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"Form of Plenary Absolution at the point of Death, and as often as Death is apprehended.-Misereatur tui, &c. Dominus Noster, &c. and I (by authority, &c.) absolve you by giving you plenary remission of all your sins, by remitting to you the pains of purgatory, which by your sins you have incurred— and I re-establish you in that state of purity and innocence in which you were when baptized, as far as the keys of Holy Mother Church extend themselves. In the name of the Father, &c. &c. &c. Amen.""

Here then we see "the most Holy Lord" (an expression which, if not blasphemous, only just falls short of being so as applied to any human being whatsoever, but most flagrantly impious when coupled with the name of) Julius Secundus,† Papa-confirming all the acts, good, bad, and indifferent, of all his predecessors wicked or virtuous; and granting to persons who have entered into a certain confraternity, and having paid a small sum of money towards the reparation of an Hospital and for the support of a war against the Turks, a prodigious remittance out of his spiritual treasury. For, having confessed to a Priest of their own choosing, they may receive from him, once in their lives, and at the hour of death, or as often as they shall be in danger of dying, not only ab

For the Latin see Appendix.

+ “His character was that of a sanguinary Prince, who sacrificed many thousands of lives to his restless martial spirit, and by his other enormities rendered his name odious to posterity."-Walsh's History of the Popes.

One of those "pious" associations of Monkish origin, the object of which like "the Society of the Rosary" shewn up in the Vindicia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, may, as Dr. Southey felicitously observes, "be made generally intelligible in these days by explaining that it was to be a Joint Stock Prayer Company."-P. 491.

solution from all lapses but also plenary remission of all their sins and faults, however enormous and heinous, their said confessor being empowered to remit to them the pains of Purgatory, which by their sins they have incurred, and to re-establish them in that state of purity and innocence in which they were when baptized; as far as the Keys of the Church extend. And it is, we know a fundamental article of that church, that the Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and, as St. Peter's successor, holds the Keys of Heaven. One might suppose that this was indulgence enough in all conscience: but no: they have not yet got their pennyworth for their penny. A plenary absolution is granted to these Hospital Subscribers at the Feasts of Pentecost and Holy Trinity, and Christian Burial secured to their bodies in spite of all broken vows, except the vow of a journey to Palestine. Each day of their lives, and on the grand ecclesiastical festivals, years and quarantines of appointed penance are excused; and, to make things still more comfortable in this world by preparations for rendering them easy in the next, these indulgences are expressly stated to amount yearly in the whole to the sum of fourteen hundred and thirty-four thousand and thirty years! But O, the inexhaustible bounty of the Papal Exchequer! Because more than a million of years' exemptions from a chimæra of its own creation might not be sufficient to requite the stock-holders in Rome's consolidated fund of meritorious works, they are moreover made partakers of a hecatomb of sacrifices; and in case they wish, which of course they do, to relieve their dead relatives and friends, being in purgatory, they have only with penitence and confession, to pay, at a fixed price per soul, and-Hoc Presto! the same soul is liberated from that

place of fiery punishment!* and placed on the way to Paradise! Than such Indulgences, openly sold and eagerly bought at the commencement of the 16th century, on pretended" Apostolical Authority," what need is there of better proof that the doctrine of Purgatory, dove-tailed into that of the Mass, and strengthened by creatureworship in the person of the Virgin Mary, is a fiction of Priests invented among other schemes to aggrandise their own power and to increase the wealth of their communities?+ With tenets like these to maintain and propagate, it is no wonder, that the Roman Church enjoins it as a duty on her Ministers, that, "whatever they can achieve by power, provide by counsel, or effect by authority, they should daily execute in order to remedy and abolish the Pestilence of" circulating any versions of the Holy Scriptures, except such as she, who arrogates to herself the exclusive right of interpreting them, shall authorise. Her visible head has declared himself "truly shocked" at the establishment of BIBLE SOCIETIES, which he calls "a defilement of the Faith most imminently dangerous to souls," as "a crafty device by which the very foundations of religion are undermined"-as if it were possible to point out a greater defilement of Christianity, or a more crafty device to undermine true

• Now greatly increasing in temperature, according to the latest advices, revealed by Sister Nativity.

"The relaxing of Penance in this life (says Dr. Burnett) together with the rescuing of souls out of Purgatory in the next, were sure engines to work upon a credulous and superstitious people: and these were played with so many visions, dreams, and wonderful stories, that no wonder all the Princes in Christendom felt their strength much abated by these endowments."-History of the Rights of Princes-Preface, p. xxv.

+ See Rescript of Pius VII to the Primate of Poland, 1816.

religion, than the system of which Papal Indulgences form a part. But

"Hear the just law-the judgment of the skies:
"He that hates truth shall be the dupe of lies;
"And he that will be cheated to the last,

"Delusions strong as Hell shall bind him fast."

The pleasure which I had manifested in looking over Dr. Coindet's superb collection of autographs, induced my excellent and highly gifted young friend, Mr. C. Martins, to conduct me to a neighbouring bookseller's, Mr. Abraham Cherbuliez, by whom I was favoured with the sight and allowed to take the subjoined copy of a letter of Napoleon's, written by him in 1786. It is a verified and acknowledged autograph:

"Je m'addresse directement à vous, Monsieur, pour vous prier de me faire passer les Memoires de Madame de Warens et de Claude Anet pour servir de suite aux Confessions de J. J. Rousseau-je vous prirai également de m'envoyer les 2 derniers volumes, de l'histoir des Rèvolutions de Corse par ľ Abbé gerneacres―je vous serais obligé de me donner note des ouvrages que vous avez sur la isle de Corse, ou que vous pouriez me procurer promptement.

"j'entent votre reponse pour vous envoyer l'argent a quoi cela

montera.

"Vous pourez adresser votre lettre

"à Monsieur De Buonaparte, Officier dartilerie
au regiment de la fère en garnison à Valence,
en Dauphiné.

* The words in italics are underlined in the original, the orthography of

which is strictly followed.

"Je suis, Monsieur, avec une parfaite consideration,

"Votre très humble

"et très obeissant, &c. &c. "BUONAPARTE, Officier Dartilerie.""

"Valence en Dauphinè le 29 juillet,

"Am. Paul Barde."

The afternoon appearing tolerably well suited for a rural excursion, our friends from Petit Saconnex called us in a char-a-banc, and we rode with them to the village of Vieri at the foot of Mont Salève, about a league from Geneva. In our way, at no great distance from the city, we cross by a bridge of wood the muddy stream of the impetuous Arve, there little more than half a mile from its point of confluence with the Rhone. The waters of the Arve are completely those of a mountain torrent, discoloured by the vast quantity of earthy particles which they bring with them from their source in the vale of Chamouny, and which the rapidity of their current prevents from making a lodgment.

With Mr. M. for my companion, I ascended the re

“I address myself directly to you, Sir, requesting you will forward to me the Memoirs of Madame de Warens and of Claude Anet, to serve as the sequel to the Confessions of J. J. Rousseau. At the same time I request you to send me the 2 last volumes of the History of the Revolutions of Corsica, by the Abbé Gerneacres. I shall be obliged by your giving me a list of the works which you may have on the island of Corsica, or which you may be able to procure for me immediately.

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"I wait your answer that I may send the money to which this may

amount.

CL You may address your letter

To Monsieur De Buonaparte, Officer of
Artillery, Regiment of La Fere, in garrison
at Valence, in Dauphiny.

"I am, Sir, &c. &c.

RE

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