A

HISTORY OF POPERY;

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF

THE ORIGIN, GROWTH, AND PROGRESS

OF

THE PAPAL POWER;

ITS POLITICAL INFLUENCE IN THE EUROPEAN
STATES-SYSTEM, AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, AN

EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE
ROMISH CHURCH IN IRELAND;

PREFACE.

So many admirable works have been published on the doctrinal differences between the Romish and the Reformed churches, that the theological portion of the controversy appears to be exhausted. Another, and a very important question has not met with similar attention; that is, the system of ecclesiastical organization, which the Romish writers exultingly celebrate as the summit of perfection, and whose excellence they seem to believe ought to atone both for errors of creed and corruption of morals. They assert that Popery, as a political system, has been the great conservative principle in the developement of European civilization, that it has placed itself in opposition to despotism on the one hand, and licentiousness on the other, and that the social and intellectual discipline which it established secured gradual improvement, while it prevented pernicious innovation. This is, in truth, an appeal from matters of opinion to matters of fact, and it is one from which no advocate of the Reformed doctrines need shrink; moreover, it is a form of controversy in which there is little room for misinterpretation or error, for