On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    States . His application to his studies was not , however , at all relaxed ^ y the prospect of easy and rapid preferment opening before him . " He now freed himself from many of the prejudices , " to use his own expression , " which his education had deeply rooted in his mind . " In a word , he became a good Jansenist—the most tolerant form of popery , and the least repugnant to

    reason . The Jesuits professed a blind reverence for the decretals of the popes , which not only served them for text-books of divinity , but might be said to constitute their Bible itself : the Jansenhts drew their theological systems from the decisions of the earlier councils and the works of the Fathers , and received the authority of St . Augustine , in particular , as decisive in all matters of faith . The Jesuits maintained that the pope is the only fountain of

    spiritual authority on earth , and that the bishops receive their powers exclusively from him , to be continued , suspended , or withdrawn , at his absolute pleasure : the Jansenists asserted that the bishops , in common with the pope , received their powers directly from Christ , and that the keys of St . Peter were the emblem of authority , pre-eminence and supremacy indeed , but not of despotic and unlimited power . The Jesuits , proclaiming the indefeasible right of the Holy See to dispose of all the kingdoms of the earth ,

    as its organs and representatives , became , wherever they gained a footing , " a state within the state , '' obtaining the ear of princes and ruling the affairs of states : the Jansenists contented themselves with taking charge of the spiritual interests of mankind , and limited the temporal dominion of the pope to his own states . But both parties were far enough from clearing the Christian temple of the emblems of idolatrous superstition , and opening wide its gates to the humble-minded , the conscientious , the sincere of every

    denomination . The early and decided manner in which the subject of this memoir embraced the more liberal of the two parties which divided the church , is the more creditable to him from his near connexion with the Jesuitical party , particularly with Corso and Lorenzo De Ricci , to the first of whom he was heir , and to the second of whom he was strongly attached , and whom he visited in the Castle of St . Angelo , the state prison of Rome , after the dissolution of the order of which he was the head . This connexion led Ricci to become

    perfectly acquainted with the circumstances attending the death of Pope Clement XIV . ( Ganganelli ) a few months after he had signed the bull , by virtue of which that celebrated association was dissolved . The cause of Ganganelli ' s death has been the subject of controversy , as the perpetrators of it could never be detected , or rather from motives of policy no efforts were made to bring them to light . Amongst Ricci ' s papers , as reported by De Potter , was a copy of a document received by him from the minister of Spain , by whom the original had been transmitted tp Madrid , from which it appears that the pope was in the soundest health at the time of signing the bull ; that dark prophecies were issued and an enigmatical medal struck ,

    which was traced to the Jesuits ; in which the year of his death was indicated , 1774 ; that about two months after the signature he was seized with coldness , shivering , &c , which continued at intervals for six months , until he died ; that he had expressed his apprehension pf poison , that antidotes against it were found on his person , and that the body , whtfji opened , presented all those appearances which a Roman physician had previously described , in a work on the subject , as indications of slow poison . But no notice is taken of the current report in Italy that the sacramental host was the infamous channel adopted for conveying it to the victim . .

    Untitled Article

    442 Memoir of Scipio de Ricci

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 442, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/10/