The Romany Rye

by George Borrow

  CHAPTER II--ON PRIESTCRAFT

  The writer will now say a few words about priestcraft and themachinations of Rome, and will afterwards say something about himself andhis motives for writing against them.

  With respect to Rome and her machinations, much valuable information canbe obtained from particular parts of Lavengro and its sequel. Shortlybefore the time when the hero of the book is launched into the world thePopish agitation in England had commenced. The Popish propaganda haddetermined to make a grand attempt on England; Popish priests werescattered over the land, doing the best they could to make converts tothe old superstition. With the plans of Rome, and her hopes, and thereasons on which those hopes are grounded, the hero of the book becomesacquainted during an expedition which he makes into the country, fromcertain conversations which he holds with a priest in a dingle in whichthe hero had taken up his residence; he likewise learns from the sameperson much of the secret history of the Roman See and many mattersconnected with the origin and progress of the Popish superstition. Theindividual with whom he holds these conversations is a learned,intelligent, but highly unprincipled person, of a character, however,very common amongst the priests of Rome, who in general are people voidof all religion, and who, notwithstanding they are tied to Rome by a bandwhich they have neither the power nor wish to break, turn her and herpractices, over their cups with their confidential associates, to aridicule only exceeded by that to which they turn those who become thedupes of their mistress and themselves.

  It is now necessary that the writer should say something with respect tohimself and his motives for waging war against Rome. First of all, withrespect to himself, he wishes to state that, to the very last moment ofhis life, he will do and say all that in his power may be to hold up tocontempt and execration the priestcraft and practices of Rome; there is,perhaps, no person better acquainted than himself, not even among thechoicest spirits of the priesthood, with the origin and history ofPopery. From what he saw and heard of Popery in England at a very earlyperiod of his life, his curiosity was aroused, and he spared himself notrouble, either by travel or study, to make himself well acquainted withit in all its phases, the result being a hatred of it which he hopes andtrusts he shall retain till the moment when his spirit quits the body.Popery is the great lie of the world--a source from which more misery andsocial degradation have flowed upon the human race than from all theother sources from which those evils come. It is the oldest of allsuperstitions, and, though in Europe it assumes the name of Christianity,it existed and flourished amidst the Himalayan hills at least twothousand years before the real Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea--ina word, it is Buddhism, and let those who may be disposed to doubt thisassertion compare the Popery of Rome and the superstitious practices ofits followers with the doings of the priests who surround the grand Lama,and the mouthings, bellowing, turnings round, and above all, the penancesof the followers of Buddh with those of Roman devotees. But he is notgoing to dwell here on this point; it is dwelt upon at tolerable lengthin the text, and has likewise been handled with extraordinary power bythe pen of the gifted but irreligious Volney; moreover, the _elite_ ofthe Roman priesthood are perfectly well aware that their system isnothing but Buddhism under a slight disguise, and the European world ingeneral has entertained for some time past an inkling of the fact.

  And now a few words with respect to the motives of the writer forexpressing a hatred for Rome.

  This expressed abhorrence of the author for Rome might be entitled tolittle regard, provided it were possible to attribute it to anyself-interested motive. There have been professed enemies of Rome, or ofthis or that system; but their professed enmity may frequently be tracedto some cause which does them little credit; but the writer of theselines has no motive, and can have no motive, for his enmity to Rome, savethe abhorrence of an honest heart for what is false, base, and cruel. Acertain clergyman wrote with much heat against the Papists in the time of---, {321a} who was known to favour the Papists, but was not expected tocontinue long in office, and whose supposed successor, the person,indeed, who did succeed him, was thought to be hostile to the Papists.This divine, who obtained a rich benefice from the successor of ---,{321b} who during ---'s {321c} time had always opposed him in everythinghe proposed to do, and who, of course, during that time affected to bevery inimical to Popery--this divine might well be suspected of having amotive equally creditable for writing against the Papists, as that whichinduced him to write for them, as soon as his patron, who eventually didsomething more for him, had espoused their cause; but what motive, savean honest one, can the present writer have, for expressing an abhorrenceof Popery? He is no clergyman, and consequently can expect neitherbenefices nor bishoprics, supposing it were the fashion of the present,or likely to be the fashion of any future administration, to rewardclergymen with benefices or bishoprics, who, in the defence of thereligion of their country write, or shall write, against Popery, and notto reward those who write, or shall write, in favour of it, and all itsnonsense and abominations.

  'But if not a clergyman, he is the servant of a certain society, whichhas the overthrow of Popery in view, and therefore,' etc. Thisassertion, which has been frequently made, is incorrect, even as thosewho have made it probably knew it to be. He is the servant of no societywhatever. He eats his own bread, and is one of the very few men inEngland who are independent in every sense of the word.

  It is true he went to Spain with the colours of that society on hishat--oh! the blood glows in his veins! oh! the marrow awakes in his oldbones when he thinks of what he accomplished in Spain in the cause ofreligion and civilization with the colours of that society in his hat,and its weapon in his hand, even the sword of the word of God; how withthat weapon he hewed left and right, making the priests fly before him,and run away squeaking: 'Vaya! que demonio es este!' Ay, and when hethinks of the plenty of bible swords which he left behind him, destinedto prove, and which have already proved, pretty calthrops in the heels ofpopery. 'Halloo! Batuschca,' {322} he exclaimed the other night, onreading an article in a newspaper, 'what do you think of the presentdoings in Spain? Your old friend the zingaro, the gitano who rode aboutSpain, to say nothing of Galicia, with the Greek Buchini behind him ashis squire, had a hand in bringing them about; there are many braveSpaniards connected with the present movement who took bibles from hishands, and read them and profited by them, learning from the inspiredpage the duties of one man towards another, and the real value of apriesthood and their head, who set at nought the word of God, and thinkonly of their own temporal interests; ay, and who learned Gitano--theirown Gitano--from the lips of the London Caloro, and also songs in thesaid Gitano, very fit to dumbfounder your semi-Buddhist priests when theyattempt to bewilder people's minds with their school-logic andpseudo-ecclesiastical nonsense, songs such as--

  'Un Erajai Sinaba chibando un sermon . . .' {323}

  But with that society he has long since ceased to have any connection; hebade it adieu with feelings of love and admiration more than fourteenyears ago; so, in continuing to assault Popery, no hopes of interestfounded on that society can sway his mind--interest! who, with worldlyinterest in view, would ever have anything to do with that society? Itis poor and supported, like its founder Christ, by poor people; and sofar from having political influence, it is in such disfavour, and hasever been, with the dastardly great, to whom the government of Englandhas for many years past been confided, that the having borne its coloursonly for a month would be sufficient to exclude any man, whatever histalents, his learning, or his courage may be, from the slightest chanceof being permitted to serve his country either for fee, or without. Afellow who unites in himself the bankrupt trader, the broken author, orrather book-maker, and the laughed down single speech spouter of theHouse of Commons, may look forward always supposing that at one time hehas been a foaming radical, to the government of an important colony.Ay, an ancient fox who has lost his tail may, provided he has a score ofradical friends, who will swear that
he can bark Chinese, though Chineseis not barked but sung, be forced upon a Chinese colony, though it iswell known that to have lost one's tail is considered by the Chinese ingeneral as an irreparable infamy, whilst to have been once connected witha certain society to which, to its honour be it said, all the radicalparty are vehemently hostile, would be quite sufficient to keep any onenot only from a government, but something much less, even though he couldtranslate the rhymed 'Sessions of Hariri,' and were versed, stillretaining his tail, in the two languages in which Kien-Loung wrote hisEulogium on Moukden, that piece which, translated by Amyot, the learnedJesuit, won the applause of the celebrated Voltaire.

  No! were the author influenced by hopes of fee or reward, he would,instead of writing against Popery, write for it; all the trumperytitled--he will not call them great again--would then be for him, andtheir masters the radicals, with their hosts of newspapers, would be forhim, more especially if he would commence maligning the society whosecolours he had once on his hat--a society which, as the priest says inthe text, is one of the very few Protestant institutions for which thePopish Church entertains any fear, and consequently respect, as itrespects nothing which it does not fear. The writer said that certain'rulers' would never forgive him for having been connected with thatsociety; he went perhaps too far in saying 'never.' It is probable thatthey would take him into favour on one condition, which is, that heshould turn his pen and his voice against that society; such a mark 'of abetter way of thinking,' would perhaps induce them to give him agovernment, nearly as good as that which they gave to a certain ancientradical fox at the intercession of his radical friends (who were bound tokeep him from the pauper's kennel), after he had promised to foam, bark,and snarl at corruption no more; he might even entertain hopes ofsucceeding, nay of superseding, the ancient creature in his government;but even were he as badly off as he is well off, he would do no suchthing. He would rather exist on crusts and water; he has often done so,and been happy; nay, he would rather starve than be a rogue--for even thefeeling of starvation is happiness compared with what he feels who knowshimself to be a rogue, provided he has any feeling at all. What is theuse of a mitre or a knighthood to a man who has betrayed his principles?What is the use of a gilt collar, nay, even of a pair of scarletbreeches, to a fox who has lost his tail? Oh! the horror which hauntsthe mind of the fox who has lost his tail; and with reason, for his verymate loathes him, and more especially if, like himself, she has lost herbrush. Oh! the horror which haunts the mind of the two-legged rogue whohas parted with his principles, or those which he professed--for what?We'll suppose a government. What's the use of a government, if, the nextday after you have received it, you are obliged for very shame to scurryoff to it with the hoot of every honest man sounding in your ears?

  'Lightly liar leaped away and ran.'

  PIERS PLOWMAN.

  But bigotry, it has been said, makes the author write against Popery; andthorough-going bigotry, indeed, will make a person say or do anything.But the writer is a very pretty bigot truly! Where will the public findtraces of bigotry in anything he has written? He has written againstRome with all his heart, with all his mind, with all his soul, and withall his strength; but as a person may be quite honest, and speak andwrite against Rome, in like manner he may speak and write against her,and be quite free from bigotry; though it is impossible for any one but abigot or a bad man to write or speak in her praise, her doctrines,actions, and machinations being what they are.

  Bigotry! The author was born, and has always continued in the wrongChurch for bigotry, the quiet, unpretending Church of England--a Churchwhich had it been a bigoted Church, and not long suffering almost to afault, might with its opportunities, as the priest says in the text, havestood in a very different position from which it occupies at present.No! let those who are in search of bigotry, seek for it in a Church verydifferent from the inoffensive Church of England, which never encouragescruelty or calumny. Let them seek for it amongst the members of theChurch of Rome, and more especially amongst those who have renegaded toit. There is nothing, however false and horrible, which a pervert toRome will not say for his Church, and which his priests will notencourage him in saying; and there is nothing, however horrible--the morehorrible indeed and revolting to human nature, the more eager he would beto do it--which he will not do for it, and which his priests will notencourage him in doing.

  Of the readiness which converts to popery exhibit to sacrifice all theties of blood and affection on the shrine of their newly-adoptedreligion, there is a curious illustration in the work of Luigi Pulci.This man, who was born at Florence in the year 1432, and who was deeplyversed in the Bible, composed a poem, called the 'Morgante Maggiore,'which he recited at the table of Lorenzo de Medici, the great patron ofItalian genius. It is a mock-heroic and religious poem, in which thelegends of knight-errantry, and of the Popish Church, are turned tounbounded ridicule. The pretended hero of it is a converted giant,called Morgante; though his adventures do not occupy the twentieth partof the poem, the principal personages being Charlemagne, Orlando, and hiscousin Rinaldo of Montalban. Morgante has two brothers, both of themgiants, and, in the first canto of the poem, Morgante is represented withhis brothers as carrying on a feud with the abbot and monks of a certainconvent, built upon the confines of heathenesse; the giants being in thehabit of flinging down stones, or rather huge rocks, on the convent.Orlando, however, who is banished from the court of Charlemagne, arrivingat the convent, undertakes to destroy them, and, accordingly, killsPassamonte and Alabastro, and converts Morgante, whose mind had beenpreviously softened by a vision, in which the 'Blessed Virgin' figures.No sooner is he converted than, as a sign of his penitence, what does hedo but hastens and cuts off the hands of his two brothers, saying--

  'Io vo' tagliar le mani a tutti quanti E porterolle a que' monaci santi.'

  And he does cut off the hands of his brethren, and carries them to theabbot, who blesses him for so doing. Pulci here is holding up toridicule and execration the horrid butchery or betrayal of friends bypopish converts, and the encouragement they receive from the priest. Nosooner is a person converted to popery than his principal thought is howhe can bring the hands and feet of his brethren, however harmless theymay be, and different from the giants, to the 'holy priests,' who, if hemanages to do so, never fail to prate him, saying to the miserablewretch, as the abbot said to Morgante:

  'Tu sarai or perfetto e vero amico A Cristo, quanto tu gli eri nemico.'

  Can the English public deny the justice of Pulci's illustration, aftersomething which it has lately witnessed? {326} Has it not seenequivalents for the hands and feet of brothers carried by popish pervertsto the 'holy priests'? and has it not seen the manner in which theoffering his been received? Let those who are in quest of bigotry seekfor it amongst the perverts to Rome, and not amongst those who, born inthe pale of the Church of England, have always continued in it.