"I embrace and receive all and every one of the things which have been defined and declared in the holy Council of Trent concerning Original Sin and Justification.

"I profess, likewise, that in the Mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead. And that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, there is truly, really, and substantially the Body and Blood, together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood; which conversion the Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation. I also confess, that under either kind alone, Christ is received whole and entire, and a true sacrament.

"I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the Faithful.

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Likewise, that the saints reigning together with Christ are to be honoured and invocated, and that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be had in veneration.

"I most firmly assert that the Images of Christ, of the Mother of God, ever Virgin, and also of other saints, ought to be had and retained, and that due honour and veneration is to be given them.

"I also affirm that the power of indulgences was left by Christ in the Church, and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian people.

"I acknowledge the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church, for the Mother and Mistress of all Churches; and I promise true obedience to the Bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ.

"I likewise undoubtedly receive and profess all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred Canons and General Councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent. And I condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies which the Church has condemned, rejected, and anathematized.

"I, N. N., do at this present freely profess, and sincerely hold, this true Catholic faith, without which no one can be saved; and I promise most constantly to retain and confess the same entire and unviolated, with God's assistance, to the end of my life."

From all this it will be seen that the Catholic believes in the immortality of the soul, and that it will be hereafter clothed with its body, which God will raise in perfection; further, that the condition of man in a future state will vary according as he has done good or evil; that the state of the good and the wicked commences immediately. after death. A middle state, called Purgatory, is provided for those souls, which were not entirely estranged from the Eternal, and which, therefore, in the other world, still have a hope of ultimately becoming united with the Creator.

The Greek church also calls itself a Catholic, that is a universal church (Kaolinos, universal,) although it disowns the Roman pope. The Roman Catholic church exercised a spiritual supremacy over all Europe with the exception of Russia and Turkey, until the time of the reformation. It has more followers, at the present day, than all the Protestant sects united; and its exertions have brought nearly two millions of the adherents of the Greek ritual in Europe under the spiritual dominion of the pope. In the United States the number of Roman Catholics is variously stated at from two to four millions. The tide of emigration from Europe is constantly increasing the amount.

There are twelve Roman Catholic patriarchs in the Christian world. The sacred college of cardinals, by whom the Pope is elected, has fifty-seven members. The total number is seventy. The archbishops and bishops amount to six hundred and seventy-one. The vicars apostolic in different countries are fifty-seven in number, besides whom there are thirty-eight coadjutor-bishops, making the grand total of the Catholic episcopacy amount to seven hundred and sixty-six bishops.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE REFORMATION-ORIGIN OF THE TERM PROTESTANTS-LUTHERANS-CALVINISTS-HUGUENOTS-ARMINIANS-BAXTERIANS-ANTINOMIANS-MATERIALISTS---NECESSARIANS.

PRIOR to that great religious epoch, known as the Reformation, the pope claimed of divine right, and exercised absolute authority over the whole Christian church, with the exception of those states and provinces in which the Eastern or Greek church was established. Not only was his authority regarded as supreme on subjects of doctrine and discipline, but his decisions were considered as infallible; and whoever ventured to question or gainsay them, was treated as a heretic, and was liable to such canonical censures and temporal penalties as the canon law determined. Of course the exercise of private judgment in religious and ecclesiastical matters, or the right of the people to peruse the bible, was peremptorily denied.

According to the doctrine of the Romish church, all the good works of the saints, over and above those necessary. for their own justification, are deposited, together with the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, in one inexhaustible treasury. The keys of this treasury were committed to St. Peter and his successors, the popes, who may open it at pleasure, and by transferring a portion of this superabundant merit to any particular person for a sum of money, may convey to him either the pardon of his own sins, or a release for any one in whose happiness he is interested, from the pains of purgatory. Hence the origin, which took place in the eleventh century, of the sale of indulgences.

Pope Leo X., under the pretence of raising contributions towards building the church of St. Peter at Rome, granted, in 1517, the right of promulgating these indulgences in Germany, together with a share in the profits

arising from the sale of them, to the archbishop of Magdeburg, who, as his chief agent for retailing them in Saxony, employed Tetzel, a Dominican friar, of dissolute morals, but of great activity and energy of character Tetzel, assisted by the monks of his order, executed the commission with great zeal, but with little discretion or decency; and by disposing of these indulgences at a very low price, carried on for some time a lucrative traffic. Princes and nobles were irritated at seeing their vassals drained of their wealth to replenish the treasury of a profuse pontiff. Men of piety regretted equally the corruptions of the church and the delusions of the people.

It was reserved for Martin Luther, formerly a monk of the Augustine order, and at that time a professor of theology at Wittenberg, effectually to expose the artifices of those who sold, and the simplicity of those who bought indulgences, and to shake the foundation of the Papal see itself. His memorable theses, ninety-five in number, against this practice, were affixed to the doors of the cathedral of Wittenberg, 31st October, 1517; while from the pulpit he inveighed bit: erly against the vices of the monks, who advertised indulgences, as well as against the abuse itself.

Leo X., naturally fond of ease, paid little attention at first to the controversy, which soon raged in Germany in consequence of Luther's opposition; but at length he was roused from his apathy. After some attempts to induce Luther to recant his opinions, the pope, in June, 1520, issued a bull, condemning as heretical and offensive to pious ears, forty-one propositions extracted out of Luther's works: all persons were forbidden to read his works on pain of excommunication; those who possessed a copy of them were commanded to commit it to the flames; and he himself, if he did not within sixty days publicly recant his errors and burn his works, pronounced a heretic, excommunicated, and delivered over to Satan; and all secular princes required under pain of incurring the same censure, to seize his person, that he might be punished as his crimes deserved.

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This sentence gave a fresh impulse to the spread of Luther's doctrines. In some cities the people violently obstructed the promulgation of the bull; and on the tenth of December, 1520, Luther assembled all the members of the university of Wittenberg, and, with great pomp, in presence of a vast number of spectators, cast the volumes of the canon law, together with the bull of excommunication, into the flames; and his example was imitated in several cities of Germany.

The progress of the reformed doctrines was now rapid and general, and threatened to embrace the whole of Germany, notwithstanding the Emperor Charles V. co-operated with the pope to check and destroy them. Luther, too, was, from various motives, protected not merely by the Elector of Saxony, but by many other princes; and the new views were adopted and sedulously propagated. by Melancthon, Carlostadius, and other eminent men, Erasmus, too, though he did not long follow in the same course as the German reformer, and ultimately wrote against some of his views, yet discovered and exposed with great learning and ability, many errors both in the doctrine and worship of the Romish church, and may be considered as his auxiliary in the work of Reformation.

Under such circumstances it was, that the imperial diet at Worms was held, January 1521, to which the different princes were invited, to concert measures for checking the new doctrines. An attempt to condemn him in his absence was frustrated by a majority of the members of the diet; and Luther, under a safe conduct, was summoned to appear before them. He did not hesitate to attend; but nothing could induce him to retract his opinions. He was allowed to leave the city in safety; but an edict was published in the Emperor's name, after his departure, putting him under the ban of the empire. But the elector of Saxony concealed Luther in the castle of Wartburg, and the edict was not carried into effect. During his confinement his opinions continued to gain ground; and the Augustinians of Wittenberg ventured on an alteration in the established forms of public worship, by abolishing the cel

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