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a “LETTER IV.
~ TRUTH IS POWERFUL,
YOL.L . ot
NEW-YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1825.
AND WILL PREVALL.*
é : °
NO. 17
- “. Znglany.
ee
COLDECT ON THE RETORMATION.
History of the Protestant “Reformation,” in England and Ire-
land; in a series of Letters, addressed to all sensible and just
‘" Englishmen. By Wittiam CoBazrr.
(Continued from our last.) > >
“425, Itis impossible to talk of the small beer, and
‘of ‘the Master of Saint Cross, without thinking of
_.“the melancholy change which the “ Reformation” bas
‘produced in this ancient establishment, Saint Cross,
' + or Holy Cross, situated in a meadow about half a
ca
‘mile from Winchester, is ‘an hospital,-or: place for
" hospitality, founded and endowed by a/Bishop of
Winchester, about seven hundred years ago. Suc-
“cceding Bishops added to its endowments, till, at last,
. it provided a residence and suitable maintenance for
forty-cight decayed, gentlemen, with priests, nurses,
. and other servants and attendants ; and, besides this,
it made provision for a dinner every day for a hundred
_of the most indigent men in the city. These met
daily ina hall, called “ the hundred men’s hall”? Each
, had aloaf of bread, three quarts of small beer, and
« two messes,” for his dinner ; and they were allowed
to carry home that which they did not consume upon
© the spot. What is scen at the hospital of Holy
Cross now? Alas! TEN poor creatures creeping
“ about in this noble building, and THREE out-pen-
' sioners; and to these an attorney from Winchester
carries, or sends, weekly, the few pence, whatever
' they may be, that are allowed them! But, the place
. of the “ Master” is, as 1 have heard, worth a round
sumannually, I do dot know exactly what it is; but,
‘the post being a thing given to a son of the Bishop, the
- reader will easily imagine, that it is not a trifle. There
. exists, however, here, that which, as Dr. Mrtnen ob-
* serves, is probably, the last remaining vestige of “ old
. English hospitality ;” for here, any traveller who
goes and knocks at the gate, and asks for relief, re-
ceives gratis a pint of good beer, and a hunch of good
“bread. The late Lord Nexry Srvanr told me, that
. heonce went, and that he received both. » + <i
126, But (aad [had really nearly forgotten it) ther
isa Bishop of Winchester now! And, what is he do-
ing? Ihave not heard, that he has founded, or is about
to found, any colleges or hospitals, All that I have
heard of him, in the EDUCATION way, is, that, in
. his first charge to his Clergy, (which he published) he
urged them to circulate amongst their flocks the ‘pam-
pilets of a Society in London, at the head of which
js Mr. Josnva Watson, wine and spirit merehant, of
Mincing-lane; and, all L have heard of him, in the
CHARITY way, is, that he is VICE-PATRON of a
self-created bedy, called the “ IZampshire Friendly
Society,” the object of which is, to raise subscriptions
amongst the poor, for “ their mutual rclicf and main.
» tenance ;” or, in other words, to induce the poor la.
hourers to save, out of their earnings, the means of
.. supporting themselves, in sickness or in old age, with.
out coming for relief to the poor-rates ! Good God!
| Why, Winuim oF Wrauas, Bishop Fox, Bishop
toy
Wesertect, Cardinal Bzavrorr, Hexry px Buots,
and, if ‘you take in all the Bishops of Winchester,
even back to Saint SwiTuin himself; never would
they have thought of a scheme like this for relieving
the poor! Their way of promoting learning was, to
found and endow colleges and schools; their way of
teaching religion was, to build and endow churches
and chapels; their way of relieving the poor and ail-
ing was, to found and endow hospitals: and all these
at their. own expense 3 out of thelr own revenues.
Never did one of them, in order to obtain an inter-
pretation of “ evangelical truth” for their flocks, dream
of referring his Clergy to.a Society, having a wine
and brandy merchant at its head, Never did there
come into the head of any one of them a thought so
bright as that of causing the necessitous to relieve
themselves! Ah! but, they alas! lived in the “dark
ages of monkish ignarence and superstition.”. No
wonder, that they could not see; that the poor were
the fittest persons in the world to relieve the poor!
And, besides, they had no wives and children! No
sweet babes to. smile on, to ‘soften their hearts. . If
they had, their conjugal and ¢aternal feelings would
have taught them, that trae ‘charity begins at home ;
and that it teaches them to scl! small beer, and not
give it away. fo ,
127. Enough now about the celibacy of the Cler-
gy; but, it is impossible to ‘quit the subject without
one word to Parsox Maurnes, This man is not only
a Protestant, but a parson af our Church. Now, he
wants to compel the labouring classcs to refrain, toa
great extent, from marriage } aad Mr. ScanLetT ace
tually brought a Bill into Parlizment, having, in one
part of it, this object avowedly in view; the great end,
proposed by both, being to case a diminution of the
poor-rates, Parson Matruus does not call this re-
commending celibacy; but moral restraint.” And,
what is celibacy but moral restraint ? So that, kere
are these people reviling the Catholic Church for in-
sisting on vows of celibacy on the part of those who
‘choose to be priests, or nuns; and, at the same time,
proposing to compel the labcuring ciasses to live in a
state of celibacy, or to runthe manifest risk of perish-
ing (they and their children) from starvation! Is all
this sheer impudence, or is it sheer folly? One or the
other it is greater than’ ever was before heard from
the lips of mortal man. They affect to believe, that
the clerical vow of celibacy enizst be nugatory, because
nature is constantly at work to Overcome Nt. “This is
what Dr. Srerces asserts.” - Now, if this be the case
with men of education ; men on whom their religion
imposes abstinence, fasting, almost constant prayer,
and an endless number of austerities; if this be the
case with regard to such men, bound by a most so-
lemn vow, a known breach of which exposes them to
indelible infamy 5 if such be the case with such men,
and if it be, therefore, contemptible and wicked, not
to compel them, mind, to maké such vows, but to per-
mit them voluntarily to do it, what must it be to com-
pel young men and women Jabourers to livein a state
of celibacy, or be exposed {o a state of absolute star-
vation? Why, the answeris, thatit is the grossest of
inconsistency, or of premeditated wickedness; but -
that, like all the other wild schemes aad erucl, pro-
jects relative to the poor, we trace it at once back to
the “ Reformation,” that great source of the poverty,
and miscry, and degradation of the maia body of the |
people of this kingdom. The “Reformation” de-
spoiled the working classes of their patrimony’; it tore
from them that which nature and reason had assigned
them; it robbed them of that relief for the necessit-
ous, which was their’s by right imprescriptable, and
which had been confirmed to them by the law of God,
and the law ef the land, It brought a compulsory, a
grudging, an unnatural mode of relief, calculated to
make the poor and rich hate each other, instead of
binding them together, as the Catholic moda did, by,
the bonds of Christian charity, But, of all its conse-
quences, that of introducing a married Clergy has,
perhaps, been the most prolific in mischief, This has
absolutely created an order fer the procreation of de
pendants on the state; for the procreation of thou-
sands of persons annually, who have no fortunes of
their own, and who must be, some how or other,
maintained by burdens imposed‘ upon the people.
Places, commissions, sinecures, pensions; something
or other must be found for them some sort of living
out of the fruit of the rents of the rich and the wages
of labour. If no excuse can be found; no pretence of
public service; no corner of the pension list open;
then they must come asa direct burden upon the peos
ple; and thus it is that we have, within the last twen-
ty years, seen sixteen hundred thousand pounds,voted ~
by the Parliament, out of the taxcs, for the “ relirf of
the poor Clergy of the Church of England” and, at
the very time that this premiui on the procreation of
idlcrs was annually being geanted, the Parliament was
pestered with projects for compel, the working part
of the community to lead a life of celibacy! What
that is evil, what that is monstrous, has not growa out *
of this Protestant * Reformation!” -
128. Thus, then, my friends, we haye, I think, set-
tled this great question; and, after all that we have,
during our whole lives, heard against that rule of the
Catholic Church, which imposed a vow of celibacy on
those who chose the clerical or the monastic life, we
find, whether we look at this rule in a religious, in a
moral, ia a civil, or ina political, point of view, that
it was founded in wisdom, that it was a great blessing
to the people at large, and that its abclition isatbing ,.
to be deeply deplored. .
ae
129. So much, then, for this topic of everlasting
railing against the Catholic Church. We must, be-
fore we come to an account of the deeds of the rufian,
Tuomas CromweLt, who conducted the work of"
plunder, say something in answer to ‘the general
charge, which Protestant writers, and particularly the
malignant Scotch shistorians, have preferred azainst
the monasteries; for if what they say were true, we
might be disposed to think (as indeed, we have been
taught to think,) that there was not so much harm in
the plunderings that we are about to witness, . We
will take this general charge from the pen of Heur,
who{Vel, 4, p. 160;) speaking of the reports mage”
* ‘
po,