University of Virginia Library

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254

F. APPENDIX F.

[Page 49.]

In the Evening-Post of November 7, 1748, Fleet inserted this advertisement
viz: "Choice Pennsylvania Tobacco Paper, to be Sold
by the Publisher of this Paper, at the Heart & Crown; where may
also be had the BULLS or Indulgencies of the present Pope Urban
VIII, either by the single Bull, Quire or Ream, at a much cheaper
Rate than they can be purchased of the French or Spanish Priests,
and yet will be warranted to be of the same Advantage to the Possessors."

These Bulls, or indulgences, of his holiness, were printed on the face
of a small sheet; several bales of them were taken in a Spanish ship,
captured by an English Cruiser, and sent into Boston during the
war between England and France and Spain, in 1748. I have one
of them now in my possession. Fleet purchased a very large quantity
at a low price, and printed various editions of ballads on the
backs of them. One side of the sheet was blank, and the paper very
good; one bull answered for two half sheet ballads, or songs such as
"Black Eyed Susan"—"Handsome Harry"—"Teague's Ramble
to the Camp," &c. I have seen large quantities of them which were
thus worked up by Fleet.

St. Mery, in his description of the Spanish part of Saint Domingo,
writes, that in the Spanish Indies, "there is a tribunal, or establishment,
for religious matters, but which at least has neither terrors nor
torments; this is the holy crusade (santa cruzada), a name taken from
a bull, the original object of which was to give indulgences to all
those who should make offerings of money, or of their arms, to be
employed against the infidels. At present it is more than a crusade
purely spiritual, it is in reality neither more nor less than a tax,
though it appears at the option of every one to refuse to purchase the
bull, but it offers so much good for so low a price, and the neglecting
to procure it indicates an indifference so bordering on unbelief, that
every one, even the ecclesiasticks, purchases the celestial treasures,
and with them the liberty of eating meat, eggs and milk, during the
meagre days of Lent, provided he be authorised by the opinion of his
doctor and confessor."