when, upon a signal from Matuka, the principal chief, the people rushed upon them, slaughtered them with their own axes, and afterwards devoured them. The chief then sent a number of the natives, together with some of the native evangelists from the Samoas, who had been labouring a short time upon the island, to tow the vessel on shore; and when this was done, the Samoan teachers were also killed at his command.

AUSTRALASIA.-It has been stated that out of 80,000 inhabitants in the Navigators' Islands, about 5000 are communicants, 50,000 are learning to read, and 60,000 are more or less under religious instruction. The several parts of the New Testament have been translated and printed, and are now in very extensive circulation.

LABRADOR.-The return of the "Harmony," on the 27th of September to her well-known anchorage in the Thames, brought to a close one of the most prosperous of the seventy-three voyages performed in the service of the Society, and the speediest of the twelve in which the present vessel has been engaged. On receiving this welcome intelligence, the friends of the Society will doubtless be prepared to join its faithful members in their tribute of thanksgiving and praise to that gracious and Almighty Lord, whose merciful kindness is great toward His servants.

The cargo which our Brethren have been enabled to send home is one of the largest that has ever been received from the coast of Labrador. Having kindly shared the anxiety, which the Committee could do no other than feel and express, on being compelled to make an extraordinary outlay of nearly L.1500, chiefly for repairs of the "Harmony," they will not fail to sympathize in the feelings of joy and of thankfulness which the receipt of help, so seasonable and so little expected, has generally excited. The Lord has not put to shame the confidence which His servants were emboldened to cherish.

The Reports of the Mission, of which the “ Harmony" has been the bearer, are for the most part satisfactory. Of temporal mercies there has been, at all the stations, an overflowing cup; the Esquimaux have enjoyed not merely a sufficiency, but even a superabundance of the necessaries of life; and they have been exempt from the pressure of any severe or fatal disease. The blessing of health has been also vouchsafed to the members of our Mission families, with a few exceptions, which are, indeed, afflictive enough in their character. The apoplectic seizure which befel our venerable brother Morhardt, in the early part of September last, but from which he recovered in the course of a very few weeks cannot but suggest feelings of anxiety on his account; while the alarming illness under which our youthful brother Martin had been languishing for nearly eight months, and which left little hope of his life, at the period of the ship's departure for Europe, is only less distressing to his family and friends at home, than it has proved to his fellow-servants in Labrador.

The review of the spiritual state of the Mission during the past year, presents subjects both for joy and sorrow, for thanksgiving and for supplication. That the word of God, now dwelling richly among them, is a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path of many a believing and many a seeking soul, is evident from the testimony of such as had devoutly perused its sacred pages. The attendance on the schools, and the proficiency of the scholars, appear to have been affected rather injuriously by the mildness of the winter, and the plenty which prevailed in the dwellings of the Esquimaux.

THE

PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW.

OCTOBER 1844.

No. LXVI.

ART. I.-A Narrative of Iniquities and Barbarities practised at Rome in the Nineteenth Century. By RAFFAELE CIOCCI, formerly a Benedictine and Cistercian Monk, Student and Honorary Librarian of the Papal College of St Bernardo, alle terme Diocleziane, in Rome. London: James Nisbet and Co., 1844.

We are now nearing the middle of the nineteenth century. Light is said to be shining on our world with such lavish brilliance that every mist will soon be evaporated even from the lowest of our foggy vales! We are leaving darkness immeasurably behind us, and exhibiting our title to the name which we have assumed, an age of light!

Rome is especially said to be feeling the all-potent magic of this strange enlightenment, which, like the sun in the firmament, is supposed to be taking its course around our globe. Light,—so the rumour goes, has burst in upon the subterranean dungeons of the Inquisition, and upon the lofty chambers of the Vatican. Rome is ashamed of her past enormities, and joins with modern liberality in declaring the repetition of such things to be impossible in the noonday of the nineteenth century. She unites with infidelity in scoffing at the idea of a return to mediæval gloom, and inquisitional atrocities. Skilful as aforetime, in making her poisoned chalice to sparkle bright before the eyes of a bewildered world, she would persuade men that no one is a greater enemy to persecution than she,— that no yoke is half so easy or so pleasant as hers.

Well, let us see. The matter is a serious one. It affects the cause of truth and liberty; it bears upon the interests of Britain,

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and of the world. It is one which deserves and demands inquiry. If Rome has been misrepresented, let the world know it. If she has not, then let her character be proclaimed abroad as matchless alike in hypocrisy and crime. The case is one fortunately where there is something more to proceed upon than mere opinion or argument. We have facts to guide us,-facts of the most recent date,-facts most fully authenticated,-facts of the most startling and stunning kind, enough to make the ears of every one who hears them to tingle. There is Dr Kalley's imprisonment; there is the condemnation of Maria Joaquina; there is the recent imprisonment of a French minister for publishing his reasons for quitting the Romish Church; there is the persecution and bloodshed at Tahiti ;-these are a few specimens of the kind of facts which might be adduced, as bearing upon the point at issue. These would of themselves be enough utterly to condemn the pretensions of Rome, and to show, that instead of having lost her thirst for Protestant blood, or renounced her principles of persecution, she is renewing her youth in these respects, and baring her arm for bloodshed as in the days of old. Nothing will slake her thirst but Protestant blood. Nothing will satisfy her but a second St Bartholomew's day, a second Irish massacre. Let Britain, let Europe prepare for this.

But apart from these facts to which we have alluded, there is now before us a whole volume of similar ones, illustrative of the principles and policy of Rome. The narrative which we now introduce to our readers, is a revelation of the mystery of iniquity as existing in the present day, under the eye of the Pope. It is a fearful revelation indeed. Would that every eye in Christendom could gaze upon it. There is something peculiarly hateful and hellish about it, exhibiting a system which has been most appropriately designated, Satan's master-piece.' It is like the discovery of a new race of fiends, or rather of an old one which had been supposed to have become extinct, so that in gazing at this picture of Romish colleges and monasteries, we seem to see the eyes of demons glaring under the Benedictine cowl, and the teeth of demons grinning at the objects of their vengeance through the monastic bars. The state of things unveiled in this narrative is not one which has passed away or been reformed. It exists in all its diabolical horrors at this very hour, It is maintained in Italy by the Pope and his brood of priests, and it is recognised and responded to in London by the emissaries of Rome. But we must not anticipate the narrative. Its interest and importance demand a much more lengthened and elaborate article. than we are able to give. We can only briefly sketch it; but we trust that our outline will have the effect of whetting the reader's appetite for the perusal of the whole. Its cost is but a few shillings, and the fearful insight which it gives us into the Romish system of abo

minations and brutalities will amply repay the price. It should be circulated by tens of thousands over Britain.

It is from the pen of one of the victims of the Romish Inquisition, who, after suffering much and long from the demons of that and of similar institutions, at length made his escape and has found refuge among ourselves in the island of the free.' It extends over a period of six years, commencing in 1836, and coming down to the middle of 1842. At the former of these periods he first was beguiled into the hands of his tormentors, and at the latter date he landed in London, near which, we believe, he still abides. The history of these six years forms the contents of the volume. Its scene is Rome. The chief actors in this strange tragedy, besides the victim, are his own relations, the Pope, the priests, the monks. It is not a mere drama, founded upon certain old traditions; it is a series of literal facts, taking place between the years 1836 and 1842. And instead of some foolish dramatic prologue, there is the following touching appeal to the reader :- Rejoice with me that I have come out unscathed from the den of lions. I was one of these unfortunate beings upon whom the Roman tigers had fixed their claws. Victim of an inquisition which in the nineteenth century ought with shame to conceal itself in the caverns of the dread abyss from whence it came to desolate the earth,-I should not now have had the privilege of making known my sufferings in these pages, but that I have been rescued by a miracle of Providence from its bloody fangs. Believe not the subtle protestations of the Romish tyrant, who would persuade men that the gallows and the stake were not of her erection. . . In Rome the Inquisition avowedly exists. . . . Whoever affirms that the bloody persecutions of the Vatican have ceased, asserts a falsehood. The following pages afford ample testimony to the barbarity and tyranny of the religious system of the Church of Rome at the present day.'

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...

Ciocci seems to be possessed of the finest and strongest sensibilities of our nature,-full of every thing that is amiable, gentle, and noble. The first seven years of his life glided happily away in the pure enjoyment of an affectionate mother's love.' After this he was despatched to college, and no sooner was he placed among his Romish teachers, than they fastened upon him as a boy whose education might be turned to some advantage. His natural talents and dispositions recommended him very powerfully to them, and from the first they resolved to spare no effort to entangle him in their snares, and rear him up for themselves. Before he was ten years old, confession,* mortification, flagellations, recital of misereres with his knees

* "Once a-week I went to throw myself at the feet of my confessor, not to seek absolution for sins, but to listen to insidious questions, tending to excite evil passions in my breast."

P. 6.

upon the pavement, &c. were inculcated upon him as a sort of gentle initiation into the austerities of the priesthood. These he was told were 'flowers whose odour was agreeable to Mary.' Still he refused to become an ecclesiastic. He wished to study, but he would not be a priest. Resolved, however, as his jailors were, that he should be a priest, they proceeded to entrap him into an obligation to follow out the ecclesiastical course. All manner of blandishments were showered upon him, and without being made aware of the meaning of the ceremony, he was made to submit to the tonsure,' and his feet entangled in the snare. Discovering the intention of the Jesuit brood into whose hands he had fallen, he again declared his resolution not to be a priest. He was now told that it was too late to refuse; that he had come under obligations to God, and that if he drew back he was setting upon himself the seal of his own damnation. He remonstrated, but was told that he was labouring under a temptation of the devil, and he must have recourse to Mary, and lay open his heart to her, the queen of heaven and earth.'

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His studies went on. The Jesuits lavished their caresses most profusely. Ciocci was destined to be an apostle, and the British Isles were assigned to him as the scene of his future labours! Every thing that cunning could devise was made use of to flatter him into willing compliance. Popery was extolled and Protestantism vilified, till he hated the very name of Protestant, and looked upon the English as a people of monsters,' who did not believe in Christ,who slaughtered each other like wild beasts, and put Papists to death, and lived in utter anarchy.' For four years these instructions continued; but still he was as little reconciled as ever to the life of the priesthood. Through the interference of his parents he was allowed a little more relaxation, and a wider range of study. This, however, was only for a season, in order that they might draw the cords the tighter, and circumscribe his liberty yet more. His parents, who were bigotted Papists, were soon persuaded by the Jesuits to yield their son to the church, and he was condemned to be a saint by force.' It was resolved that whether willing or unwilling he should be a Benedictine and Cistercian monk. And, torn from his parents, he was compelled, in December 1836, to enter the monastery of San Bernardo alle Terme Diocleziane. The talons of those Romish demons were now fairly fastened in their helpless prey.

He divides the history of this eventful period of his life into years. We now enter upon the story of his first year. It is a fit prelude to the rest, for each succeeding one opens up new scenes of Popish fraud, cruelty, and wickedness.

The superiors of the college showered kindness upon him, as if adorning their victim with garlands before its blood was shed. He was at first allowed some liberty, and permitted one day to share in