Council of Lateran decrees Transubstantiation. Feast of Corpus Christi. popish butchers at Smithfield, and the fires kindled by the bloody Mary, were scarcely extinguished in England, when the events I have just related occurred in Spain. Such is popish morality, and such is popish justice. § 94. It was in this council also, that the absurd dogma of transubstantiation was first enjoined as an article of faith by pope Innocent, who himself stamped upon that doctrine the name by which it has ever since been designated. Since the days of Innocent, what multitudes of holy men and women have expired amidst the flames of martyrdom, because they refused assent to this outrage upon common sense, first established as an article of faith in the year 1215. The reader, familiar with the days of bloody queen Mary of England, need not be told that a belief in this dogma was then generally made the test question by popish persecutors, upon the denial of which the martyrs of that age were consigned to the flames. In the words of the learned Archbishop Tillotson, this doctrine of Transubstantiation "has been, in the church of Rome, the great burning article; and as absurd and unreasonable as it is, more Christians have been murdered for the denial of it, than perhaps for all the other articles of their religion." What protestant will not join in the pious exclamation of this excellent prelate and powerful opponent of Popery. "O blessed Saviour! thou best friend and greatest lover of mankind, who can imagine that thou didst ever intend that men should kill one another, for not being able to believe contrary to their senses? for being unwilling to think that thou shouldst make one of the most horrid and barbarous things that can be imagined, a main duty and principal mystery of thy religion? for not flattering the pride and presumption of the priest who says he can make God, and for not complying with the folly and stupidity of the people who are made to believe that they can eat him?"t § 95. The worship of the Host or wafer was a natural result of the monstrous doctrine of Transubstantiation as established at this council of Lateran. Accordingly, we find that this idolatry was soon grafted upon that popish innovation. From the Roman canon law we learn that pope Honorius, who succeeded Innocent III., shortly after the council, ordered that the priests, at a certain part of the mass service, should elevate the consecrated wafer, and at the same instant the people should prostrate themselves before it in worship. (See Frontispiece.) About fifty years after the council-that is, in the year 1264that celebrated festival, still observed with so much pomp and parade in popish countries, called the Feast of Corpus Christi, or Body of Christ, was established by pope Urban IV. In this feast, the wafer idol is carried through the streets in procession, amidst * For the historical account of the origin of this doctrine, see above, Book iv., Chap. 2, pp. 192-206. Tillotson on Transubstantiation, p. 277. Procession of Corpus Christi in Roman Catholic countries. scenes of merriment, rejoicing and illumination, and upon its approach all fall down on their knees and worship it till it has passed by. The cause of the establishment of this festival of the holy sacrament, as it was also called, was as follows. A certain fanatical woman named Juliana declared that as often as she addressed herself to God, or to the saints in prayer, she saw the full moon with a small defect or breach in it; and that, having long studied to find out the signification of this strange appearance, she was inwardly informed by the spirit, that the moon signified the church, and that the defect or breach was the want of an annual festival in honor of the holy sacrament. Few gave attention or credit to this pretended vision, whose circumstances were extremely equivocal and absurd, and which would have come to nothing, had it not been supported by Robert, bishop of Liege, who, in the year 1246, published an order for the celebration of this festival throughout the whole province, notwithstanding the opposition he knew would be made to a proposal founded only on an idle dream. After the death of Juliana, one of her friends and companions, whose name was Eve, took up her name with uncommon zeal, and had credit enough with Urban IV. to engage him to publish, in the year 1264, a solemn edict, by which the festival in question was imposed upon all the Christian churches, without exception. Diestemus, a prior of the Benedictine monks, relates a miracle, as one cause of the establishment of this senseless, idolatrous festival. He tells us that a certain priest having some doubts of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, blood flowed from the consecrated wafer into the cup or chalice, and also upon the corporale or linen cloth upon which the host and the chalice are placed. The corporale, having been brought, all bloody as it was, to Urban, the prior tells us that the Pope was convinced of the miracle, and thereupon appointed the solemnity of Corpus Christi to be annually celebrated.* § 96. In all Roman Catholic countries, special honors are paid to the wafer idol, as it is borne through the streets either on the festival of Corpus Christi, or on any other occasion. In Spain, when a priest carries the consecrated wafer to a dying man, a person with a small bell accompanies him. At the sound of the bell, all who hear it are obliged to fall on their knees, and to remain in that posture till they hear it no longer. "Its sound operates like magic on the Spaniards. In the midst of a gay, noisy party, the word, Sa Majestad' (his Majesty, the term they apply to the host) will bring every one upon his knees until the tinkling dies in the distance. Are you at dinner? you must leave the table; in bed? you must, at least, sit up. But the most preposterous effect of this custom is to be seen at the theatres. On the approach of the host to any military guard, the drum beats, the men are drawn out, and, as soon as the priest can be seen, they bend the right knee and invert the firelocks, placing the point of the * Diestemus, Commen. ad annum 1496-quoted by Bower vi., 296. Violence to a stranger in Rome for not bowing the knee to the idol. bayonet on the ground. As an officer's guard is always stationed at the door of a Spanish theatre, I have often laughed in my sleeve at the effect of the chamade both upon the actors and the company. Dios, Dios, (A God, A God,) resounds from all parts of the house, and every one falls that moment upon his knees. The actors' ranting, or the rattling of the castanets in the fandango, is hushed for a few minutes, till the sound of the bell growing fainter and fainter, the amusement is resumed, and the devout performers are once more upon their legs, anxious to make amends for the interruption." At such a time as this, wo be to the man, in any Popish country, who refuses to bend the knee, or at least to take off his hat in honor of the, idol. Says Professor S. F. B. Morse, in a work published some few years ago, and who witnessed the celebration of the festival of Corpus Christi at Rome, "I was a stranger in Rome, and recovering from the debility of a slight fever; I was walking for air and gentle exercise in the Corso, on the day of the celebration of the Corpus Domini. From the houses on each side of the street were hung rich tapestries and gold embroidered damasks, and toward me slowly advanced a long procession, decked out with all the heathenish paraphernalia of this self-styled church. In a part of the procession a lofty baldichino, or canopy, borne by men, was held above the idol, the host, before which, as it passed, all heads were uncovered, and every knee bent but mine. Ignorant of the customs of heathenism, I turned my back to the procession, and close to the side of the houses in the crowd (as I supposed unobserved), I was noting in my tablets the order of the assemblage. I was suddenly aroused from my occupation, and staggered by a blow upon the head from the gun and bayonet of a soldier, which struck off my hat far into the crowd. Upon recovering from the shock, the soldier, with the expression of a demon, and his mouth pouring forth a torrent of Italian oaths, in which il diavolo had a prominent place, stood with his bayonet against my breast. I could make no resistance; I could only ask him why he struck me, and receive in answer his fresh volley of unintelligible imprecations, which having delivered, he resumed his place in the guard of honor, by the side of the officiating Cardinal."+ Such is the manner in which those who refuse to bow the knee to idols are treated in popish countries, and such is the way, should Popery become generally prevalent and powerful in the United States, that such would be treated here. (See Engraving.) * Doblada's Letters from Spain, p. 13. + Foreign Conspiracy against the Liberties of the United States-by Saml. F. B. Morse, Prof. in the University of New York; p. 172. In Cincinnati, papists have already become sufficiently daring to insult American citizens, and knock off their hats unless they render proper homage to the popish processions, which are already beginning to make the "Queen City of the West" resemble some of the popish cities of Europe. I have before me a letter of the Honorable Alexander Duncan, at that time a Senator of the State of Ohio, dated January 10th, 1835, giving an account of such an insult offered to him in |