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of meeting he would move that a sub-committee might be appointed to draw up a disavowal on the part of the Catholics of this country, of the bigoted, uncharitable, and intolerant doctrines contained in the Notes to the Rhemisli Testament. Considerable efforts, it appeared, had been made to impute these doctrines to the Catholic body, even by men who knew the Catholics held them in utter detestation; it was necessary that they should refute the calumny-the disavowal might be made somewhat comprehensive, and the curious history of the Rhemish Testament might be stated; for it is an historical fact, that in angry times in England, these notes were written by English Clergymen, but were never countenanced by any of the divines of the Catholic church in Ireland. They were always denounced, and, at the present day, no Catholic, he believed, in the country would peruse them without disgust; and yet their corrupt and interested enemies do not hesitate to say, that these doctrines are entertained by the Irish people. The calumny has gone abroad; and, under the circumstances, he thought it would be wise to refute it: he would, therefore, give notice, that, on Thursday next, a Committee be appointed to draw up a disavowal of these doctrines.

"Mr. ENEAS M'DONNELL said, that the words of Mr. O'Connell's notice appeared to him to be too general. Some of the Notes to the Rhemish Testament were bad enoughbut this would go to condemn the entire.

"Mr. O'CONNELL rose and observed, that it would be soon enough to discuss the motion when it should have been made. He was now merely giving notice of a proposition which he intended to submit. He remarked, however, that' the denunciation of these intolerant Notes by the Archbishop of Dublin was general.' It was his intention, that the disavowal which he contemplated should be framed in such a way, that a copy of it could be forwarded to every member of both Houses of Parliament. When he came to

make his motion, he would recommend that the committee be instructed to introduce a short history of these obnoxious Notes into the document they should prepare. He again stated, that the Rhemish Notes had been originally written by English Clergymen, immediately after the Reformation -men who had just been deprived of valuable livings-who fled from England-who were smarting under their recent losses, and were irritated by personal injury, and inflated by religious rancour. Through the Rhemish Notes they

gave vent to their feelings, and these Notes were immediately disclaimed by the Church. They had lately been surreptitiously put into circulation again; and, that they had been again denounced, was matter of public notoriety.

"Mr. O'CONNELL then moved, that Mr. Hay be requested to summon the members of the Catholic Board to meet on Thursday next, at three o'clock, for the purpose of discussing the propositions concerning the Rhemish Notes and Mr. Hayes's mission."

"Thursday, December 4.

"A remarkably full meeting of the Catholic Board took place on Thursday, pursuant to adjournment: OWEN O'CONNOR, Esq. in the chair.

"After some preliminary business, Mr. O'CONNELL rose to make his promised motion, for the appointment of a committee to prepare a denunciation of the intolerant doctrines contained in the Rhemish Notes. He dwelt upon the injurious effects of these abominable Notes, in prejudicing the public mind in England against Catholic emancipation; and urged the consequent necessity of an immediate explicit, authentic, and public disavowal of them, by every Catholic in this country. He had recently been in England himself; and personal and accurate information acquired upon the spot, enabled him to state, that if these Notes were not denounced, the member of Parliament who should be hardy enough to support emancipation in the next session of Parliament, would run a very considerable hazard of losing his seat in the House of Commons on the approaching election. If they were suffered to remain without a disavowal, the Catholics would have to encounter in the new Parliament a more determined hostility than was yet arrayed against them since the Union. Nor would the evil be delayed even until the assembling of a new House of Commons. Doubtless those briefless barristers who had already made themselves remarkable by their hostility to religious freedom, would gladly seize the op portunity which the very opening of Parliament would give them, of illustrating their own bigotry, by imputing bigotry to the Catholie people of Ireland. We should see a Mr. Leslie Foster, and other gentlemen like him, rising to support the address to the Throne, and proving from the Rhemish Testament that the Catholics were unworthy of trust or of favour. But, powerful as these reasons were, there were others of equal weight, though of a different nature, which made him urge this disavowal more anxiously.

He owed it to his religion, as a Catholic and a Christianto his country, as an Irishman-to his feelings, as a human being, to utterly denounce the damnable doctrines contained in the Notes to the Rhemish Testament. He was a Catholic upon principle-a steadfast and sincere Catholic, from a conviction that it was the best form of religion; but he would not remain one hour longer, if he thought it essential to the profession of the Catholic faith to believe that it was lawful to murder Protestants, or that faith might be innocently broken with heretics-Yet such were the doctrines laid down in Notes to the Rhemish Testament. Mr. O'Connell concluded an eloquent and sensible speech by moving, that a committee of five be forthwith appointed to prepare a denunciation of the Rhemish Notes. He said he would also move, that the denunciation so prepared should be transmitted to every member of the Houses of Peers and Commons, to all the dignitaries of the Established Church, to the members of the Church of Scotland, and to the Synod of Ulster. It would be for the subsequent consideration of the Board, whether it might not be expedient to call an aggregate meeting, to which a recommendation should be made of pronouncing a similar denunciation.

"Mr. ENEAS M'DONNELL conceived it would be imprudent and improper to interfere in theological questions, and spoke at considerable length in support of this opinion. He condemned the intolerant doctrines contained in the Rhemish Notes, in the most unqualified terms; but recommended a general exposition of the religious and political principles of the Catholics of Ireland, in preference to a denunciation of any particular work. He read an exposé of this description which had been prepared by himself." It was of very great length, and was in the form of AN ADDRESS OR APPEAL TO THE PROTESTANTS OF GREAT BRI

TAIN.

"Mr. MAHON thought the Clergy were the proper persons to dispose of this question.

"Mr. O'GORMAN was of the same opinion,

"Mr. RICHARD O'GORMAN thought a denunciation could only be pronounced with propriety by the Bishops, or an aggregate meeting.

"Mr. HOWLEY advocated a full denunciation in animated terms, and indignantly expressed his abhorrence of the detestable doctrines of the Rhemish Notes.

"Mr. O'CONNELL agreed to alter the form of his motion, by instructing the Committee to prepare an Address.

upon the occasion of the recent republication of the intolerant Notes to the Rhemish Bible. It was then carried unanimously, and the following Committee was instantly appointed:

"Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Mahon, Mr. Scully, Mr. M'Donnell, Mr. O'Kelly.

"The Board then adjourned, at six o'clock."

FURTHER REMARKS BY THE EDITOR OF THE ANTIBIBLION OR PAPAL TOCSIN.

THESE proceedings of the Irish Catholic Board are memorable on several accounts: 1st, Because of the une quivocal admission of Roman Catholic Laymen, who stand prominent at the head of the Irish Board, that the doctrines contained in the Rheims Testament, reprinted lately for the sixth time, afford strong objections to granting what they mis-call" Catholic Emancipation." 2dly, Because the recent" ADDRESS AND APPEAL OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND" was occasioned by the late publication of the Rhemish Notes; and was contrived by Mr. ENEAS M'DONNELL with the express view of blinding us Protestants to the intolerant principles developed in that work. 3dly, Because the elaborate, ingenious, and artful attempt of the famous DANIEL O'CONNELL, Esq. to nullify the authority of those Annotations (by a sort of history), is a mere fiction; which proves nothing, except that he strongly feels the importance of getting rid of them at the present critical juncture.

Now it happens, unfortunately for their cause, that nearly the whole of what this lawyer says is incorrect and fallacious: for, these very Notes, though condemned so solemnly at present, were never "condemned by all (nor by... any) Doctors of the College of Douay:"-they never "called for and received the aid of the Scotch and Irish Colleges," in exploding the said doctrines:-" the book was," therefore, not "thus suppressed:"—the "edition of the Bible, with notes, published at Douay," in 1609 and afterwards," to which (he tells us) no objection has been, or could be urged," is really of the same complexion as the Rheims Testament, and has been always objected against:what he says about there being "but two editions of the Rhemish Testament," is also untrue; there being many editions and variations, printed in folio, quarto, and smaller sizes the ignorance of the printer at Cork is nothing to the purpose, since he had a Clergyman to superintend this

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work, who was appointed by Archbishop Troy and paid for his editorship:-and lastly, "the sentiments of those Notes" are avowed to be those of the Church to which Mr. O'CONNELL belongs, and are pronounced by the highest Clerical authorities in Rheims and Douay to be strictly Catholic: "Nihil in hoc opere reperiri quod non sit Catholicæ Ecclesiæ doctrinæ et pietati consentaneum." (See the "Censure and Approbation" prefixed to the first five editions, "Permissu Superiorum," in 1582, 1600, 1621, 1633, and in 1738.) Consequently, the leaders of the Dublin Board of Catholics have laid themselves open to severe reprehension; and are accordingly charged by the editor of the " Orthodox Journal" with being "nearly non compos mentis." (Vide ORTHODOX JOURNAL for December 1817, pp. 449-462.)

Mr. WM. EUSEBIUS ANDREWS and his friends approve the work which others have partially condemned; and he is even anxious, he says, to obtain copies for sale in London! This work will then be circulated still more widely; though it has already been four or five years in distribution, by cheap numbers, with some hundred Clerical recom mendations annexed!!!

A pamphlet now lies before us, 8vo. pp. 154, dated Dublin, 1817, entitled, "Notes on the Preface to the Rhemish Testament, printed in Dublin 1813;" the editor of which, p. iv. mentions that this work, so far as the Epistle to the Romans, was published by M'NAMara in 1813," and that its exterior title-page was then as follows:

"The Holy Catholic New Testament, patronised by His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. O'REILLY, Roman Catholic Lord Primate of all Ireland, and Archbishop of Armagh; His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. TROY, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin; His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. MURRAY, R. C. Coad. Archbishop of Dublin, and President of the Royal College of St. Patrick's, Maynooth; the Rt. Rev. Dr. MOYLAN, R. Catholic Bishop of Cork; the Rt. Rev. Dr. POWER, R. Catholic Bishop of Waterford; the Rt. Rev. Dr. REGAN, R. C. Coad. Bishop of Ferns; the Rt. Rev. Dr. DELANY, R. C. Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin; the Rt. Rev. Dr. O'REILLY, R. C. Bishop of Kilmore; the Rt. Rev. Dr. MANSFIELD, V. C. of Ossory; the Most Rev. Dr. BODKIN, R. C. Warden of Galway; the Rev. Dr. JOHN MURPHY, Archdeacon of Cork; the Rev. Dr. M'CARTHY, Dean of Cork; and nearly THREE HUNDRED R. C. CLERGYMEN in different parts of Ireland:

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