Two Addresses. N. Rigby
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N. Rigby
Two Addresses
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4064066129675
Table of Contents
AN ADDRESS TO THE CLERGYMEN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
DEDICATION.
The following pages are humbly, and gratefully Dedicated, to the Catholic Noblemen and Gentlemen of Yorkshire, by the Catholic Priest at Ugthorp.
Noblemen and Gentlemen,
Many of you, lately appeared boldly, and manfully on the platform at York, in defence of our holy religion. Conscious of the justice and innocence of our cause, you feared neither the sneers, nor the insults, nor the shouts, nor the threats of its enemies, but, like your illustrious ancestors, shewed that you considered your religion, as your best inheritance, and held it more dear than life itself; whilst, on the other hand, like your illustrious ancestors, you shewed that you yielded to none, in your loyal allegiance to your temporal sovereign, and to the state. Now it would be ungrateful, nay even base, in us Catholic clergymen, not to second your manly, and zealous exertions in defence of our ancient, and holy faith. To you, therefore, I most humbly, and gratefully dedicate the following pages. I hope you will find, that I have not advanced in them, anything that is inconsistent with the principles of truth, of justice, and of honour. To have acted otherwise, would, I am sure (for I have the honour to be personally acquainted with most of you), be most insulting to your noble, and liberal feelings, and would only have served, to confirm the hostility of the Protestant, and to loosen the attachment of the Catholic, to that cause, which I had undertaken to defend.
Noblemen, and Gentlemen, when the Catholic looks back on the past, he will learn to hope well of the future. He will observe, that the irritating objections of former times, are now almost shamed out of Parliament, and can hardly support their credit, even among the most suspicious, and least informed Protestants. He will see, that our opponents have uniformly been compelled, to shift their ground from position to position, and after pertinaciously defending each, have ended by abandoning it, and retreating to another. At first, the Catholics were accused of favouring the claims of the Stuarts, but the extinction of that family, has put an end to that charge. We were then told, that the Catholics, could not be bound by oath, though oaths, had been wisely devised as the best safeguards, against their supposed perfidy. Next, the fathers of the great Council of Latern, were marshalled against us; as if men were to be punished at the present day, because Protestants will not understand the regulations of feudal Princes, and feudal Prelates six centuries ago. Afterwards, we were reproached with the deposing powers, and temporal pretensions of the Pope; these were set at rest at that time (and we had hoped for ever,) by the answers of the foreign Universities. Lastly, came the Coronation Oath, men, however, could not be persuaded that the Sovereign, by promising to maintain the liberties of the Protestant Church, was bound to deprive of their civil rights all those, who might dissent from the spiritual creed of that Church. Each of these arguments in its day, was deemed unanswerable, but each has yielded to discussion. Past advantages, therefore, Noblemen and Gentlemen, are an earnest to the Catholic of future success; and after the hour of the late excitement, about the Pope's temporal and spiritual power, has passed away, I am sure, all sensible, and unbiassed Englishmen will see, that the late hubbub, has been an ignus fatuus of imaginations distorted with fear, and alarm, which had well nigh, misled the whole nation, into a quagmire of inconsistency, illiberality and revolution.
Catholic Chapel House, Ugthorp, near Whitby,
January 21st, 1851.
TO THE READER.
Reader, that you may the better understand the two following addresses, you ought first, to read the copy of the requisition for the meeting, &c., which is placed before these two addresses, and you ought also, to read the little address which here follows, and which I published to announce, that the following pages would shortly appear in print. In the notice of the requisition for the public meeting, &c., you will find these words, "extraordinary and presumptuous movement on the part of the Pope." Now, reader, you must remember, that these memorable words are my grand text, in the two following addresses. I here beg to offer my sincere thanks to the gentlemen, who signed the requisition, for I am sure, if they had studied from the deluge until now, they could not have given me, a more suitable text for the Catholic cause, and a more destructive one to the Protestant Church. But, reader, you will be able to judge of this yourself, after reading the following pages. Read first then, the following little address, and then read the notice calling the public meeting.
In the press, and in the course of a few weeks will be published, an Address to the Gentlemen who signed the late Requisition to the Magistrates of Whitby, to call a Public Meeting to address the Queen on the late extraordinary and presumptuous movement on the part of the Bishop of Rome.
To the Inhabitants of Whitby and of the Neighbourhood.
Inhabitants,
I have been lately often asked, why I did not attend the above meeting? I reply, read my address when it is published, and you will there find an answer to your question. It is a common observation of sailors, "only give the ship plenty of sea-room in a storm, and then she will live." Now, inhabitants of Whitby, and of the neighbourhood, if you will give the Catholic Church (or, if you please, the Roman Catholic Church) only the sea-room of fair play, you will, perhaps, find that the bottom and sides of this spiritual ship, are well coppered with the solid, and impenetrable metal of good reasons, and solid arguments, and that, full rigged as she is, with the sails of truth, of justice, and of honour, she can gallantly brave the hurricanes of her enemies, and ride triumphantly, amid the storms of spiritual and temporal agitation, which have lately threatened to shipwreck, and to sink her.
When my address appears, I hope you will find in it, nothing that is inconsistent with principles of truth, of justice, and of honour. To have used any other weapons of defence would, in my humble opinion, have served only to strengthen the Protestant hostility, and to loosen the Catholic attachment, to that cause, which I had undertaken to defend. You will, of course, expect a little of the comic, as coming from my pen, well, as the poet says,
Ridentum dicere verum
Quid vetat?
Or, that I may not speak in a foreign tongue, "What forbids us to tell the truth, with a smile?"
Of course you will perhaps expect a little innocent stir, among the Reverends in my address, and perhaps, you may not be mistaken. If you remember, an illuminated Cambridge Divine, some years ago, came to Lythe, to make an "extraordinary and presumptuous movement" on the consciences of us Romanists, (as he politely styled us), and learnedly informed us, that we Romanists, were a set of spiritual