perils of undissolving frost-a specimen of what Catholic institutions used to be every where; and then ask yourself by what name the "Dark Ages" ought to be called?-By what term the "Reformation" should be designated? Hartfield, September, 1827. CRITO. HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XII. [Continued from page 166.] The Rev. Dr. Gradwell's Letter addressed to Sheffield Grace, Esq., is as follows: DEAR SIR, Rome, English College, 19th August, 1827. I flatter myself that our mutual friend, Mr. Butler, will have informed you, that on the 15th of July I had the honour of presenting to his Holiness in person, your very superb present, with a short note adapted to the occasion; and how graciously both were received. Yesterday I had the honour to receive the Pope's answer and acknowledgment in a Breve; together with a dispatch from Cardinal Della Somaglia, Secretary of State, requesting me to see the Breve safely conveyed to you. I feel a satisfaction in observing, that the Pope has sent his answer to you not through the ordinary channel of the Segretaria delle Lettere Latine; but in a more dignified and complimentary form of a Breve sub annulo Piscatoris, through the Segretaria de Brevi á Principi. It was minuted by my particular friend, Monsignor Testa, Secretary of Breves to Princes. Not knowing your exact address, I have taken the liberty of sending the Breve, or Pope's answer, together with the Cardinal's letter to Mr. Charles Butler, of Lincoln's Inn. I have the honour to remain, dear Sir, To Sheffield Grace, Esq., London. ROBERT GRADwell. Cardinal Della Somaglia's Letter, enclosing the Pope's Breve, and addressed to the Rev. Dr. Gradwell, is as follows: Dalle Stanze del Vaticano, 17 Agosto, 1827. IL Cardinal Decano Segretario di Stato si fa un dovere di remet. tere a V. S. il qui unito Breve di Sua Santita responsiro ad una lettera che ella stessa fece tenere alla Santita sua. V. S. è pregata di volerne assicutare il recapito. GUI CARDLE DELLA SOMAGLIA.* Sigr. Rettore del Collegio Inglese, con Breve. His Holiness Pope Leo XIIth's. Breve or Letter addressed to Mr. Sheffield Grace is as follows LEO P. P. XII. NOBILIS VIR SALUTEM.-Pervenustam et insignem Generis tui Nobilitatem, ac typographica isthic artis præstantiam admirati sumus, in opere magnificæ a te edito, quod dilectus filius Robertus Gradwell Anglicani hujus Conlegii Rector, nobis tuo nomine reddidit. In litteris autem quas una cum eodem opere a te accepimus, officiosam voluntatem erga nos tuam, tuumque nobis gratificandi studium palam agnovimus. Nos igitur ut de munere, quod plane gratum nobis accidit, et multo magis de sensibus in nos tuis debitas tibi gratias agimus, ipsarumque re aliqua testandarum desiderio teneri te facimus certiorem. Tuum eret opportunas id agendi occasiones nobis præbere. Interim Datoris omnium bonorum supplicamus, ut te cælestibus suæ gratiæ donis cumulet, perfectaque nobiscum charitate conjungat. Datum Romæ apud Sanctum Petrum sub annulo Piscatoris die xi. Augusti MDCCCXXVII. Pontificatus nostri anno Quarto. L. S. DOMINICUS TESTA.† Nobili Viro Sheffield Grace, Armig., L.L.D., S.S.A., &c. &c. &c. * Translation. From the Chamber of the Vatican, 17 of August, 1827. : The Cardinal Deacon, Secretary of State, feels it his duty to transmit to your Lordship the accompanying Breve of his Holiness, in answer to a letter that he himself had conveyed to his Holiness. Your Lordship is requested to insure its being received. GUI. CARDINAL DELLA Somaglia. To the Lord Rector of the English College, with a Breve. + Translation. LEO XII. POPE.-CHIEF BISHOP. Noble Sir, Health.-The very ancient and distinguished rank of your family, and the typographical beauty of the magnificent work upon it compiled by you, and presented to us in your name by our beloved son, Robert Gradwell, Principal of our English College, have excited, our admiration. Together with the work we have received your letter, and acknowledge your REVIEW OF LATE PUBLICATIONS. Essence of Religious Controversy. By Dr. Coombes. London: Longman & Co. 416 pp. was [Continued from page 187.] In our last number we submitted to our readers some of those powerful reasonings of Dr. Coombes, by which he proved, that the grand plea and very basis of Protestantism,-the assertion that the true church of Christ had failed, and fallen into abominable errors,— a direct contradiction to the promises of Christ, an insult to the divine veracity, and the establishment of a principle subversive of religion, piety, and common sense." Though the determining of this question is in reality decisive of the whole controversy, yet to show how totally groundless is the pretext on which the Protestant Reformation was first built, and still rests as its very foundation, he enters on a regular examination of those much-abused and muchmisrepresented points of Catholic doctrine, which are asserted to be abominable errors, and to form a full justification, both for the first reformers, in abandoning, and for their descendants, in not returning to the Catholic Church. These he triumphantly proves are, not merely not errors, but divine truths revealed by Christ, and believed in every age of the church, from the birth of primitive Christianity, to the rise of the Protestant Reformation. To judge of the learning and ability with which this is performed, the whole work must be perused. A few extracts, however, will probably be acceptable to our readers. On the real presence, after adducing and arguing most powerfully from those texts-" The bread that I will give is my flesh for the spontaneous good wishes for us, and your desire of giving us pleasure. For the gift, therefore, we receive with satisfaction, but much more for your feelings towards us we return you due thanks, and assure you that we desire to testify the same by every means in our power. For you it will be to point out fit opportunities for so doing. In the mean time, we pray the giver of all good to bestow upon you abundantly the heavenly blessings of his grace, and to unite you to us in perfect love. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, under the fisherman's seal, this eleventh day of August, 1827, and in the fourth year of our pontificate. DOMINICK TESTA, Secretary of Breves to Princes. To the noble Sheffield Grace, Esq., D.C.L., and F.S.A., &c. &c, &c. C. M.-VOL. VIII. NO. 70. K K life of the world.”—“ My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."- "This is my body."- "This is my blood."-He comes to those declarations of St. Paul, (1 Cor. xi.) Wherefore, whoever shall eat this bread, or drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. '-"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, NOT DISCERNING THE LORD'S BODY." He then concludes with this personal and powerful appeal : "Attend, catechist, with every Protestant reader; weigh well this unequivocal declaration, and tell me, why is all this solemnity of menace-this denunciation of vengeance here introduced, if the whole crime of the unworthy communicant is to be reduced to the act of taking a morsel of bread, and of drinking a drop of wine in honour of our Redeemer, though in a state of sin. But particularly, how is the unfortunate wretch to fall under the heaviest weight of divine vengeance for an eternity, for not discerning the body of the Lord, if the Lord's body be not there to be discerned. To add one word more, by way of comment, on this celebrated passage, would be an insult to the understanding of the most illiterate reader." After quoting the Council of Nice, held in 325, St Hilary, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Augustin, and St. John Chrysostom to prove the belief of the primitive church, he shews the perfect concordance that subsists between the Catholic and the Schismatical Greek Church, and he thus closes this branch of the subject. "As the doctrine of the Greek church is frequently referred to by Protestants, and as it is of extreme weight in confirming Catholic tenets, where both churches are clearly agreed, I will produce unexceptionable evidence of this perfect agreement from a work already cited.* In various and multiplied documents preserved in this performance, the language on all the controverted points between Protestants and Catholics is precisely the same as that held by the Catholic church. In the attestation signed by the seven archbishops of the east, is the following passage: First of all, as to the holy sacrament ' of the Eucharist, we affirm, that the living body of Jesus Christ, who was 'crucified, who ascended to heaven, and who is seated at the right hand of 'the Father, is truly present in the Eucharist, but invisible. 2. That the bread and wine, after the invocation of the priest, and after the consecration, are changed from their proper substance into the true body and blood of Christ; and that, though the accidents that remain, preserve the appearances of 'bread and wine, they are however neither bread nor wine.' Here let me ask the catechist, or rather let me appeal to the higher authorities in the Protestant world, and inquire, how it is possible to account for this perfect agreement on these articles between the Greek and Latin churches, the former * "See Perpetuité de la Foi, tom. iii. p. 412; and consult the whole series of documents, ibid. 406-586, comprising the whole eighth book. of which has been separated from the latter, with the exception of some short intervals, by a schism of nearly a thousand years, unless they had both derived the same doctrine from the earliest period of Christianity. The appearance of these documents, with the inevitable consequences to be drawn from them, had such an effect on the illustrious Claud, the leader of the French Calvinists, that he could not believe his own senses; but wrote himself to a learned Greek to verify the facts. The learned Grecian, well versed in the Latin language, sent him in reply a long dissertation, comprising seven pages in quarto; in which he demonstrates the antiquity of the doctrine of the real presence and transubstantiation, and declares that the east and west were always agreed on the subject." The following is an extract from the letter alluded to: "Be it therefore known to you, most excellent sir, that the whole east, ' with the consent of the west, does believe, and has always believed from the ⚫ earliest period of the church, that the bread and wine are truly and physically 'transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ, laying aside their first substance; and this transubstantiation she (the whole eastern church) holds " among the necessary articles of faith; so that it is unlawful for any one to be 'ignorant of it, or call it in question, or altogether to reject it. This faith 'she has derived from Christ, and after him from the apostles and fathers of ❝ the primitive church, who were the pillars and foundation of Grecian orthodoxy.* The learned Doctor remarks on this. "After this decisive declaration obtained by Claud himself, his arms fell from his hands; and from that period, a deep silence has generally been observed on the subject of the doctrines of the Greek church, except among the uninformed, who never heard of these transactions, or the artful, who still wish to propagate the delusion." In his dissertation on the Sacrifice of the Mass, he introduces the following brief history of those celebrated documents from the Greek Church, which form so distinguished a portion of that unanswered and unanswerable work, "La Perpetuité de la Foi.” › "But as he is fond of making an occasional display of learning, by referring to the belief of the Greek church, let me inform him, that the Calvinists of France, in the reign of Louis XIV., adopted the same plan, and laboured to persuade the Christian world, that the Greek schismatics favoured their innovations in every point. In consequence of this assertion so often and so solemnly repeated, his Christian majesty directed his ambassador at Constantinople, to collect official documents, containing the precise belief. of the Greek church on all articles at that time under discussion between the Catholics and the Calvinists. This commission was executed on the most extensive scale; and information of the most interesting nature was obtained from every city, town, village, and hamlet, which had the advantage of a pastor. The result "* See book 8, vol. iii. p. 480-487." |