THE

BRISTOL PROTESTANT.

HORRIBLE BLASPHEMY OF POPERY.

THE VIRGIN MARY WHIPPING JESUS.

"But the object that struck me most, and deeply arrested my attention, was a fresco painting on the west end, and on the outside [of a church in Lucca.] It so completely represents the effect and intention of the Roman Catholic religion, that I cannot forbear detailing it minutely here. The Virgin is represented inflicting corporal punishment upon the youthful JESUS. She holds a rod in her hand, with the other she holds the garments of the child. She is in the act of inflicting punishment. The child is in alarm, and its eyes are eagerly directed to Saint Anna, the mother of the Virgin, in the back ground, entreating her intercession to escape the cruel ordeal.

"The look of the Virgin is not that of affection, but has the stern and harsh appearance which we might imagine a schoolmistress to have when engaged in a similar occupation. Under the picture is written in very legible characters, 'Jure matris rege filio.

This picture is better executed than those which are generally to be found at the corners of the streets, or on the outside of the churches. It is the most remarkable, and in its subject one of the most daring, that I have seen, and contains within its compass much of the spirit that is infused into the Roman Catholic Church." "The argument which the representation is

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designed to inculcate, and the feeling they wished to produce on the mind of the beholder, was, that as mother she possessed more power than the Son (He, by whom all things were made,) and so, more than Him, was entitled to the regard, fear, homage, and worship of the Christian world."— Vicary's Notes of a Residence at Rome, in 1846. London: Bentley, pp. 262-264.

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BEWARE OF THE CONFESSIONAL.

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'Every honest Roman Catholic who has frequented the CONFESSIONAL, must have experienced its immoral tendency for youth, especially females, and I am astonished, that in this free country, husbands can see their wives and daughters frequent the CONFES"In SIONAL, without trembling for their virtue." the family where I boarded in Florence, was a young lady about seventeen years of age. Her parents gave her a good, but, above all, a religious education. One day the mother told her daughter to prepare to go with her to-morrow to confession and to communion. The mother unfortunately feeling unwell the next morning, the young lady had to go by herself; when she returned, her eyes shewed that she had wept, and her countenance indicated that something unusual had happened. The mother, as a matter of course, inquired the cause, but she wept bitterly, and said she was ashamed to tell it. Then the mother insisted; and the daughter told her that the parish priest, to whom she constantly confessed, asked her questions this time which she could not repeat without a blush. She, however, repeated some of them, which were of the most licentious and corrupting tendency, which were better suited to the lowest sink of debauchery than the CONFESSIONAL. Then he gave her some instructions, which decency forbids me to repeat, gave her absolution, and told her before she communed, she must come

into his house, which was contiguous to the church; the unsuspecting young creature did as the Father Confessor told her. The rest the reader can imagine. The parents, furious, would immediately have gone to the Archbishop, and laid before him the complaint; but I advised them to let it be as it was, because they would injure the character of their daughter more than the Priest. All the punishment he would have received, is a suspension for a month or two, and then be placed in another parish, or even remain where he is. WITH SUCH BRUTAL ACTS THE HISTORY OF THE CONFESSIONAL IS FULL."-Popery as it is, by Rev. L. Giustiniani, D.D., formerly a Roman Priest. Baltimore, 1843, p. 82-84.

A SCENE IN A BEDROOM.

POPISH PROSELYTISM.

"We have received with very great satisfaction the letter of a Romish priest which appears in our last page. It affords the opportunity which we have long desired to drag to the day a party which has been labouring among us in the dark. The opportunity of exposing what Popery really is, as it now exists among ourselves, by the acts and admissions of its emissaries, could never be afforded more opportunely. Aggressions hitherto unthought of are confessedly in contemplation,

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The letter which we publish to-day is a blunder such as a Romish priest is generally too cunning to make; and we have reason to believe that they feel it to be a false move which they would glady recall. It is not a question of theological casuistry, but of plain facts and admissions shewing them as they really are.

The circumstances which have so happily brought them to daylight were noticed briefly and incidentally a fortnight since in connection with another subject. We will now state them more distinctly, and we desire our readers to compare them with the priest's story.

Some time since, a family of ladies, Romanists, came to Falmouth, under circumstances which made it doubtful whether they were private individuals who had voluntarily devoted their means and labours to the service of the Romish Church, or were sent on a secret but recognized mission. Appearing as persons of respectability and independence, they obtained admission into society, and made themselves agreeable intimates. However zealous they might be in their efforts to promote the Romish cause, there was no appearance of repulsive asceticism; so far from this, indeed, that a younger member displayed considerable skill in personating others, and hoaxing parties in their names. They were soon followed by a reinforcement of priests.

Among the families to whom they obtained access was one, where the subject of the priest's letter was the eldest daughter. A close intimacy sprang up, which was permitted on the express understanding that no attempt should be made to unsettle the faith of any of its members. Indeed such a pledge would in any case be implied, for an opposite conduct would be an outrage on hospitality, and a gross violation of social confidence. The young lady in question was led to regard them with warm and confiding attachment, and, an imprudence which only extreme inexperience could excuse, she was induced to converse and correspond on the subject of religion. To all appearance, however, there was no attempt to proselyte. The books they lent her were written by English Clergymen, and thus it seemed that she was guided by writers of her own communion, while they were so chosen as gradually to shake her confidence in her Church, and create a favourable feeling towards Rome. She was so little acquainted with the subject, that, with the confidence and attachment she felt, no difficulty could exist, with reasonable caution in directing her thoughts, and moulding her mind, at pleasure.

A circumstance occurred during this intimacy which deserves particular notice. One of the ladies placed a medal upon the ring with her seals, attached to her watch, and asked her to wear it as a remembrance of them. She wore it accordingly as a mere keepsake from a friend, and without the slightest idea that any hocus pocus conjuration attached to it. But it seems they believe, that if they can persuade a Protestant to wear

one of these "sacred" medals, though only as an ornament, and if proper prayers be used to the Virgin on behalf of the wearer, the conversion of that person is certain!!! Heathens might pity such besotted superstition.

This intimacy had continued for about two years, when, on the 19th of February last, she went to visit these friends at Helston, where they had removed. A message was sent in the evening to a lady who resided a short distance from the town for some "holy water to baptise a child." Next morning the young lady was urged by her friends to join their communion, which she positively refused. It was the first time that anything of the sort had been hinted to her. She was next requested to see and converse with the priest, which she also refused, with expressions of repugnance and dread at doing so. She was then induced, mistrusting nothing, to accompany her friend TO A BEDROOM. The bottle of holy

water was on the table. THE PRIEST WAS BROUGHT TO HER THERE, AND LEFT ALONE WITH HER! On seeing him enter the room she burst into tears, and remained in such a state of agitation and excitement, that, during the half hour the interview lasted, she knew not what she said or did; a most natural consequence of so abrupt and indecent intrusion. She had never met this priest before, except twice at table, when the subject of religion was not mentioned. He asked her if she had been baptized, and on her replying that she had, he took the bottle of water and dashed some upon her, saying that if anything had been defective in her former baptism, it was now rectified. She remained so ill and excited all day, that though she attempted to come down stairs to tea, she was obliged to return immediately and go to bed. Her friends sat with her to a late hour, and proposed that one should remain with her through the night, but this she would not suffer.

The charge against these people is, not that they got hold of a lady previously unbiassed, and baptised her by surprise and force; but that they violated social confidence, by secretly, studiously, and perseveringly undermining the faith of a member in a family to whose intimacy they had been admitted that they took advantage of this young lady's affection for them and ignorance of the subject to mislead her-and when they had so