DRAGGING PROTESTANTS THROUGH BOGS IN IRELAND. 237 It is impossible to conceive the pleasure these monsters took in exercising their cruelty, and to increase the misery of those who fell into their hands, when they butchered them they would say, "Your soul to the devil." One of these miscreants would come into a house with his hands imbrued in blood, and boast that it was English blood, and that his sword had pricked the white skins of the protestants, even to the hilts. When any one of them had killed a protestant, others would come and receive a gratification in cutting and mangling the body; after which they left it exposed to be devoured by dogs; and when they had slain a number of them, they would boast that the devil was beholden to them for sending so many souls to hell. But it is no wonder they should thus treat the innocent Christians, when they hesitated not to commit blasphemy against God, and his most holy word. In one place they burnt two protestant bibles, and then said they had burnt hell-fire. In the church at Powerscourt, they burnt the pulpit, pews, chest, and bibles, belonging to it. They took other bibles, and after wetting them with dirty water, dashed them in the faces of the protestants, saying, "We know you love a good lesson; here is an excellent one for you; come to-morrow, and you shall have as good a sermon as this.” Some of the protestants they dragged by the hair of their heads. into the church, where they stripped and whipped them in the most cruel manner, telling them, at the same time, that, "if they came to-morrow, they should hear the like sermon." In Munster they put to death several ministers in the most shocking manner. One, in particular, they stripped naked, and . driving him before them, pricked him with swords and darts till he fell down and expired. In some places they plucked out the eyes and cut off the hands of the protestants, and in that manner turned them into the fields, there to wander out a miserable existence. They obliged many young men to force their aged parents to a river, where they were drowned: wives to assist in hanging their husbands; and mothers to cut the throats of their children. In one place they compelled a young man to kill his father, and then immediately hanged him. In another they forced a woman 238 JUDGMENTS OF GOD ON PERSECUTORS. to kill her husband, then obliged the son to kill her, and afterward shot him through the head. At a place called Glaslow, a popish priest, with some others, prevailed on forty protestants to be reconciled to the church of Rome. They had no sooner done this, than they told them they were in a good faith, and that they would prevent their falling from it and turning heretics, by sending them out of the world, which they did by immediately cutting their throats. In the county of Tipperary, upward of thirty protestants, men, women, and children, fell into the hands of the papists, who, after stripping them naked, murdered them with stones, pole-axes, swords, and other weapons. In the county of Mayo, about sixty protestants, fifteen of whom were ministers, were, upon covenant, to be safely conducted to Galway, by one Edmund Burk and his soldiers: but that inhuman monster by the way drew his sword, as an intimation of his design to the rest, who immediately followed his example, and murdered the whole, some of whom they stabbed, others were run through the body with pikes, and several were drowned. In Queen's county, great numbers of protestants were put to the most shocking deaths. Fifty or sixty were placed together in one house, which being set on fire, they all perished in the flames. Many were stripped naked, and being fastened to horses by ropes placed round their middles, were dragged through bogs till they expired. Some were hung by the feet to tenter-hooks driven into poles; and in that wretched posture left till they perished. Others were fastened to the trunk of a tree, with a branch at top. Over this branch hung one arm, which principally supported the weight of the body; and one of the legs was turned up, and fastened to the trunk, while the other hung straight. And in this dreadful and uneasy posture did they remain, as long as life would permit, pleasing spectacles to their blood-thirsty persecutors. JUDGMENTS OF GOD ON PERSECUTORS.-A Dominican friar, of Munster, as he was inveighing in the pulpit against the protestant religion, which was then springing up, was suddenly struck with a flash of lightning, which immediately deprived him of life. DECEPTION OF CATHOLICS. 239 DECEPTION OF CATHOLICS. IN our country, where the protestant religion predominates, and where they have a numerical majority, the catholics are characterized for great duplicity; in fact, they display a time-serving spirit, a spirit of accommodation to the views and feelings of those with whom they live; when, in reality, their conduct is jesuitical, and the fruit of a settled and laid policy. As illustrative of the truth of this remark, I refer to a circumstance which transpired in this city, and which is well authenticated. A procession of German catholics on some particular occasion, in passing the streets carried before them a banner, having perched upon its top an eagle, emblematic of American independence and liberty. They met the gaze of the multitude, who may have been impressed by the American flag which they bore, with their entire devotion to our institutions, and the general interests of our country; but what was their surprise, as they followed this procession to the catholic church, when they saw them, upon approaching the church, remove the American eagle from its conspicuous place upon the banner, and in its place elevate the cross, and march with it into the church. In the presence of American citizens they are exceedingly loyal and patriotic, but in other places, and in other circumstances, when screened from the public gaze, and under different influences, they betray an opposite spirit—a craven spirit of subjection to other powers than those that be, especially in our happy and free land. Nor should we be surprised at this, for the whole catholic church are under a priesthood who have not adopted this country by becoming naturalized citizens and identifying themselves with her institutions and laws; but, on the contrary, remain, even while enjoying the freedom she gives, the sworn adherents of a foreign, despotic, ecclesiastic power, that of the pope of Rome, than whom a greater despot, whether ecclesiastical or civil, never lived. Never yet could an American catholic bishop be found who breathed an American spirit, save Bishop Reze, of Detroit; and he long since has virtually been deprived by the pope of his bishopric, being summoned to Rome to answer the charges preferred against him, for his liberality to other denominations, and the American spirit which characterized him. THE following spirited and beautiful stanzas were written by a lady. They were suggested on hearing an account of a party of Roman catholic foreigners who adopted, on a public occasion, the above sentence as their motto: America conquered! the land of the brave, Where the star-spangled banners of liberty wave! America conquered! and conquered by whom? Have the hearts of our sons from their bravery turned, Not these, O not these are the conquests; the plain Lo! far o'er America's beautiful soil Is scattered the legion who gather the spoil; They come o'er the foam of the wild sweeping sea, O sons of America! list to the cry! The loud, fearful warning that rings to the sky! Shall foul, blackened falsehood unanswered be borne, DENIAL OF THE CUP TO THE LAITY. Arouse ye, arouse ye, O men of the North! Let the South send her champions fearlessly forth, And the East and the west, let them gird on the sword, Strike! strike for the country, the freedom ye crave, O fight as they fought on the land and the sea, 241 DENIAL OF THE CUP TO THE LAITY. ROMAN CATHOLICS, in celebrating the Lord's supper, never give the cup to the laity. The excuse for this palpable breach of the Lord's command is, that it is done for discipline. But our Savior says: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you; whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." John vii. 53-56. Here the command to drink the blood of Christ is as imperative as to eat his flesh, and the benefits to be derived apply as much to one as to the other. If any one wilfully rejects the cup, he can not be said to receive the sacrament which Christ appointed. And though we may charitably hope that God will forgive the defect, and not take away his grace on that account from those whose fault it is not, yet we must say that a load of sin rests upon those who ordered, and by their authority retain, the abuse, which we would be very unwilling to take upon ourselves. How can any man who believes Christ's words, thus become a partaker, as he must necessarily, in the heinous sin of denying to the laity that which is their birthright as members of the church of God. And how can the laity themselves tolerate a violation of God's word which deprives them of so dear a privilege. THE schools of Romanists in the United States are designed principally for the education of the children of protestants, supposing thus more effectually to propagate their religious sentiments. |