it, let him know that he will incur the indignation of the Omnipotent God, and of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul." Hence the Tablet observed, that "whosoever should thenceforth deny that the blessed Virgin was herself, by a miraculous interposition of God's providence, conceived without the stain of original sin, is to be condemned as a heretic." Such is a brief history of the doctrine of the immaculate conception; but it is a popular fallacy to suppose that it is a doctrine of the Roman church. The pope of Rome, according to the orthodox principles of that church, cannot create doctrines of faith which have not emanated from a General Council of the church. A.D. 1478.-The Inquisition was established in the kingdom of Castile, under Ferdinand and Isabella. We note the fact because this was an ecclesiastical institution. Fleury expressly says that it was done "by the counsel of the archbishop of Seville, and by the authority of Pope Sixtus IV." 1 We may trace the beginning of the institution to an earlier date. At the Council of Verona, A.D. 1184, Pope Lucius III. published a constitution against alleged heretics, wherein bishops were ordered, by means of commissaries, to inform themselves of persons suspected of heresy, whether by common report or private information. Should spiritual terrors be of no avail, the offender was to be handed over to the secular power, in order that temporal punishment might be inflicted.2 The Council of Toulouse, A.D. 1229, formally established local Inquisitions. At the Council of Narbonne, A.D. 1235,3 a series of 1 Fleury, Eccl. Hist. Cont. tom. xxiii. p. 478. Paris, 1769. oppressive and cruel regulations against alleged heretics was drawn up by the pope's command; and at the Council of Beziers, A.D. 1247, the Preaching Friars' Inquisition for the provinces of Aix, Arles, and Ebrum was established also by order of the pope. Forty-seven articles were drawn up, which, with those passed at the Council of Narbonne, formed the foundation of the rules afterwards adopted by the Inquisition.1 A.D. 1495.-Alexander VI. assumed a new power, namely, that of granting a dispensation to marry within a prohibited degree. He gave a dispensation to Ferdinand, the king of Naples, to marry his own niece, who was of the age of fourteen years.2 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. A.D. 1515-17.-In these years took place the grand sale of indulgences by Pope Leo X., which was one of the immediate causes of the Reformation. This method was adopted to replenish his coffers, which were exhausted by his prodigality, or rather his extravagances; and also to complete the church of St. Peter, begun by Julius II. Fleury informs us that Leo granted indulgences on "such easy conditions, that men could hardly care at all for their salvation if they refused to gain them." 3 A.D. 1540.-The order of the Jesuits was founded by Ignatius Loyola Loyola was born A.D. 1491, in the pro 1 Lab. et Coss. tom. xi. col. 676. 2 Fleury, cont. tom. xxiv. p. 226. Paris, 1769. vince of Guipuscoa, in Spain. He was educated for the army, but, in process of time, left the service, and entered the church. He died July, 1556. The order was confirmed by Paul III., first with limitations, and subsequently without any restrictions. A.D. 1545.-The Council of Trent assembled, which collected in one mass former errors and superstitions, and confirmed them by conciliar decree. A.D. 1546.—Tradition was first placed on a level with the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine is essential to the existence of the Roman system, for, under the cloak of tradition, all her innovations are attempted to be supported. They declare Scripture to be insufficient, hence the absolute necessity for tradition. If there was one subject more than another on which the early Christian fathers especially insisted, it was the sufficiency and completeness of Scripture as a rule of faith, and the only rule, and was so held in the Roman church up to this time. Take an eminent cardinal of that church, who lived at the end of the fifteenth century. Gabriel Biel affirmed that "the Scripture alone teaches all things necessary to salvation," and instances "in the things to be done and to be avoided, to be loved and to be despised, to be believed and to be hoped for." "The will of God is to be understood by the Scriptures, and by them alone we know the whole will of God."1 There was no room left for tradition. The Apocryphal Books 2 were for the first time autho 1 "Et cætera nostræ saluti necessaria, quæ omnia sola docet sacra Scriptura." -"Hæc autem in sacris Scripturis discuntur, per quas solus plenam intelligere possumus Dei voluntatem." Lection. in Canon. Missæ, fo. cxlvi. p. 1, col. 2. Lugd. 1511. 2 See ante, Cap. III. ritatively recognised as part of the sacred canon of Scripture. In June, 1546, the Council of Trent, at its fourth session, occupied itself in defining what was the doctrine of the church on the subject of original sin, justification, good works, and merit. The various opinions held by members of the Romish church up to this date render it certain that the doctrine, on any of those points, was not fixed. It is true that the priesthood, from sordid and corrupt motives, had for many years preached up merit and good works as a cause of salvation, to the almost entire exclusion of grace and faith; but still many taught the true doctrine of justification by faith. This council conveyed its opinion under different heads, embodied in sixteen chapters and thirty-three decrees, accompanied by as many anathemas, or curses, if not accepted. These decrees, however, were not passed without much unseemly brawling. The Franciscans and Dominicans were, as usual, at daggers drawn. Two venerable prelates showed their zeal in maintaining their private opinions by coming to blows, and tugging at each other's beards; and Charles V. threatened to throw them all into the Adige if they could not behave better. The opinions being so various, it was necessary to frame the decrees ambiguously; and so completely had the council succeeded in mystifying the subject, that no sooner had the council ended, than Dominic à Soto, who took a leading part in the debates, published a book on justification, which was answered by Andreas Vega, who had opposed his views at the council and each claimed the authority of the same : 1 "Tum vero Cavensis ut mos est, iracundiâ quam ultum ibat.-Nam in Chironensis barbam injectâ manu, multos ex eâ pilos avulsit, et confestim abscessit."-Card. Pallavicini's Hist. Concil. Trid. tom. i. p. 277. Aug. Vind. 1775. council in support of his particular views. These discussions and debates, between different sects, continued in the Romish church for a long time after this council. We may safely assert that, previous to June, 1546, the doctrine on these subjects was not defined by the Roman church. There are, however, two points most clearly defined by this council. First, by the twenty-fourth canon on justification, he is anathematized who says that good works are the "fruits and signs of justification received, and not the cause of its increase." And second, "If any shall say the good works of a justified man are in such sort the gifts of God as not to be also the merit of the justified person; or that the justified do not really merit increase of grace and eternal life," they are equally cursed. It was a great Scriptural truth uttered by St. Augustine, when he said that "all our good merits are only wrought in us by grace; and when God crowns our merits, he crowns nothing else but his own gifts.' "2 So repugnant, however, was this sentiment to the interests of a corrupt and sordid church, that the passage was ordered to be expunged from his works.3 A.D. 1547.—The necessity of the priest's intention to give validity to a sacrament was first decreed at the seventh session of the Council of Trent. The idea was not invented 1 The reader is invited to consult the following texts: 1 Kings viii. 46; Rom. iii. 23; Isaiah liii. 10; Rom. iii. 22; Acts xiii. 39; Eph. ii. 8, 9; Rom. xi. 10; Luke xvii. 10; Psalm cxliii. 2; Tit. iii. 5. 2 "Omne bonum meritum nostrum, in nobis faciat, et cum Deus coronat merita nostra, nihil aliud coronat quam munera sua.”—Aug. ad Sextum. Epist. cv. tom. ii. Edit. Basil, 1529, and also p. 1116, tom. iv. part ii. Paris, 1671. 3 "Ex Indice Augustini dele. Non merita nostra, sed dona sua Deus coronat nobis." Index Expurgatorius jussu Bernardi de Sandoval et Roxas, Madriti, 1612, et per Turretin, Geneva, 1619. 4 "Si quis dixerit, In ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt et conferunt, non requiri intentionem saltem faciendi quod facit ecclesia; anathema sit.' Con. Trid. Sess. VII. Decretum de Sacramentis. in genere. Can. xi. p. 77. Paris, Edit. 1848. |