of this proceeding, a canon of St. Saviour's church of Blois, a man resolute and of a small conscience, maintained in the face of the assembly, that no difficulty ought to be made of asserting such a thing, though altogether false: that in a case where the interest of the church was concerned, all manner of respects and sentiments whatsoever were to be given up; that the mysteries of the Catholics were not to be exposed to the raillery of the heretics, (so they call the Protestants,) who would not fail to mock at them, so soon as they should understand that nothing had been found in the cases of St. Victor, which for so long a time had been the object of the people's adoration; besides, that the devotion of laics, in assisting the clergy, was already so far cooled, that scarce any thing now was to be got from them, but by some pious fraud or holy artifice. The archdeacon heard all his discourse without contradicting him in the least; and the curate of the parish, as being the person most concerned in the case, very officiously returned him his most hearty thanks. This done, they proceeded to the opening of the cases; and the truth is, bones either of saints or no saints were found in them. In the mean time, a monk of the abbey of St. Lomer in Blois, who was present, cried out at the very instant, that he smelt a very sweet odour which proceeded

from them, wherewith he was so strongly seized, that it was likely to overcome him. A young religious (his companion) seconded him immediately, and some country people of the parish protested the very same thing. The archdeacon, and the rest of the company, freely declared that they smelt nothing: yet forasmuch as it might be, that those persons having some more particular merit before God, he might think them worthy of receiving the like favours; it was ordered that their attestation should be received, and set in the margin of the verbal process which was then making of that translation, the original of which was to be shut up with the relics in the new cases. I had the curiosity some weeks after, in the time of vintage, to examine some of these persons about the odour they pretended to have smelt, of what kind it was; whereupon some of them said it was the scent of a rose, others of jessamin, and others of violet: but finding that they faltered in their expressions, and smiled withal, I took occasion to press them more seriously, so that at the upshot they confessed, that the good opinion they had of the two monks, which first started the matter, had drawn them in, and in a manner forced their imagination to believe, that they smelt that which they never had smelt indeed." Frauds of Romish Monks and Priests, vol. i. pages 8-10.

The author has a roundabout way of telling his story, on which account I will give the sequel in my own way. He got the young monk to confess that he had smelt nothing of the miraculous odour; but being ashamed to be supposed less gifted with heavenly favours than his brother, he had pretended to be sensible of it. He acknowledged, (being a young inexperienced man,) that he had had some qualms of conscience on account of what he had done, that he had consulted his superiors about the matter, and that they told him the rule in such cases was, to consider whether the thing was for the glory of God, and the advantage of the order to which he belonged. They did not hesitate to affirm "that it was not against the glory of God to advance the honour of one of his saints, especially when some circumstances that were both glorious and profitable to that order, engaged the doing of it; and that all the evil that could be supposed in the case, came but to this, to say, that God had done what he might have done, and which he had done on many other occasions; which at the highest could be no more than a small venial sin; as, they say all lies are, that do not infringe justice, that is to say, that do nobody any harm." It was impossible, however, to make the old monk depart from his first declaration. He persisted in maintaining that the odour had not only been smelled by him at the opening of the chest, but that it had followed him every where so long as a particle of the dust of the relics remained upon his clothes. Thus St. Victor's saintship was confirmed; and he remains in the calendar an object of worship to all the simple faithful who cannot raise their minds to a higher object.

"On

I give the following as a specimen of the process of canonization. I could produce a number of such cases; but let this one suffice. the 12th of May, 1707, a general congregation to confer upon the rights of the church, having been summoned by the pope's order, wherein Cardinal Pamphilio required their approbation of the miracles wrought by Andrew Avellino, of the order of the Theatines. These miracles were eight in number; of which, after a full and serious

The

disquisition, the three following were solemnly ratified by the general consent and concurrent votes of the whole congregation, viz. third, which was the first in order, being a cure performed on the person of Jacob Giovio, who was miraculously restored to the entire use of his limbs by the said Andrew Avellino, though his sinews had been shrunk, and a deadly palsy had seized one side of his body. The next was the fourth in order, namely, the healing a dangerous wound John Battista Corrizo had received in his head; and that without the appearance of the least mark or scar. The last was the restoring Scipio Arleo's child to health, by curing it of a great braise in its forehead, and of a wry neck.

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As these miracles were the fruits of his most exemplary piety, and heroic virtues, the holy assembly being authorized to it by the consent and directions of his holiness, declared, that in conformity to the customs of the holy Roman church, and by the authority of the same, the forenamed Andrew Avellino might and ought to be deemed a saint, and be canonized accordingly." Romish Ecclesiastical History of late years, p. 6.

This Andrew Avellino was accordingly canonized, along with several others, with much pomp and ceremony; and became of course an object of that religious worship which is due to those idols which the pope has set up. It is, indeed, only that sort of worship which they call dulia; but as I have shown in a former number, the distinction between this and latria is absolutely unintelligible to the unlearned, and perhaps also the learned themselves. Let them say what they will in theory, this is practically the adoration of a creature; it is trust or confidence in a creature, which is, in scripture, condemned as a departing from the living God. Let a person go into one of their great churches, where there are a number of altars: before one altar he will see a group of prostrate worshippers praying, Holy Jesus, have mercy upon us; before another altar, a group praying, Holy Mary, have mercy upon us; before a third altar, the prayer is, Holy St. Peter, have mercy upon us; and so on, before all the altars that are dedicated to all the saints: nay, the same individual will pay his devotions at several altars the same day, not sure that he will succeed in his suit at any one altar, or by addressing one saint; he makes it is as sure as possible, by addressing as many as he can, or as many as he can afford to pay, for no one must approach an altar without a gift. Now when the same words are addressed to the different objects of worship, with the same apparent devotion, who is able to distinguish between latria, dulia, and hyperdulia? Nay, let any man consider the following extract from a prayer which Mr. Andrews has provided for the devout worshippers of St. Wenefride, and say if stronger words can be used in addressing the Supreme Deity. "O blessed St. Wenefride, hear the prayers and receive the humble supplications of thy devout pilgrims, and obtain, that by thy pious intercession, God of his infinite mercy will be pleased to grant us a full pardon and remission of our sins, and a blessing to this our pilgrimage; and that we may increase and persevere in God's grace, and enjoy him eternally in heaven. This we beg of thee, O blessed virgin and martyr, for Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour's sake. Amen." In the beginning of this extract, the saint is addressed as mediator with God, to procure blessings by her

pious intercession; at the close of the prayer, Jesus Christ is represented as Mediator with her, and she is entreated to grant the blessings for his sake, which is actually putting her in the place of God the Father. My readers, I am afraid, will scarcely believe that such impiety exists in the present day, but I assure them that the above are the concluding words of a book printed in 1817, and strongly recommended by W. Eusebius Andrews.

I have met with no popish writer who can explain to me how they get their prayers conveyed to the saints in heaven, or how they know that they reach that place. As I conferred several favours on Mr. Andrews in my last number but one, I request of him the favour of a paper or two on this subject. I must suppose, that he very piously makes use of the prayers which he has composed for the worshippers of his favourite idol, St. Wenefride; and he must know that a number of pilgrims are every day paying their devotions at her holy well: now I ask him seriously, how she can attend to all the prayers of these pilgrims in Wales, and at the same time hear his prayers in Drake street, Red Lion square, London? Or, supposing her to be in heaven, how can she attend to either the one or the other? If Mr. Andrews shall make this intelligible and credible, he will show himself to be as great a man as the unanswerable Dr. Milner himself.

For want of popish authority on this subject, I take the following from THE PROTESTANT ADVOCATE, in the Antijacobin Review, for April last. "1st, The saints know the prayers of men by the agency of angels, who are always passing backwards and forwards. 2d, The saints themselves are always passing backwards and forwards. 3d, The saints view all things in God from the moment of their beatitude. 4th, That this is not the case, but our prayers are then only revealed to them by God when they are made. The first two have lived their day, and although they once blinded the minds of the weak, they are now generally allowed to be nonsense. The third fast approaches the same fate; for the expression, view all things in God, begins to be regarded as words without meaning."-" Hence, the last, is the one at present depended upon."

It

My readers will agree with me that this is not a proper subject of levity; and yet it is difficult to treat it with becoming reverence. is no doubt possible with God to communicate to the saints in heaven the prayers of their friends on earth; but it may be asked for what conceivable purpose? The grossest idolater will not say in plain words that the saints are upon a footing of equality with God, and that he must consult them whether it be proper to grant all or any of the petitions which he is supposed to communicate to them; or that he must suspend the granting of such petitions as he approves, till the saints express their approbation. I know it is alleged that God grants the petitions that are addressed to the saints, and which he makes known to them, in consideration of the singular merits of the saints; but this only leads to other, and equally fatal errors: it is putting the merits of mere creatures in the place of Christ's righteousness; while, in point of fact, there is not a particle of merit to be found among all the saints in heaven. Their unceasing acknowledgment, in common with that of the saints on earth, is, "Not by works of righteousness which we VOL. I.-45