336 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACiriC. 



poraries, which ought rather to have excited admiration than 

 bitter and impious censure ! Such is the way in which Villa- 

 nueva, above all, has composed his libels, infamaiory as re- 

 gards the person of the Pope, and seditious in respect to the 

 authority of the See. 



I would say to them, with Melchor Cano, that, discredit- 

 ing the Pope, and crying for that reason the vices of the court 

 of Rome, even if they were ascertained, they imitate the in- 

 solent Cam, who discovered and turned into jest the shame of 

 his father! Do they think, in this manner, to render honest 

 their perfidy and rebellion against the common father of Chris- 

 tians? Let them remember, (adds the same learned man), that 

 Jesus Christ shut to them this door, saying, 'The Scribes and 

 Pharisees sit in Moses's seat ; all, therefore, whatsoever they 

 bid you observe, that observe and do ; but do not ye after 

 their works.' (Mat. 23, 2.) The zeal which ye feign, to heal 

 Rome of the inveterate hectic, which, according to you, pene- 

 trates to the bonesj ye had better reserve to cure the pesti- 

 lential gangrene of pride and rebellion that has ulcerated your 

 hearts. While ye are internally infirm, ye cannot hope to see 

 and judge of things as they are. Does Rome scandalize you ? 

 Review other courts, all tribunals, the episcopal curacies ; in 

 every place that men are found ye will find incorrigible abuses, 

 incurable vices. For this then will it be necessary to throw 

 off all authority, and have neither pope, nor rectors of the peo- 

 ple, nor magistrates, nor bishops ?" 



Such are the ideas of a large party in South America. Every 

 means to preserve the church and the purity of the faith, were 

 resorted to by the governments at the very commencement of 

 the revolution. Living as we do, in a land where every man 

 is at liberty to follow his own religious inclinations and opin- 

 ions, we can have but a faint idea of the mightiness of Catho- 

 licism when united to the political government. Nor can we 

 perhaps justly appreciate the reasons advanced for its support, 

 in countries where but one religion, or rather sect, prevails ; 

 at least, not till we take into consideration the mental thral- 

 dom in which the people have been held by the edicts and 

 dogmas of the Catholic clergy. The veil of ignorance that so 



