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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), January 1809, Edition 1 of 1, Page 47, MONTHLY RETROSPECT OP PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, .. The Chri&tum* * Survey of the Political World T

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    • MONTHLY RETROSPECT OP PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, .. The Chri&tum* * Survey of the Political World T
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      r ¦ / The Inquisition is destroyed . The word has passed the lips of the great conqueror , and it will long be rememhered not only in Spain , but in every part of the Christian world . " I have abolished , says -the emperor of tlie French , that court , which was a subject of complaint to Europe and the

      present age : Priests jnay guide the minds of men , but must exercise no temporal <* r corporeal jurisdiction over the citizens . " These are words of truth ; and we lament , that it should ever have been necessary to receive them from the month of a conqueror , and that the commands of the Prince of Peace , the

      Saviour of mankind , have had so little influence over those , who pretend to be his disciples . Our Saviour had told his disciples , that the gentiles exercise lord * ship over one another , but he expressly forbade it in- his community . Yet in spite . of this . command , a most intolerable tyranny was erected in the Christian

      church . A set of men calling themselves priests , have usurped a dominion over their brethren , and , exercised it in the most violent and bloody mariner * by fire , fry sword , by solitary imprisonment , by various tortures of the body ,

      an 4 impudent sentences of excommunication . In Spain , this tyranny was at its freight : the country was over-run by a set of lazy idle priests and monks , who fattened on its wealth , destroyed the fruits of industry , and prevented the improvement of the mind . The abolition of this

      tyranny wilt produce important effects . No longer will . the Spaniard be afraid of haying the gospels in his possession ; lie will not dread the spy of the Inquisition ; he will be enabled to instruct his children in those truths , which are for their happiness here and hereafter .

      Not only is the ; dominion of proud and lazy priests abolished , but Buonaparte ha $ expressed his determination to diminish the number -of monks . In fact we cannot doubt , that a very great reform will take place-in the church establishment of Spajn : monasteries will be suppressed in great numbers ; and , if monk-

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      ery is not entirely destroyed , it will be ky 4 cgre . es so reduced , iha * we may entertain hopes , tbat ^ n a few years it will be entirely extinguished . These arc great and important facts in the history of mankind . However we may lament as citizens of this country , the influence that the French have acquired , we

      cannot but rejoice , as citizens of a heavenly * state , tnat institutions , diametrically op- 4 pdsite to Christianity , should be destroy- / ed . It is not so much an object , hy whom they are destroyed as that they are destroyed : and we have no reason * _^/^ to believe that * if the power of Ferd ? - & ^* + ' S r ** nand had been established , they would ^^^^^ Y ^ have been destroyed . A ^ k / Ze ^*** - ^?

      We may conclude this from the first inh ^ & ' t i ***^ article of the capitulation of Madrid , < r which stipulates not only , that the - popish should be the established religion , but that no other should be legal ] y tolerated . What a degradation this of the human mind ! How grossly must the inhabitants of Madrid have been deir

      ceived by ^ he priests an $ monks What ! no toleration to others ! Must your children be brought up in error , and ^ niust they never have an opportunity of coming to the truth ? Unworthy men ! unworthy of the Christian name ! if ye will not tolerate others in the most ?

      important nght , belonging to man , wha can lament your destiny , if ye become ! the objects of the most afflicting civil tyranny ? It js needless to say , that the article was granted , and that the , con- * queror pitied the ignorance and bigotry * of a subject people . If no other

      religion however is legally tolerated , individuals will still he at liberty to pursue ? their own thoughts , unmolested by the priest , who will not have the power to compel him to frequent his place o £ worship , and fall down on his knees to dressed up dolls , and the various abonainatrons of * a popish church .

      The events , that have led to this state of things , are most extraordinary . Six months ^ go , nothing could be expected but that the Frencn would shortl y be driven out of Spain , and " that the En-

      Monthly Retrospect Op Public Affairs; Or, .. The Chri&Tum* * Survey Of The Political World T

      MONTHLY RETROSPECT OP PUBLIC AFFAIRS ; OR , .. The Chri&tum * * Survey of the Political World

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1809, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1732/page/47/