a phantom. It is a fact attested by the concurring evidence of three hundred years, and of every nation of Europe, and on the American Continent; that permanent cordiality between the vassals of the Roman court, and those who reject its impious claims, never has existed; and it can easily be demonstrated, that those persons cannot coalesce. The Apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians 6: 14-17, infallibly determined that principle-"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he who believeth with an Infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean, saith the Lord." In this aspect, it is of no importance whether the Protestant or the Papist is correct. It is certain that they both apply those pungent inquiries, and that sacred admonition to the opposite community; and therefore by their own avowal, and by their continuous and universal practice, they perennially declare, that they are at the Antipodes. Papists aver that Protestants are Heretics accursed," who ought to be burnt in this world, as the guarantee of their everlasting abode, "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched"—and Protestants declare, that Papists are Idolaters, and "the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction;" and that the honour of God, the glory of the Redeemer, the prosperity of the church, and the salvation of souls, with the conversion of the world, are indissolubly connected with the extermination of Popery. Protestants and Papists therefore are not only utterly irreconcilable, but an energetic and sleepless strife must ever exist among them, until one of the contending parties is extinguished either Papists will be converted and submit to the sceptre of Immanuel, or Protestants will be silenced by the Romish Crusaders, or by the fire of the Dominican Inquisitors. with which they glut "the Woman drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Therefore the Popish Controversy differs from all other polemical dis

cussions, both in its intrinsic importance, and its overwhelming results. The severance between the champions of evangelical truth and liberty, and the combatants for the pontifical heresies and despotism, is decisive, and wide as "a great gulf fixed" between them, impassable: for if Popery be an accurate delineation of "pure religion and undefiled," then all persons who do not submit to the Roman yoke, are audacious rebels against Jehovah; and if Protestants correctly interpret the holy scriptures, then Popery is a blasphemous imposture, replete with the most direful curse and anguish for mankind, both "in this world and in the world to come."

It is confidently believed that these "Illustrations of Popery" will enlighten the public mind, by confuting the generally prevalent scepticism; by assisting to restore the appropriate biblical phraseology, and the correct application of those words with which the primitive Reformers so aptly delineated the "falling away of the man of sin and the son of perdition;" and by exposing the destructive Jesuitical frauds by which our churches have been seduced to "call things by wrong names," until we are almost obnoxious to the prophetical denunciation; Isaiah 5: 20-"Wo unto them that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness!"

The volume is now presented to American Protestants with earnest solicitude, that the beneficial objects which it proposes to effect may be fully accomplished; and with "all prayer and supplication in the spirit," that the "Lord of Lords, and King of Kings" will expedite the glorious day, when "O Ayopos, that WICKED," shall be consumed "with the spirit of his mouth," and shall be destroyed "with the brightness of his coming."— Alleluia! Amen.

New York, May 4, 1836.

APPENDIX

TO THE

ILLUSTRATIONS OF POPERY;

COMPRISING

- I. TAXATIO PAPALIS; OR THE ROMAN TAX-BOOKS........ II. JESUITISM..............................

IIL DECREES AND CANONS OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT

.PAGE 440

446

...... 456

IV. EXACT CONFORMITY OF POPERY AND PAGANISM..........
V. ROMISH CEREMONIES

498

621

TAXATIO PAPALIS;

OR

THE ROMAN TAX BOOKS.

TAXE CANCELLARIÆ APOSTOLICÆ; AND TAXÆ SACRÆ PENITENTIARIÆ APOSTOLICE.

"Venalia nobis

Templa, Sacerdotes, Altaria, Sacra, Coronæ,

Igues, Thura, Preces, Cœlum est venale, Deusque."

BAPTIST MANTUAN CALAMIT. 3.

In the whole compass of Literature, there scarcely exist any books more curious, and more important; more numerous in editions, and less concealed for some time after their first appearance, and more rare in modern ages; more indispensable and profitable to their real parent, who yet most positively and earnestly disowns his progeny, in defiance of undeniable proof of filiation; and of which the accounts are more defective, confused, erroneous, and unsatisfactory, than those extant of the two books bearing the titles of TAXE CANCELLARIE APOSTOLICE, and TAXE SACRE PENITENTIARIE APOSTOLICE.

The power of absolving from sin in general, or from any particular sin, upon considerations deemed equivalent or satisfactory, comes under the general head of Indulgences, which the Pontiffs of Rome claim the prerogative of dispensing. The Indulgence known by the name of Jubilee, and which from being at first celebrated at the interval of fifty years, then at that of thirty-three, and afterwards, which has continued with one exception to the present time, at that of a quarter of a century, was first instituted by Pope Boniface VIII. in the year 1300. In the short Bull, appointing the first Jubilee, the Pontiff affirms; that anciently to the visiters of Peter's Church there were conceded great remissions and indulgences of sins-that those are renewed by him-and that this, and every future hundredth year, he has "granted and will grant, not only a full and abundant, but the fullest pardon of all the sins," of those who are truly penitent and confess. The encouragement is added, that the more frequent and devout the visits, the more effectual. The next bull to the same purpose was issued by Pope Clement VI. at the distance of only half a century; for to that period his concern that Christendom should not continue to be deprived of so great a blessing, had reduced it. That instrument declares and describes, by the claimant of the power himself, the source whence that power is derived. "Christ," says that Pontiff, shed, not one drop of blood only, which, from his divinity, had sufficed for the universal redemption of man; but a copious flood, which he would not have to be useless and superfluous, but to constitute an inexhaustible treasury for the militant church. That treasure he did not put in a napkin or hide in a field, but committed to Peter, the key-keeper of heaven, and to his successors, his vicars on earth, to be prudently dispensed to the faithful: and for proper and reasonable causes, at one time for the total, at another for the partial remission of the temporal punishment due for sin, as well generally as specially, in conformity with the known will of God, to be mercifully administered to those who are truly penitent and confess. To the accumulation of which treasure the merits of the holy mother of God, and of all the elect, from the first just one to the last, are known to contribute; of the consumption or diminution of which not the least fear need be entertained, as well on account of the infinite merits of Christ; as from the consideration, that the

greater number of persons are attracted to righteousness by the application of it, so much is the amount of the merits increased." By this ingenious hypothesis, the same pipe which drains, replenishes the reservoir. Those are the most authentic expositions of the papal claims of indulgence.-Corpus Juris Canonici, Extravag. Commun. Lib. 5. Tit. 9. Cap. 1, 2.

To that power of granting indulgence, must be assigned the pecuniary absolution, or the commutation of penance for money, which is the foundation of the Taxæ. Simply to enjoin penance, and to absolve the offender on the performance of it, is an exercise of ecclesiastic authority, emanating from the power of the keys; but to allow those to be commuted, to be compounded for, or redeemed, by money, is not an act of discipline, but of indulgence. And that such a prerogative was claimed by the Popes, with respect to all sins, of whatsoever enormity, is evident from the ancient Penitentiary Canons.

Theodorus, who was sent from Rome to be Archbishop of Canterbury, in the seventh century, was the first who introduced Penitentiary Canons from the East into the West. His Pœnitentiale is extant. Beda, also, has given a work of that description, under the title, De Remediis Peccatorum. The penance which he enjoined for all sorts, and the most infamous, of crimes; in case of inability or disinclination to perform the penance, might be commuted by almsgiving, which went into the hands of the Confessors.-Cap. 14. The next instance is supplied by the Pœnitentiale of Egbert, Archbishop of York, in the eighth century. That work is extant in Saxon and Latin; and the demoralizing particularization of the vilest iniquity proves an advance in the compounding system. The different capabilities of the rich and the poor, and the penances, are accurately valued. The alms are to be divided into three parts; one to the altar, the second for redeeming slaves, the third to be dis tributed to ecclesiastical necessities. Then follows an enumeration of the Twelve Remissions of Sin.-Wilkins Conc. Mag. Brit. Vol. 1. Pages 140, 141, 192, 193.

In the Penitentiale Romanum-a collection from more ancient books of the same name, strongly characterized by its offensiveness; Tit. ix. Cap. xxvi-xxix. is the same pecuniary composition for declined penance, adapted in the proportion of three to one, to the different means of the rich and the poor.

The historians of the Reformation must be referred to for documents of the unlimited but obscure claims of the Pope respecting the power of pardon and indulgence, of absolution from the guilt as well as the punishment of sin, with conditions, all easily dispensed with, except the pecuniary one-of various forms of Indulgence, high-sounding and enigmatic, as usual, and admitting of being avowed or disavowed at pleasure and according to circumstances.Rome in the nineteenth century, Letters 41-52. These two things, however, are clear, that the instruments in question were intended to excite expectations absolutely unbounded, and that they were designed to be as profitable, in a pecuniary view, as possible. The precise meaning, or any precision in the meaning at all, of the terms, or things, Indulgence, Plenary, the actual benefit obtained, whether temporal, spiritual, or purgatorial, all, or some, and what, with other points, are matter of debate and uncertainty even with the authors themselves.-Crashaw's Mittimus, Part 2.-Crashaw's Fiscus Papalis.-Collet Traité des Indulgences. Tom. 1; 25, 413.

Enough, however, was certain for their purpose and happily for ours likewise; for their easy security, or the necessity of the case, has left and perpetuated monuments, which it has long been impossible for them to destroy or conceal.

The Roman Tax Tables are a considerable advance upon the simple Indulgence; for there, absolution for the grossest crimes-and for all crimes-is expressly set to sale at specified prices-absolution, or dispensation, or licence, &c., for Grossi, or floreni, or ducats,

To what times or persons the origin of those small and precious volumes is to be assigned, it is perhaps impossible to determine. The least objectionable part, indicating only unprincipled cupidity and rapacity, the Chancery