TO THE EDITOR OF THE CATHOLIC PENNY MAGAZINE. SIR, Please give insertion as early as possible to the following afflicting relation of the cruel death of one of the hundreds of victims which the English Inquisition sacrificed in our unhappy country, for no other crime than their adherence to the Catholic faith. You will easily perceive that England too has had her Inquisition, a hundred times more sanguinary than that of Spain, which the bigots have so foully misrepresented, as we can show hereafter. ENGLISH INQUISITION AGAINST CATHOLICS AND DISSENTERS. IRISHI MARTYRS UNDER JAMES 1.-1610. JAMES renewed again his worse than Nero-persecuting edicts against the Catholics of England, but particularly those of Ireland, in 1610, whereby he ordered all bishops, priests, and friars, to quit his dominions under the most severe penalties. About this time John de Burgo, of the noble and illustrious family of that name, afforded an asylum in his castle to a Catholic priest, who was found celebrating the most sacred mysteries of the altar, in the castle. The noble owner was immediately seized and dragged to prison, on the charge of having harboured a Popish priest, (as the persecuting fanatics called the Catholic clergymen.) The judge, sheriff, magistrates, and other satellites belonging to the government came to him in his dungeon, and offered him his life, the restitution of his estates, and the royal favour, provided he would abandon the Catholic faith, and embrace their impious opinions, (for their species of belief was nothing more than the private opinion' and raving of every ignoramus and blockhead. Heaven knows there are enough of such, who fancy that such and such is the true meaning of this or that text of the sacred writings.) But no, the magnanimous and valiant soldier of Jesus Christ answered them in the words of his Divine Master, that he preferred his soul to the whole world, and requested only one favour from his sanguinary persecutors, viz. to leave him at rest, in order to prepare for his approaching death. Being thus disappointed in their expectation, they still hoped to succeed with his wife, a lady of exquisite beauty, then pregnant, and whom he dearly loved, as she did him. When, therefore, he was about to be led out to execution, she, being persuaded by them, and moreover listening to the powerful voice of an afflicted and affectionate wife, a mother, and the cries of an only son, bathed in tears, clasped her infant boy in her arms, and took her station opposite the grated window of her dear husband's dungeon. Then she sent forth her wild and heart-rending shrieks, which reaching the ear of her husband, interrupted, for a moment, the celestial joy in which his soul was now totally absorbed, as if by anticipa tion of the plenitude of that glory which he was shortly to enjoy as the crown of his martyrdom. When she perceived him at the window, she held up her boy, the first pledge of their conjugal affections, and sorrowingly implored him, rather by cries and la mentations than words, (for her breaking heart could vent neither words nor utterance,) at least to take compassion on his afflicted wife, now a widow, and his orphan son-that he should rather accept the offer made him than thus leave her a helpless widow, and in poverty, (for his estates were all confiscated, and to be given to some ruffian-persecutor who thirsted for his blood and his property,) but in vain, for he was too strongly armed in faith to listen to the demands of flesh and blood; and with a greatness of soul, worthy the primitive days of the church, said to her: "Go, take care of our boy, and of thyself; endeavour not to turn me aside from my holy resolution; but rather pray that I may have the grace to fight my combat gallantly, as a soldier of my dear Redeemer, who will also take care of you. Remember that he is not a true disciple of Christ who refuses to leave father, mother, wife and children for His sake." Which said, he withdrew, and in a few hours afterwards went to receive his crown. He was executed at Limerick. May he rest in peace. Amen. Sir, Your obedient servant, J. M.H. SACERDOS. LAITY'S DIRECTORY FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. November 9.-SUNDAY, Twenty-fifth after Pentecost. Mass of the Patronage of the B. V. M. com. of the Sunday, (5th after Epiphany,) and of S. Theodorus, M. Gospel of the Sunday at the end.-White. In the archdiocese of Armagh, and DD. of Down and Connor, com. of Octave. November 10.-MONDAY. Mass of St. Andrew Avellinus, C. com. of SS. Tryphon and comp. M M.-White. In the archdiocese of Armagh and DD. of Down and Connor, Mass of the Oct day of St. Malachy. com of MM. November 11-TUESDAY. Mennas, M.-White. Mass of St. Martin, B. and C, com. of St. November 12.-WEDNESDAY. Mass of St. Levinus, B. and M.- Red. November 15-SATURDAY. Mass of St. Gertrude, Virgin.— White- DUBLIN --Stereotyped, Printed and Published, by T. & J. COLDWELL, 50, Capel-street. Sold also by the Catholic Book Society, 5, Essex-bridge; R. Coyne, 4, Capel-strest, R. Grace & Son, 45, Capel-street; Coyne, 24, Cook-street; D'OBrien, 2. Ahley WHOLESALE AGENTS in London, Keating and Brown; Liverpool, Willner and Suik; Glasgow, D. Kennedy, THE PUBLISHED WEEKLY, UNDER THE INSPECTION OF CATHOLIC DIVINES. No. 40. DUBLIN, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1834. VOL. I AGAR AND ISMAEL IN THE WILDERNESS.-GEN. xxi. 14, 15. So Abraham rose up in the morning, and taking bread and a bottle of water, put it upon her shoulder, and delivered the boy and sent her away.And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Bersabee. 15. And when the water in the bottle was spent, she cast the boy under one of the trees that were there. A COMPENDIUM OF THE MANUAL OF R. P. MARTIN BECAN US, THEOLOGIAN OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. TRANSLATED FOR THE CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. BY A CATHOLIC DIVINE. THE FIRST BOOK.-ON COMMON CONTROVERSIES. THERE is one chief amongst the common controversies on which all the rest depend; to wit: concerning the church. For if it be true (which with God's blessing we will demonstrate to be true) that our church, which is called the Catholic and Roman, is the true Church of Christ, which cannot err in faith, our adversaries are already vanquished. This I thus show. Whoever, in matters of faith and religion follows the true Church of Christ, cannot err about faith and religion when the true Church of Christ is infallible but Catholics, who maintain Purgatory, the Invocation of Saints, the Sacrifice of the Mass, and similar tenets, follow the true Church of Christ. Therefore they cannot err about faith and religion-therefore they are secure. On the contrary, our aðversaries who desert the true Church of Christ, without doubt err, and are not secure. St. Augustine often makes use of this mode of argument which is a brief compendium of all other controversies. CHAP. I.-On the Sacred Scripture. Three things may be considered in the sacred Scripture. 1st, the Canon or catalogue of the books of the Scripture. 2d, The version or translation. 3d, The sense, literal as well as mystical; of which we will speak in the following order :-1st, What books are canonical or divine? 2d, Which is the legitimate version of the Scripture? 3d, What is its literal as well as its mystical sense? 4th, Is the literal, which is the chief sense, obscure? 5th, Whence arises this obscurity? 6th, Why did God will the Scripture to be obscure? 7th, Since it is obscure who ought to interpret it?8th, Have the Lutherans and Calvinists the true Scripture? 9th, Can they dispute from it about faith and religion? 10th, How are they accustomed to dispute from it? 1st Question-what books of Scripture are canonical? 1st, The word canon signifies two things. 1st, A standard or rule, which we follow. 2d, A catalogue or list of some things.In this two-fold sense the books of Scripture are canonical. In the first sense because they contain the standard or rule which we ought to follow in faith and morals. In the latter sense, because they are put into a catalogue of divine books. The question is, then, what books of the Old and New Testament are canonical in the latter sense, that is, what books are brought into the canon or catalogue of the books of Scripture, as divine or inspired by God' 2d, I answer. These books of the Old Testament are put into the canon which Catholics use:-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Josue, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings, two of Paralipomenon, two of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, the four Greater Prophets, the Twelve Minor Prophets, and the two Books of the Macchabees. Also these books of the New Testament:—the four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the fourteen Epistles of Paul, three of John, two of Peter, one of James, one of Jude, and the Apocalypse of John. 3d, This canon or catalogue is found in the Council of Trent, fourth Session. And the Fathers of that council received it by tradition from Pope Eugene, in the Council of Florence, as may be seen in Bartholemew Carrauza's Sum of the Councils. Again, Eugene received it from Pope Gelasius, in the Council of Rome, as is evident from the 2d Tome of the Councils, in the Decrees of Gelasius, near the end. Again, Gelasius received it from St. Augustine, (2d Book on the Christian Doctrine, chap. 8th.) Augustine from the third Council of Carthage, which some call the fifth, others the sixth. In fine, the Fathers of this council received it from Innocent I. (1st Ep. to Exuperius, chap. 7.) But Innocent lived in the year of Christ 402. Therefore from that time to the time of the primitive church, even to us by uninterrupted tradition that same canon of the Scripture continues which we Catholics hold and embrace. 4th, From this canon our adversaries have expunged many books. Luther, indeed, from the canon of the Old Testament, excludes Tobias, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, the Macchabees, and from the canon of the New, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. James, the Epistle of Jude, and the Apocalypse of John. Some others expunged more, some less, each according to his own caprice. What St. Austin wrote in his book on the good of perseverence (cap. 11.) applies well to these expungers : They so receive the Scriptures that by a certain privilege of their own, nay sacrilege, they take what they like, and what they dislike they reject. 5th, Objection 1. Tobias, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus and Macchabees, are not in the canon of the Jews which is extant in Jerom: Therefore, they ought to be excluded from our canon. The answer. The antecedent is not universally true, nor is the consequence good. For Esther is in the canon that is extant in Jerom, although it is not in the canon that is extant in Melito and Nazianzen, whom we will shortly quote. Besides it is not necessary that these books alone should be held canonical with us which are held as such by the Jews, as St. Augustine justly observes in his eighteenth book on the City of God, (cap. 36.) Not the Jews but the Church holds the books of the Macchabees for canonical. And Isidore, regarding the books of the |