ITALY. SS9 



repeated without sacrilege. I do also receive and admit the received 

 and approved rites of the catholic church in her solemn administra- 

 tion of the above said sacraments. 



"I do embrace and receive all and every thing that hath been de- 

 fined and declared by the holy council of Trent* concerning original 

 .sin and justification. 



u I do also profess that in the mass there is offered unto God a 

 true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead j 

 and that in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there is truly, 

 really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul 

 and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is a conversion 

 made of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the 

 whole substance of the wine into the blood ; which conversion the 

 catholic church calls Transubstantiation. I confess that under one 

 kind only, whole and entire, Christ and a true sacrament is taken and 

 received 



"I do firmly believe that there is a purgatory; and that the souls 

 kept prisoners there do receive help by the suffrages of the faithful, 



" I do likewise believe that the saints reigning together with Christ 

 are to be worshipped and prayed unto ; and that they do offer up 

 prayers unto God for us, and that their relics are to be had in vene- 

 ration. 



"1 do most firmly assert that the images of Christ, of the blessed 

 Virgin the mother of God, and of other saints, ought to be had and 

 retained, and that due honour and veneration ought to be given unto 

 them.f 



" I do likewise affirm, that the power of indulgences was left by 

 Christ to the church, and that the use of them is very beneficial to 

 christian people. 



"I do acknowledge the holy catholic and apostolical Roman church 

 to be the mother and mistress of all churches : and I do promise and 

 swear true obedience to the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. 

 Peter, the prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ. 



" I do undoubtedly receive and profess all other things which have 

 been delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred cannons and oecu- 

 menical councils, and especially by the holy synod of Trent. And all 

 other things contrary thereto,, and all heresies condemned, rejected, 

 and anathematised by the church; I do likewise condemn, reject, and 

 anathematise." 



* A convocation of Roman-catholic cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and divines, 

 ■who assembled at Trent, by virtue of a bull from the pope, anno 1546, and devoted 

 to him, to determine upon certain points of faith, and to suppress what they were 

 pleased to term the rising heresies in the church. 



-J- An English traveller, speaking of a religious procession some years ago at 

 Florence, in Italy, describes it as follows : " I had occasion," says he, " to see a 

 procession where all the noblesse of the city attended in their coaches. It was the 

 anniversary of a charitable institution in favour of poor maidens, a certain number 

 of whom are portioned every year. About two hundred of these virgins walked 

 in procession, two and two together. They were preceded and followed by an 

 irregular mob of penitents, in sackcloth, with lighted tapers, and monks carrying 

 crucifixes, bawling and bellowing the litanies ; but the greatest object was the 

 figure of the Virgin Mary, as big as the life, standing within a gilt frame, dressed 

 in a gold stuff, with a large hoop, a great quantity of false jewels, her face paint. 

 ed and patched, and her hair frizzled and curled in the very extremity of the fa- 

 shion. Very little regard had been paid to the image of our Saviour on the cross; 

 but when the Lady Mother appeared on the shoulders of three or four lusty friars, 

 the whole populace fell upon their knees in the dirt," 



Vol. I. 4 D 



