Publisher's Synopsis
his is a discussion of Transubstantiation, Purgatory, Salvation by Works, Infallibility, Persecution, Political Intrigues, Papal Bulls and Bible Burning. The circumstances that gave rise to the following discussion will be seen by reading the introductory "Conversation." It is a reprint of an article of the Rev. Thomas McGovern in the York Gazette, in which he charges me with having perpetrated "Seven Calumnies" against his church, and my reply to that charge in the columns of the AMERICAN LUTHERAN. The discussion created considerable interest in York, and wherever the AMERICAN LUTHERAN circulated, both among Catholics and Protestants, and as all the spare numbers of the paper were soon exhausted, the writer was solicited to publish the whole controversy in pamphlet form. I have thrown in a few "Conversations in the Sanctum," bearing on the same subject, to add spice and variety to what might otherwise prove a dry and dull discussion. In one or two instances I have borrowed some interesting ideas from "Nevin's Practical Thoughts on Popery," a work which I most heartily recommend to my readers. The Roman question is becoming every day a more important one in our country, both in Politics and Religion, and if these pages shall shed any light upon it, the object of the writer will be accomplished.
