ant plenary
indulgence to the faithful who shall willingly unite with the
Catholic army which is going to combat the impious Elizabeth,
under the orders of our dear son Philip the Second, to whom we
give the British Isles in full sovereignty, as a recompense for
the zeal he has always shown toward our see, and for the
particular affection he has shown for the Catholics of the Low
Country."--_De Cormenin's History of the Popes_, p. 262.

Here is what Macaulay, a reliable historian, says of the baneful effects
of Romanism:

"From the time when the barbarians overran the Western Empire
to the time of the revival of letters, the influence of the
Church of Rome has been generally favorable to science, to
civilization, and to good government. But, during the last
three centuries, to stunt the growth of the human mind has been
her chief object. Throughout Christendom, whatever advance has
been made in knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in the arts
of life, has been made in spite of her, and has everywhere been
in inverse proportion to her power. The loveliest and most
fertile provinces of Europe have, under her rule, been sunk
into poverty, in political servitude, and in intellectual
torpor, while Protestant countries, once proverbial for
sterility and barbarism, have been turned, by skill and
industry, into gardens, and can boast of a long list of heroes
and statesmen, philosophers and poets. Whoever, knowing what
Italy and Scotland naturally are, and what four hundred years
ago they naturally were, shall now compare the country round
Rome with the country round Edinburgh, will be able to form
some judgment of the tendency of Papal domination. The descent
of Spain, once the first among monarchies, to the lowest depths
of degradation, the elevation of Holland, in spite of many
natural disadvantages, to a position such as no commonwealth so
small has ever reached, teach the same lesson. Whoever passes,
in Germany, from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant principality,
in Switzerland from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton, in
Ireland from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant county, finds
that he has passed from a lower to a higher grade of
civilization. On the other side of the Atlantic the same law
prevails. The Protestants of the United States