against the heirs of a person deceased. The bill was in the usual

style :

Estate of Mr.

deceased, to

To masses and prayers for delivering the soul of Mr.

out of purgatory

Dr.

I am astonished that the priest had so much charity and confidence as to finish the job before he obtained the money, unless the bill was made out as the voucher of payment for the executors, and so was to have been paid prior to the commencement of the cheating mummery.

It is the usual custom among all Roman priests not to give credit for their juggling. Like other charlatans, and exhibiters of tricks. of sleight of hand, they take the money first; and if the parties are not satisfied, they have their money's worth in the experience which they have procured.

NUNNERIES,

A CAPTAIN of a vessel stated some time since, that, when in port in a catholic country, an old nunnery was torn down for the purpose of rebuilding, and, although every exertion was made by the holy fathers to suppress the curiosity of the people, a number flocked round the ruins, and some few examined them, when it was discovered that a large vault was under the building, wherein was a large number of INFANTS' BONES. When this discovery was made known, the populace insisted that they should be brought out. The bones were then laid out on a plain near the ruins, and examined by several physicians, who at once pronounced them to be human bones. Our informant, whose name we possess, states that he was among the number who witnessed the dreadful sight.

When we consider the general character Roman priests have for licentiousness-when we consider that they are forbidden marriage and when we consider the situation of females in those brothels called nunneries, where they are excluded from the world, and instructed by wily and licentious men, who soon obtain a complete sway over their minds, and are taught that a priest can forgive every sin, and when these females are conscious that their guilt will be concealed from the world, can we for a moment wonder that licentiousness should prevail among them?

110

HOLY WATER FOR SALE.

The catholic priesthood are establishing these brothels in the western country, for the double purpose of obtaining converts to their creed, and of satisfying their lust. As to the idea that females are educated in nunneries for the purpose of obtaining a support for the institutions, it is not worthy serious notice, as it is well known that immense sums are annually sent from catholic countries to their spies here, for the purpose of establishing their own religion, and of supporting such institutions as are best suited to . educate the youth of our country in the creed of the church of Rome.

HOLY WATER FOR SALE.

THE following can be relied on as true, as having taken place in Philadelphia, and the names of the parties might be given, if required :

A father, belonging to the infallible holy church of St.

was lying at home dangerously ill, and, as it is the custom, to enrich the pockets of the priest, he sent his little, but knowing son, to his holy-water-selling priest, with a small vial, to obtain an eleven-penny bit worth of the sacra aqua. The boy returned with the vial filled. The father used it with no small faith in its virtue, and to the satisfying of his conscience. The boy was sent again and again with the vial and money, and as often returned with holy

water.

66

The priest, however, missing his absent parishioner, took occasion to visit him, to know the cause of his delinquency, in the church, at confession, and in not sending for holy water, if sick. He came to the house, and found the man very sick, and the very first question to the man was: Why had he not sent for holy water?" The man replied that he had; but the priest as stoutly contended that he had not. The little son was sent for, to prove the father's position. He came, and it appeared, on examination, that the boy, while he took the money to a neighboring cake shop, to gratify his taste, he as regularly also went to a neighboring hydrant to fill his vial, to gratify his sick father. At the confession of the boy, the father could scarcely keep from a broad grin, while perhaps the priest, when he returned home, enjoyed the joke equally as well as the boy did the cakes; so that all were pleased, the father, the priest, and the son.

DELUSIONS RESPECTING POPERY.

IT has been urged from the fact that the catholics are inferior in number to other denominations that therefore there is no room for apprehension that they will control at any time, as our population is continually increasing, our civil or religious destinies. We would not infer from the fact of their being smaller than other sects that they are not on that account formidable. Their power arises from other circumstances. To say nothing of the oath by which they are bound to do all they can toward extirpating the protestant religion wherever they may be, and building up their own upon its ruins, it should be remembered that they constitute but a part of a powerful sect in another hemisphere, which has millions at its control, that is at the disposal of their members, wherever existing, to be used against the protestants. Other denominations do not wish to bring under their subjection any government whatever; but the history of Europe, of Asia, and of South America, from the first dawning of Christianity to the present day, shows that the great aim of the Roman catholics has ever been to get the civil no less than the religious destinies of nations under their control. One fact is certain, that they are fast increasing in this country, and that the catholic dignitaries of Europe are looking with intense interest at their success among us. Let the reader judge for himself whether there is really ground for alarm and apprehension at their rapid increase among us, and especially among our brethren of the Mississippi Valley.

ALLIANCE.-The Catholic Miscellany, speaking of the assaults made on the corruptions of their church, says:

"But our only hope, provided we are true to ourselves, arises from the conviction that the spirit of the great republic which entombed the Sunday mail petition, will frown down with merited and indigant scorn the attempt, be it made by what body of citizens it will, to sow dissensions between those who should live in peace and harmony."

Mark it our only hope-is in those who favor the desecration of the sabbath! A truer word was never spoken. So corrupt a religion can not put its trust in God, and must therefore court the alliance of those who violate his law.

112

HORRIBLE MASSACRE IN FRANCE.

HORRIBLE MASSACRE IN FRANCE, A. B. 1572.

FTER a long series of troubles in France, the papists seeing nothing could be done against the protestants by open force, began to devise how they could entrap them by subtlety, and that by two ways: first by pretending that an army was to be sent into the lower country, under the command of the admiral, prince of Navarre and Condé; not that the king had any intention of so, doing, but only with a view to ascertain what force the admiral had under him, who they were, and what were their

names.

In some measure to palliate their cruelties, the Roman catholics, while they were murdering the innocent people, cried out, "Vile wretches, this is for wanting to overturn the constitution of your country; this is for conspiring to murder the king." Rank, sex, or age, was no protection; nobles sunk beneath the daggers of ruffians; the tears of beauty made no impression on the hearts of bigotry; the silver hairs of venerable age, and the piteous cries of helpless infancy, were alike disregarded. Superstition steeled the hearts of the papists against the ties of humanity; and infatuation directed the sword of false zeal, to pierce the bosoms of piety and innocence. The lamentations of distress, the shrieks of terror, and the groans of the dying, were music to the ears of the furious murderers they enjoyed the horrors of slaughter, and triumphed over the mangled carcasses of those whom they had butchered.

now,

Upon this dreadful occasion, swords, pistols, muskets, cutlasses, daggers, and other instruments of death, had been put into the hands of above sixty thousand furious and bigoted papists, who in a frantic manner, ran up and down the streets of Paris, uttering the most horrid blasphemies, and committing the most inhuman barbarities. It is almost beyond the power of imagination to paint, or of language to describe, the cruelties that were acted on that fatal night, and the two succeeding days. The infirm were murdered in the bed of sickness; the aged stabbed while tottering