)^virai«aB««BaH«aai»Mi «aM««n • «M • anvsM • ■w««M»an««M»«ni ?iM*'e^'** '-" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^V^^^^^^H^^^^^^VVMi^^!I>::'!!'.:!::^^H^H m si LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. By^^5 Shelf .M;a5 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA M J^n^)) "WN w>(l\S ^^ x-'«'^;5,-,'^^5i#?'=^ THE POPES HAVE, IN ALL THEIR DAYS, TRIED TO PUT THE EXTINGUISHER ON THE OUK SAVIOUR AND HIS APOSTLES, BUT THE KHiLE WAS THE GREAT HINDERAN WORK OF CE. WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL ? AN ACCOUNT OF THE INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY, OF THE Ro/r|ai7 (^atl^olie (5l7iJrel7, Showing the impossibility of the Apostle's con- nection with that Church, and that PETER WAS NEVER A POPE. ALSO THAT POPERY IS NOT CHRISTIANITY, TOGETHER WITH SOME OF ITS DIABOLICAL CRUELTIES THE UNCHRISTIAN LIVES OF POPES AND OTHERS, ALSO A PEEP INTO THE CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. Massacres of Christians, and that the world's progress has been hindered by this institution, etc., etc,, etc. Also Saints, Martyrs, Jesuits, Inquisition. Times of Luther, and other useful information. By KDWARD B. IVL rochh;.ster, n. y. Tan LBMtARY OF Coii^(^BS8 ^4tsaBSfS«» <^'^'.^ TESTIMONIALS. Rochester, N. Y., September 8th, 1891. I have somewhat carefully examined the book entitled — " Why have Priests at All," by a citizen of our City, Mr. Edward B May. It is evident thau he has canvassed the Papal question with much thor- oughness, and reached the same conclusions which many scholarly authors have. Romanism has long been considered an enemy of our free American institutions, and unless it makes material changes, must be considered in the future as in the past, a real foe of our true christian civilization. The author deserves much credit for his faithful research from a field so prolific. While the great watchword of the age is, "C/iarity for All,'' it should not excuse any system of politics or religion, which is plainly wrong. Ira T. Walker, Pastor First Methodist Episcopal Church. Rochester, N. Y., September talh, 1891. 179 East Avenue. I have to-day examined the work — "Why have Priests at All." For twelve years I have known the author, Mr. Edward P). May, as a gentleman of intelligence and piety, and an extensive reader. He has written a book on a very important subject, evincing much research and thought. The political aspirations and machinations of the Romish Church awaken much disquiet in the American mind, and it is little wonder that such men as Mr. May are stirred to investigate and expose them. His conclusions are in accord with those of many eminent theologians and political thinkers, and will no doubt find many thoughtful readers, who will be impressed by the truths stated. G. Chap.man Jones, Pastor .Asbury M. E. Church. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year iSgi, BY THE AUTHOR, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. Printed by the Artistic Ptp. and Eng. Company, Rochester, X. Y. PREFACE. There have been raanv books written on the subject of Catholicism. Opinions differ more as to the date in which it began than on any other. There is a great unanimitv in each writer's mind, as to the unchristian and ungodh' character of its founders, as well as in its perpetuation. The great difference between these writers and myselt" is this : They say Catholicism is an apostasy. I say it is even worse :it never had an existence as a christian church ; it began with idolatry and usurpation, its whole life is essentiallv pagan, and it is high time this great insult to the apostles, and to Christianity, be generally and thoroughly understood. The writer is a true believer in the Bible and its prophecies, and fulfilment, and that book proves the statements Romanists make and continue to make, with such unbecoming eflVonterv as to their con- nection with christianit\' to be all fable from its verv conception. The writer never believed in the Papacy, and has had an instinct from his youth, that an}- church or system calling itself christian ought to produce something better, than the average lives of those who call themselves good Catholics. He has seen thousands of them in the large cities of Europe as elsewhere, and has thought the world would be better without religion if that was the best it had. This was before he knew by experience what Christianity meant. IV. PREFACE. And this was one of the causes, that led him to search out their history, and it seemed as if providence put in his hands, one by one. just the books best suited tor this information. And after havinjr fuliy satisfied himselt, as to its fearfully degrading and demoralize- ing character, then he was made to believe that God inspired him to write this book, and he claims an inspiration in the effort to search and write the truth. And that is his apology to the public in bringing this book before them, together with a deep sense of the wrong societ\' endures, in having such false teachings offered to their fellow-citizens, the greatest part of vthich falls on the Catholic himself, who is lured to the gulf with false hopes, and then disappears forever, not returning to tell the tale — now to late. The writer does not claim to be wholly original, he brings foward something new, but the bulk has been told many times before, only in another way. He takes his facts from the bible and secular history, which, thank God, is now open to all — there is not yet any censorship or embargo on either, unless to those branded with superstition. But this freedom will last no longer than we deserve, or as we faithfully and with jealous care look that our enemy does not take us at a mean advantage, putting us off our guard, or by internal or external strife. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and will be exemplified with us more in this than in anything else. And unless great energy is soon put forth, we sliall furnish another chapter to the dreadful history of the past. We have not taken in all countries in speaking of this great evil. To do this would be to repeat the awful details, but we have said sufficient to prove the danger of this great confederacy. Rochester, N. Y., July 1891. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. " But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other Gos- pel unto } ou than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." — Galatians I, 8, 9. CHAPTER II. PETER NO POPE. " And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee, the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven." — Matthew XVI, 18 and part of 19. CHAPTER III. CONSTANTINE, THE CHILD OF THE APOCALYPSE. •' And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. " And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered." And she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations, with a rod of iron ; and her child was caught up unto God anti lo his throne." — Revelation, XII, i, 2, 5. VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. •' The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and shall go into perdition ; and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life, from the foundation ot the world when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." — Revelation XVII, 8. CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNING OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH— THE WALDENSES. " And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and his heads the name of blasphem}'. And it was given unto him, to make war with the saints, and to overcome them ; and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." — Revelation, XIII, 2, 7. CHAPTER VI. AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. " Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." — i'roverbs, XIV, 34. CHAPTER VII. FRANCE REFUSES PROTESTANTISM. " Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let CONTENTS. Vll US break their bands assunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sittteh in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord shall have them in derision." — Psalms, II, i to 4. CHAPTER VIII. ENGLAND. " And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord, thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish." — Deu- teronomy, VIII, 19. CHAPTER IX. SPAIN. " And the King shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my bretheren, ye have done it unto me." — Matthew, XXV, 40. CHAPTER X. SCOTLAND. " Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. For the eyes ot the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them, whose heart is perfect toward him." — II Chron- icles, XV, 7, XVI, part of 9. CHAPTER XI. CALVIN AND GENEVA. " Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his."— Numbers, XXIII, 10. vni CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. HUNGARY AND TRANSYLVANIA. " God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." — Ecclesiastes, VII, part ot 29. CHAPTER XIII. THE JESUITS. " And said, O full of all subtihy, and all mischief, thou child ot the devil, thou enemy ot all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wa3s of the Lord."- -The Acts, XIII, 10. CHAPTER XIV. THE INQIJISITION. " And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldst de- stroy them which destroy the earth." — Revelation, XI, 18. CHAPTER XV. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil — For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." — ^John, III, 19, 20. CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XVI. THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. " Thou shalt not make unto thee, any graven immage, or any like- ness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or tliat is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down th^'self to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity' of the lathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. And shewing mercy unto thousancs of them that love me and keep my commandments." — Exodus, XX, 4, 5,. 6. CHAPTER XVII. CLOSING REMARKS. CHAPTER I. POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gosi)el unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, to-day I now again, if any man preach any Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." — Galatians i, 8, 9. THE writer of this book promises to give nothing but truth, or as he believes, collected Irom historians of approved ability and honor, also from biblical history. He expects in this day of Bible criticism, to have some differ from him in his interpretation of the scriptures, still his opinion, or theirs, does not change God's word. It has always been the same, and will so remain. He also expects to hear the followers ot Popery say some unkind things, they may call this book a tirade of abuse against their in- stitution, but who, with history before them can speak ot such facts as we find there with a spirit ot approval. To speak well of such acts, would be virtually to encourage, and we in this age of protestant enlightened civilization can only shudder at things done and forced on helpless people, through the medium of superstition, and as that weapon is still in use, and as we fear being now brought to bear on our form of government, which so far, has certainly proved itself to give the greatest liberty to the greatest number, and 12 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL.'' as we think that hberty is in chinger, it is time for some one to cry out and warn the careless and inditlerent of the rocks that are being so placed as to wreck our civil and religious liberty. The bulk of what we shall say, has been said over and over again, but perhaps not in the same way, and we should not have undertaken this duty alone. Every word written has been the subject of pra}er, and as we believe encouragement from our Heavenly Father, who we think first inspired us to the task. The thoughts given in this book are not born of a moment, but are the convictions of almost a life time, strengthened by what we daily see and read. And on reading that work entitled "Why Priests Should Wed," with its startling revelations, the question came strangely to my mind, and in such a singular way, and not once only, but many times "Why Have Priests at All," and as this will be the title of the book, the writer believes it to be born ot in- spiration. And would not the world be better without them? The writer has witnessed so much spiritual degradation so much wretchedness and crime, caused by the followers of priest craft here and in Europe, that his heart has actually groaned, to see the world relieved from it. And then as the pages of history, are opened, with its dreadful and sickening details of crime, murder and cruelty, and in the spirit of fiends, rather than men. Priests appear to act as if men and women were only made to find means for them to live in extravagance and pomp, and to trample them under their feet. And when we see the energy displayed, the talent employed, the cunning craftiness used, to perpetuate the system, the imitative piety, the sensational services, and all for effect, to steal away the senses, but nothing to satisfy the soul, we at once see this religion is got up by man, and made to suit the carnal aflections. We feel many POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. I3 would join it, because it pretends to throw a shield over the evil passions. Men can join this so-called church without a change of heart, blind their conscience, under the name of religion. And go on pursuing the same life, because the terms of supposed pardon are so easy. A man's goodness is not in obeying God, it consists in obeying the outward and visible forms of this so-called church. And as we stud}- its utter failure to the individual, and the nation, its blighting influence on every countr}' it has ruled, we look around for help, and find human aid a failure, and so we go to the giver of all good. Does the law ot God sanction such an institution, or does it not wholly condemn the system from the beginning. Is not Popery one of the most diabolical deceptions ever forced on human senses? Is it not the outcome ot satanical influences? Is it not the antichrist spoken of in the Bible. Does not the church of Rome carr}' on her infamous trafic in the ruin of soul and body and under such pretended sanctity, that she has well earned the name and title, God has given her in the 17th Chapter of Revelation, as the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth? Many writers agree that to give her true history, would be to fill a book with such filth, that it would be impossible 10 place it in an}' respectable family, without causing the blush of shame to tingle through the blood, and to contaminate, instead of benefitting the reader. That part is not my purpose, mine shall be to give history, secular and biblical, and lay before you enough to show her real ciiaracter, and after that if you follow in her footsteps, or give her money, or countenance her in any way, the consequences are yours, my task will be done. 14 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? I do not think there is a writer of any consequence living, who would soil his pen by giving if it a were possible, the whole history of popery, with its lies, breaches of faith, its diabolical cruelty, its pretensions, blasphemy, murders, adultery and every crime that the wickedness of man can conceive, a^'^e and devils to. It would be difficult for any book to contain a 20th part of its his- tory, which we can now trace for about 1260 years, beginning its career, as a so-called christian church, about the 7th century, and not as their fables run from the Apostle Peter, who is as innocent of Catholicism, as a babe in arms, and who would, if he were to appear on earth again, repudiate the whole connection with popery from the very starting point, and in fact he, and Paul, have already done so in their writings and speaking of it as a great evil in the future, to be avoided and condemned. One of the objects of this book is to ask the American people or any other nation, this question. Would it be desirable to have popery the religion of the country with its known history? It so, all you have to do is to sit down and let them rivet the chains of superstition around your necks. For they are determined whether you are or not, to make you submit to it. They are at work while you sleep, there is not a thing omitted in their calculations, they are already filling the offices with what they call good catholics, from the highest to the lowest, they are trying to fill every post with slaves to the church, so that all power passes from your hands to theirs, leaving protestants entirely helpless in case of a church revolution. What do they want these military associations for, these parades that people encourage, and line the sidewalk in viewing, those handkerchiefs waved from the houses? Is this all for peace and done for no object but for the love of God ? If this was a church of God's planting would it require an army as of old to awe people into submission. POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. 1 5 Witness the narrow escape we have just had in the exchange of president. Had the late president been re-elected what power it would have put in their hands. For the almost last official act was to countenance the centennial meeting of the Jesuits College in Washington by his presence and also making a speech in their favor. Are we as a country posted as to what Jesuits are? Do we know that they are a body of men too bad for even popery? They have been discarded even by the scarlet woman of Rome, they are now brought back into popish favor because a great scheme is on foot. Do we as a nation know these people have been banished from most all countries, and now they are taking advantage of the free and mild government of this country, also England and her colonies? They are sowing all over these their pernicious doctrines and doing it with such a craftiness that ordinary people do not notice the cloven foot, or know the principles of those to whom they are in daily communion. We should ask ourselves the question do we as a nation want to have our libeity taker, away ? That liberty we so much boast of — and there is no liberty so dear as spiritual liberty. If we loose that we become the slaves of a foreign power who would not scruple to break any law human or divine. If they can get once their feet on our necks they would throw all laws to the wind and imprison us soul and body. There is no doubt trouble ahead, and the best thincf is to know your enemy before going to war with him, to know his strength, to judge him by his past history and then you will know what to expect, what mercy he will show you in case of a defeat. And this is what I propose to do with the help of the Lord — to lay before vou some of the characteristics of this so called church, and in doing this I do not write against all members of this confederacy, for there are some in it born with such a desire to please God and who seek tor every means to reach him, as far as the light is in them — and that proves 1 6 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? their natures too good even for popery to entirely spoil. I am writing against the system and cannot, as many do, call it only an apostacy ; it is more ; it is a resurrection of most of the idolatrous relijiions of the world. It is satan standing in the place of God. Mine is a difficuk task, and I must speak plain without fear or affection. And will prove all I say before laying down m}' pen. Speakers and writers are so apt to call it the church ; ministers in their pulpits, who are preaching and lecturing against it, as well as those who know it together-, with apostolic succession, to be onl}'^ a deception, still call it the church and great evil has arisen from this circum- stance, for inhdels speaking against Christianity, publish the deeds of this so-called church, in the name of the true disciples of Christ, and make their comparisons accordingly to the detriment of the latter. Charging all the evils of the dark ages, to them of which they are entirely innocent. The object of this book is to prove by biblical and secular history, that this never was the church of Christ. Then that the actions of this so-called church, is at variance with Christ's teachings as well as the apostles. Then again their bloodthirsty spirit as well as other actions prove them to be antichrist. And to compare their pompous lives their grasping, greed}- domi- neering actions with the gentle and mild life of Jesus of Nazareth, who commanded us if we were assaulted on one cheek to turn the other also. And as apostolic succession is disputed, let us ask here, what it is to be an apostle? To be one is to be an eye witness, and in that case, how are they to have successors. They all preached the Gospel, the Bible and those that are suc- cessors in that sense are disciples. They witnessed what they saw POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. 1 7 and did it faithfully, even unto death, and there the apostleship ended. See Acts X — 39. "And we are witnesses, of all things, that he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree." And these are the words of Peter, their falsely so-called Pope. In quoting the above passages in the new testament, some may dispute its existence, at this early date, but the new testament was known, read, and acted upon as soon as written, it only in manu- script form, but come in what form it may, it has always had more or less enemies. Why did Paul write the verses at the head of this chapter? He is sounding the alarm. The mystery of iniquity is already working. He tells the Galations that some are already perverting the Gospel of Christ by the introduction of another Gospel, but then, he adds, it is not another Gospel. It was some counterfeit, paving the way for the coming great counterfeit, probably the traditions of the Jewish church or the Gen- tiles or both combined. Christ's plan is so simple, and yet so stupendeous, the just for the unjust, that human nature, even to day finds it hard to catch the thought, the just must live b}' faith, and so they kept on introducing sacrifices. The Roman Church is and always has been a sacrificing priesthood, the very opposite of Christ's plan. 'Tis true they do not ofler the blood of bulls and goats, but are trusting to their own works, in the shape of penances, and a host of other things, so we can hardly wonder at the people of that early day having been used to so many sacrifices, still wanting to cling to the old plan. It causes Paul a great deal of uneasiness. And then tells them religion is not so much doing as having. He adds, see iith and 12th verses. "The religion I preach is not from man ; man cannot give it to me ; it comes by revelation of Jesus Christ, 1 8 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? by the Holy Ghost/' This is exactly the same as Jesus told Peter when he said, "blessed art thou, Simon Barjona." This and Paul's advice to the Galations explodes the whole system of popery. Both Peter and Paul seemed to have an intuition, as to future events ; a fear of a coming power that would be the enemy of the Gospel they preach. Peter little thought that in six or seven centuries this coming power would tack his name to their misdeeds, and happil}^ for him he was ignorant of this fact. Still Peter and Paul warned the people in their speech and writings, that such a power would come. Paul says in the II. of Thessalonians, II, 3, 4. " Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin (the pope) be revealed — the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself, above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himselt that he is God." And then he tells them that that wicked shall be revealed. Many see him to-day as he is, a rank impostor, and to them lie has been re- vealed. And has he not all these centuries been occupying the temple of God? I do not mean his Vatican, that is not God's temple. Our bodies are the temple of the living God, and if we allow him to take possession, he will dwell there in our hearts. But has not this man of sin driven him forth? Has lie not caused God to withdraw from the hearts of his people by filling them with his idolatries and abominations? And then he says the Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth and shall destro}' him with the brightness of his coming. The spirit of his mouth is the bible, and the rest will be done, by the preaching and spreading ol the Gospel, and then these people that will follow him in his antichrist spirit shall have strong delusions and shall believe a lie, and will also become sons of perdition. POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. 1 9 How God's word always agrees. John, prophesying on this same wicked man in the Revelation XVIII, 4, says : ''Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues." So it matters not, what pretensions the pope may make about his being the vice-gerent of God. Paul says : "should it be an angel from heaven that leads you away from this Bible let him be accursed." Peter sa3's in II Peter II, i, "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and brings upon themselves swift destruction." Peter could not tell in what form these teachers would come ; it was only revealed to him, that they would come and they have come in the form of popes and priests. There were no priests or popes in Peter's day, excepting the Jewish and pagan priests and these Christ's teachings ended. The Jewish priests had been in a former day introduced and ap- pointed by God, to attend the daily sacrifices. Christ offering himself as the one great sacrifice, put an end to all such future offerings, and on the day of Christ's crucifixion when the temple was rent asunder, there ended the necessity for any future priests. The pagan priests were then as now an abomination in the sight of God. The only knowledge Peter had about priests outside of the before mentioned ones, is when he speaks of his new born babes in Christ telling them to desire the milk of the word, (the Bible) see I Peter II, 2, 9, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his mar- velous light," a different kind of priests to the man of sin. The object of quoting these passages of scripture is to shew first the fallacy oi having a bible-hating priesthood, and next that Peter 20 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL.'' and Paul from whom these priests, so called, pretend to be the successors were strictly Bible christians. Then if these men that call themselves priests are of God, why should they refuse the word of God. Wh}^ have they in all their history tried to destroy the Bible, if they could have had their way we should have had no Bible at this date. This book is acknowledged by God, man, angels and devils to be the truth. Did not Christ quote scripture when the devil tempted him, proving what was written? Does he not quote the prophets, Moses, etc., in all his teachings? Does not the devil also say in the temptation? it is written quoting a passage of scripture. Do we not find in Revelation XXII, 9, when John was speaking to the angel that came down from heaven having the key ol the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand to bind satan a thousand years, did «ot John fall down to worship at his feet? Then he told him to do it not, for said he, "I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethen the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book, worship God." So here was an angel who acknowledged the Book, but who refused to be worshiped by man, but pointed to where all worship was due. How unlike these earthly minded popes, he had not even a toe to give him to kiss. Men and women have testified to its truth from the begining, through the ages made dark by the absence of this very book. Does it not open the way for all improvement in morals and science? But the enemies of God are still trying to hide it. And oh, fearful to own the actions of protestants to allow it to be banished from tlie public schools, and also to allow seperate schools where dear little innocent cliildren are brought up under the system of degrading idolatary instead ot the knowledge of the true God. Now let us compare Paul's system of education with that of these so-called'priests. • POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITV. 21 Paul mentions one in particuhir, of whom he is interested in edu- cating. See II. Timothy, III, i6, 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, lor reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. This is the word of God as given by the Apostle Paul to Timoth)^, his well beloved son, his adopted son, and begins his letter to him in I, 2. "Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith." This Timothy, is a young man, and is studying for the ministry. And Paul is doing all he can to perfect him, as an evangelist for the conversion of souls and the building up of Christ's kingdom. - As we see above, Paul is very anxious to impress on his pupils' mind, the importance of the Bible. He tells him it is good under all circumstances ; it is profitable for doctrine. So that he can lead men and build them up in God's way. If you have to reprove a person, you will find an argument to suit the case, and they will be always at your tongue's end, if you are thoroughly furnished. Even for correction you will find sufficient to accomplish the end sought as far as you are concerned. Paul valued education as all educated men do, but an education without the Bible seemed to him useless, especially for a man that was called to preach Christ's Gospel, and he reminds Timothy, (see II Timothy III, 15,) that from a child, he has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Paul does not, here at any rate, say anything to him about Greek, Latin or Hebrew. He may be versed in all that, but he wants to impress on his mind the scriptures are the most important of all. Why, these bible burners must have made a mistake in their succes- sion. It must be some one else they have succeeded. The apostles were bible christians, and ihe church hates it — seem afraid ol it. 22 WHY HAVE PRISTS AT ALL.'' What have they made use of Peter's and Paul's name forP We find this so-called Catholic Church, speaking of them both as well as the rest of the apostles ; the}' have tacked their name to their churches ; some are known as St. Paul's, some St. Peter's and some both. We don't mind the name being used, if they had only caught their virtues, that would be a good thing, but these names are only used to deceive, to lead astray, to blind men, and close their e3'es to the truth instead of instructing them in righteousness. We see from the above, that Paul was doing all he could to make Timothy a perfect master of the bible, and we find all through the history of the church that all they have done, is the very opposite to the lives and teachings of the apostles. They flaunt their names in every possible way, and pretend to be connected. Then if that is so, why not teach the same doctrine? Why not use the same bible Paul and Peter used and give the same instruction to their scholars as Paul gave to Timothy? Their object is not to teach God's word but to destroy it. The bible is to them a standing reproof. It reminds them of their wicked pretenses. It shows they are nothing but tares growing among the wheat. It pronounces a judgment and a curse against them, and warns them to repent and it has made them change in their bible the word repent, to penance, so they fear and hate it and hide it from the eyes of all they can, and have done so through all their history, and since in these latter days the bible will speak for itself, an altered edition is given/ and everything done to bring God's word into contempt. Its uselulness is destroyed among a certain class, it is slandered in so many ways. The writer has spoken to hundreds, who have been tauffht to think the bible second to traditions. Some would say, there is some good things in it, and some bad, others we do not read because we cannot interpret it without the POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. 23 priests. Others more profane would say to hell with your bible, or some other such expression. And so this greatest of the apostles, Paul, seems to prophesy and to protest in advance against some power he sees in the iuture, • and 3'et it is not himself. Notice, he says, the spirit, see I. Timothy IV, I. "Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times (which means the christian era) some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speak- ing lies in h3'pocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats .(at stated periods) and teaching for sound doctrine, profane and old wives' fables. Does not this exactly correspond with their whole system? What are the traditions of the church but old wives tables, are not priests forbidden to marry, and what is meant by eating fish on Friday and other fast days? Is all this the doctrine of Christ or does it come from some other source? , Does not the curse pronounced by Paul at the head of this chapter exactly suit this case, and what importance Paul attaches to it by repeating the curse? Talk of the age ot invention, it was a great invention for the pope to tack the apostles' names to their scheme, but what a more prolific time they would have had if they had only made Paul a pope instead of Peter. We think the telephone and photography new inventions, surely Paul must have had both, to be able to give such a correct picture as the above, and so manv years in advance. Oh, try again and you will find there is some mistake about this apostolic succession. Now for another of Paul's pictures, see I Timothy III, 2, 3, 4. "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, 24 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity." Paul must be improving in his photography, he has just now struck oft' a bishop. Well how does it agree, does it suit this so- called celibacy, where do we find priests with children? Are thev blest with happy homes as other men? But as to the children I what about the skeletons of these little darlings found in all the monastries and nuneries? Oh, that does put a sort of a blurr on Paul's picture, but then can it be true? Well, when we have searched these places we shall be able to put a frame on the picture. And are any priests fond of filthy lucre? We will take a peep at the Vatican, all these years, and other places. Notice the table groaning with all the luxuries of life such as few can have, and notice their festivals and pilgrimages in true heathen style, and as to wine, why I think they like it, but we will try and find out. That the apostles were Bible Christians there can be no doubt. Should any doubt, just read the first four or five chapters of the Acts' of the Apostles. We will relate one or so. In the Acts III, i, Peter and John go up to the temple at Jerusalem and a certain man lame from his birth was begging at the gate called beautiful. Peter called his attention by saying, "look at us." The man expecting to receive something, but Peter said, " silver and gold have I none ", ver}^ much unlike a pope, " but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk, and he took him by the hand and lifted him up, and his feet and ankle bones received strength, and he at once leaped and walked and praised God." This was a great miracle and Jhe whole city became greatly ex- cited. All men flocked to them, filling the temple. POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. 25 Now the church going Jews had most of them become apostate and this state of things would injure their idol worship as well as the Gentiles. It was opening up a new era and if this continued where would their temple worship be? They would have to step down to make room for the new comers, and in order to put a stop to it, they laid hands on them and commanded them not to speak at all, or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered (see Acts, IV, 19) " Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." Here was the spirit begun that made the future martyrs. Both sides contributed to it. On the one side, an honest resistance to oppres- sion ; on the other, force — no argument as to which was right, but simply, we command ! This was the spirit of the Jewish priesthood, and which spirit was many centuries later carried into effect by the Roman Church with such relentless cruelty. " By their truits shall ye know them " are the words of Jesus, and by the comparison of the Protestant history with that of those who follow the Pope, shall we be able to determine which is Pagan, which is Christian. In the first place Peter preached repentance towards God, and beliel in the Lord, Jesus Christ. His words are (see Acts, III, 19) " Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the pres- ence of the Lord " ; and this has been, and is the religion of the Protestant. This was not saying, I am Pope, I will give you absolution, but you must do penance for it, you must count so many beads, or say so many Ave Marys, or that you must pray to the Virgin Mary, or do any ot the other foolish things that popery teaches, but simply 26 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? repent and come to Jesus, and he will blot vour sins out by the power of the Holy Ghost. Peter did not have a great Vatican to live in, with hundreds of attendants, both men and women, or live in great pomp, or rely on education. On the contrary, (see Acts, IV, 13) they were unlearned and ignorant men ; so much so, that their persecutors marvelled and took notice that the}' had been with Jesus. They so much resembled the crucihed Jesus in their teachings and doctrines, it was impossible to avoid seeing it, and that was one of the reasons why they persecuted the apostles, and so tried to stop the new doctrines. But did they stop it? The manly answers given by Peter and John convinced the Jews what kind of men they had to deal with, and so they let them go. They went and held a prayer meeting, putting the case be- fore the Lord, who at once answered by the Holy Ghost, and the place was shaken where they were assembled, so they were made stronger, and preached the word of God with boldness. Now, God himself approved the preaching of the Apostles, which is from the Bible, by his wonderful presence in this prayer meeting. Catholicism hides the Bible from the world. Now, to whom is the curse directed spoken of at the head of this chapter? Let the reader decide. Our closing remark of this chapter is, We cannot help admiring the boldness of this once timid Peter ; this wonderful power would never have come from crawling on a cell floor or doing penance. But now lie stands before his accusers, preaching the same Jesus of Nazareth whom they crucified, whom God raised from the dead, telling them they must come to this same Jesus for salvation. (Acts IV, 12.) "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given, whereby we must be saved." Peter also says in I Peter, I, 25, " But the word of the Lord endureth for- POPERY NOT CHRISTIANITY. 27 ever, and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." Then Peter preached from the Bible, believed it and knew it was the word of God. The Bible has alwaj^s been at variance with this baptized paganism ; it cannot bear the light. It has been at all times an exposer of their ways, and will ultimately be their ruin. These words of Peter, that there is no other name under heaven but Jesus, must be the reason why they have invented that blasphe- mous statement so common in their house or church of bondage that there is no salvation outside of their forms and ceremonies, and by this one statement have deceived more poor souls, and perhaps sent them to perdition than any other of their false dogmas. CHAPTER II. PETER NO POPE. "And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. "-Matthew XVI, i8, 19. THE above verses are taken from God's word, and are used by the very people that always repudiate the Bible. Excepting when it serves their purpose, to quote it. And then their interpre- tation is as wide from what it really ought to be, as the pole is from the zone. And from the above verses, the Roman Catholic Church build all their connection with the church of Christ, and that other myth. Apostolic Succession. We cannot always catch the full meaning of a verse, unless we understand the context or the chapter it is taken trom. Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do men say that I the son of man, am?" They made answer that some say you are John the Baptist, some say Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Jesus again asks, "but whom say you I am?" Peter answered: "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." 28 PETER NO POPE. 2g Then Jesus said, "blessed art ihou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Then comes the words at the head of this chapter, "and on this rock will I build my church.'" On what rock? Peter? No; but on what Peter had said. Thou art Christ the son ol the living God. Jesus is this rock, and on himself does he build his church, he being the son of God. Learned writers agree that Peter translated from the Greek, Petrous is a stone and not a rock. Therefore Christ is the rock, Peter the stone. Now, what is a Church ? It is not Popes, Cardinals or Cathedrals ; a combination of men do not always make Christ's Church, it is his bod}', it consists of those who have surrendered their wills to God, and have had the same revelation Jesus told Peter he had had from God himself, who have had their sins pardoned by Jesus himself (for no man can pardon sins). Those who are living and trusting, in the attoning blood, and know that they are reconciled to God, these constitute the church and they are the bride of Christ, let them belong to what denomination they may. Some Roman Catholics say when spoken to, Jesus must have some one to represent him on earth. Well he has, but it is not men whose hands are full of blood and deceitfulness, grasping, greedy unscrup- ulous in everything ■\vicked, licentious, hypocrites, nothing in them like Jesus, but the name, Holy, which is used as a sign post, to cover up the unholy picture. These are not the men that represent Jesus. It is the humble, broken and contrite heart, that is lilled with his presence, and go forth without reward, other than a love to build up Christ's kingdom. JusLhere notice the meaning of the words, Jesus addressed to Peter, "blessed art thou, etc." Jesus knew his heart, and in saying, he was the son of God, he knew Peter was speaking truth. If he had said I think you arc the Christ, or you may be, he would not have called him blessed, but 30 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL T he says thou art — he speaks positively — he knows, but he knew no more than any christian knows to da}', or has known from the day the words were spoken, that have been born again. And Jesus knew he knew, and therefore he said he was blessed. And that flesh and blood had not revealed it, but my Father which is in heaven. Here at one blow, Christ knocks to pieces all the pretentions of popery. It flesh and blood cannot reveal this to us, and without this revel- ation we are not christians, what good are popes? they are cer- tainly made of flesh and blood. So all they pretend, falls to the ground, by the verses they themselves select, unless they can give this revelation. Now supposing Christ had left his church on Peter's shoulders, how can this Italian church claim any connection with Peter and the apostles, except as antichrists, persecuter, violater, forcing out the right, substituting the wrong, driving out the true worship and setting up idolatry in its place — but this subject will occupy another chapter. They claim Peter as the first pope, and that the ver}' chair he used to sit in at Rome is now in their possession. He never had any chair in Rome as pope, if so where did thev keep it ; where was the churcli or cathedral in which it was used ; where was the congregation? If he was a pope he must have had bishops to preside over. Who were they? Name one of them? There were bishops at Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and other places, but not at Rome, and no connection one with the other, except brotherly love, and the christians had no settled place to worship in at Rome excepting in the caves and dens of the earth, neither had they any land to build a church on at Rome. The iirst land that was purchased by christians, not Roman Catholics for that purpose, and by permission must have been about PETER NO POPE. 3 1 145 years after Peter's death, supposing he lived to be 80 years old or as history tells in the years from 211 to 249. Gibbons says : '••But the laws which Severus had enacted soon ex- pired with the authority of that emperor and the christians after that accidental tempest enio3'ed a calm of thirty-eight years. Till this period they had usually held their assemblies in private houses and sequestered places. They were now permitted to erect and consecrate convenient edifices for the purpose of religious worship, to purchase lands, about A. D. 230, even at Rome itself for the use of the communit}-, and to conduct the election of their ecclesiastical ministers in so public but at the same time in so ex- emplary a manner as to deserve the respectful attention of the Gentiles. (Gibbons Vol. 2, page 49.) So the pagans of that day could not help noticing the change religion had made in its converts. The Romans had so long been accustomed to their paganism, that in most cases christians were either viewed as a curosity or with hatred. So tyranical is custom, it had become a settled law with them, that idolatry must be pleasing to the gods, and these inovations were looked on in some cases with contempt, and the repose the christians now enjoyed was subject to fluctuations, as in the next reign prosecution again set in, but this was more of a local character. And in the days of the apostles there were less christians at Rome than in other places, and of course no need of a pope even if there had been Roman Catholics, as they had not as yet formed an organization notwithstanding their fables or traditions, which are of no consequence. We go by the word of God backed by secular history. We have seaiched everything we can find to see when Peter went to Rome, and how long he remained there, but cannot find his name mentioned by anyone. Mad he spent liis lite there, we should surely have heard some- thing about him. Had lie been bishop Paul would have mentioned 32 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL r it, for Paul was taken a prisoner to Rome for preaching the Gospel of Christ as given in the old and new testaments. Had he been a recognized bishop or pope we should hear some- thing about his trying to get Paul released. For if Christianity had been so popular why imprison Paul and not Peter? The fact was it was not recognized under the reign of the Caesars, and it was impossible for an organized christian church to live in Rome at the period of Peter's life. On the contrary there is nothing in histor}^ to prove that Peter was ever in Rome. But we do get to know in the bible history, where he was during all this time he is said to be so safely lodged in his chair at Rome. Now for proof. In the I. chapter of Galations i8th verse, in the 5'ear A. D. 35, we find Paul goes to Arabia for three years, and then after three years goes up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and then in the II. chapter oi same, ist verse, Paul goes again to Jerusalem after fourteen years, and then in 9th verse of same chapter he finds Cephas (Peter) who with others seemed to be pillars, firmly established at Jerusalem. This would consume seventeen to twenty years to this date. And note here he was not even a bishop, but an elder, for one of the other apostles, was bishop of Jerusalem. See I. Peter V, i, he says, "I am an elder." Now when Paul goes to Rome it is twelve years later, or the year 64 and no Peter there. Up to this there must have been about thirty years of Peter's apostolic life consumed, and he irettinof to be an old man, but still all this time we are told he was in Rome, performing the office of pope. Perhaps, why not, walking up the marble steps or lioly stairs, which the tradition of the Roman Church, says Christ descended on retiring from the hall of judgment, when Pilate had passed sentence on him and which stairs the angels, conveyed from Jerusalem to Rome. There are stairs to be found in tlie palace of the Latterannow, but not at that early date, and every one who climbs them on his knees, PETER NO POPE. 33 merits an indulgence ot fifteen years for each ascent. Oli I What flinsy cobwebs, the church of Rome is built on and to think they can still in this 19th century impose on some, as they did in the dark ages, made dark by this very system. It seems almost incredible and yet there are many to-day whose eyes are so blinded that nothing seems too much to be believed, and they can be persuaded that this is Christianity. But let us put to rest the last thought that Peter ever lived in Rome. In the IV. chapter ot the I. Peter and 13th verse, he says in addres- sing the strangers throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithyna. "Thejchurc^ that is at Babylon saluteth you." This was the method used in those days of giving their address or where they write from, Paul did the same. So Peter's epistles were written from Babylon, far away from Rome. It is thought not until after Paul's death. Now, the term Babylon or Great Babylon applies to Rome to-day, as prophesied by John, but could not have meant Rome then, as the events which were to make it Babylon the Great, had not occurred. They were to be done by the prophetical beast, like unto a Leopard, see Revelations XIII, i, 2 (this will be explained in its place) who received her power from the dragon, and who made war with the saints, and opened her mouth in blasphemy against God, and the woman that sat on the beast had not yet been made drunk with the blood of the saints. All this did not happen fully, for nearly sixteen centuries after these epistles o't Peter were written which were about the years 60 or 66. Peter must have been getting to be an old man by this time. If as is supposed he was older than our Lord, he might have been 70 or 75 and at that time in the far away Babylon. Let us see the distance this old man would have to travel to reach Rome from Babvlon. 34 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? From Jerusalem to the modern town of Hillah, on the river Eu- phrates, which stands on a part of the site of Ancient Bab3'lon, must be at least 500 miles, but so much farther away irom Rome. And to get from Babylon to Rome in a straight line, must be 1500 miles at least, but the great difficulties of travelling, in those days, would add 200 lo the above, going from port to port, making full 1700 miles for Peter to travel ; he would have to go with some caravan a part of the way. It would have been almost impossible, in those days to go alone, and he would have to wait at different ports, for ships lo go perhaps a part of the wa}^ So it seems a very improbable story, that he could have been pope at Rome so man}^ ^^ears, as claimed by the papacy, and so the tale of his martyrdom head downwards, at Rome, must have occurred long afterwards. We believe it to be a fable. The people of this church that wrote about Peter, in their traditions, did it at least, eight centuries after his death and knew nothing at all about him ; they had not the facilities of finding out then, as we have to-day. Their whole writings belong to that convenient mythology, which the papacy so delights in and which forms under the name of tradi- tion, the whole foundation ot their system. Peter's life must have been passed as an evangelist. We hear of him in many places. He went about preaching God's truth which is the bible, and this is no doubt what took him to Babylon. His headquarters were at Jerusalem nearly 1000 miles from Rome. He went about doing the same work our evangelists do to-day. At gatherings we now call revival meetings, earnestly exhorting men to repent and believe the Gospel. Paul speaks of meeting him in Antioch and other places. He must have had a large acquaintance to address his epistles to so many, at such different places. We hear of his evangelising at Joppa, Damascus, Cesarea, Tarsus, Lydda, Antioch, Capernaum. This latter place Peter lived with his wife and wife's mother. Let PETER NO POPE. 35 US now consider the true meaning of the last part of the verse head- ing this chapter. "And the gates ol hell shall not prevail against it." Jesus knew the efforts that would be made by the enemy of man- kind, to break up his kingdom, b}- all his agencies, human and Satanic. Therefore these words were given as an encouragement to his people, never to faint or give up, and to remember however dark and dreary things may look, in the end victory would be sure. And this hope must have animated his people, in the dreadful dark ages, when they were being hunted like beasts, torn to pieces by wild animals, refused shelter or even a cup of cold water, crucified, burned to death in cold blood, and in a hundred ways too horrible to mention. And all this under the insulting name of heretic were the people of God persecuted by this greatest of hell's gates (the popish church) and to cap the climax, since wholesale massacres were not sufficient, the holy, did you ever see a w^ord so prostituted, as to call that den of monstrous iniquity, the inquisition, holy? Well, we can judge by that what is meant by the word. The holy inquisition was brought into use, and men, women and children were taken in there, and alas I seldom seen again on earth. Nothing left but bones, tetters and evidence of cruelty too dreadful to be thought of, and for what? Because thev served their God in the manner and spirit their master commanded, and as it is written in His hoh' word, or because they would or could not believe in the false statements of popery. And so this greatest of helFs gates, has been fighting against God from their starting point, and will fight as long as God permits them to breath on this earth. Jesus told Peter he would give to him the Keys of the King- dom of Heaven. This has no special reference to future life, its meaning is for this earth. 36 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? To be in the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God is to be in a state where preparation has actually begun for the next life. In John III, 3, Jesus says: ''Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." That is he cannot understand anything of God's method of working in the christian heart. And then Jesus describes how to enter this kingdom, by the operation of the Holy Ghost. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and you hear the sound thereof, and cannot tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." So are they that are born of the spirit. Jesus is revealed to you in the same manner as he was to Peter. The writer has gone through this form of spiritual birth, and knows he is in the kingdom, and so do all that have gone through this same form and have not to wait till death, they are in it now. Oh, what a perversion ot the scriptures to change this expression of the keys from earth to heaven. To pretend a poor man has the power to open or shut heaven against an immortal soul. Jesus opens, and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens. (See Revelations III, 7.) He had previously told some, the kingdom of heaven was nigh unto them. He told the rich young man he was not far from the kingdom, and again, how hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom. At this time Jesus had not been glorilied, but after his crucifixion all things were ready. Then Peter began to use his keys in the manner and purpose for which they were given. Namely, to open the kingdom to all believers, and on that wonderful day of Penticost his first sermon converted about three thousands souls. On this dav he opened the kingdom to the Jews. He had yet to open it to the Gentiles and then his keys ended. Every protestant knows there were no keys delivered, but it was a term given to the ofhce Christ had now appointed Peter to. PETER NO POPE. 37 Some of the papists do not seem to understand it in this way, or we should not see women sometimes dressed in a livery, dangling a bunch of keys at the end of a piece of ribbon. If they only knew what they were doing, they would hide them- selves, rather than flaunt this insult in the face of God. And can we not learn a lesson from these keys, and show the difference between God's plan and the pope's? God's plan is to elevate men, the pope's to reduce them to nonen- tities, any man so unfortunate as to be in their grasp, and having the desire for elevation to God, is sent to a cell to grovel on a floor, cold as the church, to constantly repeat prayers to dead people, called saints, and to do disgusting penances one of which is to kiss the leet of each other, to kiss the floor, eat tood like a dog or cat, and a host of other things, and so reduce the man or woman to such a miserable state of existence, that they are not even fit for the companionship of each other. In that case how can they do God's work, which is to draw men and women, and point them to Jesus and tell ot the happiness they experience, in the service of the Lord. This is only a small part ot the pope's plan to perfect their dupes, in. holiness. Now let us see what God did for Peter. We have just said he opened the kingdom to the Jews, and for that work he was prepared on the da}' of Penticost. Now he is going to the Gentiles, and a fresh preparation is neces- sary. Peter was a Jew, and was considerably pufled up by the fact that God had chosen them to show the world through them his plan of salvation. Jesus was also a Jew. These facts, had made all the Jews think themselves superior to every one else, so much so, that they would not eat with the Gentiles, or eat anything that they con- sidered common or unclean. See Acts X, 14. 38 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? Now God was going to send him to open the kingdom to the Gen- tiles, was going to send him to Cesarea, to an important man, but a very devout one, a Gentile named Cornelius, and in order to preach the Gospel, Peter must stay at his house several da3-s ; how could he come close to this man's heart, and tell him all men were equal in the sight of God, if he would not touch or eat and drink with him. This was a foolish prejudice, nearly two thousand years old, but it was there, and it must be removed. Well, how was it removed, did he go into a cell for a number of years, did he call on saints, did he kiss anyone's feet or do penance, or get a dispensation from any- body ? No ! When God moves, he works quick. Peter up to this moment knew nothing about where he was going to be sent. But just as he was waiting for a meal, he went up to the house top to pray, and all at once God sends him into a trance. See Acts X. 10- 16. And all these prejudices, of so man}^ years standing, were rooted out in less than perhaps halt an hour. When God takes hold of a heart, he teaches him more in half an hour, than all the schools of philosophy or Theology can do in a life time. And this was not at all, for the man and the family he was going to see was prepared for his visit, b}' the same Holy Ghost. And when he got there, they compared experience, and the whole household, and friends were baptized with water and the spirit. And so Peter used his keys, and opened the kingdom to the Gen- tiles, and there the keys ended. Some will say, well that might have been done in the apostolic days, but it is not done now. To that the writer will say, it is done in the present day, for he has had similar experiences, and the party to whom he has been sent, has had a similar preparation to meet him and by the same spirit. How easy to take a passage of scripture and so misinterpret it that it may have the appearance of truth to eyes not accustomed to read the bible, and it may answer for a time amongst a certain class, but PETER NO POPE. • 3Q when the light shines upon it, its glaring imposture is at once seen. So it is with the false interpretations of the words of Jesus when he gave the keys to Peter, by this Roman church. It was done in an age when the world had only been shaken up from the sleep of superstition, and had been so accustomed to all kinds of absurdities, that the greater the cheat the easier it seemed to be believed in. And it answered the purpose ot this socalled church well. For advantage was taken of the general ignorance ot the world, and a great power seemed to be invested in this church. We arc not speaking of the days of Peter, but of the days when the Roman church first begun to use his name. This was their strongest weapon. People were made to believe this church could keep them out or give them admission to heaven. And the taking Peter's and the apostles' names and adding them to their hierarch}^ seemed to confirm them in this power. The object of giving the book had been already explained. Their reason for adopting this method was to awe the people into sub- mission. And when to it they added the bulls of excommunication, with other terrors, it seemed like a voice from God, to people full of superstition, and it made all tremble from the highest to the lowest. It was easy under such circumstances to control the minds of men and women, yes, and their bodies were not sacred from their grasp, to bring the riches of the world to the feet of the popes and priests, and to rivet the chains of darkness on their hearts. And yet with all this deception, it was not a new weapon. Popery borrows from all and never returns. Not even honest enough to acknowledge, from whom they get it — but keep holding on as if tliey were the inventors, and had a patent already out. 4© WHY HAVK PRIESTS AT ALL? This idea of keys, as they use it, is borrowed from the Egyptians ; and two thousand years before the Bishop of Rome pretended to hold the keys to heaven and hell. There was an Eg3'ptian priest with the high sounding title: "Appointed keeper of the two doors of heaven," in the city of Thebes. This city was the largest in Egypt at that time, but now it is almost gone, like many of the heathen cities. They flourish for a time, and then decay. And such will be the tate of Rome, if the interpretation of its fate, as prophesied by John, be correct. (See Revelation XVIII. 8, 21-24.) " Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning and famine ; and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. " "And a mighty angel took up a stone, like a great mill-stone, and cast it into the sea, saying: 'Thus, with violence, shall that great city, Babylon, be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.' " "And the voices of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trum- peters shall be heard no more at all in thee, and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft, he be, shall be found any more in thee, and the sound of a mill-stone shall be heard no more at all in thee." "And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee, for thy merchants were the great men of the earth ; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived, and in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." There is no city in the world that answers the above but Rome, and that answers to the letter. No wonder the Bible is hid, and in the face of these warnings they are trying to force this abomination back on the world, still keeping up this farce about Peter and the apostles, and in some places this tj^anny is in force. It is clear to me ; this fable of Peter being a pope has no foun- dation in fact, and cannot be found, excepting in the traditions of PETER NO POI'E. 4I this so-called church, written perhaps a thousand years after his death, and for the purpose of blinding the ignorant ; and if these men who called themselves priests are ignorant, it is their own fault. History is open to them it they have the courage to seek ft. If they are kept from it by prejudice, or slavish fear, they are not fit to be teachers, and the souls of their poor dupes will be required at their hands. God has laid down one rule for the past, present and future ; and no root that is not of his planting can ultimately triumph. Still these roots have and do exist. The tares have grown with the wheat, and at one time, was per- mitted to almost choke the wheat, but that time has passed, and I Relieve forever. The evil was working, side by side with the early christians, but not ot them. Paul says, in II. Thessalonians 2, 7 : " For the mystery of iniquity, does already work; only he who now letteth, will let, until he be taken out of the way." So an apostacy was at work at that day ; and what a great hin- derance it must have been to the Christians, when we consider of what materials society was composed. So many sects had sprung out of the Jewish religion : some for circumcision : some for uncircumcision : some for and against the resurrection; strife?, about meat offered to idols, and the reverse. And then these wholesale Polytheists. What a cradle foi' Christi- anity to be introduced to the world. Truly, it had a wonderful baptism — a baptism of blood and strife — and had it not been ot divine origin, it would have died out with the apostles instead of conquering the nations it was born in, and in the fourth century becoming the state of religion of the Roman Empire. During the reign of that tyrant, Nero, the few christians in Rome were looked upon with contempt, or indifl'erence, b}- most of the 42 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? people. Nero inflicted great and terrible tortures on those men whO' took their religion from a man named Christ, who sufl^ered under Pontus Pilate, and stopped partially the heresy so called. He nailed some on crosses, others sewed up in the skins ofr wild beasts and given to the dogs ; others were covered over witb combustible matter and set fire to, to light up the dark nights.. This was done in the circus and gardens of Nero and the V'atican. This was the theatre in which the horrors of persecution commenced, and where these so-called Holy Popes have, since their introduction in the seventh century, issued forth their orders to their slaves, for the rtiost wicked acts the annals of crime can record. And truly, Nero was a type of his successors in cruelty, in the persons of these so-called holy men. Under such circumstances, as these, a Pope, would not be likely to have such good limes as they have had since, or to enjoy the dangers of a religion so despised at that period in Rome. No, they are not made of the stuff that courts danger, they can inflict tortures, on others, but when it comes to themselves. Oh ! that is quite- another thing. Would the people that could brave these sufferings, for the love- of God, or have their names branded by such a wretch as Nero,, their property confiscated, home taken away, everything that makes- life desirable torn from them, even life itself ? I ask, could such people recognize the presence of a pope when-, they knew it was a sin even to call one by that name ? For it- means father. And Christ commanded us all to call no man father- in a spiritual sense, on the earth. He said there w^as but one father,, even God, and in the same sense to call no one master, for there is but one master, even Christ. So if there had been a pope with all his earthly trappings, and his cathedrals, and music to drown the senses, he might have deceived those who were accustomed to idolatry, but not those who> PETER NO POPE. 43 counted their lives as nothing for the glory of God, and for the good of his cause ; and we believe all this talk about Peter being a pope is nothing but a fable ; the coinage of the brain of some of the members of this so-called church. We shall show in another chapter, when popery really begun. CHAPTER III. CONSTANTINE, THE CHILD OF THE APOCALYPSE. ■"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne." Revelation XII. i, 2, 5. THE writer's intention is to show in this chapter, in some measure, what the early christians were, and to compare them with Roman Catholics, so that there may be no mistake ■as to what church the}- belonged. This will take us up to when Constantine became emperor of Rome, and even a little later. Many still think, and the Roman Church still teaches that they "were the christians of the first centuries. That falsehood must cease. It makes no difference what pretensions they make. The Gospel was the same then as now ; we say it is a libel on the Bible to call popery Christianity, but many good souls are caught in this trap. We think we have proved in our last chapter that Peter was no pope, and as they still cling to that foolish and wicked pretension, why may they not be wrong in all the rest? 44 CONSTANTINE. 45 The tirst question almost always asked by Roman Catholics is^ when you speak to them about religion, " Was not ours the first church?" They are deceived into this impression by those who ought to be better informed. Catholicism did not exist ; the Popish Church could not have stood its ground in the first centuries, only as a rival ; it being itself pagan. To have existed, it must have entered into competition with the worship of that day, and war would have destroyed one of the parties. It might have joined hands, but could not have stood alone, and it has nothing that it can recognize as christian, excepting the name. The Popish church has had to change some of its forms to meet the light of the present day, but not any of its spirit ; it is as revengeful and as implacable as ever ; it is only waiting the opportunity. If we understand aright the verses at the head of this chapter, it will help us in the stand we take on the part of Christianity and against popery. This is part of a prophecy by John, and from Christ himself, and in the same Apocalypse as brands popery as an invention from the bottomless pit, and the greatest of all blasphemies. And if John is right, then popery must be wrong, for this is the witness of God himself. And who doubts it, especially, since it has been fulfilled. None^ but infidels, and those interested in palming off the counterfeit. John says, ''And I saw," and the things he saw were all to come shortl}'. One thousand years is a short time in the history of the world. His vision has now reached the time of Constantine's con- version — the man ciiild that was caught up to God and his throne. This is the birth spoken of, Constantine's spiritual birth ; he was rescued from the pagan world and caught up to the christian : that is, God and his throne. 46 WHY HAVB PRIESTS AT ALL? This woman, or christian church, was filled with the righteousness of Christ, or the sun of righteous, and as she will rise above all ■other systems, and religions, so did she begin, by putting the Jewish religion under her feet. The moon being its emblem, and the twelve stars are the twelve apostles from which she receives her doctrines. Constantine's father gave up idolatry and became a christian, and taught the principles to his son, who became a christian ; he became emperor, and it is almost certain his father prayed for him, and that might be the reason that he was born pious. God answers prayer. There have been men and women in aJl ages, born with a desire for piety ; have had yearnings and longings after the true God, the laws of God written on their hearts, a hungering after the truth, and many have found God. Others have been led into idol worship, and have never found that peace that belongs to the christian. Luther was one of these ; he tried in his cells at the monasterv to obtain peace, tried all the prescriptions that were offered b}' the church he reverenced at this time, in the form of penances, Ave Marys, counting beads, and all the nonsense of popery, but the more he did the worse he became : no rest da}^ or night ; almost a maniac, until the Bible was brought to him secretly by a brother, wdio had learned God's plan, and for the tirst time was told that God requires no sacrifice, except a broken heart, and that the just must live by faith ; then the light burst in upon him, and he found that peace he had sought for in vain in the mustv traditions of popery. Constantine was one of these sent by God to do his will, and he came at the time John had said he would come. A great deal has been written about his motives in joining the christians ; some say it was self interest, hypocrisy, to gain power. CONSTANTINE. 47 and many other things, but God's word settles the question. It says, he came with the sun of righteousness in his heart. This child was sent to make the christian rehgion the religion of the empire, raised as God raised Pharaoh for a purpose. Then how much easier to see he became a christian because he loved it, and repudiated the idolatry of his day. We read of his waiting until the general congregations were dismissed, and then praying with the people, which is the duty and privilege of ever}- la3'man. Also preaching on the most sublime and intricate subjects of theo- log}' and disputing with the bishops and assuming the character of priest, for every converted man is a prince and priest unto God. And the only real priests since Christ's crucifixion. There may be many acts of his life that we, from this distance and age of improvement, could not tolerate, but remember he was a warrior, and lived in an age of cruelt}- ; but the world was made better for his having lived in it, and had they taken him for an example, the lot of mankind would have greatl}' improved, but men are stubborn ; and have to be taught severe lessons ; therefore this scourge of poperv was not allowed to take its course. And in the after centuries when it did come, it plunged the world into misery, blood, war, rapine, desolation, and a dai'kness that could be felt, making most men slaves, brutes, ignorant, wretched, and causing such poverty as we in this day have no conception. And this is the fruit of popery, and this is the blessing they are preparing for us in this almost twentieth century, in free America, in free England, and other places, made free by the use of the Bible only. And this night of horror would have-continued till now if God had not sent Luther, and the other reformers with the Bible that had been locked up, and sent it broadcast, and then these dear saints, who co-operated with Luther, and protested, and sent up such a wail of their wrongs to heaven, and to the whole of Europe and other 48 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? places, Rome included, that made that arch-enemy, the pope, tremble ; and they have not recovered to this day, and by the help of God they never shall. Oh my beloved adopted country, I am with you in this great wrong ; we are brothers in this cause, and I do regret when I speak to find so many not posted in the history of these people. Once read their history, and you will be forever iron clad against their wicked devices. There are so many books printed that will give such a sickening account of their brutality to your fellow men and women. Once know, and you would forever spurn any of their doctrines, and have no connection with them, except to do them good — to draw them out of this worse than apostacy, and show them Christ's way of salvation. Before I go farther let me give the opinion of a few others of the religious state of the world in Constantine's day, and then vou will see who were christians at that time. The following is from a work called offices of the Holy Spirit, by Dougan Clark, M. D. "At the time when Christianity was introduced in the world, the mythological religion, of the ancient Greeks prevailed, with greater or less modifications, throughout the Roman Empire. That religion was an idolatrous polytheism. It recognized gods many, and lords many. It had become incorporated with the institutions of almost every country. The common people accepted, without question, the absurdities and superstitions which this religion inculcated ; while they prac- ticed without scruple, the sensual vices and bacchanalian revels, which it sanctioned. But this was not all, learning and genious were also consecrated to the heathen divinities, and exhausted their eft'orts in laving exquisite oft'erings upon their shrines. CONSTANTINE. 49 In every principal city, some magnificent triumph of architecture would be exhibited to admiring visitors, in the shape of a temple in honor of one of the gods or goddesses. With brush or chisel, or canvass, or in marble, the most beautiful representation of the human form or face divine, were produced as likeness of a Jupiter, or a Venus, an Appollo, or a Diana, a Cupid, or a Mercury. Poets and musicians obtained a world wide reputation, by perpe- tuating in verse or in song, the beautiful stories of legendary lore, wherein the divine and the human, the natural and the supernatural were strangely but skilfully blended. The interests of the ordinary artisan, were likewise bound up with the idolatrous religion of the world. Thousands of image makers in many cities would say with Deme- trius : 'By this craft we have our wealth,' and opposed everything calculated to bring discredit upon the religion whereby they earned their daily bread, with the angry and despairing cry. 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians.' There were some evidences indeed that the Lord was preparing our fallen race for its deliverer. That many were growing weary of the vague and unsatisfactory superstitions of the day — that the world was as it were, pausing in expectation of some great event when Deity became incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ. However this may be, the apostles were to make no compromise with idolatry. If they had been only setters forth of strange gods. If they had had nothing to bring before the world except questions of their own superstitions, and of Jesus who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. If they had simply preached Jesus as another God in addition to the many gods, whom Asia and the world worshipped, if they had simply asked for a niche in the heathen temples, where a 50 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? Statute of Christ should be placed beside those of their Olympic deities, or of their heroes and demi-gods, it is possible that they would have encountered but little opposition. But the apostles were to proclaim the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he had sent. They were to call upon people to turn from these vanities unto the living God which made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein. They were to boldly assert, even surrounded by splendid edifices, that God dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is wor- shipped with men's hands, because he had written his laws in their hearts, and that the god-head must not be regarded as like unto gold or silver, or stone graven by art and man's device. They were to preach to Jew and Gentile alike, that there is no other name under heaven given amongst men, whereby we must be saved, except the name of a crucified and risen Jesus. And that God now commands all men to repent, because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, bv that man whom he hath chosen. At the name of Jesus every knee was to bow of things in heaven, and things in earth and every tongue to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. These doctrines necessarily struck at the root of all false religions and were a declaration of war, uncompromising and exterminating war against idolatry. They aimed at nothing less than the overturning of superstitious opinions and practices which had descended from antiquity, which were established in the popular mind and heart — -which were identi- fied with the interests of a large number of the community — and in honor of which had been produced the loftiest creations of genius and art which the world has ever seen. CONSTANTINE. 51 Now it must be confessed that ior a dozen unlearned Galitean fishermen this was no small undertaking. One man of learning indeed was afterwards added to their num- ber, but even he, in addition to his culture and his talent, was filled with the Holy Ghost, that of the " Apostle of the Gentiles " (Office of Holy Spirit, by Doogan Clark, M. D.) joined together, but this made a wider opening for the coming revived paganism. It is evident Popery was unknown as an organized power for nearly three centuries after this. It was certainly unknow A. D. 325, the following is evidence so far. "Still the primacy of Rome was a thing unheard of. Manifestly the 300 Fathers who assembled A. D. 325 at Nicaea, knew nothing of it, for in their sixth and seventh canons they expressly recognize the authority of the churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and others, each within its own bounderies. Even as Rome had juris- diction within its limits, and enact that the jurisdiction and the privileges of these churches shall be retained." (Wylie history of Protestant, vol i, page 9.) Let me say here, even in face of the fear of repetition, if God raised up Constantine to his will, and at the same time denounces Poper}' as antichrist, could the church that he protected, and joined to the state, be any but christian, or as it is called to day Protestant? So the church of Christ had fought its way through the courage and fidelity of pastors and laymen to be the religion of the empire, facing death in the most dreadful and sickening manner ; truly a wonderful harvest and only begining from a child in the manger, and whose life was sought for, even at that early date. Had this not been of divine origin we should have heard no more of it after the crucifixion of Jesus ; but it came to stay, and will cover the earth one day in the near future, as the waters cover the ocean. 52 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? But now a new danger springs up, not from without but from within. This church so humble, and yet so powerful amid poverty and danger, begins to loose strength amid prosperity. Corruption began to creep in, and from the fourth century the lamp of life began to grow dim. The Bible began to be hidden trom the people, and the pastors to change from the humble friend of the family, to the osten- tatious head of the church. Previous to this the pastors of Rome went about as do our protes- tant ministers of to-day, visiting at each house, praying, singing to and exhorting their flocks, taking their Bible with them instructing and strengthening them in the faith, weeping with those that weep, rejoicing with those that rejoice, and sympathizing with all. The feet of those that brought good tidings were alwa^^s welcome. But now things wer^i gradually changing. The ministers of Christ began to receive large salarys, and to affect titles of dignit\-. There was in fact becoming a great distinction between pastor and people. The spirit Of the humble Narazine was departing ; they usurped authority over the people, and they clung to creeds and councils rather than^the word of God. And Constantine, raised of God to carry out his purpose, en- couraged unknowingly the above pride in the ministers ; his kind- ness and defterence to them added to their importance. Joining church and state gave strength to the christians at that time, but oh, what a wedge^for corruption I It was the cradle of that coming power, that afterwards bid defiance to kings and everything that stood in its way, even to the blaspheming of Godliimself. It was1the|^foundation stone of that Babylon the great, that mada all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornications. CONSTANTINE. 53 The primative church had been a brotherhood, bearing each other's burdens, and losing their lives, pastor and people together; but now there was torming an heirarchv. Splendor and rank began to show themselves, rites and ceremonies borrowed from the pagan began to be introduced, riches, flattery and power waited upon the bishop of Rome. The Emperor called him Father. The Bible was soon withdrawn from the pulpit and fables introduced in its place. The clergy began to neglect their education. They lost that inward power, without which religion is only a farce. They used indeed water babtism, but the real baptism of the spirit was lost. And the clergy that once loved their flock and obeyed the voice of Jesus, when he said " feed my sheep, feed my lambs," could do so no longer, having nothing more to give. And so they became austere, proud, and even in some cases ferocious, and forgot the real relations to the laiety, held themselves aloof, giving their time to doutful pleasures, to wine and other amusements. So their lamp went out, and with it the people became starved, and their knowledge of God became very feeble — the teachers, hav- lost their spiritual life, could no longer impart it. The bishop of Rome now wore costlv clothing, gave banquets, and traveled in litters. This caused the woman (the church) to hide herself and to go, as John said, into the wilderness, (see Revelation XII, 6) where a place was prepared for her of God, that they should feed her there, a thousand, two hundred and three score days (1260 years) that being the time popery should have power, and while that power lasted, the world would be in a wilderness state. Afterwards she would come forth again with greater brilliancy. God has always reserved to himself, ten thousand, that have not bowed the knee to Bad, and so it was then. This church was 54 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? nursed in the place prepared for her, namely in the hearts of his hunted and persecuted people, and we hear of them all through the dark ages. Sometimes it will be in the company of such brilliant, and God- fearing men as Luther, in Germany, and the host that followed him, or with Zwingle or the Swiss church, the Waldenses and the church of the Alps, with Wicliffe and Lattimer of England, Knox in Scot- land, the great Calvin of France with the martyrs, Huss and Jerome, and the millions that gave their time and lives in all countries. We find it also nursed at the stake, the rack, the dungeon, the inquisition, the massacres, and everywhere in the heart?-' of those protesting against popery, and serving the true God, against all perils. We shall devote a few chapters on the subject of Atrosities used by this horrid power to crush out this woman (the church) and to prevent her coming out of the wilderness. Any man or body of men, can easil}' practice a mechanical religion, especially when it is accompanied with great pomp, music of the choir, fine dresses, a large congregation, a fine church or cathedral that echoes and re-echoes every sound, and gives to the place the appearance of a sacred character : this can be found an}'- where — in the Hindu Temples, in the mosques of Turkey and Egypt, at the Buddhist gatherings, Roman Catholic cathedrals, in fact this is about all they have, for their gods are gods of clay, and this ritualism is a substitute for the heart religion of Christ, and has been practiced by the nations of the earth. And whatsoever forms each religion may adopt to distinguish them from each other, still the vital principle is the same. Many have been heard to say. Oh, the world is full of religions^ hundreds of them, and we are puzzled to know which is right. You need not be confounded for with all the outward show, there are but two religions in the world. CONSTANTINE. 55 One of Christ's and one of man's. If vou compare these latter, of what ever name, you will find thej are all the same. They are all the religion of the head, invented by Satan. They are all of a sacrificing character, doing something to earn the future, whether it be the hunting ground, paradise, heaven, or whatsoever name they give it ; still they are praying for it in money or works. Where is the difference between the Hindu who allows himself to be drawn up by a pully with a ring or hook fastened to his flesh, in- flicting self tortures, or the horse hair or wire shirt next to the skin that the penance of the Roman Church requires? or the Hindu devotees dragging the car of juggernauts and immolating them- selves? The religion of Christ does not require self-torments. It teaches men to endure that which God is pleased to put upon them for dis- ciplinary purposes. They do not have to pay for religion, it is given tree by faith in him who gave his life for them ; and as he is righteous and won lor them a full salvation, so do they accept it by faith, and his right- eousness stands in the place of their canceled sin. And again, what secret satisfaction the dying Brahmin feels when holding the tail of the sacred cow, and by this means he thinks to enter heaven. Now where is the difference in the spirit of this idolatry, to the dying Roman Catholic feeling satisfaction in the eat- ing of a wafer God, the last offices of his church, and thinking this will in some way or other, open for him the gates of heaven, or pur- gatory no matter if he has repented or not? Who is responsible for all this wickedness? For it is nothing else but Satan keeping hold of his victims to the last moment, and keep- ing them from looking to Jesus by these human inventions. Oh, ye priests so-called, stop ! for you are responsible. God will require the blood of these poeple at your hands. 56 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? Take the Japanese Buddhist ; they have even their Protestants. For the members of the Shin sect founded in 12 13 (this is a denomi- nation growing out of Buddhism) protest against penance, fasting, pilgrimages, convents, monastries, hermitages, charms, amulets and the reading of the Buddhists' sacred books in an unknown tongue, and this is only a part they objected to. So we are not the only protestants in the world for these heathens see the wrong, and their protest is against that which is essentially" popish. When a church begins to introduce ritualism, which is of itself a form of idolatry, it is apt to lose the worship of the heart towards God ; a coldness takes place ; they lose their first love. So It was with the primative church in the day of Constantine ; we find the ministers at the council of Nice, showing the fruits of their loss of love in their unseemly conduct. We do not say a church or an individual could not be a devout christian, and still follow these forms, he may be so accustomed to them, as not to notice or be affected by them. Still there is a great danger in their use. A christian might be called into a saloon or worse place, on busi- ness or for his church, and yet not be contaminated. Another might go of less guarded habits and fall into its evil embrace. The Jews had fallen into great errors, but Christ came to sweep awa}' all the evils of existing things, and to introduce something better. The Jewish religion as given by Moses, and from the mouth of God, was a type of the beautiful spiritual religion that Jesus was now about to introduce to the world ; had the Jews followed it as laid down by Moses, there would not have been the confusion existing that Jesus found when he came. The thousands upon tens of thousands of sacrifices that had been offered, only pointed to the one great and final sacrifice he was now about to offer in the person of himself. CONSTANTINK. . 57 The Jews had become, pharisaical, ritual or outward, and Jesus tells them these things are not acceptable to God, unless the heart is with it. So he calls them hypocrites, painted sepulchres, and listens only to the worship of the heart. The Jews had buried the original law under the forms of their tradition, still with all this, they were not so corrupt as the gentiles, who were strictly idol worshippers. The Roman Catholics have hidden every vestige of Christianity under the traditions of their church, and if the Pharisees were not acceptable, how much less a chance have they. At the time of Constantine, Christianity had made great progress, and a great dispute arose at Alexandria. Arius, a presbyter of the Alexandrian church, taught that the Father and Son were not one, but that the Son was a seperate being from, and inferior to the Father; and that the Holy Spirit was created by the Son. Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, •denounced this doctrine, and maintained the doctrine of Holy Trinity. A quarrel ensued between the two which became so bitter and so generally divided the people of Alexandria that Constantine felt bound to notice it. So at the council of Nice in Bithyma, A. D. 325, this doctrine of Arius was brought before them and condemned, and the doctrine of the Trinity established. Paganism was reviving in Egypi under the short reign of Julian the Apostate, (the same as it has revived since under the name of popery) but in 379 the emperor Theodosius I. made an effort to root it out. He issued a decree that his subjects should adopt the christian faith, as settled by the Nicaean Creed, and ordered that the pagan temples should be closed. Alexandria at this time contained a 58 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? large pagan population learned and cifltivated studends in the schools of phliosophy. These bitterly resented the emperor's order. Theodosius gave further orders to destroy the idols in the pagan temples. The christians, aided by the imperial troops, broke into the heathen sanctuaries and destroyed the idols and the buildings. The great temple of Serapis, which for ages has been the shrine of paganism, and desecrated and plundered, and its invaluable library of 700,000 volums destroyed. The pagans flew to arms, and several battles were fought in the streets of Alexandria. The imperial troops were successful and the pagans were driven from the city, and Christianity was supreme in Egypt. The emperor Theodosius, was a Trinitarian and once reversed the policy of his predecessor and displaced all the Arian clergy, and appointed Trinitarians in their place. The Arians were persecuted and this was acceptable to the christians of Egypt, a large part of which were Trinitarians. They gave the emperor a loyal support, and during this reign Egypt was one of the safest and most devoted of his provinces. It will be interesting here to notice how much Christianity, though triumphant over paganism was effected by it. It would be unreasonable, says Sharpe, to suppose that the Egyp- tians, on embracing Christianity, at once throw oft' the whole of their pagan cities. They continued to make mumies of the dead bodies. Among other things, they had figures of the Virgin Mar}' standing on the new moon as she ascends up to the heaven. This seems to be borrowed from the goddess Isis, who in her char- acter of the dog star rises heliacally in the same manner. The tapers even now burnt before the Roman Catholics' alters had also from the earliest times been to light up the splendors ot the CONSTANTINE. 59 Egyptian alters in the diirkness of tlieir temples, and had been burnt in still greater numbers, in the 5-early festival of the candles. The playful custom of giving away sugared cakes and sweetmeats on the 25th day of Tybi, our 20th of January, was then changed to be kept fourteen days earlier, and still marks with us the feast of Epiphany or Twelfth night. The division of the people into Clergy and Laity, which was unknown to Greeks and Romans, was introduced to Christianity in the fourth century, by the Egyptians, while the rest of Christendom were clothed in wollen. Linen, the common dress of the Egyptians, was universally adopted by the clergy as more becoming to the purity of their manners. Linen, says the Book of Revelations, is appointed for the saints. The Egyptian priests, shaved the crown of the head bald; (His- tory of the world, by James & McCabe, page 134-137.) It is evident from these things, Roman Catholocism, did not exist as an organized body at this time, although the paganism from which it sprang, was mixing itself up with Christianity and corrupt- ing it, and in due course of time, the people in large numbers returned to the old bondage. So that when this power (popery) came up from the bottomless pit, in full force, in the seventh century, it had less opposition to face and less martyrs to make than it would have had in any of the previous centuries. It might be asked here, how did popery establish itself? We have explained it in another chapter, but we will sa}' that poperj^ and that great apostacy Mohammedanism, came in about the same time. Mohammed, tried to win the world by proselyting, and gained scarcely a dozen people in as man\- years. He then equipped an army of men and horses and began to force the world to his religion by the use of the bayonet, and so brought the people to accept his creed, and as he became more powerful, he ^O WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? overcame Arabia, Egypt and other places, and at one time threat- ened the whole of Europe. They devastated the countries they •conquered by fire and sword, and this was the means he used to show people he was a prophet sent by God. Popery began by creeping into the ckurches as christians, and then corrupting everything and everybody as fast as they could. Their greatest strength lay in politics, filling up every office with their tools, getting all the power by bribery, and every specie of •cunning, and underhanded work. Money was their god, and they bought over at first all they could, to their waj' of thinking, but afterwards they found the stake and the rack an easier method. Contrast God's plan of winning over the world by the Gospe^ instead of fear, ten-or hatred, and all the arguments of Satan. He -offers love, and gets possession of men's hearts and firmly holds them forever. We have stated that Paul speaks of apostacy ; it began in his time and continued later on as the church had rest. We have also stated that the clergy and bishops began to have large salarys, and that corruption began to creep in — perhaps to mention one case will be sufficient. About the year 250 to 260, we find one, Paul of Samosata, living in splendor (Bishop of Antioch), and by his pride and luxury, making the christian religion odious in the eyes of the Gentiles, ■corrupting the clergy under him and introducing 3''0ung and beautiful women as his constant companions at his leisure moments, and departing from the orthodox faith, bringing into the church those things that are now called Catholic. So this man was not shielded behind monastic walls, but was degraded from his living, and another bishop appointed in his place. This is a sample of how the church became impure, and after the fourth century such things were done and introduced that quite CONSTANTINE. 61- changed the face of the primitive church, and opened the way for Poperv — not all at once, but by degrees and at long intervals. On the other hand we have had before Constantine's time, such good bishops as the really pious Origen of Antioch, who believed in the Gospel and who preached it to his people, as well as to Kings, and Emporers. Gibbons says: " Faithful to the doctrines of the Apostle, who in the reign of Nero had preached the duty of unconditional sub- mission ; the christians of the three first centuries preserved their conscience pure and innocent of secret conspiracy or open rebellion. While they experienced the vigor of persecution, they were never provoked, either to meet their tyrants in the field, or indignantly to withdraw themselves into some remote and sequestered corner of the globe. The Protestants of France, of Germany and of Britain, who asserted with such intrepid courage, their civil and religious free- dom, liave been insulted by the invidious comparisons between the conduct of the primitive and the reformed christians. Perhaps instead of censure, some applause may be due to the superior sense and spirit of our ancestors, who had convinced them- selves that religion cannot abolish the unalienable rights of nature. Perhaps the patience of the primitive church may be described to its weakness, as well as to its virtues. A sect of unwarlike plebians, without leaders, without arms, with- out fortifications must have encountered inevitable destruction in a rash and fruitless resistance to the master of the Roman legions. But the christians when they depreciated the wrath of Diocletian. or solicited the favor of Constantine, could allege with truth and con- fidence that the}' held the principle of passive obedience, and that in the space of three centuries their conduct had always been conform- able to their principles. They might add that the throne of the emperors would be es- tablished on a fixed and permanent basis, if all their subjects 62 WHY HAVE PKIESTS AT ALL? embracing the christian doctrine should learn to suffer and obey- The state of the early christian were a wonder to many ot the pagans ; some admired their patience, and their courage under great trials. Others enraged at their presumption to break in upon their national worship which they had enjoyed for many centuries. They seemed just as astonished as man}' papists do to-day when you offer them the Bible. Secular history gives many details of christian persecution at the commencement but the Bible gives us the most wonderful in sight. (See Hebrews 11,33.) It speaks of those who through faith, sub- dued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Find the rest in the above chapter, and see if this class of people correspond with most of the so-called christians man- ufactured by popes, priests, and so on. It cost something to be a christian in those days. Men and women were liable to be taken without warning at the public festivals and thrown to the wild beasts. Gibbons says, " On these occasions the inhabitants of the great cities of the empire were collected in the circus, or the theatre, where every circumstance of the place, as well as the ceremony, contributed to kindle their devotion, and to distinguish their humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators, crowned with garlands, perfumed . with incense, purified with the blood of victims, and surrounded with the alters and statues of their tutelar deities, resigned them- selves to the enjoyment of pleasure, which they considered as an essential part of their religious worship. They recollected that the christians alone abhorred the gods of mankind, and by their absence and melancholy on these solemn festivals, seemed to insult or to lament the public felicit3^ CONSTANTINE. 63 If the empire had been afflicted by any recent cahimit}^ b^^ a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the Tyber had, or if the Nile had not risen beyond its banks ; if the earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had been interrupted, the super- stitious pagans were convinced that the crimes and the impiet3^ of the christians, who are spared by the excessive lenity of the govern- ment, had at length provoked the divine justice. It was not among a licentious and exasperated populace that the forms of legal proceedings could be observed, it was not in an amphi-theatre, stained with th» blood of wild beasts and gladiators, that the voice of compassion could be heard. The impatient clamors of the multitude denounced the christians as the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the severest tortures, and venturing to accuse by name some of the most distinguished of the new sectaries, required with irresistable vehemence that they should be instantly apprehended, and cast to the lions. The provincial governors and magistrates who presided in the public spectacles, were usually inclined to gratify the inclinations and to appease the rage of the people by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. This being the state of things, what deep conviction of the truth of the Gospel, and what great grace it required for the christians to live such an isolated life. They could not join in the courts or pleasures of the da}-, for these were repugnant to the new born light they had received, and which their conscience could not but condemn. They had learned to commune with the living God, and to worship idols they saw was not only wicked, but useless ; it filled their hearts with pity and love for their persecutors, and they would gladly have led them all to the foot of the cross, as the christians of to-day would welcome their descendants, when their bigotry and superstition does not prevent ; however a great many were drawn out of darkness into light, tlien, as now — But one more proof. 64 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? In the time of Diocletian A. D. 303, a general edict of persecution was published against the christians, and all their churches in all provinces were to be demolished, and under the fury of Galernis, generals, tribunes, officers, &c., repaired to the principal churches of Niconiedia, and open, they rushed into the sanctuary and searched in vain for some visible object of worship, but they found no images of any kind, (no Virgin Mary) and they were obliged to content them- selves with burning the volumes of the Holy Scriptures. Had this been a Roman Catholic church it would have been filled with images, instead of God's holy word, but in man}' places cor- ruption was creeping in and the Christian church, was permitting herself to be overtaken by the spirit of tha ages that lay behind her. There came an aftergrowth of Jewish ritualism, of Greek philos- ophy, and of pagan cermonialism and idolatry, and as the conse- quence of this three-fold action the clergy began to be gradually changed from a teaching ministry to a sacrificing priesthood ; this made them no longer ministers or servants of fellow christians ; they took the position of a caste claiming to be superior to the laity, invested with mysterious powers. Thus there arose an heir- archy assuming to mediate between God and man. And while this corruption was creeping in through the pride of a few of the clergy, the christian laymen were true to the teachings of the Gospel, and as we can read their character and their piet}- by the above incidents, can we not see a distinction between them and those we call Roman Catholics? The writer has read many works on this subject, and the}-' all de- nounce it ; some think it began with the apostles. Very few realize popery to be what it is ; one author, on the popes, in his in- troduction confesses he cannot find anx^thing to connect it with the primitive church. So he says it will be safer for him to adopt the line of succession as given by the traditions of the church, and publish their statements, commencing with Peter, until he can get CONSTANTINE. 65 something from history to begin with, and this is how a great many historians do, and under that impression confound Christianity with Romanism, and thus helps to keep up the farce. Nearly all critics in denouncing the errors of the dark ages, call it "the church, the christian church," and by these means, their wicked actions and heresies are laid to the real christians, not stop- ping to analyze the two systems, and satisfy themselves whether their actions agree with the teachings of the founder, Jesus Christ. And here is a great error. They content themselves by relying wholly on worldly wisdom and secular history, leaving out the greatest of all helps, Bible prophesy and its fulfillment. Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. The history of this so-called church is made so plain to the spiritual Bible student that he sees the beginning and then marks the developement, and looks with great faith for the last act, which is to crown its earthly career, and I admit without this faith I should feel staggered at its audacity and pretentions ; should feel from the great effort they are now making to corrupt most countries and also the boasts they are making publicly, that it is only a question of time that a second edition of the dark ages is in store for the world. But he who said to the great sea, "so far shalt thou go, and no farther," has said in his prophecy to this worse than apostacy, "Thy day is limited. , I will bring thee to account. My glory, (not thine) shall cover the earth as the waters cover the ocean. Thy glory shall wane, as the sun of righteousness rises, with healing in its wings. I will take this glory as my own, and not receive it as thou art doing, from the enemy of mankind, from whom I once refused it. My holy book, my legacy to my children, shall be honored, and be the friend of every family that loves me. While thv wicked tra- ditions that you have forced on my people with cnielty, bloodshed and deception, and by such means have dishonored me shall be 66 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? scorned, destroyed and finally blotted out, and you shall be punished as promised in the XX. Revelation, lo. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tor- mented day and night for ever and ever." It ma}' be said in answer, why take so much notice, and wh}' sound such an alarm, if God is going to blot out this evil? The answer is, God works through his people, and is willing and waiting for us to do our part. If we allow this growing hierarchy to gather great headway it ma}' take years of bloody internal revolution to root it out. And if we, through indifference, carelessness, apathy, or b}' not posting oiu'selves as to the facts, let it get beyond our strength, then the Lord ma}' allow a war such as was necessary to blot out the evil of slavery, or he may bring some pestilence, or something that may shake us from the ver}' center. Be warned in time. CHAPTER IV. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. "The beast that thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition, and they that dwell on the earth, shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." See Revelation XVII, 8. ' I 'HE above verse, with the context, seems strange, and contains -*- language unintelligible, until we have mastered the situation. It was a marvel to John the Revelator, until the angel in the seventh verse, explained it to him. He has been speaking by sym- bols of a great power, as 3'et to come. And this power is represented as a woman arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones, and pearls. And in her hand a cup full of abominations and filthiness of her for- nications. It was also written (see fifth verse) upon her forehead. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of Harlots, and the abominations of earth. John saw (in the sixth verse) this woman, in the far distant future, when she was ripe. Drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, and he wondered with great wonder. 67 68 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? This woman (eighteenth verse) is that great city, Rome, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Some commentators think the words "Great City" mean the whole of the countries over which this woman reigneth or did reign ; be that as it may, it includes Rome. Catholics tell their people this means the first Babylon, but that could not be, for at the time of this vision, about 75 to 80 A. D. the old Babylon's power was not yet gone ; she was on the wane : the fiat of her destruction had gone forth, but Papal Rome had not as 3'et earned the title, "Babylon the Great;" all her wickedness was in the future — she had 3-et to come. This power, or church, styled beast, had not as yet entered on her stage, therefore it must mean Rome, and there has been no power since that time to answer the description but Rome, and she has filled the prophesy to the letter. Now this power, or beast, was to be so terrible, it was to make war with the saints of God and prevail for a time, and it was, and is not, and 3-et is, we can explain that only by calling it a resurrection or revival of something that had had an existence before, had been suspended, and was now in force again. John's vision was in chronological order as to time, so when this power came up out of the bottomless pit, it began to exist again, but under a new name, which was that of christian, but before suspen- sion it was the old paganism. It now took the sign of a lamb, but it was the same old dragon. The characteristics the same, nothing changed but the name, excepting it was now full of rage, and was bent on dreadful slaughter. It was the oldest idolatry in the world, it had li\ed all through the ages, was in existence when Jesus came, and was only removed in Constantine's time, when the religion of Rome became real christian, joining church and state, suspended it, and so for a time it was not, but in the year 606, as seen by John, as well as proved by LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 69 history, it began a new and dreadful existence, and soon after, making war on the followers of the Lamb exterminating them as heretics. Or, as we might term it, getting in the real church, robbing them of their name, which is christian, murdering them in their own, which is the real heretic, and setting up in their old business, paganism. But under the name of chri:?tian, and this is the only relation I can find this Roman Catholic church ever had to the real church, that of a Usuper, robber and murderer. Now let us remember this beast or great power was to ascend out of the bottoinless pit. What can this mean ? It must be something dreadful to let loose a great power on earth from such a place, and in what form will it come? Will it be a regiment of satanic fiends so frightful that every one will flee for safet}-? Oh, no ! ! It will be an awful thing, robbing men and women of bod}' and soul, life and pi-opert}-, but it will come in disguise. It will come in the form of a church, its object being to destro}' the real church that Christ has bviilt. One would hardly think it would dare to come, but it will, for John saw it in the tuture. Daniel also saw it centuries before. (See Daniel VII, 7.) "After this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingl}^, and it had great iron teeth ; it de- voured and broke in pieces, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." This is the same beast that John saw and another prophecy of the coming power, to be known as Babylon the great, they both agree as to its destiiictive power and also that it is to make war against the Lamb, and against his saints. And in order to deceive and gain power, it disguises itself as men- tioned above in the tbrm of a Christian church. 70 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? "And I beheld another beast coming out of the earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerci- seth all the power of the hrst beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein, to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." (See Revelations XIII., 11-12.) Here are two powers, both coming from the same place ; the one a political, that did the stamping, tearing and devouring for the other, which is the spiritual, but both exerciseth the power of the first beast. The first beast made war against the lamb's saints, in the first to third centu- ries, under such men as Nero and others ; this new power now com- ing up, simply takes their place ; they had been suspended from Con- stantine's time and the one coming out of the earth is the Latin church. So while it pretends to be a christian church, it is in reality the power of darkness let loose, in order to pull down what Jesus and the apostles had begun. Mr. Benson remarks on this subject : "He was, and is not, and vet or according to other copies, and shall come, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. A beast in the prophetic style is a tyrannical, idola- trous empire, and the Roman empii^e was idolatrous under the hea- then emperors, and then ceased to be so for some time under the Christian emperors, and then became idolatrous again under the Roman pontiffs, and so has continued ever since. It is the same idolatrous power revived again, but in another form, and all the corrupt part of mankind, whose names were* not enrolled as good citizens in the registers of heaven, are pleased at the revival of it, but in this last form shall go into perdition or destniction ; it shall not, as it did before, cease for a time and revive again, but shall be destroyed forever." (Rev. A. Bnmson, key to the apocalypse, page 128.) As this power is from Satan, he will crush an^-thing and everything that comes in his way, but he will use deceipt, where it will cany out his pvirpose in the same manner he did at the beginning. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 7 1 God said to the pair in the garden, "Thou shalt surely die."' Satan says, you shall not surely die ; he sets up an opposition ; does not come in his own character, but comes in disguise, opposing God. Fights him with counterfeit weapons ; he has done so all through the ages. God made man to worship him ; Satan persuades him to worship anj^thing and everything, so long as he can draw their hearts from God. Up to this time the}- have made gods of fish, flesh, fowl, insects, reptiles, men, women, sun, moon, stars and everthing their master has suggested, but now in this revival, he is going to surpass the past, he is going to add a new god, of flour and water, in the shape of a wafer, and call it the host, and have it carried around in long processions, and a certain class of men and women bowing to it. In the fullness of time, God sets up a church on earth at the expense of his son's life, also his followers, and thousands are convened and Bible salvation is preached, and in the fourth centiu-v it becomes the religion of the greatest empire in the world of that da}-, and draws men awa}- from these gods the enemy has set up. He has opposed it from the beginning with the greatest cmeltv, but it gains ground, and he now so cornipts it that in the seventh centurv it is ripe for his purpose, when lo I ! a church springs up from the bottomless pit ; a church to fight a church, and then the war begins all over again, and the followers of the lamb are again called heretics, again hunted to death by this resurrected power, and this time he is determined to kill it, only the gates of hell are not to prevail. God gave us a Bible, and it came periodicallv. The first five books by Moses called the pentateuch are observed for a time bv most of his people, and alwa3's by a few, but the devil is making war on it, and as it increases in volume, so does he find a way to neutral- ize it, and at last when it becomes a full volume, old and new testa- 72 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? ment, then he gets this church of his to denounce it, and forbid its" reading, and so destroy its use. It is almost lost, some manuscript here and there chained to some altar and printed in latin, that the people do not understand, or many of the priests, a few refer to it for state purposes, and that is all the good the word of God is doing at that time, within the circle of this church. At last, when this scarlet woman is drunk with the blood of the saints, then God sends a fresh supply, in Luther's time, and they are sewn broadcast, to the people, and open their eyes. Then Satan, he gets up his friends to make war on it again, and burns ever\- copv the}' can la}- their hands on, but the printing press God has sent now, and thev are made faster than they can burn them. Well what next? He sets to work, and prints one for himself with changes in it that suit his purpose, but still it is a Bible ; and he keeps man\' of his people too poor to buy one, and too ignorant to read it, but this does not wholly suit his purpose, so he makes his church preach against it, and forbid its reading, under high sounding penalties that the}' ha\'e no power to enforce ; but the people haye been kept so ignorant that the\' do not know it. But somehow Satan is loosing his grip and many will read it, so when they cannot help it, they allow an edition of their own, changed of course, and call it the Catholic Bible, and then they must not think ■ for themselyes, but come and we will explain it to you — and a pretty explanation they giye — and so the deyil fights the Bible with a Bible, and the poor dear souls are so full of superstition, they belieye what is told them, and some Catholics will hardly have it in their house, because they are told it is a Protestant version, and therefore must be wrong ; this is one of the weapons of this terrible beast. One case is known of a member of a Catholic famih' becoming a Protestant, and a nicel}' bound Bible was given. After great perse- cution this member went back to live again with the family, and took LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 73 home the Bible. On the party giving it, making a pastoral call, the Bible was on the floor ; it looked as if it had been made a footstool of by some member of the famil}- ; this is how this so-called church treats and causes to be treated the word God has sent to guide us to heaven. Surely those words in Revelation XXII. 18-19, "^^'^^^ ^PP-^}' to this so-called church that imposes such dreadful work on its members. "For I testif}^ unto ever}^ man that heareth the words of the pro- phecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book, and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take awa}' his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy cit}', and from the things which are written in this book." And so the centuries travel on and the people are groaning under this great incubas and looking for a deliverer ; and thousands wonder what such a church is for, except to swallow their money. Others through the dark ages have investigated the subject, and have satisfied themselves as to its real character, but they are kept quiet for fear of this terrible beast ; he has got it all in his own hands now and he stamps out any and all that oppose him, friends and foes, all the same ; he respects nothing but money and its worth. Kings and emperors, and all in authority fear him, few love him, and the mul- titude are so ignorant and are kept from thinking by fast days, feast da3's, saints' days and carnivals. Saints' days have become so num- erous that at last they have to form a junction, lump them together and call them all saints' days, and the dai^kness is as black as night ; poverty and wretchedness the iiile, wealth and happiness the excep- tion, and the religion of Jesus Christ and the apostles, where is it? Ah !! where is it all gone? Nothing left, torn down; and in its place, mountebank tricks in the shape of mass and confession, and a host of things to steal the head, but nothing to comfort the heart. 74 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? So at last a light begins to appear in the sixteenth centuiy, at the Schloss Kirk in Wittemberg. Something is nailed to the church door, merely a piece of paper. Ah! exclaims the Pope, what is it? "Who dares to nail anything without my sanction? Who is it? Luther, you say his name is, and what did he nail? A Thesis I against me and my mle ! ! A pi-otest against the vicegerent of Christ. I will show him what it is to dare to fight against me. And now the beast shows his terrible teeth, and brings out Ana- themas and excommunications. Bulls are sent with leaden stamps enough to scare the armies of Europe with all the kings at its head, but somehow, it for the first time does not scare worth a cent. Luther hears an inner voice that says, "fear not, I am with you, be not afraid, I am your God" — and he is used to this voice ; he knows it is his heavenly Father speaking to him, and he trusts it, and that being the case, he becomes invulnerable, and so the pope's bulls miss fire, and the w^orld gains courage, when Luther appoints a public meeting, and for the first time in the history- of popery, as far as the writer knows, burns the pope's bull openly. This daring act draws some of this terrible beast's teeth, and puts him in such a rage that he foams at the mouth, but is perfectly im- potent as far as Luther is concerned, but he has many teeth left, and his day for mischief is not yet over. But who is this Luther who can put such a holy man as the pope is, or ought to be, in such a terrible rage? Is he some great poten- tate, king, emperor, Caesar, Pharaoh, with fleets and armies to back him? Without this he of course would not dare to enter the lists against such a terrible foe — a man accustomed to having all the powers of earth kneel at his feet, whose very nod was law, and who has thousands of messengers of death at his disposal. Who has — or at least says he has the keys of heaven and earth entrusted to him ; who has had delegated to himself more power than God th^ creator. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 75 if we can only think so — then this Luther must b^ a power greater than Alexander, or any of the conquerors of the earth. And yet, after examining the whole of his forces, we find him simply, what? One man — alone! The son of an honest man, a miner, and at one time to poor to buy the books his son, Martin L-uther, oughr to have ; but his father was a man who loved and feared God, and this is perhaps the reason God honored him by giving him such a son. Surely the words of this hated Bible are here brought into effect which say, "He causeth the weak things of this earth to confound the mighty." And so this one man nailed his Thesis at a door belonging to Holy Mother Church socalled, containing ninety-five propositions on the doctrine of indulgences. Why did Luther choose this partic- ular time to do this? Those who have read his history, know he was from his youth one who, like his father, loved and feared God ; therefore why not do this before. It is said "the last straw breaks the camel's back," and this last straw had just been laid on him — his patience was now put to the straining point in the person of a man named Tetzel, who had been appointed by the Archbishop, to go about the country selling at tfeuction, indulgences, to raise as much money as he could squeeze out of the people. "So he carried me away in the wilderness and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy." (Revela- tion XVH, part of 2.) Was not this Telzel, in doing his master's work, and also a work congenial to his own heart, blaspheming the God of Heaven? Who was John Tetzel? He was a man with a stentorian voice ; he was a Friar ; he came to sell indulgences, and when he and his company entered a city beating drums, waving flags, bells ringing, tapers blazing, his custom was to go straight to the cathedral, having a great flaunting red cross, which he sat up in the front of the alter ; he also had a strong iron box to receive money 76 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? for pardons granted ; he had in his pocket permission from the pope, so all churches were open to him, and it was easy for Mr. John Tetzel to set up in business in every town, without any cost, and all the money he received was profit, for he gave nothing in return but promises ; this is about all the Roman Church ever gave, promises, made to be broken. Let us now take a peep at Mr. John Tetzel, as he opens the auction sale for the salvation of souls. He begun like our modern auctioneers, to speak on the wondertu advantages of this particular sale. The churches were generally crowded, brought by the drums, bells, etc. He said in effect that never in the history of the church had such a grand offer been made, and if you live till you are all gra^'^ headed, you will never have such a chance again ; the gates of Paradise are now fully open ; if I only close this sale the gates will be shut, and you will regret it as long as you live. I offer you to day God's most precious gift, indulgences ; not only for sins committed, but sins you intend to commit ; these indulgences are all properly sealed, so you have only to put money in the box, and become the holder ot one or more of them, and then you are settled t'or life. And then pointing to the great red cross, he assures his hearers that it is as potent for pardon, as the cross the Saviour died on. And now m}^ friends, you fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, I do not sell only indulgences for you, but tor those that are dead ; for those dear friends of yours that are now in purgatprv ; all you have to do is to drop in your money and as soon as it chinks against the side of the iron box, out pops their souls from purgatory and their misery is at an end for ever. And we must remember purgatory was believed in by nearly all in those days, and was to them a dreadful reality. Even Luther had not yet had his eyes opened to this horrible cheat. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 77 And SO this paid montebank of the pope went on extoling his use- less wares, and quoting scripture in a sickening manner. One quotation will be enough for us. "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see, for I tell you that many prophets have desired to see those things that ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things that ye hear and have not heard them." It makes one shudder when we read such wickedness. But the pope and arch-bishop knew their man ; he had been once sentenced to be put in a sack and drowned for a wicked crime, but was pardoned, perhaps for the purpose of doing this horrid work. He had once held the office of inquisitor, therefore how much blood must there have been on his hands. But this wretch left nothing undone to till his box : in each place he appealed to God, to the pope, to the sufferings of purgatory, to the blessings of heaven ; he would for sometime continue to talk in this strain, when he would suddenly run down from his pulpit, and throw a coin in the box, and that would be followed b)' a perfect shower of money. All this will be denied by the priests, but it is a matter of common history, and a great deal more ; this is on!}' a tithe of the facts, and there were three keys to this box, Tetzel kept one, the cashier of a tirm in Ausburg another ; this last firm was the agent of the elector, and arch-bishop of IManiz, who formed the indulgences. The third was in the hands of the civil authority. From time to time the box was opened in presence of a notary public and its con- tents counted and registered. So this wicked blasphemy was known and allowed by all the powers, from the pope downward, and would it not be well to copy here one of these letters from History of Protestantism by Rev. J.. A. Wylie, Vol. I. page 258. 78 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? "The form in which the pardon was given was that of a letter of absolution. These letters ran in the following terms : May the Lord Jesus Christ have pity on the N. N. and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And, I, by virtue of the apostolic power which has been confided to me, do absolve thee from all ecclesiastical censures, judgments and penalties which thou mayest have merited, and from all the excesses, sins and crimes which thou mayest have committed, however great or enormous they may be, and for whatsoever cause, even though they had been reserved to our most holv father the pope, and the apostolic see. I efface all attainders of unfitness, and all marks of infam}' thou mayest have drawn on thee on this occasion. I remit the punishment thou shouldest have had to endure in purgatory, I make thee anew, a participator in the sacraments of the church, I incorporate thee afresh in the communion of saints and I reinstate thee in the inno- cence and purity in which thou wast at the hour of baptism so that at the hour of death, the gate through which is the entrance to the place of torments and punishments shall be closed against thee, and that which leads to the paradise of joy shall be open. And should- est thou be spared long, this grace shall remain immutable to the time of thy last end. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." Brother John Tetzel, commissioner, has signed it with his own hand. For what purpose was this sacrilige allowed and invented by pope LeoX.? He cared nothing for churches or christianit}' ; the life and death of Christ was to him nothing but a fable ; still he was fond of appear- ances, and as the church of Rome had been permitted to become a ruinous pile, greatly out of repair, the project came into his mind to pull it down and replace it with one that would excel anything in the world. It would cost millions to do it, but what of that? The church of Rome never had any scruples, their motto being, "the end LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 79 justifies the means," so he got up the plan of selling indulgences by wholesale, to find the money, and sold licences to all countries in Europe, and formed them out of different parties. Germany was farmed out to Albert, arch-bishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, and the latter sent this man Tetzel through Germany, with his great red cross, carried by himself and on which was sus- pended the arms of the pope, in front of the procession ; on a velvet cushion was the pope's bull of grace, and behind were the mules laden with bales of pardons for those only who had money to pay. And by these means Leo went on building the church of Saint Peter. . • ' The people had been fleeced in so many ways, had always paid for indulgences, were used to paying for festivals and church fairs called Kirmiss, and so many other things, but this was too bold even for the sixteenth century, and although it brought in vast sums of money, it set the people thinking, and that is the last thing the Roman church wants to see ; they hate a thinking people. The character of Tetzel was known to the German people ; his narrow escape from being tied up in a sack and thrown into the river, and they thought it strange he being so guilty, should become a pardoner of sins. He was traveling from town to town, puttino- up at the best inns, living on the best, making men carry about his stock in trade, he paying them in letters of indulgence, and so he came within a few miles of the home of Luther; and when he heard of Tetzel and his acts he determined to oppose him. Luther, who had not yet left the church of Rome, still acted as a confessor, and on some folks confessing crimes to him, he told them they must abandon their sins, or he could not' absolve them, bat they had no thought of leaving off" sinning. Had they not Tet- zel's indulgence papers in their pockets to sin as long as they lived? They on finding the papers were useless and that God could only forgive them on their repenting ; so having paid their money ^O WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? lor these papers, ihey went back to Tetzel, who flew into a rage, foaming at the mouth and built a fire in the market place and said the pope had given him power to burn all such heretics in the flames. And so Luther who was not yet fully aware of the wickedness of his church, and not knowing the pope had farmed these indulgences to the Prince Arch-bishop of Mainz, wrote to him, begging him to stop such proceedings that was a scandal to religion, and a snare to the souls of men. How this looks like walking into the lion's den. Still Tetzel went on for a time selling his indulgences, and Luther preached repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in these men the two religions met, the religion of man and the religion of God — or in other words, Christ's Church and the Church ot Rome. And again, is not this Tetzel a fair specimen of a man brought up in a school headed by a pope, who treated the sufferings of our Lord as a fable ; does he not partake of the character of the beast who was to come up from the bottomless pit, spoken of at the head of this chapter? And who according to Daniel was to stamp and destroy holy people? Does not his rage and passion and the fire he built show he would stamp and destroy, like his master, ever3'thing that opposed him in his evil ways, and had he not been so surrounded b}- the friends of Luther, and the latter being also under the protection of God, he would no doubt have carried his purposes into effect. We can scarcely realize what it was to live in those days. And does not Luther show the real christian spirit, a man like his master, made perfect by suffering? He is risking all, life included, not for his own gain, but tor the cause of christianit}'. Luther represents Christ's Church, Tetzel the church that came up Irom the bottomless pit. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. OX And this Tetzel was the straw before mentioned that determined Luther to fight against indulgences. And so he nailed his Thesis on the church door which was the actual beginning of the great Refor- mation in Germany and which has been the greatest blessing known to the whole earth since our Saviour left it. God who had raised Luther as a leader had so timed his coming when society was longing for a change, many were so tired of Poperv, with its useless and unprofitable ceremonies, that the post-* ing of Luther's Thesis to the church door, at Wittenburg, on the 31st day of October at noon 1517, the day previous to All Saints' Day, caused a great sensation among the people. And which after- wards fired the whole of Continental Europe, and the letters of Luther and other reformers in the public prints opened the e\-es of the people. And when the Bible was given, they found in it the true religion, and from that time, popery, to large numbers, was a drug in the market, and Protestantism determined on, although as yet the great protest had not been delivered ; that was to come in the regular order of events. And here let us take a sketch of Luther from hi? birth. Martin Luther was born November 10, 1483, at Eisleben ; this being Saint Martin's eve he was named Martin. This was the most important birth since the one that happened in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, and he like his master, did not come in the line of kings, but was born of humble parents. His father had no estates or titles, but had to earn his bread by mining ; he had a mind searching after knowledge, but books were scarce in those days as well as, to him, inoney to buy ; his father and mother were religious, as far as the light was given them, and both praying people. Martin Luther, the greatest man of the time, had no celebration at his birth, he simply came into the world, in a poor cottage, and: outside of the few friends of the family, no one to notice the event.. 82 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? And yet his life was worth more to the world than a host of em- perors, kings, popes, in fact he came to correct the abuses of these powerful ones. At the age of six months, his father removed to Mansfield, and his circumstances improving, he could now gratifj^ his taste for learning, as well as receive good society- at his table, and the con- versation there, formed on the bright mind of Martin, the foundation of his future life. And so Luther grew, loved by his parents as also by the children of Mansfeld, with whom he could be often seen playing on the banks of the Wipper. At the age of fourteen (1497) Martin was sent to the Franciscan school at Magdebvirg, and here his hardships were great ; his master often flogged him. And he had to do what was customary in those days, beg from door to door for his bread ; his education was free ; the boys went sometimes to beg together, and often received more refusals and insults than food. After a year he was sent to a school at Eise- nach, but here as before, he had to beg ; he was often very hungrv, and nowhere to go, and these hardships he could not endure much longer ; he must give up his studies, go home, and work in the mines. But there was an eye watching over him who would not allow him to sufter more than was good for his discipline. So one day while singing in the street providence opened the heart of a good soul in the person of Ursula, the wife of Conrad Cotta, a man of consideration. This lady had noticed the scholar before. She had heard him sing in the choir on Sunday, and was pleased with his sweet voice. So she called him in at the very moment he was about to sink, and invited him to her table ; both she and her husband were so taken with the sweet boy that they offered him their home to live in. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 83 Martin had no longer to sing for food, but found second parents in this home, where he stayed about two years, and it was to him always a sure evidence that God helps in time of need. Luther in his after experience, had much opposition that we can- not speak of here. He tried to reform the vyorld, but found a great part of it careless, ignorant and indifferent and he, like all refor- mers, had often a mind to give it up ; but there was an inner force propelling him to his task, as well as fitting him for the mighty work before him. And now in 1501, at the age of eighteen years, we find Luther in the university ol Erfurt, where new studies engage his attention. Scholastic philosophy was the order of the day, Aristotle and other lights were in demand, and Luther excelled in all, in fact he became the great scholar of Erfurt. He was now 20 years of age, with a mind drinking in all the knowledge within his reach. But God had raised him for something better than this university- taught. He came on purpose to study another book, which he had not yet seen. It was a divine light, but had been cast aside for all this earthly- wisdom ; all this kind of instruction might do just to break the ground with, but the foundation must be ot better material to hold up such a building as God required. And so one day taking down from the shelves of the library of the university some books, he saw one that differed from the rest, and on opening it he found, well, what did he find? Some more philos- ophy? No! Some fresh poetical work? No! Then what is it.'* A humble book without any preface and simply opening the subject with the words : "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Why ! this must be — surely it is ! The Bible, and so it was. It was the Vulgate or Latin translation by Jerome. Oh, what joy 84 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? came into this hungry heart ; he had heard of it by parcels on Saints' da3's and Sundays and thought that was all there was ol it, but here was one great volume, containing many books on the sub- ject near and dear to his heart. He went day by day to the librar}- and studied in the old and new testament, and he looked on this book as a miser looks upon his gold. Some may say what a fuss to make about finding a Bible ; to some people this book is their daily companion ; they have it before them open in their closet pra^'ers, and God opens it to them as to no others. Some look upon it with indifference, some with an un- believing heart ; to them the pages are as lead. But to Luther whose soul was thirsting for the knowledge ot God, this was doubly welcome, besides this was the weapon w'ith which he would have to fight Kings, Emperors. Councils, Popes ; his very life was bound up in this book, although at present he did not know it. Still he had a natural instinct that drew him to it, and he found it contained true spiritual wisdom wliicli he was not vet luUy able to grasp. But the books he had to study tilled him with human wisdom, and rising in public estimation, became master of aits, or doctor of phil- osophy, was the first scholar at Erfurt University', gave lectures and was on the road to the highest honors of the stale, very much to the delight of his father, and who, to fit him for this position, persuaded him to study for the bar, which he did, and among all this worldly wisdom, the old Bible might be forgotten. How hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But God visited him with terrors, in the midst of which he promised to serve him all the days of his life, and in that day, this meant nothing else than to enter a monastry, wear a monk's hood and to shut himself from the world. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 85 So on the 17th day of August 1505, be became an inmate of the Augustinian Convent. Here was a blow to father and friends, as well as to himself, but he had promised God to serve him, and must keep his promise. And as he is groaning under sin, or as we say, under deep convic- tion, he must fly to the only place that is a refuge for sin. Ah, what a mistake to shut himself up from the world to find God; to go amongst men more ignorant of the way than himself; but he lived in an age when the light of the Gospel was hid by this so- called church. That part of the world was full of the idea that this was God's plan ol salvation, and like a drowning man he caught hold of the only rope offered him. This earth had become so dark the real church had gone into the wilderness. Luther felt sure the moment he crossed the door of the convent his peace would be made ; he had only to enter one of these holy cells to find a refuge from sin and uncleanness. Well, did he find it? Oh, no; the burden of his soul increased, Hs conscience knocked louder and louder, the burden was only shifted, not lost; he carried about him the load of unpardoned sin, he knew not where to go. What good to him were popes, priests, monks, confessors ; this was a case beyond their experience ; this was a real want, so their forms were only a mockery. They could deceive people that believed in their foolish dogmas, but when a soul was in real earnest, it must go away unsatisfied. His companions, the monks could not understand a case like this ; it looked to them like insanity. It was something new ; their farcical religion could not touch it, and as they were lazy and ignorant, and fond of good cheer, this did not quite suit them. So the best thing they knew of, was to bustle about, and go to work, and set Luther to do the drudgery', 86 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? cleaning the cells, church, and other places, to go out begging in the town with a large bag, to feed the inmates of the monastry. This occupied his day, and the night he spent in his cell, studying works that pleased him ; he had on one occasion hardly closed his eyes for six or seven weeks, and that with his fasts, and the small amount of food he ate, he became like a corpse and sometimes fell on the floor of the cell from sheer weakness. One morning they burst open the door of the cell and foimd Martin on the floor, scarcely breathing, most dead. Had they known his future mission, it would be well for their system to let him die, for by his hand would these worse than use- less monastries be destro3^ed. But before he could help the world, he must break the prison door that confines his own soul, and loosen that load from his heart that was so pulling him down. How important for a man that has to do any work for the Lord, to go through the fire of affliction ; this was an important part of his education, and it is God's plan. "Humble thyself before the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Paul said "when I am weak, then I am strong," and this is the initial work, the night before the day, and as the day dawns, so does the uplift- ing commence, until God is able to prepare the heart for him to dwell there. So it was with Luther, in his after experience. At present he has not had the bandages taken off"; all the rubbish of the old system must be cleared away before he is able to rise in the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Luther took the name of Augustine when he entered the monastry^ and he found chained to the cl.apel, the Bible, which was very welcome ; he went day by day to read it. as he could not take it to his cell, but he had not yet learned the divine principle, "the just for the unjust," so he continued praying for the peace of his soul in LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 87 the shape of penances, watchings, readings, and all the forms of Romanism, but it only increased his burdens as the day of deliver- ance came. It came in the person of Staupitz, Vicar general of the Augustines of Germany. He knew God's plan of salvation, by the study of the Bible. And as vsoon as he saw Luther, he thought he knew how he stood, and in the secret cell they conversed together. One would have supposed this man occupying such a position and having such opportunities of doing good, would speak aloud the praises of God, and not go into a cell for that purpose, but so it vvas ; the despotism of the age had shut men's mouths to the truth ; that was called heresy, but revived paganism was called the word of God. Luther had studied more the threatening parts of the Bible than the great promises of mercy ; this could not be wondered at, since his church ruled by fear, and not by love ; he, like numbers since, thought he could not come to Christ without some preparation, to make him better ; he could not see Christ had paid his debt, and he was welcome to come just as he was, in a repentant spirit ; he wa& tormenting himself by looking at his own heart instead of looking to Jesus, and when Staupitz told him to give up any further sacrifi- ces and take Christ by faith, the first glimmer of light entered his soul, and his burden began to grow lighter; still his faith was as yet very weak, but it was the seed sown, destined to grow to such pro- portions as would shake that monstrous despotism at Rome in such a manner she would never recover. Staupitz presented him with a bible before he leit, which was the most precious gift he could have oflTered, and in it he found God's plan, repentance and forgiveness of sins, by God alone, and by a personal application to him through Jesus, and not through anyone else, be it male or female, or by doing anything else, but prayer and supplication. 88 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? And now Luther is a new man ; he, like Bunyan, has left his load at the foot of the cross and his soul flees from doubting castle into the joy and liberty of his new spiritual birth. And he begins to lose confidence in the church of Rome ; he had supposed it was of God's appointment, but begins to think it to be built up by Satan for the purpose of hindering men from getting into the kingdom, and so he turns from man's plan to God's, from popery to Christ and feels armed with the power of a newly made christian. And now the principle of Christianity ripens in his heart, sins are no longer to be paid for, either in fees or penances, self torture or any other act, but come to Jesus personally, and receive forgiveness of sins ; he no sooner understood this, than down, below freezing goes the church of Rome. Another tooth drawn from the beast's mouth, but he has to get below zero before he can entirely shake oft' the thought that Rome is not in some way connected with Christ's church. And so in 1507 he was ordained to the priesthood. Up to this time Rome had been to him the one central spot of Christianity and the pope the holiest of men, and from that grand sea of goodness, the rivers of light flowed forth to water all Christen- dom ; and with such a bandage on his eyes, how could he help clinging in some measure to the old superstition ; all that was now necessary was for him to go to Rome and have the bandage taken off", and so providence as it always does, opens the way, and in about 151 1, he was sent to the eternal city on business of the church as Paul was sent to Arabia before he was educated to preach the Gospel — not human education, for he had plenty of that, but he must go in company with God's spirit as well as the spirit of evil, to tempt him, to prove him, to perfect him. So was Luther sent to Rome — not to study the Aristotelian philo- sophy, the idol of that day, he understood that, but to stand face to face with God, in the hour of affliction. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. 89 We will pass over his journey until he reaches Bologna, we have mentioned this elsewhere, in which city he was taken sick, and he knew not if it was not unto death. Those who know what it is to be under the tuition of the Holy Spirit can only form an idea of Luther's feelings ; all looked dark to him, but he was in the hands of God ; it is not necessary to be sick to learn of God, but this was God's plan now, and here he was away from home, among strangers, and expected every hour to be called to meet his God, helpless. 'Tis at that hour the soul flies into the arms of God and then God teaches him, speaks to him ; so it was with Luther ; he had now to learn a lesson of faith and the words he had heard before came to his soul. "The just must live by faith ;" and this was the lesson he had to learn, to ponder over, to be made perfect in, and it being as seed sown in his heart, he was raised up from his bed of sickness a new man, and allowed to proceed on his journey, and to let tircumstances ripen what faith had begun. Luther now stands in the eternal city, the paradise of his imagin- ation ; he has had a strange experience on his way here, mixing with priests whom he sees are only playing a part, pretending to be religious, but infidels at heart and here let me ask, if these priests had been ever so fervent in the Roman religion, what else could they be but infidels, Romanism itselt being an infidelity ? But they were infidels toward the faith they professed and this shook his confidence more and more in the holy church so-called. But he is now in Rome and finds the words of God in Revelation XVIII, 2, literally fulfilled. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saving, "Babylon the great is fallen, and is become the habi- tation of devils and the hold of every fowl spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." He found the priests of Rome to be scoffers, mockers, drunkards, adulterers mocking behind the scenes ever their one great hold, the mass, together with tlie Virgin Mar}^ of whom they preach so much 90 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? to a superstitious congregation, and the luxuries and tlie corruption of the Vatican so opened his eyes that Romanism went down below zero, the Bible became more and more precious to him ; still on his return he did not separate himself from the Roman church, but thought he could, with others, bring about a reformation. It was some time after his return that he nailed up his Thesis before spoken of. He was shortly afterwards summoned to the council of Augsburg, and then the fight for the reformation begun in earnest. It is not the intention to give in this book the history of protestan- tism, that has been done by brilliant writers. The object is to show how useless such a system as poper}'- is, excepting for evil ; to show it does not help the light but extinguishes it : does not, like protest- antism bring peace and joy, but the reverse ; war, poverty, igno- rance and desolation, and to bring into prominence some of the actions of this so-called church, that we may be able to give a reason for the title of this book and ask the public the question its title indicates, as well as the interests society demands. Why have priests at all? Luther, after his conversion became a great spiritual power, and God raised up many brilliant and powerful characters to assist him in his work, both military and spiritual in the popish world. And that all countries under the 3'oke were desirous to shake off this tyrant and hopes were bright for a time. But this terrible beast that was, and is not, and yet is, was at first at bay, but afterwards rallied with fresh rage and force and brought the cunning of hell to its aid. And after Luther's death, one country after another were forced in the most cruel manner to return to the blackness of midnight's dark- ness. France, Spain and Germany were in league with this terrible beast through their kings and emperors. LUTHER AND TIMES OF THE REFORMATION. gi These leaders who were as blind as the pope and who were think- ing more of the powerful alliances than their countr3'-'s good, were sacrificing and driving away their best citizens, and England also at first was one of the persecutors, under that tyrant, Henry VIII. We propose in the next chapter to speak on some of the stamping processes as well as of the time this terrible beast came up from the bottomless pit. CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNING OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. THE WALDENSES. "And the beast which I saw was like a Leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a Bear, and his mouth, as the mouth of a Lion! and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority, and it was given unto him, to make war with the saints and to overcome them." Revelation XIII, 2, part of 7. THIS is the same terrible beast spoken of in the last chapter, that ascended out of the bottomless pit, only here we have a different view. Then she was scarlet colored and drunk with the blood of the saints, ready to go into perdition. Now her work is all before her ; that scarlet color may mean the dresses of popes and cardinals, or allude to their being made scarlet by the rivers of bloodshed , it will answer for either, or both ; you see now she has bear's feet and the mouth of a Lion ; never was such a terrible beast before on earth so competent to do bloody work, and the dragon gave her his power. The dragon is the old pagan power and once more we see the connections the old power resuscitated, and it was given unto him to make war with the saints. The word given, means that permission will not be withheld to go and do what your inclinations lead you to do, but there was to be a limit of fort} and two months, or 1260 years. THE WALDENSES. 93 Daniel's first beast was descriptive of the cruelty of the old Baby- lonish empire ; a fiery furnace for all who will not worship the golden image Nebuchadnezzar had set up. This resurrected Roman idolatry prepares stake and fagot and every conceivable method for the destruction of God's saints who will not bow down to this New Golden Calf. As we said before, popery begun its existence as an organized body in the year 606. Phocas, the tyrant and murderer, at this time governed the em- pire and partly out of revenge against Cyriacus, and also for politi- cal purposes, he gave the bishop of Rome the position of universal bishop of all the churches of Christendom. This bishop was named Boniface III. Wliy should he require to be universal bishop, if he was already pope. Historians who think popery began at an earlier date, take their statements from the traditions of this church, made many cen- turies later from the time we are now writing and which are on no account authentic, made to deceive at a very superstitious age. Those who lake Bible history into account think this was the first pope. If Boniface III. was chosen, he died in the same year. Then Phocas elevated a priest of the Roman church (in 607) who took his' position, it is said, under the name of Boniface IV. He gave to him the pantheon, built thirty 3'ears before the christian era, and which had been consecrated to all the divinities of paganism ; he accented it and made it into a splendid church. The short lives of the popes is one great lesson of the times. This newly created universal bishop died in the year of his elevation, and on examining the record, we find 33 popes to have died before the end ot the next century. And no wonder; some were poisoned, some stabbed to death, sti angled, sent into exiie, one dies in three days, others of horrid dis- eases, and some very suspicious cases. And this is a specimen ot its hi-tor}-, hated l)y all. 94 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? The hunted people of God sending up their prayers as witnesses against them, others forced to put on a show of submission, breath- ing curses, not loud but deep. It was a big price to pay for the earthly satisfaction of being called a pope, and all this proves this religion to come from the bottomless pit, forced on the people by fraud and violence ; like its sister Mohammedanism, its success was assured only at the point of the sword. And now in the eighth century begins the temporal power of the popes. Pepin, after his war in Italy gave the pope what was known as the states of the church. Afterwards it was fully confirmed by Charlemagne, so that Rome, Ravenna and Lombardy were fulh- placed under the pope and constituted his temporal kingdom. We will say nothing about the tons of blood shed to get this socalled church its earthly position, the poison, assassination, the wars, the dreadful carnage, the deceptions, the ruin to the poor and helpless ; history furnishes this to those wishing to know. Our business is with the future of this socalled church. And having gained this temporal power the pope begins to forge spiritual. He can only keep what he has by making fresh demands, so he now claims to be the successor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles and the Vicar of Christ ; he makes a tremendous leap from universal bishop to be above all earthly kings and potentates, and to stand in the place of God. And this is the form this leopard with bear's feet and lion's mouth assumes, ready to make war with the saints and overcome. And being now master of the states of the church, afterwards known as St. Peter's patrimony, he concluded the people went with it, and that they would be just what he wanted to tind them, without con- science, thought or individuality ; but these people had not been ac- customed to bow the knee to Baal, and he was astonished to find close at home great opposition. THE \\'ALDENSES. 95 The churches of Milan, the plain of Lombardy, the Alps of Pied- mont, and surrounding countries had been established in the religion as taught by the apostles and diciples, and they had drank in the word of God as given in the Bible, the same as the apostles preached, also the Protestants of to-day. They could not tolerate this new doctrine, images, saints, relics, also concerning the sacrament, the blasphemous doctrine of transub- stantiation was to them a thing unheard of, and many looked with alarm at this dreadful form of religion. ' The Waldenses were a sect said to have derived their name from Peter Waldo, of Lyons, and he preached the pure doctrine about ii8o; his views spread through France, Italy and Bohemia, also in the provinces and in the valley of Piedmont. These people so near Rome, humbled this arrogant power, by not submitting to his authorit}', especially as some lived on or near ground he considered his own. A crusade was preached against them, and large numbers were put to death ; those living in the valley were greatly persecuted under Sixtus IV. Innocent the Third, 1198, had already sent the monks Rainier and Guy to the south of France, with power to constrain the Vandois or Waldenses, to renounce or revoke, and to employ for this purpose the sword, water and fire, and as these good monks should judge it necessar}', to use one or the other, or all three together for the greater glory of God. "Thus" says Pirrin : "All Christendom was agitated by the sight of unfortunate men hung to gallows, tortured on wooden horses or burned on funeral piles, because they placed their trust in God alone, and refused to believe in the vain ceremonies invented by men." And as the pope was in a great hurry for extermination, if necessary, and the above gentle means not doing the work fast enough, this power with the lion's mouth sent other legates from Rome to hasten the work in the destruction of all heretics even to 96 WHY HAVE, PRIESTS AT ALL? the last man, but these Vandois were obstinate, and could or would not see ; not after these monks had preached idolatry ; they spent their eloquence in vain ; this sect increasing daily, and recruits were found among the great men of the country, including the Count of Toulouse and the Count of Foix, the executions became more diffi- cult, and the people arose and stoned to death one of the pope's legates, the greatest scoundrel of them all. This was a just execution, but the pope called it a murder, and was resolved to avenge it terribly, and caused a crusade to be preached against the unfortunate Waldenses. We cannot form an idea of what the preaching of a crusade means in this day of Protestant freedom. Just fancy the worst part of this fanatical population, being appealed to by the church they think is what it represents itself to be, and in this preaching to give them license to let loose all their evil passions without restraint or penalty, and more, to reward them with not only all the plunder they can rob from those they assail, be it land money or goods, but to be told such villainy is pleasing in the sight of God, and if they die during the crusade, their souls are accepted at once in heaven. The pope had his army, as well as each countr}*, and a banner of the cross, under which they fought ; these together with the above to be let loose among the peaceful christians. It makes one shudder to think of it, and then to remember this was the religion of this socalled church that has and does to-day, tell you it stands in the place of Jesus Christ. These are the means they adopted to establish this Confederacy' and Pope as the vicegerent of Jesus Christ. The crusaders could not reach the interior of the country until a new legate named Dominick and the Count De Montford, came with an army of twent\--four thousand men. They then laid seige to Beziers, a flourishing cit}', who courage- ously resisted these fanatics for a month. A horrible famine at last THE WALDENSES. 97 caused these heroes to propose a surrender, but these sweet saints had sworn to exterminate these brave defenders. The Count de Beziers and the venerable perfect of the city, cast themselves at the feet of St. Dominick, asking him to spare, if not the christians, at least the Catholics, but No I he had received orders from the pope to burn the city, and put all to the sword, friends and foes, Protestant and Catholic alike, kill all, kill all, was the order, and God will know his own. The seige was pushed with fresh vigor and at last it fell into the hands of the crusaders. Then began a butchery that nothing in the world exceeds. The Dominick, the supposed man of God, with cross in one hand, the pope's bull in the other, urging on the fanatical soldiers to car- nage, incendiarism and every frightful outrage to men and women. They did their work so well that sixty thousand dead bodies of men, women and children, old and voung alike were swallowed up beneath the smoking ruins of the city reduced to ashes. Young women were reserved by these brutal soldiers for a fate too horrible to relate. Young boys and girls were led entirely naked to the tomb of the stoned legate, and then beaten by the monks with thongs loaded with lead. Their bodies entirely covered with blood were given over to the soldiers, afterwards murdered and their dead bodies hor- ribly pointed. Can anv one suppose such work as this could be done in the sac- red name of religion? Here is a city, prosperous, happy, their onl}' fault, in the eyes of this monster, the pope, is that they will not, all of them, because they know it to be wrong, sink so low, as to practice his devil's worship, for what else is it? Some of the inhabi- tants have already fallen and become Roman Catholics, and you would suppose when asked, this monster would have spared them, but no ! the answer is, murder all alike, and we also see the christian 98 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? spirit in the count when finding his own case hopeless, lie pleads for the Catholics ; do we want any further evidence of the Bible being the word of God, than in the fulfillment of the prophecies, and also as to the time of their coming, let us ask here, as this S3'stem came from the bottomless pit, is it not sure the devil first blinds their eyes, fills them with fury and then leads them in some invisible manner? There are no monsters on earth so frightful as these religious fanatics, no beasts so savage, and the picture at the head of this chapter had to be made of a combination of frightful animals. And this carnage onl}^ stopped here, when the victims were no more, so with fury thev went and attacked the count de Beziers at Carcassone, who resolved to resist to the uttermost, but he also pro- posed terms, and this Dominick would listen to nothing unless the whole of the inhabitants would come out of the walled cit3\ men and women, naked, and retire to a certain place, and await mercy. These terms being refused, the place was defended, for a few weeks longer, when it fell into the hands of the Count De Montford, and it shared the same fate as Beziers. Other cities such as Toulouse, Alby, Castle Naudary and all the cities of the south, where Albigen- ses were to be found, was sacked by this army of assassins. This was a great blow to the christians of the thirteenth century, the whole country for the time being was ruined. The rich and fertile land was now covered with ashes, and those that escaped were, for the time houseless wanderers, but the sect was not yet killed, it was the means of scattering the seed broadcast, destined to spring up after many davs. For these Waldenses continued to hold to the Bible and the teach- ings of Christ and the apostles, and were never realh' conquered, although persecutions followed them and their descendants, who now occupied the valleys nearer the x-Vlps. THE WALDENSES. 99 They were for centuries exposed to all sorts of kidnapping by the inquisitors, taken by treachery, and when they ventured into towns they were liable to be taken and burned at the stake. History is so full of these dreadful horrors with stakes all over the country, that we are at loss which we shall record, and it is only when one piece of villainy seems to stand out more prominent that we make a note of it. The Christmas of 1379 witnessed a dreadful scene in the valley of Pragelas ; the winter snows had just set in and the people consider- ing this as a protection, begun to feel safe, but suddenly an army led by an inquisitor named Borelly, rushed in their midst intending to exterminate the whole of the population. Those of the inhabitants who were able rushed with all their speed to the mountains, taking as many of the old, young and sick, with them as it was possible, knowing they would be all murdered if left behind. And this in the storm and snow, in the ice bound mountains, a great many of the fugitives collected in the valley of San Martino, where they crept together on a summit without food, clothing or shelter, being exposed to the winter wind, ice and snow, their suffer- ings were beyond description, and when morning came, numbers were found with frozen feet, hands, arms, some frozen to death, scores of young children were found dead, some on the bare snow, others in their mothers arms. That night is spoken of among the descendants of these illused people to-day, and year after year, century after century, these per- secuted people are followed and hunted by this Leopard with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a Lion. Some of their children leave the mountains and mix in the cities, where they sow the seed that is a constant scource of trouble to this man, who finds himself impotent for their destruction. lOO WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL T They have such an unconquering spirit, therefore they must be ex- terminated ; the fires of the inquisition, tortures, chains, rack, screw, none of these can bend their spirit. So a fresh crusade must be made against them in the mountains, the Alps, anywhere where they can be found and wiped out from the face of the earth. And this work against these inoffensive people begins over again. It is the same old Leopard, only a few centuries later, and has simply changed his name from pope Innocent III. to pope Innocent VIII. He begins in the usual sanctimonious way, by issuing bulls of ex- termination against heretics, offering as before, rewards in the shape of pardons and plunder, and blaspheming God's name by attaching it to this work of the gate of hell. The king of France and the duke of Savoy lent their armies for this religious work. Soldiers were en- listed everywhere. This was to be a universal destruction of this sect, not in the mountains only, but everywhere. This heresy must be stamped out. The order was general, the excitement the same, every country knew what this most holy pope was going to do, the news went ever3'where, excepting to tlie poor people most interested. Muston savs, " 'In the train of this armed host came a motley crowd of volunteers, vagabond adventurers, ambitious fanatics, reck- less pillagers, merciless assasins, assembled from parts of Italy, a horde of brigands, in short the worthy tools of the man whose bloody work they were assembled to do.' This army of nearly twenty thousand men beside the followers were in two divisions. The French advanced to attack the Dauphinese Alps, and the other the Italian side, so the armies would meet in the middle of the mountain range ; no quarter is to be given : nothing but deaih, plun- der and destruction. THE WALDENSES. lOl The inhabitants seeing an army enter their vale so much greater than themselves in number, could not resist, and these placing their children and the old and infirm, together with what provisions they could find, in any vehicle at hand, driving their cattle before them, began to climb the slopes of Mount Petroux, five or six thousand feet above the level of the valley. They then took refuge in an immense cavern and thought themselves safe, for the cavern was so situated they could defend the entrance against large odds. So these fiends in human shape thought it wiser not to attack, but to block up the entrance with all the wood they could find and set fire to it ; the smoke entered the cavern and suffocated men and women and children ; a few tried to escape, but were butchered. Muston says, 'when the cavern was afterwards examined, four hundred infants were found suffocated in their cradles, or in the arms of their dead mothers.' Altogether there perished in this cavern three thousand Vaudois, which included the whole population of Val Loyse. The property of these poor creatures was given to the wretches doing this bloody work and the church of Christ was destroyed from these ruined valleys. In speaking of this pope, L. M. De Cormein says, 'Innocent united to his other vices, a naturally sanguinary disposition, and a ferocity which appeared in ihe briefs he addressed to the bishop of Brescia, and the inquisitor of Lombardy, in order to engage them to persecute the .heretics, and to publish a crusade against the Vau- dois of the valley of the Loire.' " De Cormein His. of popes, vol. 2, page 147. Perrin thus relates this persecution : "Albert, Arch-deacon of Cremona, having been sent into France by Innocent VIII. to exterminate the Vaudois, obtained authority from the king to proceed against them without any judical forms. I02 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL r and solely with the assistance of James de Lapalu, lieutenant ot the king, and the counsellor Maitre Jean Rabot. These three wretches, the legate, the lieutenant of the king and the counsellor, went to the valley of the Loire, at the head of a band ot fierce soldiers, to exterminate the inhabitants, but they found no one on their approach ; the unhappy people had fled with their chil- dren into the mountains which crown this fertile valley, and had con- cealed themselves in the depth of the numerous natural caverns which are found on their tops. The arch-deacon and his two acolytes then pursued them as if they had been chasing a fox, and every time they discovered a sub- terranean cavern in which the unfortunate Vaudois were concealed, they closed the entrance with heaps of straw on dry wood and set it on fire. In this manner these unfortunates were suffocated by the smoke ; or if they endeavored to escape from the caverns which were to become their tombs from the pikes of the soldiers and driven back to the flames." L. M. De Cormein's His. of popes, vol. 2, page 147. "The terrors which this punishment inspired became so great that most of the Vaudois who had so far escaped the researches of the pope, murdered themselves or cast themselves into the abysses rally of the mountains to avoid being wasted alive. When the executioners had no wood with which to stifle their vic- tims in this horrible hunt, they contented themselves with closing up the entrances to the caverns with rocks, or with walling up the cis- terns so that afterwards, after the departure of the legate, when they made excavations in the mountains, they found more than eight hun- dred dead bodies of young children stifled in their cradles or in the arms of their mothers, dead like them from fire or famine. The executioners did their work so well, that of the six thousand Vaudois, who peopled this fertile valley, there remained but six hundred to weep over the death of their brethren. THE WALDENSES. IO3 All the property of these unfortunates was divided between Jacques de Lapalu, the arch-deacon of Cremona, and Maitre Jean Rabot ; each of them received tokens of the munificence of the sovereign, and the legate obtained the dignity of bishop, as a reward for having fulfilled his duties with vigor and energy." L. M. De Cormein's His. of popes, vol. 2, page 148. Betore we go further let us say, if any one doubts who these Wal- denses were, or as to the religion they professed — we say we have ample evidence — they were the prirnitive christians, and their per- secuters the Roman Catholics. They believed and lived up to the teachings of the Bible as taught by Jesus Christ and the apostles ; society as then constituted was almost the reverse of to-day. Good was called evil and evil good. The Jesuits had helped to make worse an already corrupt pagan people, and the change from that time to this, although it has been gradual, has been brought about by the Protestants. "TheNobila Ley con has the following passage on the Waldenses r 'If there be an honest man, who desires to love God and fear Jesus Christ, who will neither slander, nor swear, nor lie, nor commit adultery, nor kill, nor steal, nor avenge himself of his enemies, they presently say of such a one, he is a Vaudois, and worthy of death.' Rev. J. A. Wylie says, 'If doubt there were regarding the tenets of the Waldenses, the charges which their enemies have preferred against them would set all doubt at rest, and make it tolerable cer- tain that they held substantially what the apostles before their day, and the Reformers after it, taught. The indictments against the Waldenses included a formidable list of heresies.' They held that there had been no pope, since the days of Sylvester that temporal offices were not meant for preachers of the Gospel that the pope's pardons were a cheat ; that purgatory was a fable that relics were simply rotton bones, which had belonged to one I04 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? knew not whom ; that to go on a pilgrimage served no end, save to empty one's purse ; that flesh might be eaten any da}' if one's appe- tite served him ; that holy water was not a whit more efficacious than rain water, and that prayer in a barn, was just as effectual as if offered in a church. They were accused, moreover, of having scoffed at the doctrine of transubstantiation and of having spoken blasphemously of Rome, as the harlot of the Apocalypse." Wylie, His. of Protestantism, vol, page 28. Notice the last hours of this infamous pope that was hunting to death these good people by the following : "Thus did the infamous Innocent triumph over his foe, and the oldest of his bastards was recognized as a prince. But divine justice had marked out the termination of his crimes, and he died on the 25ih of July 1491, from an attack of apoplex}'. Stephen Infessura maintains, that the holy father in his last sick- ness attempted to reanimate the scources of life by means of a fright- ful beverage composed bv a Jewish phvsician with the blood of three young boys of ten years old, who were murdered for the purpose. Onuphre and Ciaconius relate the same fact, which they place at an earlier period." L. M. De Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. 2, page 149. We are tired of recording the deeds of this army ; to give all the details would fill a whole book, and we have so many other places to speak of. We will finish our record of this one sect b}' saying that wherever the soldiers went, happy homes were destroyed, and without much resistance ; they w^ere persecuted as long as the popes had power. One detachment of the Piedmontees army, seven hundred strong, cast their eyes on the peaceful valley of Prali ; they had climbed on their hands and knees to the overlooking slope, and there saw these people gathering their harvest, with their children playing around them. THE WALDENSES. IO5 The doings of these hired assasins had gone before them, and these people had made ready for defense, and when these seven hundred rushed down, they joined the battle, and with a prayer to God and a trust in his deliverance, the whole of these wretches were struck down, excepting one man, who was allowed to escape, to tell the army the kind of resistance they had met. Can anyone imagine, says bishop Newton, or even frame an}^ conception of the numbers of pious christians who have fallen a sacrifice to the bigotry and cruelty of Rome. Mede hath ob- served from good authorities, that in the war, the Albigines and Waldenses there perished of these poor creatures, in France alone, a million, from the first institution of the Jesuites to the year 1580 ; that is in little more than thirty years, nine hundred thousand orthodox christians were slain, and these by the common execu- tioner. In the space of thirty years the inquisition destroyed bv various kinds of torture a hundred and fifty thousand christians. These Waldenses or Vaudois, this sect standing alone, have never been conquered, although the whole power of this infamous church had been united against them. There were man}' of them living close to the seat of this worse than apostasy, and some of them on the land known as the states of the church ; on these lands has the blood of this worthy race been shed, and has risen 10 feed other nations ; they were persecuted from the beginning of the power of the papacy, down to the time when Napoleon III. had to take his soldiers away that were propping up Rome and, to the Italians, this hated church. And then when Victor Emanuel became king of Italy, and in 1866 took from the pope these states of the church which had been held so long against the wishes of the people of Ital}' ; and so ended the temporal power of the pope, and with it his means of doing mischief. io6 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL: Now notice the prophecy of John ; he said this power, or beast, would be permitted to continue torty and two months or twelve hun- dred and sixty years. Now let us see what light this persecuted Bible gives us. See Revelation XII. 6, 17: "And the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days, (twelve hundred and sixty years) and the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which kept the command- ments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." We see here the woman, the church, flies into the wilderness to a place pre- pared of God, and she was to be fed a thousand two hundred and three score days ; count a day for a year and that will give it to you, twelve hundred and sixty years ; she was driven away by this power putting itself in her place, and which called herself the church, and that came vip h^om the bottomless pit. Do not the children of God constilaite the church? Then the woman, the church, found a refuge in the wilderness, in the persons of these Waldenses and at many other places, and the dragon made war with the remnant of her seed. That is, with any who are believers in die word of God. The dragon having given her power to the Leopard, she stands in her place, and b}^ this act the deadly wound was healed. We see the time for the church's flight and that allowed tor the pope to make war with the saints, is exacth^ the same, nameh', twelve hundred and sixty 3'ears, so as soon as the pope loses his power, the church's flight is over — she is restored. Surely in this one sect alone the prophecy of both Daniel and John has been tulfilled, also the words of our Saviour. "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." For it is yet in existence, having been hunted by this so-called church over a thousand years, and now the Italian government has THE WALDENSES. IO7 given them the liberty to worship God, according to their own con- science, and which ought never to have been interfered with. They are now up and popery down, popery is hated while Christianity will soon cover the earth as the waters cover the ocean. Have not these people kept the commandments of God, when he said : "be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life," also, "fear not them that kill the body, and which is all that they can do, but fear him, who hath power to cast into hell fire ;" and again, there are some that will kill you, and think the}^ are doing God ser- vice ; had they not also the testimony of Jesus Christ manifested to them, could they give up everything in this world, even life itself, if they had not, and were they not faithful witnesses during the whole of their history? I should now like to draw the pope's attention to a few things. You have had the feast, and had it pretty much your own way dur- ing these many years, let us see what the cost will be. Surely you cannot expect to fight against God's saints, to live on the fat of the earth without paying for it ; making, yes making, for it is very little you would get unless you had inspired your followers' hearts with fear, so compelling people to furnish you means to live deliciously, counting the lives of the people of no more value than the dust under your feet ; aye, and their souls too. Let us take a peep into the despised Bible and see what will be the outcome of all this ; for if your traditions are not reliable, the word of God is. You have taken a great many liberties with us protestants, and the writer is one, real, sure and uncompromising, so let us say a few words to you or about you, and those interested, with the hope it may do good. What is the meaning of Revelation XX. lo? "And the devil that deceiveth them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where loS WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever." Who is the false prophet? We know who the other two are, so let us see. God is more angry with unbelievers than anyone else, and the greatest of these must be him that treats his word as naught. So in this false prophet we see another Bible hater, in the person of Mohammed : he is the false prophet, and his followers, they dis- dain God's word, and have also made one of their own. Therefore the Bible is, to them, dead. See Revelations XI, 8 : "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which, spiritually, is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." Thes» dead bodies are the two witnesses, the old and new testa- ment, and it is also certain that this is the cit}' of Jerusalem, now under the rule of the Turk. And they are to lie unburied three da3-s and a half or twelve hun- dred and sixty }ears ; the same time again, as the church is to be in the wilderness and the pope to have temporal power, and after that time, see eleventh verse, "the spirit of life from God, entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them, which saw them." We are not now writing about anything but popery ; this diversion is only to show who the false prophet is. Will simpiv say that the dead bodies are already risen, and the Bible is being sown broadcast over the Turkish Empire, and that in- cludes Jerusalem, and the Turks are in great fear of the consequences of its risino-. What a terror this book is to unbelievers. We believe repentance is open to all, and to those that do not avail themselves of it, however great they may appear in this Hfe, if they leave it without reconciliation to God, they will look with sorrow on the despised and hunted Waldenses who will shine in- the great kingdom of their Father. THE WALDENSES. IO9 We will now return to our subject. This is not all the Bible says : let us read a little more. Revela- tions XVIII, 4-8, inclusive. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her m\- people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her work, in the cup which she hath filled, fill her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her, for she saith in her heart, I sit a Queen, and am no widow and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord who judgeth her." These verses follow in the order of time after the temporal power of the pope is taken away, and not yet altogether fulfilled. Whether they will be literally fulfilled. I know not ; it says her plagues are to come in one day, a day in Bible prophecy is one year, and it is well not to neglect such warnings ; the only safe waA' is to come out of her ; remember all Bible warnings are true, and are coming to pass : it would be strange if this was the only one allowed to pass unnoticed. 1 should now like to draw my reader's attention to the reading of the Revelations, the greater part of which is on the subject of the rise and fall of popery and Mohammedanism ; the language is somewhat figurative but is easily mastered. The writer's whole heart is in this subject, and he wishes to show as far as he can, how God in his holy word, views this idolatry. So he will place before you a few more verses, and with a few remarks no WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL r conclude this chapter. See Revehition XVIII, 20. "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her." See Revelation XII, 7, 8. "And there was war in Heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven." The dragon here means the devil and his angels ; the idolatry of the Pagans was devil worship. See Revelation IX, 20. "And the rest of the men which were not killed by their plagues, yet re- pented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and of wood which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk." Constantine by the help of God, prevailed over him, and he was cast out ; the word heaven means here, the earth, and he was cast out, and Christianity put in its place. Then in verses 10, 11, with part of 12, same chapter. "There is great rejoicing, therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them." This is christians rejoicing at their religion being recognized by the state. They believe God has answered their prayer, and that they have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and b}- the word of their testimony, and that salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ has come upon the earth. So the}' rejoiced as we do now, in a grand revival meeting amongst God's chosen ones. How long this went on we can only guess ; there were nearly three centuries to pass before this leopard (Poper}') was set up, and after this rest the church was to be again tried to its utmost capacity, before it should be fully established on the earth. So during this time the devil was corrupting the real church to pull it down and making read}' for his church he was going to set up. Then see the remainder of 12th verse, same chapter ; there must be THE WALDENSES. Ill a long space between the first two lines of this verse and the remaint der, which begins : "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows he hath but a short time. So when he had his church fully established, there begins again the persecution of the woman and her seed. A few of the persecutions have been already described in the horrid treatment of the Waldenses. This is rather a different stor}- to what the people belonging to the Roman Church have been forced to hear, and do still hear ; they have been taught to fear all these 3'ears, this man that said he had heaven and hell at his command, and could open the gates or shu- them. The people think, some at least, to-day, that the priests have great power over them, only they are so merciful, and do not use it. Oh ! save us from such nonsense. The voice from Heaven in the 4th verse does not seem to recog- nize this great power, but rather ihe reverse. It warns all to come away for fear of partaking of her punishment ; great plagues are in store. You may judge for yourselves by reading the whole chapter ; such great sins call for punishment, double unto her double ; that must be awful, considering her cruelty all over Christendom. She has already, at different periods received great punishment in the several sackings of Rome and other places ; wars and desola- tions of divers countries, her expulsion and hatred by all : but there is more coming, and no doubt the worst of it, for John sees much more coming after the time she is drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. The 20th verse tells the holy apostles and prophets to rejoice at being avenged. How does that agree with apostolic succession? Peter and Paul would come in for some of this rejoicing, for there has been more villainy committed in their names than twenty books of this size could report ; it also says "in her was found the blood of 112 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? prophets, and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth." This must mean that the orders were issued from this place, Rome, for all this cruelty. Some writers think Jerusalem is included, and other places, in this destruction ; it may be so, but as to Rome, it is certain, she being Babylon the great, and with reference to her being a widow, that has been explained — separation of church and state. The French revolution, when the nobles were killed bv the Guillo- tine or banished, was the fruits of popery ; Spain and others must have suffered as by fire to see the protestant nations, these lovers of the Bible, take the first positions in the earth and themselves put back. But there is fearful distress caused everywhere, where poper}- is allowed to reign. James D. McCabe, in his history of the w^orld says : "Had the pope been a less selfish ruler, he might have made the beautiful domain, over which he was lord, one of the happiest regions upon earth. When the states of the church came into the possession of the pon- tiff', they were rich and prosperous. From the first, the pontiff made himself their absolute master, and step bv step deprived the people of every libert}- or right they had ever possessed. Taxes were levied on ever3'thing trom which a revenue could be derived. Even alum, salt, flour and meat were taxed ; the poor were crushed beneath the heav}^ burden laid upon them, enterprise was destroyed and industry discouraged. The popes regarded their temporal possessions merely as a scource of gain, and cared nothing for the inhabitants, whom the}' oppressed and robbed of their earnings. There was no such thing as personal or political liberty in this part of Italy. THE WALDENSES. II3 The power of the papal government extended to every department of Hte, and any deviation from the exact line of conduct or of thought prescribed by the court of Rome was severely punished. Education was discouraged and idleness, povert}' and vice increased wdth fear- ful rapidity." History of the World, by James D. McCabe, page 491. On reading such statements as the above, some will say, oh ! we are in a different age now. Perhaps we are, only do not thank popery for it. You will soon go back, if you let circumstances rule you. Shakespeare says, "trifles light as air are, to the jealous confirma- tion, strong as proofs of holy writ." The writer has a jealous eye for anything that savors of oppression by this class. Only this evening, November 25th, 1890, while sitting at the tea table, w^as told bv un- doubted authority that the domestic at the next house, on going to the priest with a bonnet on that he thought was to expensive, told her to buy cheaper ones in the future and give the money to the church. Had she lived in the olden times, such as we have been writing about, to this would have been added a threat, and perhaps an order to sell it and buy one cheaper and bring the money for the priest to spend. How would you, Roman Catholics, that have only the Protestants to thank for the liberty you enjoy, like to go back to these days? You would say, if asked, "Never!" And yet are you not helping them to gain their point with ^•our monev? Let them once get the upper hand, and all your liberty ends. You would find it a different country from what it is now, ihev will never get the full power of the past back again, but the} w-ill fight for their existence as a church, and may do much damage, and you may help them, but that Bible you are forbidden to read has spoken their doom, and it never fails. And what is tiie meaning of the eighth verse of the thirteenth chapter, about his worshippers not 114 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? having their names written in the book of lite? It' 3'ou are anxious, read it for 3'ourself, and tind out what it means ; or are you deter- mined to go on as you have begun, and think yourself wiser than other people? You may nurse the idea of protestants being heretics until too late, and then may wake up and tind you are after all, the heretic. And that you have been worshipping all these years, "the Golden Call"," and helping to build up this man of sin. Do you, or any of 3'Ou think the actions of these so-called priests are consistent with men loving and tearing God? And remember you see them at their best in a protestant country. Go into a countrj' where they now have power, if there is one left, and then after tasting the liberty of a free country, you should decide to keep in with them, then you accept willingly, all this personal and spiritual bondage. CHAPTER VI. AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Pro- verbs XIV, 34. GOD loves righteousness, and hateth iniquity ; that being the case, how important for a nation to start well, and also to im- prove as we grow in strength, to cast our eyes back to our surroundings in our infancy, and reflect on the contrast of then and now and ask ourselves the question, has all this growth and develop- ment been the work of chance, have we been the arbitrators of our destiny, or has there been a strong hand ruling us, directing, so as to keep harm away, and are we now in the strength of manhood, able to do without that paternal care, or do we look to him daily who has so unmistakably led us to our present position? Have we ever considered, in its most vital sense, what the materials were of which this great Republic was composed, when it commenced its existence? We often hear coarse remarks made of our forefathers, the Puri- tans : whether justly or not, let facts decide. And who were the Puritans? They were a body of men who pro- fessed and who tried to build up the pure doctrines of Christianity, so long hidden from the world by a power claiming superior knowledge to the Great Law Giver. Il6 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? The name Puritan was given as a term of reproach by their ene- mies, the Roman church ; they were truly the children of the refor- mation ; but not coming on the scene until some years after the grand movement had begun. When Henry VIII. took possession of the church of England, he had no desire for its reformation ; he simply made himself the head of this ecclesiastical body, and men were to be the same slaves as before ; there was very little alteration in the dogmas. The same arrogance was shown in the fact that the laity were ex- pected to receive all matters of faith laid down for their guidance upon the ground that it was beyond cheir ability either to estimate or judge ; but the European mind had shaken oft" its slavery and would think for itself. The followers of Crarmer were in favor o{ retaining some of the old dogmas of Rome, but a better and more advanced set of think- ers clung to 4:he doctrine of Calvin, and insisted on cleaning the New Church from all the slime and idolatry oi Rome. These honored men were THE FIRST PURITANS, a body within the church, but dissenting from man}- of its principles. They were what the church of Rome hates, Bible christians, hence they were named Puritans. They would have nothing to do with the traditions of popery ; they thought as our Saviour said of the Jews, "these traditions were dishonorable to God," and they clung to the onl}^ authority to be found in the Bible. They would not consent to any power in the king, dictating in matters of faith. They deni< d apostolic succession of bishops, and. believed all min- isters of the Gospel were equal as given in the Holy Scriptures. They, as might be supposed, became anti-popish, and believed in heartworship, and denied the ritualism of the day ; the wearing of a surplice, or square cap, was popish. AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. II7 Hooper, the bishop of Gloucester, who was the head of this party, refused to wear them, and suffered imprisonment some months rather than yield. Time went on and Mar\-, or as she was called, "bloody Qiieen Mar)'," ascended the throne, and popery once more disgraced the nation. Let us draw the curtain o\^er this woman's reign ; we speak of her in another place, who lived a burden to herself, and to all around her ; we will only say here that with her death popery ceased to exist in England, and we hope forever, and also that Hooper the good bishop, as well as Crarmer, were burnt at the stake, during her reign, as heretics. In the reign of Elizabeth, the Puritans were subjected to great persecutions, Protestant persecuting Protestant, still they were a great and important power in the church and nation, and when Elizabeth died, the Puritans alone were about a hundred thousand strong. Then comes James I. to the throne, and he persecuted the Puri- tans ; he remembered John Knox of Scotland, what influence he had over his mother, whom Elizabeth beheaded, and he felt a delight in persecuting the party who held the same opinions as John Knox, and hated men to have freedom in matters of religion. And without speaking more in this chapter about English history, we conclude by saying, the persecutions became so severe that these best of men, for they are the best, come from what countr}' the}' may, were forced from their native land to seek a home where they might serve God according to the dictates of their conscience. And after a long voyage on the rough ocean, the Mayflower con- taining the first installment of the English Puritans, after many pri- vations, landed in America December i6th, 1620, and the place they landed they named Plymouth Rock. Il8 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? And in this manner the whole of the New England States became peopled by Puritans from England, to which were added occasion- ally Lutherans from Germany, Hugenots from France, Covenanters from Scotland, Moors from Spain, Hollanders and others, but from whatever country they came, their principles were the same. The}' were Puritans in heart and purpose, were Protestants in the strictest sense and these are the men that formed the foundation of the American Republic. What a narrow escape this country had from falling into spiritual slavery. France and Spain were doing the work of making it into a Roman Catholic country', although they hated each other at the same tiine, and were trying to outwit each other : there are no true bonds in popery. Spain was supreme in the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America in the i6th and 17th Centuries. France held Canada and other places. A colony of French protestants had been established in Florida in the Spanish possessions. Philip II. of Spain hearing of it, became greatly incensed and would not allow such a colony to rest in peace ; he must exterminate the heretics. And he emplo3'ed for this purpose, Pedro Melendez de Aviles, an officer noted for his cruelty in the wars of Spanish America against the pirates. Philip agreed with that officer that he should conquer Florida within three years, and establish a colony of not less than five hun- dred persons ; one hundred should be married men, twelve priests of the Roman Church and four of the Jesuites order. The destruction of the French colony was not named in the agree- ment, but these two understood each other. AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. I I9 The cry was at once raised in Spain that the heretics must be ex- terminated, and the required number of soldiers, sailors, priests and others were raised at once lor this religious work. They sailed in June 1565, and arrived oft' the coast of Florida the 28th of August. The French fleet were anchored in the roadstead off" Fort Carolina, and the commander demanding the name and object of the visit, answered, I am Melendez of Spain, sent with strict orders from my king to gibbet and behead all the protectants in these regions ; the Frenchmen who are Catholics 1 will spare : every heretic shall die. The French fleet not being ready for battle cut its cables and stood out to sea. Melendez gave chase but failed to overtake, returned to the harbor of St. Augustine, went on shore the 8th of September, took posses- sion of the country in the name of Philip II, of Spain, who was proclaimed monarch of all North America. The French fleet became wrecked which became known to Melendez ; he resolved to strike a blow at the fort, knowing it to be in a defenseless state ; he lead his men through the forests and swamps, he surprised and captured the fort on the 21st day of September. Ever3' soul within the walls including the aged, the women and children was put to death ; a few escaped to the woods. Their con- dition became dreadful, death awaited them there. A few gave themselves up to the Spaniards and were at once murdered. The number at the fort murdered was about two hundred , and when there were no more to murder, then a cross was raised, a site selected for a church, and mass was said. Of course such a righteous act as this could not be done without saying mass or offering up one more blasphemy to cover over their wickedness. I20 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL r Then, after arranging for a new church to make more such men as this leader and followers and their master Philip II, Melendez sets out to find the survivors of the shipwrecked fleet. He found them in a helpless condition, worn out with fatigue, hunger and thirst ; he promised them protection and kindness, if they would surrender, so they put themselves in his hands, who at once treacherously bound them and marched them back to St. Augustine ; as they neared the settlement, at a given signal, the Spaniards fell upon and massacred all but a few Roman Catholics, who they made slaves of. French writers place the number of those who fell at the two mas- sacres at nine hundred. The Spaniards give a smaller number. Melendez set up this inscription: "I do not this as unto French- men, but as unto Lutherans." (James D. McCabe, His. United States, page 85.) And this wicked act was afterwards avenged by a French part}' capturing a Spanish fort near the same place and hanging all the prisoners, who wrote on another inscription, "I do not this as unto Spaniards, or mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers and murderers." (James D. McCabe, His. United States, page 85.) And this is the manner the world has been kept in war and blood- shed during all the time this wicked socalled church has had the power to do it. And in the name of Him whose coming was attended with hosts of angels singing, "peace on earth, good will to men." The people on this continent are not aware of the many brutal acts, unless thev are close readers, committed even here in America by this Jesuitical power before this country' was fairly settled. Suffice to say it has been computed over a million Indians have been murdered, by their trying to force this idolatry upon them. They could not by any possible chance deceive the earl)' settlers' for they knew them so well. And they, tiie Roman Catholics with AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 121 their old policy, waited until they had died oft, and the rising genera- tions being ignorant of the facts, not having read their histoi"y, so the time is now propitious and they come forward to this virgin soil, putting the best face on, clothed with a religious garb, so much so, the people who worship in their churches have no idea of the real character of this great confederacy. The early settlers had a divine hand sheilding and taking them under then- protection, and where these people can no longer deceive they persecute, as the}' did the early settlers. The French Jesuit missionaries were well trained for their work in America and Canada ; there was nothing so sacred to them as the murder of the Puritans, or English heretics. They were constantly inciting the Indians to a state of furj- against the English. And after confessing and absolving the dusky warriors they sent them out to do their bloody work, giving them assurance, that murder, arson, pillage, destruction and frightful carnage would please theii' father in heaven and be sure and gain them admission there. And through this teaching many places were burned, sett- lers killed, wumen and children carried into captivity ; tracks of desolation all through the new settler's country. We find as the fruit of this christian spirit, attacks made on such places as Schenectady, N. Y., Deerheld and Haverhill, Mass., Salmon Falls in New Hampshire, Casco in Main and other places, and after peace was made, two Jesuit priests, Thury and Bigot, in- duced the eastern Indians to break the treaty and renew the war, and took pride in confessing tliemselves to be the instigators of the atrocities of the savages. Let us stop here I We lately read of a new order — there was not enough before — being instituted under the teaching and guidance of a rich lady, for the conversion, it says, of the^e same Indians, to- gether with the colored folks. Just ask ourselves, is this all for 122 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? religion, or is it a weapon to hold over us to come forward at a weak moment? Americans, look into this ! and when you have satistied yourselves it is all right, why then rest. The English settlers well understood such tactics ; it was history repeating itself and they regarded not for the first time, the Jesuits as the enemies of mankind. No wonder English Protestants looked with suspicion on all Roman Catholics, and their horror of them was so great that even Rhode Island enacted a law that a Roman Catholic should not be- come a free man of the province. We have so far only given a sketch of the atrocity of the times ; we will, before we conclude this chapter if there is room, give some more ; we could add many chapters of this kind of work, and what was it done for? I presume it will be called the conversion of the country ; conver- sion to what; to make this a Roman dependence, a colon}' of Catho- lics, under the tender mercies of such countries as France and Spain were in those days, and to destroy every vestige of God's children, who had made this a home, after being forced from their native soil by such cruelty too horrible to conceive, in this enlightened day? What should we have been as a nation if God had not put forth his hand and saved us from this peril? These nations had no love for us, they hated us and an\-thing they might have done at the time, or in later da3-s was not for love, but to injure and weaken Protestant England, and if she had lost her power, then the young colonies would have been at the tender mer- cies of these Pagan nations. Americans, just think of the fate of 3'our forefathers. Judging by the treatment the Protestant colony at Fort Carolina received at the hands of Melendez, the Spanish general, recorded in the first part of this chapter. AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 1 23 Would the present race of Americans exist? You would have been destroyed before you were able to help yourself if God had not protected you, and the country would have been peopled by French and Spanish Romanists. In 1640, twenty years from the landing of the first Puritans, the population of New England had increased to 20,000 — a wonderful leap. They had been permitted to grow under Protestant influences, tor the Roman Catholic powers of Europe had so exhausted their re- sources that they could not much longer safely interfere with the American new settlements. Spain had ruined herself in many wars before the insane attempt to blot out Protestantism in England, by that scheme of the wicked pope, and carried out principall}' by Spain in the great Armada for the invasion of England, but its glory ended at the bottom of the ocean, and since that day 1588 Spain has had to take a back seat. The religious wars of France, England, Spain, Holland and others, kept them all jealous of each other. The revolution in England tied her hands, and the great fleet of England which was being constantly increased, was the protection of the early settlers, and so providence allowed the American colonists, amidst the clash of arms of Europe to live in peace, and gave them time, as well as the desire to improve themselves, temporally, mor- ally and religiously, and to lay the foundation of a future great country. And England although dictating to her young offspring as to her religious belief in the dogmas of the Church of England had not the time to enforce it. And so this Great Republic of the then future was nursed in the arms of providence, which seemed to say, "as I have laid the foundation, so do you tinish the structure, be careful not to allow an}' common material to be introduced, if you work on my pattern 124 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALLT all will be well. I have with an outstretched hand saved vou from the peril of paganism ; follow in my steps and I will love you." The Puritans believed in material success, and as many of them were persons of education, they wished their children to enjoy the blessings of knowledge, so in 1637 ^ High school in Cambridge was established, which afterwards took the name of Harvard College, in gratitude to the Rev. John Harvard, of Charlestown, who gave a large library and half of his fortune. And in 1647 a general court ordered that in every town or district of fifty families, a common school should be built. This systein was soon approved by other New England Colonies, except Rhode Island. Thus came into existence the American system of common schools, but previous to this, the Protestant church had educated the young. Some had been educated by private individuals, but now it was handed over to the state. The church had alwa\ s made provisions for the preservation of the Gospel, and had installed its principles in the voung mind. The Puritans were not faultless, thev exhibited a wrong spirit in excluding other Protestant denominations, but put ourselves in their place, with the recollection of the horrors of a corrupt church govein- ing them and we might look on all new comers with as jealous an eye. They remembered how the tew schools in Europe, especialK' pre- vious to the reformation, had been prostituted to the purposes of this Roman church, and that made them doublv watchful. Put in this year i8go with a population according to the census, ol sixt}' millions, and with a yearly cost of over one hundred and twenty-two millions for the public schools, and requiring 347,292 teachers, the figures stagger us. with twelve millions of children at the dailv attendance, and hundreds of thousand.s in private and AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 1 25 sectarian schools, the question is do our children get as much religious education as the}' did when the Puritans first laid the foundation ? Have we not departed from the line intended by Him who so miraculously watched over our tender youth? Has not this old enem}- been tampering with our schools? Who first sugge>ted the thought of taking away the Bible? For what purpose are these sectarian schools? There is not an evangelical •church in the country but what is satisfied with the education of the state. Therefore the Roman church should not be allowed to have separate schools. x\nd we should be determined that all appropriations tor sectarian purposes be stopped. If the system of our schools suits the most intellectual in every re- spect, why should these others object? The fact is it makes children of such material that they become too enlightened for them to corrupt. At the head of this chapter it says: "righteousness exalteth a nation" ; then is this the best way to bring up these twelve rriillions of future men and women, to neglect the Bible? Should their young minds have even a suspicion that the Bible should not be respected? Take away the power from this socalled church that they have assumed in the political arena, and where would they be? Their vote is all the_\' can offer for all this disturbance of society, and that is prostituted to the furtherance of their designs. "Train up a child the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," is a good maxim ; the enemy adopts it. }ie trains up the poor dear little souls, so unfortunate as to get in his grasp, by refusing the Bible, and keeps back the only book that can instruct them in righteousness. 126 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? It is evident, as God put his arms about this Great Republic in its infancy, and framed it out of his dear persecuted and hunted children, and took away the power for rule from the pagan countries and placed it in the care of a powerful Protestant nation until it was able to take care of itself. It must be therefore his intentions for it to go on, as it begun, training up the young mind and teaching it to respect the Bible. That good old book will injure none, and no one objects to it but those who teach antichrist doctrines, and we cannot afford, as a nation, to exchange our Bible for a few extra votes on election day, and those really given to the enem}^ of the book. God says, "I am a jealous God," and therefore he looks with a jealous eye on the treatment his book receives. There is a vast responsibility on our rulers, respecting the youth of the country. It may not be wise to imitat* the Puritans in all their methods of government, but we should unmistabably look with the same jealous eye on the introduction of an}'^ foreign sectarian element in our midst. The tact of their determination to open up separate schools i-s a menace to our Protestantism : it is the commencement of hostilities and if not stopped now it will take long years of blood and carnage to do it. The elements are amongst us, only waiting for the opportunity to enslave us. It may be sometimes wise to look even to pagan and despotic countries for advice, and see how they manage under such circum- stances. I do not say we can go to the lengths they have gone in this matter, still if it only sets us to thinking, it will be something gained. The Chinese have said firmly, "we will have nothing to do with you : depart from our shores. They f ave onh- crept in lately with AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 1 27 the Gospel missionaries. Russia has also excluded the Romanists. The Greek and Roman church had the same origin, therefore the Russians know what a disturbing element popery is, and will not allow it entrance to their covintry ; there are a few exceptions. And is it not strange, Catholocism has less power to-day in all countries, than in the two great Protestant nations ; why can this be? I can make no better answer than the corruption of men in office, for outside of the Roman element, you hear nothing so much talked of as the fearful strides this Romanism is taking to-day. This country gives welcome to all nationalities, and it is time they should know it belongs to the Americans, and as they live here, they owe their allegiance first to the American government. Therefore we do not want the children, let them come from where they may, to be taught that a foreign power has the first claim on their loyalty. You could not get men to allow their children to be tampered with in their loyally to any government, except it be done under the disguise of religious fanaticism, and this Roman religion teaches its same old pernicious doctrine. That the Pope stands first and in what line he directs, they must follow. This is the greatest foe the American people have to deal with to- day, in our midst. They are becoming bolder every year. The people can know no- thing of their church's doings, or the}' would blush in the face of their abominable history to flaunt their baptized heathenism in the face of such facts as the world furnishes to-day. Can any one please give the name of any country, who has had the misfortune to have them amongst them, that they have not been expelled from? The countries of Europe have taken the schools from their hands ; to-day Germany, France, Italy and others, after centuries of bitter 128 WHY HAVK PRIESTS AT ALL? experience, have determined that the children shall be no longer subject altogether to the teachings of popery. The following from a European paper, speaks for itself: "In Roman Catholic Belgium there are, we are officially informed, i8 murders to 10,000 of the population, in France 31, Bavaria 32, Italy 52, in Protestant England 4. Illegitimate births, in Brussels 35 to 100, Paris 33, Vienna 52, England 5." The Westminster Gazette (Catholic) recently said, '"The neglected children of London are chiefly our children, and the lowest of every class, whether thieves or drunkards, are Catholics." Alexander VI, eleven years at the head of this so-called true church, gave a splendid entertainment to fifty public prostitutes, in the halls of the Holy Vatican, and to-day no caricatures are so much enjoyed in Rome as those at the expense of the priesthood ; no stories are too astounding to be believed, if against priests and cardinals ; no cry so frequent as this : "Down with the priests." As this pope is accidentally brought before us, and as we before said, we could give the history of all the Dopes, but the great objec- tion would be, they have lived such holy ( ?) lives that we could not soil our pages with the description. The above pope died August i8th, 1503, poisoned. We copy the last scene of thi? man's horrible end. Orgies, Debauchery, Simo- nies, robbery, murders and poisonings, are rife at this time : men are killed for pastime, but we give the following : "On the next day, when the death of the pontiff' was known, cries of gladness and transports ot joy resounded through Rome. Ever3-one wished to contem.plate the dead body of him who, for eleven 3'ears had caused the .most powerful lords to tremble ; the church of St. Peter in which his dead body was placed was soon in- vaded by an innumerable crowd. AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 1 29 'The sight of that dead body', says Raphael Volatenan, 'black, de- formed, prodigiously swollen, and exhaling an infectious odor, was a disgusting spectacle, black froth covered his lips and nostrils ; his mouth was unnaturally open, and his tongue swollen by the poison, hung down upon his chin.' Thus there was not found any devotee or fanatic to kiss his feet or hands, as was the custom. Towards six o'clock in the evening the infection in the church v\^as such that the cardinal charged with the care of the funeral was obliged to give orders to bury the pope. No priest, cardinal or officer was willing to assist at the funeral ceremony, and the dead body was abandoned to the carpenters and porters, who placed it in a coffin which was too short, and into which they forced it by press- ing in the feet and striking it with a hammer. After this horrible scene of profanation, they cast it into a tomb which had been prepared for it on the left of the high alter. Thus terminated the abominable reign of Alexander VI, the last Pontiff of the Fifteenth Century. Alexander VI, is one of these popes whom the adorers of the Roman Purple, and'of pontifical infallibility, dare not justify, at least as regards their turpitudes ; they say however, that the reign of Roderick Borgia, was one of the happiest for the church, since Providence permitted neither schism nor heresies to appear during it. And if God has willed, they add, that there should sometimes ap- pear on the venerated chair of the apostle, incestuous, sodomite and murdering popes, it is to show men that the preservation of Catho- licism does not depend on the vices or virtues of its ministers ; a conclusion well worthy of those shameful priests who seek to cover their irregularities by contemptible sophisms. We, who deduct vigorous consequences from the truth of history, will say that an institution like that of the papacy is a monstrosity in 130 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL ^ religion, precisely because it gives to wicked men an exorbitant power which permits them to employ for their passions, the greatest sublimity in the heart of man, the love of the Divinity-" (L. M. De Cormein History of the Popes, vol. 2, page 163.) The same impious idea is taught to-day, that it does not effect the church, let the priests socalled, be ever so bad, do we, or ought we to let the children of the states be brought up with such thoughts as these. We know it is taught, for we have heard it fr»m their poor deluded lips? "In 1872, Gavazzi, a reformed and converted Italian priest, in ad- dressing the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Brooklyn, New York, on the subject of reforming the papal •church, said she was 'too far gone in corruption ; she must die,' and added, 'if a finger, an arm or a leg is gangrened, amputation -of the affected part may save the body, but if the whole body is gan- grened there is no saving it ; it must die.' This is the case with the papacy ; it is gangrened to the core. If you take from it what is antichristian, there will be nothing left. This man was born in it, educated in it, had been a priest and knew what he was saying." (Key to the Apocalypse, page 130.) That the papacv is on the downhill grade is evident from several occurrences since 1866, and the Franco-German war. The dismembered states of Italy have become a united kingdom, depriving the pope of his temporal power which Pius IX said was essential to the existence of the papacy. The union o( church and state has so far subsided that the church has lost control over the state ; the common schools are taken from the control of the priests, and convents and nunneries valued at Hundreds of millions of dollars have been confiscated to the state, and a general system of education has been adopted on their avails. Austria, a Catholic state, has broken her concordant with the pope whereby he and his agents had control of all schools and of church AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 131 affairs. Italy is thrown open to all shades of religion, and various Protestants have churches within the shadow of the Vatican. Spain, once famous for her papal inquisitions has been revolu- tionized, and now has a constitutional government, which, if carried out, must tolerate religion other than the papal. The Abbe Bougard, (Catholic) vicar-general of the Orleans diocese, (France) has recenth' published a little book, in which he calls attention to the diminution of the clergy in his church, and states some facts of a startling character to his cause, but consoling to the Protestants. He says, "there are already 2,658 parishes (in France) without priests, and 3,000 communes (towns) which have neither church, parson, nor chapel of ease, nor are these parishes and communes those in which Protestantism has obtained control ; on the contrary, they are those in which Romanists have always been dominant." The change is not confined to the parishes and communes re- presented in his statistics, but is more or less marked throughout the whole nation. The upper and lower classes are equall3' unwilling to enter the priesthood, and the aversion is apparently increasing. The abbe dates the beginning of the trouble a half century ago, and adds: "every revolution renews it; that of 1830 was fatal, the w/ar of 1870 was still more so ; what is true of France, the strongest Catholic State in Europe, is said to be true of every other Catholic power in this matter. The evangelical society of France in a circular, states that more than four millions of Bibles were sold among Catholics, besides those donated in France ; that more than six hundred thousand sol- diers have been thrown under Protestant influences ; that the nation is becoming awake to the fact that they cannot secure their liberties unless they break with popery altogether ; that seven millions of Roman Catholics have rejected popery ; that gifted men, by their writings show that France needs Protestantism. 132 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? Mr. Revielland thinks that in forty years, France will be Protes- tant ; the people listen to Protestant preaching and lectures with avid- ity, in thirty six thousand fownships." (Rev. Alfred Brunson, Ke}' to the Apocalypse, page 121.) We hear very little in our papers of such statements as the above, but a good deal of poor Old Ireland, whose greatest enemy is this so-called church, and she, Ireland, will never have rest or peace, do for her what vou may, until this element, which is constantly fom- enting her, is wiped out. As this Roman church has lost the control of schools in Europe, they now intend to get their grip on ours, that is if we let them. And one of the greatest pjoints for them is to control the press; they already seem to be able to publish statements very easily in the papers, but if w^e send anything that touches this so-called church very close, we are apt to receive for answer, "oh, we do not wish to get up a religious controversy." Let this speak for itself. They make the boast that they have representatives in all (he newspapers in England of any consequence, and add, "the}' do not so much care for what is put in as for what is kept out." And how frequently, when speaking of our public schools, they 'call them irreligious, infidel, godless, without Catholic instruction. What is our press about, to be publishing such nonsense. ? For those who are not aware of the spirit that is alread\' abroad, we clip a few extracts on the school question. A paper says, "The organization of the schools, their internal arrangement and management, the choice and regulation of studies and the selection, appointment and dismissal of teachers, belongs exclusively to the spiritual authority." The Boston xAdvertiser affirms, "Catholics would not be satisfied with the pubhc schools, even if the Protestant Bible and every ves- tige of religious teaching were banished from them." AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 1 33 The Freeman's Journal of Dec. iith, 1869, speaks as follows: "Let the public scliool system go to where it came from — the devil. We want christian scliools, and the state cannot tell us what Christi- anity is." "Resolved, That the pubhc or common school system in New York City is a swindle on the people, an outrage on justice, a foul disgrace in matter of morals, and that it imports for the State Legis- lature to abolish it forthwith. There can be no sound Dolitical progress — no permanence in the state, where for any length of time children shall be trained in schools without (the Roman) religion. This country has no other hope, politically or morallv, except in the vast and controlling extension of the Catholic religion." (Popery the foe of the church, page 237.) Any amount of such statements could be given from pagan papers ; is it not wonderful that such absurdities can be printed in the face of the facts that are coming to light, of their expulsion from countries on whom they have acted like withering leeches for centuries? Brunson says, "About the year 1825, when emigration begun to set in from Europe to America on a large scale, the Catholic propa- ganda in Europe encouraged the emigration of their own people, with a view of their becoming voters, and when numerous enough to be felt, to sell their votes to the political party that would favor papacy the most, and thus get the control of our government in the interest of the papacy, as they then controlled in most of Europe. As it was a business mattt^r, a regular list of emigrants of those they claimed was kept." Brunson's Key to the Apocal3'pse. This so-called church, you see, is now as it always has been, a political machine calculating in advance for the spiritual ruin of the country ; the school is their aim, and they have paid tools, ready with slander as above, to attack any institution, however sacred, with vile 134 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? opinions. We lately read of an attack, of another kind from a sup- posed higher quarter, beginning with hints, and covert sneers on the Puritans and Jewish religion, in the same spirit and for the same purpose, to raise themselves at the expense of others. They are constantly circulating irritating reports between the two great Protestant countries. When slanders are sent forth into the world through the press, or in any other form, unthinking people read and feel irritated, but seldom stop to inquire who are the originators ; when such inquiry is made, it is generally traced by intelligent men and women to one scource, namely, a foreign sectarian element, v\'ho are interested in these slanders ; it is one of their strong weapons. One writer who belongs to the Roman church, and is a supposed light in it, writing on the popular subject, the observance of the Sab- bath day, thinks a part only of Sunday should be devoted to religious worship, the rest to innocent and healthful recreation ; he thinks base ball is too violent an excercise for the proper observance of the Lord's day. "You must not," he says, "confound the christian Sunday with the Jewish or the Puritan Sabbath." "The Puritans," he sa3^s, "im- posed restraints which are repulsive to christian freedom, and which were not warranted by the Gospel dispensation." He adds, "the Lord's day to the christian heart is always a day of joy," and he tells us what the church (he means his church) allows on that day; one part is, "she permits a portion of it to be spent in innocent recreation ;" he then quotes that beautiful passage of our Saviour. "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." We are astonished at the arrogance of this man who brings the same paganism into this christian country that our forefathers left behind, and undertakes to give us instruction from his standpoint. AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 1 35 To US it sounds like a resurrection : like a mournful dirge of the past. It reminds us of the day when such men as Huss or Jerome went before a popish tribunial and were told to surrunder or burn. "We want no argument," they said, "plead guilty ;" the spirit is the same. The church decides what 3'ou shall do and you have no appeal ; this was taking the usual high ground, especially towards the latter man, Jerome, whom thev had kept in a disgraceful dungeon for nearly a year amongst filth and stench ; so much so that some of his flesh rotted off his bod}-, and then when forced even in those days,^ to bring him forth to a hearing, tried to silence him with a yes or no, without the farce of a trial, and all because he was a good chris- tian. We dissent from allowing this church having anything to do with our Sabbath. God's word is our guide, and in it we read, "Remem- ber the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would this man have us ex- change our Sabbath for one of his creating? Look at all the countries over which this popish religion has fastened her blighting grip. See the people's actions there ; go to church in the morning because you are ordered, bring your money with you, and then after that, you may go to cock-fights, bull-baits, gambling theatres, dog-fights, drunkeness, and any kind of wickedness, andwh}'? Be- cause the church allows it. Can any one think a church can be of God's planting that will tolerate and encourage such things? It is no use denying it ; it is a matter of history ; priests taking the money from the mornings col- lection plate, and afternoon gambling with it. If you say the church did not order these things, it only tolerated them, then we ask what good did you do all these centuries? Where is the righteousness you planted in the people and in the hearts of the dear children by such examples? 136 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? And now, instead of taking counsel from you, we ask you to step aside, and not corrupt by your system tiie laws which Christ has given in the Bible, and which is our precious legacy. What has such countries as France gained by this? It has but one hope now, and that is Protestantism, to cleanse and purify it, and bring back the people from a state of Atheism and infidelit}', to true Christianity. Would not a Puritan Sunday, with all ot its stringent laws, pro- duce better results for us than the French and others have exper- ienced ? This subject, France refusing Protestantism, will be treated on in the next chapter. And what was the Jewish Sabbath before it was corrupted b}^ this same paganism? It and its laws were a type of the purer Christi- anity that Christ brought into the world. And now for the quotation trom the new testament — these people are always wrong in their interpretation of the Scriptures. You can hardly except anj'thing else from those who hate the Bible so, and would destroy it if they could. Christ is speaking of himself as being the Lord of the Sabbath. He and his deciples had been preaching on the Sunday to save men, and not for innocent recreation, and it would appear as if the}^ did not know where to get a meal, ("the}- were not pampered with the good things of life) but were glad to pick a few ears of corn to sus- tain nature ; but this did not please the Apostates of that da}' any more than it vvould to-day, and so they found fault with him, and thus the expression as given in Matthew. "For the son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath day f a very different signification to what the above cardinal intended ; it does not give any encouragement to indulge the amusements allowed by this Roman church. And is it not certain, that as God so wonderfully protected this country in its infancy, snatching it out of the jaws of poperj^ and AMERICA AND THE PURITANS. 1 37 instructin. The spectators, amon'ate the hiws of the creator. He can dechire the commands of Christ of no effect. If God should speak in an audible voice from heaven, we would not be required to obe}' unless the pope endorsed the command. Nay, the case is even worse. For the spiritual despot in the Eternal City has actualh- forbidden his subjects to read or even possess the will of heaven revealed for our salvation. The bull of May 8, 1844, contains this remarkable prohibition : " MOREOVER, WE CONFIRM AND RENEW THE DE- CREES RECITED ABOVE, DELIVERED IN FOR.MER TIMES BY APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY AGAINST THE PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, READING AND POS- SESSION OF BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES TRANS- LATED INTO THE VULGAR TONGUE. " Thus an erring creature presumes to tell the King of heaven that he may not make known his will to his own creatures. Has not Romanism exalted itself above all that is called God ? In entire consistency, this system of iniquity has denounced the American Bible Society as a most crafty device, shaking the founda- tions of religion, a pestilence, a defilement of the faith most emin- ently dangerous to souls. Again, it is greatly feared that Bible societies will, by a perverse interpretation, turn Christ's gospel, or, what is wor.-e still, into a gospel of the devil. In a letter dated June 26, 1816, and addressed to the Primate of Poland, Pius VII said: "IT IS EVIDENT FROM EXPERIENCE, THAT THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, WHEN CIRCULATED IN THE VULGAR TONGUE HAVE, THROUGH THE TEMERITY OF MEN, PRODUCED MORE HARM THAN BENEFIT; WARN THE PEOPLE EN- TRUSTED TO YOUR CARE THAT THEY FALL NOT INTO THE SNARES PREPARED FOR THEIR EVER- LASTING RUIN. " In the nineteenth centur\- lancfuag-e such as 2l8 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? this falls from lips claiming superior sanctity and even supernatural guardianship. It our versions are so shockingly dangerous, and that, too, when simple translations, without note or comment are printed, one would suppose they would industriously circulate a translation of their own. Instead oi doing so, however, this proposition : it is useful and necessary to studv the Scriptures one of the popes branded as talse, shocking, scandalous, seditious, impious blasphemous I It would seem that in the judgment of Rome the Bible is the most dangerous book in existence. And yet, strange to say, this immu- table, infallible church has, by solemn decree, granted her priests the privilege of selling licenses to read God's word. Among the ten rules enacted by the Council of Trent, respecting prohibited books, we find this : " It is referred to the judgement of the bishop, or inquisitors, who may, bv the advice of the priest or confessor, PERMIT THE READING OF THE BIBLE TRANSLATED INTO THE VULGAR TONGUE BY CATHOLIC AUTHORS, TO THOSE PERSONS WHOSE FAITH AND PIETY, THEY APPRE- HENDED WILL BE AUGMENTED AND NOT INJURED. AND THIS PERMISSION THEY MUST HAVE IN WRITING. ' Thus, God's vicegerent tells him, " We will grant our own sub- jects permission to read ^-our message of life if they will pay us tor the privilege. " Standing between the Creator and the creature, the pope says to the former, "You mav not speak to my subjects " ; to the latter, " You mav not receive the message of your Maker, unless you have the means of purchasing m}- permission. " And even this presump- tion is not sustained by Roman logic. The pope has the chief power of disposing of the temporal aftairs of Christians, in order to their spiritual good. Wealth corrupts men. ENGLAND. 219 B}^ every conceivable mean.s, therefore it should be taken from them." Popery the foe of the church, page 109, 10, 11, 12. So yays the pope. This latter policy Rome has strictly adhered to, in every possible way. Witness the poverty and wretchedness of all countries that have had tlie misfortune to be under her sway ; she has not only robbed the people of their money, but has kept them in a state of slavish fear, to the loss of their manhood and all that makes life worth the living. We see people coming from couniries that have lived nearest to the popish church (and surely if there is anything good in Catholicism it ought to show itself in them), but do we find it so, does not their life and actioas prove the contrary ? Have they not the characteristics of a priest-riden people, or in Biblical language, do the}' not carry the marks of the beast ? Have not all countries, over which their rule extended, been made the poorest on earth, do we not now find the wealth of the world in Protestant countries, as well the greatest ease and comtbrt ? and their wealth increases as last as they throw oft" the great incubus of popery. In tact the world has increased in wealth and happiness more dur- ing the last three centuries, dating from Luther's time, and the great reformation, tl;an in double or treble that time before. Manv say in this age ot improvement, "oh, we are smarter and more of a go-a-head people than they used to be. " This is admitted, but there must be a cause for every effect. , A man is not likely to run so fast with sliackles on as when oft". In the olden times, men had not the opportunit^^ nor the disposition to advance as now. Tlien everything had to go under the supervision of the pope, and his Satellites ; nothing could be done, or anything new introduced, if they, an ignorant and wicked priesthood, thought it would interfere with the revenues of the church and the servile spirit that men were accustomed to show it. Men were afraid to advance- were afraid in many cases to have money, or let it be known they 220 WHY HAVK I'RIKSTS AT ALL.'' had it ; the\' knew the rapacious, and greedy hearts of the priests, and that {hn\ would carry out the beforementioned phm of the pope, namely, to get it from them by every conceivable means. It is a poor rule that does not work both ways, therefore this must be one of the causes of the corruption of the church; their having so much mone}'. We ha\'e had more impro\ements during the last one hundred years than ever before in two or tlve times that length of time, and wh}^? The freedom dated further back, but it takes a good man\- generations to make men realh' free, after ha\'ing been ground down both in a spiritual and temporal sense. We, at this time, can only parth' judge of tlie dreadful lo^v state of a societ}' who would tolerate a church dictating and forcing them to assist in crushing out the spirit of libert\' in those that diftered trom them in their faith, perhaps their own friends and relati\'es, and b\' such horrid means that the most cruel pagans have not }-et attempted, and when fleeing for their lives from the hated inquisition (called holy) they could not receive so much as a cup of cold water from anv one without bringing them into danger, and this hated system of poper^• was forced on persons who despised its ver^• name. How would this style of liberty suit our free born citizens? And 3'et they are determined, and are perfecting plans to ri\et these de- tested chains on us, to some of whom the name of poper\- is nothing but a miserable burlesque. And as this church of Rome has by every wicked device, includ- ing that of wholesale murder, attempted to stay the word of God, I say attempted, for she cannot succeed, we rel\' on the promise, " The gates of hell shall not prevail," but she has clone great harm, and her responsibility is fearful. Still, with all that, the Bible is here and has not only come to sta^', but to be her destruction. Then let us ask what had that Roman church to ofler in its place? At the time when she was all powerful, what did she give in exchange ENGLAND. 221 for the free liberty of the Gospel? That Gospel when illuminated in the heart by the Holv Ghost gives such peace, such hope, such knovvledgre of the future, there is nothing on earth that will so satisfy the longing of the soul as the word of God. It being God's plan, it is like everything else he has sent, absoluteh' perfect. God sends ele- ments suited to our nature ; the food we eat if taken in proper quanti- ties and properly selected, sustains us in health and strength ; the water we drink is better for us, than many things a depraved appetite wovdd select, and so is this Gospel better than anything man has to offer. And if we live according to its precepts, health, strength, happiness, long life and even the necessaries of life are promised by him who said "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away." Well Rome took for a time all this away and gave something else ; was the exchange equal? We tind by perusing history, instead of peace, the world was con- stantly at war. This church had her representatives at the courts of the \-arious kingdoms, and the jealous feelings of the kings and emperors were continualh' worked upon ; everything was done to keep the powers so occupied with their personal quarrels and desire for conquest, and so artfulh' managed by the diplomacy i)i the pope's legates, that if carried out occording to their plans, it would alwa^•s strengthen and enrich this earthly church ; quarrels were being constantlv fer- mented, and amidst all this confusion and strife the people suffered in the loss of life, children made orphans, vvi\'es made widows, towns, cities and countries ruined, homes destroyed and the people house- less wanderers ; for this church cannot thrive and fatten so well in times of peace. Wickedness abounded, men accustomed to war, after leaving the army, could not settle down t(j anything, and so became highway robbers and worse, and after the pattern of their rulers, waging war against society ; e\il of every description grew 222 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL.'' out of these quarrels, because men's passions were not ruled bv the fear of God, as given in his book. And then what did Rome offer for the spiritual liglit she liad for the time almost eclipsed? The enemy of souls, through her, set up a counterfeit for every- thing God offered. For the word of God, tradition — and in those days it answered, for men were obliged to swallow it against reason. In this age we can trace its origin and see what emptv material it is made of. For true religion, Phariseeism, which is paganism. For the beautiful services of the Lord's supper, the idolatry and buftboner}' of the mass. For immediate pardon of sins b\- Christ himself, penance and absolution and so create a constant drain on the poverty of these already over-tasked people, not only in life, but even after death. Jesus said, "this night shall you be witli me in paradise," but the pope says, "purgatory at'ter death, pur- gatory, and it will depend how long you stay there, upon your friends' ability to pay. So pa}-, pay, pa}' from the cradle to the grave. The religion of Christ is free, we come without money and without price, and accept it by faith, but the pope's plan is b}- the works of the law, do something, if it is onl}- counting beads. Christ's plan of atonement is the just tor the unjust, and to go directly to him. The pope puts himself between man and God, the Virgin Mary, Saints and a host of such useless things that will be mentioned in other chapters. Does not all this look like an agreement to get up a religious farce, and to pretend holiness of character by the enemy of souls? Who says in effect to the pope, you shall be our servant, to carry out all our designs, so that between us both we shall hold men in slavery, both body and soul, and the wealth of the world is yours ! ! The devil offered Christ this political power and wealth and he refused it by saying, "get thee behind me Satan." ENGLAND. 223 We now take up the subject, where we left oft', at the reign of Henry VIII. The reformation had taken deep root in Germany, France, Switzerland and other places, which had a great effect on England. As we before stated, Henry had nothing to do with the commencement of the reformation ; he was what is called a good Catholic, and had at an earlier date written a book against the doc- trines of Martin Luther. He now leaned towards the reformers, as a means of humbling the pope ; his divorce was decided in the English courts, and he married Anne Boleyn. A law was passed which made it treason to deny that the king was the svxpreme head on earth of the Church of England. St. Thomas More and Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, being Catholics, objected with others to this law, and were executed for treason 1535. So the king, in his war with the pope, had to stand bv the reform- ers, and it helped them greatly, but they were the power that en- abled him to make his stand against the pope. The pope excommunicated the king, and laid his kingdom under interdict, but the day was gone in England for such foolishness. It had become treason to e\'en serve such papers on an\one. How different to the late King John's time; it then torced him to give up his throne and humble the nation, but now it was treated with the contempt it deserved, and although the king may not have known it, the change in the times was brought about through the Bible — a more potent force than popes' excommunication. Under the influence of Anne Boleyn, and both houses of Convoca- tion, the king ordered the translation of the Bible in Latin and Englisli, and that a copy should be placed in every parish church, and all men be exorted to read it. Anne Boleyn, being on the reformers' side, was hated b\- the Roman Catholics, and the)' induced the king to believe in a story of her being unfaithlul to him, and she lost her life by the hand of the executioner. 224 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? The monasteries, those centers of corruption and wickedness, were suppressed in 1536, and in 1538 all were closed. The closing of the monasteries gave large sums of money to the king. The Catholics re- volted and raised an army of one hundred thousand men, under the strange name of the Pilgrimage of Grace, and demanded the res- toration of the popish religion, but were defeaicd. Several of the Ab- bo's and nobles were put to death. The king found great treasures in the Shrine of Becket. The king also proceeded to uncanonize him, declaring him no saint, but that he had died as a rebel and a traitor. Then comes the fury of Pope Paul III. He called upon the people to take up arms against the king, and all the princes of Europe were commanded, in virtue of their obedience to him, 10 make war and seize his sub- jects and make them slaves — all this had no real effect in Eng- land, and she was too powerful for the rest. The reformers were now too strong, and the sights the country- had witnessed in the monasteries had so disgusted the whole nation that it exposed the tVauds and corruption of the sj'stem. And yet, strange infatuation, the king, after this, could still remain a Romanist ; he was at most as great a despot as the pope, and in 1 54 1 consented to the revocation of the permission to read the Bible. The higher classes, or merchants who were householders, might read it, but it was forbidden the common people. The king's health began to tail, and his time drawing near, he made his will, in case of the tailure of hen's, to his son Edward, the succession to fall upon his daughter Mary and her heirs, then upon his daughter Elizabeth and her heirs. He died on the 28th January, 1647. He had reigned nearly' 38 years, and was about 56 years of age. And as we are now on the subject of monasteries, a statement is before the writer, in this year of Our Lord, 1891, that to-da}' there are in England 364 convents and 200 monasteries. ENGLAND. 225 I will put tf) England the same question Paul put to the Galations, in the 3d chapter and ist verse, also 3, 4. "Oh foolish Galations, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obe}' the truth ? Are ve so foolish, having begun in the spirit, are ve now made perfect by the flesh ? have ye suffered so many things in vain ? if it be yet in vain. The writer being in London about forty years since, more or less remembers the great excitement made by the public press against the in- troduction into England of a cardinal, Wiseman, who it was reported, the pope was going to send. It came on the people suddenly, like a thunderstorm ; they had not expected such a calamity, and the streets of London were plavcarded with carricatures of this man. He was drawn in carts and burned in effigy. The press spoke and ridiculed such an unwelcome introduction into England. The carts that drew these stuflTed effigies were in the most grotesque styles; lie was represented in the character of Guy Fawkes, one of the gun powder conspirators, and again as the pope with a long pipe in his mouth ; the name of Wiseman being prominent. The different drawings that covered the London bill boards were of a laughable description ; the people were really in earnest in this mat- ter, and at night these effigies were all burned with fire-works. To see the procession going through Temple Bar it reminded one of the olden times, as represented in the cuts of that da}-, how the old pope, passing through the bar, going to be burned in effigy, and also of the fires and fireworks of our young days, on the 5th of Nov- ember, the anninersary of Gunpowder Plot. The people seemed al- most on the verge of a riot, and yet with all this, in opposition to the wishes of the people, the cardinal was allowed to remain, or to come to England. This has often appeared to the writer as a day of visitation for England. Had the Government listened to the voice of the people, it is almost certain there would have been no monasteries there to-day, and no prospect of an awful struggle to clear the country of them once more. 226 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? " On the death of Henry VIII his son Edward VI, a child of ten years of age, was king, a protector being appointed, the Duke of Somerset; these were both favorable to the reformed faith, together with Archbishop Crammer ; these gave great promise to the coun- try ; the reign of Edward VI was a real blessing ; his life was short, but many good laws were passed in his time ; his death caused universal sorrow among the common people ; he died at Greenwich on the 6lh July, 1553. It was thought he was poisoned. And now comes black night again, in the person of Queen Mary, known afterwards as Bloody Queen Mary ; her mind was as crooked and deceitful as her person was plain and repulsive. She begun by fawning on those she came in contact, but she soon let the country know her intention was to suppress the Protestants. People that are pla3'ing a part find it necessary to dissemble ; ii is always so with false religions. The pupe at this time was anxious about securing England, in fact he saw it was the one important thing; lose her, and the success of the schemes on the continent of Europe would be a failure. And yei, when the country was once more likely to be in his grasp notice how he treats the ambassadors sentto him from Mary of England on her being made queen ; and she one ol the best tools he could tind for his wretched work at this time. Pope Paul was then occupied in giving an audience to the am- bassadors of Queen Mar}-, who were commissioned to take the oath of fidelit}' between the hands ot his holiness. The English deputies were received in a public consistory, and constrained to a humiliating ceremonial. The}' were compelled to kiss the feet of the pope, to place themselves before him on their knees, and to confess to him in this position, one by one, all the al- leged crimes of the English nation against the papacy. e:nglani). 227 They avowed hunibh' that their fellow subjects had paid with in- gratitude the kindness of the sovereign pontiff', and they demanded absolution for their transgressions. Paul, satislied \vith their abasement, then permitted them to rise iiop of London, and now notice the same system was adopted that ue priiclice here, of changing the offices with the new partv, democrats in, rejiiiblicans out. Who do you su'ppose brought this state of things imperceptibly among us.^ Is it not the same party, and lor the same purpose? You say '•! do not know."' Well, ought you not to know, are you so wrapt up in partv tliat you lose sight of one of the most vital consequences of the dav? The ollices being all changed in England and filled up with their own sort, they could do anything, humble the naticm with this lalse bowing to the p')pe, and he, Philip, and the queen bc^gan over again their horrid butcheries. "The first on the list was John Rogers ; he had been a priest, but became cotnerted ; he translated Matthew's Bible ; he was sent first to the tcnver tor preaching at Paul's cross, and alter going before judges who were all Roman Catholics, he was sentenced to be burned. On his way to the scafVold he saw his wife^ and eleven children, one an infant, but could not get near them. All the way to the slake he was singing psalms, all the people re- joicing at his constancy. 230 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? The sight of his children did not move him, but lie cheerfully and patiently went on his way to Smithfield, where he was burnt to ashes in the presence of a great number of people, and his soul ascended in a chariot of lire to that Redeemer of whom he was so worthy, in- asmuch as he loved him more than wife and children, vea, even than his own life also." Fox's His. of Martyrs. Many of the practices of the Spanish inquisition were introduced into England : one would have supposed that if tire at the stake was to be the martyrs' end, thev would dry the wood, but no I green wood was brought by these fiends to prolong the sufferings. Qiieen Mary and her husband were hated, and it was now the time she was first called bloody Qiieen Mary. John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, suffered in this way. Then came Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer and a host of others all over Enffland, until the country was soaked in blood. This Philip of Spain using the country tor his own purpose, he threatened his wife never to see her more if she did not help him in his wars with France, so ten thousand of English soldiers were sent away to fight his battles. We could give a large list of these martyrs, but it would be only a repetition, and a sickening one, but as usual, it only made the people hate the wretches who could inflict such toriui^es on the very best of the people. The crime for which all tliese died was because Uiey could not believe in that worst of all blasphemy, transubstantiation. To the inexpressible delight of most of the nation the queen died on the 17th November, 1558, and almost within twenty four hours of her death, that other wicked tool of the pope. Cardinal Pole, left tliis earth to face some of their united victims. Great demonstrations of joy were shown in all parts of Enijland when the welcome new^s reached them, not only of her death, but in the fact of Elizabeth being made queen in her place. She was a Protestant with the firm ENGLAND. 23 1 will of her father Henry VIII, and she undid all her sister Mary had done, and the church returned to the forms of worship established in the reign of her brother, Edward VI. This was a great blow to the pope, as well as to the despots sitting on the thrones of France and Spain. And this ended popery in England, and with it the torch and stake, and all honest hearts must wish forever. CHAPTER IX. SPAIN. "And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inas- much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethern, ye have done it unto me." Matthew XXV, 40. ^ I ' HE reader will pardon us in our digression occasionally. This -^ book is not, as we have said before, intended as a continuous history of any countrj- ; its object is to show the acts of the so-called church of Rome, so that we can establish the fact of their evil doings everywhere, and under all circumstances, whenever they have had the opportunity, and that they have no claim on christianitv as preached by Christ and the apostles. As we look over the pages of history of the Sixteenth Century, a feeling of sadness and horror comes over us, to see the struggles of our forefathers at that time. In the country of which we are now writing, as well as others, large numbers were desirous of emerging from and repairing the dreadful confusion and superstition brought upon them by their evil rulers. England had by the hand of providence begun to move in the right direction, but night has again come over her in the person of the new Queen Mary. SPAIN. 233 This woman, one of the most bigoted of the day, has married the most cruel t3'rant and superstitious man in the two countries ; fit tools for the work required of them by the man of sin at Rome, and when we see so many millions of people whose destiny hangs upon two men and one woman, the Qiieen, the pope and Philip II, it makes us re- gret the one man power, and we look to any form of government than can relieve the people from such a state of things. No wonder the Americans wanted a republic ; the}' knew more than later genferations do of the evils of the system. The Queen's part has been slightly spoken of in connection with England ; in this chapter our subject is more with Spain. Charles I, of Spain but as Emperor of German}-, was Charles V, has been mentioned in connection with the sacking of Rome, and in trying to suppress the Lutherans in Germany. Charles, whose word was nothing when his interests were involved, laid the foundation of Spain's decay. He had the same infatuation all pagans have ; they must be right others all wrong. He had been brought up a Roman Catholic and like most of them took everything the pope or priests said for truth, or self interest might cause him to lean to popery. He had seen enough to convince any unprejudiced mind that these people were only playing a part. Had he put the simple question to himself "can all this be consis- tent with true religion?" and had he made the necessary enquiries, he might have had his eyes opened and saved Spain from the humi- liating part as well as the sufferings she had to go through. There was a large number of Moors in Spain and the Netherlands at this time, and they had been promised the free e.\ercise of their religion, but in 1525 the Emperor gave an order for them to change their religion or quit the country. 234 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL r The Moors were a more refined people than the Spaniards, super- ior to ihem in many respects. In this order, it was pagan meeting pagan. The Moors were pagans and I'ust as sure they were right in their religion as the Roman pagans were. These Moors were descendants from the Arabs or Saraceens ; they had their own Koran, and accepted it for truth, on the same principle as the Roman Catholics did, accepted it from hearsa}', with- out investigation handed down from generation to generation, and looked on the Roman Catholic pagans' religion with abhorance, and they would cling to the Arab superstition as the Romans did to theirs. So they refused to change, and preferred to leave the country. One of the strangest pieces of bigotry is that a degraded religion makes the owner think himself superior to others ; the real christian humbleth himself. The Hindu by its castes, and there are several, they take their caste by birth, and cannot change, either above or below ; one caste is distinguished from another by the dress and they are taught to have as little to do with another caste as possible instead of loving each other as brothers. Some are Phariahs or degraded, who are below all caste. Strange as it seems to us, these people think or did think, that christ- ians are beneath them ; outcasts or infidels, polution to eat certain meats. That infatuation cost England a large war with the East Indians in 1857, known as the Indian Mutiny, brought by the Indian soldiers, having to put the cartridges in his mouth while loading that had been greased ; the same infatuation fired the Indian at this simple thing as we find many things do the Catholics ; this is about as silly as not eating meat on certain days and no doubt where the Romanists copied this custom. It is none of Christ's ordinances. Human religions are bred in ignorance, and yet it pufts up and gives self-importance ; not one of them could tell you why, from the SPAIN. 235 Roman pagan to the Indian. A few da3s since a voung lady, a Calliolic, in speaking to the writer, liardly knijwing what to say, a>kecl unthinkirgly (it being St. Patrick's day) if he had "cele- brated." She was" asked who St. Patrick was. She answered at once, "I do not know." And these poor people are led from custom to do, to live and die, without knowing. The Mohammedans are ver}' bigoted. A few specimens will suffice. A young christian groom in the service of a Turk, being about to be married, had the imprudence to dress himself for the occasion, in certain colors and articles which the Turks jealously appropriated to persons of their own religion, and his bride in gay colors. They proceeded to the christian cemetry, outside of the town, wliere, in the absence of a church, marriages were celebrated. While the service was proceeding, several armed Turks who had accidentally appeared as spectators, were observed to collect some wood and kindle a lire. As soon as the ceremony was finished, they seized the unhappy pair, hacked the girl to pieces with their yata- gans, and having half murdered the man, they burnt him on the fire they had prepaied, declaring to the affrighted assembly (who being unharmed wei'e helpless) that they would thus treat all Ghiaours, who dared to presume to wear clothes such as the Turks or Moslem. At Mostar, the governer's Cavas, or body servant, was walking down the main street of the town, when an unfortunate christian working in his shop, and who chanced not to see this functionary, did not raise his hat in respect as he passed. The Cavas passed on a few 3'ards, and turning back drew his pistol and shot the christian dead on the spot. It was nothing usual. The christian is forbidden to celebrate the obsequies of their de- parted, and the following is the specimen of the forms of burial cer- tificate given to the christians under the sacred law of Islam. 236 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? We certify to the priest of the church ot Mary, that the impure, putritied, stinking carcase of Sardah, damned this day, may be con- cealed under the ground. The Roman Catholics are just as bigoted, are forbidden to inquire or speak to christians on religion. The priests are afraid of discus- sion and aflFect a superiority or heap insulte ; the favorite one is heretic. One most singular thing is, all they have is so holy I be it ever so wicked. The pope is holy; cardinals the same, also priests. They have a holy church, holy water, saints, their meetings are holy, holy cemetry, wha,t makes a cemetry holy? holy inquisition, very much so I but let us give a picture of iioliness, in the sixteenth century, the date at which we are writing, and of pope Pius IV, the persecuter of the Netherlands. The soldiers of the pope fell on the small city of Orange, laid siege to it, and carried it by assault. "Then were committed" adds the chronicler, "such frightlul atro- cities, as make the hair rise on the head, at only reading them. The soldiers and monks forced the citizens to mount on the top of the houses, and to throw themselves down on pikes, halberds and swords ; they hung old men and children to the hooks in the chim- neys, roasted them by a slow fire, cut oft slices of the flesh, and ate them before their victims were dead : they mutilated the men. The young women of excreme youth, they thrust into their bodies poles of enormous dimensions, which tore their bowels. Those who made any resistance were pittilessly murdered, and then exposed in the public places entirely naked, with ox horns thrust into their body. Finally these Satellities of pontifical tyranny in their execrable fury, assuaged their lubricity on boys scarcely ten years old, and when these unfortunates had been tortured by this horrid outrage they fastened them to the racks and larded them while alive with pages of the Bibles of Geneva, as you would do the flesh SPAIN. 237 of pork or of birds." L. M. De Cormein's His. of popes, vol. II, jiaj^L' 236. One more — llii.-^ little bit of pastime is by the next Tioly pope, Pius V. '•His holiness though freed from the enemies of Carafl'a. gave no relaxation to the executioners of the holv office ; he fell upon the heretics, cast them by thousands into prison, and even wished to pre- side over the executions. Among tlie examples of the ferocit\' of Pius, tiie historian Volat- leran cites the case of a voung woman, who had been denounced by the spies of the inquisitors, for having aided the flight from Rome of one of her sisters, who had embraced Galvanism. This unfortunate female was torn by night from her family, and without any regard to her state of pregnancy, was plunged into a dark and infected cell, where she was delivered of her child from fright. In ttie morning the cruel Pius brought her before his tribunal and, vvitho\it being moved bv the protestations of innocence and the prayer of this unfortunate woman, he ordered the monks, who filled tlie ofllce of tormenters, to do their duty. Three Dominicans then seized her, tore oft" her clothes and left her entirely naked, then they bent her body on the rack, fastened her feet and arms to cords which were retained to the wall in iron rings, and drew her with so much violence that her delicate and weak members were cut to the bone. They then inflicted on her the torture of water. But af'ter she had swallowed eight whole measures, she vomited it up with torrents of blood and fainted. His holiness then ordered the executioners to apply plates of heated brass to the most sensitive parts of her body, and to light a fire under her feet, which recalled her from her swoon. Finally as she persisted in her innocence, they took her down from the rack and carried her back to her dungeon, to her child, 238 WHY HA\E PRIESTS AT ALL? who had died from cold, whilst they were torturing her: she herself died the next day. Pius, having discovered that she had been falsely accused, con- tented himself with restoring her dead body to her t'amilv." — L. M. De Cormein"s His. of Popes, vol. II, page 240. We begin where we left off, at the time Charles V gave orders to the people in the low lands to change their religion or leave the countr}'. About 100,000 succeeded in reaching AlVica, others took up arms, and great numbers were slain ; some remained and feigned the re- ligion, and learned the Spanish language, but were ill treated : there seems to be no generosity among pagans. Here in America, Roman Catholics are allowed to live in peace, and no one intei feres with their religion. The Protestants do not believe in it, more, they know it to be wrong, and 3^et they do not persecute or murder them for religion's sake ; they have the same privileges as others, but they are not content with equality, nothing short of being masters con- tent them ; they^ must rule or ruin. They have had the same privi- leges in all christian countries, but have always kept up the same in- triguing spirit, always unsetting the calm that christianit\' brings, and our eyes are being slowly opened to the tact that we must take the helm in our own hands or we shall be wrecked. But to return — The loss of the Moors was a great blow struck at the prosperity ot the nation, and the Emperor, tired of wars and cruelty to the Pro- testants, gave his power over to his son and retired broken in health and disappointed in nearl}- all of his plans, and so enters a monas- tery ; and alter a few j-ears dies on the 21st of September, 1558. His son takes the throne as Philip II ; he had been living with his wife, the queen, in England for a number of years, and had come in contact with men of liberal but determined spirits — men of thought. Despots hate think^rrs, men so ditferent to the cringing Spaniards; he found the English Parliament firm— would not give SPAIN. 239 way. Protestantism was changing the people ; they no longer be- lieved in the one-man power, or in the divine right of kings, and he went back to Spain to impose on the Spaniards, things that would no longer be tolerated in England. He found Bibles had been sent over the country, in the Castilian tonirue, and were in the families of the nobles and the middle classes ; this was a dreadful heresy, and he at once set the inqui.^i- tion to work, to root all this evil out; by the horrors of this institu- tion he banished the Bible and Protestantism from Spain. The freedom of thought he had witnessed in England, he at once des- troyed, and sent his country back to the barbarism, she has not to this day fully recovered. The Moors that remained in Spain pretended to be Catholics, still they followed their own religion. He made an order to change their .language, and ordered all their children to be sent to the Spanish schools, and even to give them Spanish names ; he persecuted them in all ways, so that the Moors took up arms and murdered the Roman Catholics in their immediate neighborhood. This brought on a civil war, which lasted four years; the Moors were almost exterminated, but how much blood and treasure did it cost Spain, as well as the rest of her best people ? It would seem almost impossible for any country, not actually slaves, to sink lower than this Spanish people ; severe laws had been made to suppress Lutherism, both by the Emperor and Philip, and the despotism was felt by all. The one leading idea seemed to be, to force Roman Catholicism on the country ; the welfare of the people, their success in commerce, was nothing compared to this. Phillip H seemed to be a man of one idea, and that the success of his own supe.rstition ; to depopulate the country was nothing, compared to ihis insane movement. There had been a partial cessation of this bloody work for a few years during the infirmities of the Emperor, but now it breaks forth with fresh fury. 240 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL.'' Death everywhere ; 'twas death to have a prayer meeting in your own home, death to read the Bible, death even to speak about it, death to have a Protestant book in 3'our possession. You must not doubt the holv fathers' integrit}' and hoHness, 3'ou must not doubt transubstantiation, in fact you must be next to a fool, to live at all, and the Spaniards groaned under these oppressive laws ; but so much more did the people of the Netherlands, who had a different spirit to the Spaniards. They had not been reduced by this most degrading of all religious poperv ; ihey had, most of them, been pagans, until they became Lutherans. Mohammedan pagans are bad enough, but do not equal their Roman brothers. No wonder thev were rebellious when a son or daughter, or wife, or husband, sister, or triend, was buried alive before their eyes ; and this was one of tlie holy laws, but it increased Protestantism, for they saw young women, ordered to be buried alive, going to the grave as to a bridal party, with such happ}- faces ; this only increased tlieir admiration for a religion that could sustain all under such circum- stances. This ought to have softened the hearts of the persecutors. Some- thing must have changed the spirit of this most bigoted king, either the fear of the threatened insurrection or the effect these open execu- tions had on the population, for in many cases he changed the mode of burning at midday, to that of drowning at midnight, and in the prison. This was a device of his own invention: They fastened the prisoners' head and knees together with a rope, throwing them in a cistern of water, kept in the prison for this purpose. It is a fact, these people under such circumstances, will worship God with great constancy : at first they would maet in all kinds of places, in caverns, in the woods, or anywhere, to get away from the spies that were always watching, to lay tresh reports, to make fresh victims ; but this seemed only to make them bolder, for they SPAIN. 241 oame out in the open air, liad field preaching in numbers from 5,000 to 10,000, and during this increase of worship the people were drawn into the offices of this cursed inquisition. Their fate and tortures unknown. Despotism had such a firm hold that these blood- thirsty creatures of the inquisition often killed for pastime or re- venge. Here are a few cases : A carver named Rochus, who lived at St. Lucar, in Spain, and whose principal business was making images of saints and popish idols, becoming convinced of the errors of the Romish persuasion, embraced the Protestant faith, left off carving images, and for subsistence, followed the business of a seal engraver only. He had. however, retained one image of the Virgin Mary for a sign, when an inquisitor, passing by, asked if he would sell it. Rochus men- tioned a price, the inquisitor objected to it, and offered half the money. Rochus replied, " I would rather break it in pieces than take such a trifle. " " Break it in pieces ! " said the inquisitor, " break it to pieces, if you dare. " Rochus, being provoked at this expression, snatched up a chisel and cut off the nose of the image. This was sufficient. The inquisitor went awa}- in a rage, and soon after sent to have him arrested. In vain did he plead, that what he defaced, was his own property, and if it was not proper to do as he would with his own, it was not proper for the inquisitor to bargain for the image in the way of trade. Nothing, however, availed him ! his fate was decided. He was condemned to be burned, and the sentence was executed immediately. " Fox's Book of Martyrs, 102. A Dr. Cacalla, his brother Francis, and sister Blanche, were burned at Valladolid, for having spoken against the inquisitors. A gentlewoman, with her two daughters and niece, were appre- hended at Seville on account of their having apprehended the Protestant religion. 242 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? They were all put to the torture, and when that was over, one of the inquisitors sent tor the youngest daughter, pretending to sympathise with her, and pity her sufferings, then binding himsell with a solemn oath, not to betray her, he said, ' If you will dis- close all to me, I promise you I will procure the discharge of your mother, sister, and cousin, and yourself. ' Made confident of this oath, she revealed the whole of the tenets they professed, when the perjured wretch, instead of acting as he had sworn, immediately or- dered her to be put to the rack, saying. ' Now you have revealed so much, I will make vou reveal more. ' On her refusal, however, to say anything further, all the prisoners were sentenced to be burned, which sentence was executed at the next Auto-da-Fe. " Fox's Book of Martyrs, 102. ''The keeper of the castle ofFriano, belonging to the inquisitors of Seville, happened to be a more humane character than is usual with persons in his situation. He gave all the indulgence he could to the prisoners, and showed them every favor in his power, with as much secrecy as possible. At length, the inquisitors became acquainted with his kindness, and determined to punish him severely for it, that the gaolers might be deterred from showing the least trace of that compassion, which ought to glow in the breast ot every human being. With this view, they superseded him, threw him into a dismal dungeon, and used him with such dreadful barbarity that he lost his senses. His deplorable situation, however, procured him no favor, for, frantic as he was, they brought him from prison, at an Auto-da- Fe, to the usual place of punishment, with a sambenitor (or garment worn by criminals) on him, and a rope about his neck. His sentence was then rc-ad, that he should be placed upon an ass, led through the city, receive two hundred stripes, and then be con- demned six 3-ears to the galleys. SPAIN. 243 The unhappy, frantic wretch, just as they were about to begin his punishment, suddenly sprang from the back of the ass, broke the cords that bound him, snatched a sword from one of the guards, and dangerously wounded an officer of theinqisition ; being overpowered, he was prevented from doing further mischief, seized, bound more securely to the ass, and punished according to his sentence. So in- exorable were the inquisitors, that for the rash effect of his madness, for which they were themselves answerable, four years were added to his slavery in the galleys. A maid servant to another gaoler, belonging to the iniquisition, was accused of humanity, and detected in bidding the prisoners keep up their spirits. For this heinous crime, as it was called, she was publicl}^ whip- ped, banished from her native place for ten years, and had her forehead branded with red hot irons, with these words, ' A favorer and aider of heretics. ' " Fox's Book of Martyrs. We could fill our pages with such cases as the above, only more disgusting in the mode of execution. Surelv a people that would plan, execute or even look on with indifference at these unmerited sufferings, must be calous indeed ; the enemy of our souls must be in their hearts, and it is not confined to the better people, but the Romanists also had to suffer persecution. How should we like to go back to such a degrading state of things ? Oh, that is im- possible, say you ; we are so free, and besides, the Romanists are not like that to-day, they are a different people. Oh ! are they ? don't give them too much power, or you might suddenly change your opinion. They have not changed much in Spain. 'Tis true the Government is more tolerable and allows more free- dom of religion than formerly, but that has been forced on ihem ; they did the same in France and Germany at different periods, but revolted when it suited. 244 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? The priests in Spain oppose evervtliing in the way of reforma- tion ; all the good has been done by force of circumstances. Public meetings are being held there, and a great many are being converted. The schools have been opened for Protestants and others, but the persecution is beyond description ; some new effort is made every day to frustrate tlie work. The children are waiched going and coming out, priests one day and ladies the next, and they accost the children on their way to school, or on going home, trying to proselite and win them over to the schools, that have been opened in opposition to the Protestant schools, about the same as the}' are doing in America ; how strange the}- should all at once find out that children want schools. The following is from the Christian of London : "Spies have been sent to the meetings, and, indeed, we wish more would come ; even Father Bocos himself, and hear the prayers offered for our opposers, and get good to their souls through the word. The teachers have been told, as they walked along the streets, that they ought to be hanged for teaching the children lies, and the children, that the Protestants will soon be dead. " We are told that at a recent service at the paiish church, the priest reproved the parents, who send tlieir children to the Protestant schools, like Senor , who lives at , naming a respectable person, whose child attends the boys' school, and concluded by taking a kind of oath of his congregation, that they would remain faithful to the Roman Catholic faith to the end of their days, and that they would be enemies of the Protestants. So in Spain they cannot murder in the good old way, but they go as far as they can, and tell their flocks the rood old day of the in- quisition will soon return. Well, they have not changed much, the only change is the force of circumstances. In 1559 Philip appointed his half sister, Margaret, Duchess of Panama, Regent of the Netherlands, and he now prepares to put SPA IN. 245 in force the plan he has long been wishing for — the extermination of the heretics in the Netherlands. Henr}' II, of France, had made known Philip's intention to William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, one of ths great men of the low countries. William was at that time a CathoHc, but was not so bigoted as to join in the plot. Philip now gives fresh orders to the inquisition to proceed with more vigor against the heretics. The Prince of Orange, who was Governor of Holland and Zea- land, became the champion of the Protestants, and refused to allow the people in his provinces to be burned, and his example was fol- lowed by other governors. Many of the Flemings left the countr}^ still further impoverishing it, and the country was at a great pitch of excitement. They petitioned the Regent, stating their grievances, and the burning of heretics was changed to hanging — how kind. And tiiese ungrateful people did not even seem content by such a mode of exit, and so the unconquering spirit of Ishmael burst forth, and in less than a week, put a stop to at least four hundred of these so-called churches, with their contents, all destroyed. Then the Regent gave wa}- to the only thing popery respects, force, and granted to the Protestants permi.^sion to worship in their own way. This was in 1566. Philip was very angr}- when this news reached him, and at once prepared to carry force into the low countries. The Prince of Orange had had his opinion changed regarding the Roman Catholic religion ; he afterwards became a Protestant, but he now tried to mediate with the King, but failed and so left for Germany with a number of the Flemish nobles. So fades awav the best friend these people had, and the king, whose chief business it seemed to be to murder his own subjects, sent in 1567 an army of Spanish troops to crush what was called an insurrection brought about by his own inhumanity, and all the time urged on b\' this so- called Vicar of Christ. 246 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? The King sent the Duke of Alva at the head of this army, and an association was formed at Brussels, known by the christian name of the Council of Blood, and then went on the holy work of shooting, hanging, burning, beheading, and the Duke of Alva was engaged in this holy occupation for nearly six years, and boasted that in that time he had destroyed nearly 20,000 heretics. In 1568 the population of the Netherlands was sentenced as heretics bv the in- quisition and the king ; their property contiscated, the king's treasury made rich. But the people I Oh I how about the people? Why, they were driven to starve in the woods ; those who could, left the country, the once flourishing towns were now deserted, many of the men's hearts became hardened, and they turned Pirates whose cruisers filled the sea. The Prince of Orange at this period made an attempt to raise an army to help his countrymen ; not succeeding, he withdrew into France and joined the Huguenots. A retribution overtook the Spaniards by the Flemish cruisers, who prayed on the Spanish commerce : this was stopped by the Qiieen Elizabeth, so one of the Flemish captains went to an island in Zealand, captured Brille, its capitol and made it his home for privateers ; a revolt in the northern provinces against the Spaniards, ended in the Dutch republic being organized on the 15th of July, 1572, and William of Orange became chief magistrate of Holland, Zealand, Friesland and Utrecht, with the title of Stadtholder. The Duke of Alva now makes war upon the southern provinces, and reducing them to submission, some towns were given up to mas- sacre and pillage, the inhabitants going through horrors too dread- ful to mention. The northern provinces under William of Orange remained firm and unconquered. But in the winter of 1572 and 1573 the Duke tried to capture the Dutch fleet, which was frozen up in Amsterdam, but which was prevented by a Dutch force on skates. SPAIN. 247 Harlem was attacked and heroically defended, but if had to sur- render, and they put to death several thousand citizens. City after city had to defend themselves from this council of blood with great loss. The Spanish soldiers mutinied tVom want of pay, and they begun plundering. Antwerp was sacked for three days with a loss of about 10,000 of its citizens. All this did not subdue the Protestants, but it caused them in 1576 to combine for self protection, and to ex- pel the Spaniards, and establish themselves so that the king would keep his hands off their religious matters. And now his most Catholic majesty, finding he had raised a storm he was unable to subdue, descends to the usual plan of these despotic rulers, by offering a large reward for the murder of the prince of Orange. The Prince charged Philip with having previoush' done the same thing. On the 26th of October, 1581, the state's General proclaimed the Duke of Anjou sovereign Lord of the Netherlands, and renounced their allegiance to Philip of Spain. Holland and Zealand was secured to the Prince of Orange at last, after several attempts to assassinate the Prince of Orange ; it was accomplished by one, Balthazar Gerrard, who was put to death by the Dutch. This was a great blow to the republic, still the struggle was carried on by his second son, Prince Maurice, who became his successor at the age of eighteen ; his elder brother was a prisoner in Spain. In 1585 Antwerp was taken by the Prince of Parma, after a most des- perate struggle, and extraordinary defense ; the generals of Philip had succeeded in keeping the southern provinces, and banishing the Protestants from that part, but this was done at the expense of the prosperity of the country. The Catholics remaining, found them- selves financially ruined. When this Philip came to the throne, the Netherlands were in a most flourishing condition, making seventeen 248 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? provinces in all, and large and small towns and villages to the num- ber of ab )ut one thousand, many of them walled, and all this commer- ciall}^ ruined, to carry out the insane idea of setting up the idolatry of popery. As we look at this king from this distance, his whole reign appears more like that of a madman than anything else ; he was the most cruel bigot for a king, we can find in history ; he lived to be hated by all, his whole policy brought loss and ruin to this country, and he was the dupe of many, particularly of his fellow monster at Rome and who ordered all this butchery. But did this stop the march of Christianity? No! it went on, and will go on to confound it? ene- mies. All this king did was a failure. That Armada, known as the invincible, ended at the bottom of the (^cean ; this one thing ought to have opened his eyes, and shown him he was fighting against God, but he was so wrapped up in his own immensity that he could see nothinfj unless he viewed it through his own superstition ; he spent large sums of mone}- on his fleet, and it was truly ^ formidable affair for England ; had he landed, the carnage would have been dreadful. He was hated and ridiculed by the pope, who had offered him so much money, to be paid after the success of this expedition, and of- fered with the intention of never paying. Some may sa}' such a statement as that requires proof. Well, then yo-u shall have proof, if history is proof. " We now speak of Pope Sixtus V. At the time he was exciting Philip of Spain to take a brilliant vengeance against Elizabeth and England, a numerous fleet had already collected in the ports of Spain, and only waiting for a signal, to set sail for England : that signal was the assassination of Elizabeth ; a Jesuit named Ballard had induced a 3-oung gentleman named Babington to do the job : this was known to the pope, Philip, and others, and the fleet was SPAIN. 249 waiting until this was accomplished And let me say here this same pope, while encouraging all this villany, had, with a number of cardinals undertaken to revise the Bible. The above plot was discovered and the conspirators executed, to- gether with Mary of Scotland. There was one thing that still delayed the sailing of the fleet, and that was for the pope to make a cardinal of William Alley n, a traitor, who had sold himself to Spain, and also the promise of the money. So the pope sent for Alleyn to come and receive a cardinal's hat from his hands. He appointed him also as legate to Spain, and to hurry up the ar- maments against England, he also sent a secret treaty, in which he entered into an obligation 10 pay a million of crowns as soon as the Spaniards were in possession of a single city of England. Philip accepted this, and doubled the number of ships, and added filty thousand men to the troops, and then named it the Invincible, for *he conquest of England. One more thing the king wanted to make all sure, and that was fur the pope to issue an excommunica- tion against Queen Elizabeth, which was done bv the pope and all the cardinals framing a bull too long for us to publish. It was worded as such things usually were, calling her an usurper, a wretch, encouraging all the assassins of England, and elsewhere to murder her, and deliver her body to the holv iniquisition as a heretic, and anyone doing this holy work should not only receive large recompense in this life, but in the life to come, the glories of heaven. We shudder as we write this blasphemy, especially when we think these wholesale murderers were at the same time soiling the word of God with their unclean hands, pretending to revise it. This terrible bull was published in the ecclesiastical states, with tolling of bells, and by the light of candles. At Madrid, thev dressed the chapel of the palace of Escurial in black, and followed bv all 250 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? the grandees of his court, caused the anathema pronounced against the Queen of England to be read by the nuncio. This bull also gave the crown of England to Philip. " L. M. de Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. 2, page 262. Well, you say this onl}' offers the money to Philip; it does not prove he never intended to give it. Well, then, we will go a little farther. " The Queen of England had sent an ambassador to Rome, named Carey, and on his hearing this bull publicly read, he natural- ly supposed his business was over in this quarter, so he prepared to leave Rome for England, when he was sent for to attend a private audience at the Vatican. Sixlus delivered a long discourse on the necessity under which sovereigns were, of disguising their thoughts, and acting contrary to their sentiments. He renewed his protestations of friendship for Elizabeth, and told him to w^ite to the queen, to place himself in a state of defense against the attacks of Philip, adding that after having exiled the Spanish wasp, bv putting the Scotch prostitute to death, she ought from prudence to guard against being stung, or perhaps killed. He continued that his title of pope compelled him to take part with Philip, whom he mortallv hated, and that he was de.^irous of treating him as she had treated Mary Stuart. He affirmed to her that the succors he had promised were in reality illusorv, since thev were reduced to the gift of a red hat to a stupid lord, and a ridiculous excommunication, which the queen could readily return in her capacity of popess, and as for the million of crowns, he was only bound to furnish them six months at"ter the cap- ture of some considerable place in England, which the queen could certainly prevent. The conference having terminated, he sent to Carey a very cir- cumstantial note as to the plans of Philip, the state of his arm}^ the character of his generals, and the cause of the expedition. SPAIN. 251 He recommended to him to transmit it immediately to his sover- eign, and to recommend to her to strike a si;dden blow on the low countries in which symptoms of revolt were manifesting, whilst Spain was solely occupied with arming against Great Britain, and when the fate of the Armada was known, and Carey read to the pope his dispatches, he said to Cardinal Montalto, ' Rejoice, for the Kingdom of Naples is ours. ' " L. M. de Cormein's His. Popes, vol. 2, page 263. If Christ had appointed a vicar on earth, would itbe for such work as this ? Nothing could convince this man Philip he was wrong, tor the next year, 1595, he was preparing another Armada for the con- quest of England, but a combined English and Dutch fleet spoiled his hopes once more, in the harbour of Cadiz, b\' defeating it, and cap- turing the town. Again, in 1596, he collecteued by those who liave lent them assistance, by the popes them- selves, for whom they have drank every shame ; we hope that these Satellites of Satan will become more miserable than the Jews, and that their name will be spit upon and reviled, we hope that they will be regarded as the most degraded, and the most abject of the human race. This very remarkable prediction, which was ac- complished in every particular, dates in the middle of the sixteenth century, some seven 3'ears after the foundation of the order." L. M. de Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. 3, page 226. The laws of the society rendered its members free irom all control but its own ; they were, by strict discipline, shorn of all love of famil}-, all kindred ties, love of country ; they obeyed no law of God or man. 334 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? they have a shield to cover even-thing, they could commit any crime under the supposition, that the end justifies the means. Poper}' and this kindred society reverses God's plan. Vice is virtue, and virtue vice, and said to be for the glory of God. A man need not love God only once in his lifetime ; it is, they say, suffi- cient if he does it once belore he dies. They say ihe Bible does not teach men to love God so much as it says you are not to hate Him. We hate God when we commit crime and do not obey Him, but nothing is crime in their eyes ; it ma}' be wrong — but it may be right ! They cover their conscience under their method of probabil- ism, and there is nothing the mind can conceive that cannot be covered under this law. A murder may be wrong, and all men may say so, but according to them, it may be right, because some good may come out of it, so they walk through the world v\ith no thought or care, they may be laden with crime, and yet, if their general pi < i not find fault, they reason themselves, as no one else can, and they care for no one else. The}' have the faculty of dividing the soul from the body, under the plan of directing the intention — for instance, they say it is the soul that does the act; so if they are setting a house on fire, scuttling a ship, stabbing a man in the dark, or an}- other act, while the opera- tion is being performed, if the soul is thinking of something else — or thinking some good may come out of it — then it is the body only that acts, so the soul is free before God, 'twas the body that did it, that is not responsible, they say. They have also a doctrine of equivocation — so that while taking an oath, if they are asked — did you do so and so, they answer No ! but they say to themselves, not before I was born, or something like that. We could fill pages of these corrupiions, they have been published so many time, that the public ought to be getting familiar ; we say THE JESUITS. 335 there is no crime this so-called church does not cover up in some subtle form ; all have an excuse, the merchant, the mechanic, the professional ; the servant girl is not forgotten, if she does not receive as much wages as she thinks she ought, she may steal and it is no sin ; stealing is allowed if for a good act, say to pay for mass to get ■ a soul out of purgator}-. The constitutions of this society had been kept seci^et for a long time, but in a law suit in France, against the society for money lost in their engaging in trade, they were compelled to bring the volume into court, they knew it would be looked on with disgust, so each member was ordered silent respecting it. All France was aroused to the most intense indignation, the par- liament issued their decree abolishing and banishing the society of Jesus, from the nation and in that national act assigned these rea- sons. The consequences of their doctrines destroy the law of nature, they break all the bonds of civil society by authorized theft, lying perjurj', the utmost licentiousness, murder, criminal passions, and all manner of sins. These doctrines, moreover, root out all sentiments of humanity ; they overthrow all governments, excite rebellion, and uproot the foundation and practice of religion and further, the)' sub- stitute all sorts of superstitions, irreligion, blasphem)- and idolatry. Pope or President, pages 170 and 171. The aiders and abettors of this deadly blight may, and do say this was in the i6th century ; but is not the same principle insisted on to-da}'? also the name of England and America are mentioned as the countries this society and the pope have their deadly eves on. The pope, in this year, 1890, calls upon all of the members of his church to become candidates for all offices, to fill the City Councils, or Boards of Aldermen, Senate or Congress, the object being to make this a Roman Catholic country, and also to receive money from each, forgetting then, the position, and when in office to assist 336 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? in the making of laws most favorable to this so-called church, to put their deadly hands on our public schools, and to keep their children from going to the schools provided by the State ; the educa- tion given in these private schools is far below that of the State, but, • education these priests do not want, they desire to bring the minds of the children to a Jesuit level, and threaten to refuse the parents of these children the sacraments of the church, unless they consent to their demands, by sending the children to these private schools ; penances are also to be imposed on the defaulting parents. One would think we were back in the dark ages, to read such statements. As far as sacraments of the church goes, if the parents only knew it, they would be much better without them, and as to the penances, they do no harm, that is if you do not waste any time over them — but we proceed. Pope Clement, XIV, in the i8th century, pronounced this society of Jesuits, wicked and mischievous, dangerous to the peace of the world, and unworthy of longer toleration. So this pope knowing their revengeful spirit, took every precau- tion, to free himself from their vengence, but to no purpose ; the food in the kitchen was doubly watched, but the}' employed other means. A lady of the Sabine, entirelj' devoted to them, had a tree in her garden which bore the handsomest figs in Rome. The Reverend Fathers knowing that the pope loved this fruit very much, induced the lady to disguise herself as a peasant, and go and present these figs to Brother Francis. (This Brother Francis had to watch the food.) The devotee did so several times, gained the confidence of the Franciscan, and one day sliped into the basket a fig larger than the others, into which a subtle poison, called aguetta, was injected. Up to this time the holy father had enjoyed perfect health, he was well made, though of the ordinar^y height, his voice was sonorous THE JESUITS. 337 and strong, he walked with the activity of a young man, and every- thing presaged a long old age to him. From that day his health failed in an extraordinary manner ; it was remarked with alarm that his voice was sensibly failing. To those first symptoms of his sickness was joined so violent an infla- mation of his throat, that he was obliged to keep his mouth constantly open ; vomiting then succeeded the inflamation, accompanied by pains in his bowels, finally the sickness increasing in intensity, he discovered that he was poisoned. He wished to make use of anti- dotes, but it was too late. For three months he endured this terrible agony, his courage never failed him : he said, 'Alas, I knew well that they would poison me, but I did not expect to die in so slow and so cruel a manner. ' He died the 22d of September, 1774. L. M. De Cormein's His. of popes, vol. H, pages 397 and 398. The influence on the world's condition, since the readmission of the Jesuits, in 1814, is seen and felt by those who have lived, say, during the last fifty years. In the wars ending with the battle of Waterloo, the papacy had received such a check, that it might never have lifted up its head again, without their silent workings among the nations ; the papacy has had to be propped up since, by French soldiers at Rome, and the nations that received the greatest losses under Napoleon I, were Roman Catholic countries ; they were partly punished for their own acts ; the benefits gained by the war, fell to the share of the Protestant countries, particularly to England and Prussia ; the change in the. conduct of the papists, ever}- year or so, is apparent to all, particularly to those whose experience enables them to see back for a number of years ; the}' have been under Jesuit teaching, partly quiet and retiring, now they are getting bold and imprudent, and speak of the success of their so-called church, as a fact almost realized, and are beginning to throw out dark hints, as to the means to be employed for that purpose. Many of the think- ing people wondered why, in this nineteenth century, such a meeting 338 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? as the one had at Rome some few 3ears since, to vote the infalli- bility of the pope, was called. No one believed in it, either pope or priest, and yet they passed it after discussing it, or something else, to account for the time used. Can any one that knows anything about the slipper}- ways of the Jesuits or papists, be deceived as to the real meaning of the meeting, to waste all that time, to spend the thousands and ten thousands of dollars, to call all these priests from so many parts, to establish such nonsense? The writer has never thought anything else, but that infallibilit\' was the excuse, foolish as it was, to cover a deep Jesuitical scheme, to enslave the countries. This is what the meeting must have been called for, and since that time, armies of expelled Jesuits have flooded England and America, the fruits are beginning to ripen, some of them are already on the market, and the one most visible is the Jesuit schools in America ; in England their boldness and corruption of the state church, other fruits will show themselves as the time advances, another is in the hearts of the timid, a fear is produced, you cannot tell why, but it is there. You hear it expi'essed often, and it was fear that enslaved the nations in the eighth century and gave the pope power ; so his- tory is repeating itselt. And if as v\e read, that far-seeing martyr, President Lincoln, was almost afraid to bring the lactions together in collision, what must it be now? And what will it be in twentv years time, when the crop of the Jesuit schools are fully ripe ? We put a well known question to 3'ou. What are you going to do about it? What is to be the consequences ol^ these thousands of Jesuits, men and women, in man}' cases unknown, let loose among the people? The same society that thirty-seven states as well as the pope, suppressed, and found its adherents unbearable, unmanagable, impious, fanatical, revolutionary ; the very dregs of society in large cases, but infesting all classes from the head downwards, and have been driven out of all countries. Does any one suppose unless the church of Rome was playing a deep game, it would restore these THE JESUITS. 339 people that they know so well, and that have threatened to engulf the papacy more than once, and are not the school boys fed by this Jesuit food already from the age often and upwards, rebels at heart? Their nationality is transferred to the church, and when sufficiently numerous to do its work, can be depended on to repeat the disgrace- ful riots such as President Lincoln ordered Bishop Hughes to stop during the late war, and for which he lost his valuable life. And just here it would be as well to say that it is thought some of the government men at Washington had no doubt the murder was concocted by the Jesuits, and that it was only out of state policy that they were not charged with the crime ; the house of Mrs. Surratt was a meeting place for these Jesuit priests, and that nearly all, if not all the witnesses, including Mr. and Mrs. Surratt, were Roman Catholics, and that John Surratt was sent after the murder by one priest to another in Montreal ; that after a few months he is taken to Quebec and put on board an ocean steamer, the Peruvian, introduced to the captain by the false name of McCarthy, and he kept him locked up in his stateroom. At"terwards taken into the service of the pope as one of his soldiers until discovered and brought back to the United States ; but then he was comforted by being told he should have some Roman Catholics on the jury and should be ac- quitted, and he was acquitted. Late priest Chiniquy says in his book "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome." "The very da}' of the murder, he said, he was in the Roman Catholic village of St. Joseph, Minnesota state, when, at about six o'clock in the afternoon, he was told by a Roman Catholic of the place, who was a purveyor of a great number of priests who lived in that town, where they have a monastry, that State Secretary Seward and President Lincoln had just been killed." "This was told me" he said, "in the presence of a most respect- able gentleman, called Bennett, who was not less puzzled than me. As there were no railroads nearer than fort}'^ miles, nor telegraph 340 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? office nearer than eighty miles from that place, we could not see how such news was spread in that town. The next day the 15th of April, I was at St. Cloud, a town about twelve miles distant, where there are neither railroads nor telegraph. I said to several people, that I had been told in the priestly village of St. Joseph, by a Roman Catholic, that Abraham Lincoln and Secretary Seward had been assassinated. They answered me that the};- had heard nothing about it. But the next Sabbath the i6th of April, when going to the church of St. Cloud to preach, a friend gave me a copy of a telegram sent to him on Saturday, reporting that Abraham Lincoln and Secretary Seward had been assassinated the ver\' day before, which was Friday the 14th, at 10 P. M. But how could the Roman Catholic purveyor of the priests of St. Joseph have told me the same thing, before several witnesses just four hours before its occurrence? I spoke of that strange thing to man}- the same day, and the very next day I wrote to the St. Paul press, under the heading 'A Strange Coincidence.' Sometime later the editor of the St. Paul Pioneer, having denied what I had written on that subject, I addressed him the following note, which he had printed, and which I have kept. Here it is, you may keep it as an infallible proof of my veracity." — Fifty Years in Church of Rome, page 730. — Here follows the letter and several answers. So the murder of Lincoln was reported four hours before it was done, in a place that the news could not under ordinary circum- stances reach until the next day, there being no means to take it there j let the fact speak for itself, also remembering it was a Roman Catholic village, and a monastry belonging to it, and that these priests were in the habit of visiting at Mrs. Surratt's house. Is it necessary to have the horrid experiences of the past, in order to move us, or shall we take the time as it serves? Shakespeare says, "There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Omitted all the voj^age of THE JESUITS. 341 our life is bound in shallows and in miseries ; on such a full sea we are now afloat, and we must take the current as it serves, or loose our venture." Do we need any further evidence than this book furnishes (and it does not give a fiftieth part of the whole) that this institution of a so-called church is nothing but an imposition from its very start, and if it had come in any other form but under the disguise of religion, it would be treated as banditti and driven from the face of the earth. Can ministers of the gospel look quietly on from year to year without even a protest, and see the dear little ones brought by their deluded parents into this blasphemy? There are some papers always preparing the public for an excite- ment about war, about something that can be settled by arbitration. But there is no court of arbitration, or anything else humane, but force, can settle this greatest of all evils. Can .you not trace the Jesuit in these rumors? And if a war could be brought about between the two greatest English-spoken countries, what ad- vantage it would give them. A splendid opportunity for a few croc- odile tears, with the hope of stealing away the carcass. Talk of war — with such an enemy in our midst. No ! we dare not, either country, fire a shot with anyone until we are rid of our most deadly foe. Did it ever occur to you that whenever war is talked about here, it is always England, ^a Protestant nation? These rumor starters never want a war with France, or any Catholic country. Can you not trace the origin in these rumors? Why, England has done more to keep on good terms with America than you can trace in the whole of her history, and yet, if war is talked about, England is the chosen foe ; this must be the the source of Jesuitical hatred. All that is now wanted, is a President favorable or careless of the Jesuits. They have got a good footing in Washington. 342 WHY HAVK PRIESTS AT ALL? Do we remember there is a Jesuit college there, and that Ameri- cans send their children to it to be educated, not perhaps suspecting the danger of such a system? The college had a centennial a few years since and was attended by some of our citizens, encouraging this greatest of all human foes. Many names of men known then under that party, were given. Some gold medals were distributed. One was given to President Grover Cleveland for the government of the United States, and he actually accepted it. Did the government receive it? We hope not. We remember Cleveland before he became President, responding to a toast given b}- a Catholic bishop, in Rochester, N. Y. The toast was, "The Rochester Clergy". He must have meant^his own church with himself at the head. The party was selected, as usual for this purpose, and of course it went off" all right. The real Rochester clergy, we suppose, looked on with contempt, as they did not answer the insult. We hope our clerg}' have more important work on hand than toasting each other in wine. Cardinal Gibbons, and our late President, were the leading men, and the cardinal makes a speech, and when speaking of Washington, ^^ou would think his heart was full of the desire to continue and perpetuate the republic, of which Washington was head. Does their history prove their love to such governments? We give a specimen of the blasphemous manner in which God's name was taken in vain on this occasion. "Washington, February 22d, 1889. The celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of Georgetown University, continued to-day. The conference of degrees was a feature of the day. The diplo- mas were presented by the President. Cardinal Gibbons then delivered his address. He said, 'It is in accordance with the economy of divine providence that whenever THE JESUITS. 343 God has any great work to accomplish in the civil, social or moral order he emp]o3-s the agency of suitable men, to effect its execu- tion.' And then he goes on to eulogize some John Carroll, in God's name, who lived a hundred years ago, and who started this Univer- sity, and makes a quotation of that sacred passage. ' There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ' And remember, John was sent to herald the religion they have been al- ways fighting against, and that a hundred years since, God was sweeping this continent clean of such toes. Truly, the name harlot which God gave them, is the proper one. We give now a few e'xtracts from pope or president. 'The Romish hierarchy declares to the United States, the following determination, through its chief organ in our countr}'. The church is a kingdom and a power, and as such must have a supreme chief, (a pope) and this authority is to be exercised over states as well as individuals. If the pope directed the Roman Catholics of this country to over- throw the constitution (and put down the American flag), sell the nationality of the country and annex it as a dependent province to Napoleon the Little, (a papist sovereign) they would be bound to obe}^ It is the intention of the pope to possess this country." — Page 173. We see now that the Jesuits have neither heart, soul or conscience. They are sent to our country to do any deed they are ordered, no matter how blood}-. They come under sealed orders, and ask for the education of the children according to their own maxim. "Give us the education of the children of this day, and the next generation will be ours. Ours in maxims, in morals and i-eligion." TheA' are now doing with education in the United States exactly what they have done in every European kingdom. They affect all the learn- ing of the world ; they establish their academies and their profession- al honors to win the young into their embrace. Jesuit nuns are pur- suing the same course in concert with the aspiring and licentious 344 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? priests, in deluding young girls. These sisters of charity, sisters of the sacred heart, etc., invade the sanctity of families, and ensnare the souls of the innocent and confiding. Their zeal is more fervent for the cause of the pope in the United States, than in an}' other country in the world. Pages 194 and 195. We come to the mode by which the society admits to profession. At the time appointed, the general or some one empowered b}' him, offers the sacrifice of mass in the church, in the presence of the in- mates of the house and others, when the person receives the Eucha- rist and with a loud voice pronounces his written vow in these words : "I. N. make profession and promise before Almighty God, before his Virgin Mother, and before all the heavenly host, and before all bystanders and you reverend father, general o^ the society holding the place of God, and your successors, or you, reverend father vice general of the society of Jesus, and of his successors, holding the place of God, perpetual poverty, chastity and obedience, and therein, peculiar care in the education of boys, according to the form of living contained in the aposiolic letters of the society of Jesus, and in its constitutions. Moreover, I promise special obedience to the pope in missions, as is contained in the same apostolic letters and consti- tutions." Then the name of the countr)-, the day, the month, year is added. Page 182. We would ask where do the apostolic letters come from? Seeing the apostles knew nothing about such a society, and that it was formed about fourteen hundred years after their death, we suppose they get them from the same place as the pope gets his. CHAPTER XIV. THE INQUISITION. "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants, the i-rophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great ; and shouldest destroy them, which destroy the earth."— Revelations XIX, i8. WE believe the above passage includes the Inquisitions as one of the arms used in stirring up the nations to anger, against God's servant, the prophets and saints. The dead, we believe, are the martyrs to the fury of these danger- ous fanatics, and the judging is done to their, persecutors before God. The prophets are the faithful teachers in the real church. The saints, the christians And them that fear thy name, are the sincere followers. And those that destroy the earth, are the authors, fomenters and encouragers of bloody wars and persecutions. These people have been punished in various ways, all through their history, but the time is coming, we believe, when God will de- stroy those who are living, that do these things. The tares were permitted to grow with the wheat until the end ; that end is near, and if we show too close an affinity with these, by permission or indifference, it may happen that we may be gathered 34^ WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? with the tares ; and if we allow them to get too strong, wars and rev- olutions, according to the history of the past, will follow, and we shall be the sufferers. Remember the vei'se in Revelations IV says, " Come out from her my people, that ye be not partakei^s of her sms, and that ye receive not of her plagues.'' This threat applies to all that have her mark ; and would it not be very easy to get the mark, by encouraging or assisting with money or in any other way? This is worth thinking of. Also remember the devil is wroth, knowing his time is short, and will do as much mischief as he can ; his power can only be stayed by our clinging to God, and by showing an abhorrence to this open idolatry, and preventing its spreading by sound legislation and other means at our disposal. A short time may mean twenty, fifty, one hundred years, but much harm that may be avoided can be done to the nation in that time. This matter concerns all, for the happiness or the misery of the country and the world depend on how we follow the instructions given in God's word, and also how we understand the prophesies of the Bible. So have a little patience, and read the following from Revelations XII, 17 to 21 inclusive. " And I saw an angel standing in the sun : and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of Heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. THE INQUISITION. 347 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophets that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." The writer does not wish to be an alarmist, but remember, the above is the word of God, and must be fulfilled within the above named time ! All of the prophesies of the Bible have been fulfilled as their time has arrived, and must this be an exception? No living man knows how all this is to be done or exactly what year, but come it will, as sure as the sun will rise each day, as long as the earth lasts. It indicates great and terriable wars and the taking of the beast (the papacy j and the false prophet ^Mohammedanism) and their dis- truction and punishment, and it also indicates a vast slaughter, as the gathering together of the birds of prey for their great supper implies. The location of these wars is not given, but no doubt it will fall heavily on those nations and the people who have on them the mark of the beast, and of the false prophet. There are a great many reasoners that say wars are not consis- tant with a kind and loving God, but these are generally those who rest on morality for the future, or deny the word of God, or give him any right to punish his people for their sins ; some of these go so far as to say they have no responsibility, and their eyes being closed, cannot see the deformity of their own hearts ; but does not secular and biblical history show there are some people that nothing but the sword will open their eyes and bring them into a state ot penitence? What could convince such a people as the Jesuits, the founders of 348 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? the Inquisition, or the pagans generally, that they are sinners in the sight of God? Nothing except they tirst see the rod, and some we fear are past even that. Now we say to those who find fault with God's government of the earth, that He has been very lenient and patient, but advantage has been taken of it, and they have committed such wickedness as this book speaks of. And all He as hto do is to withold His constraining power, and the devil's agents will bring on war and misery without any help from any other source. - Also remember, this is a revelation of not what shall be done, so much as it tells of what will be done, as the fruits of the evil of men's wicked passions. And it behoves us to do all we can to prevent this great and ter- rible war reaching our shores, by not giving our countenance to these promoters of wars; they are here already in numbers, and are in- creasing, and in a few years a fresh crop will be raised in these seperate schools, and the larger the number the more difficult to keep in order; but we will soon show a few of the acts of these in- quisitors. As we search history at the commencement of the inquisition, we naturally ask the question : Since this institution was established, as a means of punishment, what was the character of the parties on both sides ? They ought to be very wicked and obdurate people, on which the thunders of the inquisition must fall. Let their history speak for them. On the other hand, the parties establishing it must, or ought to be, very good — haters of all wrong. Vice in all forms must be detestable to them. And as the chief among the founders was at the head of a religious order said to be appointed by God himself, everv'thing just and pious must be his standard, and all parties around Him must be gov- THE INQUISITION. 349 erned by the same methods, so that the community of which we write ought to be living in a state of righteousness, and peace and plenty ought to be the lot of all. Well, was it so ? let an historian of the thirteenth centur\-, who was a monk, tell the story, and in his story we shall find the same belief in the apostolic descent of this so-called church, that has al- ways clung to its members, and which for many years the reformers could not shake off. A monk of St. Albans named Matthew Paris, who wrote the co- temporaneous history of the thirteenth century, thus speaks of the church : " The little faith which still existed under the last popes, and which was but a spark of the divine fire, was extinguished during this cen- tury. All belief is annihilated. Simony is no longer a crime, usury is no longer disgraceful, and greedy priests can devour, without sin, the substance of the people and the lords. Evangelical charity has now taken its flight towards the heavens ; ecclesiastical liberty has disappeared, religion is dead, and the holy city has become an infamous prostitute, whose shamelessness surpasses that of Sodom and Gomoriah. Every country is abandoned to the rapacity of monks in rags, ignorant and unlettered, who fall upon the provinces armed with Roman bulls, and with effrontery adjudge to themselves all the rev- enues granted by our ancestors for the subsistence of the poor, and the exercise of hospitality. Those who resist this dilapidation of the public mone}-, or who re- fuse a part of their demand to the envoys of the pope, are imme- diately stricken with the thunders of anathema. Thus the pontiff's not only exercise an odious tyranny, which is still the more insupportable, as their agents, like true harpies armed with iron talons, not only snatch even the last rags which cover the 35° WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? faithful to maintain the luxury of the court of Rome, but even over- throw the traditions of the first ages of the church, and drive away from the domains of St. Peter the citizens who divested them, to re- place them with the wretches called Roman farmers, who leave the work of the fields to pillage the inhabitants of the provinces, and who, in hopes of meeting the good graces of the holv father, send to Rome the spoils of the unfortunate. Thus do we deplore such scandals, and say, in the grief of our soul, that we would rather die than assist at this sight of horror and abomination." L. M. de Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. i, page 457-8. This is the language of a monk of ihe thirteenth century ; perhaps this man would think nothing of spoiling the propert}- or life of a so-called heretic, or his family ; the above was done to the lambs of the flock, and they, in turn, would think it a religious duty to rob a Protestant, and so it shows us the state of the times, or as is some- times said, Peter robbing Paul, and we think we see a rival spirit, in this monk's complaint, rather than a desire for reform ; and be- tween the two orders of monks the people must have been fleeced unmercifully, and with the consent of the reigning pope. How would you like Roman Catholics, after living in and under Protest- ant laws, to go back to the confusion of that day, brought about bv this institution you think is the true church ? Innocent HI, in 12 15, gave orders to St. Dominic, also a commis- sion, to jvidge and deliver to the secular power for punishment apostate and obstinate heretics, and this was the commencement of the inquisition. It was established to slaughter the Albigeiies and Waldenses. An account of a part of the injustice and diabolical wickedness done to these people will be found in onother chapter. And also to burn Arnold of Brescia, and to massacre the people and the city ; this was some of its initial work. St. Dominic and Simon de Montford led their armies against the Waldenses and THE INQUISITION. 35 I Albigenes, and when defeated, delivered those that the}- did not massacre to the secular judge to be put to death. The inquisition was not in so perfect a stale for destruction until after the death of St. Dominic and the above pope ; then the}- estab- lished in every city, a council of inquisitors, consisting of one priest and three la3'men, and their business was to search for heretics every- where, in cities, houses, barns, cellars, woods, caves or an}' place where they were likeh- to be found, and when found a short mock trial and the stake ; this was being literally hunted to death, the houses they lived in were either razed to the ground or confiscated, or both, for according to this Pharasaical spirit, heretics poisoned the land on which they stood, so it wanted purifying. A landlord was held accountable for the religion of his tenant, and confiscated his property, if rented to such dangerous folks. Everyone was obliged to search for heretics, and when found, either to deliver them to these holy men, or to enter a charge against them, which really meant a conviction, a charge or conviction being synonymous. No one could follow a trade or profession without being a Roman Catholic. No one could have a copy of the old or new testament in their possession without a license from a priest ; all the books they might have, taught them nothing but the idolatry of popery, the Virgin Mary, saints, or some such useless books ; the real ob- ject of this was to keep the people from reading either the historical or Biblical history of the church ; that once read, and good-bye to popery. And as time went on the inquisition became so strict that two Dominicans were appointed in every city, with assistants, to carry out the business of this dreadful tribunal — this terror of the world, that swallowed up so many millions in its treacherous and leperous grasp ; instructions were given to these Dominicans as to what 352 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? heresy consisted of, and we find it was pointed against those who believed in the doctrines of Luther and Calvin ; a good proof who the martyrs were. With what subtle food the Roman Catholics feed their people of to-day ; they never tell them anything about this horrid work, on the contrary ; as they must not read for themselves ; once in a while they get a sermon mentioning as far off the noble army of martyrs — as if they were the innocent victims. Their audacity certainly astonishes us. The writer has spoken to many papists on this subject, and they look at you as if you were telling some falsehood ; these poor crea- tures know nothing about the history of their own church ; a poor business, afraid to speak of its own dreadful acts, and for shame, or some other reason, they are obliged to hide their own history. We hope the readers of this book will stop and think what the consequences would be if popery is allowed to get a firmer hold on the country. Remember, this power 3'ou are now nursing will turn and bitterly sting you, and unto death. And also think, you ! yes, you ! that are perhaps giving your money and S3'mpathy to build them up are, in their eyes, the heretics they so bitterly denounce. Remember, when popery was in the full blaze of power, such as vou were not allowed, no, not even a place to rest your head. How would you like, you, who from prudent motives have laid up for yourselves and family or descendants, twent}-, fifty or one hundred thousand dollars, more or less, to have their unclean hands put up- on this property, simply because youare too conscientious to believe in their unholy dogmas. At the time I write, many loathed the name of popery as they do to-day, and yet, unless they became hypocrites, and pretended to be converts, if nothing more, there was rarely any medium but the stake ; once in a while a loathsome dun- geon for months or years. This is the work of the inquisition, THE INQUISITION. 353 which has not been abolished, as many think, but is in force to-da3^, and we will give you some examples before this chapter is closed. Is it a wonder the world is so much behind, as far as the numbers of christians are concerned, when we take into consideration the methods adopted to make it so ? The heathen nations have used force to make converts, particularly the two greatest, popery and Mohammedanism ; the one cut ofl' the head, the other burned to death, and when the latter worked in private, tortures were added that nothing but fiends could invent or bear to look at. Also re- member, the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar amongst others. To popery, persecution is a great part of their religion ; take that away, and the abominations of mass and the confessional, and what is there left ? If there was any good in their religion, when they find a non- believer, why not persuade by sound argument and show them where they are in fault, prove, as the Protestant does by divine argument, their reasons ; they do not do that, they have no argu- ment but the stake ; it is either surrender or death, and it was the greatest part of a priest's education to torture and burn Protestants. Some of the kings, as we have shown, were also taught it was their chief business to hunt the best of their subjects. It must have been a delightful time to live in those days, to sup- port such rulers, and to know nothing was safe in your keeping, if only the evil eye of these inquisitors were fixed on it. You may have had a beautiful, loving daughter, and one of these fiendish persecutors sees her; she is taken away in the name of the holy in- quisition, and that is the last you see of her ; you may guess her fate, but there it ends for you. Poor girl, * * * * when she is done with, she is sacrificed. Some one ma}^ find her bones, but not re- cognize them. Your wife or sister may be taken for the same in- famy ; nothing was safe. 354 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL.'' People were snatched up for the slightest suspicion : not to bow to these priests, or to the wafer God, or to express your disapproba- tion of them, even by a look, was enough. In Spain alone, thei"e were nearly twenty thousand of these wretches employed to go and insinuate themselves into all societies, and to speak against the pope or the inquisition, taking people off their guard, and then to inform against them to the holy inquisition so-called. These tools were so drilled (and were of the Jesuit oider) by acts of cruelty, that they could stand and almost help drag their own mother to the rack, and yet the descendants of this people to-da}', will talk to 3-ou about the liberty and holiness of Mother church. O, blindness and bigotry ; and this is called religion. Well, keep me from it. Thousands were dragged into this horrid place for not be- lieving in transubstantiation ; this dogma was the invention of a monk named Paschasius Radbertus in the tenth centur}', at an age of such dark superstition. Rome had done her work well, and any absurdit}', however great, would be believed. If any one was to bring forward to-day, for the first time, such an exposition of Scripture it would be scouted by all. But the pope and priests saw what a mysterious power it would give them, as well as bring in vast sums of monev, for this is one of the great revenues of this church. So they clung to it, and did not scruple to murder anj^ one that could not so conform or shut their eyes to all common sense, and this so-called church will cling to it as long as they can persuade an}-^ one to believe in it. The method of separating the words "this is my body," from the rest of the chapter, enables one to put any construction on it they please. It is something like the keys ; "and on this rock will I build my church ;" these words used alone can be made to suit an}' pur- THE INQUISITION. 355 pose, but in connection with the subject of the chapter, the Roman Catholic meaning falls to the ground. Transubstantiation was denied by man}^ monks and priests, as well as councils, so that it did not become a dogma of the church without a struggle. In the eleventh century, in the reign of Leo IX, about 1050, one Berenger, a bishop of Tours, gave lectures against this wicked dog- ma, and many approved of his opinions, and spoke in the same di- rection, but a monk named Lanfranc, jealous of Berenger in other matters, took the cowardly way of bringing an accusation against him ; after he had in vain tried to combat him in argument, and also after he had received the following letter. "I am informed my brother, by Euquerrand of Chartres, that you disapprove of the thoughts of John Scott, in regard to the sacrament of the altar, and even regard them as heretical, because they do not agree with those of Paschasus, your favorite author. If it is so, I fear, that 3'ielding to a precipitate judgment, you have not wisely used the mind that God has given you. When you shall have studied the sacred Scriptures, you will also condemn St. Ambrose, St. Je- rome or St. Augustin, or else you will approve of the reasoning of John Scott, in relation to the Eucharist, for you will learn by taking the works of the fathers and of the doctors of the church, according to their most correct sense, that transubstantiation or the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, is an error which the last century has be- queathed to ours." L. M. De Cormein's His. of popes, pages 338 and 339. Berenger was excommunicated and at the sight of the stake he did recant ; he did this several times, but as soon as clear, he still main- tained his opinion ; of course he coulld not get a fair trial. Lan- franc was ordered to explain his faith as a witness against him, not by reason or facts, but by the authorities of the church ; the last thing that ought to be accepted in a court of law then or to-da}'. 356 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? It was sufficient to accuse a person ; they never saw each other, no evidence was wanted, the accusation was enough ; all that was asked was to confess ; failing to do that, they were taken into what was called the Hall of Torture, and maimed and bruised, almost be- yond human endurance, and then thrust into a filthy dungeon to groan alone, no eye to pity, none dare to help ; you might starve to death, or die of some loathsome disease, lurking in the foul cell. This is the work of holy Mother church so-called. To be Christ's servants, we must have his spirit. Is the above the spirit of him who wept over Jerusalem, who is waiting to take all into his arms, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings? Oh yes ! we know them by their fruit. Some of the tortures invented were fiendish, and we can hardly expect anything else, since the church so called came from the bot- tomless pit. Just imagine if you can, what it is to be suffocated, by having water poured into your stomach, the pouring kept on until the work is done, or to have your feet dipped into some inflamible solution, and then lighted, until they are burned to a crisp and then put into a cell, alone, to contemplate the loss of your feet ; again, to be drawn up to the ceiling by pulleys, and suddenly let fall to within a foot of the floor, to dislocate 3'our joints, or to have two pieces of wood filled with large needles or small spikes, and then the tongue pressed bet- ween them — the pain must be horrible, and it soon begins to swell and fill the mouth, and if not removed, suffocation is possible. The greatest number of tortures are applied to the tenderest parts of the body ; they cannot be published, but it makes one's blood creep, and to think we belong to the same race of men, and then we are asked to accept the religion of such fiends. Never ! ! Never ! I We have given in this book a few of the massacres which were done because the Inquisition did or could not kill fast enough, and some of the crusades against the Waldenses and others, but there THE INQUISITION. 357 were the cnisades to the holy land, which lasted over a century, and which killed between one and two millions of people. Some say more ; this is all the work of this tender and loving church so-called, with the advice and assistance of this sacred Inquisition, With what a satanical cruelty these priests preached these crusades from their pulpit ; their tongues seemed loosened ; when they wish to fire the hearts of their congregation t© the boiling point for evil, against Protestants, they filled their hearts with rage, and never seemed so eloquent as when they were urging on the people to mur- der, blood and destruction ; had 3'ou asked any of them to preach the love and mercy from Christ's Gospel, they would have sunk below zero at once. • And are not the pulpits used to-day, more for a political purpose than any other? Do they not control the elections from these pulpits? We approve of the precautions used by the government to keep people honest in their voting, but why not put an embargo on these pulpits, and say you shall not preach or intimidate the people as to their acts. Such a thing as that would be called by some of the upholders of this so-called church, dreadful heresy, but our eyes are opened ; we have a different intelligence in the world than a few centuries since ; it is time we shook off this leprosy, and the time is near at hand when this so-called church will have, like Sheakspeare's bully Pistol, to eat her own leek ; it only wants a few more overt acts, for the beginning of the end to come, and we wish to warn the people that the sooner the breaks are put on, the sooner the train will stop, and with the smallest amount of danger. We said we would show the Inquisition was yet in force ; to do so we will begin from about 1840. Roman Catholic Priests are very jealous at having any branch of their profitable business interfered with, one of which is the marriage ceremony. 358 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? A case of supposed interference occured about this time by two Roman Catholics being joined together by a Protestant minister, whom we think is the only fit person to perform such an important and sacred covenant. It angered the Roman bishop, and he sent an unchristian letter to the minister which was the means of bringing the two together, and the arguments of the Protestant so calmed the angry priest, and after several calls, induced him to read some books of these dreadful Protestants. At\er this he ventured to open the sacred pages of the Bible, in which he saw God's plan of redemption, and it was so opposite to the plan of popery that it won his heart and he let in Christ. So of course popery was of no further use to him. He left Rome and joined the church of Jesus as a minister, and began to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. This so incensed the church of Rome, that they laid at once a trap lor the reformed priest, in the true Inquisition style. This was in her majesty's dominions, so of course great secrecy was used, and the craft of the Jesuit was here brought into play ; and one of these, a Spaniard, made the acquaintance of this reformed priest, under the disguise of an Italian layman. He professed great friendship, but threw off all religion, making the excuse that he did not want to talk about it. This pretended friendship went on until the heart of the reformer was won and all suspicion vanished. They would walk out together, and on one night well suited for the purpose, they were by design, waylaid by a number of men, and he was dragged in a Cathredral and made a prisoner in one of the cells ; he was then made by fear of a violent death, to write letters dictated by these cunning Jesuits, in which it was made to appear to the Romanists, that he left the Roman church to better his condition financialh^ and also to write to the Protestants to say it was his intention to return to the most Holy Catholic church. Once in the hands of these priests, all trace of him was lost, and he was kept iintil placed on a ship as a prisoner, and sent to France THE INQUISITION. 359 and there deli\ered secretly to some French bishop, who after a time sent him in the same secret manner to Rome, where he was sen- tenced to serve a term of years in a convent ; these places are so built that men can be easily lost to the public, who know nothing of the treachery going on within these dreadful walls. This man, after many years, obtained his liberty of person, but his mind was enslaved to that of a tool of this so-called loving and mer- ciful church, and then the above facts became known. Here is one case, proving the bold workings of these Jesuits, and showing the Inquisition is still in force. About the middle of the iplh century the people of Italy groaned under the exactions of the papacy but were unable to free themselves. The Austrians gave their power to the pope and by this means kept Italy in temporal and spiritual bondage, and they were forced to bear the impositions of the pope. But the Hungarians, revolting against Austria, and so weakened her, and also the revolution in France, 1848, gave the Italians hope, and they took advantage of Austria's embarrassment, and with Garibaldi at their head, with an army of Italian voluteers, entered Rome, deposed the pope and proclaimed a Roman Republic in February, 1849. '^^^ pope escaped in the disguise of a priest, and went to Gaeta, in the Veap olitan territory. But previous to leaving, he made sure of the poor prisoners in the Inquisition at Rome. Strict orders he left with the officers, to keep them as closely guarded as ever; no hope for them, although this tyrant was fleeing for his worthless life. It was a few weeks after the republic was established before these prisons were discovered, and the government gave the holy office for the use of poor families, and then these doors were opened for the first time in three centauries. O ! What a scene to find hidden under these grey stone vaults. Prisoners who had lost all hope, to once more hear friendl}' voices and then to see those subterranean passages that had been filled with victims cruelly murdered by this relentless so-called church. 360 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? Can you imagine the scene? Can you wonder at the oaths sent against these heartless fanatics, and also the terror of the beholders as they felt that they themselves might be betrayed? This building was a prison in the time of Nero, but additions had been made, by placing at different periods other stories on the original, which made it as found by the Roman republic. Might not this prison have once contained the person of the Apostle Paul, who knows? This place as now found was truly a dreadful one ; the subterranean passages were so concealed that they were with much difficulty found, and after removing black, oily earth, and going down, down stone steps, to find what? fragments of what had once been men and women, and who had been thrown down from the holes above, and which were at once closed to exclude all light, maimed in their falls, limbs broken, but left to die in their agonies without food or any attendance. There was seen old fashioned gar- ments of both sexes, women's long hair, bones, skulls, and other evi- dences of cruelty, enough to horrif}^ the beholders ; the cells were in some cases used for throwing down the prisoners, b}' removing a stone in the floor and they went down heavily, perhaps twenty or twenty -five feet to the bottom, to lay groaning in a darkness and silence beyond description. In one place, after removing the rubbish, they discovered stone steps to the number of twenty-five or more, and here was found a horrible method of putting people to death, by placing them in a cell filled with a soft mortar, which a person could live in as long as his strength would last, the mortar reached up to his chin and by stand- ing in this mortar of course could breath, and so prolong life, but no sleep could be obtained, and life was only a question of time : as long as your strength holds out ; for the moment the body gave way, night or day, the mortar would cover the face and suffocation would follow ; so in order to live you must put forth vour utmost strength, standing all the time, hungry, cold, in pain, sure death before }'0u, to THE INQUISITION. 361 get the least ease by reclining was impossible, for there was the dreadful mortar ready to cover over your mouth and nostrils, and this done at the same time these red handed murderers were polut- ing God's word by an attempted revision, and these victims, after a mock trial, were led over traps in the floor, which gave way and hurled them into these living tombs. The above description is but a ver}' small part of what was really found, but it is enough to show the use the pope makes of his temporal power which we, as a nation are asked to be a party to help to restore ; and this in the nineteenth century. And now we leave the wicked persecutions of these fiends, and turn to a nation that has suffered dreadfully at their hands, and as a precautionary measure, had put some legal (not iron) fetters on, and with feelings of hope for the future, were opening the way for their release, and once more give them a chance to live on terms of equality ; we do this now to show the forgiving spirit of the Prot- estants in contrast to the malignity of pagans. In the days of Queen Elizabeth of England, these Roman Catho- lics, had sown such sedition and treason, that every priest and Jesuit was ordered to leave the country, and their banishment was just, for they were plotting murder among other things, but these poor people in the wretched cells at Rome and other places, had done nothing ; their fault consisted in being better, and a pattern to their miserable persecutors. On the 13th of February, 1689, a Proclamation was issued to the English people, beginning with Whereas, it hath pleased Almighty God in his great mercy to this kingdom, to vouchsafe us a merciful deliverance from popery and arbitary power, and that our preservation is due next under God to the resolution and conduct of his highness, Prince of Orange. The Proclamation also announced that William and Mary were king and queen of England. ' 362 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? England's troubles, losses, wars, internal and external, are beyond anyone's conception, excepting they follow histor}-, and then they must search that very closely, to fix a tithe on their minds. England had seen it must at all risks, rid itself of this internal enemy that had fixed its deadly grasp on their vitals, and to clear popery from their shores forever, and they had happily succeeded as the Proclama- tion stated. The Catholics, in order to cement their power had filled nearl}^ every office with their own people, and by that means had put every one else in the back ground and had become masters of an over- whelming amount of property, and had laid their hands on the riches of the country, to support an extravagant priesthood, as well as send money out of the country to foment troubles, to encourage wars, and to help fill the treasury of the pope of Rome. How much this is like the process of to-dav, in these lectures from Europe, about Ireland, when you read their speaches ; what do they amount to? Nothing ; but money, and England had had up to that lime, a surfeit. This was now all changed, but some of the old despotism clung to the church of England, and the dissenters agitated for relief, and in making laws for their benefit, the Roman Catholics were excluded from holding any office ; all were given to the Protestants. This does seem arbitrary, but when we take into consideration the fact that Romanists, led on by a corrupt priesthood, will not live like any one else ; put them on an equality and they at once, ever}-- where, begin to foment strife in order to become masters, and keep getting worse, until they are again banished ; and this plan is now being adopted in America and England, and will end in a deadly strife. Ireland has been a constant source of trouble to England, fomen- ted by priests ; Protestants were oppressed there, societies were formed on both sides for self protection, laws amended at different THE INQUISITION. 363 times, but nothing would or ever will satisfy the Catholic Irish, kept in darkness as they are by the priests. The Protestant Irish live in peace by themselves, and are as happy as any other nation. The time had come when some of the statesmen of England thought they would give the Catholics another chance, and on the 5th of March, 1829, Mr. Peel (Sir Robert Peel) rose in the English House of Commons on the subject of the Roman Catholic emancipa- tion bill. The Duke of Wellington had also brought the measure in the Lords. Mr. Peel said he had for years attempted to maintain the exclu- sion of Roman Catholics from Parliament, and high offices of the state. This bill would admit a Roman Catholic to Parliament, upon taking an oath, in place of the old oath of supremacy, that he would support the existing institutions of the state, and not injure those of the church. It would admit a Roman Catholic to all the greatest offices of government, with the exception of regent — lord chancellor of Eng- land and viceroy of Ireland ; from all offices of the church, universi- ties and schools, they would be excluded ; this speech occupied some three or four hours. There had been several thousand petitions presented to parliament, the greater part against the proposed concession. Lord Eldon in the Lords' said: "If a Roman Catholic were ever admitted to form part of the legislature, or to hold any of the great offices of the state, from that moment the sun of Great Britain was set forever. This bill passed both houses and received the ro3'-al assent the 1 3th of April, 1829. We make no charge against any one in this matter, those who supported the bill, did it, we hope from conscientious motives, but 364 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? it is Stated before this bill was brought before the houses, the pope had sent over two millions of dollars to England, to corrupt the pub- lic papers and to pay for the orators. Did Mr. Peel and the Duke of Wellington know the exact posi- tion of the papacy, for whose benefit these bills were passed? or did the members of both houses find out if all was right at Rome or other places? did these members find time from the pleasures of life, or the pressure of public business, to see befoi"e they granted any concessions, if the spirit of popery had changed, or all persecutions ceased, .or could they have known that at that moment, citizens of various countries, equally as good as themselves, were dying with the greatest cruelty in various cells of these churches, monastries, and convents? Did they know of the horrors going on in the inqui- sition at Rome? We fear not. Do any of our legislatures know anything about the cruelties of this so-called church? They are built in our midst, our little chil- dren are educated in them, after a fashion, and that is all the bulk of us know. Ought we not to be sufficiently interested to have the cur- tains raised and know more of what is done behind these sombrous walls, with their dark passages and cells? If it was the church of Christ, why these appendixes? Is force necessary to bring men into the kingdom? God does not force, and why should men? Conversion is not brought about by fear, it is done by love ; force is not required to rule christians, it only becomes necessary when men take its name for sinister purposes. And we fear this measure became a law without proper enquiry ; too much leniency to the criminal is a mistake ; it injures the law- abiding citizen ; had these laws not passed, England would have been in a better position to-day. What was the first act of the Jesuits after the passing of the Eman- cipation bill? Wh}^ they returned in great numbers to England and begun at once their plotting, and since then numbers of clergy- THE INQUISITION. 365 men after preaching for a time in the church of England have gone over to the church of Rome. Thousands of tracts were issued by these Puseyites to corrupt the members of this church ; and they are here amongst us, living as teachers in the best famihes, sowing the seed of their craft so cunningly that fathers and mothers are not aware their children are unconsciously drinking in poison from the lips of those they pay to educate their children, preferring these teachers to many others so much more desirable ; but we pass on from this digression. Pius IX, when elected in 1846, was detested by all ; his election was made in error ; he was without a friend, but from policy, he made friends with the Jesuits. The inquisitors had the press under their control, the people of Rome were in a revolutionary state and wanted a free press, and to have the Jesuits expelled from Rome. There was a band enrolled called the Sanfidesti or society of holy faith ; these assassins were emissaries of the papacy, and are always ready, and on this occasion were hired to dispose of the leaders; their daggers were first blest by some cardinals, and a good sum of money as a reward given ; the plot was discovered, and failed ; but a number of these were arrested b}' the liberal party and acknowledged they received their daggers from a bishop and a cardinal. The people of Rome had wanted a national guard for their own protection, but had been refused by the pope ; he had now given way to pressure, and the guard was formed, and the first use to be made of it was, the Jesuits wanted the pope to send it to guard their places of rendezvous, the convents and monasteries. This enraged the people, and the cr^-^ of death to the Jesuits and monks was heard. The guard refused the order of the pope, and the Jesuits saw their places would be burned down, and so they vacated, both monks 366 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? * and nuns, and the pope contrived to send them to America to con- vert the Americans and to build convents and monasteries here. Let us notice, these Jesuits, monks and nuns, and this order of Sanfidesti, or Society of Holy Faith, were Italians, Sicilians, some Austrians, but all Catholics, and they were expelled or made a re- treat in time. How does this agree with the work lately done in New Orleans ? One would think these were the descendants of this Sanfidesti so- ciety, which they now call the Mafia ; another band of assasssins and intimidators ; the word mafia means to intimidate ; things are begin- ning to work. Another society now shows itself called Camorra ; they come from the parent stock ; they learned their lesson in Italy, under the shade of the Vatican, and. come here to blossom. This murder of Chief Hennessv in New Orleans, and which was so terribly punished in the prison, are the lessons taught in this most holy Rome, and by this relentless so-called church. We are sowing the wind, we shall soon reap the whirlwind ; trouble is maturing. Popery-never changes. How does this agree with the Cronin case at Chicago? Also, where does the packing of juries come from ? In Catholic countries such work as the mere assassination of Chief Henness}' gets rewarded, and these people do not like to be punished by Protestants, for they consider themselves their masters ; hence the packing of juries ; and then, see who the priests are that per- formed the useless ceremony of the last rites of their church. A report says, " Father Leary, of the Jesuits, this morning performed the last sacred rites of the church over the elder, Mardiesi, who was shot yesterday, and said mass tor the repose of the souls of the slain." So I think the resemblance of the people at New Orleans and those expelled from Rome is complete. When we think this is a Protestant country, and in March, 1891, and see such things, it appears like a dream. Let us see how the THE INQUISITION. 367 assassins have been made? God appointed a place of refuge where accidental manslaughterers might take a refuge in certain cities. See Joshua XX, 2 and 3. " Speak to the children of Israel, saying, appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you, by the hand of Moses, that the slayer that killeth any person, unawares and unwittingly, may flee thither, and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood." The above, with a few of the following verses, is the law laid down by God with reference to loss of life. We see the embr3'o law, as established since, in the courts of justice, to try men and give them protection from the vengeance of man, until their guilt or in- nocence is known. It also distinguishes between murder and man- slaughter. So that man should not be left to the tender mercy of the family, out of which the deceased came. But to be tried b}' men of sober judgment, without prejudice. Society was then in such a crude state that men could not, con- trol their passions as to-day, and this law was given to do justice to all. But the good intention of the above law has, in a great many instances, been entirely frustrated b}' the abuses introduced by this so-called church, under the head of holy sanctuarj^ Cities of refuge had been done away with before Jesus came. Prisons had been built, evidence given by witnesses, and before judges, im- partial. But this so-called church, a long time after it was established in the seventh century, saw a means of giving them great power and influence, and money, as large sums were given to protect murder- ers and assassins, and this also threw a sort of mock sanctity over them, and the unwarranted revival of the these cities of refuge, en- couraged all sorts of crime, and in fact became the nursery of assas- sins and law-breakers. 368 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? No city in the world could breed them faster, or find for them scuh employment, as that one under the shadow of the Vatican, and same thing has occurred in all places under their control. The cathedrals were used as places of refuge, and if a murderer reached within a certain distance, he was on holy ground, and no one dare touch a man that was in holy sanctuary. The cathedral of St. Paul's, in London, England — the road all around this was once holy, so they said — it is three-quarters of a mile round, and the old Wesminster Abbey still retains the name of Broad Sanctuary ; that is, the old, noisy, paved road around it is known by that name ; we have often looked for the holiness, but could not see any difference in it from any other crusty road, but the assassin's e3'es might be clearer, for he went to it straight, and no donbt received absolution. And so the most sacred- things established by God have been used by this papacy as a speculation to make mone}^ and these things encouraging murder ; we may soon have here a broad sanctuary ; we have it in effect already m many things — also in the tampering with the jury. We resume. When the republic at Rome became a fact, and it was announced to the Roman people of the pope running awa}- in disguise in 1849, it made their hearts glad. One of their first acts was to burn the instruments of tortiu'e, and throw the ashes into the Tiber. Here was a people disgusted with the late government, and had chosen one for themselves, and were for the first time in many cen- turies, prosperous and happy ; but Austria, France and Spain com- bined to put them down, and restore the pope. Other nations looking on, to see this shameful spectacle, and per- mit it on political grounds. We do not give an account of the wars, but simply say the little republic fought well, and against greaf odds, and deserved a better THE INQUISITION. 369 fate, but the cause of popery was once more forced on them with all of its exactions, including the sickening sight of publicly flogging women, which has been often done in Italy. The cringing spirit of Roman Catholics allows the priests to horse- whip them, not only there, but in Ireland, and also in the United States ; had we space, we could give known and sworn cases. The French took possession of Rome in the name of the pope, but they were more merciful than he, for they gave twenty-four hours for the Romans to leave, which a great many of the principal leaders did. The pope was enraged at this lienencv, but was very cruel to those who could not get away : some statistics sa}' he executed several hundreds ; many died awful deaths in the prisons, a large number were killed in the wars, and a still larger number exiled. This in the nineteenth century. When people speak of the Inquisition, their thoughts are carried to Spain ; it did rage there fearfully, under that miserable fanatic, Phillip II. During his reign alone, it burned, tortured or beheaded more than twenty-five thousand Jews, Moors and Spaniards, besides those who were condemned to prison, confiscation or banishment, which would be four times the number, and to add the Indians and others in the United States, the number would foot up to such a height as to startle us. Some of Spain's cruelties will be found in another chapter ; to give the sickening details would be onh' a repe- tition of some of the brutal sights already furnished in our chapter on Spain, but that benighted country was not the only one in which the Inquisition raged, as we have seen, but Austria, France and other countries, were filled with prisons, after the same style ; the same cruelty all over ; what prayers and groans were going up to heaven, and wliich have to be yet answered ; things are done in America which the people have no idea of. If a religion cannot live without prisons and such horrid brutality, the sooner it sinks to where it came from, the better — the bottom- less pit. 370 WHY HAVE, PRIESTS AT ALL? This account of the Inquisition is probably different from what you expected, but the writer thought he would show it was not confined to Spain ; that hot bed of this iniquity ; but that all countries over which this king of bigotries had control, suffered greatly, and the earth has been made a hell to those who would not cast in their lot with this greatest of all idolatries, but tried to serve God according to the pattern laid down for them bv our Saviour and the Apostles. CHAPTER XV. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. " And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil; For every one that doeth evil, hateth light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." — John III, 19-20. IN writing on the above subject, one is at a loss what to record, not for want of matter, for volumes could be written ; the diffi- culty is to select that which will not cause the blush of shame to tinge the cheek : the whole history of these institutions shows them to be places of iniquity, hedged in under the sacred name of religion. Why these places are not visited by intelligent men and women, every week, or every day if necessar}', and a regular report made by unprejudiced persons of the Protestant persuasion is more than we can understand. If a house of ill-fame is known it can be entered, and the inmates taken before a police court and tried. Why not these. If nothing is wrong, why do they object to the broad day light. Every place is so guarded, with the gates and bars, that a stranger cannot enter without the whole establishment being put on the guard, and then you go through with the lady superior, or others in charge, but are refused to speak or go where the most broken hearted victims are kept; we think more than half these poor creatures would be glad to return to the world if they could be seen, and if 372 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? their tales of sorrow and shame were known the law would rescue them ; as it is, walls and bars stand between those who would gladly help these despairing ones. What are these places wanted for? Are they a necessity o^ religion? Where in God's word, can you find them recommended? As we have said in another part of this work, they are copied from the gentiles or pagans, and form part of the dark worship of some of the heathens of the world, and from which Romanism springs ; to the real christian they are an abomination. God never gave us any talent to shut up behind stone and iron gates : read the parable of the ten talents in XIX Luke ; he there expects us to gain other talents, not to bur^- them behind stone walls, and destroys the man that hid his Lord's talent in the earth ; in another place he says, "go ye into the world and preach the Gospel." Do these places fit the inmates for such work? Hear Jesus pray in XVII John 15, " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." God knows best what kind of a world to put us in, and the one we are in is the best, among the sin and temptations, for this is the battle field, and where we are to gain our victories. Each victory gives us strength. Those make a mistake who think Christianity is onl}^ a creed, it is a fight ; not only with the powers of darkness, but with our own heart; and we are not here to benefit ourselves onlv, we are to do good to others. If God had thought it best to shut us up in convents or monaster- ies. He would have told us so, and then Jesus would not have prayed that beautiful prayer, part of which has been related. This is only a false idea of piet3^ and if you had the true kind, you could not develop it behind stone walls ; the conception is con- trar}' tp God's plan of salvation. It is another couterfeit of the enemy. God sa3's, come in the right spirit, and I will give you pardon, through Christ. The devil savs, go and build a convent or monas- tery, and work it out, and in my way. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 373 This is taking it at the best; but when we find, as the experience has shown everywhere, what wickedness they hide from the light, then every honest heart must wish to have them swept away. Poor places for some nev^'ly-made christians, who have been vile sinners, to develop in. Could the Apostle Paul who, to use his ov\n words, had been the greatest of sinners as well as a wholesale murderer, have become the experienced saint we find him, in a monastery? No ! he had to go forth, and to suffer, and to be buff"eted, and to be imprisoned, but under the correcting hand of God. These poor creatures, shut up in these dens, go through all this, and sometimes more, but under another master ; and instead of elevating and sanctifying, it reduces them to broken-hearted, help- less, poor dependent creatures, to whom life is a burden, a monot- ony, without hope for the present or future. What kind of books do they have ? mostly lives of saints, most of them imaginary characters, and dished up to suit the superstition of this so-called church, working on the senses and filling the mind with thoughts fatal to Christianity ; many of the nuns die early, othei"s go insane, tempted from their homes by false statements, promised such exemption from cares, sheltered from man. who is looked upon as an enemy, expecting to find an earthly paradise and live among saints, and angelic creatures ; taught almost to despise their parents, and to leave them at a time of life when they ought to rally round them, and in some measure repay for the watching over their tender years, forgetting, if ever they knew, God's first com- mandment, with promise, "honor thy father and mother, that thy days may be long in the land, that the Lord thy God giveth thee." But what is the word of God in such a place as that? Do these poor girls that have been watched from their infancy t)y some of the Jesuits, and perhaps never had an opportunity of speaking to one out of this sectarian church alone, but watched at every step, virtually prisoners 37+ WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? from the cradle ? Do these, when entrapped, reahze the happy home and companionship promised by those who, by a system of cruel deception, have lured them into the horrid prisons? We will take the testimony of some of the few who have escaped this earthly pollution. What protection have these poor girls, taken awav from father, mother, brother, and all who could protect them, and left to the mercy of these priests who repudiate marriage, and are the only outsiders allowed in the part of the prison where they are shut up ? A mother or a father that would consent to place a girl in such a hopeless, helpless condition ought to well, let their conscience speak. What slavish superstition ? It shows how blind and dead a family can be to let this convent system open its deadly arms and swallow up these dear, unoffending creatures ; no doubt, as a rule, they are supeinor to the church they worship in, and are no doubt trying to find God, and are persuaded this is the best way ; but when the truth flashes over them, after they have made the false step and think it is too late to retrace, after the gates have closed them in, and all retreat shut off, oh ! what a wail of sorrow must go up from these broken-heai'ted creatures who find themselves surrounded, not by the angelic creatures they were taught to expect, but by women w^hose hearts have been hardened by this deception, and who delight in cruelty, and placing heavv burdens, almost unbearable, on these poor slaves who have chosen their master through ignorance, and find this, as they supposed earthly paradise, to be nothing but an earthly hell. Oh, mothers, fathers, relatives, this is what you are doing for the children ^-ou have raised, and no doubt love. We hope this mav be the means of snatching some poor girl from these painted sepulchres, and remember, when anyone tries to escape from this so-called church, they offer sometimes great rewards to get them back in their clutches. If they do not succeed, then they CONVENTS AND :\IONASTERIES. 375 vilify and persecute. If the poor creatures have kept themselves white as snow, they make them appear black as coals ; no mercy is shown ; they have been in many known and unknown cases, hunted to death ; and the worst is, this religion reverses human nature, turns father and mother against their child. Jesus said, a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He knew what these false religions would do, so he said in the X Matthew 35, " For I come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in- law against her mother-in-law ; " he meant the true religion would so interfere with idolatry, that this would be the result. The people belonging to this so-called church ought to learn a lesson from this persistent plan of vilifying all who ti*}- to rise super- ior to its practices and teachings. Remember, chickens come home to roost, 3'ou may have your turn some day, you may want to change, and then 3'ou will be made to appear as black as the rest. The only way the world can progress in anything is by com- parison ; compare this system with others intelligently, and if you find it is the best plan, and above all, God's plan, then cling tn it; if 3'Ou find something better, then leave it ; go outside the limits of your priests so-called ; mix with Protestants in their worship, and think as you should ; you belong to yourself, and to God ; and not to a clique, and do not allow yovirselves to be cramped up by rules made especially to deceive. For instance, you have a list of books you are forbidden to read ; those are the very first books you should read, and then you will see the reason why they were refused. Were you acquainted with these books, you could be in a position to answer for yourself. You would then see why they are called so vile and deadly, vicious, and all the names m the calender, and then find out why the Bible is kept back ; it would pay well for the time spent. Another foolish thing; "we are the first church." If 3'ou have 37^ WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? read this book you must see it is proved to the contrary, but sup- posing you are ; does age make a people or a system better? The devil is about as old as anything in the world ; does that make him good ? The writer expects this book to be evil-spoken of by these people, but will that alter the facts? Those of you who have read the way life is spent in these con- vents by the poor inmates, must at once see the mode does not pro- duce the best women ; the latter are kept going through forms so tedious and useless, fatiguing the body, cramping the mind ; every- thing tends to make them slaves and dull the intelect. The continued sham worship, sometimes in a language very few understand, the ridiculous penances, such as kissing the floor or the superior's teet, the marching to the table, and all innocent lan- guage suppressed, being always under the eye of some one watching every movement, night and day, must tend to give a slavish fear to these poor creatures, and make life miserable, and how easy to deceive people who must be tired of life, and who are taught black is white, or to speak plainly, are told that to commit sin, is no sin at all. if only done with a priest ; with those who pretend to be the ser- vants of God, when their actions prove them to be the servants of another master. We will listen now to what some of these that have escaped from these prison houses tell us. I will relate the first day's experience of one of these vilified per- sons, in a convent, who, after having passed throvigh that which appears to the naked eye so impressive, and so serious and real, and done impiously, in the name of God, in the taking of the veil, and done by a bishop who knows to what a helpless condition this poor innocent 3'oung woman would be placed in as soon as the mockery was over. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 377 The writer selects one from a number of books all telling the same tale, and in some cases affirming it on oath, so they cannot be all wrong. I take the case of Maria Monk, of Montreal. " After taking the vows, I proceeded to a small apartment behind the alter, accompanied by four nuns, where there was a coffin, pre- pared with my nun name engraved upon it, [Saint Eustace.] My companions lifted it by four handles attached to it, while I threw oft" my dress and put on that of a nun of Sour Bourgeoise, and then w^e all returned to the chapel. I proceeded first, and was followed by the four nuns. The bishop, naming a number of worldl}'^ pleasures in rapid svic- cession, in reply to which I rapidly repeated, I renounce, I renounce, I renounce. The coffin was then placed in front of the alter, and I advanced to la}' myself in it. The coffin was to be deposited, after the ceremony, in an outhouse, to be preserved until my death, when it was to receive my corpse. There were reflections which I naturally made at the time, but I stepped in, extended myself, and lay still. A pillow had been placed at the head of the coffin to support my head in a comfortable position. A large thick black cloth was then spread over me, and the chant- ing of Latin hymns immediately commenced. My thoughts were not the most pleasing during the time 1 lay in that situation. The pall, or drap mortel, as the cloth is called had a strong smell of incense, which was always disagreeable to me, and then proved almost suffocating. I recollected also a story I had heard of a novice who, in taking the veil, lay down in her coffin like me, and was covered in the same manner, but on the removal of the covering was found dead. 378 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? When I was uncovered, I rose, stepped out of my coffin and kneeled. The bishop then addressed these words to the Superior. "Take care and keep pure and spotless this young Virgin, whom Christ has consecrated to himself this day." x^fter which the music commenced, and here the whole was finished. I then proceeded from the chapel and returned to the superior's room, followed by the other nuns, who walked two b\' two in their customary manner, with their hands folded on their breasts, and their eyes cast down upon the floor. The nun who was to be my companion in the future, then walked at the head of the procession. On reaching the superior's door, thev all left me, and I entered alone, and found her with the bishop and two priests. The superior now informed me that having taken the black veil, it only remained that I should swear the three oaths customar}- on be- coming a nun, and that some explanations w^ould be necessary- from her ; I was now, she told me, to have access to every part of the edi- fice, even to the cellar, where two of the sisters were imprisoned for causes which she did not mention. I must be informed that one of my great duties v\-as to obey the priests in all things, and this I soon learned, to my utter astonishment and horror, was to live in the practice of criminal intercourse with them. I expressed some of the feelings which this announcement excited in me, which came upon me like a flash of lightning, but the only effect was to set her arguing with me in favor of the crime, repre- senting it as a virtue, acceptable to God, and honorable to me. The priests, she said, were not situated like other men, being for- bidden to marry, while they live secluded, laborious and self denying lives for our salvation. They might indeed be considered our saviors, as without their services we could not obtain the pardon of sins, and must go to hell ! ! CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 379 Now it was GUI" solemn duty on withdrawing from tlie world, to consecrate our lives to religion, to practice every species of self de- nial. We could not become too humble, nor mortify our feelings too far ; this was to be done by opposing them, and acting contrary to them, and what she proposed was, therefore, pleasing in the sight of God. I now felt how foolish I had been to place myself in the power of such persons as were around me. From what she said I could draw no other conclusion, but that I was required to act like the most abandoned of beings, and that all my future associates were habitually guilty of the most heinous and detestable crimes. When I repeated my expressions of surprise and horror, she told me that such feelings were very common at first, and that many other nuns had expressed themselves as I did, who had long since changed their minds. She even said, that on her entrance into the nunnery, she had felt like me. Doubts, she declared, were among our greatest enemies. They would lead us to question every point of duty, and induce us to waver at every step ; they were evidences of sin ; we must repent and con- fess. Priests could not sin, it was impossible ; so she hoped I would take the oaths and be faithful to them. She also said, infants were born in the convent, but they were baptized, and immediately strangled. This secured their everlasting happiness. Their little souls would thank those who kill their bodies, if the}' had it in their power. How differently did a convent now appear. The holy women ! the Lady superior! what were they? x\nd the priests I had reason to believe were base and profligate men. And now a number of the nuns were admitted ; they concurred in everything, and criminated themselves. I had been several years 380 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? under the tuition of Catholics, and was ignorant of the Scriptures ; had no society or example or conversation with Protestants." And now this poor girl has not been twelve hours in the convent, before she thinks of escaping ; but she is tight behind bolts and bars, so let us finish that part of her statement which binds her closer to the awful system, and completes her ruin. "Nothing important occurred, until late in the afternoon, when, as I was sitting in the communion room, father Dutresne called me out. saying he wanted to speak to me. I feared what were his intentions, but I dared not disobey. In a private apartment, he treated me in a brutal manner, and from two other priests, I afterwards received similar usage that evening. Father Dufresne afterwards appeared again, and I was compelled to remain in company with him until morning." — Maria Monk. In the same book we get an insight into these most holy, holy places. A number of young ladies enter as novices, and luckily for them, many are disgusted and leave ; this, no doubt, happens to the spirited ones ; they like best the poor half frightened girls, and they call that piet}', or give it the favorite name, holiness. One of the plucky kind came as a novice, and was there about two weeks. The first day she attended mass ; while at dinner, she said before us all, "What a rascal that priest was to preach against his best friend." All stared at such an unusual exclamation, and some one inquired what she meant. "I say," she continued, "he has been preaching against him who gives him bread; do you suppose that if there weie no devil, there would be any priests?" How often the truth comes out at a time and in a place least expected. This young lady was dismissed, she had not enough guilibilit}- for them, a good job for her. If she had only gone through the mockery of the veil, there would possibly be another smothering case to report. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 381 Here let me give briefly the murder of St. Francis ; this girl re- fused to become a prostitute, and expressed a wish to escape from this horrid den. That was her crime, so she was tied to a bed so she could not move, and gagged, and another bed thrown over her, and a priest named Bonin, sprung like a fury first upon it, and stamped upon it with all his force. Then the nuns followed, piling upon her, not only to smother, but to bruise her ; some stood up and jumped on her with their feet, others with their knees, beating the breath out of her body, and this continued until she was dead, and then her body un- ceremoniously thrown in a hole in the cellar, covered with lime, and sprinkled with vitrol, so that their victim would soon be beyond all recognition. This same book speaks of children being born in the convent, and after baptism, being as regularly smothered and thrown into the hole in the cellar, covered also with lime and vitrol. It speaks also of two prisoners in the dark cells in the cellar, being kept there for years, and no one dares even to speak or ask what they are there for, and the poor creatures are so frightened at a foot- step, that they tell anyone that comes to speak a kind word, to go away for fear of the priests. It speaks of private passages to the convent, known only to the priests who have access night and day. It speaks of such degrading penances, some of which are drinking the water after washing the superior's feet, eating worms, etc., and cruelty almost equal to the inquisition. It speaks of one case of a young woman being for the sake of her money, enticed into this place, and these poor creatures helped in the deception ; she was threatened, flattered and agreed to take the veil without any delay, and when once in, refused to see her father, and these poor dupes conspired with the superior, to tell such lies of her happiness to the father, that he paid the money, and they called him an old fool,' behind his back when gone. 382 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? Could any man, but a papist not see through this flimsy work? And then it speaks of the age of the nuns, and says it is a rare thing to be over forty 3-ears of age ; this speaks wonders ; where do they go to ; do they follow Saint Francis, or go to the insane asylum. The monotonous method of saying so manv false and toolish prayers, the fear of the priests, and the penance so disgusting, so degrading, together with the destroying of all womanlv feeling, all the joys of youth that God gave to be used for the pertecting of the religious character; the degredation of this whole monastic system keeps the mind so on the strain, alwa3's on one dreary subject, saints versus devils. Was it true religion, it would comfort and elevate ; but this is so apt to cause insanity, that it may in some measure ex- plain their short lives. The author of the above book, Maria Monk, it was said of her, her words were not worth taking : her statements criminating her- self. If that is the reason, let us take the evidence of one who was superior to that, and who resisted all attempts, even the process of drugging. We now speak of Edith O'Gorman, another escaped nun. This lady, whom we have had the pleasure of hearing lecture, had an indomitable spirit, and a great idea of right and wrong, and could not be persuaded by this Jesuitical system, that to commit the greatest sins, breaking God's commandments, would be pleasing in His sight, if only done in His name, and under a mask of hypocris}', so her word, one would suppose, would be believed by these papists, outside of the convents, but no ! they don't want proof, they are so glued to this worse than apostacy, that they oppose anything and everything without knowledge or reason, opposed to their system. There are some grand exceptions. You must read her books to find out how she has been persecuted everywhere, especially in that country, England, who was the CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 383 greatest friend of spiritual freedom, and who will be so again, as soon as their eyes are once more opened. I can only give a sketch or two. She confirms all Maria Monk has said, the same thing only whh variations, and being in America instead of Canada. She speaks and lifts the curtain and shows the difference between the same persons, before the public and in the presence of her slaves. We copy from one of her books, page 50. Sister Mary Joseph, was the name given to the great light of the convent at Paterson, N. J., of which she is writing, and at which time she was an inmate. She is attending to the .scholars, and has just received notice to dress the children, one Sunday morning, in their green uniforms. Just before the time for starting, this Sister Mary Joseph rushes in, demanding to know why the red uniforms are not put on. She is reminded that she ordered the green. So this amiable lady who has the forming of the minds of the establishment, "rushed toward and violently striking or pushing me," are her own words, and add- ing "you lying, lazy creature, change the green for the red in five minutes or I'll break every bone in your body." etc. The poor children were obliged to change their clothes in about five minutes, to be in time for church, causing the greatest confu- sion amongst themselves, and leaving everything in the wildest dis- order and so keeping me until noon in restoring things to their proper order. It was unusual to hear Sister Mary Joseph speak civilly to the sisters, but what a transformation was there in her manner and countenance, when she received and conversed with her admiring guests in the parlor. She appeared then all smiles and amiability. To the world she was a saint ; a sweet, holy sister ; behind the scenes she was a demon ; a fierce, arbitrary virago. I will lift the curtain a little more which hides her from the world. 384 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? I was one day obliged to consult her on a matter of obediance re- lative to the orphans, fearing lest I should forget it, and incur the penalty of a severe penance. I left my class in the school and hastened to the community room, where I expected to find her at her post of duty, but she was not there. I noiselessly went to her bedroom, and cautiously opened the door, fearing to disturb her should she be asleep or indisposed. She was not asleep, but entertaining a reverend father, (whose name I will not give, because he is now dead, and I have chiefly to treat with the living, who can defend themselves if I wrong them) in a manner very little in accordance witli convent rules, or the ideas of a pure 3'oung girl, who judged all things charitably, and thought evil of none. She was enraged at my intrusion, and violently pushed me through the hall, and down the stairs. The fall was so severe that I walked lame for over a week. She was afraid I might report her conduct to the other sisters, therefore, in the evening, she called me to her room, apologized a little for throwing me down stairs, and begged of me not to mention to any- one the adventure of the afternoon. Her excuse was that Fater D. was suddenly taken verv ill while calling on business, and that she insisted upon his resting on her bed, where slie could more readil}' minister unto him. I have given a simple fact ; let the mind draw its own inferences." — Edith O'Gor- man, the escaped nun, pages 50 and 51. Edith O'Gorman's book speaks largely on the cruelt\' of the in- mates, one to another, particularly the superior. Womanlv hatred to one another seems to have a fine field for development ; the sys- tem gives them a power over each other, and they cruelly use it ; thev learn to hate, but make no progress in the religion they left the world to obtain ; in fact, there is no religion of the right kind in these places ; it is all a sham from beginning to end. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 385 No doubt the poor creatures who enter are serious, and are taught this so-called church is the onl}' way to God, and when they find the deception that has been practiced on them, their hearts sink ; it changes their nature, and life becomes hopeless. This lady, Edith O'Gorman, speaks of a man named Walsh; she calls him Father Walsh, and she begins with saying : " The Roman Catholic priesthood, or hierarchy, is composed in a great part of hypocrites, but Father Walsh was certainly one of the most consummate hypocrites I ever met. " Surely, this lady ought to know^ being amongst them so many years : my space does not allow me to say much of any particular book, but will give a portion of the statement relating to this same Walsh, to show the danger of this lady, shut up behind stone walls, away from any help, or any earthly sympathy. She begins by saying: " Father Walsh, after his introduction to me, placed himself in my way, often spending from one to two hours a da}' in m}' class-room. His manner was always kind and affectionate, while he treated me with the most profound respect and marked attention. One day, about six weeks since I first saw him, he was review- ing my class, and when the exercises were over, he handed me the book, at the same time clasped my hand, and with an in- expressible tenderness in look and tone, said: ' Sister, I love you, I love you, O God ! better than my own soul, do I love you ! ' At these strange, passionate words, I snatched my hand from his burn- ing clasp, and, withovit uttering a word, I retreated from the school- room." This man was determined to follow this ladv, and he, having ac- cess to her class-room, was continually persecuting her. She makes an appeal to the Superior, who only chides her for what she considers an honor, to be noticed by a priest. Hear ve this ! an honor, and from the lips of the mother so-called of this supposed place of refuge and safety. 386 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? She resists all his appeals, and so he thinks to do, b)' the aid of drugs, that which is refused him any other way ; so coming where she is, to the altar, pretending to pray, he, under the di^guise of friendship, offers her something to cure her cold, which he means, she sa3-s, to cause her ruin ; by the liand of Providence, she is pre- vented from takingbut a small quantity, but sufficient to show the na- ture of the deadly drug, as also the trap laid for her. This helpless woman then appeals to a bishop, who finds all sorts of excuses for the man, but treats lightly her attempts to save her honor." — Edith O'Gorman's Convent Life, page 76. Can you wonder at her escaping from such a place, when she sees religion is only used for a mask? We have the histories of these con- vent.-, in all lands and at all times of this so-called church, and it has beeen the policy to deco\- as many women as possible, and in some cases to drive them like sheep into these dens. The priest who can persuade the largest number, under the pretence of saving their souls, is the greatest favorite, especially if they have money. In fact, the mone}' is one of the great motive powers ; thev have always been on the lookout for rich widows, heiresses, or anyone with money. Mr. Chiniqu^'.in his Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, speaksof an attempt of this kind, to get the money of a lady, by lurring her into a convent. He has received a letter from the Bishop of Montreal to call at his earliest convenience, and the first question asked, is, are you not the father confessor of Mrs. Chenier? Answer, yes. I suppose you. know her only child is a nun, in the Congregation convent? Answer, yes. Could 3'ou not induce her to become a nun also? "I never thought of that, my lord, I answered, and I do not see why I should advise her to exchange her beautiful cottage, washed by the fresh and pure waters of the St. Lawrence, where she looks so happ}' and cheerful, for the gloomy walls of the nunnery." CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 387 " But she is still young and beautiful ; she may be deceived by temptation, when she is there in that beautiful house, surrounded by all the enio3'ments of her fortune," replied the bishop. Part of his reply is, "A good, christian husband seems to me a much better remedy against the dangers than the cheerless walls of a nunnery." " You speak just as a Protestant," said the bishop ; " we remark, that though you hear the confessions of a great number of young ladies, there is not a single one of them who has ever become a nun. You seem to ignore that the vow of chastity is the shortest way to a life of holiness in this world, and happiness in the next." " I am sorry to differ from you, your's is a modern remedy. God's old one is much better, I think ; here he commends marriage. I know too well how the great majority of nuns keep their vows of chastity, to believe that the modern remedy against the temptations you mention is an improvement on the old one found and given by God," I answered. With an angry look, the bishop replied : "This is Protestantism, Mr. Chiniquy, this is sheer Protestan- tism." "It is simply and absolutely the pure word of God. Please give me a good reason why I should advise Mrs. Chenier to enter a mo- nastery, and I will comply with your request the very first time she comes to confess." The bishop said, "My first reason is, the spiritual good she would receive from her vows of perpetual chastity and poverty in a nunnery. The second reason is, that the lady is rich, and we are in need of money ; we would soon possess her whole fortune, for her only child is already in the congregation convent." "My dear bishop," I replied, "you know what I think of the first reason. After having investigated the fact, not in the Protestant 388 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? books, but from the lips of nuns themselves, and father confessors, I am fully convinced that the real virtue of purity is much better kept in the homes of our christian mothers, married sisters and female friends, than in the secret rooms, not to say prisons, where the poor nuns are enchained bv the heavy fetters assumed by their vows, which the great majority curse when thev cannot break them. And for the second reason, I cannot consciously accept it. I have not consecrated myself to deprive families of their inheritance, to en- rich myself, or anj'bod}' else. I know she has poor relations who need her foriune after her death." "Do you pretend to say that 3-our bishop is a thief? " angrily re- joined the bishop. — Fifty years in the church of Rome, page 517. And after a few more such words, the bishop pretended to hide his feelings, and asked Mr. Chiniquy to keep the whole matter a secret, and he goes home to a friend, to find it is no secret, but using him is part of the scheme to rob this poor woman of her money. And this is only a very mild case ; history is full of it ; and so seldom do we find a man with the courage to refuse to do the vile work of this wholesale plundering establishment. This widow has onl}^ one child, a daughter ; no doubt she feels the loss of it very much, and has given her up at a time of life when she needs her companionship, to what she has been persuaded is a duty to God, and these wretches having the child in their pointed hands, they now wish to get the fond mother also. What for? Nothing but the purpose of fleecing the familv of their money. The bishop has said, to refuse to help in this business was Protestantism, sheer Protestantism. Thank God it is. It makes one's heart bleed to find in this nineteenth century, such things done, and under the govern- ment of a Great Protestant nation. We have scarcely begun to tell the story of these institutions, but we have not space for more, for we must say a word or so on the monasteries. And to begin, let us ask, what good are these places CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 3<5 to society? Thev are built and kept up at a great expense, and in many cases the money is taken from such ladies as we have been speaking about, or wrung from poor families who need help in- stead ot having their poor means taken away under ecclesiastical threats. We need not here state the pretences given for their existence, they are so numerous, and seemingly plausible. But the end does not justify the cost, or the bad effect of having armies of lazy men living on the community and having these places of assignation in our midst, contaminating society, for the moral character is worse than convents ; drunkeness and other vices being added, and the plea of holiness and poverty vanishes away as soon as the curtain is lifted, and you see they conceal all the disorders of their lives under pre- tended hypocritical severity. The writer is a lover of facts, so let us take a peep into the past history of these establishments, and we will go back to the time of that pattern of purity, so-called, Pius V, pope in the sixteenth century, who, with his kindred allies in Europe, was making bonfires under heretics, all over the different countries, to purify the air, and if possible, to leave nothing on the surface but such pure creatures as himself, and the sweet ones belong- ing to his so-called church, some of which lived in these same con- vents and monasteries. About this time a commission was ordered to examine these places, for the poor trodden down people of that day were, like the wounded snake, beginning to squirm. The members of this commission were ordered to make a detailed report as to the means to be employed to arrest the disorders of the monks, and to draw up a list of the religious communities, which it was urgent to suppress, as well as that of the convents, which had preserved the spirit of their constitution in all its purity. The result of this inquiry was singular enough. The commissaries declared 39° WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? that they could not find one monnstery in Italy, in which the reli- gious were not addicted to drunkeness, idleness, sodotpy and all kinds of abominations. They reported that in Austria, they had visited one hundred and twenty-two convents of men and women, and that they had counted in the monasteries of the monks, one hundred and ninety-nine prosti- tutes, and fifty-five young boys and girls of less than twelve years old, and in the houses of the nuns, four hundred and fourty-three domestics, who were at once the servants and the lovers of the sister- hood. They declared that in France, the convents were the theatres of even still greater outrages, and they cited, among others, the monks of Aurillae. In fact the disorders of these monks had so passed all bounds that the syndic and consuls had complained to parliament of Charles de Senectarie, Abbot of the convent of Aurillae and lord of that city. Twenty four witnesses had deposed that the Abbot Charles, his nephew, John Belveser. called Jouchieres, the protho notary of the abbey, Anthony de Senectarie, Abbot of St. John, his niece, Maria de Senectarie, Abbes of Bois, who Governed a convent of women in the same city, as well as the monks and nuns of the two houses, abandoned themselves habitually to every excess of the most horrible depravity. They proved that several monks had as many as five or six mis- tresses at once, either courtezans or young girls carried oft from their parents, or women suborned or ravished from their husbands. That they had, moreover, a large number of bastards, whom thev also used as their minions. The}^ proved, moreover, that the abbot Charles de Senectarie, made sorties at the head of his monks, beat up the country to find maidens, and drove before him in open day, with blows from his cross, such as suited him, forcing them to enter his den, without the fathers and mothers being able to offer the least resistance, from fear of being assassinated by the monks. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 39 1 It resulted from these depositions, that the monastery of Aurillac was secularised. This was all ; the parliament having declared itself incompetent to judge the accused, being in ecclesiastical orders. L. de Cormein's, His. of popes, page 260. If Roman Catholics were not kept so ignorant of the history of their so-called church, theA' would not be so angry as some of them arc when spoken to about their religion ; had they to go through the same experience as the people of the dark ages had, and groaned under, they would gladly accept help from any one, and had it not been for the blessings Protestantism has brought into the world, this earth would now be such a wretched place that it would be a mini- tui'e hell. Let them go to history and find out for themselves : not a perverted one, written by these evil doers, to hide the pas':, but written by some author whose object is not self, but love to mankind, and whose pen places before you the tinath. How would you like your daughters to be driven like sheep before your eyes, and not a man of you dare say nay, or lift a hand to save your darling girls from these wretches? No, the so-called church had so bound them down by superstition, the man was all taken out. What could these daughters think of such fathers? Why, if their manhood was not gene, a dozen of them combined, could chase a hundred of such cowards ; we pity these men, because the law was on the side of the monks. It was a very convenient doctrine to be under ecclesiastical orders ; they could do any villany, as long as the papacy, was independent of the law, and they would like, and are trying to bring this country into the same miserable state of things, of which we have been writing ; and are we not doing a great deal to encourage it? These people can have as much land as they please, without pay- ing taxes, to build these wretched places on, and do not Protestants even give their money as well as permit their fellow citizens to be 392 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? imposed on by this greatest of all cheats, the supposed power vested in priests. The law of these monasteries made the monks dead to all the finer teelings ot humanity, and silences the reason and conscience ; they must follow a blind obedience in everything, if ever so criminal, never allowing reason or consciousness to assert its right ; they have no respect for each other, but are constantly acting as spies ; there- fore no conversation of an elevating character takes place ; they become more like mutes ; are such people fit to teach the word of Godr And lacking that quality of what earthly use are they? Are the}'^ burying their talents in the earth, and preparing an awful ^'uture for themselves — are they not treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath ? Luther, on his way to Rome, lost confidence in a religion that could tolerate these institutions. We give a short sketch of his experience. "Weary with his journev, he entered a monastery, situated on the banks of the Fo to refresh himself a few days. The splendor of the establishments struck him with wonder. Its yearly revenue amounting to the enormous sum of thirty-six thousand ducats, was all expended in feeding, clothing and lodging the monks. The apartments were sumptuous in the extreme, they were lined with marble, adorned with paintings and filled with rich furniture, equally luxurious and delicate was the clothing of the monks ; silks and velvets mostly formed their attire, and every day they sat down at a table loaded with exquisite and skillfully cooked dishes. The monk who, in his native Germany, had inhabited a bare cell, and whose day's provision was at times, only a herring and a small piece of bread, was astonished, but said nothing. Friday came, and on Friday the church has forbidden the faithful to taste flesh. The table of the monks groaned under the same abundance as before. As on other days, so on this there were dishes of meat. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 393 Luther could no longer refrain. On this day, said Luther, such things may not be eaten. The pope has forbidden them. The monks opened their eyes in astonishment on the rude German. Verily, thought they, his boldness is great. It did not spoil their appetite, but the}' begun to be apprehensive that the German might report their manner of life at headquarters, and they consulted to- gether, how this danger might be obviated. The porter, a humane man, dropped a hint to Luther of the risk he would incur, should he make a longer stay. Profiting by the friendly council, to depart hence, while health served him, he took leave with as little delay as possible of the monastery, and all in it." Rev. J. A. Wylie's His. of Protestantism, page 245, vol. i. We will now take Mr. Chiniquy's opinion ; he says : " As you ask me, in earnest, what are the advantages of a monas- tic life over a secular, in a word and social point of view, I will an- swer you. In the monastery, man, as the image of God, forgets his divine origin, loses his dignity, and as a christian, he loses the most holy weapons Christ has given to his disciples to fight the battle of life. He at once and forever loses that law of self respect, and respect for others, which is one of the most powerful and legitimate bar- riers against vice. Yes ! that great and divine law of self respect, which God himself has implanted in the heart of every man and woman who lives in a christian society, is completel}' destroyed in the monastery and nunnery. The foundation of perfection in the monk and the nun is, that the}- must consider themselves as corpses. Does it not sweep away every idea of holiness, purity, greatness ? It is for that reason that- if you study the true historv, not the lying , history of Monachism, you will find the details of a corruption im- possible anywhere else, not even among the lowest houses of prosti- tution. 394 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? Read the memoirs of Scipio de Ricci, one of the most pious and inteUigent bishops our church has ever had, and 3-ou will see that the monks and nuns of Italy lead the very life of the brutes in the field ; read the terrible revelations of what is going on among those unfortunate men and women whom the iron hand of Monachism keeps tied in their dark dungeons. You will hear from the very lips of the nuns, that the monks are more free with them than husbands are w'ith their legitimate wives. You will see that everyone of those monastic insititutions is a new Sodom. I need not tell you, for you know that their vow of poverty is a mask to help them to become rich with more rapidity than the rest of the world. Is it not under the mask of that vow that the monks of England, Scotland, France and Italy became the masters of the richest lands of those countries which the nations were forced by bloody revolutions to wa-ench from their grasp?" — Fift}- years in the Church of Rome, pages 445-6. "I have never seen such a love of money, of honor, of vain glory, as I have seen among the monks since I have become one of them. I have lived several years in their palatial monastery of Rome, have cultivated and enjoyed their sweet fruits in their magnificent gardens, but I was not there lonp" without seeingf the fatal error I had com- mitted in becoming a monk. During the many years I resided in that splendid mansion, where laziness, stupiditv, filthiness, gluttony, superstition, tediousness, ignorance, pride and unmentionable immoralities, with verj' few ex- ceptional cases, reigned supreme." — Fifty years in the Church ot Rome, page 447. The above is a very small part of an already subsidized account between two priests who had been monks, and of course know what they are talking about. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIKS. 395 '■ In Rome there are, or were, from thirty to forty thousand monks and nuns condemned to the material interests of the Vatican, to an impossible chastity to violence against nature, for which she avenges herself, by treading under her feet morality, and compelling families and the state to bear the consequences of this condition of violence in which the church has placed it. Humanity and morality are paying the cost in Europe, of eight centuries of temporal power of the ambition of the pontificate, and from it come the blood stains that disgrace the Eternal City." — Why Priests Should Wed, page 147. ** It is not generally known that the crime of procuring abortion — a crime which our laws pronounce to be felony — is a common offense in popish nunneries. In Kings County penitentiary is a woman who has been in prison twenty years for infanticide, and who is condemned to stay there for life. That w^hich is a crime in the slate is a practice in the convents. Luther, in his 'Table Talk,' says, that in his time, a pool was cleaned out in the vicinity of a convent, and the bottom was almost litterally paved with the bones of in- fants." — Why Priests Should Wed, page 147. We copy here a report in the time of Henry VIII from the com- missioners of monasteries in England. The report of the commissioners was presented to the Commons at their meeting, on the 4th of February, 1536. " It is not our intention to dwell on the horrors that shocked the nation when the veil was lifted. The three foundations, or cardinal virtues, which these institutions had been established to exemplify, were obedience, poverty and chastity. They illustrated their obedi- ence by raising themselves above the laws of the I'ealm ; their poverty, by filling their houses with gold and silver, and precious rai- ment, and their chastity, by practices which we leave other historians to describe. Nowhere was holiness so conspicuously absent, as in these holy houses. There were found in them, says one, not seven, 396 WHY HAVE PRIKST.S AT ALL? but more than seven hundred thousand deadly sins ; ahick I m}' heart maketh all my members to tremble, when I remember the abomina- tions that were then tryed out; O, Lord God, what canst thou an- swer to the five cities, confounded with the celestial fire, when tliey shall allege before thee the iniquities of these religions, whom thou hast so long supported I * * * * In the dark and sharp prisons, there were found dead, so many of their brethren, that it is a won- der ; some crucified with more torments than ever were heard ot', and some famished to death, only for breaking their superstitious silences, or some like trifles -* * * * No, truly, the monstrous lives of monks, friars, and nuns have destroyed their monasteries and churches, and not we." — Rev. J. A. Wylie's His. of Protestant- ism, vol. 3, page 401. " The monks and nuns were turned adrift without an\- sutflcient provision. Those who had been beggars before were now plunged into deeper povert}-. Thefts, murders, treasons abounded, and executions were multiplied in the same proportion, Seventy-two thousand persons are said to have perished by the hand of the executioner, in the reign of King Henrj- III." — Rev. J. A. Wylie's His. of Protestantism, page 401. Well, how do you like the picture? Only as yet a grain, have we drawn from this mountain of sin, and which is, harlot-like, im- pudentl}' denied and laughed at, when 3-ou confront these Catholics with these statements. I sometimes think it is the ver}- corruption of this filthy st}' that keeps it together. Can men and women so play with religion? Are governments aware of such things in their midst? Oh, some will say, it cannot be so ; it is untrue. Well, then, all history is untrue, for it is full of it. What is the meaning of the scores of the children's skeletons found in all the ages of this church when convents have been sudden- ly brought to the light? And these are the people that have been CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 397 burning and outraging" christians b}' the millions, to force them to their unrighteous creed. Who are the heretics now? These are those that have been ban- ishing good, honest, and religious men and women from their homes, for what? Because they must have seen they were ten times better than themselves, and therefore they hated them. And now the people ought for the love of God, to say, in the majest}' of morality and truth, these things must stop — let the mask be torn away trom these j-eeming saints, and these places open for public inspection, or, what is better, pull them down, or do as they are doing in Iialy. Open them as school houses ; that is the use Italians have given to these places, and in the country nearest the pope, and of which we have just given a small idea of their past use. Oh, the groans and hellish deeds that will be brought to light when the books are opened, and these vile wretches are brought face to face with their victims, before an impartial Judge, and in whose name this vile atrocity has been done. Tremble, ye so-called priests, for the judgment draweth nigh. Is there any other body of women in the world that could be so reduced as to assist in such work as Maria Monk says was done in the convent at Montreal in the diabolical murder of Saint Francis and then to keep it a secret from the justices of the law? And will any mother or father allow their chilcren to be taught at these schools, to be taught by teachers of this system? When Maria Monk was leaving Montreal by the steamboat, to get away from persecution, she hears two young girls speaking of herself as being anti-christ, let loose in that city ; the}' are leaving there, because ihey would be contaminated to be in a place where an escaped nun was, and who they are told was anti-christ, tr3'ing to destro}' the Catholic religion? Do we want our children taught by such super- stitious persons? If they can mould such ideas into children, we do 398 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? not want ours or any others taught under such circumstances. These little girls did not think that they were a part of this same anti-christ. Justin D. Fulton, D. D., says: "This church, so polluted and so vile, is reckoned by man}', as one of the religions denominations. These priests, and priests as debased as vile, are called, in the United States, by so-called christians, ministers of God. The ignor- ance of the average professing christian in America concerning Romanism, what it was and is, surprises those who have studied the character of papal life, and the blindness of the people who ought to be better informed. It will not do to say that this belonged to a past age. Priests, nuns and confessors are the same now that they were in the fifteenth century, all over the world. Whoever visits Paris will find a lying-in hospital attached to every nunnery. The same is to be seen in Madrid, and the principal cities of Spain, in Mexico, and in Dublin, Ireland." — Why Priests Should Wed, page 146. And here let the writer sav, this is one of his great anxieties ; the indifterence, or the ignorance of the people of this countrj^ on the subject of this so-called church. It is remarkable how little the average person knows of its history, and mingling as we do in trade and social life, we are so apt to loose sight of the fact that these people are those who have hunted God's elect all over the earth, and burned them, and with scorn sent their ashes to the four corners of the earth ; they are not naturally cruel, but are so under the toils of this so-called church, that if the; pope was to give an order, most every man's hand would be lifted against you ; remember, it is only a question of time. They are getting ready, ard calculating their forces, insinuating themselves into ever}' trade and profession, in the private houses by the servant girls. Thev have an armv of Jesuits prowling about in every meeting, congregation, or social gathering, and by this cursed confessional, make themselves acquainted with everv man's business. CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES. 399 Oh, ye ministers of the Gospel, you ought to be on the alert, for the time is pressing. You would find thousands that would rally around you were you to preach to your congregations, on the sub- ject of this great evil. And remember these thousands and scores of thousands that have had to leave the convents and monasteries in Europe, Mexico and other places, are sent where they can get a footing, and we have perhaps more than our quota ; they are also voting at our elections, and help to return men, favorable to this worse than apostacy. My space is limited, but the few cases I have given are a specimen of the evil-doings everywhere. And to any christian who says or thinks that this confederacy ever formed a part of the church for which Christ gave up his life, and which the apostles preached, and left their testimony, I say, such had better go to the throne of Grace and ask Jesus to open their eyes, for I believe we are committing a great sin in not warning these so-called priests and their people that we understand them, and that God has revealed them to us. And as a finish to this chap- ter, let me remind you, God gave you a home here, and most un- mistakably protected you in your youth, and made you a Protestant nation, and if you do not value your birthright enough to take care of it, then, as we have said in another part of this work, the Philis- tines are in the land, and He may hand you over to their tender mercies. " And he said unto me, It is done ; I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give him that is athirst of the foun- tain of the water of life freely. He that orercometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and mur- derers, and whore mongers, sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim- stone, which is the second death." Revelations XXI, 6, 7, 8. 400 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? And how does the lying to these poor creatures, in order to ruin them, by saying, if these so-called priests commit sin, it is no sin, agree with the following passages of Scripture : I John III, 8, 9, 10 and 12. " He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed re- maineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. He that sayeth I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." I John II, 4. CHAPTER XVI. THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heavens above, or that is in the earth btneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers, upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation, of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." Exodus XX, 4, 5, 6. THE above is part of the law, as given by God, for the guidance of his people, both Jew and Gentile, for all ages to come. Yet at the very moment it was being written by the linger of God, the people whom he had led, by such a mighty hand, from their bondage in Egypt, were preparing to make an idol, in the shape of a golden calf, to fall down and worship, and even Aaron, the priest, assisted at the feast and the offering made to this idol, the work of men's hands. Men in all ages, led by the spirit of evil, have shown a great tend- ency to idol worship. These people had been brought out of an idolatrous nation, and knew but little, and to us, trom this distance, there might seem some excuse for their falling away so soon, and yet God was so angry, that had not one man, Moses, stood between them and his wrath, he would have destro3'ed them all. And if God considered it so great a crime, then, what must he think of it to-day, after the light of his 402 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? truth has been spread abroad the earth, and is now being spread, at a pace unparalleled in the history of his church? Can any one but a heathen see any difference between worship- ing this golden calf and the Virgin Mar}-, or any of these saints so- called? What will God render to those who persistently teach such idolatry, also the continually crossing themselves before an}' image, be it saint or Virgin Mary, and by this act teach, and do that which Paul said would be done? See II Thessalonians II, 9 and 10. "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." Read the rest of the chapter, for it is speaking of the coming papacy. God never changes, He is the same to-day, yesterday and torever, and as that is so, how came He to write the verse at the head of this chapter, if the saints and Virgin Mary are to be worshiped ? Some people object to the inspiration of the prophets, which is ■wrong ; but they cannot do so in this case, for the above words were ■written by the finger of God himself, on a stone, and delivered per- sonally to Moses, and by these commandments, He wholly repudi- ates the worship of saints and the Virgin Mary, or even the bowing down to them. The doing of which He pronounces idolatry, and says, in" effect, you hate Him, if you do so, and He will punish such acts, even to the third and fourth generation ; in the case of children, but to the elders' death; then, as that is the case, what, but evil can come to the people or congregation that will persist in doing so? An awful curse is pronounced against the so-called priests who will contin- ually teach such things, and by so doing they are not entering the kingdom themselves, but keeping out those that would enter. Then, if this sort of worship does not come Irom God, where does it come from? Let us try and find out. How excited this or any country would be, if the Chinese were to come and build a temple to Budda in every town, or if one was built THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 4O3 to the goddess Diana, Kwan Zin, the goddess of mercy, or if the Turks or Arabians were to build a mosque to Omar or to Mohammed ; or again, if Hindo temples should go up, by the twos or threes, or more in each town, according to their size, we should begin to think ourselves inundated with idolatry. And yet, what difference is there in the present state of things? In allowing Roman churches to be erected, we are actually bring- ing into notice, all of the above religions, for popery is a combination of all the idolatrous religions in the world ; in reality, antichrist. In the first place, they borrow from the Chinese in their Budda, by having their priests with shaven heads, canonized saints, wax can- dles, penances, confessional. Lent, the rosary, purgatory, monas- teries. "The Chinese sell pra3'ers. The Catholics, indulgences, in the same way, by auction or otherwise, so that a man or woman can buy an indulgence for past sins, present, or to come, the length of time he might sin, or the quality of his crime, including murder, would depend upon how much money paid. The way these indul- gences were sold has been given in another chapter. The Egyptians were polytheists, or many god worshipers. The Roman Catholics are the same, only now they call them saints, and not gods ; they carry images in their pockets, as of old. I have seen in a book store, in this 3'ear of our Lord, 1890, a case with an assort- ment of these idols for sale for papists. The proprietor of the store, an American, and a Protestant by name. Surely the dollar is mighty. The writer used to visit the jail, and for several years, to speak to the prisont^rs. who by the bye, are almost always two thirds Catholics. On one Sunday, we were going to have the usual services, and we used to go to the cells and invite the prisoners on this occasion ; I met with a dreadful disapated man, his whole appearance was bad. Vice had claimed him for a victim; he had just slept off' a debauch, but said he was a good Catholic, and as usual had no fear but of the church. Is not this dreadful? And on my inviting him to come and speak about Jesus, 404 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? he, in a mysterious manner, said Jesus was nearer to him than I thought. I asked for an explanation. I could not think Jesus to be near a drunkard. Then he pulled out of his pocket, a little brass Jesus, and held it up triumphantly. He was at once told that that was a dead Christ, and I wanted to tell him about the living Jesus, for that was only a S3^mbol, an idol, and of no earthly use to him, but a snare to lull him to sleep. Oh, what a religion, that will lead men to destruction, with their eyes open but to return. The worship of the Virgin Mary is taken from the goddesses before mentioned. Kwan Zin, the goddess of mercy, has a temple at Canton, China, where she is worshiped with great pomp, on the nineteenth day of the second month, which is the anniversery of her death and canonization. And this goddess draws the Chinese and Japanese out of purga- tory. This is pagan worship and belongs to the ancient mythology. You cannot change it by calling it christian, and as far as any good it will do, it is just as effectual as the worship of the Virgin Mary. But we will go back in the historj' of goddesses, to Nimrod, the third descendent from Noah, see Genesis X, 8, 9, 10, wlio built the Ancient Bab3-lon or Babel. They had their popes and cardinals, onl}- under different names. It was at this place the wickedness of worshiping" the Vi'gin Mary begun, in the person of Nimrod's wife, a beautiful woman, and a very devout one, but a heathen. A person may be devout, and 3'et be the victim of a false system. It is said some of the Roman Catholics are ver3- devout : this is very frequent, but it is mixed with dread ; dread of som.e supposed power the church holds over them, and in fact, this is in a great measure, the secret of these human religions. They fear the curse of the church. THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 405 The devotion of real religion is so different; it is unmixed with fear, its votaries have passed into the rest promised to the people of God, and therefore their devotion is prompted by love, and love to a being, with whom they have a personal knowledge, v\hich is given by the Holy Ghost, and they are in daily and hourly communion with this being. So they do not need saints and Virgins, and fast da3's and feast days, and svmbols and shrines, festivals and ritural observances to whet the appetite. The Holy Spirit does that, and they realize in their experience, what Jesus said, blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, for unto them that have, shall be given, and they shall have more abundance. So these human inventions to them are useless ; faith in the pro- mises of our Lord Jesus Christ, fattens the christians' souls daily. But to return. Nimrod's wife was canonized, and they called her the queen of heaven, and worshiped her as such. Now, God says such worship is wicked, but the pope says you cannot go to heaven unless you disobey God's commandments. Never mind what God says, you attend to me. Is not this an echo of the Garden of Eden? You shall not surely die." But God in his word says, and comman- ded the people to stone to death, any found committing this wicked- ness, and he is so angry that he will not even hear a pra3'er in their favor. See Jeremiah VH, i8. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead the doup^h to make cakes to the queen of heaven. (Do they not get their host from this?) see also Jeremiah XLIV, 19. This is a complaint made by the prophet Jeremiah, against this kind of worship, but the people then, as now, were so infatuated by what their priests (false ones then, as now, J tell them, that they would hardly listen to the prophet of God, and made the same excuses as are made to-dav ; therefore, the curse of God was pronounced against such evil doers. See verses 16, 17, and read more of this chapter, to fully understand. 406 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? Now if it was wicked in that day, is it not so now? The verse at the head of the chapter says, you must not bow or kneel, and why not take God's word in preference to men so corrupt as many of these so-called priests ? Changing the name from Queen of Heaven to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Mother of God, does not change the crime; the idol wor- ship is the same. How can a woman be the mother of God? She was the mother of the body in which Jesus lived when on earth, but Jesus lived as God the Son before the world was, and by Him was all things made, that were made, so He is her Creator, but this is all on a piece with her immaculate conception and the pope's infallibility. Now, supposing 3'ou could from any source or manner prove her to be the mother of God, where do you get authority to worship her? She is surel}' one of the host of heaven, and in their likeness, and as such worship is forbidden. The writer wani^s to fully prove his case from the Word of God, so see Deuteronomy XVH, 2 to 5, inclusive: — "If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God givelh thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant, and hath gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heav^en, which I have not commanded, and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and behold the thing is true, and the thing certain that such abomina- tion is wrought in Israel, then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till the}^ die." This shows God has set his face against any and all approaches to these idols, in any way or shape, either in worshiping, bowing, kneeling, or in an}- other way. We put the question at the beginning of this inquiry: "If this worship does not come from God, then where does it come from ?" THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 4O7 It is certain, after reading" the above verses, that it does not come from God ; then we pronounce it the mvention of Satan, but observed from time to time by liis human Satellites. If you were to take away this saint worship and the mass from the popish church, it would hardly have anything left ; but the one is as great an abomination as the other, and yet in the face of such facts as are given above from God's Word, they not onl}^ keep on deceiving, and being deceived, but liave published some of the most extraordinary books founded on human reason, or evil suggestions, to deceive the innocent and unsuspecting, who have placed them- selves in their hands, and God will judge them for leading these poor people astray. One of the most blasphemous is the glories of Mary, by Alphon- sus de Lignori, an Italian. Italy must be, as it is represented, a very dreamy land ; nothing but a dreamer could produce such light, airy nothings, and pretend to add such importance to them. The above author must have lost his head amongst the statuary of Rome and its idolatrous life ; we will take a few of these thoughts from his glories of Mary. He, speaking of the Virgin Mary, calls her, as did the heathens of Babel, "Queen of Heaven," but he improves on them, for he, having once begun, can't stop ; so he adds, "of earth, of mercy, of angels, of patriarchs, of prophets, of apostles, of mart3'rs, of confes- sors, of Virgins, of saints. Mother of God, of penitents and especially of obdurate and abandoned sinners ; ravisher of heart, finder of grace, hope of salvation, defense of the faithful, helper of sinners; our only advocate, our refuge, our protection, our health, our life, our hope, our soul, our heart, our mistress, our lady, our loving mother, secure salvation, redeemer of the world, Virgin of Virgins, Mother undefiled, unviolated, most pure, most chase, most amiable, most admirable, most prudent, most venerable, most powerful, most merciful, mirror of justice, seat of wisdom, cause of joy, spiritual 408 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? vessel, vessel of honor, mj'stical rose, tower of David, house of gold, ark of the covenant, gate of heaven, morning star, comfort of the afflicted." — Popery, the Foe of the Church, page i8i. Of course, he has exhausted himself, you say, he cannot surely have more to say. Oh, has he? Why, we could copy twenty sheets of this fulsome nonsense, of attributing the virtues that belong to God, and to Christ, to this Lady. A few more words. "In Mary we shall find every hope * * * In a word, we shall find in Mary, life and eternal salvation. For this reason, too, she is called the gate of heaven, by the holy church. St. Bonaventure, moreover, says that Mary is called the gate of heaven, because no one can enter heaven, if he does not pass through Mar3% who is the door of it." — Popery, the Foe of the Church, page 183. Let us wait a moment, and see what Jesus says on this subject. We must take his word, before this Italian dreamer's. "Then, said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep, all that ever came before me, are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them ; I am the door, by me if any man enter in ; he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy." — St. John, X, 7. Now, Jesus says he is the gate, or door, and we are to enter through him. Then what do we want of the Virgin Mary? He sa\s, all that came before me are thieves and robbers, and thev come onl}- to kill and destroy. Jesus came to change the religions of the world, and offer something better ; it was full of saints and virgins, and He tells us salvation is through Himself, and His sheep hear and believe. So in order to kill and destroy, as he describes, this so-called church comes, bringing back the old idolatry, in the shape of Saints and Virgin Mary, to rob them of the word of God, and to put in its place, anti-christ ; but also remember, his "sheep" did not hear them. THE VIRGIN MARV AND SAINTS. 4O9 No one, who knows Christ to be his shepard, would listen to such apostate teaching ; how many millions have gone to the stake rather than listen to such blasphemy? And again, in the i6th verse, "'And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold * * * * ; them also must 1 bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one told, and one shepherd? " This last, seems plain to the writer, to speak of the day when these false religions will give way, and listen to no other voice but Jesus ; they will all be swept from the earth. And then, glorious time ; there will be but one fold, and one shepherd. But a little more from the Glories of Mar}', taken from " Popery the Foe of the Church." Richard, of St. Lawrence, says: " Our salvation is in the hands of Marv — Cassian absolutel}' affirms that the salvation of the whole world depends upon the favor and protection of Mary." — Page 190. "Thou hast a merit that has no limits, and an entire power over all creatures. Thou art the mother of God, the mistress of the world, the queen of Heaven. Thou art the dispenser of all graces, the glory of the holy church." — Page 673. " O, mother of mv God, and my lady Marv, as a poor wounded and loathsome wretch presents himself to a great Qiieen, I present myself to thee, who art the Qiieen of Heaven and earth. From the loft}' throne on which thou art seated, do not disdain, I prav Thee, to cast thine eyes upon me, a poor sinner." — Page 37. " O, mother of God ! O, queen of angels ! O, hope of men ! Lis- ten to him who invokes Thee, and has recourse to Thee. Behold me to-day, prostrate at thy feel I I, a miserable slave of hell ; con- secrate myself to thee as thy servant, for ever, offering myself to serve and honor thee to the utmost of mv power all the days of my life." — Page 153. " Hearken ! O, most holy virgin, to our pravers, and remember us. Dispense to us the gifts of thy riches, and the abundant graces with which thou art tilled. All nations call the blessed ; the whole 4IO WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL r hierarchy of Heaven blesses thee, and we who are of the terrestrial hierarchy, also say to thee ; Hail full of grace." — P^ige 329. To offer prayers to the Virgin Mary, is only a waste of time. She does not hear them any more than an}- other dead woman, or has she any more power ; had Christ given her any such power, he would have told us so, but his teachings show everything to the contrary, and even had she any such power, or could these petitions reach her ear, the above kind of worship would not be suited to offer to a pure being. Notice the spirit I and you will detect that low, sensual de- pravit}^ coming from a diseased mind, and onh' fitted to offer at a bacchanalian revelry. It does not contain the pure spirit of a heart washed and cleansed by the blood of Jesus ; the true penitence is not there. He that worships me, must worship in spirit, and in truth, and that means the spirit of God must be in your prayers, and help to form them, or inspire 3'ou with the petition. Does anv christian think such prayers to the Virgin Mary are by his spirit, especially since he condemns all such as are opposed to the commandments, as given in his Bible? Then where do they come from, As I have said before, these pages could be filled from such books, and it is the only unpleasant part of writing this book, copying such absurdities, but I will give as a finale, what Mr. Fulton says about the author of this " Glories of Mary." " Alphonsus de Lignori, patrican of Naples, bishop of St. Agatha of the Goths, and founder of the congregation of the Holy Redeemer, was canonized as a saint by Pio Nono, and is an authority in the Roman Catholic church. He declares auricular confession to be necessary' for the remission of sins. The voice of the prie.>-t, who is legitimately constituted a minister, for the remission of sins, is to be heard as that of Christ himself, who said to the lame man ; ' Son, be of good cheer, thv sins be forgiven thee.' Form of Penance: — Penance is the channel through which the blood of Christ flows into the soul, and washes awav the stains con- THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 4 II traded after baptism. The form of the absolution or pardon granted by the priest is this : — I absolve thee. The priest represents the character and discharges the functions of Jesus Christ, and must be obeyed in preference to God. All are bound to obey the priest. The penitent must submit himself to the judgment of the priest, who is the vicegerent ot God. Let a woman or girl in the Roman Catholic church believe this, and it is easy to be seen, how wholly she is in the power of the priest. The education of the priest is little short of being infernal in char- acter and purpose. Imagine a young man desiring salvation. He is misled. He is made to believe that suffering here will save him from suffering by and by. He fasts, he sleeps on the floor, he beats himself, he wears steel pointed plates next his heart, dresses in hair cloth, and comes to imagine himself as representing Christ. Before him come suppliants, who see in this minister of God, sit- ting in the tribunal of penance, a legitimate judge. The worshiper venerates the power and person of our Lord Jesus Christ, for in the administration of this, as in that of the other sacra- ments, the priest represents the character and discharges the func- tions of Jesus Christ. Lignori leaches, that penance remits all sin ; tiiat all are bound to obey the priest, whom they are taught to believe is the vicegerent of God, and holds the keys of heaven. Priests and penitents are bound to secrecy. Eternal life depends, they are taught, on confessing to a priest. Open now to practical instructions lor the confessor, in order that he may hear confessions properh', and see how his theology tolerates sin and favors wickedness. He teaches how to curse without sin. Swearing is made easy by Lignori. To curse the living is a mortal sin when it is formal ; that is, when he who curses, intends and wishes a grievous evil to befall the one he curses ; but it is no mor- 412 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL.' tal sin to curse the living when tlie curse pronounced is merelv material. Swearing is then in order, in the Roman Catholic church. Excuses for violating the Sabbath are given. A Roman Catholic must attend mass in the morning, and may do as he choses after that. On stealing. If small amounts are stolen, it is a venial sin : ser- vants may be easily excused, and are as many know. Stealing to pay for masses is allowed. L,3-ing is no lying when a mental reservation is made. He can sav, 'I only made this up in mj' head,' since all words which proceed from the mind be said to come from the head, since the head is taken from the mind." — Whv Priests Should Wed, pages 282-284. The writer has books filled with such dangerous trash as the above ; he has given this much to show the character of this cano- nized saint, and one that is a great authority among the Roman Catholics. You can hardly wonder at the class of victims, both men and women, you meet, and the Glories of IMar}- is in many cases the onh' book, except the catechism, the poor nuns have to feed on in their lonely cells. Whatever Roman Catholics ma}- think of it, christians can see no other use for such blasphemous books than to be destroyed. In the face of the words of warning that head this chapter, a scene occurred at Rome, on the 8th of December, in the year of our Lord, 1854. Pope Pius IX proclaimed to all the world that the blessed Virgin Mary was immaculate in her conception, and that there was no salvation to them that did not so believe. This was one of those spiritual thunderbolts that has shaken the taith of ihcusands the people who once believed in their foolish dogmas. We have stated this worshiping the Vii-gin Mary was a copy from pagan nations, beginning from the ancient Babel, and we think we have proved our statement. THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 413 Still, the Roman Catholics believe, or are told to believe in this immaculate conception. If it is true to-da}-, then it must have been true from the beginning. If it is true at all, then it must have been so in the days of the apostles ; but which of the apostles do we find speaking of any such thing? There is nothing in God's word to encourage such a thought, and the apostles were Bible christians. As we have proved, popery did not come into existence until the seventh century, and then they had enough to do to get established, without bringing forth any such silly dogmas. A few fanatical monks do begin to speak about it from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, but it is opposed by all whose opinions are looked up to. After this a Peter Lombard, of Lyons, wrote a book, which was favorable to this subject, but it was opposed b}^ St. Thomas Aguinas, who was considered b}' the Roman church to be the best Theologian of the day. Others, from time to time, adopted this view, but it was always denied by the infallible popes, and the feeling ran high ; it created two parties, one for and one against, until blood begun to be shed in many of the cities of Europe. Spain got so high that they fought about it with all kinds of weapons, exliausting themselves in the strife, and yet all of the popes who are infallible, refused to sanction any such dogma. Even at the council of Trent, in the sixteenth century, the dogma was brought forward and failed, and then a monk had a dream — his name was father Leonard — that peace would never come until this dogma was believed in b}' the faithful. And at last, in the century in whicli we live, a pope comes forward and establishes this doctrine, and he being infallible, so-called, makes all the popes of the past, who have refused this dogma, to be liars, because, how can popes differ if all were infallible? And this is about how all the changes of the church of Rome have been brought forward, adopting the errors of the pagans at different periods. 414 WHY HAVK PRIESTS AT ALL.' But the church of Rome cannot do anything like an}- one else ; they must have a dream, a miracle, or some great pretended spiritual show, to bring forward any new doctrine. Father Chiniquy gives a good description of the ceremony at St. Peter's church of Rome, on the day this dogma was established. For the benefit of our readers, we cop}- this farce. " The hn7naculate concept/on of the Ji'roz'n Mary. — The 8th of December, 1854, pope Pius IX was sitting on his throne, a triple crown of gold and diamonds was on his head, silk and damask, red and white vestments on his shoulders ; five hundred mitred prelates were surrounding him, and more than fifty thousand people were at his feet, in the incomparable St. Peter's church of Rome. After a few minutes of the most solemn silence, a cardinal, dressed with his purple robe, left his seat, and gravely walked towards the pope, kneeled before him, and hunnbly prostrating himself at his t of men and women, but have had money or interest to pay for their canonization, which ceremony is in itself perfectly useless, as well as wicked ; as if God, after having sent his son as a pattern, would accept others of a spurious make. Then again, they have been made saints simply because they have written in favor of Catholicism : perhaps brought forward some such luseless writings as are found in the Glories of Mary. Lignori, its author, was made a saint, and he has done more to corrupt this church and monastic societ}^ than perhaps anyone else. He teaches that penance remits all sins ; that all are bound to obey the priest, whom they are taught to believe is the vicegerent of God, and holds the ke\ s of Heaven. Priests and penitents are bound to secrecy; eternal life depends, they are taught, in confessing to a priest. And see how his theology tolerates sin, and favors wicked- ness. He teaches how to curse without sin. Excuses for violating the Sabbath are given. "A Roman Catholic must attend mass in the morning, and may do as he chooses after that. — Why Priests Should Wed, page 283. THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 419 On stealing: — If small amounts are stolen, it is a venial sin. Ser- vants may be easily excused who steal from their masters. They are excused as many know. Stealing to pay for masses is allowed. Lying is no lying when a mental reservation is made." — Why Priests Should Wed, page 284. And they say a man teaching such impious lies is a saint. We think a prison is the only place for such a man. Now, let us take one of another kind. " The Jesuits of France had determined to kill the king, Hen rj^ III, sixteenth centur}', he having been excommunicated by the pope. So Jacques Clement was recommended to them as a man endowed with a savage energy, an ardent and unquiet mind, an ill regulated imagination of infamous morals, and possessing all the necessary qualities to insure the success of this difficult enterprise. He was recommended to Madame Montpensier, and they begged her to try the power of her charms over the young dominican. That same night, this Messalina sent for Jacques Clement to her palace, prostituted herself to him, and determined him to kill the king. The Jesuits did not remain behind the duchess, and seconded her so marvelously, by promising the Jacobin, in the name of the pope, to create him a cardinal if he succeeded, or to place him among the saints if he perished." "He obtained letters for Henry III, and a poisoned knife. Clement left Paris on the 31st of July, 1589, and went toward the Royal camp, and after some difficulty, gained an audience with the king privately. A few minutes afterwards the king called for aid, crying out, he was assinated, and whilst his guards were running in at his cry, he drew out the knife which Clement had plunged into his belly, and struck him with it in the face. The monk was killed on the spot b}'' the guards." — De Cormein, His. of Popes, vol. 2, page 266. 420 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? " The clergy of Notre Dame even decided to raise a marble statue to the assasin. 'Finally,' says the Abbot of Louquerne, 'the Sorbonne decreed that his canonization should be solicited at Rome, and the request was at once addressed to the sovereign pontiff." — De Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. II, page 267. So this assassin's work makes a man a saint. When popery was running at high steam pressure, saints were so numerous that every body had a patron saint ; all the}' had to do was to select one, and lo, there he was I at least, they thought so. Something like this is Saint Bridget, who is said to have flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, in Ireland. Her qualifications are staled to be beauty and the founding of a monastery in Kildare, and teaching young girls — we should hope not after the pattern of Maria Monk. But she was no doubt imaginary, as far as Catholocism is con- cerned, for she must have founded this monastery at least one hun- dred years before popery existed ; but at this early date monasteries were sometimes built independent of any organization. Then comes St. Patrick? The patron saint of Ireland ! This is surely a myth, as far as poper}' is concerned. In the first place he was a Scotchman, in the fourth century, three hundred 3-ears before the establishment of poper}', and if he took any religion to Ireland, it must have been Christianity, and not popery. Still, the Irishmen cling to him. Most of the other nations have done away with their saints, or are doing away with them, but the priests keep the Irish up to the mark, and they trudge along in the mud and rain on the 17th of March, while the well fed priest rides in his carriage, to do honor to St. Patrick, and then when it is all over, just ask any one of them who St. Patrick was, and how he came to be a saint. Well, 3'ou do not get much information. THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 42 1 We have asked plenty of them, and to no purpose. The conver- sation might be something after this. Question. — "Well Pat, a bad day for marching?" Answer. — "Oh, sure and it is." Qviestion. — "Who was St. Patrick, Pat?" Answer. — "What a quistion to ask for an intilligent man like you." Qizestion. — "But I want to know, Pat, who he was and where he was born." Answer. — "Oh, sure, and 3^ou know as well as I do. What a quistion to ask." Question. — Well, perhaps I do know, as well as you, but still I want to know something more." Answer. — "Ah, don't be after bothering me, more shame for j-ou, if you don't know who St. Patrick was." Question. — "Well, I plead ignorance, and want you to give me some information." Answer. — "iYh, bad cess to you, everybody knows who St. Patrick was, and so don't be after bothering me." And that is about all you can get, and I presume all any of them know, and with such people, priests can do anything they please. These pages could be filled with saints after the above character, but that is not the object ; we wish to show the kind of life these people lived, who could so easily manufacture saints. At the time the Roman church begun to make saints, it was found necessary to add miracles, and the two together forged the chains of superstition on the people, so men and women were reduced to worse than southern slavery. There is nothing new in miracle working, for in East India, they had all sorts of lying miracles ; friars spending their days in preach- ing and miracle making ; begging shrines, and sacred places were very plentiful there, but we give one or two of the pope's miracles. 422 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? "Pope Alexander II, eleventh century. Leo and Desiderius re- present Alexander as a pope of great sanctity, and endowed with the gift of miracles. He freed, they add, from the spirit of evil, a monk of Monte Cassino, and one day a lame woman, having drunk some drops of water, in which he had washed his hands, was mirac- ulously cured." — L. M. De Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. I, page 363- "Sylvester II, also eleventh century, it is said of him, he dealt in a different kind of miracle. I give them as reported ; it shows to what a miserable state society had been reduced by these saints and miracles. After his death, however, the accusation of magic was renewed against him ; some chroniclers gravely affirm that Sylvester brought from Seville with him, an abominable book, containing cabalistic formularies, with which he forced Lucifer to obey him, and the spirit of darkness, promised the pontiff to guarantee him against death, until the day in which he should celebrate mass in the church of Jerusalem. Sylvester, they add, hoped to live forever, because he had formed the resolution never to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and continued to abandon himself to the most condemnable witchcraft of all kinds, but he soon found that the promises of the devil are always fallacious, and perfidious. One day, when the holy father was celebrating divine service in the church of the holy cross, called also the church of Jerusalem, the devil suddenly appeared to him on the altar, and seizing the golden figure of Christ, which decorated the chapel, struck him so violent a blow with it, that he died in a few hours." — De C?)rmein's His. of Popes, vol. I, page 322. "Six centuries and a half had flown by since the death of this pope, when the church of the Lateran was reconstructed. His coffin which was of marble, was opened, and the body was found clothed THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 423 in pontifical robes ; the tira upon liis head, and the arms crossed ; Silvester appeared to be still living, and spread around an odorous perfume, but as soon as a ray of light struck him, an infernal flame escaped from his body, and all was reduced to ashes. There re- mained nothing but a cross of silver, and the pastoral ring." — De Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. I, page 322. The above is given as found in history ; it shows the kind of tales that could then be circulated and no doubt, believed in, at least by many. The reader will gather the state of the times from these and the following, remembering this was a very flourishing time for saints, and that the outward appearance of the country was most holy. Crosses everywhere, images of saints plentiful. Outwai^d obser- vances numerous, but true religion, were was it? Ah, where was it? Let us copy a little more, to show the fruits of this most holy, holy, so-called church. "Otho, recollecting that the Emperor, his father, had never been able to tame the Romans but through terror, determined to follow the same example ; and in accordance with the advice of the holy father, he prepared at the Vatican a sumptuous entertainment to which he invited the grandees ot Rome, the magistrates, and the deputies of the neighboring cities. Otho at first labored to inspire his guests with joy. Perfumed wines were poured out in profusion, exquisite dishes succeeded each other without interruption on the table, and the brighest gaiety shone on every face. Then, upon a signal from the prince, a troop of soldiers suddenly entered the festive hal), with their drawn swords in their hands, and three guards placed themselves behind each guest. A spectacle so strange filled their hearts with fear, and the dread increased when an officer of the palace displayed a long list, called out in a loud voice, the unfortun- ate men, who were destined for the executioner. Sixty victims were led from ihe banquet hall and pitilessly massacred. 424 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? During this butchery, Otho and the pope preserved the same amenity in their words and gestures^ They pledged their guests in the best wines, and pointed out to them the most delicious dishes. But the frightful image of death was before all eyes, and their faces remained icy with terror. At length the horrible banquet was con- cluded." — De Cormenin His. of Popes, vol. i, page 308. Some of the American people have but little idea of the methods the popes used in the good days of saints to promote holiness, and this is the fruit of giving the pope an army. These soldiers had been blest, by this most holy pope, and is this work pleasing in the sight of God? We do not read in history any cruelty so refined and thoroughly heartless, as proceeds from the suggestions of the different popes. Is this the fruits of having so many saints around, or other kind of spirit? The reader can decide. Will now try and finish this picture by showing what a delightful set of men the priests were in those days, and we will take the the testimony from the mouth of the pope himself. "Domnus II, pope in the tenth centur)^ was giving an angry lec- ture to his clergy and he finishes by saying: 'I do not see among you but bigamists, concubine keepers, seditious persons, prejurers, apostates, usurers, sodomites and drunkards. Your children are all bastards, and your depravity is the cause of the ruin of my people. How can I punish a layman for the crime of adultery, perjury or robbery, when I am compelled to tolerate ignorance and dt-pravity among my ecclesiastics? You do not even know the creed of the Apostles, but to make up for it, you understand perfectly, what usuary, prostitution and — can produce.' These quotations give but a feeble idea of the frightful disorders, and inconceivable degra- dation of the clergy of the tenth century." — L. M. de Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. i, page 307. THE VIRGIN MARY AND SAINTS. 425 This pope was elected in A. D. 984, and disappears in the same year from history. Another was elected same year ; this has been the fate of all popes that have objected to the disorders of the clergy. The writer is disgusted with the doings of such infallible saints, but duty urges and we give one more. This is John XII, same century. "One of his concubines, Stephenetta, died before our very eyes, in the palace of Lateran, giving birth to a son, whom she declared was the pontiff's. The sacred residence of the popes had become under the reign of John, a frightful brothel, the refuge of prostitutes. Neither Roman or strange females dare any longer to visit the churches, for this monster caused wives, widows and virgins to be carried off from the very steps of the alter. Rich dresses or tattered rags, beauty or homeliness, all alike are used to gratify his debaucheries." — L. M. de Cormein's His. of Popes, vol. i, page 294. CHAPTER XVII. CLOSING REMARKS. T A AE promised in the first chapter to prove several things before -^ ■*'- we completed our book. The first of which was to show that popery was not Christianity, and we believe we have kept our word. As far as possessing christians are concerned, they need no proof! The whole system of Catholicism is so at variance with the spirit- ual life and worship, as laid down by Jesus Christ and the Apostles, and revealed by the Holy Ghost, that it is impossible for a soul that has been born again, not to see at a glance, the counterfeit. But there are many who have not this necessary spiritual vision, and can be easily deceived. The votaries to Catholicism are of that number ; to such we would say, before you risk your soul's salva- tion, come out from being lead by what men say to you. altogether, and see what God says. Compare the two systems ; go direct to Jesus ; he is your med- iator with the Father, you want no other, and remember this is a duty you owe to God, and to yourself, and failing in which, you may make a shipwreck of your soul. We onl}' ask you to try, do not fear what man may do unto you, they have no power but brute force ; do as Jesus tells you in Matthew X, 28. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to CLOSING REMARKS. 427 kill the sovil, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." And we also say, that as we have shown all the ceremonies, now and always performed bv the Roman church, were in existence and practiced by the pagan nations, commencing from the time of the ancient Babel, and also, thai the world was almost full of this abomi nation, at the advent of our Savior, including the idolatry of serving the queen of Heaven. And also as Jesus came to do away with all things, and to make all things new ; you are periling your future it you neglect to ascertain in an intelligent way, whether you are on the right road or not. We do not fear God's word to be able to stand any test 3'ou may give it ; and remember, we have no interest in this matter, but our anxiety for your good ; beyond this, we shall not loose or gain any- thing. And also find if everything is true that this church claims. If they are only wrong in one thing that will lead you to investigate more. See first, if they begun as a church at the time they say they did. And as they claim to be the successors of the Apostles, and as we prove they did not come into existence for over 500 years after they were all dead, find out by what species of legerdemain they connected themselves with them. And we have proved the Apostles to be Bible Chfistians, and that Roman Catholics have waged war on the Bible from their commence- ment, and also that the Bible condemns every action of their worship and teaching. This is an immense challenge, but we do not tear the result. Just find out for yourself if worshiping the Virgin Mary is a command- ment of God, or an insult and abomination to him. Before you worship anything, you ought to know whether it is right or not. Prove if God gave them the power to grant absolution, when the Bible teaches, no one can forgive sins but God. 428 WHY IIA\E PRIESTS AT ALL r And we have made the fearless statement that Peter was never a pope, and we refer you to the second as well as the third chapter for our reasons. Now, if that is true, then what false statements they have been, and are still making. The writer would not fear to stake his existance, that Peter has had no more to do with Catholicism than he has, and that is but little. Then, if these thinors are false, which is the only claim they have to Christianity, in what manner can you have an}- coniidence in their statements? Do you believe Jesus built his church on Peter, or on himself, or do you believe in the many fables manufactured in the first place bv the Gentiles, or heathen nations, and afterwards copied by them? If this so-called church belonged to Jesus, and the pope, cardinals and priests were his representatives, then they would be like him, meek, gentle, kind, loving, forgiving, patient, striving against sin, and going about like him, doing good, and that means something more than temporal good, although it includes the latier, but every act of Jesus' life was a means to an end, nanu-lv, the regeneration of the man, infusing a new existence into the soul, tearing out even the roots of depravity from the heart, dragging men from a vile exist- ence, and restoring them to their original likeness of God. Has popery done this? We ask the question. We are the masters of the inquisition to-da}', and call forth the actions of these men to prove their standing. We have not published a hundredth part of the actions of these popes, cardinals, etc., and yet we have shown enough to prove them to be just the opposite to what the representatives of Jesus would be, and are. . We will put this question. Just suppose for a moment, that Pro- testants were wrong ; what then ought to have been the actions of Roman Catholics? To put them right, we say the\' ought to have loved and fed and housed them, showing that mercy that they are looking for, for themselves ; to have forgiven, if they had been injured. CLOSING REMARKS 429 because it saA-s, " unless you forgive 3'our enemies, neither will your father in Heaven forgive you." Well, has this been their method? No, no! They hated these men^ not because they were enemies, but because the devil put hatred within them, and instead of doing them good; they, like fiends as they were, tore them, like wild beasts, to pieces, and worse than the brutes, they did not aim at the vital parts, but used means to prolong the hours of dreadful cruelty. Does this prove them to be the vice- gerents of Christ? God did not appoint a vicegerent ; this belongs to the fables. Had he wanted one, would he have selected the most vicious, cruel, unforgiving and relentless dispositions, as well as the most avaricious, sensual, diabolical creatures? The Apostle Paul says the works of the flesh are these : — Adulter}^ fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envy, mur- der, drunkenness, revellings and such like, and then he says, the fruit of the spirit is love, jo}', peace, long suffering, gentleness, good- ness, faith, meekness, temperance. The former spirit the popes and cardinals had, and the latter, the Protestants, and that is why tliey hated and hunted them to death. Jesus left us his peace, but these men have been the promoters of wars, poverty, superstition, the destroyers of the happiness of the world, they promote confusion, infidelity, witchcraft, they are lying miracle makers, and all the list of evils that can be named, are due to them. Then did God appoint them, or was it some one else? A great deal of the evil of past history is unknown, and even discredited by numbers in and out of the Roman church, and the reason is, they have not read or studied the history of their doings. People have no idea how these thmgs have been and are brought about ; their one grand weapon is first, to create a dangerous mob,, fanatical and superstitious ; this mob must be so held by this so-called church in chains, to their interests, believing that no matter how they 430 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? live, their priests can insure them eternal life. Now this is even far more w^icked than burning God's people to death as heretics, for these are safe. They go and join the grand army of martvTs, but this poor mob is led on in sin to the brink of the grave, and then plunged in to meet their victims, before a judge that cannot be de- ceived. These popes, kings and emperors could not at any time have car- ried their point without this dangerous element, the mob ! They were urged on by these priests, with drink and money, also the above false promises ; this was their strength, to do all this evil. And do not say the mob are used because thev are accidentally at hand, that is not so ; they are the creation, of this organization, the fiuits of the schools of this church, and are taught, insidiously, to intimidate, so as to create a reign of terror. We did intend to write a chapter on the separate schools, but we have spoken of them, in more places than one, and you have some of our thoughts on this theme, but bear in mind what has been al- ready said, these separate schools are raising an army to bring you in the tender clutches of this remorseless hierarchy. The educating of all children to Protestanti.^m, is of incalculable importance. It ought to take the precedence of everything. It is evident the children are the Catholic weapon, and ought to be wrested from their hands ; other nations have done so, and so must this — if we would keep the power of the country in our own hands and not be- come the slave of this Italian man of sin, sitting at Rome! We want to live in peace. It is not well to have a class of people growing up with us, hating us, and to have the children of the country, perhaps born of foreign parents, taught b}^ a designing class, to look on us as enemies. This is not the true principles of the constitution ; the people banded together for their mutual good. They left the shores, were bigotry reigned, and washed their hands of oppression, as they fondly hoped, forever. CLOSING REMARKS. 43 1 And now we find this monster has followed us and is trying to sow the same seed of dissension, which blasted the countries, our forefathers Ifift. This, then, is the reward for the kindness of offer- ing a home to the sons of oppression, that the same evil should be grafted on the rising generation and nothing but a bloody war can rid the country, and cleanse the atmosphere once more. I make these statements on the ground of the truth of this book. If this book is true, then I am right. If not true, I will willingly take it all back, and make an apology. Do not some of these Jesuits occupy the pulpits, in these various denominations that are making the attacks on the divinity of Christ? This is a new method of destroying the truth of the Bible. Absolution, in this so-called church, increases crime; it makes criminals ; there are more crimes committed under this system than any other. All that read and study history, know this pope to be anti-christ ; then why are not all children taught the history of this church, w^hile their minds are fresh, and capable of good impressions. If the Catholics are so holy as they say, they ought not to object to the reading of their history ; do this, and in thirty or forty years, the country will be as pure as it was at starting ; and let us do this, instead of being drawn into the snare of fighting the pope's battles against Italy, etc. He wants some one to revenge him or Italy, but let him get some one else — don't let the American republic do anything to again enslave these poor down trodden people. At the time this was written, there was danger of a misunderstanding with Italy and this country on the assassination question or of killing the prisoners in New Orlean's jail. Would some of these kings of Europe have been so content and rest so quiet, under the trickery of the popes, had they believed in the religion? No! But it gave them power, by keeping all men slaves. 432 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL f The whole history of this so-called church is a large catalogue of crimes. The forms of penances keep the people from reading and thinking. Contrast them with the Protestants, who have had the power for at least the last century, in England and America, and could have crushed them, if they had felt disposed. Instead of which they have fostered them in their midst, and out of mistaken kindness, have removed one by one, the just laws that have held them in check, and even to-day, when we see their object is to enslave us by their cursed system, we do not rise as thev would do, and drive all before them, and massacre young and old, but are trying by persuation and kindness, to bring them over, but oh ! I fear it is love thrown away. Had the people of God been left to themselves with their Bible, through the ages made dark by this false religion, what a different state of things should we see now. The millions upon millions of martyrs destroyed for their faith, would have been the means of spreading the Gospel over the earth, and saving it in a great measure from the degrading infidelity of to- day. This so-called church, is chargeable with much, if not all of the unbelief we find in our midst. And now, my friends, the public, I want you to be serious for a little while as we review these things, and just believe this book is written with an honest purpose, and that like Othello, there is nothing extenuate nor aught set down in malice. In fact, as before stated, there is not a man living, could write a twentieth part of the facts of this case; we have only attempted to show sufficient to prove the character of this dangerous organization, and if what has been said is true, can any one outside of an insane asylum think God ever sent such a religion to make his people unhappy, that he ever sent his son to die on a scaffold, simply to leave the world to the mercy of such brutes, as this Roman Catholic church, has proved itself to be, do you, reader, think this came from God? CLOSING REMARKS. 433 Secular history, for the first few centuries, gives us very little to build a firm foundation on, and of course to take the history of this so-called church, would be like taking the testimonj^ of a criminal, in his own defense ; our greatest anchor is the word of God, and that says, such a oower would come, and its greatest characteristics wovild be cruelty, avarice, and all the blighting influences that the world has so keenly felt. Well as told in prophecy, it did come, and it proved itself to be the child of its father, and the earth has groaned under its cankerous withering hand, and is stiil groaning. The prophecy said it would be called, among other things, "m3'stery." Is it not, and has it not been surrounded in mystery ; does it not interfere in everything, without showing its hand? We know more about it in America, at present through' our elections, and the corruption of societ}', but in that it keeps as much as possible out of sight. We are only in the first act, we shall understand it better some day. Remove this cause, and you would find at once a falling away of a certain class of politicians ; they do not work without money, and there is no one so interested in politics as this so-called church, for by putting their own people into office, the}^ get a finger into every- thing, without appearing to do so ; we cannot vouch for the truth, but it is said, ihey have an interest in the employment of the City laborers, to do even the street cleaning, and make money out of that, to the exclusion of the Protestant, coming pretty close home. Is not all their system wrapped up in mystery, the confessional, the nunnery, the mass, and even to the preaching, in a dead language? And these things are brought about by the supposed unobtrusive Jesuits, who are often changing their tactics, and are living amongst us. If you will only notice, the same remarks are made by unbe- lievers, at the same time, whether they belong to the Popish Church or not, and they do not seem to know from whence the thoughts come, or see the hand that brings it. 434 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? A new weapon of this kind has started recently ; it may not appear of an}' consequence to the casual thinker, but the writer thinks there is more in it than appears on the surface. It is simply this. They say, "oh, your Evangelical churches, are all drifting towards the Roman church, they copy them in their music, and often in their services." This has a deep significance, it shows the wish is farther to the thought, it shows they are at work in and out of the churches. Our answer to this is, the congregations do not select the services, or music, they only patiently endure. It is in some measure brought about, by the paid singers ; there ought to be music enough in Christ's church, without having to copy from others. Pastors ought to jealously guard against this. And now we refer 30U to chapter VI, America and the Puritan. The thought expressed there, is, we believe, tiue, that God protected the earl}" settlers when they were not able to protect themselves. Had England been at that date, a Catholic country, we should have been lost in the midnight darkness, as was France and Spain. The Puritans would not have come here, it was liberty of con- science that brought them under the direction of God himself. He saved this country from a degradation worse than south- ern slavery. He put into the hand of this people, the book that tauglit them what their Fatiier in Heaven required, namelv, to wor- ship Him, in spirit and in truth, and not to give wtiy to any false idolatrous worship ; have we kept our contract with Him? He gave the country every opportunity, both in spiritual and tem- poral good. He gave time to establish schools, and directed the early settlers how to teach His young children the true principles of Chris- tianity, and having begun so well, we should have continued, had not the arch enemy, sent his Jesuits here, to corrupt society. That was our day of visitation. We ought not for any cause whatever, to have allowed him to take such power in his hands, and what have we gained by it? CLOSING REMARKS. 435 We have allowed an enemy to grow up amongst us, one that would cripple us, were we seriously engaged in war, and under the pre- tence of help, would suddenly leap into power as they have done always, everywhere. "War is their food ! To breed strife belongs to the kingdom of darkness, and it is a wonder we have been kept in peace as long as we have. Wars and rumors of wars are beginning, and unless the Lord pre- vents it, our enemy now feeling stronger, will quietly bring us into trouble, and then we shall see a different state of things to the present ; persecution of the christians will begin. If we wait a score more years, with all these seperate schools without a Bible, and God's book also kept out of the schools we have under our control, infidelity will be rampant the same as it has always been in Roman Catholic countries, and another army of internal enemies added to the force. And after giving His book a secondary place in the country, how can we look up to Him for advice and assistance? Wars are not always gained by the strongest power. It is not by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. The people of this country are beginning to see danger ahead, and are talking about it very seriously. Now then, is the time, if ever, to stop it ; shiploads of these people are coming over, and who furnish the money ; what has induced this sudden immigration? If it was of the better class it would be all right, but we fear trouble is brewing, of which we have no idea. And now I have given you my thoughts and should be very glad to fitid I am not a true prophet, but let us not forget, God stands up for those who are faithful to him. This is certainly the most vital question of the day ; we have seen the nominations made, and large conventions held all over the country, for the coming tall elections ; we must know that all of these thousands of dollars that have been spent for politicians, railroad fare, hotel bills, the press, etc., etc., comes from somewhere. It 436 WHY HAVE PRIESTS AT ALL? would pay to just notice how many men have been brought forward independent of and including those nominated, that are favorable to this so-called church; by so doing it might open our eyes, and also to find if both parties have not at times opened their arms to receive these Roman candidates. And what think 3'ou of the German Cath- olic's congress held in Buffalo ; what is meant by the fresh pledge demanded, to never cease to courageously sustain the Holy Father, and in accordance with his intentions and admonitions, and to strive with all legal and legetimate means to regain the freedom due to the successor of St. Peter? What do we care about the freedom of this man of sin? Is this (as it is proposed) to be made the battle field during the coming World's Fair of this Roman church? They say political circum- stances have prevented this being done in Europe. The fact is there is no country in Europe will allow the sti'ife to be carried on there, and shall we show to the people of Europe that the republic can be imposed on to an extent that they cannot, and what would be the object of his gaining back his temporal power, to have a large standing army to awe us with others into his tender arms? If we allow this, then the next thing will be to elect an American pope, and allow him to live here, and then our felicitj^ or degrada- tion will be complete. And now in a lecture heard one- night this week, in this city, on the religious state of Ireland, and by a perfect gentlemen, an Irish- man, he said among a great many other things, how one party he met in Ireland, who was afterwards converted to Christ's religion, said his mother taught him four cardinal virtues, and she seemed to think when this duty was done her responsibility was over. The first was to " beware of a mad dog," the next, to " shun a Protestant," then, to " fear a kick from a horse," and also to " fear the horns of a cow." How can we live in peace when such hatred is fostered from the cradle? And once more, what do you think of the absurdity of CLOSING REMARKS. 437 this Hol}' Coat, on exhibition in the Cathedral at Treves? Would it not be a nice addition to our World's Fair, to show our spiritual and intellectual freedom ? Mystery ! Mystery ! ! How long will this world be imposed on by such unworthy acts. It is part of histor}^ that this Holy Coat was exhibited at Treves in 1844, '^"*^ drew over a million of pilgrims to this oldest of cities, and brought an untold amount of wealth to its treasury. Aye ! there's the rub ! Money ! Money ! ! Get Money ! ! ! Honestly if you can, but get Money. October, 1891. jB-x" <7^r f-jtii w <^i 311 bK ^IM^ o2 ^^^^^ \^Mf^^ ^Sj SlBiit ^V' t MW^