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Protestant religion! Give us back then our two thousand monks, and I will let you retain your Thirty-nine Articles.

Let me, however, remind you that in the Pelagian controversy, to which you refer, in this imaginary era of your fabled Church, the British bishops invoked the aid of the French bishops to settle the differences which that controversy originated; and that in consequence Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, with the concurrence of Pope Celestine, twice visited Britain; once in 429, in company with Lupus of Troyes, and again in 446 with Severus of Treves, and succeeded in putting an end to the controversy. Here we have foreign Bishops coming to Britain with the concurrence of a Pope, to settle religious disputes, and that too in Protestant days; according to your agreeable theory, many years before Popery had been known in the island!

Who, moreover, I ask you, was the first Archbishop of Canterbury? Was it not this very Augustine, a Popish Missionary from Pope Gregory the Great, who, by the Pope's desire, received Archiepiscopal consecration for Canterbury from the Archbishop of Arles? though any of your parsons may, according to your assertion, trace, "if they please," their spiritual descent from Peter or Paul, yet assuredly this descent must come through Augustine and the Archbishop of Arles, and thus approach much

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nearer the Roman Chancery than would suit your theory.

There is, however, no doubt at all that the Roman Catholic religion existed in Britain before the mission of Augustine, whose mission was to the Saxons, and not to the Britons, in this island. The Britons were Catholics, the Saxons, for the most part, Heathens, and to the Heathens did Gregory send a mission, which was eminently successful. In fact, there was a meeting between the British Bishops and these missionaries, and the only points in dispute between them were the proper day for keeping Easter, and the proper mode of administering Baptism-an abundant proof that the two parties considered themselves essentially of the same religion. The fact that Augustine required the British Bishops to assist him in converting the Saxons, which they refused to do, is another proof that this "Popish Missionary "considered the British Churches Catholic; for most certainly he never would have invited clergymen of your Church to help him in the task.

I deem it, however, unnecessary to fight any more against your phantom, and therefore must dismiss the subject, requesting you to peruse a little tract (enclosed with this letter), in which I have endeavoured to show, in a clear and popular manner, that our Lord appointed Peter head of the Church, and that the Bishops of Rome are the successors of Peter's authority.

This tract I shall distribute largely in Tuddington; for as you have preached and published on the question of Apostolical succession, I think it right that the good people of this town should know the whole truth connected with this important subject.

Your faithful Servant,

AUGUSTUS O'NEIL.

[Here the correspondence between the Vicar and the Catholic Priest seems to have terminated, for I cannot find that Rabshakeh ever wrote a reply to the letter No. X. There is, however, on the back of this letter a short sentence, in pencil, in the Vicar's handwriting, which may perhaps account for this silence, "N. B.-It is easier to abuse the Dissenters than to answer the Catholics."-In fact, this great Divine had a very great respect for the Roman Catholics, and always wished to be on good terms with them —ED.]

LETTER XI.

From the Reverend RABSHAKEH GATHERCOAL

DEAR BROTHER,

to L. S. E.

My

THE battle is raging in Tuddington; it begins to be very hot work, and I must expect my buffets and blows, according to the lot of war. sermon, which Dr. Birch calls my golden sermon, and which he says entitles me to the honourable name of Chrysostom, or "golden mouth,” I sent to be printed in London—a large edition of 1500 copies, which I have distributed gratis-for that obstinate fellow Timson will have nothing to do with it. It is, however, to be purchased at the brandy vaults of my prime minister Stubbs, and the neighbouring clergy have sent for it by dozens.

It is not to be supposed that I have remained silent after my first song; I assure you I have followed up the "golden sermon " with repeated blows of the same sort, always preaching the Gospel from L. S. E., the best expositor of the truth I can anywhere find. Last Sunday I preached on the subject of Death on the Pale Horse, which I proved was the system of dissent "killing the fourth part of the earth with

beasts." The beasts I showed were the various forms of schism; and so having noticed various beasts, I came to foxes and other vermin, and declared how, in Canticles, "the little foxes that spoil our grapes" were the Dissenters nibbling at our tithes. Then apostrophising the whole body of schismatics I said, "You hate tithes I know, probably for the same reason for which the fox disliked the grapes; but you would be glad of the tenth of the tithe of such decisive evidence in support of your unscriptural system, as we can show for Episcopal authority.* I have shown, beyond the power of contradiction, that no such system as that you advocate has any foundation in the word of God. You may, indeed, just as easily prove from the Holy Scriptures, that all the metamorphoses, or all the nonsensical fables of the Heathen Mythologies are true, as your new fancied system of Dissent." (L. S. E. pp. 174.)

The schismatics, of course, are furious, and have bestirred themselves to let me know that wasps can sting. The first annoyance I have experienced is in the diminution of the congregations; last Sunday Stubbs counted only 200, which looked a small company in our large church. I am, however, going to preach a sermon against

*The wit of the Gathercoal family is of the most refined order; the Bishop of London pronounces it to be pure Attic salt.

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