18^ J Irish Priesls in parlictilar. 499 



Dr. Doyle's unchristian refusals to permit those persons to be buried in 

 consecrated ground that had not gone to confession within the year — 

 hence the mummery of Jesuit processions in France — hence the drunken 

 riots in Ireland, by which the priests hoped to keep the people, by 

 extending to them a plenary absolution for rapine and bloodshed — ^hence 

 the whole train of evils that have steeped one island in interminable 

 misery, and communicated the plague of discontent to another. 



It was by a few atrocious dogmas that the priesthood originally dared 

 that height which they have kept by a mendacious profligacy, and the 

 united ordnance of divine wrath and political penalties. Exclusive sal- 

 vation is the terrible injunction that is written on the scarlet forehead. 

 It is to be found in the canons and the catechisms ; it is taught in the 

 schools, and proclaimed at the altar ; a Catholic may blaspheme his 

 IMaker, but he dares not question the monopoly of his church. The 

 effect of this dogma was to alarm the weak and timid beyond the pale, 

 and delude them in, while it terrified the fold into a miserable obedience. 

 Thus numbers increased, and the triumph of the spreading imposture 

 was consummated. 



Another canon that aided these ministers of a relentless superstition, 

 was, that the church could never err. She had, consequently, a carte 

 blanche upon the places of punishment and reward, and for tlie conve- 

 nience of disposing the more lucratively of her patronage, she built a 

 half-way house on the road, where she permitted earthly travellers to rest 

 until their friends could purchase their passports into the Elysian fields. 

 The mechanism of these dogmas is ingeniously contrived; and while we 

 abhor their fearful levity, we must acknowledge the perverted cleverness 

 with which they are contrived. To say that the church cannot err, is to 

 invest it with all arbitrary power : it is but another mode of placing 

 ecclesiastical authority over the laws of God. Yet it is by the admission 

 of this sweeping principle, that the Catholics have subjected themselves 

 to the charge of folly, idolatry, and ignorance. If the church cannot err, 

 then it can prove right to be wrong with mathematical correctness, as it has 

 frequently attempted to do. Oh ! but we are answered that the church is 

 the assembly of cardinals, with the pope at their head ; that it is the 

 impersonation of the canons and the words of the gospel, and the bye 

 laws of tradition, and the expositions of the fathers, &c., all of which can 

 only be interpreted by the holy congress, whose interpretations must, 

 consequently, be implicitly received. This is what logicians call beg- 

 ging the question. The entire fabrication is set aside by the simple 

 inquiry which has been so often made, and never satisfied — Who con- 

 stituted the pope and the cardinals the sole depositaries, and exclusive 

 exponents of the will of the Almighty ? 



The popish clergy had powerful auxiliaries in forcing upon Europe 

 in iu barbarous state their odious supremacy. Not the least were their 

 gorgeoiis ceremonies, that addressed the imagination through the senses, 

 and made converts of the passions at the expense of the understanding. 

 Painting and sculpture, which have flourished in higher perfection in 

 Italy than in any other part of the world, were called in as the hand- 

 maids of the splendid delusion. Decorated altar-pieces, representations 

 of the divine agonies, emblazoned windows, and the effigies of fictitious 

 martyrs, imparted to their churches all the attractions, softened into 

 religious solemfiity, of the inost captivating theatres. Ther ' wa? 

 nothing forgotten that art could supply to make the scene imposing, and 



3 S 2 



