Oh what a burst of grateful joy
Must from Lutterworth's shrine have rose,
When truth unmixed from all alloy
Was there proclaimed, despite of foes:
That pardon from a righteous God
Was written with a Saviour's blood.
In tears he sowed that precious seed
Which we see blooming in the earth;
That Book the poorest now may read,
A Wickliffe's labours brought to birth.-
Amid the gloom he shone afar
The Reformation's Morning Star.*
The Severn's + waters may have borne
His ashes to the boundless deep;
Like seeds those ashes may be sown
Where yet their virtues seem to sleep,
But by God's grace a Wickliffe's zeal
Shall Britain save from Popish thrall.

INTELLIGENCE.

SOUTHWARK.-The quarterly meeting of the Church of England's Working Men's Bible and Missionary Association, was held at the School-room, Union Street, Borough, on Tuesday, 31st March. The Rev. W. Curling presided. Mr. Basey, an operative, addressed the meeting in a neat, judicious and pious speech. Mr. Dalton also, and Mr. Callow, addressed the meeting at some length and with great energy. The Rev. Chairman announced a Protestant Operative Association for Southwark as on the eve of formation, which has since been established, under his kind auspices.

Finsbury Operative Association.-The second monthly meeting of this Society was held in Little Queen Street, Bedford Row,

Wickliffe was born 1324-died 1384.

+ About 44 years after Wickliffe's death his bones were dug up and burnt, by order of the second Council of Constance, A. D. 1428. His ashes were cast into the brook Swift at Lutterworth, the Swift conveyed them to the Avon, the Avon to the

Severn, the Severn to the mighty Ocean.-Vide Christian Records, sect. 3, chap. 6.

on Monday, April 13th. Mr. Dalton took the chair. The meeting was addressed by the chairman, after which the Rev. Hobart Seymour, and an operative of the name of Armstrong, spoke at some length and much to the purpose on the subject of tradition. The meeting was frequently interrupted by a few Roman Catholics; whose interference however had the effect of drawing from the speakers a good many solid truths, which might not otherwise have been stated. We sincerely trust that these meetings may always be conducted on the part of our Protestant friends in a spirit of love and kindness, and that they will endeavour to adorn the doctrine of their God and Saviour, and show their Roman Catholic neighbours what a blessed and happy influence" the truth as it is in Jesus" has produced upon their hearts and lives. Towards the close of the meeting, Mr. Callow read the piece of poetry which elicited great applause. After singin the present number of the Operative, ing the Doxology, the meeting dispersed.

PROTESTANT MEETING.-We hope our operative friends will recollect that the Annual Meeting of the Protestant Association will take place in the great Hall, Exeter Hall, on Wednesday, the 13th of May. The Rev. Hugh Stowell, and the Rev. Robt. J. McGhee will attend, and address the meeting.

PROTESTANT SERMON.-The Annual Sermon of the Protestant Association was preached at St. Clement Dane's Church on Wednesday, the 22nd of April, by the Rev. E. BICKERSTETH, M.A., Rector of Watton. The text was Rev. XVIII. v. 4.

PROTESTANT SERMON.-Our Operative friends will be glad to hear that a sermon will be preached (D.v.) at the Parish Church of Wapping, on behalf of the Protestant Association, on Sunday Morning, May 10th, by the Rev. John Parry, M.A., Rector of St. John of Wapping.

No. 3.

POPISH SHRINES.

PERHAPS the most celebrated Popish Shrine that ever existed in England was that of Thomas-à-Becket. The gold taken from his shrine at Canterbury filled two large chests, each of them as heavy as eight strong men could carry. Some account of this Romish prelate and his famous shrine may be interesting to our readers, and serve to show them the wicked priestcraft of Popery, whose covetousness seems to declare that she considers gain to be godliness. Thomas-à-Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry II., and engaged in open rebellion against that monarch. Some hasty expressions of Henry induced four of his courtiers to kill the prelate, unknown to that monarch, for which he had to submit to a severe penance. The monks gave out that miracles were performed by the relics of Becket, and he was soon after canonized by the Pope and extolled far above the apostles. Among other wonders told of him by Romish writers, it was related that the Virgin Mary once paid him a visit, and spoke to him at some length. The following extract will shew what awful language the Romish writers put into the mouth of the virgin: "Rejoice," said the Blessed Virgin to Becket, "because my Son is always obedient to me and my will, and my prayers he always heareth. Whatsoever doth please me the whole Trinity doth give consent unto."

VOL. I.

For three hundred years was this worldly minded rebellious prelate worshipped as a saint, and two festivals were celebrated in honor of his name; and a day is still set apart for his honor in the Romish service book. Every fiftieth year a jubilee was proclaimed, with great indulgences to all who visited his shrine; and on one occasion, in the year 1420, it was recorded that 100,000 pilgrims were at once in Canterbury, to visit his tomb. The laity were induced by the falsehoods and cunning artifices of the priests to bring the most costly offerings to his shrine.

Some particulars of these are also recorded. At Canterbury there were three altars, or shrines of note; and in one year the amounts offered were as follows: at Christ's altar, £3 2: 6; at the Virgin's, £63 56; but to Thomas-à-Becket, £832: 17: 3. Nor was this a solitary instance: in the following year, at Christ's altar not a penny was offered; at the Virgin's only £41: 8; but to Thomas-àBecket, £954: 6: 3. When we consider the difference in the value of money, we may safely calculate that this sum was equal to fifty or sixty thousand pounds now-a-days.

The Romish church also practised a great many juggling tricks to get money from the people; and even to the present day she is guilty of similar frauds in other countries.

At the Abbey of Reading many pretended relics used to be shown: among them were the spear-head which pierced the side of

our Lord, and an angel with one wing, which was said to have brought it over to England! At Bury St. Edmond's, some parings of the toe-nails of their patron saint, coals which had roasted St. Lawrence, Thomas-à-Becket's boots, &c. &c.; but it is needless to enumerate such articles. Many pieces of our Saviour's cross were shewn in different places, more than sufficient to make a cross of the largest size. Indeed, it is said that there are pieces of wood shewn in various parts of Europe, as bits of the true cross, at the present day, enough to supply a town with fuel for a winter. This being lately noticed to a Roman Catholic, he seriously stated, that the true cross had doubtless increased miraculously, like the widow's cruise of oil mentioned in 2 Kings iv. 4.

Similar absurdities are still countenanced by the Church of Rome, and abound in every country unhappily placed beneath her despotic sway. In France, Spain, and the Netherlands, eight arms of St. Matthew are exhibited.

When the French invaded Italy, in the year 1797, and Popery for a time gave way to infidelity, more than thirty pictures of the Virgin are related to have rolled their eyes, and seven to have wept! This is gravely stated in a work sanctioned by Romish bishops, containing copies of these pictures. The following is an extract from the letter of an English clergyman who visited the continent in the year 1823: "At Courtnay, a priest gravely showed us a nail and several pieces of the wood of the cross, the sponge in which the vinegar was offered to our Saviour, a part of the girdle of our Lord, a link of the chain with which St. Peter was martyred, an arm and some of the hair of John the Baptist, a tooth of St. Thomas, some bones of Simeon and other relics. I asked the priest if all these were matters of faith; he replied, 'No; but they rested on the most undoubted historical evidence.""

We need scarcely add anything further, than in conclusion to refer to the Pope's decree, in which he exhorted "the faithful" to make pilgrimages to Rome in the year of Jubilee, 1825; and among other things, invited them to behold the cradle in which Christ was laid, and the cross upon which he was crucified, and the fetters of the apostles!

THE REFORMATION IN ITALY. IN Italy, the Reformation, after having made considerable progress, was suppressed by the most dreadful persecution. At Venice the mode of death to which Protestants

were doomed was drowning. At the dead hour of midnight, the prisoner was taken from his cell, and put into a gondola, or Venetian boat, attended only, besides the sailors, by a single priest, to act as confessor. He was rowed out into the sea beyond the two castles, where another boat was in waiting. A plank was then laid across the two gondolas, upon which the prisoner, having his body chained and a heavy stone affixed to his feet, was placed; and on a signal given, the gondolas retiring from one another, he was precipitated into the deep.

The Pope having promised the brother of the Marquis di Buccianici a Cardinal's hat, provided the province of Calabria was cleared of heresy; the scene which followed is thus described by a Roman Catholic who was an eye-witness ::- "To tell you the truth, I can compare it to nothing but the slaughter of so many sheep. They were all shut up in one house, as in a sheep-fold. The executioner went, and bringing out one of them, covered his face with a napkin, or benda, as we call it, led him out to a field near the house, and causing him to kneel down, cut his throat with a knife. Then taking off the bloody napkin, he went and brought out another, whom he put to death after the same manner. In this way the whole number, amounting to eighty-eight men, were butchered. I leave you to picture to yourself the lamentable spectacle, for I can scarcely refrain from tears while I write; nor was there any person who, after witnessing the execution of one, could stand to look on a second. The meekness and patience with which they went to matyrdom and death are incredible. Some have testified such obstinacy and stubborness as to refuse to look on a crucifix, or confess to a priest; and they are to be burned alive. The heretics taken in Calabria, amount to 1,600, all of whom are condemned."

A Neapolitan historian (a Roman Catholic) of that age, gives the following account of the Calabrian heretics: "Some had their throats cut, others were sawn through the middle, and others thrown from the top of a high cliff; all were cruelly, but deservedly, put to death. It was strange to hear of their obstinacy; for while the father saw his son put to death, and the son his father, they not only exhibited no symptoms of grief, but said joyfully, that they would be angels of God; so much had the devil, to whom they had given themselves up as a prey, deceived them."

The following description of the state of matters in the year 1568, is from the pen of one who was residing at that time upon the

borders of Italy: "At Rome, some are every day burnt, hanged, or beheaded: all the prisons and places of confinement are filled, and they are obliged to build new ones. That large city cannot furnish gaols for the number of pious persons who are continually apprehended. A distinguished person, named Carnesecchi, formerly ambassador to the Duke of Tuscany, has been condemned to the flames." In the year 1550, Pope Julius III. ordered Fannio, an Italian Protestant, to be executed. He was accordingly brought out to the stake at an early hour in the morning, to prevent the people from witnessing the scene; and being first strangled, was committed to the flames."

On the eighth of September, 1560, Ludovico Paschali, a native of Cuni, in Piedmont, was strangled and burnt in the court adjoining the castle of St. Angelo, IN THE VIEW OF THE POPE AND A PARTY OF CARDINALS ASSEM

LBED TO WITNESS THE SPECTACLE.

The castle of Lavaur was taken by assault by the Popish exterminators, who hanged its governor, and massacred the entire garrison. "The lady of the castle," says the Romish historian, "who was an execrable heretic, was, by the earl's (the Earl de Montfort, the Popish commander) orders, thrown into a well, and stones heaped over her; afterwards, the pilgrims collected the numberless heretics that were in the fortress,

AND BURNED THEM ALIVE WITH
JOY."

GREAT

THE EVIL OF BELIEVING TOO MUCH.

(From the Tract Magazine.) Ir is a common saying among the Roman Catholics, that it is better to believe too much than to believe too little; and it is one of the arguments with which they endeavour to make proselytes, that they believe all that Protestants believe, besides a good deal that Protestants do not believe. Hence they would have it inferred that their religion possesses all the advantages which belong to Protestantism, and some more into the bargain; so that if the religion of the reformation is safe, much more is that of the church of Rome safe. Now, as this way of talking (reasoning it is not worthy to be called) has some influence in making Roman Catholics, I shall take the liberty of examining it.

Why is it better to believe too much than to believe too little? Excess in other things is not better than defect. To eat or drink too much is not better than to eat or drink too little. To believe that two and two make five, is as bad as to believe that two and two

make three. One of these errors will derange a man's calculations as much as the other. The man who believes that two and two make five, has no advantage because he believes the whole truth and a little more.

A certain writer, who ought to be in high authority at Rome as well as everywhere else, represents additions to the truth to be as injurious and as offensive to God as subtraction from it. "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book," Rev. xxii. 18, 19. Here you see what a man gets by believing too much. It is not so safe a thing as the Roman Catholics represent it to be. Adding, is as bad as taking away. For every article added there is a plague added.

I suppose that one reason why these additions to the truth are so offensive to God is, that they are such additions as take from that to which they are added; just as when a man puts "a piece of new cloth into an old garment, that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse," Matt. ix. 16. All the additions of the church of Rome to Christianity take away from some of its doctrines. She first cuts a hole in the robe of Christ, and then applies her patch! In order to make room for her doctrine of human merit, she has to take away just so much from the merit of Christ. The Protestant doctrine is, that we are justified by faith alone, without the deeds of the law. Nay, says the Roman Catholic, our own good works have something to do in the matter of our justification. Now, this addition does not leave entire that to which it is added, but takes from it.

We hold to the perfection of the one sacrifice offered by Christ on the cross. The Roman Catholics add to this the sacrifice of the mass. They are not satisfied with Christ's being "once offered to bear the sins of many," but they teach the strange doctrine, that Christ is offered as often as a priest is pleased to say mass!

The

Nothing is further from the truth than that the Roman Catholic believes all which the Protestant believes, besides a great deal that the Protestant does not believe. The latter part of the assertion is correct. Romanists believe a great deal which the Protestants do not. In the quantity of their faith they far surpass us. There is the whole that is comprehended in tradition: they believe it, while Protestants are satisfied with Holy Scripture. But the Romanists do not believe all that Protestants believe; they do not believe the Protestant doctrine of regeneration, or justification, or other cardinal doctrines.