ii&imi lllii LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap.._ Copyright No.._ Slielf_„__,L,_3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ;; ■ ■ ;. Shall Liberty Die? OR Patriots to the Front. A Biblical, and Historical, View of the Great ANTICHRIST: whose coming was predicted by the Prophet Daniel, and by the apostles paul and john, and who for a thousand years has been the Foe of Liberty, the Destroyer of Nations, and the Curse of the World. This Antichristian Power is now at work in Under- mining the Institutions, and Destroying the Liberties of this Great, and Free, and Prosperous Nation. O. BY REV. ELIJAH LUCAS, \\&\U-(L" For many years the Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Harlem, ( now Mount Morris Church ) New York ; and for more than twenty years the Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Trenton, N. J. 1897. A 1 kr #> Copyrighted, 1897 BY ELIJAH LUCAS. *\ ^JL-A^^to -w PREFACE. This book has been written because the writer believes that such a book is needed. As a nation we are living on a moral and political volcano. Vesuvius is not necessarily a safe place for the near by dwellers simply because it is not in violent eruption — belching forth smoke, and fire, and melted lava. Silent and harmless as it may appear, there are prodigious powers of destruction lurking within, that are liable to burst forth, in awful and ruinous fury, at any moment. Nor is the dweller on its bosom any more safe because he is unapprehensive of danger, and laughs at the friendly voice that warns him of his peril. This book is intended to add another warning voice to the many that have been raised to arouse an indifferent, or a too confiding people, to the perils that threaten all that Patriots, and Protestant Christians, hold most dear. " The Philistines be upon thee, Samson !" As a nation we are proud of our greatness, and our strength, and flatter our- selves that nothing can do us harm ; and while Samson thus dreams on the lap of Delilah, the " Har- lot" — a great Foreign, Political Ecclesiasticism — is shearing off the locks of his strength. PREFACE. Our book is written in popular style for the gen- eral reader, and all technical phrases and foreign quotations have been avoided, the aim of the writer being to present the exact truth — nothing but the truth — in the simple, every-day language of the peo- ple, being assured that what the great mass of the people can easily grasp, the scholars and philo- sophers who may read this volume, will not find difficult of comprehension. In order not to try the patience of the printer, or divert the attention of the reader, with foot notes, we have given our references and authorities in the body of the work. There was a time when ancient Rome was mis- tress of the world. She gloried in her vast terri- torial extent ; in her mighty populations ; in her boundless wealth ; in her invincible armies, and in her wonderful prosperity. But when she seemed the most powerful and glorious in the eyes of the world, and in her own eyes, there were influences and forces at work within her that at last under- mined her strength, and laid her glory in the dust. And bye and bye the historian wrote the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Greater than ancient Rome is the country we call the United States of America, This " Young Giant of the West" is the wonder and admiration of the world ; PKEFACE. the richest, freest, happiest, most intelligent, most religious, and most prosperous nation the world has ever known. But weakening influences, and destructive forces are at work among us; for a crafty, and cruel enemy, from over the seas, is " sowing tares among the wheat," and unless the liberty-loving American people shall arise from their indifference, and false security, they will reap from this sowing a harvest of bitterness, and per- haps some future Gibbon may write the " Decline and Fall of the Great Republic." DEDICATION. If you fear God, and love our Lord Jesus Christ ; — if you are a minister of the Gospel ; — or a Sun- day School Worker ; — if you are a Free Mason ; — or an Odd Fellow ; — or an American Mechanic ; — or a Knight of Pythias ; — or an A. P. A. ; — or if you be- long to any other Patriotic Order, or to no Order at all, yet, — if you are a Patriot, and love the flag of this free country, and its glorious institutions ;- — an open Bible ; — Liberty of Conscience ; — Free Speech ; — a Free Press; — Separation of Church and State; — the perpetuation, in their integrity, of our Public Schools ; — and if you will do what you can to hand down to future generations these institutions that have cost so much in treasure, and suffering, and blood, and in the lives of Patriot Heroes ; — then this volume is most respectfully, and affectionately, Dedicated to You, by the Author, who loves every star, and every stripe, in Our Glorious Banner of the Free. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. page. Shall liberty die ? — Widespread apprehension — Great interest in the subject of Popery — What is Popery ? If better than the American Constitution, we all want it — Who and what is the Pope ? — Cardinal Manning — Vicar-General Preston — Satolli — Leo XIII. and Public Schools — Ignorance of the people in Eoman Catholic countries — Protestantism to be destroyed — Protestantism has no rights — Treason in the Eomish Congress in Baltimore — Popery the deadly enemy of American institutions — The foe of civil and religious liberty — Guerilla warfare of the Jesuits — Parochial schools nests of treason — Lies about Luther — The truth about Luther — Popery and politics — Gladstone's protest against Popery — Popery rules New York — Rules in Boston — New England has become New Ireland — The Pope in Wash- ington — Our National Government being Romanized — - Patriotism at a discount in Washington — The silent pulpit and the muzzled press — The rift in the clouds — Patriotic uprising — A. P. A. — Not bigots, but patriots — Who are the bigots? — The great political machine — A. P. A. platform — Mr. Froude's warning to America — No Protestant votes against Liberty. 1 CHAPTER II. The Little Horn — The " Mother of all the churches" paints her face — Many deceived — The Antichrist — The book of Daniel — The monarch's dream — The dream interpreted — The four great empires — Iron and clay will not mix — Ele- ments of weakness in the Roman Empire — Dangers of too extensive immigration — Destroyed the fourth great mon- archy — A warning to the United States — Citizens, but not Americans — The Prophet has a dream — Four great beasts — Chaldea, Persia, Greece and Eome — The ten horns — The little horn — Antichrist — Testimony of the Fathers — Emperor Constantine — Pagans rush into the church — The Christian church becomes Paganized. 48 CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. page A " stout look" — Romish arrogance — Hildebrand and Henry IV. — Rules in heaven, earth, and hell — Three Kingdoms rooted up by the Little Horn — Sir Isaac Newton's view — Kings above popes — Temporal power of the popes — Charles Martel — Pepin — Charlemagne — The sinister "eyes" of the Papacy — " Speaking great words against the Most High " — Antichrist — "Making war with the saints" — "Wearing out the saints of the Most High ' ' — Rome delights in blood — The Waldenses and the Albigenses — The popes have a special grudge against the saints — John Wickliffe — Council of Constance — John Huss denounces the profligacy of the priests — Huss tried for heresy — Condemned by the Council — Emperor Sigismund breaks his word — Huss insulted and degraded from the priesthood — Huss is burned at the stake — Horrible sufferings of Jerome of Prague, Huss's devoted friend — Jerome's trial and martyrdom — He sings amidst the flames — Emperor's breach of faith justified by the Council — No faith to be kept with heretics. 62 CHAPTER IY. " The man of sin, and son of perdition " — Paul's confirmation of Daniel — Portrait of the papacy in 2 Thess. 2 chapter — A succession of pre-eminently wicked men — True of the popes of Rome — A look at a few of them — Saint Gregory I. — His insincerity — Emperor Mauritius — Phocas, the usurper and murderer, flattered and eulogized by Gregory— Gibbons' statement — Gregory and Antichrist — Pope John VIII. — Tyrannical and cruel — Pope Sergius III. — Rome ruled by prostitutes — " The slave of every vice, and the wickedest of men ' ' — Pope John X. the paramour of the harlot Theodora — Pope John XL was the bastard son of Ms Holiness Pope Sergius III. — A few more of the holy links in the chain of apostolical succession — Pope Vagilius wades through blood to the pontifical chair — Pope Marcellinus an idolator — Pope Honorius a heretic — Pope Eugenius a Simonist, a perjurer, and altogether bad — Pope John II. charged with incest by his own church — Others of the same sort — Testimony of Romish writers. 94 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. page. Pope Boniface the eighth — King Philip the Fair — The storm brewing — The insulting Legate imprisoned — The pope's bulls burned at Paris — The bull, Unam Sanctam — The two swords — Death of Boniface — His ' l glaring vices ' ' — Pope takes up his residence in France — The Italians demand that the pope return to Rome — Election of Pope Urban VI. — The cardinals feel insulted — Urban declared a usurper, and deposed — A "holy" Tammany — The great schism — Elec- tion of Pope Clement the VII. — Rival popes — Council of Pisa — Another pope elected — Three popes at one time — Successors of Judas, the traitor — Pope John XXIII. fierce and furious — Blasphemy of Alexander VI. — Council of Con- stance — Election of Pope Martin V. — The schism healed — Popes the vicars of Satan — The papacy is Antichrist. 108 CHAPTER VI. Growth of the Little Horn — The opposer of the Almighty — Sitteth in the temple of God — " Our Lord God the Pope " — Squabbling over a title — Holy keys — The blasphemous title — Antichrist revealed — Boniface III. the first pope — Phocas, the infamous creator of popes — Emperor Mauritius and his sons murdered by Phocas — Empress and her daughters also murdered — Base origin of the papacy — The god of the Vatican — Rome's hatred of the Bible — Papacy vs. the Word of God — Wickliffe burned after being forty years in the grave — Afraid of the light — Popes and the Bible Societies — Canon Farrar to Leo XIII. — Popish Bible burn- ings — Practiced in U. S. — A bonfire of New Testaments — Laws of the papacy above the laws of God — Apostle John on Antichrist — You must be a papist or be damned — Rome- made mediators — Prayers to the Virgin — Mary the mediatrix between God and man — Christ not sufficient for Eome — God has appointed one Mediator, and Rome has appointed thousands. 121 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. page. Hindrances removed — Popery to be destroyed — Important testimonies — Popery the devil's masterpiece — After the workings of Satan — Little Catholic and his Bible — The un- welcome curate — The impertinent priest — One Romanist who would not be a slave — Popish darkness vs. Gospel light— Origin of image worship— Growth of image worship — Emperor Leo III. against image worship— Popes righting for the idols — The pope insults the emperor — Three hundred and thirty-eight bishops declare against idolatry — The Em- press Irene murders her son — The murderess favors idolatry— Council of Nice convened by a blood-stained woman. 145 CHAPTER VIII. Evil "power" of the papacy — Christ's way and the Pope's way — What might have been — Popery makes infidels — Popery the curse of France — Papacy produced Voltaire and French atheism — Noble acts of Voltaire— Priests inferior to Voltaire — Alas ! Poor Erin ! — Priests the curse of Ireland — How the Irish are educated — Priests kindly do all Pat's thinking for him — Ireland the Paradise of bishops and priests — Fat priests and lean people — Money ! Money ! Money ! Give ! Give ! Give ! — Rome and rum Ireland's ruin — Holy wells of Ireland — Very much like heathenism — Heathen performances — Painful self -torture— Miracles of St. Patrick's Well — All "stark naked" — Feast of lunatics — Indecent orgies promoted by the priests — Romanism de- serving only of contempt. 16S CHAPTER IX. What Popery has done for Spain — Pius IX. becomes Pope in 1846 — He begins well — A Pope becomes a Reformer !— Noble conduct of the new Pope — The tiger has a velvet paw — And very sharp and ugly claws — Rome never changes — Flight of the pope in disguise — The Roman Republic — Palace of the Inquisition — The chamber of horrors — The Mother of abominations — "Such are thy tender mercies, tyrant Rome !" — Liberty is crushed, and the Pope is happy — Christ blesses. The Pope curses. 184 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. page. The Pope has the 1 1 keys ' ' of the torture chamber — What Popery has done for Mexico — How Rome converted the Mexicans — Priests fatten on the ignorance of the people — Romanism promotes immorality — Popery in Ecuador — Ecuador a finished specimen of priestly work — United States to be Romanized — Syllabus of Pius IX. — A menace to liberty — Rome relies on her criminals — Rome breeds mur- derers — Niece of an Archbishop arraigns popery — A dreadful crop from bad seed — Damaging testimonies — There is trouble ahead— Papists arming and drilling. 202 CHAPTER XL ' ' Signs and lying wonders " — Rome's use of relics — " Kirwan' ' to Archbishop Hughes — Priests in the rag and bone busi- ness — Infamous frauds of the priests — Blind leaders of the blind — Saints with too many arms and legs — Heathen per- formance in Hoboken, X. J. — Blood and bones of St. Quietus — Praying to old bones — Rome knows how to make money — Priests raising the wind in Xew York — Holy House of Loretto — Wonder-working porringer — Priests own the seamless coat of Jesus Christ — An honest man's protest — Holy coat makes millions — A priest with the spirit of Luther — A brave priest rebukes his bishop — "Holy coat, pray for us. ' ' 220 CHAPTER XII. Hungry sheep fed on chaff — Feeding the sheep in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Xew York — Virgin Mary turned artist — Heathen- ism in St. Patrick's Cathedral — The flag that insults the Stars and Stripes — Decree of the Immaculate Conception — The horrible definition— Pius IX. a dangerous teacher — Some tricks attributed to Virgin Mary — Romanists dishonor Mary — Mary and the fallen nun — Talking head on the well- curb— Mary takes the place of a wife — Blasphemy of Transubstantiation — Creating the Creator — u Lying won- ders "of the mass — Eating human flesh, and swallowing God — Wafer changed into a child — Bees erect a chapel of wax — Asses kneel before the wafer god — The worshipping mule converts his master. 245 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. page. Seducing spirits — Doctrines of devils — Pagan philosophers on demon worship — Roman demon -worshippers — Priests claim to cast out devils —Paul denounces heathen practices — Dr. South ey on St. Dominic — The saintly fiend — Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits — Romanists misrepresent our Christ — Rome's tyrannical Christ — Father Chiniquy's testimony — Popery and Buddhism — Interesting letter from Burmah — A striking parallel — A word of warning. 273 CHAPTER XIV. A word of warning — Speaking lies in hypocrisy— Decree of infallibility — Peter not the first pope — Peter never in Rome — The confessing, or the lying Peter, which ? — God's order vs. the pope's — Had Peter a grudge against John ? — Rome puts Linus and Clement above the apostle John — Rome's rock nothing but sand — A blunder as well as a crime — The forged Decretals — Testimony of a learned Papist — Rome finds forgery profitable — A pope does a little lying on his own account — Romish forgeries multiply — Forged donation of Constance — Gibbons' testimony — Pope Adrian's letter to Charlemagne —A letter from Peter in heaven — Still that shameful fraud — The Pope in heaven flatters the French — "Their conscience seared with a hot 294 CHAPTER XV. God's law of marriage — Priestly celibacy contrary to Scrip- ture — God's law trampled under foot — Blasphemy in the Council of Trent— Horrible results of the rule of celibacy — The law against nature — The bitter fruits of celibacy— For- bidding to marry a mark of Antichrist — Dictating as to what men may eat — Legislating for men's stomachs— A dis- pensation a permission to sin — Interesting quotation from Bishop Newton — "Idle, popish, monkish abstinence" — Who are "good ministers of Jesus Christ " ? — " Ye are all of your father, the devil." 322 CONTEXTS. CHAPTER XVI. page. The Apocalypse on the Papacy — An interesting Scripture quo- tation — A most instructive prophecy — A most intelligent interpretation — The Eomish ' ' Beast from the bottomless pit ' ' — Protestantism beaten by the Beast — Protestants bleeding, and Rome rejoicing — Resurrection of the wit- nesses — The Beast in Daniel and Revelation identical — Truth crushed, and Rome makes merry — All the world at the feet of the Pope — Always darkest before day — The wel- come voice of Luther — A woman clothed with the sun — The Great Red Dragon — The Dragon disappointed of his prey — The last of the Pagan persecutions — Marvellous fortitude of a mistaken Christian — The rift in the clouds — Hypocrisy of false religions — The fierce Maximin is dead — Constantine gives peace to the Church — " Man's inhumanity toman." 340 CHAPTER XVII. The monster coming up out of the sea — Seven heads, and ten horns — The crowns transferred from heads to horns — The Beast with a deadly wound — How the deadly wound was healed— In appearance a lamb ; in reality a dragon — Rome Pagan still survives in Rome papal — Making an image of the beast — Giving life to the image of the beast — Tyrants support each other — Whom they create they adore — Romish boycotting, ancient and modern — Speaking like a dragon, and killing like a wild beast — Gregory VII. defines the powers of the papacy — Innocent III., beast and dragon in one — King John of England surrenders the crown to the Pope — Dreadful effects of the interdict on England — In- solent letter of Innocent to Count Raymond — The Pope's shameful treatment of the Count— Count Raymond plotted against by the Pope — Count Raymond scourged, naked, by the Pope's Legate. 367 CHAPTER XVIII. Who will not worship the beast must be killed— The Legate and the wafer god lead the murderous host — Priests sing while heretics burn — ''Rather than betray our friends, we CONTENTS. PAGE. will eat our own children " — Kivers of blood flowing, and the Legate happy —Sixty thousand slaughtered, and Beziers laid in ashes— Count Roger's brave defence of Carcassone — The Legate's infamous terms rejected — Treachery of the Legate toward Roger — Roger and his Knights betrayed — The holy assassins disappointed of their prey — Fifty hung, and four hundred burnt alive — Count Roger stripped of his estates and murdered — Heretics had their eyes torn out and their noses cut off — Wearing out the saints — Sad farewells as the Albigenses prepare for death — A hundred and forty heretics in one bonfire — Lady Guiraude buried alive — The Papacy is always and essentially cruel — Brave Ugo Bassi the victim of priestly cruelty — The monster with great iron teeth. 392 CHAPTER XIX. Papacy the great whore of the Apocalypse — The woman on the scarlet-colored beast — The Mother of harlots — The Mother of abominations — Incense adopted from Paganism — Holy water — More heathen abominations — Testimony of the Italian patriot, Gavazzi — Rome sends unbaptized infants to liell — Romish baptism an abomination — Kirwan to Arch- bishop Hughes on the silly performance — Holy salt, holy oil, holy breath, and holy spittle — The mass an abomination — Excuses for using Latin in the mass — Indulgences — Sale of indulgences lead to the Reformation — Making merchandise of souls — John Tetsel selling indulgences — Tetsel's cross equal to the cross of Christ — Money down, sin all you please. 416 CHAPTER XX. Purgatory — Purgatory for those who die in the grace of God — Purgatorial fires against the cleansing blood — Better than a gold mine — Challoner's weak defence of Purgatory — Per- tinent questions to an Archbishop — A stupendous fraud — Robbing the poor — The heartless priest and the weeping widow — Drives off the widow's cow to pay for masses — No money, no mass— The priest and the sucking pig— A priestly protest against priestly iniquity — Auricular confession — CONTENTS. PAGE. Shameful questions to females — Testimony of Father Hogan — Priest and fair penitent will swear to a lie — The anxious wife and the accommodating friar — Auricular con- fession encourages immorality — Horrible wickedness of father confessors — The father confessor comes between hus- band and wife. 440 CHAPTER XXI. Story of priestly outrage — Father Chiniquy on the confes- sional — The fly in the web of the black spider — A mother's confession of guilt — The confessional the modern Sodom — "That bottomless sea of iniquity" — The confessional a school of perdition — The priest is lord of the family — Mon- asticism a Popish abomination — The United States a fair field for Popish manoeuvering — Nunneries an offset to celibacy — Monks and nuns are on the best of terms — Rela- tion of lying-in hospitals to nunneries — Convents and nunneries houses of prostitution — Nuns sw r orn to obey the priests — Convent life is a hell upon earth — A dying nun sees nothing but purgatory before her — Longs in vain for her mother — Rome has the heart of a dragon — Ninety thou- sand women without the protection of law. 465 CHAPTER XXII. The city of the seven hills — The home of the harlot — Drunken with the blood of the saints — The right to murder heretics — Romish wolves after the sheep and lambs — Four hundred children suffocated — Mother and child dashed over the rocks — The Holy Inquisition — Deluged with Protestant blood — Massacre of St. Bartholomew— Horrors of Bartholo- mew's Day — Revocation of the Edict of Nantes — Horrors of the Dragonades — Horrors of the Irish massacre — Unspeak- able barbarities — All for the glory of the church — The butcher Alva in the Netherlands — Martyr fires kindled by Bloody Mary— Queen Elizabeth crowned by the people — And cursed by the Pope— Spain's " Invincible Armada " — Still thirsting for Protestant blood — Not so ' ' invincible, ' ' after all — She bargained for Protestant blood, and was cheated. 489 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. page. The Beast ascended out of the bottomless pit — Eomanists are a lost people— May sincerely believe lies and be damned for it — The chief product is ignorance and crime — Rome the wickedest city in Italy— The Fathers and Reformers on Papal Rome as Antichrist — What the future of the Papacy ? — The days of Papacy are numbered — United States must submit to the Pope — This Republic declared to be atheis- tical—Rome claims the right to rule the United States — Wise words from an ex-member of the U. S, Cabinet — Solemn responsibility of the Protestant ministry — Jesuits delighted with the new American Pope — What Romanizing this country means — The True Christ, or the Antichrist ; which shall it be ? 516 CHAPTER I. Our National Peril. Shall Liberty Die ? AVhat a question ! Of course, we mean, shall the dearly-bought, and matchless liberties of this highly favored nation be destroyed ? And multitudes will incredulously ex- claim — " What a question ! Is not this question far-fetched?" Well, there are millions of our citi- zens who think it is not far-fetched, and who are apprehensive that the land which furnished Liberty with a " cradle" may yet have to provide her with a grave. They know that with the best possible laws on our statute books, the nation may be filled with lawlessness and degradation, because statutory enact- ments are not self-operating ; so while Liberty has power to uplift and bless a nation, she is power- less to sustain herself, or to perpetuate^ her own ex- istence. As laws must have living forces behind them to make them vital, and effective, so Liberty must have defenders, — must have zealous guard- ians, who will maintain her gracious authority, and execute her high behests ; feeling proud to be her slaves. Knowing that to be the slave of liberty is to be the freest of the free. The defenders of Liberty are those whom we call by the honored name of patriots. The Egyptians; the Chaldeans; the Carthagi- nians ; the Persians ; the Macedonians ; the Romans ; — all these nations lost their liberties ; and even their national existence. Why may not we lose ours ? 2 Unusual Interest in the Subject of Popery. Is it true that American Liberty has a foe that is to be feared ? Many think so, and are con- stantly affirming it. They affirm that the man who is doing his utmost to array nine millions of his obedient followers against the liberties of this great Protestant nation, has his home on the Tiber, and his throne in the Vatican. The unprecedented interest, and even deep con- cern that is being manifested throughout the length and breadth of this nation, and by people of all classes of society, in the political pretensions and progress of Popery in these United States, makes it of the utmost importance that all who love Ameri- can institutions shall know with infallible certainty, if possible, the true character of that imported sys- tem of religion that has produced such wide-spread agitation. If the Romish Hierarchy can offer us anything bet- ter than what we possess in a free and inspired Bible, and our matchless American Constitution, all intel- ligent and patriotic souls will willingly and gladly accept so great a gift, and adjust our institutions to this superior system of government and laws. But the Protestant religion and the American Constitu- tion have served this nation so well, making her the most free, the most prosperous, the most progressive, and the most happy country the world has ever known, that before the American people will be willing to exchange her government and laws for the government and laws of the Pope, they will be very sure they are going to profit by the bargain. Cardinal Manning on the Power of the Pope. 3 But who is the Pope of Rome, and what are his pretensions, and what does he purpose for the wel- fare and happiness of this great country with its teeming millions of intelligent freemen ? It is well known that the Pope claims to be the true Vicar and representative of Jesus Christ upon earth. We quote the words of Dr. Manning, a Cardinal of the Roman Church, who, of course, speaks with author- ity. In a sermon preached at Kensington, Eng- land, in 1869, Cardinal Manning, personating the Pope, says : " I claim to be the Supreme Judge and director of the consciences of men — of the peasant that tills the field, and the prince that sits on the throne ; of the household that sits in the shade of privacy, and the Legislature that makes laws for Kingdoms. I am the sole, last, Supreme Judge of what is right and wrong." Many intelli- gent people call that blasphemy, and it looks very much like it ; but this is what the Pope claims, and what some two hundred millions of the human race accept and believe, according to Romish sta- tistics. Vicar General Preston, in a sermon preached by him in New York, in 1888, said, " Every word that Leo speaks from his high chair is the voice of the Holy Ghost, and must be obeyed. To every Catholic heart comes no thought but obedience. It is said that politics is not within the province of the Church, and that the Church has jurisdiction only in matters of faith. You say I will receive my faith from the Pontiff, but I will not receive my politics 4 If the Pope's Claims are Just we Must all Submit from him. This assertion is disloyal and untruth- ful. You must not think as you choose. You must think as Catholics. The man who says I will take my faith from Peter, but I will not take my politics from Peter, is not a true Catholic." And so the Pope claims to stand in the place of God as the Supreme Ruler of all men, superior to Kings and Governments, and all human laws. As God he claims the right to rule even the inmost thoughts and consciences of all men. By virtue of his holiness, and supremacy, and infallibility, he claims the right to substitute his laws for the laws of this land, his institutions for the institutions so dear to all true, patriotic Americans. And surely if the Pope does really possess the attributes and spirit of God, our citizens should gladly put them- selves under his rule, and joyfully submit to his authority ; for a Ruler possessing such Divine en- dowments must surely exercise government most wise, the most gentle, and the most conducive to the happiness of the people, and the most rapid pro- gress of the nation, in intelligence, virtue, and all other things that constitute real national prosperity and greatness. What nation would not feel honored to enjoy the government of a truly God-like man possessing the attributes of the Holy and Infallible God. Cardinal Satolli, whose business in this country is to bring our nation under the sway of his Holi- ness, the Infallible Pope, said in one of his public addresses that, " What the Church has done for Priestly Hatred of Our Public Schools. 5 other nations she proposes to do for this country." Let American citizens take comfort from this gra- cious intention of the Pope. Leo proposes to begin by- making a few changes in our School System. As the American people are somewhat strongly at- tached to their own Public Schools, the priests of Rome find it necessary to weaken and undermine, and at last destroy, what they regard as this bigoted attachment to a worthless system, by declaring their utter contempt for it, and then by showing the vast superiority, and marvellous beauty of their own unequalled Parochial Schools, so that all intelligent Americans, amazed at our past stupidity, will eagerly adopt their system in place of our own. It may help to open the eyes of our people to our folly in the past, if we quote the words of some of the priests and editors of the Infallible Pope in regard to the imperfections and indeed the utter worthlessness and wickedness of the Public School System. So many of the learned and holy priests of Rome have expressed their views in regard to this matter that it is difficult to know where to begin. We will begin with Pope Pius IX. In his " Syllabus of Errors," 1864, the Pope says, " It is an error to hold that the entire direction of public schools .... may and must appertain to the civil power, and belong to it so far that no other author- ity whatsoever shall be recognized as having any right to interfere in the discipline of the schools." Again the same Pope says it is an error to hold that, " The best theory of civil government requires that 6 Shall the State or the Pope Control Our Schools ? popular schools .... should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority and government interference, and should be fully subject to the civil and politi- cal power in conformity with the will of rulers, and the prevalent opinions of the age." And once more from Pius IX. " It is an error to say that this system of instructing youth which consists in separating it from the Catholic faith, and from the power of the Church, may be approved by Catholics." In these declarations the Pope sets himself squarely in op- position to the cherished sentiments of the Ameri- can people. Bishop McQuaid, in a lecture in Horticultural Hall, Boston, February 13, 1876, declared. " The State has no right to educate ; and when the State undertakes the work of education it is usurping the powers of the Church." " The Church," in his view, of course, is the Romish Church. What that Church is will be clearly seen in the following chapters of this book. Archbishop Hughes, of New York, declared. " The public school system is a disgrace to the civi- lization of the nineteenth century." Cardinal Mc- Closkey said : " We must take part in the elec- tions. Move in a solid mass in every State against the party pledged to sustain the integrity of the public schools." If all American patriots would "move in a solid mass" against those who are seek- ing to destroy the integrity of the public schools, instead of putting their political party before their country, our public schools would be in no danger. Parochial Schools Forced on Romanists. 7 It is well known to the priests of Rome that the Roman Catholic people do not want the Parochial schools. It is by threats, and coaxing, and other unfair means that the priests succeed in inducing parents to send their children to the Parochial schools, for they well know and acknowledge that their children get a far better education in the State schools. The following shocking tirade was uttered by Father Walker, of New York, on the 14th of March, 1875, and reported in the New York Herald the following day, accompanied with a most severe and scorching editorial. The Herald says : " In an- nouncing, yesterday, that the next Sunday's collec- tion would be for the benefit of the Parochial schools he took occasion to denounce the Public school system of New York in the most bitter and injudi- cious manner. c Woe be to the parents/ shouted he, in the manner of one hurling anathemas, ' woe be to the parents who send their children to the Public schools ! Woe be to them that secretly favor them in their hearts ! I would not like to be in their places in the day of judgment. The Public schools are the nurseries of vice. They are Godless schools, and they who send their children to them cannot expect the mercy of God. They ought not to expect the sacraments of the Church in their dying mo- ments. I hope you and I will live to see the day when it will be understood that parents who commit this great sin will be refused the sacraments of the Church. What ! let them die without the sacra- ments of the Church ? you will ask. Yes, I say so. 8 Father Walker's Disgraceful Attack. I would as soon administer the sacraments to a dog as to such Catholics. Did not Jesus Christ suffer one of his apostles to die without the rites of the Church in despair? So would I let these wretched Catholics perish. Catholics ! They are not Catholics. They are Catholics of the pot-house politician stripe, men who deceive and betray the poor, innocent, ignorant Irish immigrants when they arrive in this country ; men who make their poor countrymen, when they are only a few months in this country, perjure them- selves to become citizens ; men who have no faith or charity in their hearts. You may say, ah, but I know good men and women, good priests and bishops, good fathers and mothers who were brought up in the Public schools. True, but they are the rare exceptions, one in a thousand, or ten thousand. You (will say also, but some of the teachers are Catholics. What of it ? What do they know about the vice all around them, the contamination and villany ? They don't know it. They never see it. But we priests know it. Go look at the water-closets in some of your Public schools and see the vile markings and scribblings on the walls, and you will realize the vice and infamy that prevail in these nurseries of crime. The great effort of the enemy of God's Holy Church in these days is to get control of the education of the youth in the hope of thus counteracting the blessed influence of the priests of God. The enemy has abandoned every other effort. I tell you, Catholics, that you do not realize the dangers to your children. Look to it then that you More Slanders from Priests and Editors. 9 do not fall a victim to his insidious arts." Such is the way in which these " holy priests of God ;" these ministers of the meek and lowly Jesus, basely revile and slander an institution that is the glory of this nation and the admiration of the world. The Catholic Telegraph says, " It will be a glorious day for Catholics in this country when the Public school system shall be shivered to pieces." The Freeman's Journal — Romanist, says, " Let the Public school system go where it came from — the devil." Priest Schauer saj^s, " The Public schools have produced nothing but a godless generation of thieves and blackguards." Archbishop Perche says, " Our Public school sys- tem is emphatically a social plague." Although such quotations might be multiplied almost indefinitely, enough has been quoted to show the bitter hatred of the Romish Church to our glorious and cherished Public school system, and the determination of the bishops and priests to de- stroy it. This is their settled and declared purpose. And what does the Pope and his priests propose to give us in exchange? The Parochial schools, which they declare to be infinitely superior to our American school system. If they really are superior we ought by all means to make the exchange. And surely this superiority, if it exists, will be found in those countries where the Pope and his priests have had full sway for ages and centuries. As the name of Venezuela is just now very prominent before the 10 Ignorance of the People in Venezuela. people of this country, and as that land has long been under the control of the holy priests, who claim it as their exclusive right to direct and control the education of the people, let us see what their Paro- chial school system has done for Venezuela. I have before me at this moment a book that states that in that country — Venezuela, ninety per- sons in every hundred can neither read nor write. In Chili, seventy-three per cent, are illiterate. In Brazil, as stated in a letter now before me, written by a most intelligent gentleman who has long been a resident of that country, " School teachers are all appointed by the governors or presidents of the provinces, who in their turn are appointed by the imperial government." The spoils system is in full vogue in Brazil, and school teachers are generally appointed as the re- ward for political favors ; so it often happens that school teachers are unable to read or w^rite, being appointed, not for their qualifications, but " for friendship's sake." As a result of this system ninety per cent, of the entire population of Brazil can neither read nor write. And Rome is satisfied. In the best of their common schools it is a rare thing to find a teacher who is able to perform an example in common fractions in arithmetic. It is much more frequently the case that children attend school for three or four years and fail to learn the alphabet, the sum total of their education being the Romish Catechism, learned by heart, and a little knowledge of embroidery and fancy stitching. The boys get the Education in Spain and Italy. 11 catechism minus the embroidery and stitching ; and Rome is satisfied. All the schools in Brazil, except the High schools in the larger cities, are under the control of the priests." If we cross over to Rome-ruled Spain, where the priests control education and everything else, we find that only twenty in a hundred of the people can read and write. In Portugal the ignorance of the people is even more deplorable. But surely if we go to sunny Italy, where the holy and infallible Pope has exercised both spiritual and temporal sovereignty for many centuries, and where multitudes of cardinals, bishops, priests, and nuns are looking after the spiritual and intellectual wel- fare of the people, we shall find a vastly different and most desirable state of things. Surely a country that is directly governed by the holy Vicegerent of Jesus Christ must be a paradise of intelligence and happiness, and the people of Rome especially, who live in the effulgence of " the Apostolic throne," and in' the light of the countenance of " His Holiness," who claims to be " the Supreme Ruler and Director of the consciences of men," must be the best edu- cated, and the most enlightened and the most pro- gressive and saintly people on the face of the earth. And, if the Pope has made no mistake in his claims, it must be so. But, alas ! What do we find in this centre and seat of Apostolic authority ? I open an Encyclopaedia, now before me, and I read these words : " The mass of the Italian people are incred- ibly illiterate. The primary elements of education, 12 Stand By the Little Red School House. reading and writing, are by no means universal even among the better classes." And it is said that when, in 1870, King Victor Emmanuel entered Rome, only one-fifth of the people could read or write. And, as we shall see further on, the morals of the people were on a par with their dense igno- rance. As the bishops and priests of Rome still insist on the very great superiority of the Parochial to our State system of education, it would seem to be a matter of taste and opinion, and the present efforts of these bishops and priests must be to induce the great body of intelligent and patriotic American people to change their opinions and then the sys- tem, and the work is done. When this takes place, his Holiness in the Vatican will be likely to know it. In the meantime it will be well for all who love " the little red school house " and all it represents, to guard well this sacred trust, and make the most effective use of their ballots on election day. As it is the avowed purpose to destroy our Public school system, so also is it the settled and declared purpose of the Romish Hierarchy to supplant the Protestant religion and secure the political control of this nation. It will not do to sneer at such priestly pretensions, or to brand as " pessimists " or " alarmists/' those who seek to arouse the patriotic American citizens to the dangers that threaten our institutions and our liberties from the purposes and aggressions of this mighty political machine, called the Church of Protestantism Must Be Destroyed. 13 Rome. Let us see what her representative men say as to their views in regard to the Protestant religion and those free institutions that have grown out of it in this land ; her purpose to destroy them, the mate- rials she possesses with which to effect her pur- pose, and the measure of success she has already achieved. The Roman Catholic Review, of January, 1852, said, " Protestantism, of every form, has not, and never can have, any rights where Catholicism is triumphant." The Archbishop of St. Louis said, " If the Catho- lics ever gain, as they surely will, an immense numerical majority in this country, religious free- dom will be at an end." Bishop O'Conner, of Pittsburg, said, " Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic Church." Father Hecker, of New York, said, twenty-five years ago, " The Catholic Church numbers one-third of the American population, and if its membership shall increase for the next thirty years as it has for the thirty years past, in nineteen hundred Rome will have a majority and will take the country and keep it." He also said, " There is to be in this country, ere long, a State religion, and that State religion will be Roman Catholic." At another time Father Hecker said, " We number seven millions in this country, and in fifteen years we will take this country and build our institutions on the grave of Protestantism." 14 Treason in the Baltimore Congress of 1889. At the great Roman Catholic Congress, held in Baltimore, November 11, 1889, distinguished pre- lates and other eminent Romanists insulted the Pro- testants of this nation, and claimed for the Pope and his Church, supremacy over the Constitution, Gov- ernment and Laws of these United States. The resolutions of the Congress contained these words : "We cannot conclude without recording our solemn conviction that the absolute freedom of the Holy See is equally indispensable to the peace of the Church and the welfare of mankind. " " We demand, in the name of humanity and jus- tice, that this freedom be scrupulously respected by all secular governments. " We protest against the assumption of any such government of a right to affect the interests, or con- trol the action of our Holy Father by any form of legislation, or other public act to which his full approbation has not been previously given, and we pledge to Leo XIIL, the worthy Pontiff, to whose hands Almighty God has committed the helm of Peter's bark amid the tempests of this stormy age, the loyal sympathy and unstinted aid of all his spiritual children, in vindicating that perfect liberty which he justly claims as his sacred and inalienable right." Surely this is nothing less than treason, and such abject clinging to Popery deprives every man who voted for such shameful resolutions, of all claim to being regarded as a loyal and worthy American citizen. This Country to be Romanized. 15 The letter and spirit of that Baltimore Congress were utterly antagonistic to all that patriotic Ameri- cans reverence and delight in as civil and religious liberty. Archbishop Ireland, mistakenly believed by many Protestants to be a true lover of our American institutions, deliberately insults all the Protestant people of this great intelligent and liberty-loving country, by declaring, at this same Congress : — " America is at heart a Christian country." By " Christian " he means Roman Catholic, and he, and all priests and bishops bigotedly hold that Protest- ants are heretics and not Christians. He says : " As a religious system Protestantism is in helpless disso- lution, utterly valueless as a doctrinal or moral power and no longer considered a foe with which we must count. The Catholic Church is the sole living and enduring Christian authority." " Our work," he says, " is to make America Catholic. . . . Our cry shall be, God wills it. We know that the Church is the sole owner of the truths and graces of salvation." If Archbishop Ireland does not know that his utterances are utterly false, as well as shame- fully insulting, there are millions of intelligent people in this country who do. The Hon. Mr. Gladstone, of England, in his " Vatican Decrees," points out some of the things that are condemned by the Pope of Rome. He quotes chiefly from the syllabus of the last Pope, Pius IX. The Pope condemns the Liberty of the press, Liberty of conscience, Liberty of worship, Liberty of speech. 16 The Syllabus of Pope Pius IX. He condemns those who hold that Roman Pon- tiffs and Ecumenical Councils have transgressed the limits of their power and usurped the rights of princes. By which is meant that when the Popes sanctioned all the tortures and horrors of the Inqui- sition, and the hangings and burnings and drown- ings of thousands and tens of thousands of Protest- ant Christians, they did what they had a perfect right to do, and what was eminently pleasing to the Heavenly Father. He condemns all who hold that in the conflict of laws, civil and ecclesiastical, the civil law should prevail. And all who hold that marriage not sacramentally contracted has a binding force. And all who hold that any other religion than the Roman religion may be established by the State. And all who hold that in countries called Catholic the free exercise of other religions may laudably be allowed. And all who hold that the Roman Pontiff ought to come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization. In the " Syllabus of Errors," issued by Pius IX., in December, 1864, the Pope speaks of Protestant Bible Societies as among the "pests" that have frequently received the severest rebukes of the Church. Here, then, we see, from the highest authority, that the Church of Rome is the deadly enemy of civil and religious liberty, and of all those institutions in which all liberty-loving American citizens glory, Civil and Religious Liberty Condemned. 17 as being the secret of our national greatness — a free Bible, free press, free schools, freedom of conscience, and free speech. And from this same high authority we plainly see also that all those professions of love for our flag and devotion to our Government and Constitution, so often and so eloquently expressed by the bishops, priests and editors of the Romish Church, are false and hypocritical, and intended to deceive the Amer- ican people. The deadly hatred of the Hierarchy to civil and religious liberty has been practically manifested many times during the last fifty years. Whenever the people in Roman Catholic countries have sought to burst their chains, and their legislatures have enacted, or sought to enact, laws giving to the people larger freedom, the Pope has immediately denounced all such laws as atrocious, and declared them null and void, while threatening the most dreadful penal- ties on all who should dare to enforce them. This has been done in New Grenada, in Sardinia, in Spain, in Austria, in Mexico, etc. And yet the priests of Rome are constantly de- claring their love for our Republican form of Govern- ment and our American Constitution. But, it may be asked, " Has the Romish Hierarchy any materials or agencies that can really injure this great Protestant Republic ? What can nine millions do as against sixty millions ?" But the nine millions are thoroughly organized and the sixty millions are not. That makes a vast difference, as every one must see. 18 Guerilla Warfare of the Jesuits. One hundred soldiers can put to flight a mob of five thousand men. Alexander conquered the world with a little army that never amounted to fifty thousand soldiers. A terrible superstition that makes the nine millions of Romanists in this country the abject slaves of one man, whom they believe is " God on earth," and possessing the power and the right to take them to Heaven, or send them to Hell, is the secret of their enmity, that makes them so dangerous a foe to the unorganized and scattered hosts of liberty and progress. The Jesuits are the irregular cavalry, or rather the unscrupulous guerilla forces of the Papacy, whose detestable principles and impertinent interference with the political affairs of nations, have secured to them the scorn and hatred of all the world, and caused their expatriation from almost every country under the sun. These unprincipled enemies of the human race are swarming everywhere in this land, and everywhere seeking to fasten upon us the hate- ful fetters of Romish despotism. The parochial schools, and other educational insti- tutions of Rome are being used for the same pur- pose. In all these combined they claim to have more than nine hundred thousand young people. This great host of children and young people are being taught that all Protestants are outlawed by God and the Pope, and are all doomed to the eternal flames of hell as heretics. And so we see that while it is of the utmost importance that we shall be one homogeneous people, the priests of Parochial Schools Nests of Treason. 19 Rome are doing their utmost to cause divisions, and to educate their people to despise and hate Protestants, and Protestant institutions. These Romish Schools are nests of treason, and most dangerous to the welfare of the Republic. A book was published not long ago by a Romish priest named Segur, and endorsed by several prelates, and entitled — " A plain Talk About the Protestant- ism of To-day." In it he says — " The Holy Bible is not, and cannot be the rule of faith. Prot- estantism cannot be the religion of the people. No man out of the Roman Catholic Church can inherit eternal life, unless he is absolutely ignorant of the teachings of the true Church." He says the infi- delity of France is much to be preferred to the Protestant religion. " To be a Christian is to be a Roman Catholic. Outside of Catholicity you may be a Lutheran, a Calvanist, a Mohammedan, a Mor- mon, a Freethinker, a Buddhist ; but you are not, you cannot be a christian." And when men write or speak against this terri- ble system of falsehood and treason ; even men who call themselves Protestants, will cry, " Bigotry !" Mr. Talmage spoke only the truth when he said — " We cannot compete in bitterness with the Church that burned John Oldcastle, and scattered the ashes of Wickliffe, and massacred the Waldenses, and exterminated the Albigenses, and dug the Inqui- sitions, and roasted over slow fires Nickelson Ridley, and had medals struck in honor of St. Bartholo- mew's massacre, and took God's dear children and 20 Martin Luther Slandered. cut out their tongues, and poured hot lead into their ears, and tore out their nails with pincers, and let water fall upon their heads until it wore to the brain, and wrenched their bodies limb from limb, and into the red wine-press of its wrath threw the red clusters of a million of human hearts." The same hatred of Protestants is being taught in all Roman Catholic schools at this hour. See how wilfully and shamefully Romish authors and teachers pervert history, in order to prejudice the minds of their people against the Protestant religion and laws. Segur, the French author already quoted, says, page 47, — " It has been proclaimed from the most illustrious pulpits of the Reformation, that the Saviour was only a Jewish Socrates, the author of the best practical philosophy." Page 49 : " Were it not that my limits are narrow, I might pass in review the different Protestant countries, and prove from public and universal facts how Luther's Reforma- tion abandons everywhere, and denies the sacred and essential dogma of the divinity of Jesus Christ, — a dogma without which Christianity can- not exist." This veracious historian says the fol- lowing in regard to Martin Luther : — " He was an apostate monk living in concubinage with an unfrocked nun, and he has been judged by Prot- estant writers with merited severity. His life, after his apostacy, was that of a libertine entirely taken with the pleasures of the table and animal pleas- ures, so much so that it had become a proverb, in Romish Perversions of Historic Truth. 21 self-indulgence to say : ' To-day we shall live a la Luther.' The ' Table Talk' of Luther can still be found in some libraries shelved among obscene books. It breathes such a cynicism that it is impos- sible to quote from it." Segur speaks thus of Luther's death : — " Luther despaired of the salvation of his soul. Shortly before his death, his concubine pointed to the bril- liancy of the stars in the firmament. ' See, Martin, how beautiful that Heaven is?' c It does not shine in our behalf/ said the master moodily. ' Is it because we have broken our vows?' resumed Kate, in dismay. ' May be,' said Luther. c If so, let us go back.' ' Too late. The hearse is stuck in the mire/ and he would hear no more. At Eisleben, on the day previous to that on which he was stricken with apoplexy, he remarked to his friends : — ' I have almost lost sight of Christ, tossed as I am by these waves of despair which overwhelm me/ and after awhile, l I, who have imparted salvation to so many, cannot save myself.' He died forlorn of God ; blas- pheming to the very end." In a foot note he adds : " The last descendant of Luther died not long ago, a fervent Catholic." Segur speaks of Calvin's death in this way, page 223, — " Calvin died of scarlet fever, devoured by vermin, and eaten up by an ulcerous abscess, the stench of which drove every person away. In great misery he gave up his rascally ghost, despairing of salvation, evoking the devils from the abyss, and uttering oaths most horrible, and blasphemies most 22 Calvin's Happy Death. frightful." These utterances of M. Segur, endorsed by the Bishop of Boston, and whose author is com- mended by the Pope himself, are well known by millions of intelligent people to be utterly false and slanderous, and yet the same things concerning these glorious Reformers, Luther and Calvin, are taught by other Romish authors, and are accepted as truths by the members of their church. As not a few Protestants may be deceived by such statements made with so much pretense of regard for the good of souls, it may be well to state the actual truth as recorded by those most competent to give the actual facts. No nobler or more useful men ever lived than Luther and Calvin. They were men of God, and ready to sacrifice all, even life itself, for God's glory and the welfare of mankind. They were profound students of God's holy word, and they left to the world a legacy that has blessed unspeakably the nations of the earth. We quote from a most careful historian and biographer, Dr. John Lord, in " Beacon Lights of History," the truth in regard to the death of Calvin : — " When his feeble body was worn out by his pro- tracted labors, at the age of fifty-three, and he felt the hand of death was upon him, he called together his friends and fellow laborers in reform, the magis- trates and ministers of Geneva, imparted his last lessons and expressed his last wishes, with the placi- dity of a Christian sage. Amid tears and sobs, and stifled groans, he discoursed calmly on his approach- ing departure, gave his affectionate benedictions and Luther's Glorious Departure. 23 commended them and his cause to Christ. Linger- ing longer than was expected, but dying in the brightest triumphs of Christian faith, May 27, 1564, in the arms of his faithful, and admiring Beza, as the rays of the setting sun gilded with their glory his humble chamber of toil and spiritual exaltation." The most reliable witnesses of Luther's death bed scenes tell this story : — " At the time of his death his companions were his three sons, John, Martin, and Paul, and his constant friend, Gustus Jonas. On the 18th of February, he expired at Eisleben. His last words were : ' Oh, my Heavenly Father, eternal and merciful God, thou hast revealed to me thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I have preached him. I have confessed him. I love him, and I worship him as my dearest Saviour and Redeemer : He whom the wicked persecute, accuse and blaspheme.' He then repeated, three times : Into thy hands I commit my spirit. God of truth, thou hast redeemed me." The quotations above made from M. Segur gives us but a specimen of the mendacity that character- izes almost the entire literature of the Roman Cath- olic Church, and this mendacious literature is another of the evil agencies with which Protestant truth, and the advocates of free government have to contend. One of the most effective means employed by the bishops and priests of Rome in their effort to "plant the institutions of Rome on the grave of Protestant- ism," as Father Hecker said, is the earnestness with which they teach the people that their Church is above the State, and that the commands of the Pope must 24 Perjury and Treason Inculcated. be obeyed in preference to the laws of the land. This is strongly asserted in the words already quoted from Cardinal Manning, in which he asserts that " the Pope is the Supreme Judge and Director of Legisla- tures that make laws for Kingdoms." In an ency- clical letter of the present Pope, dated November 7, 1885, as published in the New York Herald, the Pope says : " We expect all Catholics to devote careful attention to public matters, and take part in all municipal affairs and elections. All Catholics must make themselves felt as active elements in daily political life in countries where they live. All Cath- olics should exert their power to cause the constitu- tions of states to be modeled on the principles of the true Church." This surely aims to induce all Cath- olics to commit perjury and treason. It is well known that " all Catholics," as well as others, who are elected to political positions are required to swear that they will be true to the constitution of the State. Indeed no foreigner can become a citizen without taking such an oath, but the infallible Pope him- self here insists that although Catholics have taken this solemn oath, it is their duty to subvert the free institutions they have sworn to sustain, and put in their place the tyrannical institutions of " the true Church." This cannot be done without perjury and treason. But the Church of Rome abundantly teaches that the oaths made to heretics are of no binding obligation. Bishop Gilmour, of Cleveland, Ohio, in his Lenten letter, issued to his people, March, 1873, said : " Nationalities must be subordinate to religion," — The Church of Rome Above The State. 25 Romish religion, of course. " We must learn that we are Catholics first, and citizens next. God is above man, and the Church," — the Romish Church, of course — " above the state." In his Syllabus of Errors, Proposition 42, issued December 8, 1864, Pius IX., said : " It is an error to hold that in case of conflicting laws between the two powers, the civil law ought to prevail." And the present Pope, Leo XIIL, says: " But if the laws of the State are openly at variance with the law of God," which means Leo, " if they inflict injury upon the church " — of Rome — "or set at naught the author- ity of Jesus Christ " — which means the authority of the Pope — " which js vested in the Supreme Pontiff, then it becomes a duty to resist them, and a sin to obey them" This treason against American laws and the Con- stitution of the United States, is being constantly taught by the Romish authorities. And these dis- loyal teachings are accepted by the Roman Catholic poople, and at the ballot box they cast their votes, not for the welfare of the country, but for the glory of their Italian God, and the enrichment and in- crease of his church. Mr. Gladstone, of England, insists that a Roman Catholic cannot be a good citizen, for the reason that " he has forfeited his mental and moral freedom, and placed his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of another." He also says : " The party now in power in the Latin Church, is not satisfied with the binding of the individual conscience, but the State also must be a slave" 26 Rime Controls Our Principal Cities. For the information of those who see " no danger " to our institutions from the Church of Rome, it may be well to give a few facts showing the influence and power that Rome has already secured in this country. She has secured almost the complete control of all our great cities. No one needs to be told what a stupendous curse and disgrace the " Tammany " party has been and is to New York. It is generally spoken of as " the worst governed city in the world." But it is well known that the very life and soul of that shameful and morally rotten organization is the Roman Catholic Church. The real ruler of New York is the papal Archbishop, and he rules by virtue of his power to command the votes of his poor Irish dupes. It is no longer ago than in 1892 that the Mayor of the city insulted the Protestant sentiment of the state by publicly kissing the hand of the Archbishop. In return for Roman Catholic votes the people of the city are robbed by wholesale, and the stolen money is poured into the coffers of Corri- gan's church, that in less than a dozen years received more than nine and a-half millions of dollars, and most of it plundered from the pockets of Protes- tants, multitudes of whom deserve to suffer, for they sacrifice every patriotic and honorable principle by voting the Tammany ticket. Boston is, politically, but little better than New York. We will quote the eloquent words of one of New Englands bravest and noblist christian minis- ters, Rev. I. J. Lansing, who is a most careful and reliable student of Romanism, and one of the most Boston Ruled by the Pope. 27 respected defenders of American institutions. Dr. Lansing says : " Now for Boston, our own imperial Boston, the Boston which we glory in as the modern Athens, which is in danger of becoming modern Cork ; the Boston which we remember as associ- ated with the earliest struggles of American liberty, and which may be associated with its latest con- flicts ; the Boston w r hich we once thought of as pos- sessing the most eminent names of the foremost cit- izens and leading literary men of the country ; the Boston of Samuel Adams, and Warren, and Han- cock, of Charles Sumner, and Wendell Phillips. What of Boston ? The population in 1848 was 128,- 000 ; it then had sixty-five policemen. The popu- lation in 1888 had increased four fold, and the police had to be increased thirteen fold. This tells you something of the kind of people that are filling it up. . . . Twenty-five years ago, in 1866, when Mr. F. W. Lincoln was Mayor of the city of Boston, there were but six Roman Catholics in the city gov- ernment. To-day there are over fifty such. Forty years ago nearly all the money which w T as paid out of the city treasury was paid to officers with Ameri- can names, and Protestant lineage. To-day, of about six millions of dollars paid out of the city treasury, nearly five and a half millions is paid to Roman Catholics, in sums varying from six thou- sand dollars a year dowm to day's wages. Four thou- sand and more of the employees of the city of Boston are Roman Catholics who pay tax to the priests. Boston to-day is almost a Roman Catholic city. 28 New England Become New Ireland. " What I have said of Boston is just as true of New England at large. Donahoe's Magazine, for June, 1888, calls Connecticut an Irish common- wealth, and says the Irish are in practical control of the state. As you might infer from the name, Don- ahoe's Magazine is edited by an Irishman and a Roman Catholic. This article names the members of the legislature, the mayors, and members of the city government in the nine cities of Bridgeport, Hartford, Meriden, Middletown, New Britain, New Haven, New London, South Norwalk and Waterbury. It says, " Let the grand roll of the towns be called, and let further evidence be adduced to them that in Connecticut, at least, the term New England has become a misnomer, and that the term New Ireland has incontrovertible claims to present and future recognition." What is true of New York, and Boston, is true also of Chicago, and other large cities of the Union. But what is perhaps the most alarming is the state of things in Washington, and the extent to which the National Government is already Romanized. The Romish papers and people claim that they elected Mr. Cleveland to the presidency. Through- out the entire country the priests from the altars of the churches commanded the people to vote in a certain way. The Toledo Catholic Review said : " The Catholic vote should be cast solidly for the democ- racy at the coming election. It is the only possible hope to break down the school system." We cut from a paper the following statement: " Priest The Pope in Washington. 29 Menard, of Detroit, Michigan, said to his people, 'You must vote the Democratic ticket. The Democrats are the friends of the Church. The time was when the Church commanded her young men to shoulder the musket and fight her battles, and the time is coming when we will have to exterminate our enemies.' " Rome allies herself with a political party only to increase her own power and wealth. Twelve mil- lion dollars worth of property has been accumulated by the priests for their Church in Washington, and nearly all of it since the war. It is asserted, over and over again, that by far the largest part of this immense amount has been obtained from Protest- ants ; much of it from government clerks, by a system of begging, with more or less coercion in it, and by appropriations which are regularly made to Romish institutions. It is said that all of the Pro- testant holdings in the city do not amount to a half of that amount. A writer who knows whereof he writes, says, in speaking on this subject : " This immense ecclesiastical power has now become a power of frightful proportions. Satolli and his retinue are referred to by the daily press of the city as the papal legation. This is by Roman Catholic direction, or approval, of course, as nothing goes into the press which has not the approval of the Church. Government officials do their work under a Jesuitic surveillance that puts the whole govern- ment system practically under the eye of the Romish priesthood. The clerks are expected to pay money 30 Romanizing the National Government. over to the nuns. In the civil service examina- tions the Roman Catholics succeed better, because they can get in advance the questions of the exami- nation. Romanists are not over a seventh of the population, their votes are not over a tenth part of our voting population, and their illiteracy, foreign spirit and birth, would make their just proportion in official positions a mere handful. Why do they preponderate in Washington? For political effect. There are government clerks who thus pay from ten to twenty -five per cent, of their wages for the purpose of holding their positions. On pay days in the pen- sion bureau, as the clerks receive their pay, they file out between two nuns, who stand on either side, with boxes extended." As is well known the Roman Catholic church maintains an Indian bureau in Washington. All of us remember how a committee of Roman prelates endeavored to prevent the confir- mation by the Senate of a man who was the choice, not only of the President, but of all who believed that the Indians should be educated in government schools, and made intelligent citizens. It is the misfortune of the Roman Catholic Church in this country that it seeks to control education. The misfortune lies in the fact that its purpose leads to constant irritation of public feeling, and dispute, because the people of the United States are resolved that no church shall be permitted to do this. It is the primary object of all the Roman Catholic schools to make Roman Catholics, rather than American citizens. Priestly Lobbying at the Capitol. 31 In eight years they have received from the government two million, three hundred and sixty- six thousand, four hundred and sixty-six dollars, to teach the Indians of the Northwest that the only true Church is the Roman Catholic, and to detach them from the Stars and Stripes." Every popish chapel is a standing protest against God's govern- ment, and a threat against the power and liberty of the countrv that shelters it. Why were Roman Catholics placed at the head of the national campaign committees of both the great political parties in the last presidential campaign ? Are there not able Protestants in either the Demo- cratic or Republican parties, who can be entrusted with these high duties ? Is it not about time that Presidents, and Cabinets, and Congressmen, were called to a strict account for pandering to a church that has been the assassin of liberty in every land where she has obtained a foothold ? The Romish Hierarchy is making itself solid in Washington, the centre of our National Govern- ment. They have a great University there. They have the Indian Bureau, the chief object of which, it is said, is to influence Legislation in favor of Rome. And now there is a new Cardinal Satolli, and another of the same sort in Baltimore, only forty miles away. Those men are " particular friends" of the President, and graciously assist him in crowding the departments of government with Romanists, who owe their first allegiance to the Pope of Rome. It is discovered by those who reside in 32 No Protestant Need Apply. Washington, and who know whereof they affirm, that in Washington, to be a Protestant is a disquali- fication for appointment to government service. General Morgan, late Indian Commissioner, has issued a pamphlet, in which he shows clearly — giv- ing dates and facts — how priests and bishops of the Romish Church combined to defeat President Har- rison because he supported General Morgan in try- ing to reform the abuse made of government money in supporting Parochial schools. Their whole strength was directed to this end, — and they since boast that it was their church that elected Mr. Cleveland. And like a grateful man he has most generously repaid them. Undoubtedly, he has done more towards handing over our government and nation to ttie Pope of Rome, than all his predeces- sors in the presidential office put together. Surely it is no time for the cry of " No danger," so often heard. The danger would be less, however, if the Protestant Pulpit, and the Press of the coun- try, were true to the Country and to God. However pessimistic and discouraging the con- tents of this introductory chapter may seem to be, nothing but the truth has been here written, and still the half has not been told. " But," it may be asked, " is there no rift in the cloud ? What encouraging things have you to say ? What promise is there of deliverance ?" We can- not speak of all the sources of encouragement, we will present a few. In the first place, as the apathy and cowardice of Protestants, and of Protestant A Bugle- Blast from Heaven. 33 Ministers, and of the Religious Press, as well as the Political Press, of the land are a deadly peril to our liberties, so the faithful few among these inspire us with the hope that they will do much towards awakening others to a sense of the dangers that menace the nation. God's voice addresses the Prot- estant Ministers, and the Religious Press of our land especially. " Son of Man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watch- man: if when he seeth the sw r ord come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people ; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning ; if the sworcl come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning ; his blood shall be upon him : but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned ; if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity ; but his blood will I re- quire at the ivatchman's hand. So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel ; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me." A few Protestant Ministers, and Editors of relig- ious papers have heard this " Word of the Lord/' and are doing brave and glorious work for God and Country. It will be encouraging and inspiring to 34 The Irrepressible Conflict. our readers to have set before them a most truthful and awakening article from the New York Christian Advocate of October 28, 1880. We hope that most excellent paper will now utter many such bugle- blasts. The article is on " Homes' Conspiracy." " The Pope, in his Encyclical letter of December 8, 1864, published in latin, and issued to the Romish Church of the whole world for its guidance, con- demned eighty of the leading and ruling principles of modern civilization, and indicated what princi- ples are to guide that church in its endeavor to bring the dark ages upon us again. Below are a few of the principles, selected by their numbers, as they stand in the encyclical : — 39. The people are not the source of all civil power. 19. The Romish Church has a right to exercise its authority, without having any limits set to it by the civil power. 24. The Romish Church has the right to avail itself of force, and to use the temporal power for that purpose. .26. The Romish Church has an innate and legiti- mate right to acquire, hold, and use property without limit. 27. The Pope and priests ought to have dominion over temporal affairs. 30. The Romish Church and her ecclesiastics have a right to immunity from civil laws. 31. The Romish clergy should be tried for civil and criminal offenses only in ecclesiastical courts. Rome's Arrogant Demands. 35 42. In cases of conflict between the ecclesiastical and civil powers, the ecclesiastical powers ought to prevail. 45. The Romish Church has the right to interfere in the discipline of the public schools, and in the arrangement of the studies of the public schools, and in the choice of teachers for these schools. 47. Public schools open to all children for the education of the young should be under the control of the Romish Church, and should not be subject to the civil power, nor made to conform to the opinions of the age. 48. While teaching primarily the knowledge of natural things, the public schools must not be sep- arated from the faith and power of the Romish Church. 53. The civil power has no right to assist persons to regain their freedom who have once adopted a religious life. 54. The civil power is inferior and subordinate to the ecclesiastical power, and in legislated questions of jurisdiction should yield to it. 55. Church and State should be united. 78. The Roman Catholic religion should be the only religion of the State, and all other modes of worship should be excluded. " The incompetency of the Romish system of education to make self-supporting citizens has been perfectly demonstrated in this city by an examina- tion, covering in five years over two hundred thous- and cases of pauperism. These showed that the 36 An Appeal to Freemen. Romish education produced three and a half times as many paupers per thousand pupils as the public schools. A similar investigation in this city, cover- ing fifteen years and four months, including over eleven hundred thousand cases, demonstrated that the Romish education turned out upon society more than three and a quarter times as many criminals per thousand pupils as the public schools." Dexter A. Hawkins. The Christian Advocate goes on to say : — " When the encyclical, from which the above extracts were made, was issued, we were so startled by its abom- inable doctrines that we had ten thousand copies printed, largely at our own expense, and sent through the country, with the following appeal. We have not made a hobby of denouncing Romanism ; but we believe every word that we wrote then, and have seen much to confirm it since." The following is the " Appeal." " Eternal vigi- lance is the price of liberty. Protestants ! Free- men ! Awake ! " The American people, struggling with an open foe to their liberties, must not forget the insidious enemy secretly undermining them. " On the 8th of December, 1864, Pope Pius IX. issued his encyclical. Popery is the most gigantic system for the exercise and consolidation of pow T er which the world has ever seen. It enforces its decrees, both temporal and spiritual, under the doom of damnation to those who disobey. In the encyclical every dogma of deception is avowed by the Apostolic See itself. True to the Pope, False to Liberty. 37 " The right to inflict temporal penalties for the vio- lation of sacred laws is claimed. And what is that ? History answers . The Inquisition ! The auto da fe ! " Liberty of the press, liberty of conscience and of worship, are called c deliriums/ and are denounced as ' the liberty of perdition ! ' " Truth and falsehood are artfully woven together ; and the whole document, in spirit and word, openly condemns the Constitution of our country. To be true to the pope is to be false to the rights of man, as announced in the Declaration, and embodied in the Constitution. All there is of freedom in Ger- many, in Switzerland, in England, in the United States, is the fruits of the Reformation, and exists in spite of Popery. Protestantism and freedom stand or fall together. Catholicism and despotism are one and inseparable. " We advocate no war on Roman Catholics ; but we say to the American people, Awake ! Arouse ! " Oh, for a trumpet blast to warn free governments of the danger to their liberties to the last. Roman- ism seeks ecclesiastical through political power. Its votaries are a unit in action. " Do we address a Protestant clergyman ? We send you the encyclical. It is a proof of the spirit and tendency of popery. Have you the courage to unmask its designs to your people? Patriots ! Patri- ots ! Beware of the secret influence and political power of popery. To be true to the pope is to be false to the rights of man." 38 Work of the Patriotic Orders. Were the patriotic spirit, and christian faithful- ness of this noble Editor imitated by all religions journals and christian ministers throughout the land, the betrayal of our country by the great majority of the secular and political papers would not be so great a calamity as it now is felt to be. But those that are loyal and true are doing a magnificent work. Another source of encouragement we find in the work that is being done by the numerous Patriotic Societies. The most important of all these societies and orders is what is known as the American Pro- tective Association. It is of recent origin, and yet already claims a membership, according to the New York Herald, of three and a half millions. This noble army is the most thoroughly patriotic, and the most thoroughly devoted to the welfare of the country of any of the patriotic orders. Excellent, and of great value to the country as all the orders are, most of them, or, it may be, all of them are mutual beneficial societies, and no doubt thousands in joining them had regard only, or at least chiefly to this fact. But the A. P. A. is exclusively patriotic, and devoted to the defence of the Stars and Stripes and all those glorious institutions which that Flag symbolizes. This splendid Association has surely been raised up by Almighty God as a strong bulwark against the aggressions of Popery. Its very existence at this time recalls to mind the words of the prophet: " When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the True View of the A. P. A. 39 Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." In the six or seven years, or so, of its exist- ence, it has done more to stir the national sentiment than all the other orders and societies during their whole existence. Many thousands of the members of the other societies also belong to the A. P. A. because of its exclusively patriotic character. Al- ready this great organization is giving a good ac- count of itself, and because of this it is honored with the hatred of the priests and their people, who, with all Roman Catholic editors, are doing all in their power to make it unpopular and odious, hoping thus to destroy its influence, and, if pos- sible, its very existence. Not only Romanists, but many so-called Protestants, who bow the knee to the Popish Baal, join with the Papists in traducing this noble Association, and speaking of it as " bigoted " and " un-American," etc. The priests and editors of Rome have raised this cry, and multitudes of others, who are not Romanists, join in the shameful cry, in order to excuse their indifference, or their partisanship, or their mercenary spirit. Let them hurl their charges of " bigotry " and " un- Americanism " at the Church of Rome, which is the most bigoted and un-American of anything it is possible to conceive. We call men patriots who rush forward to repel a hostile invasion. The Roman Catholic Church in this country is a hostile invasion. From the Pope, and the cardinals, and the bishops, and the priests, down to poor Patrick, who believes and worships, and votes exactly as his 40 Who are the Bigots 1 priest tells him, they are foreigners, who have in- vaded this land with the declared purpose, as we have seen, to undermine Protestantism and destroy the American Constitution and American laws. And the noble men who rush forward to defend our liberties are called " bigots " and " un-American." Have those who raise this false and shameful cry, considered the insane " bigotry " and " un-Ameri- canism " of the Romish invaders ? Look at a few facts. Every Roman Catholic bishop takes the fol- lowing oath: — "Heretics, schismatics, and rebels against our Lord (the Pope), or his successors, I will to my utmost persecute and oppose" Is that bigotry ? The following is quoted from page 145 of the " Full Catechism of the Catholic Religion," published with the approbation of Cardinal Wiseman : " Every one is obliged, under the pain of eternal damnation, to become a member of the Catholic Church; to be- lieve her doctrines; to use her means of grace; and to submit to her authority." And this most bigoted and shameful doctrine is taught in all their schools and churches. Their teaching everywhere is that out of their church there is " no salvation." All Protestants, being " heretics" are doomed, they say, to " eternal damnation." Is not this the most abom- inable bigotry ? The Constitution of the United States guarantees liberty of conscience. It says : " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of reli- gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This liberty of conscience is the glory of our land. But Trampling on the Constitution. 41 the Romish Church sets itself dead against this American doctrine. Pius IX., in his " Syllabus of Errors/' 1864, declares that man to be in error who says : " Every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason." And so we see that this foreign Pope audaciously dares to teach citizens of this free country to trample on the Constitution, in order to obey his laws. Peter Dens, the great and recognized expounder of Romish ecclesiastical laws, say . " The Pope can dispense with any law. The Constitutions and de- crees of the Pope are explanations of the Divine law, and are therefore binding as soon as known. The Church does not recognize the right of any government to say whether or not the pontifical decrees shall be enforced. She is supreme, and inde- pendent, and can therefore admit of no intermed- dling with her authority. . . . The State ought to recognize and carry into effect the laws of the Church/' etc. Here, then, we see, without a doubt, that what is called the Church of Rome, is far more political than religious. It is a tremendous political machine, thoroughly despotic, and entirely antagonistic to our American system of government. The Roman Catholic profession of faith, having the sanction of the Council which met in Baltimore, in 1884, con- tains the following oath of allegiance to the Pope : " And I pledge and swear true obedience to the Roman Pontiff, vicar of Jesus Christ, and successor 42 Testimony of Gladstone and Bismarck. of the blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles." Such an oath, of course, is treason to the United States. It is certain that, as declared by the two great states- men of this age, Gladstone and Bismarck, " The allegiance demanded by the Pope is inconsistent with true citizenship." And this terrible despotism that has cursed so many nations, and crushed out all liberty, it is the purpose of Rome to establish in this country in the place of our present Government and laws. Dr. Brownson, in his Catholic Review, for July, 1864, says : " Undoubtedly, it is the intention of the Pope to possess this country. In this inten- tion he is aided by the Jesuits and all Catholic pre- lates and priests." To prevent so great a calamity to this country, and to the world, is the noble purpose of the A. P. A. As every effort is being made by Romanists to weaken and destroy the influence of this great patri- otic body of patriots, we will here present an outline of the " Platform of the American Protective Association; adopted by the Supreme Council, at Iowa, May 4, 1894:— 1. " Loyalty to true Americanism, which knows neither birthplace, race, creed, or party, is the first requisite for membership in the American Protective Association. 2. The American Protective Association is not a political party, and does not control the political affiliations of its members, but it teaches them to be intensely active in their political duties in or out Splendid Platform of the A. P. A. 43 of party lines, because it believes that all the prob- lems confronting our people will best be solved by a conscientious discharge of the duties of citizen- ship by every individual. 3. While tolerant of all creeds, it holds that sub- jection to, and support of any ecclesiastical power not created and controlled by American citizens, and which claims equal, if not greater sovereignty than the government of the United States, is irre- concilable with American citizenship. It is, there- fore, opposed to the holding of offices in National, State, or Municipal goverment by any subject or supporter of such ecclesiastical power. 4. We uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, and no portion of it more than its guarantee of religious liberty ; but we hold this religious liberty to be guaranteed to the individual, and not to mean that under its protection any un- American ecclesiastical power can claim absolute control over the education of children growing up under the Stars and Stripes. 5. We consider the unsectarian free public school to be the bulwark of American institutions, the best place for the education of American children. To keep them as such, we protest against the employ- ment of subjects of any un-American ecclesiastical power as officers or teachers of our public schools. 6. We condemn the support out of the public treasury by direct appropriation, or by contract, of any sectarian school, reformatory or other institu- tion, not owned and controlled by the public author- ity. 44 Plea for Good Citizenship. 7. Believing that exemption from taxation is equivalent to a grant of public funds, we demand that no real or personal property be exempt from taxation, the title of which is not vested in the National or State Governments, or in any of their sub-divisions. 8. We protest against the enlistment in the United States army or navy, or the militia of any State, of any person not an actual citizen of the United States. 9. We demand for the protection of our citizen laborers the prohibition of the importation of pauper labor, and the restriction of all immigration except to persons who can show their ability and honest intention to become self-supporting American citi- zens. 10. We demand the change of the National natu- ralization laws by a repeal of the act authorizing the naturalization of minors without a previous declar- ation of intention, and by providing that no alien shall be naturalized, or permitted to vote in any State in the Union, who cannot speak the language of the land, and who cannot prove seven years con- tinuous residence in this country from the date of his declaration of intention. 11. We protest against the gross negligence and laxity with which the Judiciary of the land admin- ister the present naturalization laws, and against the practice of naturalizing aliens at the expense of committees, or candidates, as the most prolific sources of the present prostitution of American citi- zenship to the basest uses. General Lafayette's Warning. 45 12. We demand that all National or State legis- lation, affecting financial, commercial, or industrial interests, be general in character, and in no instance in favor of any one section of the country, or of any one class of people." In this noble and truly patriotic platform, or statement of principles, there is not even a sugges- tion of " bigotry," and it is altogether American from the first word to the last. As there is this Romish political party in this country whose de- clared purpose is to destroy our government, our only safety is in a great Protestant and patriotic party, whose votes shall be cast solidly against this great enemy of liberty. The man who votes to place a Roman Catholic in any political office, or on any school board, or as a teacher in any public school, is disloyal to the flag, and to free institutions. Many eminent foreigners who are deeply inter- ested in this country, have warned the American people of the dangers that threaten us from the Church of Rome. General Layfayette, although a Romanist himself, declared that: — "If the Ameri- can Government is ever destroyed, it will be by the priests of Rome." Mr. Froude, the eminent English writer and his- torian, in a lecture delivered in this country, some years ago, said : — " Every true Catholic is bound to think and act as his priest tells him ; a Republic of true Roman Catholics becomes a theocracy ruled by the priests. It is only as they are a small minority that they can be loyal subjects under such a Consti- 46 Shall We Destroy the Constitution f tution as the American. As their numbers grow they will assert their principles, more and more. Give them power, and the Constitution will be gone. A Roman Catholic majority under spiritual direction will control education, and muzzle the press" In this introductory chapter we have been able only to present an imperfect glance at the assump- tions and claims of the Church of Rome, and its rela- tions to our American institutions. It remains only to be said, by way of reminder, that these assumptions and claims are put forth in the name of God himself ; by one who solemnly claims to be God's Infallible Vice-gerent. Vicar General Preston, of New-York, it will be remembered, said : — " Every word spoken by the Pope from his high chair is the voice of the Holy Ghost, and must be obeyed." If this statement is false it is the most shameful, and inexcusable blas- phemy. If it is true, and can be proved to be true, then it is the duty of all American citizens to make haste and destroy our Constitution ; break up our public schools; give up the Protestant religion, and to lay all our civil and religious liberties and insti- tutions at the feet of the Pope. In this land there are about eight or nine millions of people who be- lieve that the Pope is the infallible ruler of this world, and of this nation, and whose votes are given to make him the actual ruler of these United States. The other millions deny his pretensions, and refuse to put their necks under his yoke. It will be seen then that it is of the utmost import- ance to know with infallible certainty what is the real Why Priests Hate the Bible. 47 character of Popery. It is, no doubt, because the priests of Rome know that Almighty God himself has given us in his Holy Bible, an infallible portrait of the Church of Rome, that they so strongly op- pose the reading of that sacred Book, To the study of this Book we will now address ourselves. CHAPTER II. THE LITTLE HORN. Popery in its Childhood. As intimated in the introductory chapter, this book is not intended to be a mere history of the Roman Catholic Church, although it will contain so much of her history, used in illustration of the scriptural statements concerning her character, that he who reads this book with attention, will know much more of the popish system than the man who simply reads even the best history of popery ever written ; for although he who reads the best history of the Romish Church, and judging her by her fruits, will know that her character is bad, yet he cannot know her true, and real self, unless he studies her in the light of divine revelation. Very many most intelligent christians do not know that the Bible contains a striking likeness, and a full length portrait of this mysterious " woman/' whose life, and character, and doings have occupied so much space in human history, and so deeply affected the destiny of nations, and the welfare of unnumbered millions of our race. As the rouged and painted harlot disguises her true, or real face from the observation of men, so " The Mother of all the churches " has for many years succeeded in so dis- guising herself as to hide her real face from the observation of mankind. Only in the portrait that 48 Antichrist Foretold. 49 the Infinite Artist himself has presented to us in the Bible can we see the Church of Rome without disguise. And no doubt it is the knowledge of this fact, by many, at least, of the bishops and priests of Rome, that has led them to oppose so strenuously the study of the Bible by the people. The preten- sions and demands of the Roman Hierarchy are so extreme, claiming to possess even the attributes and powers, and prerogatives of Almighty God himself, that many intelligent Protestant and Protestant ministers, are led to believe that her vast and exclu- sive claims to holiness and authority must have some basis in truth. It seems impossible that a vast organization that claims to be " the sole depositary of all truth," the only true church of God, " out of which there is no salvation," and that claims to be superior to all kings, and laws, and governments, and to hold the keys of Heaven and hell, is nothing but a stupendous system of pretense, falsehood, and hypocracy. Thus many, while rejecting her extreme pretensions, are willing to accord her a place as a part of the true church of God. Others, who are somewhat familiar with her history, so marked by persecution, and tyranny, and blood, look on the Church of Rome as the great Anti-Christ of the scriptures, and the great en^my of God and his true people. The first clear reference to the Church of Rome that we find in the Holy Scriptures is in the book of Daniel. Many christians pass by the prophetical portions 50 Prophecy Proof of Inspiration. of this remarkable book in despair. And yet a serious study of the book, in connection with the study of history, will make it appear to be one of the most interesting and instructive books of the Bible. Prophecy is anticipated history, and history is the true interpreter of prophecy. God only can infallibly anticipate history, or foretell the events that are still in the womb of the future. There is scarcely any book in the Bible that bears more con- clusive testimony to the Divine inspiration of the Bible than the book of Daniel. The remarkable fulfilment of the predictions contained in this book has led infidels to insist that the book was written after the events had taken place. This has been the contention of many infidels from the days of Porphyry, in the third century until the present time ; but we shall see that Daniel's predictions have been in course of fulfilment during hundreds of years past, and are being fulfilled at this very moment. The system of Popery is first brought to our notice as a " little horn " by the Prophet Daniel, in the seventh chapter of his book. But in order to reach that " little horn " fairly and understandingly, we must take a hasty glance at the wonderful statue of gold, silver, brass and iron, spoken of in the second chapter. There we are told that the great and haughty monarch of Babylon, whose empire was the most powerful and extensive in the world, had a dream that troubled him very much, although he had entirely forgotten the details, or even the sub- The Monarch's Dream. 51 ject of it. Daniel, who was a Jew in government employ, was enabled, miraculously, to tell the King exactly what he had dreamed, and then to explain to him the meaning of the dream. Daniel, having been brought into the monarch's presence, said to him : — " Thou, King, sawest and beheld, a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. The head of this image was of fine gold, his breast, and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron, and part of clay. Thou sawest that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces," and Daniel, in giving the interpretation, declared that the four metals comprising the image represented four Kingdoms, or world empires, and that the head of gold represented his own rich and powerful empire. " Thou art this head of gold." The history of the world for several hundred years from that time was in reality the history of these four world empires, the Chaldean, the Persian, the Grecian and the Roman Empires. But we are especially interested just now in the lower portion of the image, which represents the Roman Empire. " And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron : forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces, and subdueth all things, and as iron breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." Iron fitly represents the Roman Empire that was distinguished for its irresistible strength. Gibbon, in his Decline and 52 The Fourth Empire. Fall of the Roman Empire, without any intention of commenting on these words of the Prophet, says : " The arms of the Republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, the ocean ; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations, and their Kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome." Rome was for centuries a terrible, hard, crushing, devastating power, subduing Kingdoms, overthrow- ing governments, and constitutions, and the liberties of nations, " with an iron hand," and without feeling or regret. An interesting and accurate writer, Mr. Irving, says : " The Roman Empire did beat down the constitution, and establishment of all other Kingdoms ; abolishing their independence, and bringing them into the most entire subjection ; humbling the pride, subjecting the will, using the property, and trampling upon the power and dig- nity of all other nations. For by this was the Roman power distinguished from all the rest that it was the work of almost as many centuries as those were of years, the fruit of a thousand battles, in which millions of men were slain. It made room for itself as does a battering ram, by continual suc- cessive blows, it ceased not to beat and bruise all nations so long as they continued to offer any resistance." But this mighty Roman empire, strong and irre- sistible as it was for centuries, had within it elements Iron and Clay Will Not Mix. 53 of weakness which at length destroyed it. We read : " And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the Kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken (or brittle)/' " And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men ; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." It is an instructive fact, and especially to us who live in these United States, and at this time, when the great influx of swarms of foreigners, of the most undesirable sort, are felt to be a menace to the welfare of the nation, that the powerful Roman empire was destroyed by the rushing in of the hosts of foreigners, who settled in the country, but had no real love for, or interest in the country or its institutions. As the Goths and Vandals and Huns, and other barbarous tribes poured into Rome, and enjoyed the protection of her laws and the privileges of her institutions, and thus, instead of being a strengthening to the nation, weakened, and at last destroyed it ; so at this moment the hosts of foreigners who have come to this great and free and generous country, for their own advantage, early taking advantage of the liberality of our laws, be- come voters, but not Americans. They vote as their priests dictate, and that is al- ways in the interest of their despotic Church, and against the best interests of the country. It is for this very purpose they are brought to this land by their priests, who rely on these foreign Romanists to give them the balance of power at the ballot box, 54 The Prophetic Vision. and political ascendency in the nation. And the men who are elected to the State Legislatures and to the National Congress, by such votes, will take care to prevent such legislation as shall restrict immigration or change the naturalization laws. We see that the word of God, and the ruin of a mighty empire, give warning to the American Re- public, to guard against an enemy that at this moment is threatening her very existence. We have dwelt thus on the fourth, or iron, empire, — Rome — because it was in pagan Rome that papacy had its birth. About forty-eight years after this remarkable dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, the prophet Daniel himself had a dream. It is recorded in the seventh chapter. It was even more remarkable and instruc- tive than the dream of the King. Daniel tells his dream in this way : — " I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagles' wings : I beheld until the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon its feet as a man, and a man's heart was given unto it. And behold, another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth of it : and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this behold, and lo, another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl ; and The Angelic Interpreter. 55 the beast had also four heads, and dominion was given unto it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth : it devoured, and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns and there came up among them another little horn, before which there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things." Daniel tells us in the same chapter that he felt a very great desire to know the meaning of this remarkable dream, and a Heavenly being, an angel, explained the dream to him. He said in expla- nation : — " These great beasts are four Kings, or Kingdoms, which shall arise out of the earth." But Daniel was particularly anxious for an explanation of the fourth beast that was so " dreadful and terri- ble" that there was nothing to which it could be compared. The angel gave the prophet this inter- pretation. " The fourth beast shall be the fourth Kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all Kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it to pieces. And the ten horns out of this Kingdom are ten Kings that shall arise ; and another shall arise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three Kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and think to change times and laws." 56 Significance of the Symbols. It will be seen that according to the angelic inter- pretation, the dream of the King of Babylon, and the dream of Daniel are the same. They both pre- dicted the rise and destiny of four great mon- archies. The plainest teachings of history show that these four great monarchies are the Chal- dean, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman empires. In the rise and succession, and histories of these four, the prophesies find their wonderful fulfilment, and in no others. We will only give a general view of these world empires-^-the briefest glance — as a full exegesis of the texts does not come within our purpose. The "image" presented to the mind of the Chal- dean King was more likely to impress him, as he was a monarch who delighted in splendor and show and his mind was set on royal pomp and power. To Daniel the empires of the world were represented by great " beasts" because of the rela- tion they would sustain to the Kingdom of God in this world ; and because of the things the true Church of God would have to suffer from their des- potic power and cruelty. The Babylonian empire was represented by a " lion," having the wings of an eagle, as symbolical of the greatness of the empire, she being at that time the greatest empire that had ever existed on the earth, the greatest in wealth and splendor, and power ; and thus fitly represented by the lion, " the King of beasts." The eagle's wings represented the rapidity of her conquests, and her growth, she hav- National Characteristics. 57 ing been brought to the most dazzling height of splendor during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The Persian Kingdom was well represented by " a bear, with three ribs in its mouth ;" for as the bear is the most surly, and voracious, and cruel of animals, so the Persians were in their laws, penalties and cus- toms, exceedingly cruel, and devoid of all pity or sensibility. Instances of their cruelty abound in almost all the historians who have written of their affairs, from Herodotus down to Ammianus Marcel- linus, who describes them as proud, cruel, and exercising the power of life and death over their slaves, and obscure plebians. He says, " They pull off the skin, in pieces or altogether, from living per- sons." Rollin relates that one of the royal judges, condemned to death for receiving a bribe, was to have his skin taken off, while yet alive, and fastened to the seat where he used to sit, and give judgment, as a warning to his son who was to occupy it after him. The Kings of Persia are spoken of as " the worst race of men that ever governed an empire." " A leopard" with four heads, and four wings, symbolizes the Empire of the Greeks. The leopard, although a small animal, is exceedingly brave, not being afraid to attack the most formidable beasts of the forest, even the lion and tiger. This bravery, and reckless daring was a characteristic of the Greeks. Alexander the Great, as he is called, on one occasion fought an army of six hundred thou- sand Persians, while he had but thirty-five thousand men. And at the battle of Arbela, with less than 58 Hideous Beast with Ten Horns. fifty thousand soldiers, he fought and conquered a Persian army of over a million men, and broke the . power of the Persian empire. The " four wings " of the leopard symbolize the rapidity of his conquests. In a little more than a dozen years Alexander had conquered all the armies, and subdued all the Kingdoms and nations that dared to contend with him. The leopard had " four heads," and when Alex- ander was dead, his vast empire became divided between four of his great generals — Cassander, Lysimmacus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. But as the fourth beast was of special interest to Daniel, so is he also to us. Jerome, reckoned as one of the Christian Fathers, and who was born about the middle of the fourth century, said : — " The fourth empire, which now possesseth the world, is the Roman I greatly wonder that when he had before placed a lion, and a bear, and a leopard in three Kingdoms, he should compare the Roman Empire to no beast : unless perhaps that he might make the beast more formidable, he concealed the name, so that whatever we could imagine the most fierce in beasts, that we should imagine the Romans to be." Daniel's angelic teacher told him that the ten horns which he saw on the fourth beast u are ten Kings that shall arise," or rather ten Kingdoms. It is well known, and declared by Romish and Pro- testant writers alike, that the incursions of the Northern barbarians resulted in the breaking up of the Roman Empire, and it became divided into ten The Ten Horns are Ten Kingdoms. 59 Kingdoms. Sir Isaac Newton and other eminent students of the book of Daniel, give us the names of those Kingdoms. We need not mention them here. Daniel in relating his dream, as will be remembered, said that among the ten horns which he saw on the head of the fourth beast he saw " a little horn " come up among them. It is with this little horn that we have especially to do, for this little horn is the Anti- Christ, and that this Anti-Christ is none other than the Roman Catholic Church, shall now be made so plain that " he that runneth may read." It must, in all candor, be stated that there are some authors and theologians who give another interpretation ; but these are generally Roman Catholics, who are bound to reject this view, or to give up their Church, and such as are adherents of State Churches, or such as take their views from such biassed writers as we have suggested. Irenaeus, one of the christian fathers, who lived in the second century, treating of the fraud, pride and tyranny of Anti-Christ, asserts, that the little horn is Anti- Christ." Cyril, or St. Cyril, as he is called, who lived about the middle of the fourth century, speaking of Anti-Christs coming in the latter times of the Roman Empire, says : — " We teach these things not of our own invention, but having learned them out of the divine Scriptures, and especially out of the pro- phecy of Daniel which was just now read, even as the archangel Gabriel interpreted, saying thus : The fourth beast shall be the fourth Kingdom upon earth, which shall exceed all the Kingdoms; but 60 The Church Paganized. that this is the empire of the Romans, ecclesiastical interpreters have delivered Its ten horns are ten Kings that shall arise ; and after them shall arise another King who shall exceed in wickedness all that were before him." Theodoret, St. Austin, St. Jerome, and nearly the rest of the " Fathers " agree that the fourth empire was the Roman, that the Roman Empire was to he divided between ten Kings, and among them would arise Anti-Christ, symbo- lized by the u little horn." This little horn is intended to teach that the popish system would be small in its beginning ; but gradually, and almost imperceptibly rising into great power and authorit)^. It is easy to understand how the pretended conversion of the Emperor Constan- tine, in the fourth century, and his willingness to make his newly found religion conform as much as possible to pagan ideas, would be likely to cause multitudes of pagans to enter the so-called Christian Church. Constantine, the Roman Emperor, on pro- fessing himself a christian, undertook to convert the Kingdom of Christ into a Kingdom of this world, by exalting the teachers of the new religion to the same state of affluence, grandeur, and influence in the empire as had been enjoyed by pagan priests, and secular officers in the state. The pro- fessed ministers of Jesus having now a wide field opened to them for gratifying their lust of power, wealth and dignity, the connection between a christian profession and the cross of Christ was at an end. Constantine undertook to make the gov- ernment of the church conform as much as possible Growth of the Little Horn. 61 to the government of the state. Then originated the proud and high-sounding clerical titles, so much prized and gloried in at the present time by the Church of Rome. Hence there came to be patri- archs, archbishops, exarchs, canons, etc., intended by the Emperor to correspond with the regular secular offices and dignities connected with the civil admin- istration of the empire. Taking these newly con- stituted dignitaries of the church into his special patronage, he loaded them with wealth, and worldly honors, and richly endowed their churches, thus developing in the hearts and lives of those who called themselves ministers of the meek and lowly Jesus a love of riches and worldly honors. When the seat of empire had been removed from Rome to Constantinople, the bishop of Rome found himself constantly growing in importance by reason of the fact that the people having been accustomed to entertain the most superstitious rever- ence for their pagan priests, transferred this super- stitious reverence to him. Then the bishop of Rome encouraged the people to seek his arbitration in matters of disagreement and dispute. At length the rich and noble would refer to his decision their disputes and disagreements, and even the rulers of states came to do this. As such attentions and flat- teries have a natural tendency to inflate the human heart with pride, so the bishops of Rome, swollen with vanity and conceit, began to put forth the most exaggerated claims to precedence over all other bishops. And thus we see how this little horn began to grow. CHAPTER III. Marvellous Growth of the Little Horn. Let us give attention to some things said by the angelic interpreter in regard to the Little Horn. 1. It is said, " His look was more stout than his fel- lows." There seems to have been in this little horn a look of boldness, daring and defiance that was not observable in the other horns of the beast. Although this peculiarity is a striking feature of the Church of Rome, it does not of itself prove that church to be Antichrist; but taken in connection with the many other things that we have mentioned, it is of no little importance. It is the boldness and daring with which Papal Rome has always urged her most extravagant demands, that has been a striking element in her success. This little horn had, by the eleventh century, become so audacious as to claim the right to overturn royal thrones, and to absolve subjects from their oaths of allegiance to their rightful sovereigns. " This stout look," and the claim of making and unmaking Kings at pleasure, was most conspicuous in the person of Gregory VII., (A. D. 1073). " I have received," said he, " from God, the power of binding and loosing, in heaven and on earth ; and by this power I forbid Henry the fourth, Emperor of Germany, the government of the whole realm of Germany and Italy. I also loose all christians from the oaths they have taken 62 The Arrogance of Antichrist. 63 to him ; and I decree that no man shall obey him as King." This same Pope also said : — " The Roman Pontiff alone can be called universal. He alone has a right to use imperial ornaments. Princes are bound to kiss his feet, and his only. He has a right to depose emperors. No book can be canon- ical without his authority. His sentence can be annulled by none ; but he may annul the decrees of all." Only imagine Peter, the fisherman ; " the first Pope of Rome," as the priests say, speaking in this " stout," and arrogant way ! 2. The angel said of the little horn : — " He shall be diverse from the first" The government represented by the little horn would differ from all other govern- ments. Most learned commentators say this differ- ence consisted in the fact that while all other gov- ernments are simply civil, or secular, this power was to be both civil and ecclesiastical. But there have been, and are still, many national churches, and in nearly all cases, the reigning monarch is the head of the church as well as of the State. But the Pope of Rome, as we have already seen in the introductory chapter, claims to be the absolute ruler of the very thoughts and consciences of men. And not only does he claim the supreme government of the entire world, even claiming to dictate to kings and emperors ; but this world is not large enough for him, so that he declares that the Keys of Heaven and Hell have been put into his hands by Almighty God, so that his ghostly authority includes Heaven, and Earth, and Hell. 64 Three Kingdoms Rooted Up. 3. Daniel saw that before the Little Horn " were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots" That is, evidently, that in the midst of the ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Monarchy was to be divided, there should arise this Little Horn, Antichrist, that " would pluck up by the roots" three of these ten Kings, or Kingdoms. While the views of equally competent students of this prophecy differ as to what three kingdoms are referred to, they all agree that papal Rome did destroy three of the ten King- doms. As the purpose of this book is to present the best results of the best thinking of the best thinkers on the subject before us, instead of confusing the minds of the readers bj presenting the conflicting views, we present the conclusion arrived at by Sir Isaac Newton, one of the clearest and profoundest thinkers earth has ever produced. He says : — " Kings are put for Kingdoms, as above ; and there- fore the Little Horn is a little Kingdom. It was a horn of the fourth beast and rooted up three of his first horns; and therefore we are to look for it among the nations of the Latin empire, after the rise of the ten horns. In the eighth century, by rooting up and subduing the Exarchate of Ravena, the Kingdom of the Lombards, and the senate and dukedom of Rome, he acquired Peter's patrimony out of their dominions ; and thereby rose up as a temporal Prince or King, or horn of the fourth beast." This view is entertained by, perhaps, the great majority of the learned, while those who differ from this eminent student and thinker, name other King- doms than those named above. Popes Were Subject to Emperors. 65 An interesting quotation from the second volume of that most reliable work, "Hallam's Middle Ages/' will plainly show that up to the ninth cen- tury the Popes of Rome were subject to the civil authority. This elegant writer and historian says : — " The Bishops acquired a great part of their ascen- dancy by a very respectable instrument of power, intellectual superiority. As they alone were ac- quainted with the art of writing, they were natu- rally entrusted with political correspondence, and with the framing of the laws. As they alone knew the elements of a few sciences, the education of royal families devolved on them as a neccessary duty. In the fall of Rome their influence upon the barbarians wore down the asperities of conquest, and saved the provincials half the shock of that tremendous revolution. As captive Greece is said to have subdued her Roman conqueror, so Rome in her own turn of servitude, cast the fetters of a moral captivity upon the fierce invaders of the North. Chiefly through the exertions of the Bishops, whose ambition may be forgiven for its effects, her religion, her language, in part even her laws, were trans- planted into the courts of Paris and Toledo, which became a degree less barbarous by imitation. " Notwithstanding, however, the great authority, and privileges of the church, it was decidedly sub- ject to the supremacy of the crown both during the continuance of the Western empire, and after its subversion. The emperors convoked, regulated, and dissolved universal councils ; the Kings of France, 66 Charlemagne's Supremacy. and Spain, exercised the same rights over the synods of their national churches. The Ostrogoth Kings of Italy fixed by their edicts the limits within which matrimony was prohibited on account of consanguinity, and granted dispensations from them. " Though the Roman emperors left Episcopal elec- tions to the clergy and people of the diocese, in which they were followed by the Ostrogoths and Lombards, yet they often interfered so far as to confirm a decision, or to determine a contest. The Kings of France went further, and seem to have invariably either nominated the Bishop, or what was nearly tantamount, recommended their own candi- date to the electors. " But the sovereign who maintained with the greatest vigor his ecclesiastical supremacy was Charlemagne. " Most of the capitularies of his reign relate to the discipline of the church ; principally indeed taken from the ancient canons, but not the less receiving an additional sanction from his authority. Some of his regulations, which appear to have been original, are such as would to men of high church principles, even in modern times, seem to be infringe- ments of spiritual independence ; that no legend of doubtful authority should be read in the churches, but only canonical books, and that no saint should be honored whom the whole church did not acknowledge. These were not passed in a synod of bishops, but enjoined by the sole authority of the Gregory III. and Charles Martel. 67 emperor, who seems to have arrogated a legislative power over the church which he did not possess in temporal affairs." These historical facts show that while up to even the eighth century the Little Horn had grown pro- digiously, he had by no means reached the robust stature which he presented inthe days of Hildebrand — Gregory VII. — and since. Not satisfied with the flat- teries, and fawnings, and fame, and riches, and power already secured, the bishop of Rome coveted to become a temporal King. The declaration of the angel that the little horn should " subdue three Kings," brings us to the beginning of the temporal sovereignty of the popes. After the removal of the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople, and the invasion of the northern hordes, the emperors retained but a preca- rious hold on Rome and the West. The exarchate of Ravenna was still a part of the imperial domain, and was ruled by the representa- tive of the Emperor. In 740, in consequence of a quarrel between the Pope Gregory III. and the King of the Lombards, that warlike monarch invaded and laid waste the terri- tories of Rome. The Pope in his distress besought the assistance of the celebrated Charles Martel, who was at that time the most popular warrior on earth, he having recently fought the Saxon armies at the great battle of Tours, or Poicteirs, and saved France, and the rest of Europe from a Mohammedan inva- sion. Charles was then called the Mayor of the 68 The Warrior Bribed by the Pope. palace of the French King ; but really exercised a power even greater than that of the King himself. Pope Gregory was most urgent in beseeching the warrior to hasten to his help. " Shut not your ears my most christian son/ 7 writes Gregory, " shut not your ears to our prayers, lest the prince of the apostles should shut the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven against you." The Pope had sent him his usual present of the Keys of the tomb of Peter, and also some of the filings of Peter's chain, and appeal- ing to these he says : — " I conjure you by the sacred keys of the tomb of St. Peter, which I send you, prefer not the friendship of the Lombard Kings to that regard you owe to the prince of the apostles." As the sacred keys and the holy filings were insufficient to influence the great warrior to engage in so serious an enterprise, the Pope appealed to his ambition. He proposed to Charles that he and the Romans would renounce all alliance to the emperor, as an avowed heretic, and acknowledging him, Charles, for their protector, and confer upon him the consular dignity of Rome, upon condition that he should protect the Pope, the Church and the Roman people against the Lombards ; and if neces- sary, against the Emperor himself. These proposals being agreeable to Martel, he immediately took the Pope under his protection, no doubt intending at an early period to consummate the agreement. Gregory, however, did not live to carry into effect his treasonable purpose, the great warrior to profit by it, or the emperor to hear of it. They all three died An Ambitious Pope. 69 in that year 741, within a few weeks of each other. Upon the death of these great personages the Emperor was succeeded by Constantine, the Pope by Zachery, and the mayor of the palace by his son Pepin, as the nominal mayor, but the real ruler of France. A few years after this, Stephen being Pope, and Pepin King of France, through the wicked connivance of the Pope, the Pope was again in great need of assistance, on account of the threat of Aistulphus, King of the Lombards, to invade Rome. The Pope sought the interference of Pepin. Indeed, Stephen went personally to France to make his appeal to the King. The Pope, on his arrival in France, was received with the highest honors, and entertained as the holy successor of the apostles. After a brief stay he recrossed the Alps, at the head of an army which was led by the King in person. The worldly minded Pope, ambitious to become an earthly King, was cunning enough to secure from Pepin a promise that he would restore the places that might be captured from Aistulphus, (not to the Em- peror,) but to him, to be freely possessed by St. Peter, and his successors. After the conflict of arms, in which Pepin was victorious, the King of the Lombards was compelled to sign a treaty to deliver up to the Pope the exarchate of Ravenna, " with all the cities? castles, and territories thereto belonging, to be forever held, and possessed, by the most Holy Stephen, and his successors in the Apostolic See of St. Peter." In reference to this most significant affair, Gibbon in his " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire/' 70 Origin of the Temporal Power. says : — " The ample measure of the Exarchate might comprise all the provinces of Italy, which had obeyed the Emperor and his vicegerent ; but its strict and proper limits were included in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara, its inseperable dependency was the Pantapolis, which stretched along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and advanced into the midland country, as far as the ridges of the Appenine. This splendid donation was granted in supreme and absolute dominion, and the world beheld for the first time a christian bishop invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince ; the choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna." One Kingdom has been rooted up by the Little Horn. It would be most interesting to trace the steps by which the Kingdom of Lombardy, and the Dukedom of Rome were included in the temporal dominions of the papacy ; but for the sake of brevity, and as this book is not designed to be a full history of popery, we will quote the statements of that learned and useful student of the prophecies, Bishop Newton. He says : " The Kingdom of the Lombards was often troublesome to the Popes ; and soon again King Desiderius invaded the territories of Pope Adrian I., so that the Pope was obliged to have recourse again to the King of France and earnestly invited Charles the Great — Charlemagne — the son and successor of Pepin, to come into Italy to his assistance. He came accordingly with a Particeps Criminis. 71 great army, being ambitious also himself of enlarg- ing his domains in Italy, and conquered the Lom- bards, and put an end to their Kingdom, and gave great part of their domains to the Pope. He not only confirmed the former donations of his father Pepin, but also made an addition of other countries to them, as Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the Sabine country, the whole tract between Lucca and Parma, and that part of Tuscany, that belonged to the Lombards ; and the tables of these donations he signed himself and caused them to be signed by the bishops, abbots, and other great men then present, and laid them so signed on the altar of St. Peter. And this was the end of the Kingdom of the Lom- bards, in the 206th year after their possessing Italy, and in the year of Christ 774. Thus we see that two Kingdoms have been " rooted up by the Little Horn." The State of Rome, " though subject to the popes in things spiritual, was yet in things temporal governed by the Senate and people, who after their defection from the eastern emperors, still retained many of their old privileges, and elected both the western emperor and the popes. After Charles the Great had overthrown the Kingdom of the Lombards he came again to Rome, and was there by the pope, bishops, abbots, and people of Rome, chosen Roman patrician, with it the degree of honor and power next to the emperor. He then settled the affairs of Italy, and permitted 'the pope to hold, under him, the duchy of Rome, with other territories ; but after 72 An Infallible Pope in Prison. a few years, the Romans, desirious of recovering their liberty, conspired against Pope Leo III., accused him of many great crimes, and imprisoned him. His accusers were heard on a day appointed before Charles, and a council of French and Italian bishops ; but the pope, without pleading his own cause, or making any defence, was acquitted, his accusers were slain or banished, and he himself was declared to be superior to all human judicature. And thus was laid the foundation of the absolute authority of the pope over the Romans, which was completed by degrees, and Charles in return was chosen emperor of the west. " However, after the death of Charles the Great, the Romans again conspired against the pope ; but Lewis the Pious, the son and successor of Charles, acquitted him again. In the meanwhile Leo was dangerously ill, which as soon as the Romans, his enemies, perceived, they rose again, burned, and plundered his villas, and thence marched to Rome to recover what things they complained were taken from them by force; but they were repressed by some of the emperor's troops. The same emperor, Lewis the Pious, at the request of pope Paschal, confirmed the donations which his father and grand-father had made to the See of Rome. Sigonius has recited the confirmation ; and therein are mentioned Rome and its duchy, containing part of Tuscany and Campania, Ravenna, and the Exarchate and Pentapolis, and the other part of Tuscany, and the countries taken from the Lom- bards; and all these are granted to the pope and Sinister Eyes of the Papacy. 73 his successors to the end of the world, that they should hold them in their own right, principality, and dominion. There, as we conceive, were the three horns, three of the first horns, which fell before the little horn, and the pope hath in a manner pointed himself out for the person by wearing the triple crown" The prediction that the Little Horn should " pluck up three of the first horns by the roots/' or as the angel explained, should " subdue three Kings," or Kingdoms, we see was literally fulfilled more than twelve hundred years afterwards, thus affording the most conclusive proof of the divine inspiration of the prophet Daniel. There are several things predicted of the little horn that find a striking fulfilment in the conduct of the papacy. It is said : " In this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man" As political bodies, or gov- ernments, are composed of living persons, it would be mere trifling to say that they had eyes. As the little horn is a sinister, and threatening power, so it is intended to say there will be something sinister and threatening in the eyes of the power represented by the little horn. "The eyes of a man" indicate intelligence, and the whole machinery, and plan, and purpose, of the Romish Church, are the result of the deepest cun- ning, and sagacity and foresight. The vast intelli- gence, perverted to evil uses, is one of the most striking features of this great " mystery of iniquity." Vast multitudes of priests, nuns, bishops, and other 74 Speaking Against God. emisaries of the pope, are scattered over the world, and all these are the eyes of the pope, on the look- out for opportunities to increase his power, and augment his wealth. Through the confessional the priests become acquainted with what is going on in Protestant families, and Protestant business firms, and with whatever is of interest to the Heir- archy, and can be turned to account in advancing its interests. Rome is Argus-eyed. Again it is said of the little horn, " He shall speak great words against the Most High" This is blas- phemy ; and in the book of Revelation, ch. 13 : 5, this same evil power is referred to. Daniel said the little horn had " a mouth speaking great things/' and the angelic interpreter declares that these " great things," spoken by the little horn, are " great words against the great High." In Revela- tion it is said, — clearly referring to the same power, — " And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name," etc. This is a well known characteristic of the papacy. This he does, says Bishop Newton, by setting up himself above all laws, divine and human, arrogating to himself god- like attributes and titles of holiness and infallibility, exacting obedience to his ordinances and decrees in preference to, and in open violation of reason and scripture, insulting men, and blaspheming God." In Gratian's decretals the pope hath the title of God given to him. " The Roman pontiff," says Tramples on Times and Laws. 75 Pope Stephen, " is to judge all men, and is to be judged by no man." " The pope is styled, God," says pope Nicholas, " and it is manifest that God cannot be judged by man." A " bull " of Pope Boniface declares that all the faithful of Christ are by necessity of salvation, subject to the Roman Pontiff,;* who has both swords, and judges all men ; but is judged by none." Here are evident remarks of Anti-christ. Again the Heavenly interperter says, he " Shall think to change times and laivs." No one can deny that this is true of the Romish Church. The obser- vance of saints' days ; the marriage vow, in the case of the clergy cancelled, and marriage itself forbidden, subjects released from their allegiance to their sovereigns, as for example Henry VIII., and Queen Elizabeth, of England, the cup in the Lord's Supper forbidden to the laity, and the sanctioning of the worship of images. The pope appoints fetes, and feasts, canonizes saints, grants pardons and indulgences for sins, institutes new r modes of wor- ship, imposes new r articles of faith, enjoins new 7 rules of practice, and reverses at pleasure the laws both of God and man. The traditions of the Fathers, and the decrees of Councils are made to supercede the Word of God. " The holy and inspired fathers and teachers," says Gregory III., " and the six Councils of Christ, these are our scriptures and our light to salvation." Again it w^as predicted that the little horn " shall make war with the saints" and " shall seek to wear out the saints of the Host High" 76 Making War with the Saints. It is well known that for centuries the " Holy " and " Infallible " Popes of Rome, those sweet and humble servants of the meek and lowly Jesus, de- lighted in persecuting and torturing and murdering the noblest and holiest people on earth, because, glorying in the liberty of Christ's pure Gospel they refused to have their consciences and their souls bound by the fetters of Popish superstitions and falsehoods. The Little Horn was to be a perse- cuting power, and this has always been the charac- teristic of the Church of Rome, and this brands her unmistakably as the Antichrist. If anything could have " worn out the saints of the Most High," and banished evangelical religion from the face of the earth, it would have been the persecutions of the Papal power. In the year 1208, a crusade was pro- claimed by Pope Innocent — very innocent I — against the Waldenses and Albigenses, in which a million people perished. " From the beginning of the Order of the Jesuits in 1540 to 1580, nine hundred thousand were destroyed. One hundred and fifty thousand were destroyed by the Inquisition in thirty years. In the Low Countries fifty thousand persons were hanged, burned, beheaded, drowned, and buried alive for the crime of heresj r , within the space of thirty-eight years from the edict of Charles V. to the peace of Cambreres in 1557. Eighteen thousand died by the hand of the executioner in five years and a half during the administration of the Duke of Alva." Indeed, the slightest acquaintance with the history of the Papacy will convince any one The Pope's Hatred of True Saints. 77 that what is here said of " making war with the saints/' and " wearing out the saints of the Most High," is strictly applicable to that power, and will accurately describe its history. There have been, indeed, other persecuting powers, but none to which this language would be so applicable, and none which it would so naturally suggest. In proof of this, it is only necessary to refer to the history of the Papacy, and to what it has done to extirpate those who have professed a different faith. Let any one re- call the persecutions of the Waldenses, the acts of the Duke of Alva, in the Low Countries, the persecution in England in the days of the " bloody Queen Mary," the Inquisition, the attempts, all too successful, to extinguish all the efforts at reformation in Italy and Spain, in the time of Luther and Calvin, the attempts to put down the Reformation in Germany and Swit- zerland ; all which were either directly originated, or sanctioned by the Papacy, and all for the same end ; and he will see no reason to doubt that the language here is strictly applicable to that power, and that there has been no government on earth which would be so naturally suggested by it as the Church of Rome. It is worthy of the most serious consideration, and especially by those who suppose that the Church of Rome is in some sense a part of the true Chris- tian Church, that it is " the saints " against whom the persecuting rage of that Church has always been directed. And who are the " saints f" It is, of course, well understood that the scriptures speak of 78 John Huss of Bohemia. the saints as those who love and serve God, and who compose the true Church of Jesus Christ. Nothing can be more certain then .than that the Romish Church, that persecutes and destroys God's true people, "the saints of the Most High/' cannot itself be saintly or Christian ; but is the enemy of God and of His true followers. It will be instructive and helpful in this discus- sion to present a few names, and these known to all the world for their Christian virtues and great use- fulness in advancing the cause of truth and best interests of mankind, as the sort of people that have always been hated and persecuted, and murdered by the Church of Rome. John Huss, of Bohemia, was born in 1373. While a young man he was greatly influenced by reading the writings of John WicklifFe, who had translated the Bible into the English language, and in his writings had solemnly denounced the profligacy and wickedness of the Romish priests. After Huss had been ordained a priest of Rome he dared to study the Holy Scriptures, and was so evangelical in his preaching, and so faithful in rebuking the worldli- ness and time-serving and wickedness of the priests and bishops that he incurred their enmity, and they stirred up a bitter persecution against him. This noble and persecuted man felt it would be best for him to retire for a while to his native village, and while there wrote a letter to his flock, from which we quote the following words, which show the noble and true character of the man : " Learn beloved," Huss Welcomes Persecution. 79 says he, " that if I have withdrawn from the midst of you, it is to follow the precept and example of Jesus Christ, in order not to give room to the ill- minded to draw on themselves eternal condemna- tion, and in order not to be to the pious a cause of affliction and persecution. I have retired also through an apprehension that impious priests might continue for a longer time to prohibit the preaching of the word of God among you; but I have not quitted you to deny the Divine truth, for which, with God's assistance, I am willing to die." In another letter, in alluding to the example of Christ, he says : " He came to the aid of us miserable sin- ners, supporting hunger, thirst, cold, heat, watching and fatigue. When giving us his Divine instruc- tions he suffered weighty sorrows, and grave insults from the priests and scribes, to such a point that they called him a blasphemer, and declared that he had a devil ; asserting that he whom they had ex- communicated as a heretic, and whom they had driven from their city and crucified as an accursed one, could not be God. If, then, Christ had to sup- port such things — he who cured all kinds of diseases by his mere word, without any recompense on earth — who drove out devils, raised the dead, and taught God's holy word — who did no harm to any- one, who committed no sin, and who suffered every indignity from the priests, simply because he laid open their wickedness, why should we be astonished at the present day that the ministers of antichrist, who are far more covetous, more debauched, more cruel, 80 A Lying Emperor. and more cunning than the Pharisees, should perse- cute the servants of God, overwhelm them with indignity, curse, excommunicate, imprison, and kill them?" It would be interesting to narrate the particulars of the great contest of John Huss with the errors of the Romish Church, and even with the Pope him- self, whom he denounced as Antichrist, but, how- ever reluctantly, we must pass over these, and simply recite as briefly as possible the steps that led this noble man of God to the stake, to burn for Jesus, and the truth. When the Council of Constance assembled, in 1414, John Huss was summoned before it. Huss received what was called a safe- conduct from the Emperor Sigismund. This docu- ment pledged the honor of the Emperor for his safe return. But as " no faith is to be kept with heretics" this document was violated by the advice of the bishops and cardinals, at the Council, covering with disgrace all concerned in this infamous trans- action. In one of his last letters to his friends, Huss writes : — " I am departing, my brethren, with a safe-conduct from the King to meet my numerous, and mortal enemies I confide altogether in my all powerful God. I trust that He will listen to your ardent prayers ; that He will infuse his prudence and his wisdom into my mouth, so that I may resist them ; and that he will accord me his Holy Spirit to fortify me in his truth, so that I may face, with courage, temptations, prison, and, if necessary, a cruel death." The Treacherous Emperor Rebuked. 81 In shameful violation of the safe-conduct of the Emperor, on the arrival of Huss he was placed under arrest by order of the Pope and cardinals, and committed to a loathsome prison. When tidings of this reached Prague, the city became greatly excited. A number of protests were at once signed. Several Barons and powerful noblemen wrote pressing letters to the Emperor reminding him of the safe-conduct which Huss had received from Sigismund himself. They said to the Emperor — " John Huss departed with full confidence in the guarantee given him in your Majesty's letter. Nevertheless, we understand he has been seized on, and cast into prison, without having been either convicted or heard. Everyone here, princes or barons, rich or poor, has been astonished to hear of this event. Each man here asks his neighbor how the Holy Father could so shamefully have violated the sanctity of the law, the plain rules of justice, and finally, your majesty's safe-conduct; how in fact, he could have thrown into prison, without cause, a just and innocent man." In violation of every principle of right, and truth, and honor, and decency, this godly man, and brave and noble reformer was sentenced to be burned at the stake. When sentence had been passed upon him, Huss fell on his knees, aud said, " Lord Jesus, pardon my enemies ! Thou knowest they have falsely accused me, and that they have had recourse to false testimony and vile calumnies against me ; pardon them from thine infinite mercy ! " Having 82 Huss Asserts His Innocence. stripped him, with every mark of insult, of his priestly robes, they placed on his head a sort of crown, or mitre, on which were painted frightful figures of demons, with the inscription " The Arch- Heretic" and when he was thus arrayed the prelates devoted his soul to the devil. John Huss, however, recommended his soul to God, and said aloud, " I wear with joy this crown of opprobrium, for the love of Him who bore a crown of thorns." Having obtained permission to say a few words to his keepers, he thanked them for all the kindness they had shown him. " My brethren," said he, " learn that I firmly believe in my Saviour. It is in his name that I suffer, and this very day I shall go and reign with him." The executioners then bound his body with thongs, with which he was firmly tied to the stake driven deep in the ground. His head was held close to the stake by a chain smeared with soot. Before the fire was kindled, the Elector Palatine, accompanied by Count d' Oppen- heim, marshall of the empire, came up to him and again urged him to recant. But he, lifting his eyes to heaven, said with a loud voice, — " I call God to witness that I have never either taught or written what these false witnesses have laid to my charge ; my sermons, my books, my writings have all been done with the sole view of rescuing souls from the tyranny of sin, and therefore, most joyfully will I confirm with my blood the truth which I have taught, written and preached ; and which is con- firmed by the divine laws and the holy fathers/' Huss Burning at the Stake. 83 The Elector and the Marshall then withdrew, and a fire was set to the pile. " Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy on me/' cried this noble martyr. He prayed, and sung a hymn in the midst of the fire, but soon after, the wind having risen, his voice was drowned by the roaring of the flames. His head and lips were seen moving some time longer as if still in prayer, and then his blood-washed spirit went up to be welcomed by the redeemed in heaven. " His habits were burned with him," says the historian, " and the executioners tore in pieces the remains of his body, and threw them back into the funeral pile, until the fire had absolutely consumed every thing ; the ashes were then collected together and thrown into the Rhine, and as it was said of Wick- liffe, so may it be said of the holy martyr of Bohe- mia, that the dispersion of his ashes in the river and in the ocean, is an emblem of the subsequent dis- semination of these truths, for the sake of which he braved a martyr's sufferings, and wore a martyr's crown." As Jerome of Prague was a devoted personal friend of Huss, and imbued with the same senti- ments of devotion to evangelical truth in opposi- tion to the shameful superstitions of popery, and as he shared the same fate of his friend whom we have just seen expiring in the fires of martyrdom, we will fill the remaining paragraphs of this chapter with a brief statement of his case. Jerome having heard of the imprisonment of his friend determined to hasten to Constance to defend him, for Jerome 84 Rome Still Thirsts for Blood. was a man of very superior intellectual endowment, and acknowledged by Huss himself to be his supe- rior. He arrived in the city without a safe conduct. He soon heard enough to fill him with alarm, and he hastily returned to Bohemia. Stopping on his way he in vain requested a safe conduct from the Emperor to go, and return to the Council of Constance ; but the Council itself sent him one, such as it was ; for it contained the following assurance of protection : " As we have nothing more at heart than to catch the foxes which ravage in the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, we summon you by these presents to appear before us as a suspected person, and violently accused of having rashly advanced several errors ; and we order you to appear here within a fortnight from this date to answer, as you have offered to do, in the first session that shall be held after your arrival. It is for this purpose, that, in order to prevent any violence being offered to you, we by these presents give you a full safe-conduct, as much as in us lies, excepting always the claims of the law, and that the orthodox faith does not in any respect prevent it ; certifying to you beside, that whether you appear within the specified time or not, the Council by itself will proceed against you." Jerome proceeded with a sad heart on his way homeward, when he was arrested in the Black Forest, and brought back to Con- stance, which he entered on a cart, loaded with chains, and surrounded by a guard of soldiers. He was taken in that miserable condition to Jerome of Prague in Chains. 85 the house of the Elector, where he was kept until he appeared in public before a general meeting of the members of the Council. At his first appearance he was bitterly assailed by several of the members, and his attempts to reply to their accusations were met with loud shouts of: " To the flames with him ! To the flames with him ! " He was conducted to a loathsome dungeon, chained in the most painful manner, and postures, and fed on bread and water. For six months he was permitted to wear his galling chains, while he was treated with every indignity and severity in his dreadful dungeon, and his legs were already afflicted with incurable sores. He was threatened with being burned if he refused to recant his errors, and subscribe to the justice of John Huss' death. Poor Jerome quailed before the prospect of the stake, and in a moment of weakness he submitted himself to the Council, and approved of all its acts. Let us not condemn his weakness, and want of faith in God, unless we are quite sure that under similar circumstances we would have done better. Jerome w r as taken back to prison but treated less severely. His recantation, qualified as it was by his declared attachment to John Huss, did not satisfy the human blood-hounds who thirsted for his blood. Jerome saw plainly that in order to save his life he would be obliged to add perjury to perjury. He looked to God for more strength, and his prayer was answered, and his love of the truth prevailed over love of life, and he resolved 86 Jerome and His Cruel Judges. to play the man and for Christ's sake follow his beloved friend Huss to the flames. On the 23d of May, 1516, upon again being confronted with his cruel judges, he renounced his former recantation, advocated his own opinions, and those of John Huss, with a degree of argument, and learning that greatly astonished even his enemies. In reference to his martyred friend, Huss, he exclaimed aloud before all the Council : " I knew John Huss from his childhood, and there never was anything wrong in him. He was a most excellent man, just and holy ; he was condemned notwithstanding his inno- cence. He has ascended to Heaven, like Elijah, in the midst of flames, and from thence he will summon his enemies to the formidable tribunal of Christ. I also am ready to die, and I will not recoil before the torments that are prepared for me by my enemies, and false witnesses, who will one day have to render an account of their im- postures before the great God whom nothing can deceive. Of all the sins that I have committed since my youth, none weigh so heavily on my mind and cause me poignant remorse as that which I committed in this fatal place when I approved of the iniquitous sentence rendered against Wick- liffe, and against the holy martyr, John Huss, my master and my friend. Yes ! I confess it from my heart, and declare with horror, that I disgrace- fully quailed, when, through a dread of death, I condemned their doctrines. I therefore supplicate and conjure Almighty God to deign to pardon Rome's Cruelty to a Good Man. 87 me my sins, and this one in particular, the most heinous of all, according to the promise he has made us, ' I will not have the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live ! ' " Then raising his hand, and pointing to his judges, he exclaimed in tones that must have struck into their very souls, "You condemned John Wickliffe and John Huss, not for having shaken the doctrine of the Church, but simply because they branded with reprobation the scandals proceeding from the clergy, their pomp, their pride, and all the vices of the prelates and priests. The things they affirmed, and which are irrefutable, I also think, and declare like them." His enemies, stung to the quick by his words, which they well knew to be true, cried out : " What need of further proof? " — " Away with the most obstinate of heretics I " Jerome, with much dignity, exclaimed — " Do you suppose I am afraid to die ? You have held me in a horrible dungeon, more horrible than death itself. You have treated me more cruelly than a Turk, Jew, or Pagan, and my flesh has literally rotted off my bones alive, and yet I made no complaint ; for lamentation ill becomes a man of heart and spirit ; but I cannot but express my astonishment at such great barbarity towards a Christian." " His voice," remarks the Romanist Poggio, the Florentine historian, " his voice was touching, clear, and sonorous ; his gestures full of dignity and persuasiveness, whether he expressed indignation, or moved his hearers to pity, which, 88 Jerome Appeals to God-s Word. however, he appeared neither to ask for, nor to desire. He stood there in the midst of all, the features pale, but the heart intrepid, despising death, and going to meet it. Interrupted frequently, attacked and tormented by many, he replied fully to all, and took vengeance on them ; forcing some to blush, and others to be silent; and towering above all their clamors. Sometimes too, he earn- estly besought, and at others forcibly claimed to be permitted to speak freely, calling on the assembly to listen to him whose voice would soon be hushed forever." It must be remembered that this remark- able testimony to the Christian fidelity, and pious dignity of Jerome, was written by one of his enemies. Jerome was again remanded to prison, and was visited by several cardinals and bishops, who had been astonished at his wonderful ability and elo- quence. The cardinal of Florence exhorted him to recant aud save his life. "The only favor that I demand," said Jerome, and which I have always demanded, is to be convinced by the Holy Scrip- tures. This body which has suffered such fearful torments in my chains, will also know how to support death by fire for Jesus Christ." " And in what manner," said the cardinal, " do you desire to be instructed ? " "By the holy writings, which are our illuminating torch," was his emphatic reply. On the 30th day of May, Jerome was brought before the Council to receive his sentence. The Bishop of Lodi ascended the pulpit, and delivered, Condemned to Death. 89 as he had previously done in the case of John Huss, a most savage harangue. In addressing Jerome he said : " But with you, who are more guilty than Arius, Sabellius, and Nestorius ; with you, who have infected all Europe with the poison of heresy, grand indulgence has been practiced. You have only been detained in prison from necessity; honorable witnesses alone have been listened to against you, and the torture has not been employed, which was a great fault. Would to God that you had been tortured ! You would have denied your errors in your torments, and suffering would have opened your eyes, which your crimes had closed." At the close of this shocking discourse, Jerome mounted a bench, and in a loud voice, expressed his deep sorrow for his former cowardice, and great sin in approving the horrible and inhuman sen- tence passed on his friend Huss. " I only gave my assent to it," said he, " from a dread of being burned. I now revoke that culpable avowal ; and I declare it anew that I lied like a wretch in abjuring the doctrines of Wickliffe, and of Huss, and in approving the death of such a holy and just man." After reciting the things of which Jerome was accused, the sentence concludes with these words — " For these causes the sacred synod has resolved and commanded, that the said Jerome be cast out as a rotten, withered branch, and declares him a heretic, relapsed, excommunicated, and accursed, and as such condemns him." Jerome was then handed over to the secular 90 The Martyr in the Flames. powers to be burnt to death. A high crown of paper was brought in, on which was painted devils, in flames. On seeing this Jerome threw his hat on the ground, in the midst of the prelates, and taking the mock crown in his hands, he placed it on his head, repeating the words which John Huss had pronounced: "Jesus Christ, who died for me, a sinner, wore a crown of thorns. I will willingly wear a crown of thorns. I will willingty wear this for him." The soldiers then seized him, and led him away to death. Upon arriving at the same stake as that to which Huss had been bound, the martyr fell on his knees to pray, but the execu- tioners raised him up while still praying, and hav- ing bound him to the stake with cords and chains, they heaped up around him a quantity of straw and wood. Jerome sang a hymn, and then repeated the creed, and addressing the people he exclaimed : " This creed is my real confession of faith ; I die therefore, only for not having consented to acknow- ledge that John Huss was justly condemned. I declare that I have always beheld in him a true preacher of the gospel." When the wood was raised to a level with his head, his vestments were thrown on the pile, and as the executioner was setting fire to the mass behind, in order not to be seen, Jerome said to him, " Come forward, boldly, and apply the fire before my face. Had I been afraid, I would not be here." When the fire was blazing around him he said with a loud voice : " Lord, into thy hands do I commit my spirit ! " Feeling the burn- ing heat of the flames, he was heard to cry out, Rome Hates True Saints. 91 in the Bohemian language : " Lord, Almighty Father, have pity on me and pardon all my sins ; for thou knowest that I have always loved thy truth." At last, when he had been burned to death, all that had belonged to him, his bed, cap, shoes, etc., were brought from the prison, and thrown into the flames and reduced to ashes with himself. These ashes were then collected and throwm into the Rhine, as had been done in the case of John Huss. It was hoped by this means to remove from the followers of these two holy martyrs every article that could by any possibility become in their hands an object of veneration ; but the very ground where the stake was planted was hollowed out, and the earth on which they had suffered was carried to Bohemia, and guarded with religious care, as the most precious and valued memorials of those holy martyrs of Jesus. " I beheld and the same horn made ivar with the saints" " And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High" Already we are forced to conclude that the blood-thirsty and deeply blood-stained system of the Papacy cannot be, and is not, in any sense Christian; but on the contrary is the bitterest enemy with which Christianity has had to contend. There is scarcely a fact in the history of this apos- tate Church which reflects upon her such indelible disgrace and infamy, and which modern Romanists have done so much to conceal, or deny, as these murders of John Huss and his friend, Jerome of 92 Rome Justifies Perjury. Prague. They cannot shift the blame to a mere ecclesiastical court, or to some over-zealous King, or judge ; for these foul murders were the formal and deliberate acts of a great Council of their Church, where were assembled all the authority, learning, and dignity of their " holy " and " infallible " com- munion. As widespread indignation was expressed towards Sigismund the Emperor, for his perfidy in violating his safe-conduct given to John Huss, as also toward the prelates who' had urged him to commit this unkingly act, the Council, before final adjournment, sought to provide a salve for the monarch's shame and humiliation by passing the following decree : — " Whereas, there are certain persons, either ill- disposed or overwise beyond what they ought to be, who in secret and in public, traduce not only the Emperor, but the sacred Council, saying or insinu- ating that the safe-conduct granted to John Huss, an arch-heretic, of damnable memory, was basely violated, contrary to all the rules of honor and justice; though the said John Huss, by obstinately attacking the Catholic faith in the manner he did, rendered himself unworthy of any manner of safe- conduct or privilege ; and though according to the natural, divine, and human laws, no promise or faith ought to have been kept with him, to the prejudice of the Catholic faith. The sacred synod declares, by these presents, that the said Emperor did, with regard to John Huss, what he might, and ought to have done, notwithstanding his safe-conduct, and No Faith to be Kept with Heretics. 93 forbids all the faithful in general, and every one of them in particular, of what dignity, degree, pre-eminence, condition, state, or sex, they may be, to speak evil in any manner, either of the Council, or of the King, as to what passed with regard to John Huss, on pain of being punished, without remission, as favorers of heresy, and persons guilty of high treason." Here then we have from the highest Romish authority, the infamous doctrine, that — "No prom- ise, OR FAITH OUGHT TO BE KEPT, TO THE PREJUDICE of the Catholic faith." Such are thy tender mercies, tyrant Rome ! The rack, the faggot, or the hated creed : Fearless amidst thy folds fierce wolves may roam ; Whilst stainless sheep upon thine altars bleed. CHAPTER IV. " The Man of Sin, and Son of Perdition." More than five hundred years have passed away since Daniel's dream of the Little Horn, and we find the inspired and eloquent Paul warning the Christian Church of the coming of this great foe that was some day to greatly mar her peace, and cruelly scatter and destroy the flock. It will be profitable to read the Apostle's words, (2 Thess., 2 : 2-12). As many christians in his time felt concerned in regard to a prevailing belief that the coming of Christ was at hand, he assures them that there was no just ground for such a belief. " For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of per- dition, 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, showing him- self that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things ? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders. And 94 A Succession of Wicked Men. 95 with all the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie ; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth ; but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Paul says the " man of sin," or the " wicked " one, would not be " revealed," or manifest himself, until something was " taken out of the way." That which hindered or prevented the revelation of " the man of sin," was, undoubtedly, the pagan Roman Empire. But who is this man of sin and son of perdition ? The reference here seems to be, as learned students of the Bible understand, to the seventh chapter of Daniel, and to that wicked and blasphemous Little Horn that " spoke great words against the Most High." It is not simply one man that is referred to ; but to a succession of very wicked men ; or to a system of wickedness, whose leaders would be so vile as to deserve to be called, or spoken of, as pre- eminently " wicked " and " sons of perdition ." In spite of all the different and often ridiculous, views that have been entertained in regard to this " man of sin," it is very certain that no system of iniquity has ever made its appearance on earth to whose leaders these words are so applicable as to the Roman Catholic Church ; nor has there ever arisen a succession of men to whom these awful epithets could be so appropriately applied as the Popes of Rome. To be convinced of this we have only to 96 Pope Gregory J., or Saint Gregory. look at the general character of the Papacy, and to its influence in upholding and perpetuating various forms of iniquity in the world. No other system has been so extensively, and for so long a period, the patron of superstition ; and there are vices of the grossest character that have all along been fos- tered and encouraged by its system of celibacy, in- dulgences, mon-monasteries, and absolutions. But it would be a better illustration of the meaning, " man of sin," as applicable to the Pope of Rome, to look at the general character of the Popes themselves. Let us begin with one of the very best of them, Gregory L, called Gregory the Great, and Saint Gregory. When this Saintly (?) Pope desired certain favors of the Emperor Mauritius, he wrote letters to him filled with expressions of admiration, and high esteem. In some of these letters to that Emperor he extols him to the skies as one of the most pious, most religious, most christian princes that ever lived. He speaks of the Emperor's " pious zeal, solicitude and vigilance for the preservation of the Christian faith as the glory of his reign, and as a subject of joy, not to the Pontiff only, but to all the world." In another of his letters, after the warmest expressions of gratitude, on account of the pious liberality and munificence of his imperial majesty, and after telling how much the priests, and the poor and strangers, and all the faithful were indebted to his paternal care, he adds that for these reasons " all should pray for the preservation of his life, that Almighty God might grant to him a long and great Gregory Fawns on a Murderer. 97 reign, and that after his death, as the reward of his piety, a happy race of his descendents might long flourish as sovereigns of the Roman Empire." Yet he no sooner hears (says Dr. Campbell,) of the suc- cessful treason of Phocas, in the barbarous murder of the Emperor and his family — -an event the mention of which, even at this distance, makes a humane person shudder with horror — than he exclaims with rapture : " Glory to God in the highest!" He invites heaven, earth, men and angels to join in the general triumph. He expresses his delight that the royal family is totally exterminated ; from whom a little before, he told us that he poured out incessant prayers that they might to the latest ages flourish on the throne for the felicity of the Roman commonwealth ! An honest heathen would, at least for some time, have avoided any intercourse with such a blood- thirsty ruffian as Phocas ; but this holy (?) bishop hastens to congratulate him on the success of his crimes. His very crimes he canonizes, and transforms into shining virtues, and the murderer himself into a second messiah, who had come for the salvation and comfort of God's people. Bower, the learned historian of the popes, says : " Does it not appear but too plain that Gregory, however conscientious, just and religious in his prin- ciples and conduct, when he did not apprehend the dignity or interest of his See to be concerned, acted upon very different notions and principles when he apprehended they were concerned ? For how can 98 A Hypocritical Pope. we reconcile with justice, conscience, or religion, his bestowing on the worst of tyrants the highest praises that can be bestowed on the best of princes ? His courting the favor of a cruel and wicked usurper, by painting and reviling as an absolute tyrant, the excellent prince whose throne he had usurped ? His ascribing to a particular Providence the revolt of a rebellious subject, and his seizing the crown ; though he opened a way to it by the murder of his lawful sovereign, and his six children, all the male issue of the imperial family? And finally by his inviting all mankind, nay, the angels of heaven, to rejoice with him, and return thanks to God, for the good success of so wicked an attempt, perhaps the most wicked and cruel that is recorded in his- tory? Gregory had often declared that he was willing to sacrifice his life to the honor of his See ; but whether he did not sacrifice on this occasion, what ought to have been dearer to him than his life, or even the honor of his See, I leave the world to judge ; and only observe here that in reflecting as he did on the memory of the unhappy Mauritius, was in him an instance of the utmost ingratitude, if what he himself formerly wrote, and frequently repeated, be true, viz : That his tongue could not express the good he had received of the Almighty, and his lord, the Emperor; that he felt himself bound in gratitude to pray incessantly for the life of his most pious and most christian lord ; and that in return for the goodness of his most religious lord to him, he could do no less than love the very ground on which he trod." Gibbon's View of Saint Gregory. 99 Well does Gibbon say, (chapter xlvi.), " As a sub- ject, and a christian, it was the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the established government; but the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin, has sullied with indellible disgrace the character of the saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decent firm- ness the guilt of blood, and the necessity of repent- ance, he is content to celebrate the deliverance of the people, and the fall of the oppressor ; to re- joice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have been raised by Providence to the imperial throne, and to pray that his hands may be strengthened against all his enemies, and to express a wish, that after a long triumphant reign, he may be trans- ferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom." And yet, this depraved and lying hypocrite, this " man of sin, and son of perdition/' has been can- onized by the Romish Church, and goes by the name of Saint Gregory, and deluded papists bow the knee and pray to him. And the Church of Rome venerates this Saint Gregory as one of the best of the Popes. What, then, must the worst be ? Before passing to the consideration of other popes, we would remind the reader that it was this Pope, St. Gregory the Great, who in 604, most positively and solemnly declared that for any man to assume the title of Universal Bishop would clearly prove himself to be Antichrist As we shall have occa- sion to refer to this matter again, it may be useful at this point to remind the reader that as this 100 Pope John VIII. a] Monster of Cruelty. title, of Universal Bishop, is the claim of the popes, it follows that the Roman Catholic Church is acknowledged to be Antichrist by one of her own infallible popes. Every truly magnanimous man must shrink from wantonly, or unnecessarily, exposing the moral frailties and delinquencies of his fellow mortals, but the cause of truth sometimes demands that this be done, and as the Church of Rome puts forth the presumptuous claim of being " the only true church, out of which there is no salvation/' and as her popes claim divine attributes and powers, and to have committed to them the keys of heaven and hell, as the holy successors of the Apostles of Christ, they ought to be able to show that all the popes, from Peter to Leo XIII., have been very holy men. This must be admitted. But if it can be shown that the popes of Rome, instead of having been the most holy of men, have been the most unholy, and immoral men the world has ever known, then it will necessarily follow that all the claims of the Romish Church are based on deception and falsehood. We shall be compelled to confine ourselves to but a few names out of the many. Pope John VIII. was enriched with a great number of costly presents by the Emperor, Charles the Bald, in return for the services of the Pope in causing him to be elected Emperor. Upon the death of Louis II. a fierce and bloody contention for the empire ensued among the descendants of Charlemagne. Through the favor of the Pope, however, Charles, the grandson of One of the Holy Successors. 101 Charlemagne, was successful. Advancing to Rome, at the invitation of the Pontiff, he was crowned by him with great solemnity, in the Church of St. Peters, on Christmas day, 875, the same day on which his celebrated ancestor had been crowned in the same place seventy-five years before, by Pope Leo III. It is worthy of remark that the artful Pope spoke of this coronation as giving a right to the empire, thus insinuating that he had the power of conferring the empire, and from this time for- ward the popes claimed the right of confirming the election of the emperor. In a sentence pronounced by Pope John upon a certain Bishop, Formosus, is the following expression : — " He has conspired with his accomplices against the safety of the republic, and our beloved son Charles, whom we have chosen, and consecrated emperor." This Pope was a monster of cruelty and blood. He approved and commended the horrible and inhuman conduct of Athanasius, Bishop of Naples, who put out the eyes of his own brother, Sergius, of the same city, and sent him in that state to the Pope, to answer to the charge of rebellion against the Holy See. He applied to the unnatural Athanasius the words of the Saviour, " he that loveth father or mother " (the Pope added, * brother ') more than me, is not worthy of me," and promised to send him, as a re- ward for his horrible cruelty, a handsome present. It soon appeared, however, that the bishop had more regard to himself than to the Pope in this unnatural transaction, for he soon seized on his brother's va- cant dukedom, and in his turn was excommunicated 102 Pope Sergius III "A Slave of Every Vice" by the Pope. When afterwards the bishop sent to implore absolution of the Pope, the bloodthirsty pontiff sent him a reply that the only terms upon which he would grant him absolution were that he should deliver up to his vengeance several men, of whose names he sent him a list, and that he should cut the throats of the rest of the Pope's Saracen ene- mies in the presence of his legate. Such was the cruel spirit of this " holy " successor of the apostles — this link in the unbroken chain of the apostolical succession ! Sergius III. — The tenth century is spoken of in history as " the midnight of the human mind." Near the beginning of this century three notorious and abandoned prostitutes were in almost supreme control of Rome, viz.: Theodora, and her two daugh- ters, Marozia and Theodora. This shameful state of things was the result of the unbounded influence of the Tuscan party in Rome, and the adulterous relations of these wicked women with the heads of that party. Marozia cohabited with Adelbert, one of the powerful counts of Tuscany, and had a son by him named Alberic. Pope Sergius III., who was raised to the papacy in 904, also cohabited with this woman, and by his Holiness she had another son, named John, who afterward ascended the papal throne, through the influence of his licentious mother. Baronius, himself a Roman Catholic his- torian, confesses that Pope Sergius was the slave of every vice and the most wicked of men. Platina, also a Roman Catholic writer, declares that Pope Pope John X. and Theodora. 103 Sergius rescinded the acts of Pope Formosus, and compelled those whom he had ordained, to be re- ordained, caused his dead body to be dragged from the sepulchre, and beheaded, as though he were alive, and then cast into the Tiber ! Pope John X. was the paramour of the harlot, Theodora. While a deacon of the church at Ra- venna, he used frequently to visit Rome, and pos- sessing a comely person, as we are told by Luitprand, a contemporary historian, being seen by Theodora, she fell passionately in love with him, and engaged him in a criminal intrigue. He was afterwards chosen bishop of Ravenna, and upon the death of Pope Lando, in 914, this shameless woman, for the purpose of facilitating her adulterous intercourse with her favorite paramour, " as she could not live at the distance of two hundred miles from her lover," had influence enough to cause him to be raised to the papal throne. Mosheim says the para- mour of Pope John was the elder harlot Theodora, but his translator, Dr. Maclaine, agrees with the Romish historian, Fleury, (who admits these dis- graceful facts), in the more probable theory that it was the younger Theodora, the sister of Marozia. Pope John XI. was the bastard son of his Holi- ness, Pope Sergius III., who, as we have seen, was one of the favored Jo vers of the notorious Marozia. The death of Pope Stephen, in 931, presented to the ambition of Marozia, says Mosheim, an object worthy of its grasp, and accordingly she raised to the papal dignity John XL, who was the fruit of her lawless 104 More Holy Links. amours with one of the pretended successors of St. Peter, whose adulterous commerce gave an infallible guide to the Roman Church ! But we might write volumes on the vile characters that have occupied the papal chair, and, indeed, volumes have been written on this subject. Suffice it then to simply quote a paragraph or two from the pages of Rev. Albert Barnes, in his " Notes." " Pope Vagilius waded to the pontifical throne through the blood of his predecessor. Pope Marcellinus sacrificed to idols. Concerning Pope Honorius, the Council of Constan- tinople decreed : " We have caused Honorius, the late Pope of old Rome, to be accursed) for that in all things he followed the mind of Sergius the heretic, and confirmed his wicked doctrines." The Council of Basil thus condemned Pope Eugenius : "We condemn and depose Pope Eugenius, a despiser of the holy canons; a disturber of the peace and unity of the Church of God ; a notorious offender of the whole universal church ; a Simonist, a perjurer ; a man incorrigible ; a scismatic ; a man fallen from the faith, a wilful heretic." Pope John II. was pub- licly charged at Rome with incest. Pope John XIII. usurped the pontificate, spent his time in hunting, in lasciviousness and monstrous forms of vice ; he fled from the trial to which he was sum- moned, and was stabbed, being taken in an act of adultery. Pope Sixtus IV. licensed brothels at Rome. Pope Alexander VI. was, as a Roman Catholic his- torian says, " one of the greatest and most horrible monsters in nature that could scandalize the papal Pope Vagilius Wades Through Blood. 105 chair. His beastly morals, his immense ambition, his insatiable avarice, his detestable cruelty, his furious lusts and monstrous incest with his daughter Lucretia, are at large described by Guicciardini Ciaconius, and other authentic papal historians. Of the popes, Platina, a Roman Catholic, says : " The chair of St. Peter was usurped, rather than possessed by monsters of wickedness, ambition and bribery. They left no wickedness unpracticed." Surely there has never lived a succession of men so wicked, or to whom the appellative, " the man of sin," could be so appropriately applied as to the popes of Rome. " The man of sin" is also " the son of perdition" Rev. Albert Barnes says of this epithet — " This is the same appellation which the Saviour bestowed on Judas. It may mean either that he would be the cause of ruin to others, or that he would himself be devoted to destruction. . . . The phraze, whichever interpretation be adopted, is used to denote one of eminent wickedness." It is certain that in both senses it is eminently true of the papacy ; for that apostate church has been the destroyer of millions, and is herself to be destroyed. We shall see in a future chapter that " the beast" spoken of in Revela- ations xvii : 8 — 11, is this same Little Horn, and it is there said that he " shall go into perdition" Now these are not " Protestant lies," as priests and bishops of Rome at the present day declare, they are historical facts acknowledged by the most eminent Roman Catholic annalists and historians, as we have seen. The following remarkable acknowledgment 106 Lament of Baronius. is from Cardinal Baronius, one of the most powerful champions of popery, in reference to these events : — " ! what was then the fate of the holy Roman Church ! how filthy, when the vilest and most power- ful prostitutes ruled in the court of Rome ! by whose arbitrary sway dioceses were made and unmade, bishops were consecrated, and — which is inexpres- sibly horrible to be mentioned — False Popes, their Paramours, were thrust into the chair of St. Peter, who in being numbered as popes, serve no purpose but to fill up the catalogues of the popes of Rome. For who can say that persons thrust into the pope- dom by harlots of this sort were legitimate popes of Rome ? In this manner lust, supported by secular power, excited to frenzy, in the rage for domina- tion, ruled in all things." And yet, these " mon- sters of wickedness" are recognized, and some of them even worshipped, as the holy and infallible vicars of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the " holy suc- cessors of the apostles." What an infamous fraud ! The writers of the Romish Church attempt to reconcile the crimes of the bishops and popes with their high claims to holiness. Among other child- ish and illogical arguments some of them make the distinction between the man and the pope. As men they sin ; but as popes they are holy. Which recalls the reply of an humble gardener to his employer, who was an Archbishop. The Archbishop being vexed on account of the destruction of some favor- ite plants, scolded the poor gardener, and in doing so " swore like a trooper." Noticing the surprise of The Swearing Archbishop. 107 the trembling workman, the Archbishop said, " You seem to be shocked to hear an Archbishop swear ; but you know, John, I do not swear as an Arch- bishop ; I swear only as a man." " May I ask your excellency," said the gardener, " when the man goes to the devil, what will become of the Archbishop t" CHAPTER V. Rival Popes. The Romish authorities would gladly have the world forget that in the fourteenth century there were three infallible popes at one time. But it is a fact in history too well established, and recorded by too many accredited historians, to be denied even by priests of Rome. The fact is a most perplexing one to them, for it too plainly disarranges and contra- dicts their boasted " apostolical succession." Pope Boniface VIII. was a man after Hilde- brand's own heart, and put forth such extravagant claims to universal sovereignty, and especially in his controversy with King Philip the Fair, of France, as to fill all thoughtful minds with con- tempt. Hallam, in his " Middle Ages," tells us how the quarrel began between the ambitious Pope, and the brave and self-respecting King. Philip the Fair imposed a tax on the ecclesiastical order without their consent. Irritated by some previous differ- ences, the Pope issued a bull absolute^ forbidding the clergy of every Kingdom to pay, under what- ever pretext of voluntary grant, gift or loan, any sort of tribute to their government without his special permission. Though France was not par- ticularly named, the King understood himself to be included, and took his revenge by a prohibition to export money from the Kingdom. This produced angry remonstrances on the part of Boniface ; but 108 Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair. 109 the Gallican Church adhered so faithfully to the King, that the Pope with very poor grace was com- pelled to yield, so far as to permit the French clergy to assist their King by voluntary contributions, though not by way of tax. After a brief period of apparent friendliness between Pope and King, a terrible storm broke out in the first year of the fourteenth century. A bishop of Panniers, who had been sent as legate to the King from Boniface, with some complaint, displayed so much insolence and so much disrespect towards Philip, that the King caused his arrest. Boniface became so angry at this act of the French King that he published several bulls addressed to the King and clergy of France, in which he charged Philip with many offenses and commanding the clergy to attend a council which he had summoned to meet at Rome. In one of these instruments he declares very plainly that the King was subject to him in temporal as well as spiritual matters. Philip replied by a short letter in the rudest language, and ordered his bulls to be publicly burned at Paris. At the Pope's carnival in Rome the Pope promul- gated his famous bull, called Unam Sanctum, in which he declares that the church is one body of which he is the head. Under its commands are two swords the one spiritual, and the other temporal ; one to be used by the supreme pontiff himself, and the other by kings and temporal rulers by his license, and by his will. But the temporal must be subject to the spiritual authority. He concludes by declaring 110 Tfie King Victorious. the wicked and shameful doctrine that every human being must be subject to the See of Rome, under pain of eternal damnation. Another bull declares that all persons, of whatever rank, are obliged to appear at the Pope's tribunal at Rome whenever summoned, " since it is our pleasure, who, by divine permission, rule the world." As the rupture with Philip was evidently irreconcilable, and the meas- ures pursued by that monarch more hostile, he not only excommunicated him, but offered the crown of France to the Emperor Albert I. Philip, in an assembly of his estates at Paris, preferred serious charges against the Pope, denying that he was legitimately elected, and imputing to him various heresies. But Philip went further than this, and sent Nogaret, a trusty officer, to Italy to arrest the Pope. Gibbon, the historian, says of this bold act of the French King. — " As the Pope resided at Anagni, without the suspicion of danger, his palace and person were assaulted by three hundred horse. The cardinals fled, but the dauntless Boniface unarmed and alone, seated himself in his chair, and awaited, like the conscript fathers of old, the swords of the guards." He says the Pope was insulted by words and blows, and he endured all this for three days, when he was rescued by his friends ; but he was wounded in a vital part, and Boniface expired at Rome in a frenzy of rage and revenge. This historian says : " His memory is stained with the glaring vices of avarice and pride ; nor has the courage of a martyr promoted this ecclesiastical French Popes. Ill champion to the honors of a saint. A magnan- imous sinner, (say the chronicles of the time) who entered like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog." This victory of the French King over one of the haughtiest of the popes, did much to weaken the papacy; but it was weakened still more by the removal of the papal court from Italy to France; from Rome to Avignon. Boniface was succeeded by Benedict XI., who filled the pontifical throne but a few months. King Philip now succeeded in securing the election of one of his own subjects to the vacant See, who took the name of Clement V. He fixed his residence in France, and spent the whole nine years of his reign in his native land without once visiting Rome, the ancient seat of papal grandeur and power. The Avignon popes continued to reside in France during a period of seventy years, which was often spoken of as " the seventy years captivity." Pope Gregory XL, who partly in consequence of a deputation from the people of Rome, and partly in consequence of the pretended revelations of a wretched fanatic, who has since been canonized as Saint Catharine, of Sienna, removed his court to Rome, where he died in 1378. This popish Saint Catharine pretended that on one occasion the Saviour appeared to her, accompanied by the Virgin Mary, and a numerous host of saints, and in their presence he solemnly espoused her,placing on her finger a gold ring adorned with four pearls and a diamond. After the vision had 112 St. Catharine of Sienna. vanished, the ring still remained, sensible and palpa- ble to herself, though invisible to every other eye. She also declared that she had sucked the blood from the wound in his side, and that he had exchanged hearts with her, by taking her heart, and giving her his own. She also declared that she bore in her body the marks of his wounds, although no one could see these marks but herself. This is among the " signs, and lying wonders" which Paul said would be a sign of Anti-Christ, and of which we shall have more to say further on. At the time referred to the place of the pope's death was of as much importance as the locality in which he lived, because the election of a successor could hardly fail to be affected by the local circum- stances under which he might be chosen. There could be no security for the continuance of the papal residence in Rome until the tiara should be again placed on the head of an Italian. At Avignon, the French cardinals, who were in the majority, were sure to elect a French pope ; but the accident which should oblige the conclave to assemble in an Italian city, might probably lead, through the operation of external influences, to the choice of an Italian. At the time of the decease of Gregory XI., there were twenty-three cardinals, of whom six were absent at Avignon, and one was a legate in Tus- cany. Almost immediately after the obsequies of Gregory, the cardinals received a solemn remon- strance to this effect : " On behalf of the Roman Senate and people, they ventured to represent that The Romans Demand an Italian Pope. 113 the Roman Church had suffered for seventy years a deplorable captivity by the removal of the Holy See to Avignon. That the faithful were no longer attracted to Rome, either by devotion or by interest ; since the Pope, the source of patronage, had scandalously deserted his church, so that there was danger lest that unfortunate city should be reduced to a vast and frightful solitude, and become an outcast from the world, of which it was still the spiritual Empress, as it once had been the temporal. Lastly, that as the only remedy for these evils, it was absolutely necessary to elect a Roman, or at least an Italian Pope ; especially as there was every appearance that the people, if disappointed in their just expectation, would have recourse to compulsion." In the mean- time, while the cardinals were in solemn conclave, the populace, who had already exhibited evidences of impatience, assembled in great crowds about the place of meeting, and continued in tumultuous assemblage during the whole deliberation of the conclave, so that the debates of the cardinals were frequently interrupted by the shouts of the mob crying out in the Italian language — " We will have a Roman for a Pope — a Roman, or at least an Italian ! " The result was that a Neapolitan, the Archbishop of Bari, was elected Pope. The new Italian Pope took the name of Urban VI. The very day after Urban's coronation as Pope, the cardinals were surprised and indignant at the severe manner in which their new master addressed them. He accused them of having deserted and betrayed their 114 Urban VI. Elected and Deposed. people, in order to revel in luxury at the court of Rome, and he went so far as to accuse them of perjury. Four of the cardinals were Italians, and no sooner had the others left Rome for their own homes than they conspired together to depose the Pope whom they themselves had so recently chosen to his high and distinguished office. They first of all opened a correspondence with the court of France and University of Paris, and in the next place they assembled with great dignity and solem- nity in the principal church, and promulgated a public declaration, in the presence of many prelates and ecclesiastics, by which the Archbishop of Bari was denounced as an intruder into the pontifical office, and his election formally cancelled. " They then retired, for greater security to Fondi, in the Kingdom of Naples. Still they did not ven- ture to proceed to a new election in the absence, and it might be against the consent of the Italian cardi- nals. They treacherously set a trap to catch the votes of these cardinals, by making a secret promise to each of them separately, that he himself should be the object of their choice. Animated by this expectation they hastened to Fondi, with joy and confidence. The college of cardinals now assembled, and the French cardinals, having everything ar- ranged beforehand, the cardinal of Geneva was elected by unanimous vote ; a proceeding that would disgrace, even in our day, a Tammany caucus. This event took place on the twentieth of September, 1378. The new Pope took the name of Clement VII., and was installed with the customary ceremonies." The Great Western Schism. 115 Such was the origin of the great Western schism which divided the Romish Church, according to Gibbon, for more than fifty years, and accelerated more than any other event the decline of papal authority. Whether Urban or Clement is to be regarded as the lawful Pope, and the true successor of St. Peter, is even to this day a matter of doubt. Certain it is, however, that, as the apostles left no successors, neither of them sustained any relation whatever to that humble and godly man. Pope Urban remained at Rome, while Clement went to Avignon in France. The cause of Clement was espoused by France, Spain, Scotland, Sicily, and Cyprus, while all the rest of Europe acknowledged Urban to be the true Pope, and the genuine link in the chain of apostolical succession. The bitter antagonism between Pope Urban and his successors at Rome, and Pope Clement and his successors in France, was fomented with such dreadful success, and arose to such a shameful height, that for the space of forty or fifty years the Church had two or three different heads at the same time, each of the contending popes form- ing plots, and thundering out their anathemas against their competitors. Historians tell us that the distress and calamity of those times is far beyond all power of description ; for not to insist on the perpetual contentions and wars between the factions of the contending popes, by which multi- tudes lost their fortunes and lives, all sense of relig- ion was extinguished in most places, and profligacy 116 Chaotic State of the Papacy. rose to a most scandalous excess. The clergy, while they vehemently contended which of the reigning popes was the true successor of Peter, were so exces- sively corrupt as to be no longer concerned about keeping up even the appearance of religion or decency. In consequence of all this, many plain, well-meaning people, who had been taught that no one could possibly be a partaker of eternal life unless united to the vicar of Christ, were over- whelmed with doubt, and plunged into the deepest distress of mind. Nevertheless these bitter and shameful disputes and wranglings were overruled for the promotion of civil and religious liberty, and popery received a deep and incurable wound, for kings and princes who had long been the slaves of the lordly pontiffs, now became their judges and masters. And many of the more intelligent of the people had the courage to despise the popes on account of their odious disputes about dominion, to commit their salvation to God alone, and to believe that religion might be maintained, and the trusting soul saved even though popes had no existence. At length it was resolved to call a general council for the purpose of terminating this'disgraceful schism, which was accordingly assembled at Pisa on the 25th of March, 1409. At this time the Roman Pope was Gregory XII., and the French Pope was Benedict XII. The latter had, while a cardinal, taken a solemn oath, if elected Pope, to resign the papacy should it be necessary for the peace of the Church. When, after his election, he was requested to fulfil this promise, Three Popes at One Time. 117 he positively refused, and being besieged in Avig- non by the King of France, he made his escape. In consequence of thus being deserted by their Pope, eight or nine of his cardinals united with the cardi- nals of the Roman Pope Gregory in calling the Council of Pisa, in order to heal the divisions and contentions that so long rent and disgraced the Romish Church. This Council, however, which was designed to heal the wounds of the Church, had the very con- trary effect, and only opened a new breach and excited new divisions. Its proceedings, indeed, were sufficiently vigorous, and its measures were accom- panied with a just severity. A heavy sentence of condemnation was pronounced against the contend- ing pontiffs, who were both declared guilty of heresy, perjury, and contumacy, unworthy of the smallest tokens of honor or respect, and separated, ipso facto, from the communion of the Church. This act was followed by the election of one Pope in their place. The Pope elected by this Council of Pisa was Peter of Candia, known on the papal list as Alexander V., but all the decrees and proceedings of this famous council were treated with contempt by the con- demned pontiffs, who continued to enjoy the privi- leges, and to perform the functions of the papacy as if no attempts had been made^ to remove them from their exalted positions. Mosheim, the historian, says : " The deposed Popes, Gregory and Benedict, protested against these proceedings, and each con- voked another council, the one at Civitat de Frioul, 118 Successors of Judas. and the other at Perpignan. With much difficulty they each succeeded in assembling together a' few pre- lates devoted to their cause, yet they, nevertheless, bestowed on these assemblies the name of ecumenical councils, which they had refused to give to that of Pisa. ' It is certain/ said they, 'that the Church is the Pope, and it suffices that the Pope be present in any place for the Church to be there also, and where the Pope is not, in the body, or in mind, no church is.'" We here see the holy Catholic Church, which boasts so much of its unity, and its purity, split up into three contending factions, under three pre- tended successors of the humble fisherman of Gali- lee, who loaded each other with reproaches and accusations of fraud, and lying and perjury, and simony, and other crimes, and their mutual accusa- tions were .undoubtedly true. But is it possible that those vile men were the holy representatives of the adorable Jehovah, and the true vicars of Jesus Christ ? It is certain that these proud and selfish and wicked men, instead of being the heads of God's infallible Church, were better entitled to the character of the successors of Judas, the traitor, or Simon, the sorcerer, rather than of the holy apostles of Jesus Christ. In the year 1410, Alexander V., who had been elected Pope at the Council of Pisa, died, and the sixteen cardinals who attended him at Bologna, immediately chose as his successor, the notorious and infamous man who assumed the name of John XXIII., and who afterward made such a figure at Pope John XXIIL, Fierce and Furious. 119 the Council of Constance. The year after his elec- tion, Pope John XXIII. preached a crusade against Ladislaus of Hungary, who was contending with Louis II., of Anjou, for the crown of Naples, on account of the former adhering to the cause of the rival Pope Gregory XII. In the terrible bull of crusade, which he fulminated against Ladislaus, he enjoined, under pain of excommunication, all patri- archs, archbishops and prelates, to declare, on Sun- days and on fast days, with bells ringing and tapers burning, and then suddenly extinguished and flung on the ground, that Ladislaus was excommuni- cated, perjured, a schismatic, a blasphemer, a re- lapsed heretic, and a supporter of heretics, guilty of lese-majesty, and the enemy of the Pope and the Church. This Pope in the same manner excommu- nicated Ladislaus' children, to the third generation, as well as his adherents and well-wishers. He com- manded that if they happened to die, even with absolution, they should be deprived of ecclesiastical sepulture, and he declared that whoever should afford burial to Ladislaus and his partizans should be excommunicated, and should not be absolved until they had disinterred their bodies with their own hands. This holy (?) Pope urged upon all emperors, kings, princes, cardinals and the faith- ful of both sexes, by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, to save the Church, by persecuting with- out mercy, and exterminating Ladislaus and his defenders. They who should enter on this crusade were to have the same indulgences as those who 120 Vicars of Satan. should assist in the conquest of the Holy Land, and in case any should happen to die before the accom- plishment of their aim, they should enjoy all the same privileges as if they had died in accomplish- ing it. In the meantime, in consequence of these disgrace- ful squabbles of the pretended holy vicars of Jesus Christ, the different states of the continent were so many theatres of war and rapine, and the clergy, instead of directing their efforts to put an end to the evil, evidently added fuel to the fire by their example. And how could it be otherwise, when three popes showed more anxiety to destroy each other, than to make known the Gospel of Christ, or to promote the welfare of mankind ? Through the influence of the Emperor Sigismund, the Council of Constance was convened in 1414. By this council, the two popes, John XXIII. and Benedict XIII. were deposed, while they secured the resignation of the Roman Pontiff, Gregory XII., after which a new pope was elected, who took the name of Martin V., and thus the disgraceful schism was at last healed. This concise view of the bitter wranglings, and mutual recriminations of these opposing popes, who mutually accused each other of most shameful crimes, and yet each claiming to be the infallible vicar of Jesus Christ, clearly proves the claim of apostolical succession to be a fraud, and a lie, and that those popes were vice-gerents of Satan, and the Church of Rome to be Antichrist — the great enemy of God, and of the human race. CHAPTER VI. The Little Horn Still Growing. Having made very clear that " the man of sin and son of perdition," truly describes the Popes of Rome, we will return to the other prophecies of Paul, as contained in 2 Thess : 2 chapter, and we shall see that the little horn, in Daniel — chapter vii. — has grown prodigiously, according to Paul's out- look. Of this " man of sin, and son of perdition," it is said that he " 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, showing himself that he is God" As this book is not a commentary, it is not for us to attempt an exegesis of Paul's words. We simply attempt to make very plain the fact that the inspired description of Antichrist, as found in the holy script- ures, finds its exact counterpart in the actual history of the Roman Catholic Church, thus clearly proving that so-called church to be Antichrist. The state- ment that the man of sin " opposeth" God evidently means that he is distinguished as the opposer of the great system which God has revealed for human sal- vation. No intelligent person at all acquainted with the history of the papacj^ will doubt that this has been the principal effort of that wicked system for ages and centuries. A very learned writer of the last century says — "'He opposeth; 7 he is the great adversary to God and man, excommunicating 121 122 The Great Blasphemer. and anathematizing, persecuting, and destroying, by crusades and inquisitions, by massacres, and hor- rid executions, those sincere Christians who prefer the word of God to all the authority of men. The heathen emperor of Rome may have slain his thou- sands of innocent Christians; but the (so-called) Christian bishop hath slain his tens of thousands. There is scarcely any country that hath not at one time or other been made the stage of their bloody tragedies: scarce any age that hath not, in some place or other, seen them acted." In the same verse from which we quote — 2 Thess. 2 : 4 — Paul says of " the man of sin" that " he exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped/' and the learned Bishop New- ton, in his Lectures on the Prophecies, says : — " Not only above inferior magistrates, but likewise above bishops and primates, exerting an absolute jurisdic- tion, and uncontrolled supremacy over all ; not only over bishops and primates ; but over kings and emperors, deposing some, and advancing others, obliging them to prostrate themselves before him, to kiss his toe, to hold his stirrup, to wait bare- footed at his gate, treading even upon the neck and kicking off the imperial crown with his foot; nor only above Kings and emperors, but likewise above Christ and God himself, making the commands of God of none effect by his traditions, forbidding what God hath commanded, as marriage, communion in both kinds, the use of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, and the like, and also commanding or allowing, what " Our Lord God The Pope." 123 God has forbidden, as idolatry, persecution, works of suprerogation, and various other instances. ' So that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.' He is therefore by profession a Christian, and a Christian bishop. His ( sitting in the temple of God/ plainly implies his having his seat, or cathedra, in the christian church; and he sitteth there as God, especially at his inauguration, when he sitteth on the high altar in St. Peter's Church, and maketh the table of the Lord his footstool, and in that position receiveth adoration. At all times he exerciseth divine authority in the church, ' show- ing himself that he is God' affecting divine attri- butes and titles, as holiness and infallibility, assuming divine powers, and prerogatives in condemning and absolving men, in retaining and forgiving sins, in asserting his decrees to be of the same, or greater authority than the word of God, and commanding them to be received under penalty of the same or greater damnation. Like another Salmoneus he is proud to imitate the state and thunder of the Almighty, and is styled, and pleased to be styled, 1 Our Lord God, the Pope ; another God upon earth ; king of kings, and lord of lords ; the same is the dominion of God and the pope. To believe that our Lord God the pope might not decree as he decreed, it were a matter of heresy. The power of the pope is greater than all created power, and extends itself to things celestial and terrestrial, and infernal. The pope doeth whatsoever he listeth, even things unlawful, and is more than God' 124 Universal Bishop. " Such blasphemies are not only allowed, but are even approved, encouraged, rewarded in the writers of the Church of Rome ; and they are not only the extravagances of the Roman writers, but are the language even of decertals and acts of councils. So that the pope is evidently God upon earth ; at least there is no one like him ' who exalteth himself above every God ;' no one like him, ' who sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.' " It will be interesting and instructive to consider how the title of Universal Bishop, or Universal Pope was acquired in the first instance. During the last few years of the sixth centuiy the contest for supremacy between the bishops of Rome and Constantinople raged with greater acrimony than during any preceding period. The bishop of Con- stantinople not only claimed an unrivalled sover- eignty over the eastern churches, but also claimed that his church, in point of dignity, was in no sense inferior to that of Rome. The Roman Pontiffs, with no little feeling, warmly resented such preten- sions, and earnestly asserted the preeminence of their church, and its undoubted superiority over that of Constantinople. Gregory the Great, dis- tinguished himself in this unbecoming contest ; and the fact that in a council held in 588, John, the Bishop of Constantinople, assumed the title of Uni- versal Bishop, furnished Gregory with a favorable opportunity for entering his protest. Evidently believing that the design of his rival was to obtain The Blasphemous Title. 125 the supremacy over all christian churches, Gregory opposed his pretentions with the utmost energy, and in order to establish his own authority more firmly, he invented the fiction of " the power of the Keys/' as committed to the successors of St. Peter, rather than to the body of the bishops, according to the previous opinions, and says Waddington, " He betrayed on many occasions a very ridiculous eagerness to secure that honor. Consequently he was profuse in his distribution of certain Keys, endowed, as he was not ashamed to assert, with supernatural qualities ; he even ventured to insult Anastasius, the bishop of Antioch, by such a gift. ' 1 have sent you/ he says, ' Keys of the blessed Apostle Peter, your guardian, which, when placed upon the sick, are w r ont to be resplendent with numerous miracles.' We may attribute this absur- dity to the basest \ superstition, or to the most impu- dent hypocracy, and we would gladly have preferred the more excusable motive, if the supposed advance- ment of the See, which was clearly concerned in these presents, did not rather lead us to the latter." Gregory wrote to his own ambassador at Constan- tinople, to the patriarch John, and to the Emperor Mauritius, in which, in various passages, he denounces the title of universal bishop as "vain," "execrable," " anti-christian," " blasphemous/' "infer- nal," and " diabolical," " proud, and foolish appella- tion," etc. " Whom," says he in a letter to John, " whom do you propose to imitate by this perverse name but him who, despising the legions of angels, 126 Popery Self- Condemned. his companions, endeavoured to break forth, and to ascend to an elevation peculiar to himself, that he might seem to be subject to none, and to be above all of them ? Above whom, when you thus desire to elevate yourself by this haughty title, and to tread down their name in comparison with yours, what do you say but, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven ?" "But far from christians be this blasphemous name, by which all honor is taken from all other priests, while it is foolishly arrogated by one." In a letter to the Emperor, Gregory says : " I am bold to say that whoever adopts, or effects the title of universal bishop, has the pride and character of Antichrist." It will be well for every reader of this volume to consider well the words of Gregory, confessedly one of the most eminent of the Romish bishops, and who has by them been canonized as Saint Gregory ; in which he places the brand of Antichrist on whoever assumes this title. We do but repeat the opinion so emphatically expressed by " Saint Gregory," only a few years before the actual occur- rence of this remarkable event in the history of Popery. Boniface III., who succeeded Gregory, in 605, was so far from having any scruples about this blasphemous title, that he actually applied to the Emperor Phocas, a cruel and bloodthirsty tyrant, and earnestly solicited the title, with the privilege of handing it down to his successors. The profligate emperor, who had a secret grudge against the patriarch of Constantinople, granted the request Antichrist Revealed. 127 of Boniface, and after strictly forbidding the former to use the title, conferred it on Boniface in the year 606, and declared the church of Rome to be head over all other churches." (Dowling's History of Romanism.) Thus was Paul's prediction accom- plished, "The Man of Sin" revealed, and that system of ecclesiastical and political tyranny prop- erly called Popery, established in the world. The title of Universal Bishop, which was then obtained by Boniface, has been worn by all succeeding bishops of Rome, and the claim of universal supremacy which was then established, has ever since been maintained, and defended by them, and still is at the present day. An infallible pope has branded Popery as being truly Antichrist. It will be interesting to take a look at the man who first conferred the title which the popes have for more than twelve hundred years, delighted to wear. We have said of this emperor Phocas that he was a cruel and blood-thirsty man. Let us see what history says of him. By doing so we shall see that so far from the Roman Catholic Church, being, as it boasts, the holy Church of Christ, it is most cer- tainly " The Son of Perdition ; " that is, the child of the Devil. Phocas was a native of Asia Minor, of obscure and unknown parentage, who entered the army of the emperor Mauritius as a common sol- dier. Having attained the rank of centurian, a petty officer with the command of a hundred men, he happened to be with his company on the banks of the Danube, in the year 602, when he headed a 128 Infamous Origin of Papacy. mutiny against the emperor among his troops, caused himself to be proclaimed leader of the insur- rection, and marched with them to Constantinople. " So obscure had been the former condition of Phocas," says Gibbon, " that the Emperor was quite ignorant of even the name of his rival, but as soon as he had learned that the centurian, though bold in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, ' Alas ! ' cried the prince, ' if he is a coward he will surely be a murderer/ " Upon the approach of Phocas to Constantinople, the unfortunate emperor, with his wife and nine children, escaped in a small bark to the Asiatic shore ; but the violence of the wind compelled him to land, and he sent his eldest son, Theodosius, to implore the assistance of the Persian Monarch. For himself he patiently awaited the result of the revo- lution. The traitor Phocas was successful, and he entered the city in triumph in a chariot drawn by four white horses. The ministers of death were sent to Chalcedon, and the five sons of the emperor were cruelly murdered before his eyes. As each mur- derous stroke fell on the forms of his beloved chil- dren, the agonized Mauritius piously exclaimed — " Thou art just, Lord ! and thy judgments are righteous." The tragic scene was ended by the murder of the emperor himself, in the twentieth year of his reign, and the sixty-third year of his age. The bodies of the father and his five sons were cast into the sea, and their heads were exposed at Constantinople, to the insults of the mob. The Murder of the Royal Ladies. 129 flight of Theodosius, the son of the unfortunate Emperor, to the Persian court, was intercepted by a rapid pursuit, and he was beheaded at Nice, by the order of Phocas. In the massacre of the imperial family, the usurper had spared the widow and three daughters of the late Emperor, but the discovery or suspicion of a conspiracy kindled the fury of Phocas. These unfortunate ladies took refuge in one of the churches of the city, then regarded as an inviolable asylum. The Patriarch, moved partly by compassion for the royal sufferers, and partly by reverence for the place, would not permit them to be dragged from their hiding place. The tyrant, although indignant at the spirit shown by the bishop, thought it to be the wisest policy not to antagonize the church at the very beginning of his reign, desisted from using force ; but by means of the most solemn oaths and promises of safety prevailed on the royal ladies to quit their asylum, in consequence of which they also soon became the helpless victims of his fury. " A matron," says Gibbon, " who commanded the respect and pity of mankind; the daughter, wife, and mother of emperors, was tortured like the vilest of malefactors, and the empress Constantina, with her three innocent daughters, was beheaded at Chal- cedon, on the same ground that had been stained with the blood of her husband and five sons. The hippodrome, the sacred asylum of the pleasures, and the liberty of the Romans, was polluted with heads, and limbs, and mangled bodies ; and the compan- 130 Why Not Canonize Phocas ? ions of Phocas were the most sensible that neither his favor, nor their services could protect them from a tyrant, the worthy rival of the Caligulas and Domitians of the first age of the empire." The imperial family having thus been horribly murdered, the blood-thirsty tyrant began to proceed with the same inexorable cruelty against all their friends, and against all who showed any sympathy for them, or had borne any civil or military employ- ments in the service of the late emperor. Thus throughout the empire were men of the highest rank and distinction, daily executed, or publicly or privately massacred. Some were inhumanly tor- tured ; others had their hands and feet cut off, and some were set up as marks for the raw soldiery to shoot at, in learning the exercise of the bow. The populace met with no better treatment than the nobility, great numbers of them being daily seized for speaking disrespectfully of the tyrant, and either killed by his guards on the spot, or tied up in sacks and thrown into the sea, or dragged to prison, which by that means were so crowded that multi- tudes of them died of the hardships they endured. The pen of impartial history thus presents us with the character of the man to whom the Papacy is indebted for the title by which she has been known and distinguished for more than a dozen centuries. Such is the foundation, and the only foundation, on which their lordly title rests, and on the basis of which the imbecile old man, Leo XIII., in this last decade of the nineteenth century, Daniel and Paul Agree. 131 issues his " infallible " commands from the Vatican at Rome, not only to " the faithful " of his own church, but to the people and government of these United States ; for his language is, as stated by Cardinal Manning, no longer ago than in 1869 : — " I claim to be the Supreme Judge and Director of the consciences of men — of the peasant that tills the field, and the prince that sits on the throne ; of the household that sits in the shade of privacy, and of the Legislature that makes laws for Kingdoms. I am the sole last Supreme Judge of what is right and wrong." Horrible blasphemer! But Anti- christ, Paul said, " Sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." And there he is, at this moment, in the Vatican, made a " god " by Phocas the traitor, and one of bloodiest murderers that ever cursed God's green earth ! Here again we see the Little Horn "Having a mouth, and speaking great things against the most high." Bishop Newton, in his learned work, " On The Prophecies," shows that Paul is speaking of the same " Little Horn " of which Daniel speaks. He says: "In St. Paul " he opposeth," and in Daniel " he doeth according to his will, and weareth out the saints of the Most High." In St. Paul " he exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped," showing himself that he is God ; and in Daniel, " he exalteth himself and mag- nifieth himself against every God, and speaketh marvellous things against the God of gods." In St. Paul he is " the lawless one," and in Daniel he 132 The Bible Prohibited. " changeth times and laws." In St. Paul his coming is with all deceivableness of unrighteousness ; and in Daniel "he practiceth and prospereth, and through his policy causeth craft to prosper in his hand." He says, " The characters and circum- stances are so much the same that they must belong to one and the same person." He says also : — " The tyrannical power thus described by Daniel and St. Paul, and afterwards by St. John, is both by ancients and moderns generally denominated Antichrist; and the name is proper and expressive enough, as it may signify both the enemy of Christ, and the vicar of Christ, and no one is more the enemy of Christ than he who arrogates his name and power, and no one more directly " opposes " the King than he who assumes his title and authority. How can it be said that the Pope of Rome " exalteth himself above God " as Paul says ? He who dares to alter God's laws, or to set them aside, or who dares to put his own laws in the place of God's laws, most certainly exalts himself " above " God. And the popes of Rome are guilty of this daring blasphemy, as we shall see. In the first place God commands men to read thg Bible : He says, " Search the Scriptures ; " but the church of Rome forbids the reading of the Bible. The Church of Rome has always hated the Bible, and well she may, for the Bible is the enemy of popery, and exposes her lying and hypocracy, and proves her to be Antichrist. The Council of Trent, whose definitions, and rules, and laws, now govern Council of Trent on the Bible. 133 the papacy, made the following decree in 1564: " Inasmuch as it is manifest from experience that if the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, the tem- erity of men will cause more evil than good to arise from it, it is on this point referred to the judgment of the bishops, or inquisitors, who may, with 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 apprehend will not be injured by it, and this permission they must have in writing. But if any one shall have the presumption to read or possess it without such written permission, he shall not receive absolution until he has first delivered up such Bible to the ordinary. Booksellers, however, who shall sell, or otherwise dispose of Bibles in the vulgar tongue to any person not having such per- mission, shall forfeit the value of the books, to be applied by the bishops to some pious use, and be subjected by the bishops to such other penalties as the bishops shall judge proper, according to the quality of the offense. But regulars shall neither read nor purchase such Bibles without a special license from their superiors." In this shameful and blasphemous decree of the highest authority of the Papacy, we find the Romish antichrist daring to rob men of the holy light that can guide them to heaven; inflicting "penalties" on those who have the "presumption" to read the word of God ! God says to men : " Search the Scriptures ;" 134 John Wickliffe. and the Pope says : " Although God gives you per- mission and commands you to read His Holy Word, I say you shall not read that word without permission from me," Surely we see here " the man of sin and son of perdition who opposeth God," and " exalts him- self above God." One of the holiest and most useful men who ever lived was John Wickliffe, in the 14th century. Brought up in the Romish Church and disgusted with the profligacy and wickedness of the popes and priests, he believed that the best way to effect a reformation was by letting in the light of God's word on the darkness that everywhere prevailed. He translated the Bible into the English tongue, and for this crime the Romish Church has cherished for him the bitterest hatred. The " holy " Council of Constance, by the direction, or at least with the approval, of the Pope, decreed that the dead body of Wickliffe should be taken up out of the grave and burnt as a heretic, and his ashes cast into the river ; and this horrible decree was actually carried into effect after he had been dead more than forty years ! Rome hates the light ! But it may be said that " Rome may have changed." This is what many do say. No, Rome boasts that she never changes. How can infallibility change ? Let us see how Rome regards the Bible in modern times. As late as May 8th, 18^, Pope Gregory XVI. issued a bull in regard to bibles and bible societies that were greatly troubling his righteous soul. It would be interesting to read the entire letter of The Pope and the Bible Societies. 135 the Pope, but our space will not permit. In speak- ing of Protestant Bible Societies and other Protest- ant agencies for the distribution of the Scriptures, he says, after having endorsed and confirmed all preceding decrees of the popes against the Bible : " Wherefore, having consulted some of the cardinals of the Holy Romish Church, after having duly ex- amined with them everything, and listened to their advice, we have decided, venerable brothers, on addressing you this letter, by which again we condemn the Bible Societies, reproved long ago by our predeces- sors, and by virtue of the supreme authority of our apostleship we reprove by name, and condemn the aforesaid Society, called The Christian Alliance, formed last year at New York ; it, together with every other society associated with it, or which may become so. " Let all know, then, the enormity of the sin against God and his Church which they are guilty of who dare to associate themselves with any of these soci- eties, or abet them in any way. Moreover, we con- firm and renew the decrees recited above, delivered in former times by apostolic authority, against the publication, distribution, reading, or possession of books of the Holy Scriptures translated into the vulgar tongue." Twenty years later, in 1864, Pope Pius IX. also denounces Bible societies as " pests." Here again popes " condemn " what God approves. In 1895, the present Pope, Leo XIII., wrote a letter inviting the Church of England to return to the warm and loving embrace of " The Mother of all 136 Cannon Farrar to Leo XIII. Churches." In reply to Pope Leo, Canon Farrar makes use of these words : " But his successor, in the Bull Unigenitus, denounced the free reading of the Scriptures by the laity, and made the rights of free Christian men to read the word of God to de- pend on the permission of priests, often grossly ignorant, who in thousands of instances did not themselves possess it, and had never read it. Many a martyr has been imprisoned, tortured and burnt by the Church of Rome for possessing the Bible, or a part of it. And persecution on this account has been continued even to our own days" And this emi- nent scholar quotes, in a note, the words of Cardinal Wiseman, who died but a few years ago, who says : " We must deny to Protestants any- right use of the Bible, much more to interpret it." Cannon Farrar goes on to say : " ' In the Netherlands/ says Motley, ' the possession of the Sermon on the Mount in the vernacular led to the gibbet; the tyranny of priests, burning those whom they could not refute, made it death by burning to read the Bible.' Is the English people, which since the days of the Reformation has been ' the people of one Book/ — the people to whose Queen, on her coronation, that Book, taken off the Holy Table, was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the words, ' We here present to your Majesty the most valuable possession in the whole world.' Is that people to thank the Church and its popes who so furiously persecuted even the memory of Wickliffe ; the Church which approved the decree De haeretico comburendo, and made the Bible Burning in New York. 137 free possession of the Bible in the vernacular a sin, rendering men incapable of absolution, ' unless they have first given up their Bibles to the ordinary V Was it a proof of the l loving tenderness ' of the popes like Pius IV., Clement XL, and Leo XIL, that they regarded the free reading of a vernacular Bible as a feeding in ' poisonous pastures?' Are we, with Pius IX., to class Bible societies as ' pests/ with various socialistic guilds ?" It is not so long ago that the priests of Rome made bonfires of Bibles. This has been done even in our own country where this holy book is so free, and so much revered. Dr. Dowling, in his " History of Romanism" gives an account of the public burn- ing of Bibles, no longer ago than October 27th, 1844, in Champlain, in the State of New York. He says, " The following account of this sacrilegious outrage is from an official statement of facts, signed by four respectable citizens appointed as a com- mittee for that purpose." Their statement is as fol- lows : "About the middle of October, a Mr. Sel- mont, a missionary of the Jesuits, with one or more associates, came to Corlean, in this town, where the Catholic Church is located, and as they say in their own account given of their visit, by the direction of the bishop of Montreal. On their arrival they com- menced a protracted meeting which lasted several weeks, and great numbers of Catholics from this and other towns attended day after day. After the meeting had progressed several days, and the way was prepared for it, an order was issued requiring 138 Bonfires of Bibles in 181^5. all who had Bibles, or Testaments, to bring them in to the priest, or lay them at the feet of the mission- aries. The requirement was generally complied with, and day after day Bibles and Testaments were carried in, and after a sufficient number was collected they were burned. By the confession of Telmont there were several burnings, but only one in public. On the 27th of October, as given in testi- mony at the public meeting held there, Telmont, who was a prominent man in all the movements, brought out from the residence of the priest, which is near the church, as many Bibles as he could carry in his arms at three times, and placed them in a pile in the open yard, and then set fire to them, and burned them to ashes. This was done in open day, and in the presence of many spectators." Many Protestants, not knowing the facts, suppose that it is only Protestant versions of the Bible the priests object to, but this is a mistake, as they object even to their own Romish version. In about 1845 the American Bible Society received a letter from its agent in Chili, South America, a part of which only, can be given here. The agent says : " On Sabbath evening, the time fixed for the sacrilegi- ous conflagration, a procession was formed, having the curate at the head, and conducted with the usual pomp, the priest kneeling a few moments at each corner of the square, and placing a large cruci- fix on the ground. During the afternoon a fire had been kindled for the purpose, I was told by several bystanders, of burning heretical books which ridi- Burning Bibles in 1895. 139 culed the mass and confession, and among the number was mentioned the New Testament. A guard of soldiers prevented me from examining them separately, but I stood sufficiently near to dis- cover that the greater part were copies of the New Testament, issued by the American Bible Society. As the flame ascended, increasing in brightness, one • of the clergy shouted ' Viva Deos,' (Let God reign), which was immediately echoed by the large con- course of people." And it should not be forgotten that — " the Scriptures burned were of the approved Spanish version, translated from the Vulgate by a Spanish Roman Catholic Bishop. They were New Testaments, too, so the plea that the Apocrypha was excluded could not be urged. They were portions of their own acknowledged word of God, and be- cause, in the vulgar tongue, and without popish notes, they were committed to the flames." Within a few months there was a public Bible burning in the city of Lima, Peru, conducted by Roman Cath- olic officials, and that, too, in the year of our Lord, 1895. History records many other instances of popish Bible burnings, but these must suffice. There can be no clearer, or more arrogant in- stance of assuming to be " above all that is called God, or that is worshipped," than in claiming the right to set aside God's laws, and to substitute one's own laws for the laws of God. And yet this has been done, and is now being done, by the Church of Rome. God says, " Marriage is honorable in all ;" and He also says, " A bishop must be the husband 140 The Pope vs. God. of one wife." But the Romish church says that marriage is not honorable for priests and nuns, and a bishop shall not be the husband of one wife. God says, " Every creature of God is good, and is to be partaken of with thanksgiving ;" but the Romish church says, that every creature of God is not good, and commands that the millions of Romanists shall not eat meat on Fridays, or during Lent, etc. In these, and other instances, the bishops and priests of Rome blasphemously set the laws of their church above the laws of God. But perhaps the most daring defiance of the Almighty is in their insolent alteration of the Ten Commandments. They have dared to strike out the second commandment, and to make up the full number of ten by dividing the tenth into two. And they have done this for the wicked purpose of becoming image-worshipping idolators contrary to the divine prohibition. The Apostle John (1 John, 2 : 22) says : " Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." Not simply he that denies the existence of the Father, and of Jesus Christ ; but he most cer- tainly denies the Father and the Son who denies their exclusive claims, or prerogatives, or who pre- sents rival claims. We have already seen how the Romish Church does this in regard to God, as God, and we will now show that said Church proves itself to be Antichrist by denying " the Son" The Church of Rome makes much pretence of reverence for Christ; but, as Paul said to Titus, (chap. 1: 16) " Denieth the Father and the Son." 141 " They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Jesus Christ says : " No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." The Church of Rome says : " No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Such denial of, and insult to, the Son of God seems incredible, and impossible ; but here is the positive proof of it : In the " Full Catechism of the Catholic Religion," published by authority of Cardinal Wiseman, and Archbishop Hughes, of New York, we read, on page 145, " Every one is obliged, under pain of eternal dam- nation, to become a member of the Catholic Church, to believe her doctrines, to use her means of grace, and to submit to her authority." There you have it ! The Romish Church " denieth the Son," by robbing Him of his most glorious prerogative as the only Saviour of lost men. Paul declares, " There is One Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The Church of Rome " denieth the Son " by multiplying mediators, thus robbing Him of his glory. It is well known that Romanists pray to the Virgin Mary, and to hosts of so-called saints. The following prayers to the Virgin Mary are to be found in the " Mission Book " in common use in the Roman Catholic Church : " 0, Queen of the uni- verse, and most bountiful sovereign ! thou art the great advocate of sinners, the sure port of those who have suffered shipwreck, the resource of the world, the ransom of captives, the solace of the weak, the comfort of the afflicted, the refuge and salvation of 142 Christ Blasphemed. every creature. 0, full of grace ! enlighten my understanding, and loosen my tongue that I may recount thy praises, and sing to thee that angelical salutation that thou dost so justly merit. Hail! thou who art the peace, the joy, the consolation of the whole world ! Hail ! Paradise of delight, the sure asylum of all who are in danger, the source of grace, the mediatrix between God and man ! " On the same page, 161, is the following prayer : " Most holy and immaculate Virgin, my Mother Mary, it is to thee, the Mother of my God, the Queen of the world, the advocate, the hope, and the refuge of sinners, that I have recourse to-day, I who am the most miserable of all. I render thee my humble homage, 0, great Queen, and I thank thee for all thy graces which thou hast bestowed upon me until now, par- ticularly for having delivered me from hell, which I have so often deserved. I love thee, most amiable Sovereign, and for the love I bear thee I promise to serve thee always, and do all in my power to make others serve thee also. ... I confide my salvation to thy care. Accept me for thy servant, and receive me under thy mantle, Mother of mercy, and since thou art so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations. ... To thee I look for grace to make a good death. ... Do not leave me until thou seest me safe in heaven, occupied in blessing thee, and singing thy mercies throughout eternity ." In these prayers to Mary, which are being offered up by Romanists all over the world, the One Mediatorship of Jesus Christ is ignored and other Multiplying Mediators. 143 mediators are added. To offer such prayers to any being but God, is an insult to our Saviour, and blasphemy against God. The Apostle John says: " If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous" But in the above prayers Mary is appealed to as " the great advocate of sinners" She is called " the refuge of sinners," a title belonging to Christ alone. She is appealed to as " having delivered my soul from hell" a work achieved by Christ alone. But Rome has multitudes of medi- ators to whom Romanists pray besides Mary. The papacy has canonized over twenty thousand saints, and each one is a " mediator/ 5 to whom poor, super- stitious Romanists offer prayer. Here are a few of them in the " Catholic Manual/' p. 250. " Holy Mary, pray for us. Holy Mother of God, pray for us. Holy Virgin of Virgins, pray for us. St. Michael, pray for us. St. Gabriel, pray for us. St. Raphael, pray for us. All ye holy Angels and Archangels, pray for us. All ye holy orders of blessed Spirits, pray for us. St. John the Baptist, pray for us. St. Joseph, pray for us. All ye holy Patriarchs and Prophets, pray for us. St. Peter, pray for us. St. Paul, pray for us. St. Andrew, pray for us. St. James, pray for us. St. John, pray for us. St. Thomas, pray for us. St. Philip, pray for us. St. Bartholomew, pray for us. St. Matthew, pray for us. St. Simon, pray for us. St. Thaddeus, pray for us. St. Barnaby, pray for us. St. Luke, pray for us. St. Mark, pray for us. All ye holy Apostles and Evangelists, pray for us. All ye holy 144 Christ not Sufficient. Disciples of our Lord, pray for us. All ye holy in- nocents, pray for us. St. Stephen, pray for us. St. Lawrence, pray for us. St. Vincent, pray for us. S. S. Fabian and Sebastian, pray for us. S. S. John and Paul, pray for us. S. S. Cosmas and Damian, pray for us. S. S. Gervase and Protase, pray for us. All ye holy Martyrs, pray for us. St. Sylvester, pray for us. St. Gregory, pray for us." But we will stop here, although the list of saintly mediators goes on. But this Christ dishonoring multiplication of mediators shows Rome's dissatis- faction with the " One Mediator " whom God hath appointed, and again proves that the Papacy is Antichrist, for " He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." The Little Horn had a mouth, " speaking great words against the Most High. " CHAPTER VII. Hindrances Removed. Paul, the apostle, in the chapter from which we have been quoting, (2 Thess., 2) declares that in his day there was something that hindered the revela- tion of " the man of sin," or that postponed his mani- festation. The Thessalonians knew what it was, for he had told them by word of mouth, for he says (verse 5)— " When I was with you I told you these things." The most eminent students of the proph- ecies are agreed in believing that what hindered was the Roman civil power, and we have seen in a previous chapter, that as a historical fact the Pa- pacy was but a little horn so long as the empire existed. Bishop Newton, in his work, already referred to, quotes from Machiavers History of Florence : " The emperor of Rome quitting Rome to hold his residence in Constantinople, the Roman empire began to decline, but the church of Rome augmented as fast. Nevertheless, until the coming in of the Lombards, old Italy being under the dominion of neither emperors nor Kings, the bishops assumed no more power than what was due to their doctrine and manners; in civil affairs they were subject to the civil power. But Theodoric, King of the Goths, fixing his seat at Ravenna, was that which advanced their interests, and made them more considerable in Italy, for there being no other prince left in Rome, the Romans were forced for 145 146 The Papacy Doomed. protection to pay greater allegiance to the Pope. And yet their authority at that time advanced no further than to obtain the preference before the church of Ravenna. But the Lombards, having in- vaded, and reduced Italy into several cantons, the Pope took the opportunity, and began to hold up his head" etc. St. Chrysostom, in one of his homilies on this passage, speaking of what hindered the revelation of Antichrist, asserts that " when the Roman empire shall be taken out of the way, then he shall come ; for so long as the dread of this empire shall remain, no one shall quickly be substituted ; but when this shall be dissolved, he shall seize on the vacant empire, and shall endeavor to assume the power both of God and men." And none can deny that this is exactly what the Romish Antichrist has done. " And then," says Paul, " shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." " The man of sin, and son of perdition" is here called " that Wicked," to still further emphasize the singular wickedness of the papacy. Paul seems almost in a hurry to as- sure christians that Antichrist shall be destroyed. This is good news ! " By the spirit of his mouth" is meant his word, or by the Gospel. As popery is " to be destroyed" by the truth, Protestant Christians, and all the friends of Christ, are bound to bring truth to bear, in every possible way, for the destruc- Important Testimonies. 147 tion of this great enemy of God and man. " The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spirit- ual, and mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." The apostle John said, — " Already are there many antichrists/' for every false teacher, and every false doctrine is an antichrist ; but from the book of Daniel to the end of the Bible one par- ticular system of iniquity is spoken of as the Anti- christ, " the man of sin," " the Wicked," etc. As early as the year 1120, a treatise was published concerning Antichrist, wherein christians are ad- monished that " the great Antichrist was long ago come ; in vain was he still expected, he was now by the permission of God advanced in years ;" and the author having described the corrupt state of the church at that time, says : " This state of men is Antichrist, the whole of Babylon, the fourth beast of Daniel, to wit, that " man of sin and son of perdition" who is exalted above every God, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, that is, the church, showing himself that he is God ; who is now come with all kinds of seductions and lies in those who perish." The Waldenses and the Albigenses de- clared it as a matter undoubted by them that the Pope was Antichrist. This was indeed the general doctrine of the first reformers everywhere. In Eng- land it was advanced by Wickliffe, and was learnedly established by that great and able cham- pion of the Reformation, Bishop Jewel, in his " Apology and Defense," and more largely in his Exposition of the two Epistles of Paul to the Thes- 148 Satan' s Masterpiece, salonians. This doctrine was largely instrumental in bringing on the Reformation. Of course this greatly excited the indignation of the Hierarchy of Rome, so that in the last Lateran Council, in 1120, the Pope gave strict orders to all preachers, that no man should presume to speak of the coming of Antichrist. The King of France also, with the advice of his Council, forbade any one to speak of the Pope as Antichrist. It is said the Devil does not like to be called black. Paul says of " that Wicked " : " Whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders." That is, the wicked system here referred to was not originated by God ; that is impossible, of course, nor by man ; but by " Satan," or the Devil. The things here declared are literally true of the Romish system. Its coming was in accordance with the spirit and character and pur- poses of Satan. Away back in the garden of Eden, when Adam sinned, God said that the " serpent," or the Devil, would antagonize the promised Saviour, Christ, and would " bruise his heel." In the prose- cution of this work, Satan's chief agency is the Church of Rome. Popery is the Devil's masterpiece. It is the same " subtle " serpent who said to our mother Eve, " Hath God said ? But I say that if ye do what I tell you ye shall be as gods. I am God's interpreter, and you can only understand God as he speaks through me." Have we not already seen " the working of Satan," in the vile characters to the popes — cunning, haughty, covetous, full of worldly After the Working of Satan. 149 ambition, cruel, persecuting, bloodthirsty, beastly, and yet pretending to be God's infallible interpreters and the true friends of humanity ? While it is certain that the whole system of the Papacy is the work of Satan, we will speak here of two or three things in the Church of Rome that most clearly show Satanic cunning and purpose. We have already spoken of Rome's hatred of the Bible, and her efforts to withhold it from the people. As the Bible is God's revelation to mankind, in- tended to make known to them the only way to life and salvation, and as it is God's infallible chart, to guide mortals safely across the trackless and treach- erous sea of life to the haven of eternal bliss ; for any system, or body of men, to deliberately rob men of this holy Book, is to show plainly that they re- ceive their inspiration from the devil, inasmuch as they insult the Almighty, and ruin the souls of men. We will present as an illustration of the blessed effects of Bible reading, and why Rome so dreads the Bible, the experience of Father Chiniquy, as related in his most interesting and instructive book, entitled, " Fifty Years in the Church of Rome." He says: " My father, Charles Chiniquy, born in Que- bec, had studied in the Theological Seminary of that city to prepare himself for the priesthood. But a few days before making his vows, having been the witness of a great iniquity in the high quarters of the Church, he changed his mind, studied law, and became a notary. " Before leaving the Seminary of Quebec, my father 150 The Little Papist and His Bible. had received from one of the superiors, as a token of his esteem, a beautiful French and Latin Bible. That Bible was the first book, after the A, B, C, in which I was taught to read. My mother selected the chapters which she considered the most interest- ing for me, and I read them every day with the greatest attention and pleasure. I was even so much pleased with several chapters that I read them over and over again, till I knew them by heart. " When eight or nine years of age, I had learned by heart the history of creation and the fall of man ; the deluge ; the sacrifice of Isaac ; the history of Moses ; the plagues of Egypt ; the sublime hymn of Moses after crossing the Red Sea; the history of Samson, etc. One day while I was reading the his- tory of the sufferings of the Saviour, my young heart was so impressed that I could hardly enunciate the words, and my voice trembled. My mother, perceiv- ing my emotion, tried to say something on the love of Jesus for us ; but she could not utter a word — her voice was suffocated by her sobs. She leaned her head on my forehead, and I felt two streams of tears falling from her eyes on my cheeks. I could not contain myself any longer, I wept also, and my tears were mixed with hers. The holy book fell from my hands, and I threw myself into my dear mother's arms. " No human words can express what was felt in her soul or mine in that most blessed hour ! No ! I will never forget that solemn hour, when my mother's heart was perfectly blended with mine at Two Souls Born Again. 151 the feet of our dying Saviour. There was a real perfume from heaven in those, my mother's tears, which were flowing on me. It seemed then, as it seems to me now, that there was a celestial harmony in the sound of her voice, and in her sobs. Though more than half a century has passed since that solemn hour, when Jesus revealed to me for the first time something of his suffering and of his love, my heart leaps with joy every time I think of it. " We were some distance from the Church, and the roads, in the rainy days, were very bad. On the Sabbath days, the neighboring farmers, unable to go to church, were accustomed to gather at our house in the evening. Then my parents used to put me upon a large table in the midst of the assembly, and I delivered to those good people the most beau- tiful parts of the Old and New Testaments. The breathless attention, the applause of the guests, and — may I tell it ? — often the tears of joy which my mother tried in vain to conceal, supported my strength, and gave me the courage I wanted, to speak, when so young, before so many people. When my parents saw I was getting weary, my mother, who had a fine voice, sang some of the French hymns with which her memory was filled. " On one of the beautiful spring days of 1818, my father was writing in his office, and my mother was working with her needle, singing one of her favorite hymns, and I was at the door, playing, and talking to a fine robin that I had so perfectly tamed that he followed me wherever I went. All of a sudden I 152 The Unwelcome Priest. saw the priest coming near the gate. The sight of him sent a thrill of uneasiness through my whole frame. It was his first visit to our home. The priest was a person below the common stature, and had an unpleasant appearance — his shoulders were large, and he was very corpulent ; his hair was long and uncombed, and his double chin seemed to groan under the weight of his flabby cheeks. I hastily ran to the door, and whispered to my parents, ' Mr. Curate is coming.' The last word was hardly out of my lips when the Rev. Mr. Curtois was at the door, and my father shaking hands with him, gave him a welcome. " That priest was born in France, where he had a narrow escape, having been condemned to death under the bloody administration of Robespierre. He had found a refuge with many other French priests in England, whence he came to Quebec, and the bishop of that place had given him the charge of the parish of Murray Bay. His conversation was animated and interesting during the first quarter of an hour, when of a sudden his countenance changed, as if a dark cloud had come over his mind, and he stopped talking. My parents had kept themselves on a respectful reserve with the priest. They seemed to have no other mind than to listen to him. The silence which followed was exceed- ingly unpleasant for all the parties. It looked like the heavy hour that precedes a storm. At length the priest, addressing my father, said, ' Mr. Chini- quy, is it true that you and your child read the Bible?' The Impertinent Curate. 153 " ' Yes, sir/ was the quick reply, ' my little boy and I read the Bible, and what is still better, he has learned by heart a great many of its most inter- esting chapters. If you will allow it, Mr. Curate, he will give you some of them/ " ' I did not come for that purpose ; ' abrubtly replied the priest, but do you not know that you are forbidden by the holy Council of Trent, to read the Bible in French?' " 'It makes very little difference to me whether I read the Bible in French, Greek, or Latin/ answered my father, ' for I understand these languages equally well; "' But are you ignorant of the fact that you can- not allow your child to read the Bible?' replied the priest. " ' My wife directs her own child in the reading of the Bible, and I cannot see that we commit any sin in continuing to do in future what we have done till now in that matter.' " ' Mr. Chiniquy/ rejoined the priest, l you have gone through a whole course of theology ; you know the duties of a curate ; you know it is my painful duty to come here, get the Bible from you, and bum it.' " My father was a fearless Spanish sailor, and there was too much Spanish blood and pride in him to hear such a sentence in his own house with pa- tience. Quick as lightning he was on his feet. I pressed myself, trembling close to my mother, who trembled also. " At first I feared lest some very unfortunate, and 154 One Papist Wlio Was Not a Slave. violent scene should occur, for my father's anger at that moment was really terrible. Fortunately, my father had subdued himself after the first moment of his anger. He was pacing the floor with a double-quick step ; his lips were pale and trembling, and he was muttering between his teeth words that were unintelligible to any of us. " The priest was closely watching all my father's movements ; his hands were convulsively pressing his heavy cane, and his face was giving evidence of a too well-grounded terror. It was clear that the ambassador of Rome was not infallibly sure of his position, on the ground he had so foolishly taken, and since his last words he had remained as silent as a tomb. "At last, after having paced the room for a consid- erable time, my father suddenly stopped before the priest, and said, 'Sir, is that all you have to say here ? ' " ' Yes, sir/ said the trembling priest. "'Well, sir/ added my father, 'you know the door by which you entered my house ; please take the same door and go away quickly.' The priest went out immediately. I felt an inexpressible joy when I found that my Bible was safe. "Thou knowest, God, that it is to that Bible, read on my mother's knees, I owe, by thy infinite mercj% the knowledge of the truth to-day ; that Bible had sent to my young heart and intelligence, rays of light which all the sophisms, and dark errors of Rome could never completely extinguish." Papish Darkness vs. Gospel Light. 155 It was the Bible, taken into Chiniquy's heart and mind in childhood, that lighted him through all the dark mazes of Romish error, and lies and super- stition, and out at last into " the glorious liberty of the children of God." And this is why Rome hates the Bible ; it gives too much light, and the wicked " love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." Surely Rome's hostility to the Bible is "after the working of Satan." Satan well knows that there cannot be a Christian Church without a free Bible. There may be, and there is, a Church of the Pope ; but there cannot be a Church of Christ. The worship of images is undoubtedly " after the working of Satan ;" for this arch adversary of God well knew that no greater insult could be offered the Almighty than to trample under foot his holy law against graven images; and he well knew that to induce men to worship pictures and images under pretense of worshipping their Maker, would most effectually tend to banish real worship, and spiritual religion from the earth. In considering the origin of image wuisnip in the Romish Church we can scarcely do better than to quote the historian, Gibbon, and his testimony is, perhaps, all the more valuable, because he was not friendly to Christianity. He says : " The primitive christians were possessed of an unconquerable re- pugnance to the use and abuse of images. . . . The Mosaic law had severely proscribed all representa- tions of the Deity, and that precept was firmly 156 Origin of the Image Worship, established in the principles and practice of the chosen people. The wit of the Christian apologists was directed against the foolish idolaters who had bowed before the workmanship of their own hands : the images of brass and marble ; which, had they been endowed with sense and motion, should have started rather from the pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist. The public religion of the christians was uniformly simple and spiritual, and the first notice of the use of pictures is in the sen- sure of the Council of Illiberis, three hundred years after the Christian era. " Under the successors of Constantine, in the grace and luxury of the triumphant church, the more prudent bishops condescended to indulge a visible superstition, for the benefit of the multitude, and after the ruin of paganism, they were no longer restrained by the apprehension of an odious paral- lel. The first introduction of a symbolic worship was in the veneration of the cross, and of relics. The saints and martyrs, whose intercession was implored, were seated on the right hand of God ; but the gracious, and often supernatural favors, which in the popular belief were showered round their tombs, conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims who visited, and traveled, and kissed their lifeless remains, the memorials of their merits and sufferings. But a memorial more interesting than the skull, or sandals of a departed worthy, is a faithful copy of his person and features, delineated by the arts of sculpture or painting. At Images Become Idols. 157 first the experiment was made with caution and scruple, and the venerable pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen prosylites. By a slow, but inevitable progression, the honors of the original were conveyed to the copy, the devout christian prayed before the image of a saint, and pagan rites of genuflexions, luminaries, and incense, again stole into the Catholic Church." Even in the time of Gregory, while he permitted the use of images to instruct the ignorant, and as helps to the memory, he commanded that they should not be worshipped in any way whatever. This permission of Gregory was a dangerous pre- cedent, for by and by the most absurd stories began to be circulated in regard to the marvelous prodigies, and miraculous cures effected by the pres- ence, or the contact of these wonderful images. These images became idols, and the ignorant multi- tude reverently kissed them, and bowed themselves down to them, and by the commencement of the eighth century a system of idol worship had sprung up all over the nominally christian world, scarcely less debasing than that which exists to-day in Italy, and other popish countries of Europe. In the year 713, Pope Constantine issued an edict in which he pronounced those accursed " who deny that vener- ation to the holy images, which is appointed by the church." In the year 726 began that famous controversy between the Pope and the Emperor in regard to the 158 Emperor Opposes Idolatry. worship of images. Gibbon says : " In the begin- ning of the eighth century the Greeks were awakened by the apprehension that under the mark of Chris- tianity they had restored the (Pagan) religion of their fathers. They heard with grief and impa- tience the name of idolators ; the incessant charge of the Jews and Mahometans, who derived from the Law and the Koran an immortal hatred to graven images, and all the relative worship." The Emperor, Leo III., alarmed at the prevalence of image worship, determined to put a stop to it, and to restore christian worship to its primitive purity. Bower, in his " History of the Popes," tells us that Leo issued an edict forbidding any worship to be offered to images ; but without ordering them to be destroyed, or removed. This edict produced the most startling effects. Rebellions broke out in all quarters. In the prosecution of his laudable work the Emperor was met by the most determined opposition, led by the Pope, Gregory II., and Ger- manus, the bishop of Constantinople. The Emperor then removed Germanus from his bishopric, put- ting Anastasius in his place. The new bishop hated idolatry as much as Leo, and zealously assisted his monarch in his efforts to secure its extirmination from the so-called Christian church. On one occasion the Emperor ordered an image of the Saviour to be removed from a porch of the palace, and some females that were present entreated that it might be allowed to remain, but without effect. An officer mounted a ladder, and with an Insulting Letter of the Pope. 159 axe struck several blows at the image, when the women threw him down, and murdered him on the spot. The image, however, was removed and burnt, and a plain cross set up in its place. The women then proceeded to insult Anastasius for encouraging the profanation. An insurrection ensued, and in order to quell it the Emperor caused several persons to be put to death. Pope Gregory II., showing himself to be a zealous servant of Satan, rather than the "Vicar of Jesus Christ/' having written a threatening letter to Anas- tasius, the bishop, now writes a most insulting letter to Emperor Leo. As this letter clearly indicates the spirit of the man, and is unique in its way, we will present it here, or at least a part of it. " During ten pure and fortunate years/' says the Pope, " we have tasted the annual comfort of your royal letters, sub- scribed in purple ink, with your own hand, the sacred pledges of your attachment to the orthodox creed of your fathers. How deplorable is the change ! How tremendous the scandal ! You now accuse the Catholics of idolatry, and by the accusation you betray your own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorance we are compelled to adapt our style and arguments. The first elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion, and were you to enter a grammar school, and avow yourself the enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children would be provoked to throw their horn books at your head. " You assault us/' says the Holy Pope, " tyrant, with a carnal and military hand; unarmed and 160 Popes Favor Idolatry. naked we can only implore the Christ, the prince of the heavenly host, that he will send unto you a. devil, for the destruction of your body and the sal- vation of your soul." And more of the same sort. This disgraceful contest was continued for more than fifty years, a succession of popes taking a posi- tive stand against God's holy word and in favor of image-worshipping idolatry. In 754, during the pontificate of Stephen II., the Emperor, Constan- tine V., who had succeeded his father, Leo III., convened a council at Hiera, opposite to Constanti- nople, consisting of 338 bishops, the largest number that had ever yet assembled in one general council. This numerous body of bishops, with one voice condemned the use and worship of images as a cus- tom borrowed from idolatrous nations, and entirely contrary to the purer ages of the Church. On the nature of the heresy they express themselves in the following language : " Jesus Christ hath delivered us from idolatry, and hath taught us to adore him in spirit and in truth. But the devil, not being able to endure the beauty of the Church, hath insensibly brought back idolatry, under the appearance of Christianity, persuading men to worship the creature and to take for God a work to which they gave the name of Jesus Christ." This great council also de- clared that " NO IMAGES ARE TO BE WORSHIPPED. That to worship them or any other creature, is rob- bing God of the honor that is due to Him alone, and relapsing into idolatry." And so say all true Christians. 338 Bishops Declare Against Idolatry. 161 It must be borne in mind, just here, that Paul speaks of " that Wicked/' whose coming is " after, or according to the working of Satan," and here is an assembly of 338 bishops of the Church, solemnly declaring that " The devil, not being able to endure the beauty of the Church, hath insensibly brought back idolatry ;" clearly proving that the Church of Rome is " the man of sin, the son of perdition, whose coming is after the working of Satan." And this will be still more fully proved if we state a few facts in regard to an infamous woman, whom the historians inform us was the principal agent in establishing the worship of images throughout the empire. That woman was the Empress Irene. Upon the death of Emperor Constantine V., in the year 775, he was succeeded by his son, Leo IV., who adopted the sentiments of his father and grand- father, and imitated their zeal in the extirpation of idolatry out of the Christian Church. The wife of Leo was this Irene, of whom we have spoken, a woman who has rendered her name infamous in the annals of crime. In 780, her husband, who had opposed her attempts to introduce the worship of images into the very palace, suddenly died, as was supposed, in consequence of poison administered by the direction of his heartless and wicked queen. Her husband being dead, her youthful son became Emperor by the name of Constantine VI. Inspired by a desire to occupy the throne herself, she caused him to be arrested and his eyes to be put out, to render him incapable of reigning, which, 162 The Empress Murders Her Son. according to the testimony of Theophanes, was done with so much cruelty that he immediately expired. Gibbon doubts whether immediate death was the result; but he describes in vivid lan- guage the horrid cruelty of the unnatural mother. He says : " In the mind of Irene, ambition had stifled every sentiment of humanity and nature, and it was decreed in her bloody council that Constantine should be rendered incapable of the throne ; her emissaries assaulted the sleeping prince, and stabbed their daggers with such violence into his eyes, as if they meant to execute a mortal sen- tence. The most bigoted orthodoxy has justly exe- crated the unnatural mother, who may not easily be paralleled in the history of crimes." Such was the cruel and odious character of this Empress Irene, who eventually succeeded in estab- lishing image worship throughout the empire, and yet in consequence of this service which she rend- ered to idolatry, popish writers represent her as a pattern of piety, and even justify the horrible tor- tures and death which she inflicted on her son. The following are the words of Cardinal Baronius justifying this cruel and unnatural crime. " Snares," says he, " were laid this year for the Emperor Con- stantine, by his mother Irene, which he fell into the year following, and was deprived at the same time of his eyes and of his life. An execrable crime indeed, had she not been prompted to it by zeal for justice. On that consideration she even deserved to be commended for what she didP (/ /) Again, Baronius A Cardinal Justifies Murder. 163 says : " As Irene was supposed to have done what she did" — that is, tortured and murdered her own son — " for the sake of the (Roman Catholic) religion, and love of justice, she was still thought by men of great sanctity, worthy of praise and commendation." This extract from a popish Cardinal, and one of the most celebrated writers of that communion, needs no comment. Well might Paul say of this system of wickedness and blasphemy, " Whose com- ing is after the working of Satan." In 784 this wicked woman sent word to Pope Adrian informing him of her intention to convene a council in support of image worship, and Adrian in his reply expressed his great joy at the prospect of the restoration of the holy images to their place in the churches from which they had so long been banished. This famous council was assembled at Nice in 787. The number of bishops present and taking part in this council was 350, and the result of their deliberations was, as might have been expected, in favor of idolatry. It was decreed — according to the Romish historian, Platina — that holy images of the cross should be consecrated, and put on the sacred vessels and vestments, and on walls and boards, in private and in public ways. And especially, that there should be erected images of the Lord God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, of our blessed Lady, the mother of God, of the venerable angels and of all the saints. And that whosoever should presume to think or teach otherwise, or to throw away any painted books, or the figure of the 164 "Damnation to all Heretics" cross, or any image or picture, or any genuine relics of the martyrs, they should, if bishops or clergymen, be deposed, or if monks or laymen, be excommuni- cated. They then pronounced anathemas against all who should apply what the scriptures say against idols to the holy images, or call them idols, or wil- fully communicate with those who rejected and despised them, adding, according to custom, "Long live Constantine and Irene, his mother — damnation to all heretics — damnation to the council that roared against venerable images — the Holy Trinity hath deposed them." This was the system of popish idolatry estab- lished by law by the so-called " holy council of Nice," in direct opposition to the solemn and posi- tive command of God. " Tell us not/' says Isaac Taylor, in his " Ancient Christianity" — " tell us not of the few who may possibly steer clear of the fatal errors, and avoid a gross idolatry, while admitting such practices. What will be their effect on the multitude ? The actual condition of the mass of the people in all countries where popery has been unchecked, gives us a sufficient answer to this question ; nor do we scruple to condemn these prac- tices as ' abominable idolatries.' Tell us not how Fenelon or Pascal might extricate themselves from this idolatry ; what are the frequenters of churches in Naples and Madrid? nothing better than the grossest polytheists, and far less rationally religious than were their ancestors of the times of Numa and Pythagoras." CHAPTER VIII. Popery as a Powerful System. Paul predicted that the coming of Antichrist would be " after the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying words." Let us consider the tremendous power of the Papacy, and the manner in which this power has been exercised. The wicked system predicted by the Apostle was not to be a feeble thing; but the Little Horn, as indicated by Daniel, was to become a thing of tre- mendous energy. Before the power of the papacy, nations have trembled, and mighty kings and emperors have turned pale. The Pope claims power. He claims it as his right to rule the world. Our adorable Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, as he was about to leave the world, said : " All power is com- mitted unto me, in heaven, and on earth." The Pope of Rome steps in front of the Son of God, and says : " All power is committed unto Me, in heaven, and earth, and hell" Christ said to his apostles : " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned" The Pope of Rome says : " You must believe in my infal- libility ; you must belong to my church ; you must confess your sins, even your most secret sins, to my priest ; you must make use of holy water ; you must abstain from eating meat on Fridays, and during Lent ; you must give your money to the church ; 165 166 The Easy Yoke of Christ. you must pay for masses to get your departed friends out of purgatory ; you must obey me in all things, as if I were God ; you must attend mass ; you must pray to the Virgin Mary, and the saints ; you must venerate rags, bones, and old iron, when they are declared by my priests to be relics of saints ; in a word you must strictly obey the church ; and when you come to die you must have my priest rub a little olive oil on your nose, and on your tongue, and on your eyes, and on your ears ; and he that doeth these things shall be saved, — that is, after spending some time in purgatory ; and the length of time will depend on the ability of your friends to pay the priests for masses to get you out — and he that doeth them not shall be damned." In this statement there is not the least exaggera- tion or misstatement. Here the true Christ makes the way of salvation simple, and easy ; while the false Christ, the Pope, who is Antichrist, makes the way of salvation impossible. Not only does the Pope claim absolute power ; but for centuries he actually exercised it, as we have seen. Had the Pope, in claiming to rule this world as the authorized and infallible vice-gerent of the Almighty, ruled in a Godlike way, as God rules ; had his power been exerted in a way to promote the true welfare of mankind ; had he always sought by just laws, and wise, and gentle, and merciful methods, to carry sunshine and gladness into all hearts, and into all homes ; and to unite society in bonds of mutual confidence and affection, and so to present God's What Might Have Been. 167 glorious gospel truths to the hearts of men as to constrain them to the acceptance of the truth of God that makes men free ; then he would have endeared himself to all the good, and whether men acknowledged his infallibility or not, the peace, and contentment, and freedom, and prosperity of the world would have been his high endorsement, and the substantial proof that a Godlike Pope was not a bad thing for our sin-cursed world. And what a splendid opportunity the Romish Church had had to bless the world and to lay the human race under everlasting obligation. For a thousand years previous to Luther and the Refor- mation, she possessed almost absolute power, bound- less riches, and a marvellously perfect organization. Emperors, and parliaments, and councils were sub- servient to the Pope. Had the Romish Church been the church of Jesus Christ, and had the popes been ministers of the Gospel, and had they used all this power and wealth for the uplifting and salva- tion of our guilty race, how vastly different would have been the condition of human society through- out the world to-day. But the Roman Catholic Church is not, and never was, the church of Jesus Christ. And the Popes of Rome received their commissions from the Devil, and not from God. "By their fruits ye shall know them!' What are the fruits of Popery? As the Western tornado leaves in its track confusion and destruc- tion, and death, so the track of popery may be known by the ignorance, and degradation, and sor- 1 68 Popery Makes Infidels. row, and tears, and desolations, and crimes, and the blood of murdered millions that mark its course. Alas ! Alas ! Popery is the mildew, and the blight, and the curse of nations, and the ruin of deathless souls ! What has popery done for France ? — intel- ligent, brilliant, heroic France ! You say : " France is infidel to-day ; France is atheistic." But, what made her so ? It is popery that has degraded France. It is the bishops, and priests of Rome that have been the blight, and the curse of that great and illustrious nation. They pretended to be the exclusive representatives of Christianity. They were liars. But the French did not know they were liars. They know it now. The French believed that all of Christianity was included in the Romish Church. Having at last discovered that the whole system of popery was a system of fraud and rotten- ness, and her priests and bishops a mere horde of money-loving, licentious scoundrels, the noble French nation has been disgusted with the very name of Christianity. Poor, noble, heroic, deceived France ! Many intelligent people blame Voltaire for hav- ing involved Franco in infidelity and atheism. But who made Voltaire an atheist? Was it not the Romish church? If you read the biography of Voltaire you will see it stated that he was educated at the Jesuit college of Louis-le-Grand. That is enough ! Did any man ever come out of a Jesuit college a Christian f We will present two or three incidents in the life of Voltaire, not to excuse or Voltaire's Noble Conduct. 169 justify Voltaire, but to show the influences that assailed him, and also that we may give an illustra- tion or two of the real character of the Roman Catholic Church. The first incident is the case of a Protestant book-seller of Toulouse, named Calas. He had three sons ; was himself sixty-eight years old. One of his sons became a Romanist, and a second hung himself in his father's house. The Roman Catholics declared that Calas and his son, Pierre, had themselves murdered the young man to prevent his becoming a Romanist. There was not the least evidence of their crime; but, in spite of that fact, Pierre was exiled ; the daughters were forcibly taken from their weeping mother, and the innocent father was horribly tortured by being broken on the wheel, where he died protesting his innocence. Voltaire was horrified at this shameful injustice and cruelty, and spent three years in efforts to redress this great wrong. He was so successful in arousing public opinion in regard to this odious crime, which he well knew had been instigated, or at least abetted, by the priests, that at last the judg- ment was set aside, and the ruin of the family re- dressed, so far as that was possible. La Barre, a young man of Abbeville, and another by the name of D'Ettallonde were accused of irrev- erence, and as " vehemently suspected" of having broken a public crucifix. La Barre was condemned to be tortured, beheaded and burned. D'Ettallonde was sentenced to have his tongue cut out, his hand struck off, and to be burned alive. La Barre was exe- 170 Popery the Curse of Ireland. cuted ; the other young man fled to Voltaire, who sent him for protection to the King of Prussia. Vol- taire succeeded in exciting the horror and indig- nation of the French people against the cruelties inflicted on La Barre, but did not succeed in secur- ing justice for D'Ettallonde, or having the sentence revoked. Sirven was the name of a young Protestant ser- vant, who, having been torn away from her parents and shut up in a convent against her will, cast her- self into a well. Her father was accused of the crime. Condemned of contumacy, he fled to Vol- taire, who nobly gave him a refuge from his cruel persecutors. His wife died from fatigue and anguish during his absence. Voltaire, by his eloquence and influence, secured his acquittal. Bad as Voltaire was, surely he here stands forth as an angel of light and mercy in comparison with these cruel hypo- crites who called themselves priests of the Most High God ! At this hour the great incubus and curse of France is the Roman Catholic Church. Some years ago we visited Ireland, for whose peo- ple we have always entertained feelings of admira- tion and sympathy. There is not on earth, we believe, a more generous and warm-hearted people than the Irish. Their proverbial native wit proves them to be a people of great natural intelligence. Popery has been, and is, the blight and curse of the Emerald Isle and her generous people. No intelligent and observing person can be in that beautiful country a few days without being im- Alas ! Poor Erin ! 171 pressed with this fact. In the city of Cork, and other cities of the Island, you can see women and girls on the streets covered in rags — and scarcely covered, for many of them are barefooted, and naked to the knees, with nothing on their heads, except once in awhile one may be seen with a little cloth or rag of some sort thrown over the head. Their wretched mud hovels are enough to make one's heart ache. We saw more evidences of deep, abject poverty in Ireland in a few days than we had seen even in the poorest wards of New York City during a residence in that city of nine years. " Landlord- ism " is a curse and a shame, the rich and heartless landlords grinding the faces of the poor ; but a far greater curse and shame are the lazy, deceitful, money-loving priests of Rome. We have just come across a most interesting and instructive letter from a Mr. Oswald Osborne, pub- lished in The Index, of Pawpaw, 111., from which we will quote a few paragraphs : " I made it a point," says he, " during my four months' sojourn in Ire- land, to hear and consider, in so far as it was possi- ble, every side of every argument on the condition of that troubled and very much misunderstood country. The views that I now submit to the readers of The Index are not the outcome of passion or prejudice, but the result of as calm a delibera- tion and as careful an investigation as most men can bring to bear on subjects so debateful, conten- tious and inflammatory Nowhere in the world, so far as I know, if exception be made of 172 How the Irish are Educated. French Canada, has the Roman Church a firmer hold on the people than it has in the Irish provinces of Connaught, Munster and Leinster. Nowhere else, Quebec not excepted, does Rome hold her votaries in vassalage more abject, degrading and destruc- tive. In Connaught, where illiteracy everywhere spreads its dark pall ; in Kerry, Cork and Clare, the most unlettered of the Munster counties, and amongst the ignorant in all the counties of Lein- ster, not to mention the purely Celtic districts of Ulster, Romanism is certainly a mighty power. The priest is the peasant's chieftain — not, indeed, always loved, but nearly always feared. Half a century or more ago it was predicted that the national schools of Ireland would deliver the masses from the thral- dom and darkness of priestly oppression, but to-day the national schools themselves are in the grasp of the rapacious and jealous priesthood, one of the most powerful and formidable weapons of clerical tyranny. In every parish the priest is the manager of the national schools. He appoints and dismisses the teacher at will, and thus prostitutes w T hat Sir Robert Peel, its framer, designed it to be, a noble system of national education, to the base and bane- ful purposes of spiritual despotism. The higher education of the Irish Roman Catholic youth is almost entirely in the hands of the Jesuits, Chris- tian Brothers, and other orders, male and female, whose methods are too well known to call for special reference here. Sufficient to say that these clerical preceptors and preceptresses make it their first duty Impartial Testimony. 173 to instill into the minds of their youthful charges unquestioning loyalty to pope, prelate and priest — a loyalty that forbids to the laity any right of inde- pendent thought, or independent expression of thought. The Irish priest is always calling out for union between the priest and the people, a union, according to his view, like that of the wolf and the lamb, or of the tiger and the kid. An Irish- American priest once stated in my hearing that the Irish priest was a greater obstacle to Ireland's hap- piness, a more positive hindrance to her prosperity, a more deadly enemy to her people, than that very much-abused individual, the Irish landlord. The truth of this arraignment of Ireland's priesthood by one of their own cloth, a gentleman high in the confidence of the Romanist bishops of America, I could not realize until I had visited Ireland myself. Let me here incidentally remark that the justice of his serious charge upon the priestly " patriots " is fully borne out by the report of a Roman envoy, the late Cardinal Persico, who, by special appoint- ment of the Pope, visited Ireland a few years ago to report on its social and religious condition. " There are in Ireland, with a Roman Catholic population of three and a quarter millions, twenty- five Episcopal Sees in communion with Rome. The twenty-five Irish bishops, not counting auxiliaries and coadjutors, receive an average of £5000, or $25,000 a year each. True it is that they have no fixed salaries, but their average revenue, received from parochial incomes, dispensation moneys, and 174 Ireland the Priest's Paradise. gifts from clergy and laity is rather above than below this amount. In some cases it reaches twice the sum named. In Belgium six millions of Roman Catholics are served by five bishops, paid liberal, but much smaller salaries by the public, yet no one has ever heard the Belgian bishops calling for an increase of salary, or the Belgian people for an in- crease of bishops. Oh, long suffering, poverty- stricken Ireland, thou art surely the prelates' para- dise. No wonder the priests call for union between priests and people. There are in Ireland about one thousand parish priests, and administrators of parishes. The average salary of these easy-going and well-fed gentlemen, may, at a very modest esti- mate indeed, be set down at one thousand pounds (or five thousand dollars) per annum. Lest any one think I exaggerate in this regard, let me mention that a priest in charge of a parish frequently exacts as high a fee as five hundred dollars for performing the marriage ceremony. He often gets a higher fig- ure, for by a well contrived priestly trick, it is made a matter of rivalry among the poor people as to which shall give the largest sum to " his reverence" on the occasion of a daughter's marriage. Baptisms and funerals are also fruitful sources of income to the Irish priesthood. The highest ambition of an Irish farmer is to have a son a priest. It not only gives the family a higher standing, but is a certain means of making the family well off in worldly goods. " The ' souls in purgatory ' are at all times in requisition to fill the priest's exchequer. . . . Sev- Money! Money!! Money!!! 175 eral months of close observation confirms my belief that a more greedy, rapacious, selfish body of men cannot be found in this world of ours than the priesthood of Ireland. As the Irish priest is not an exemplar in the matter of sobriety, neither is he a paragon of morality. His so-called vow of celib- acy is often the cover for wrong doing of the most shameful character. Numerous instances of such criminality were related to me by strict and devout Irish Roman Catholics, but the victims of lecherous priests, and the friends of those victims feared to bring those men to justice, lest God's curse might fall upon them — a delusion assiduously nur- tured and strengthened by the priests themselves. The streets of Ireland's towns and villages swarm with beggars, while the coffers of the bishops and priests are bursting with ill-gotten gold. "The great friend and backer of the priest in every parish is usually the rumseller. His house is fre- quented, his table patronized by the priestly visitor. This is to be especially noticed if the rumseller hap- pens to have one or two pretty daughters, and the daughters of Erin, it must be said, are very hand- some : indeed, Romanism and rum go hand in hand, as well in Ireland as in America, to darken homes, destroy families, and decimate whole communities. I know of one village of six hundred souls, in the south of Ireland, with thirty-six rumselling establishments, and another place with three thou- sand people with eighty-eight. In the cities of Cork, Waterford, and Limerick, the number of 176 "By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them!' death-dealing agencies reaches away up into the hundreds. Drunkenness prevails on every side and the priest fears to offend his friend, the saloon- keeper, by exposing and denouncing the nefarious methods of his traffic." Here is a horrible array of facts, which no one can dispute, that show in what manner the Roman Catholic Church exerts her tremendous "power" in Ireland. Instead of exercising that power for the temporal and eternal welfare of the people of the Emerald Isle, its power is used only to degrade, and beastialize, and crush, and ruin! Is the "power" thus exercised, and that produces such fruits, from heaven, or from hell ? Who can hesitate to answer ? "By their fruits ye shall know them" If any one thing could show clearly the character of the Papacy, it might be learned from the Holy Wells of Ireland. About forty years ago, as some of us older people well remember, " Kirwan's Letters to Archbishop Hughes," of New York, caused no little stir. Kirwan had been brought up in the Roman Catholic Church. When he became a man, after having been educated in the Church of Rome, he became convinced of the errors of popery and left the church, and become, as I believe, a Pres- byterian clergyman. In his " Letters " to Arch- bishop Hughes, he gives his reasons for leaving the Romish Church. Among the many good reasons for his wise course in leaving that communion he speaks thus : " Another thing which early made a deep impression on my mind, was this. On my The Holy Wells of Ireland. Ill first remembered journey to Dublin (Kirwan was Irish) we passed by a place, called, unless I mistake, St. John's Well. It is as you know one of the " Holy Wells " of Ireland. There was a vast crowd of poor- looking and diseased people around it. Some were praying, some shouting, many were up in the trees that surrounded it. All these trees were laden, in all their branches, with shreds of cloth of every pos- sible variety and color. I inquired what all this meant. I was told : " This is St. John's Well, and these people come here to get cured." But what do these rags mean, hanging on the trees ? I was told that the people who were not immediately cured, tied a piece of their garments on some limb of the trees to keep the good Saint of the Well in mind of their application. And, judging from the num- ber of pieces tied on the trees, I inferred that the number that went away cured were very few. I had previous^ read some travels in Africa, describ- ing some of the religious rites of the sable sons of that continent, and the thought that those per- formed around St. John's Well were just like them, occurred to me. I have no doubt that the rites witnessed in my youth are performed there yet — that the rags of diseased persons are now streaming from those trees to remind the Saint of the requests of those who suspended them. " There was always a priest present to hear con- fessions, and to receive the pennies of the poor pil- grims. And the impression made on my mind, even then, was that it was a piece of paganism. 178 Very Much Like Heathenism. And the rites and ceremonies about this Well, I learn, are nothing in comparison with those per- formed at the Wells of St. Patrick, in the County Down. I will here insert an account of a festival at St. Patrick's Well as given by an eye witness. " When or how the custom which I shall describe originated I know not, nor is it necessary to in- quire ; but every midsummer eve thousands of Roman Catholics, many from distant parts of the country, resort to these celebrated holy wells to cleanse their souls from sin and clear their mortal bodies of diseases. The influx of people of different ranks, for some nights before the one in which, alone, during the whole year, these wells possess this power (for on all other days and nights of the year they rank not above common wells) is prodigious ; and their attendants, hordes of beggars, whose ragged garments, if once taken off, could not be put on again by the ingenuity of man, infest the streets and lanes, and choose their lodging in the highways and hedges. Having been previously informed of the approach of this miraculous night, and having pre- viously made ourselves acquainted with the locality of the wells, early in the evening we repaired to the spot. We were told we should see something quite new to us, and we met with what was scarcely cred- ible to ocular evidence. The spot on which this scene of superstitious folly was exhibited, was admir- ably adapted to heighten every attendant circum- stance of it; the wonderful wells, of which there were four, being situated in a square, or patch of And This Is Religion ! 179 ground, surrounded by steep rocks, which reverber- ated every sound and redoubled all the confusion. The appearance of the square on our approach pre- sented a floating mass of various colored heads, and our ears were astonished and confused with mingled sounds of mirth and sorrow, of frantic, enthusiastic joy, and deep desponding ravings. On descending into the square we found ourselves in the midst of innumerable groups of these fanatics, running in all directions, confusedly in appearance, but methodi- cally, as we afterward found, in reality. The men and the women were barefooted, and the heads of all were bound with handkerchiefs. Some were run- ning in circles, some were kneeling in groups, some were singing in wild concert, some were jumping about like maniacs, at the end of an old building, which, we were told, was the ruins of an old chapel, erected with several adjacent buildings by the tute- lary saint of the wells, of whose talent as a mason, it must be confessed, they gave no very exalted opinion. When we had recovered from the first surprise which the unaccountably fantastic actions of the crowd had given us, we endeavored to trace the pro- gress of some of these deluded votaries through all the mazes of their mystic penance. The first object of all appeared to be the ascent of the steepest and most rugged part of the rocks, up which both men and women crawled their painful way on their hands and knees. The men's clothes were all made so as to accommodate their knees with all the sharpness of the pointed rock ; and the poor women, many of 180 A Hard Road to Travel. them j^oung and beautiful, took incredible pains to prevent their petticoats from affording any defense against their torturing asperities. Covered with dust and perspiration and blood, they at last reached the summit of the rock, where, in a rude sort of chair hewn out of the stone, sat an old man, probably one of their priesthood, who seemed to be the represen- tative of St. Patrick, and the high priest of this religious frenzy. In his hat each of the penitents deposited a half-penny, after which he turned them around a certain number of times, listened to a long catalogue of their offenses, and dictated to them the penance they were to undergo or perform. Then they descended the rock by another path, but in the same manner and posture, equally careful to be cut by the flints and to suffer as much as possible. This was, perhaps, even more painful than the ascent had been — the suffering knees were rubbed another way — every step threatened a tumble, and if anything could have been lively there, the ridiculous attitudes of these descenders would have made us so. When they gained the foot of the hill they (most of them) bestowed a small donation on some miserable groups of supplicants who were stationed there. One beg- gar, a cripple, sat on the ground, at one moment addressing the crowd behind him, and swearing that all the Protestants ought to be burnt out of the country, and, in the same breath, begging the peni- tents to give him one half-penny for the love of 'swate blessed Jasus.' The penitents now returned to the use of their feet, and commenced a sort of Irish A Shameful Spectacle. 181 jiggish walk round several cairns or heaps of stones erected at different spaces : this lasted for some time. Suddenly they would prostrate themselves before the cairn and ejaculate some hasty prayers, as suddenly they would rise and resume their mill-horse circum- rotation. Their eyes were fixed ; their looks spoke anxiety, almost despair, and the operation of their faculties seemed almost suspended. Then they would proceed to one end of the chapel, and seemed to be- lieve there was virtue unknown to us heretics in one particular stone of the building, which every one was sure to touch with the right hand ; those who were tall did it easily ; those who were less, left no sort of jumping unpracticed to accomplish it. But the most remarkable, and no doubt the most efficient, of the ceremonies, were left for the last ; and surely nothing was ever devised by man which more forci- bly evinced how low our nature can descend. "Around the largest of the wells, which was in a building very much like a stable, all those who had performed their penances were assembled, some undressing, many stark naked. A certain number of them were admitted at a time into this holy well, and these men and women of every age bathed promiscuously without any covering. They un- dressed before bathing, and performed the whole business of the toilet afterwards in the open air, in the midst of the crowd, without appearing sensible of the observations of lookers on, perfectly regard- less of decency, perfectly dead to all human sensa- tions. This was a strange sight, but so nearly 182 The Feast of Lunatics. resembling the feast of lunatics, that even the volup- tuary would have beheld it without any sensa- tions but those of disgust. The penance having ter- minated in this marvellous ablution, the penitents then adjourned to the booths and tents to drink, or join their friends. The air then rang with musical, monotonous singing, which became louder with every glass of whiskey, finishing in frolicsome de- bauch, and laying, in all probability, the founda- tion for future penances, and more thorough ablu- tions. No pen can describe all the confusion, no description can give a just idea of the noise and disorder which filled this hallowed square, this thea- tre of fanaticism, this temple of superstition, of which the rites rival all that we are told of in the East. The minor parts of the spectacle were filled up with credulous mothers, half drowning their poor children to cure their sore eyes, and with crip- ples who exhibited everything that hast yet been discovered in deformity, expecting to be washed straight, and to walk away nimble and comely. " The experience of years had not shaken their faith, and though nobody was cured, nobody went away doubting. Shouting, and howling, and swear- ing, and carousings, filled up every pause, and 1 threw o'er this spot of earth the air of hell/ I was never more shocked and struck with horror ; and perceiving many of them intoxicated with religious fervor, and all potent whiskey, and warm- ing into violence before midnight — at which time the distraction was at its climax — I left this scene " Mad Priests of Bacchanalian Orgies.' 1 183 of human degradation in a state of mind not easily to be described. The whole road from the wells to the neighboring town was crowded with such sup- pliants as preferred mortal half-pence to holy pen- ance. The country around was illuminated with watch fires; the demons of discord and fear were abroad in the air ; the pursuits of the world, and the occupations of the peaceful, appeared put a stop to by the performance of ceremonies disgraceful when applied to propitiate an all-compassionate Divinity, whom these religionists were taught to consider jealous rather than merciful. I wish it were in my power, without insincerity, to pay a compliment to the Irish Catholic clergy. On this occasion they were the mad priests of these Bacchanalian orgies ; the fomentors of fury ; the setters on to strife ; the mischievous ministers of the debasement of their people, lending their aid to plunge their credulous congregations in ceremonious horrors." Here, then, in this interesting description of these shameful scenes of ignorance, superstition, and in- decency, we have but a sample of what the Romish church is doing this moment all over the world, and there are no words in any language strong enough to express the disgust and contempt which every good man and woman ought to feel towards the infamous papacy that uses her great "power" to drag down, and degrade, and beastialize, whole com- munities and nations, while blasphemously pretend- ing to be doing this dirty work for the glory of God, and the salvation of souls ! CHAPTER IX. " Power" of Rome, Continued, What Rome has done to degrade and disgrace France and Ireland, she has done to degrade and disgrace every country where she has been able to exercise her deadly " power." In the time of Fer- dinand and Isabella, and for long after, Spain was one of the foremost nations of Europe. Proud, brave, and enterprising, her name was honored and feared throughout the world. But popery has been the bane of Spain. It has been to that great and enterprising nation an intellectual and moral dry rot, stultifying the minds, and corrupting the morals of her people. Rome set up her cruel and infernal Inquisition in Spain, and the people were terrorized into intellectual and moral imbecility. The people became cowardly, and suspicious, and sneaking and superstitious. The priests kept the people in ignor- ance, as they are doing to-day, so that even now, they are among the most illiterate nations of the earth, some eighty per cent, of her people being un- able to read and write. The blight of popery is felt by the commerce of Spain and by her manufac- turing industries. This blight is on her agriculture, and on all her business enterprizes, and on her gov- ernment, and laws, and institutions, so that the people, as a people, are ignorant, idle, and immoral. The very word '• Spaniard " suggests to the mind a dark visaged man, with murder in his eye, and a 184 Liberty Strangled in Spain. 185 dagger in his hand ; for popery is cruel, and begets cruelty. Once and again the love of liberty that exists in every manly breast has in Spain found expression in a demand for more equitable laws, and when parliaments have been elected that have legislated in favor of human rights, and greater freedom for the people, instantly the iron hand of the tyrant of the Vatican has crushed those laws, and strangled Liberty in its cradle. And the infamy of the deed is chiefly in the fact that it has been done by the man who pretends to be the " Successor of the Apostles," in the name of God, and in the in- terests of religion ! As the Pope professes to represent the " meek and lowly " Saviour of mankind, it might justly have been expected that when he became a temporal ruler, his government would be the most just, and gentle, and blessed government on earth ; and had his pretensions been based on truth, instead of a lie, no doubt the government of the Papal States would have been of this character. But what are the facts ? Instead of governing like a saint, he ruled like a fiend. The government of " His Holiness " was so tyrannical, and brutal, that the Italians, finding it utterly unbearable, rose in rebellion against their Holy Father, after all their repeated demands for more equitable laws had been refused. It would be both interesting and instructive could we present in detail all the circumstances and events that led up to the revolution in Italy, in 1848 ; but we can give only the merest outline of those events. 186 Pius IX. Becomes Pope in 18^6. When, in 1846, Pius IX. ascended the pontifical throne, there was great rejoicing throughout Italy, for he was universally understood to be a man of liberal ideas. Immediately upon his accession to the popedom he surprised the world by the adop- tion of a policy as extraordinary as it was novel for an occupant of the chair of Peter — a policy of politi- cal reform. In an article that appeared in the American Review, for November, 1847, and written by G. F. Secchi de Carali, on " Italy and Pius IX.," we are told that Pius IX., casting his eye over the eternal city, he beheld it lying before him a den of serpents, a desert — the people dying for want of food, or wandering about in poverty and anarchy; thousands exiled in foreign lands ; the prisons crowded with political offenders; the government held by the enemies of the people, and deaf to their cries. No public instruction ; no industry ; religion corrupted by its own ministers ; crime triumphing in every shape of depravity ; despotism showing its low and odious front at every step ; justice unattain- able ; the courts converted into dens of bribery and oppression ; the whole state reeling to its centre, and about to fall forever and be swallowed up. Rather than submit to a Pope like the one who had just died — Gregory XVI., — the Roman people would have preferred to put themselves under the domin- ion of Austria; but Heaven had so favored them that should the new Pontiff be true to himself and the people, they might once again, and perhaps for- ever, gain a footing among nations, and step for- ward boldly in the race of civilization. Pius IX. Begins Well 187 A few days after his election, Pius suppressed the " military warrants/' a kind of secret tribunal for the seizure and condemnation of political offenders. He then called upon six of his cardinals to compose a council for deliberation on national affairs, and gave notice that on a certain day in each week he would give a personal audience to all comers without distinction of rank or condition. He caused a private letter box to be placed for himself in the entry of the Vatican. He dismissed his Secretary of State, Lambruschini, because he was not in sym- pathy with reformatory efforts, and put in his place a man who was. One of his most popular acts was his procla- mation of amnesty to all political offenders. The Romans were filled with joy at this new proof of the Pope's magnanimity, and the city and country were filled with mutual congratulations. A vast crowd assembled at the Colosseum and at the Capi- tol, and marched in procession with wax candles, and singing joyful songs, to the Monte Cavallo, to return thanks to their Chief and seek his bless- ing. The houses throughout the city were illumi- nated. The vast crowd marched to the Pope's palace, where he extended his hands and blessed them. On the morning of the next day, the Pope return- ing in his carriage, the horses were taken from it by the people, who then drew him, with rejoicing and songs of triumph, to the Quirinal palace. No Pope was ever treated with an equal degree of 188 The Pope a Reformer. attention by the people. The festivals and illumi- nations continued for many days after the amnesty, both in the Roman States and in other parts of Italy. The joy of the Bolognese was excessive ; they voted a marble statue to Pius IX., and kept up the festivities three days and nights. The bills of amnesty posted on the corners of the streets were wreathed with flowers. Political parties through- out all Italy resolved themselves into the one party of the Pope. Encouraged by the gratitude and joy of his peo- ple, Pius gave himself to the work of reform. To promote industry and commerce, he advocated the construction of railroads, and private companies were authorized to lay about four hundred miles of rails. He granted economical, and other govern- mental reforms, and established new institutions for municipal and provincial legislation. The terrible police of the last Pope was discon- tinued, and a decree promulgated threatening severe punishments against criminal offenders, but declaring that no person should be prosecuted for political opinions. The employes of Gregory XVI. were dismissed from office, and liberal and intel- ligent persons put in their places. The secret and mysterious tribunals were abolished, and the judicial and penal systems of Beccari and Filan- gieri, which abolish capital punishment and estab- lish trial by jury, adopted by the compilers of the new code. Pius caused six thousand hired Swiss soldiers to be dismissed because they were hated by the people. Noble Conduct of Pius IX. 189 The tariff on cotton and woolen goods, and the enormous internal duties on salt and other articles, were reduced. The law concerning the liberty of the press was so altered that the rigid censorship, which had so long existed, was somewhat liberal- ized, and the censors were to be laymen, except in the care of books that treated of religion and theology. The Jews in the Papal States, who had been cruelly oppressed by the last Pope, and con- fined to that part of the city called the Ghetto — a most wretched locality — were relieved from certain special taxes that had been imposed on them, and permitted to establish themselves in any part of the city. Among many interesting stories told of the Pope at this time, is the following : It has already been mentioned that the Pope gave audience to all sorts of people on certain days of the week to hear their complaints, etc. On one of these occasions a com- mon soldier brought to the Pope a loaf of very poor bread, not fit to be eaten, and said it was a fair sample of their daity allowance. Pius took the loaf, and promised the poor soldier he would give it his attention. The Pope soon after invited the minister of war to dinner, and had the soldier's loaf laid by his plate. The astonished officer turned pale when he saw it, and the Pope inquired if that was the kind of bread he furnished to his soldiers. After that Pius went through the barracks, and, having found some four thousand similar loaves^ he ordered them to be given away, imprisoned the bakers who 190 The Tiger has a Velvet Paw. furnished them, degraded the minister of war from his office, and supplied each soldier with money to buy bread for himself. Such a wonderful change from the tyranny of the former popes gave the Italian people reason to hope that their days of adversity were over, and that the long hoped-for deliverance had come at last. It looked, indeed, as if the Ethiopian had changed his skin and the leopard his spots; but they soon found, to their great sorrow, that popery is irreconcilable with liberty, and is the deadly enemy of free institutions. Passing by the deadly hostility of the Austrian government and her unjust and tyrannical conduct in sending an army into Fer- rara, one of the Papal States, we are reminded that the position of the Pope of Rome has no parallel among the rulers of the civilized world. He is at the same time a king and a pontiff. In the former character he is the head of the State, while in the latter he is, or claims to be, the head of the Church . As a prince, he may alter, amend, or modify, the political institutions of the State over which he rules, while as a pope he is himself bound by the infallible decrees of his Church, as embodied in the acts, canons, and anathemas, of preceding popes and councils. Many fell into the mistake of supposing that the reforms begun by the Pope as a prince were a guar- anty of reforms sure to be inaugurated by him as a priest. The government of the Roman States, for a long time the most wretched in Europe, may be All a Deception. 191 ameliorated by the adoption of a portion of those liberal institutions and political rights which have been long enjoyed by Protestant nations, while Popery remains the same Bible-hating, heretic- cursing system of bigotry, intolerance and spiritual despotism it ever has been. It is the boast of the papists that their church is infallible and unchange- able. All Protestants should remember this. How willing some Protestants are to be hoodwinked by the Papacy ! In November, 1847, while these reforms were taking place under Pius IX., a great meeting was held by Protestants of New York in the Broadway Tabernacle, for the glorification of the Pope, and the very next week the Freeman's Journal, a Roman Catholic paper, contained the following words in an editorial : " How widely has the belief spread that Pius IX. was in every sense of the word a liberal pope; that his political acts, misread by infidels and revolutionists, afforded an index of his ecclesiastical dispositions ; that his con- cessions to the spirit of the times fixed a deep gulf between him and the old Gregorys and Innocents of the Popedom ; that a new spirit was being breathed into the Catholic religion by the secular influences of the time. How widely have these delusive hopes spread ! How fondly have they been nursed and cherished ! In every country, among the weak, and the wicked, and the ignorant, this thought has made its way — that in a liberal pope was to be found a traitor to his own church, an apostle of some mad scheme of universal fusion, a 192 Popery Never Changes. destroyer of the antiquated dogmas of Christianity. . . . . In Ireland, as elsewhere, the character of the Pope has been misconceived, the nature of his liberality mistaken. There, as elsewhere, dreams have been nursed of a false peace — a peace the characteristics of which were to be universal phil- anthropy, toleration, charity ; a peace to attain and preserve which the odiousness and exclusiveness of Catholicity was to be abolished forever, and not merely in civil laws, but in the language of its own claims and the forms of its own institutions it was to bring itself down to the miserable level of the sects." This language of the popish writer, who was no doubt Archbishop Hughes, was a snub to the easily duped and weak-kneed Protestants of the Broadway Tabernacle, who were so ready to lick the dust be- neath the feet of "His Holiness," the Pope of Rome. It was not long before the people of Italy learned from the Pope himself that all his reforms were instituted as a matter of policy, and to prevent a revolution, which would most certainly have broken out had he commenced his reign manifesting the least intention of continuing the policy of his pre- decessor. The volcano was about to burst forth on account of the cruel oppressions under which the people had long groaned. When the people of Italy saw signs of reaction on the part of the Pope, they demanded a constitution. After a long and irritating delay, and reluctantly yielding to the demands of the people, whose demands it was no Plaudits Changed to Curses. 193 longer safe to disregard, the Pope gave them a con- stitution that added insult to injury, and the people were ready for rebellion. Their expressions of grati- tude and joy over the reforms he had instituted were exchanged for curses loud and deep when they discovered that they had been deceived. A quota- tion or two from Italian papers will show the great change that had taken place in the sentiments of his own people, the sheep of his own flock. The Contemporaneo, published in Rome, says : " The Pontiff has saved the Prince, but in doing so he has compromised the glory of both, and the calamity of Italy will be his condemnation. There remains to this land only God and her rights. Let our Italian brethren be assured they do not deceive themselves in relying on the people. Those are deceived who rely on the Pope for the redemption of Italy." The Courier Merchantile, published in Genoa, says : " We do not flatter ourselves that our words will reach the ears of him who has done everything to cast us back into the slavery of Babylon, to present us as a holocaust to the Austrian idol. But should they reach him, we would boldly say : You are not the vicar of God, but the vicar of the Austrian Emperor. You fear the schism of the Austrian prelates, and heed not the curse of nations. Wait awhile, and you will reap such fruit as you deserve. Poor Italy ! whither has the dominion of the Pope led you ! After this protest what have we to hope for from our Pontiff? Nothing. Mark well, people ! these are the terrible effects of the temporal dominion of the popes" 194 A Roman Republic. An insurrection broke out in Rome and blood was shed. At length the Pope disguised himself as an attendant of the Bavarian Ambassador, and made his escape from Rome to Gaeta, where he was cor- dially received by that tyrannical and cruel despot, Ferdinand, King of Naples. A Republic was pro- claimed in Rome, and, while the circumstances and events connected with the flight of the Pope and the formation of a new government necessarily caused great excitement, the Italian people behaved them- selvelves admirably, so that no acts of violence were committed and no blood was shed. One of the first acts of the new government was the abolition of the Inquisition at Rome, which had been in full operation up to the time of the flight of the Pope. The " Palace of the Inquisition/' as that human slaughter-house was called, was thrown open to the public. The following particulars of the open- ing of the " Palace " are from the pen of an eye wit- ness of the scenes he describes, as published in the New York Tribune at that time : " On Sunday last the Palace of the Inquisition was thrown open to the public, after some days devoted to an inventory of its contents and investigations, which resulted in the discovery of some relics of the diabolical prac- tices with which this tribunal has been associated. Curiosity has been whetted by the accounts which appeared from time to time of the prisoners, bones and tortures, and more recently by the proclama- tion announcing that the building would be opened, which spoke of ' horrid prisons, skeletons, and instru- ments of torture.' The Palace of the Inquisition. 195 " The people poured into it in crowds. I went with them, and found my way at last into a quiet garden, with a bubbling fountain in the centre, which seemed the very spot for sacred meditation; but around the garden was a low building with grated iron doors. The rough walls of the rooms within were covered with inscriptions, marked with a bit of charcoal — some ascriptions of praise, some bitter and complaining. In one I read, 'Let us pray to God that the good people may have pity! In another, ' Take away oppression, God! ' Too long have I been con- fined here at the caprice of calumniators, without admis- sion to the sacraments! 'How much have I suffered here P Here, beneath a death's head and crossbones, ' mori! Here, ( Scipio Gaetani — eight years have I suffered here P There was one short but expressive sentiment in the English language : ' Is this the Christian faith f In one prison a heavy trap door was lifted from a dark opening, exposing a deep, black vault. Below, in a corner, lay a mass of bed clothes and tattered gar- ments, among which I recognized a worn, dirty strait waistcoat, apparently intended for a female. In several of the rooms were pipes, through which, probably, food was given to the wretched inmates. In another part of the building a dense crowd was gathered around the entrance to a vault which seemed to pass under the whole palace. I made my way down the steps, and recognized by the light of the torches on the walls, heaps of human bones scat- tered on the floor. Others were protruding from the wall of earth at the sides, yet untouched ; and 196 The Chamber of Horrors. although it was difficult to distinguish in this con- fused mass, sex, age^ or even the different parts of the body, one at least seemed to be that of a female, and the seventeen thigh bones which might be counted here and there, told the story of nine poor victims. " The excavations are yet unfinished, and it is not easy to conjecture how much the number may be increased. But even these few relics leave room for the darkest suspicions. How many years have passed since these vaults received their last victim ? Did he waste away slowly under torture and starva- tion, or did the holy fathers, more merciful than usual, give him the blessing of a sudden death? It is impossible to account for the presence of these relics in any supposition favorable to the holy office. They are found imbedded in earth, filling the brick arches which form the foundation of the building, and must therefore have been placed there since its construction — a fact inconsistent with the supposi- tion that they belong to an ancient cemetery on this spot, if any existed ; and it is but too clear from the appearance of the bones, that their possessors were born long after the erection of the building. Per- haps the unfortunate nun, who was found in her cell, when recent events threw open the doors of the palace, might tell us something that would aid in explaining these discoveries." Another reliable witness, writing from Italy, pub- lished in the New York Journal of Commerce, the fol- lowing additional particulars of the horrors dis- Popish Means of Grace. 197 covered in this den of papal cruelty and abomina- tion. " In Turin I met the American consul of Rome, who had passed through the entire revolu- tion in the Eternal City, and who was present when the doors and dungeons of the Inquisition were opened by the decree of the Triumvirs, its prisoners released, and its building converted into an asylum for the poor. It was interesting to hear from the lips of an intelligent eye-witness the most ample confirmation of the published statements relative to the condition and appearance of this most iniqui- tous institution. The Holy Inquisition of Rome is situated near the Porta Cavalligeri, and under the very shadow of the sublime dome of St. Peter's Cathedral, and capable of containing three thou- sand prisoners. The consul was particularly struck with the imposing dimensions of the ' Chamber of Archives/ filled with voluminous documents, re- cords, and papers. Here were piled all the proceed- ings and decisions of the Holy Office from the very birth of the Inquisition, including the correspon- dence with its collateral branches in both hemis- pheres. Upon the third floor, over a certain door, was an inscription to this effect — 'Speak to the first inquisitor? Over another — 'Nobody enters this cham- ber except on pain of excommunication? They might as well have placed over that door, the well-remem- bered inscription of Dante over the gates of Tartarus — 'Abandon hope, all ye who enter here? That cham- ber was the solemn hall of judgment, or doom-room, where the fates of thousands have been sealed in 198 Patriots in Despair. death. Over a door directly opposite, another in- scription read, ' Speak to the second inquisitor.' Upon opening the door of this department, a trap-door was exposed, from which the condemned, after they left the hall of judgment, stepped from time into eternity. " The well or pit beneath had been built in the ordinary cylindrical form, and was at least eighty feet deep, and so ingeniously provided with project- ing knives and cutlasses, that the bodies of the victims must have been dreadfully mangled in the descent. At the bottom of this abyss, quantities of hair and beds of mouldering bones remained. Not only at the bottom of the pit, but also in several of the lower chambers of the building were found human bones. In some places they seem to have been mortared into the walls. The usual instru- ments of torture in such establishments were like- wise manifest." Short indeed was the period during which the brave Italians were permitted to breathe the air of freedom, for the Holy Father showed his paternal love for his dear children so that he urged the des- potic Romish governments of Austria, Naples, and Spain to send their soldiers to murder them, if that should be necessary, to compel them again to wear the hateful fetters they had so recently, and so bravely, broken. Austrian, Neapolitan, and French troops poured into Rome to crush liberty, and to reinstate the tyrant Pope. The brave Italians, under the splendid Garibaldi and His Brave Italians. 199 leadership of Garibaldi, and other able officers, fought them, and beat them again and again ; but it was hopeless for so few, however heroic, to con- tend against such odds, and on the first of July, 1849, the Roman Republic, after a brief existence of five months, capitulated to the French, and in May, 1850, Pius IX., after an exile of one year and six months, returned to Rome, prescribed the new gov- ernment, and re-established the Inquisition in all its former power, and for twenty-two weary years more the poor Italians were compelled to endure the tyrannical government of the hated Pope, whose throne was propped up by French bayonets. Can any sane man or woman believe for a moment that the cruel author of all these sorrows and miseries of his fellow creatures, can by any possibil- ity be the holy and infallible priest of the Lord Jesus Christ ? Our Saviour said, (Isa. 61) " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek : he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound .... to comfort all that mourn .... to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Does the pope of Rome do anything like this? What have we seen ? Have we not just passed through the palace of the Inquisition ? By whose authority were the thousands of innocent men and women confined in those horrible dungeons? By 200 Christ Blesses — The Pope Curses. the authority of " His Holiness /" By whose author- ity were so many strong men, and tender and gentle women, tortured, and lacerated, and mutilated, and shamefully murdered in those dark abodes of cruelty and blood ? By the authority of the "Holy Father /" Who hurried into eternity the souls that once ani- mated those " heaps of human bones" we have seen, and whose lives went out amidst groans, and tears, and excruciating agonies ? It was the work of the Pope, w T ho is the infallible head of the " only true church ; out of which there is no salvation." How utterly unlike is the mission and work of the Pope to the mission and work of the Lord Jesus, whose holy Vicar the Pope claims to be ! The Lord Jesus came " to preach the Gospel to the poor ;" the Pope came to withhold the Gospel from the poor, and burning, and drowning, and beheading those poor people who dare to have the Gospel in their houses. The Lord Jesus " came to bind up the broken-hearted." The Pope comes to cause men, and women, and children to be broken-hearted. 0, what millions of people have been broken-hearted through the tyranny of the Popes of Rome ! The Lord Jesus came " preaching deliverance to the cap- tives;" the Pope comes crowding horrid and filthy dungeons with multitudes of captives. The Lord Jesus came " to comfort all that mourn ;" the Pope comforts nobody, and fills hearts, and homes, and communities, and nations with mourning. The Lord Jesus came to bless, and blessings were con- stantly falling from his sacred lips. "Blessed are the Popery is a Blight arid Malediction. 201 meek." "Blessed are the peacemakers." "Blessed are the pure in heart."— "Blessed;" " Blessed;" "Blessed!" The Pope comes to curse. He seems never so much in his element as when cursing. "Anathema;" "Ana- thema ;" "Anathema ;" " Cursed !" " Cursed !" " Cursed !" The difference is that one is the true Christ, and the other is the Antichrist. Can anyone fail to see it ? This brief sketch of what the papacy has done for Italy, while under the direct government of the popes, proves that the Pope is Antichrist — the repre- sentative of the devil and not of God, and that papacy is the most deadly adversary of God and man, and the bitterest foe of civil and religious liberty throughout the world. CHAPTER X. Same Subject, Continued. In chapters eight and nine we have shown the manner in which the papacy uses her tremendous " power/' and so far we have not been able to dis- cover that she has used it for the blessing, or even for the benefit, of the race, or for the glory of God. From the facts already presented it is certain that Romish Popes have used their great power like fiends from the bottomless pit, rather than as the humble and gracious servants of the God of heaven. For ages and centuries the countries of South America have been entirely controlled by the Romish priesthood. And so has Mexico. And what has the papacy done for these countries ? In answering this question we can give but the merest outline. At the Baptist National Anniversary meetings, held in Saratoga, N. Y., in June, 1895, one of the most interesting addresses was on "' Mexico," by Rev. Dr. Morehouse, Field Secretary of the American Bap- tist Home Mission Soiety, who has made a special study of our sister Republic across the Rio Grande. The address made plain the past and present spirit of Romanism. In thirty years fifty Protestant Missionaries have been murdered, and the conflict between religious despotism and liberty — both civil and religious — is still in progress. When Cortez entered the valley of Mexico he found an Aztec civilization evinced by 202 How Rome " Converted " Mexicans. 203 canals, agriculture, literature, and morality. Monte- zuma's capitol was a city of 60,000 buildings and 300,000 people. The year of its conquest, 1521, was three years after Luther had nailed his theses to the church door of Wittenbergh, and nineteen years before Loyola founded the Order of Jesuits. Fol- lowing the conquest came the multiplication of Roman Catholic societies and orders — Franciscan, Dominicans, Capuchins, Jesuits, Carmelites, Augus- tinians and others — monks and nuns, chiefly from Spain. The Inquisition was formally set to work in 1571, in the city of Mexico, though it had really entered on its murderous work forty years earlier. In a few years Rome claims four millions of converts. There is marvellous persuasive power in dungeons, racks, thumb-screws, and blazing faggots, and so Rome multiplied her converts. The Inquisition, Rome's great and highly-prized engine for multiplying con- verts , was not suppressed until 1820, after 250 years of bloody work in the interest of " the only true church." What Prescott said of Spain was true of Mexico : " The genius of the people was rebuked, and their spirits quenched. . . . Freedom cannot go along with fear." The conquered and converted (/) Mexi- cans settled down into a night of ignorance, degener- ation, and degradation. Their libraries burnt by order of Bishop Zamarruga. Little was left of them. At the beginning of this century there were but three printing presses in the country. For these 204 A Black Christ Sheds Tears. the people had little use, for the priests of Rome declared to the people that they needed nothing beyond the catechism. The priests greatly deceived and misled the people. They had worshipped the moon as the " Supreme Lady," and the sun as the " Supreme Lord." In 1531 there came a reputed revelation from the Virgin Mary, with miracles, declaring that she was the lady whom they had ignorantly worshipped before the conquest, and " Our Lady of Guadaloupe" is the chief object of worship by the millions of Mexico to this day. Another appeal of the Romish priests to the prejudices and superstition of the Mexicans was the invention of " the black Christ." Dr. Morehouse saw four of these. He says : " In the old chapel of Guadaloupe is a black Christ, with a crown of thorns, long, black, dishevelled hair, and purple robe, as he was supposed to appear in the judgment hall, before his crucifixion. Near by is the imprint, in stone, of the Virgin's foot. In the old Dominican church of Porta Corli, City of Mexico, is a black Christ on the cross .... where devout Indians may kiss his feet. Another is at Taluca, where is a large Indian popu- lation who worship the image, while at Satillo is a painting of Christ, which at times sheds tears /" The priestly hypocrites who have thus wantonly deceived, and misled, and cursed the people of Mexico, well know that in order to perpetuate their frauds and deceptions, they must keep the people in ignorance, and in this endeavor they have been but too successful. The " Cyclopedia of Education," Fat Priests and Starving People. 205 edited by Henry Kiddle, superintendent of educa- tion of New York City (1877) in its article on Illit- eracy, gives a table containing the statistics of thirty countries, and among them is Mexico, which is credited with ninety -three per cent, of illiterates, which is forty-five per cent, greater than heathen China, which is credited with fifty per cent, of illiterates, or of people who can neither read nor write. Thus Mexico presents a splendid field to Romish priests for the cultivation of their cherished, and degrad- ing superstitions, and they have cultivated it to their own enormous profit ; for fifty years ago the church of Rome in Mexico owned three-fifths of the wealth of the city. The income of the Bishop was greater than that of the Queen of England. One- tenth of the products of the country went to the clergy. In 1850, the value of church property was estimated at three hundred millions of dollars, one- third the value of the nation. The annual income of the church in the city of Mexico was $20,000,000, while the income of the Republic was $18,000,000. This immense sum was wrung out of the hard earn- ings of the poor, who earned twenty-five cents a day. Ignorance and superstition, of course, are pro- ductive of immorality, and Mr. Biart states that in Mexico the priests are forcing the poor to live in concubinage by exacting from them for the mar- riage ceremony a sum which the Mexican laborer could not earn in five years, and very recent author- ities state that the peon, or laborer, w r ho is married by a priest, becomes practically a pnrt of the estate 206 Romanism Promotes Immorality. for life of the landlord, who lends him the needed sum for marriage by the church. The immorality of the people in Spanish Roman Catholic countries is well known. In the South American states a great majority of the children born are illegitimate. In Paraguay, when the Jesuits controlled every- thing, only three children in a hundred were born in wedlock, and yet whenever the governments have tried to introduce civil marriages so that by law poor people could be married, and their children born in wedlock, the governments have in every instance been cursed and excommunicated by the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. Even in October of last year, 1895, when the civil marriage law was before the Hungarian legislature, the bishops and priests did all in their power to defeat the measure, and when the bill was passed in spite of their fierce opposition, they commanded the people, even from the altars of their churches, to disobey the law. Ecuador, in South America, affords us another illus- tration of the wicked manner in which " the man of sin, and son of perdition" exercises his " power" for the degradation and ruin of peoples and nations. As a general thing the South American republics are governed by an oligarchy of the leading fami- lies. Ecuador is ruled rather by the Romish hier- archy. It is to all intents and purposes a papal colony. It is a republic only in name. The Pope is King. The church is omnipresent, and all pow- erful. The struggle for independence, under the Ecuaaor Ruined by Popery. 207 leadership of the illustrious Bolivar, which lasted from 1809 to 1822, while it saw the downfall of Spanish power, did not free the people from the tyranny of the priests. During the series of bloody revolutions that have swept the country at intervals ever since, the clerical party has remained triumph- ant. Church and state are one and the same. The church controls the government, dictates its laws, and sees to their enforcement. All the schools are taught by the priests and nuns, and the pupils learn more about the saints of the church than about their own country. For years there has been on the statute books a law forbidding the importa- tion of books, pamphlets, or printed matter of any description without the approval of the priests. More than one-fourth of all the property is owned by the bishop. No religion but that of the Roman Catholic is tolerated. There is a Roman Catholic Church for every two hundred inhabitants. Ten per cent, of the population is composed of priests and nuns. It is stated that seventy-five per cent, of the births are illegitimate. As in Mexico, the peo- ple are sunk in ignorance, and their chief amuse- ments are cock-fights, and bull-fights, and such like degrading sports. There are neither prisons, reformatories, or hospi- tals outside of Guito and Guayaquil. Ecuador is at least two centuries behind the times. There is not a stage coach nor a railroad in the w T hole country. There are no wagons, nor even a road over which wagons could pass. There is but one line of tele- 208 The Pope a Hard Master. graph in the whole country, and as that is but little used it is out of repair much of the time. Mule paths are the only means of travel. There is only one newspaper, and that is muzzled. There is no literature, and no mail routes except that between Guayaquil, on the coast, and Guito. In Ecuador a man is glad to get six cents a day working as a potter. Mill hands are paid fifteen cents a day, twelve cents a day as a hat-maker, while carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, smiths, and silk manufacturers receive from twenty-five to thirty cents a day. Popery always impoverishes the people. The brew- ers get fifteen cents a day. There is an air of stag- nation everywhere except perhaps in Guayaquil, in which are to be seen street cars, beer breweries, ice factories, and other evidences of civilization, all controlled, however, by foreigners, as are also the few banks that exist in the country. Carriers are paid two dollars for carrying one hundred pounds on their backs three hundred miles. All merchan- dise is transported from the seacoast to the interior on the backs of men, women, or mules. This is most laborious work, as the country is very moun- tainous. Ecuador presents a pretty good specimen of the finished work of the priests, and as they are doing their utmost to keep out of the country all Protest- ant ideas, and everything that is likely to produce a better state of things, they are, no doubt, satisfied with their achievements. We have now taken a hurried glance over many The United States to be Romanized. 209 of the countries, both in Europe and America, over which the Roman Catholic hierarchy has exercised that " power," of Which Paul speaks, and we have seen that everywhere the results of her activity are ignorance, superstition, cruelty, bigotry, persecution, immorality, stagnation, and individual, social, and national degradation. And Cardinal Satolli, in one of his public addresses, was kind enough to say : " What the Church has done for other countries she proposes to do for this country." Exactly so ! In this instance, this distinguished foreign papist told the truth. But how do the American people like the suggestion ? And to make this country like the countries we have been considering, so far as sub- jection to the Pope of Rome is concerned, is the work to which the unscrupulous Hierarchy is bend- ing all its energies. The subjugation of this great nation to the tyrannical rule of the " Son of Perdi- tion," who rules in the Vatican, is the avowed pur- pose of this evil power. First of all, the popes, and especially Pius IX., and Leo XIIL, the present " Holy Father," have laid down the plan according to which all Roman Catho- lics in this country are to proceed, in order to de- stroy our American institutions. In the " Syllabus " of Pius the IX., of 1864, the Pope condems the fol- lowing things, or rather he consigns to eternal damnation : — 1. All those who maintain the liberty of the press. 2. All who maintain the liberty of conscience or of worship. 210 Liberty Condemned. 3. Those who contend for liberty of speech. 4. Those who hold that Roman Pontiffs, or Coun- cils, have exceeded the limits of their power, and usurped the rights of princes (in torturing, burning, and otherwise murdering heretics, etc.). 5. Those who say the Church may not employ force (or persecute and destroy heretics.) 6. Those who hold that in a conflict of laws, civil and ecclesiastical, the civil law ought to prevail. 7. Or those who hold that any method of instruc- tion of youth, solely secular, may be approved. 8. Those who hold that marriage is not in its essence a sacrament. 9. Those who hold that marriage not sacrament- ally contracted has a binding force. 10.. Those who hold that any other religion than the Roman religion may be established by the State. 11. Those who hold that in countries called Catho- lic, the free exercise of other religions may laudably be allowed. 12. Those who hold that the Roman Pontiff ought to come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization. That we may not be thought illiberal in what we might be likely to say by way of comment on these propositions of the Pope, we will here present the statement of Hon. W. E. Gladstone, of England, in regard to them. He says : " It may appear upon a hasty perusal that neither the infliction of penalty in life, limb, liberty, or goods, on disobedient mem- bers of the church, nor the title to depose sover- Rome's Satanic Purpose. 211 eigns and release subjects from their allegiance, with all its revolting consequences, has been here re- affirmed. In terms there is no mention of them ; but in the substance of the propositions, I grieve to say, they are beyond doubt included. For it is notorious that they have been declared and decreed by Rome — that is to say, by Popes, and Papal Councils, and the stringent condemnations of the Syllabus include all those who hold that Popes and Papal Councils (declared ecumenical) have transgressed the just limits of their power, or usurped the rights of princes. What have been their opinions and de- crees about persecution I need hardly say, and indeed the right to employ physical force is even here undisguisedly claimed." These propositions are diametrically opposed to the very letter and spirit of our American Constitu- tion and laws, and clearly declare that the whole aim of popery is to drag this nation down to a level with the most degraded and besotted nations of the earth. This purpose is worthy only of the Prince of Darkness. And what are the means and agencies by which the Papacy hopes to secure this dreadful result ? 1. First by means of the Parochial Schools. The hatred shown to our splendid system of public schools by the priests, arises from the fact that the public schools of this country educate the young people away from the superstitions of Romanism. It has been declared over and over again by leading Romanists, that their church has lost at least ten 212 Rome Relies on Her Criminals. millions of members by means of the public schools It is to prevent this loss, and to hold their people to the apostate church, that they are so busy in multiplying parochial schools. These schools, taught by bigoted and ignorant priests and nuns, are intended to raise up multitudes of young people to hate all that is Protestant, and all that is truly American. The shameful ignorance of all Roman Catholic countries, proves that Rome prefers no schools at all ; but as she is compelled to make a pretense of educating her people, in this country, her parochial schools are intended to impart as lit- tle education as possible, while training the young in the catechism, so as to make them devoted slaves of the Pope, and enemies to free institutions. In this the priests are guilty of the great sin of divid- ing the people of this country into two hostile camps, and aiming a deadly blow at the very life of the nation. 2. Rome relies for success on her criminals. Of this there is abundant proof. So much proof indeed that we hardly know where to begin. A recent number of a prominent Italian journal, called El Solfeo, furnishes the following statement of facts. In 1870, that is just before Rome was made the capital of Italy, when the Pope lost his temporal power, there were in the city 2,469 secular clergy, among cardinals, bishops, prelates, and cures ; 2,766 monks, and 2,117 nuns ; in all, 7,322 religious, of both sexes. The number of births reached in the same year to 4,378, of which 1,215 were legitimate, Rome a Sink of Immorality. 213 and 3,163 illegitimate; the illegitimates therefore were more than 75 per cent. And all this in the city of Rome, the abode of "His Holiness" and swarming with holy bishops, and priests, and nuns. Nor in regard to capital crime did the pontifical states occupy a favorable position before they were annexed to Italy by Victor Emanuel. The statis- tics relating to the latest years of the Pope's gov- ernment, show that there was committed one mur- der in England for every 187,000 inhabitants; in Holland, one for every 168,000 ; in Russia, one for every 100,000 ; in Austria, one for every 4,113 ; in Naples, one for every 2,750 ; and in the states of the Pope, one for every 750 ! ! ! Think of it ! In Prot- estant England one murder for every 187,000 inhabi- tants, and in the papal states, under the holy gov- ernment of the Pope himself, a murder for every 750 of the population ! Is the Roman Catholic Church the church of Christ, or of Antichrist ? An English paper says that the Roman Catholics in Scotland are less than one-twelfth of the population, yet this one-twelfth furnishes one-third of the criminals. Rome breeds murderers, and all sorts of criminals. It is so everywhere. 3. Rome relies for her success on foreigners. The Mayor of New York, Mr. Hewitt, declared, in a message, that, according to the census of 1880, thirty-nine and a half per cent, of the people were foreign born, and an additional forty and a half per cent, were born of foreign parentage, so that more than 80 per cent, of the people are foreigners. 214 Shut the Gates ! Shut the Gates ! There are thirty-seven nationalities, speaking eighty- different dialects. And the dangerous thing about this fact is that these foreigners are voters, and always cast their votes in favor of popery and against liberty. The priests of Rome are at the bottom of this dangerous immigration that is bring- ing to our shores millions of the ignorant and priest-ridden and murderous papists from Europe, by whose votes they hope to destroy all that is most glorious in American Institutions. Let Americans who love their country insist that Congress shall shut the gates against these bigoted and supersti- tious hordes before it is too late. We will let Romanists themselves tell of the de- grading and dangerous results of their system in our own country. They do not intend to denounce their own Church, they simply state facts, while seem- ingly blind to the causes that produce them. At the Roman Church Congress, held during the World's Fair, in Chicago, the niece of the Archbishop of Cincinnati, Miss M. T. Elder, of New Orleans, was brought forward as one of the speakers. In her address, among other things, she said : — " Let us tell the truth to ourselves. Our inferior position, and it certainly is inferior, is owing greatly, chiefly, almost wholly, to ourselves. The great men of this nation have been, are, and will continue to be, Protestant. I speak not of wealth, but of brain, of energy, of action, of heart. The great philan- thropists, the great orators, the great writers, think- ers, leaders, scientists, inventors, teachers of our Self Condemned. 215 land have been Protestants. What surprises me is the way we have had of eulogizing ourselves — of talking buncombe and spread-eagle, and giving taffy all around. I am sorry to say that I cannot well join in the enlivening pastime. When I see how largely Catholicism is represented by the hood- lum element I feel in no spread-eagle mood." This outspoken lady certainly said some true and whole- some things, and yet even she did not seem to see that the shameful lies and superstitions of her church are far more likely to multiply hoodlums, than " great thinkers, orators, inventors/' etc. But another Romanist, Dr. 0. A. Brownson, in a paper written in 1862, on Protestantism and Infidelity, says : — " The worst governed cities in the Union are pre- cisely those in which Catholics are most influential in elections, and have the most to do with munici- pal affairs. We furnish more than our share of the rowdies, the drunkards, and the vicious popula- tion of our large cities. The majority of the grog- sellers in the city of New York are Catholics, and the portions of the city where grog-selling, drunk- enness, and filth most abound, are those chiefly inhabited by Catholics, and we rarely see the slight- est effort made for a reformation." And this bright editor of the foremost Roman Catholic periodical in this country, is so blinded and deceived by "the man of sin," that he fails to see that " rowdies, grog- sellers, the vicious, the drunkards, and the filthy," are the crop that might naturally be expected to grow from the seed sown ! "Can a man gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles ?" 216 A Vile Crop from Bad Seed. In an article published in The Catholic Times by Father Elliott of New York, September, 1890, he says : — " The horrible truth is, that in many cities, big and little, we have something like a monopoly of the business of selling liquor, and in not a few, something equivalent to a monopoly of getting drunk. I hate to acknowledge it ; yet from Catholic domiciles, miscalled " homes," in those cities and towns, three-fourths of the public paupers creep annually to the almshouse, and more than half of the criminals snatched away to prison by the police, are, by baptism and training, members of our Church. Can any one deny this, or can any one deny the identity of nominal Catholics and pauperism ex- isting in our chief centres of population is owing to the drunkenness of Roman Catholics ? For twenty years the clergy of this parish have had a hard and unequal fight to keep the saloons from the very doors of the Church, because the neighborhood of the Roman Catholic Church is a good stand for the saloon business, and this is equally so in every city in America." The Catholic Times, Liverpool, April 17, 1886, said : " Our people, though forming less than one-third of the population of Liverpool, constitute nearly one- half of the total number of prisoners." The same paper of November 12, 1866, said : " Nine out of ten of the girls to be seen along the London Road at night are Catholics. There is no use in denying it." The Tablet, a Roman Catholic newspaper, under Ballots, not Bullets. 217 date of November, 1888, published an article, in which the writer said : " I was astonished to find, when engaged in another matter, that the percent- age of juvenile criminals of Catholic parentage was out of all proportion in England, to the relative Catholic population. Upon looking into the matter, I found that we Catholics contributed more young criminals than any other religious denomination." Had such statements as are here quoted from Roman Catholic priests and editors been made by Protestants, they would have been denounced as " Protestant lies/' and it is remarkable that such authorities should " give away " their Church in such fashion. It really looks as if the Almighty himself had said, " Out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee, thou wicked servant ! " and had led them to speak and write these damaging statements. 5. Rome relies for success in destroying the insti- tutions of this country on violence and bloodshed. This assertion will be pooh poohed by many Protestants who are not informed as to the real spirit and designs of the papacy, and by those who mistakenly believe that the Church of Rome has changed ; but those who have kept themselves well informed as to the doings of the Romish Antichrist in this country, know that Rome is getting ready to shed Protestant blood. There is no man in this country who has a more thorough knowledge of American papacy than Rev. I. L. Lansing, and his eloquent sermons and writings have done very much to arouse the Amer- 218 Romanists Arming and Drilling. ican people to the dangers that threaten this Amer- ican Republic from the Tyrant of the Vatican. In speaking of the avowed design of the Hierarchy to subjugate this Protestant nation to the feet of the Pope, he says : " They are relying for success on mili- tary societies, which they are forming all over this country under the sanction of the priests. Do you want to know the names of some of them ? The Ancient Order of Hibernians, Irish American So- ciety, Knights of St. Patrick, St. Paul's Cadets, Apos- tles of Liberty, Knights of the Red Branch, Knights of St. Peter, Benevolent Sons of the Emerald Isle, Knights of Columbkill, the Clan-na-Gael, which has a horrible history in this country ; and of late they are relying to some extent on the Knights of Labor, since they gave their allegiance to Cardinal Gib- bons and the Pope, through Mr. Powderly. In our own city there are military companies composed exclusively of Irish Roman Catholics, and armed with Winchester rifles. I want to ask you if our militia are armed with Winchester rifles ; and if they are not, I want to know who gave these Win- chester rifles, the best arms in the military service, to the Irish Roman Catholics ? May I ask who would give Winchester rifles to Methodists and Con- gregationalists, if they should arm for the public defence ? If I were, as I am not, a member of the Order of United American Mechanics, I would buy guns, and learn how to use them, not because I desire to precipitate conflict, but for the precisely opposite reason, because I desire to make conflict There is Trouble Ahead. 219 impossible by furnishing a national police who are not in subordination to the Pope of Rome. When I observe these military, and semi-military com- panies ; when I know that a very large propor- tion of the police of our great cities are of the same nationality, in the same ecclesiastical relation, and all dominated by the priests, I see in it all a fixed plan to precipitate a catastrophe for American lib- erty. " But you say, what does all this amount to ? I answer, it amounts to this, that Gregory XVI. said there was no place in the world where he was Pope so much as in America. Pius IX. uttered the same sentiment. Leo XIII. confidently relies upon the same supposition. It reminds me, friends, that in every other land on the globe the Roman Catholic hierarchy is looked upon with suspicion, and watched as an enemy, save in the United States, where it is blind-folding the people and arming the assassins of liberty." As we have seen, the Word of our God declared that the Antichrist's coming would be " after," or in accordance with the coming of Satan, with all power and signs and " lying wonders." We have now seen how Rome has used her great " power," and after the facts presented, no one can doubt that the Church of Rome is " the son of perdition," and the work of Satan, and not in any sense the Church of Christ. CHAPTER XI. " Signs and Lying Wonders." Paul, in the passage of Scripture already quoted, (2 Thess. 2 : 9) speaks of " signs and lying wonders " as also being marks of Antichrist, and here again we find these marks very prominent in the Roman Catholic Church. As the popes claim to be the suc- cessors of the Apostles, so they also claim that the power to work miracles is retained in the Roman Church. Bellarmin, and other Roman Catholic writers and theologians, declare that mir- acles are a true sign of the Church of the Papacy being the true Church of Christ. It is well known to all intelligent Protestants that the Papacy has always relied for support on its pretended miracles. Multitudes of their pretended miracles are so evi- dently " lying wonders," that it requires the greatest presumption and impudence in the priests to pretend that they are true miracles. In doing this, however, they plainly show that their Church is that great evil and deadly " power " so plainly predicted in the Word of God. In speaking of Rome's " lying wonders " we scarcely know where to begin, they are so numer- ous, and so different in character. Volumes might be written on this subject, but we must be con- tent with a few examples under two or three dif- ferent heads. 1. Let us look at the " lying wonders " per- formed by means of relics. 220 Shameful Use of Relics. 221 Fleury, the celebrated Romish historian, in his Ecclesiastical History, relates that on one occasion, in the year 386, St. Ambrose being about to con- secrate a church at Milan, was prevented by the fact that he had no relics of Martyrs to deposit in the altars, when " immediately his heart burned within him," as he declared, " in presage of what was to happen." The Historian proceeds to tell us that God revealed to him in a dream, the place where the bodies of St. Gervasius and St. Protasius were to be found. " Having discovered their sepulchres, two skeletons were discovered, of more than ordi- nary size, all their bones entire, a quantity of blood about, and their heads separated from their bodies. They arranged the bodies, putting every bone in its proper place, and they covered them with cloths and laid them on litters. In this manner they were carried towards evening, to the Basilica of St. Fausta, where vigils were celebrated all night. That day and the next, there was a great concourse of people, and then the old men recollected that " they had formerly heard the names of these mar- tyrs, and had read the inscriptions on their tombs." This is the first mention we can find of these " lying wonders" of the Romish Church in the line of relics, which at length became so numerous, and so profitable to " the holy church, out of which there is no salvation." In 1848, a gentleman, who signed himself " Kirwan," and generally understood to be a Pres- byterian clergyman, who had once been a Roman 222 Kirwan to Archbishop Hughes. Catholic, wrote a series of " Letters to Archbishop Hughes of New York," in which he gave his reasons for not returning to the Romish Church. Those " Letters" aroused wide-spread interest at the time, both among the more intelligent Roman Cath- olics, as well as Protestants. In one of these " Let- ters" he speaks of the shameful frauds practiced on ignorant and superstitious Romanists by means of relics. As Archbishop Hughes well knew whether Kirwan confined himself to the exact truth or not, it is quite certain that Kirwan would be exceedingly careful not to be led into even the smallest exag- geration. We may therefore implicitly rely on Kirwan's statements. In one of his letters he says : — " Relics are the dead bodies and bones of saints, and whatever belonged to them in their mortal life." He says : " The clause I place in italics enables you to multiply them indefinitely. These relics are honored with inferior and relative, but not with divine honor. And they are honored, first, because they were the temples of God; secondly, because they are to be raised from the dead; thirdly, because of their miraculous power ; fourthly, be- cause they encourage the faithful to imitate their virtues. This is Challoner's account of them with which that of Milner agrees. " This doctrine of relics is intimately connected with that of miracles — it flows from it. The man who performed miracles when living, should be, after death, highly honored ; his bones may perform them after death, and as in many cases they do Priests in the Rag and Bone Business. 223 perform them, their relics should be honored with an inferior and relative, but not with a divine honor. Here is the link that connects your doctrine of relics with your miracles. " Relics are matters of immense importance to Rome. They are to your churches what the ark of the covenant, and the pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, were to the Jewish temple. Hence the prodigious efforts of past ages to obtain relics, and the enormous prices paid for them, in order to place them in churches, and the sleepless vigilance with which they have been guarded, lest they should be stolen for the adorning of new churches for their virtues. They have been more than mines of wealth to Holy Mother, as they have brought her the gold and the silver without the trouble of min- ing, smelting, or coining it. If a bone, or a relic of a saint, could be secured for a new church, the church was called by his name, aiid placed under his guardianship. This is the origin of calling churches after the names of saints. And these nations were placed under the guardianship of saints — as Ireland under that of St. Patrick — Scot- land under that of St. Andrew — England under that of St. George. So also were cities placed under the care of saints, and their relics were esteemed as imparting far greater security against assault, than cannon, walls, or bulwarks. Constantine, you know, defended the town of Msibis with the dead body of St. James, and when the Emperor Leo desired to secure the relics of Simon the Stylite from Antioch, 224 Horrible Deceptions. for the purpose of defence, the prudent citizens replied, ' Our city has no walls, and we have brought here the holy body of Simon, that it might serve us in the stead of walls and bulwarks.' There is, I learn, an authentic list of the relics, deemed true, possessed and published by your church. I have never seen it. It must be a very curious book. In the absence of your catalogue, I select a few of the relics, greatly venerated by papists from books of authority that lie before me. They are almost as amusing as your miracles. I will omit those too offensive to be named, out of respect for you, my readers, and myself. " The arms, legs, fingers and toes of saints are greatly multiplied. There are eight arms of St. Matthew, three of St. John, and almost any number of St. Thomas a-Becket. There are in the church of Lateran, the ark made by Moses in the wilderness, the rod of Moses, and the table on which the last supper was instituted by our Lord. The table entirely is at Rome ; but there are many pieces of it in other places. On the altar of the Lateran are the heads of Peter and Paul entire ; but there are pieces of them in Bilboa greatly honored by the monks. St. Peter's church is blessed by the cross of the penitent thief; with the lantern of Judas; with the dice used in casting lots by the soldiers for the garments of our Saviour ; with the tail of Balaam's ass; and with the axe, saw, and hammer, of St. Joseph. Different churches are enriched with pieces of the wood of the cross ; were Has the Priest a Conscience ? 225 the pieces all brought together they would make a hundred crosses. In one church is some of the manna of the wilderness ; in another some blossoms from Aaron's rod ; in another an arm of St. Simon ; in another a picture of the Virgin painted by Luke ; in another one of her combs ; in another the combs of the apostles, but little used ; in another a part of the body of St. Lazarus, that smells ; in another a part of the Gospel of Mark, in his own hand- writing ; in another the finger of St. Ann, the Vir- gin's sister ; in another St. Patrick's stick, with which he drove the venomous reptiles from Ire- land ; in another some of St. Joseph's breath caught by an angel in a vial ; in another a piece of the rope with which Judas hung himself; in another some of the Virgin's hair ; in another some of her milk. And the monks once showed among their relics the spear and shield with which Michael encountered the dragon of Revelation ; and some relic-monger had a feather from the wing of the Holy Spirit, when taking the form of a dove he abode upon Christ at his baptism ! " I will not, I cannot, here dwell on the awful abuses of your doctrine of relics ; on the robbery of all kinds of graves in Palestine, and the hawking of pilfered bones all over Europe ; on the selling of old wood, sufficient to warm a small town through the winter, as pieces of the cross ; on the selling of hands and feet of particular saints, until the proof is positive that some of them had as many hands as Briareus, and as many feet as the crawling worm we 226 An Infamous Traffic. call the centipede. I turn from the abuse to the doctrine. " Now, sir, where is the origin of your doctrine of relics ? Can you find a trace of it in the New Testament ? Will you, for a moment, compare the sham miracles wrought at the tombs of some of your saints, with that wrought by the bones of a prophet of Israel ? Will you dare to say that the curing of a sore throat by a dead man's hand is to be placed in the same ground with the miraculous cures of the apostles? I venerate the names, I would even decorate the tombs, of the good, but what virtue is there in a bone from the body of Peter or Paul ? or in a slip of wood from the cross, or in a strand of rope with which Judas hung him- self, or in some hairs from the tail of the beast which Balaam whipped ? " If relics ever performed miracles why don't they perform some now ? Is the virtue of all your old bones exhausted ? Where is the holy coat of Treves ? Where are now the pilgrims to the bones of Becket ? Where is your shop in New York for the sale of old teeth, and holy fingers, and holy bones, taken from the graves of the saints ? Sir, the whole matter is one of the vilest impositions ever practiced upon the credulity of man. I do not charge you with believing a word of it, I could almost as soon believe in the virtue of the paring of the toe nails of some of your saints, as admit that a man of your high sense could believe in these things." Too Many Arms and Legs. 227 This letter of Kirwan to the Archbishop will give us some idea to the extent to which the papacy car- ries this fraudulent and infamous business, by which they knowingly and wilfully rob the people. Writers who have made the subject of Romish relics a mat- ter of special study, give us much interesting infor- mation in regard thereto. They tell us that the body of the Apostle Bartholomew is declared in the Roman Brieviary and Martyrology to have been translated from Benevento to Rome by the Emperor Otto III., and is alleged to be entire. It is attested by bulls of Alexander III. and Sixtus V. But the Church of Benevento alleges that the entire body of Bartholomew is there still, and produces bulls to that effect from Leo IX., Stephen IX., Benedict XII., and Urban V. (all infallible, you know), the earliest of which popes reigned fifty years after the death of Otto III. Here then are two entire bodies of this one Apostle ; but Monte Casino claims the possession of a large part of the body, and so does Reims. But besides these, there are three heads of this same Apostle ; one at Naples ; one formerly at Reichman, and a third at Toulouse ; two crowns of the head at Frankfort and Prague ; part of a skull at Maes- tricht ; a jaw at Steinfield ; part of a jaw at Prague ; two jaws at Cologne, and a lower jaw at Murbach ; an arm and a hand at Gersiac; a second arm with the flesh at Bethune ; a third arm at Amalfi ; a large part of a fourth arm at Foppens ; a fifth arm, and part of a sixth at Cologne ; a seventh arm at Andechs ; an eighth arm at Ebers ; three large leg or arm bones 228 Heathen Performance in HoboJcen, N. J. at Prague ; part of an arm at Brussels, and other large portions on the body, not reckoning trifles like skin, teeth, and hair, in twenty other places. Three different places claim to possess the head of John the Baptist. A gentleman, making a tour of Italy, declares that while examining the relics in an Italian city, he was shown the head of John the Baptist. He said to the monk who was exhibiting them, " How is this ; I was shown the head of John the Baptist two days ago in another city." " 0," said the monk, "that is all right; the head you saw there is the head of John when he was a young man ; but this is his head that was cut off by King Herod." It is only in recent years that so strange an exhi- bition as the translation and procession of such relics has been made a public spectacle in the United States of America ; but these heathen performances and other Pagan acts of the Roman Catholic Church are becoming more public and prominent as that apostate church increases in political power by the great immigration of superstitious and ignorant papists from foreign lands, who so soon become voters without becoming Americans. The first of these heathenish ceremonies on United States soil took place in Hoboken, N. J., directly opposite New York City, in the year of 1856, on the first day of June. This ceremony was described, and the bishop's speech reported in the public newspapers on the following day. In the following, from the New York Evening Express, we have a full description of the Blood and Bones of St. Quietus. 229 performance, and a part of the bishop's address. This eye witness says : — " This ceremony, so long talked of, came off with the most solemn pomp on Sunday, in the Church of the Virgin, at Hoboken. The church was crowded to repletion, the aisles and every available place being filled. It was calculated that two thousand people were present at half-past ten o'clock, the great majority being females. Twenty-five cents were charged as an admission fee, besides which, two col- lections were taken up at the two early masses, and once during the ceremony of high mass. Tickets, which were demanded of each individual who en- tered the church, were for sale at the church door, and other places. The following is a copy of the admission card : ' Translation of the relics of St. Quietus, martyr, the Gift of his Holiness, Pope Pius IX., to St. Mary's Church, Hoboken, by the Right Rev. Dr. Barclay, Bishop of Newark, Sunday, June 1st, 1856. Tickets, 25 cents each.' Relative to the relics themselves we were able to obtain the follow- ing particulars : They were presented to Bishop Barclay by Pio Nono, and consisted, so it is said, of all the bones that could be found in the place of the saint's burial, which was in one of the catacombs of Rome, called Predixtatus, where the martys were buried about the second or third century. The vase containing the blood was deposited in the church as also the original slab which covered the niche in which the martyr's remains were deposited in the catacomb. The blood we did not see, but was in- 230 Blind Leaders of the Blind. formed by the pastor that it was in small dry parti- cles. On the slab is the following inscription : ' Quietus qui vixit annisqunique, mensis duo, in pace.' The years of the life of the saint are under- stood to reckon from the date of his conversion to the Christian faith. " Previous to the ceremony the bishop administered confirmation to about two hundred children of both sexes, after which he also administered the conse- crated wafer, and addressed the children on the im- portance of having received their first communion. All the other sacraments, he said, conferred grace, but now they had received the Author of all grace himself. " The chalice used by the bishop is of pure gold, and was presented to the church by the Emperor Napoleon. On entering the church the first object that strikes the eye is the beautiful copy of the cele- brated Madonna of Feligno, by Raphael "A little before eleven o'clock, the procession en- tered the church by the middle door from the tem- porary chapel in the house of the pastor. In front was carried a silk banner, with a picture of the Virgin Mary on one side, and the host and chalice on the other, borne by a young lady, dressed in white satin and a silk veil, and followed - by forty little girls, dressed in white, with red sashes. Next came forty boys with red ribbons round their arms, because red is the color used for martyrs, and each bearing a bouquet. Then followed a cross-bearer, carrying a cross, with two supporters, all these Praying to Old Bones, 231 dressed in dalmatic. Then sixteen young men in red cassocks and surplices, each bearing a lighted candle and bouquet, followed by four deacons and sub- deacons in dalmatic. " Then came the bishop in cape and mitre, carry- ing the shrine containing the bones of St. Quietus, followed by two acolytes, holding up the bishop's train, and twenty-four young men in surplices, carry- ing lighted candles. Then the procession marched up the aisle to the right, passed before the altar — each one stopping to worship the host, (the wafer god) went down the aisle to the left, and passed up the centre aisle, the priests chanting ( Ora pro nobis,' when the young ladies filed off, the bishops, priests, deacons, etc., entering the rails, when the bishop deposited the relics on the high altar. "At this point the priests and congregation all fell down on their knees, and chanted ' Sancte Quieto, ora pro nobis' — ' St. Quietus, pray for us ! ' — incense being burned at this part of the service. The bishop and two priests then advanced to the altar prepared for the relics, where they deposited the shrine, and after kneeling before it for some time in silent ad- miration, proceeded with the celebration of the high mass. Rev. Father Cauvin then raised a blue cur- tain, which being inside a glass case where a hand- some wax image of a child, with a scar on his throat, was discovered, the vase which was said to contain the blood, and the slab, with the saint's epitaph resting in the rear of the figure. The bones were carried in a small golden box, about eight 232 Rome Knows How to Make Money. inches in length and six in breadth, and surmounted by a cross. They consisted of two pieces, each about four inches long, and one and a half in circumfer- ence. The large bits were placed in front of a glass plate, while numerous small pieces, some an inch or so square, and others infinitely smaller, some as diminutive as a pea, appeared behind. No one, of course, came near enough to see them in the hands of the bishop, or on the altar ; but having been ad- mitted to the temporary chapel before the ceremony, our reporter has thus been enabled to describe them. " After the conclusion of the ceremonies of the mass, such as burning incense before the altar and the bishop, bowing to the latter by the priests, some of whom knelt and kissed the hand which he most graciously extended to them, the bishop arose, and with mitre on head, and cross in hand, delivered an address of which we insert the following extracts. But we will omit the Bishop's address, except three or four lines, as a specimen of his lurid reasoning : 1 Of our saint, as I have said, we know nothing, except that his name was Quietus, and that he died for Christ. But if the early records, many of which were destroyed, could be found, no doubt we should know all about him ! ! ' " The reader can easily judge whether this perform- ance, exhibited in New Jersey, in sight of the great City of New York, and in the year of our Lord, 1856, was a heathen, or a Christian affair. No doubt most intelligent people will say that such a performance was purely heathen, even to the Worse than Highway Robbery. 233 praying to those rotten old bones, and the whole thing a disgrace to the age, and to the country in which we live. But with " Tickets 25 cents Each," and several collections during the day, it was a good pecuniary investment for Virgin Mary's Church. Less than two years ago, a Romish Church in New York City, being very anxious to " raise the wind," imported from somewhere the arm bone of St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. Arch- bishop Corrigan, of New York, says that at least twenty-five thousand people visited this old bone. Thousands of superstitious people paid their money for the privilege of kissing the box in which the old bone is kept. The New York newspapers con- tained almost daily accounts of the crowds that attended the fortunate Church, and of the marvel- lous cures effected by the useful old bone. The names and addresses of many who were cured were printed; but when reporters and others called at the houses specified, to see the lucky persons who had been miraculously cured by this old bone, the persons could never be seen. They always happened to be " out," or " engaged." But the Church that got up this exhibition did a good thing for itself, clearing in a little while, it is said, more than $20,000. And this fraud, and deception, and rob- bery of the people went on for weeks right under the eyes of the police and the judges of the city, and no one was sent to the State prison, as they deserved to have been, and not one of the robbers was indicted 234 The Holy House of Loretto. or arrested, while many a poor man, out of employ- ment, and driven almost to despair on account' of his starving wife and children, were put in jail for stealing the value of a loaf of bread. But then it is not lawful to interfere with religion you know ! And St. Anne's old bone is still on its travels from place to place, working miracles, and filling the priests'' pockets. 2. "Lying wonders " along the line of marvellous events, that the poor papists are taught to believe are miraculous, will now engage our attention for a little. For ages the faithful have been taught to be- lieve in the miraculous translation of "the Holy House of Loretto." Within a few months a pam- phlet has been published in Montreal, Canada, with the approval of the bishop and priests, entitled, "The Miraculous Translation of the House of the Holy Virgin from Nazareth to Loretto, in 1294." The immediate object of the publication is to let the faithful of Canada know that a fac-simile of the former residence of the Holy Family is now on exhibition for a small fee, in the serial chapel of the Church of Our Lady of Bonsecours, Montreal. The miracle is said to have occurred in 1291. The house of the Holy Family was in danger of being destroyed by the Saracen infidels, and on the night of May 10th, it was miraculously raised from its foundations, and translated by angels into Dalmatia. Early in the morning some peasants of that place discovered on a small hill a house without founda- tions, which they knew had not been there before. The Holy House Takes Another Start. 235 The astonishment of the peasants was increased upon beholding, the next day, their venerable bishop, who had come to visit the wonder, and who had been confined to his bed with an incurable disease for the space of three years. To prove the truth of this apparition Our Lady had appeared to him and restored him to health. This miracle produced the liveliest feelings of gratitude in Dalmatia. The Governor of Dalmatia, Nicholas Frangipanni, and the Emperor Rodolph de Habs- bourgh, ordained that a committee of wise and pru- dent men should visit the site of the holy house in Palestine, who found that the house had really been removed. On the night of December 10th, 1294, the house again disappeared. Transported by angels across the Adriatic Sea, it was deposited in the woods near the city of Recanati, where it appeared in the midst of the astonished shepherds. The miracles wrought by this Holy House while at Recanati, did much to convert heretics and sceptics ; but on the 7th of September, 1295, the angels again took it up and carried it to Loretto, in Italy, where it has remained to this day. In this house is also shown the holy porringer, in which, they gravely assert, the pap was made for the infant Jesus ! The pilgrims who visit this holy house regard it as a special favor to obtain a chaplet or a rosary that has been shaken in this wonderful porringer, duly certified by the priest, or an inch square of the Virgin's old veil, which is changed every year ; and if fortunate enough to obtain them they sacredly 236 The Cow Jumped over the Moon. preserve these treasures, which they regard as pre- servatives against witchcraft and other calamities. The holy house and image of the Virgin are hung around with votive offerings, some valuable, such as golden hearts, chains with precious stones, silver and gilt angels, etc., which have been contributed by rich devotees, besides multitudes of other offer- ings, the gifts of the poorer pilgrims. A writer in referring to this " lying wonder," humorously says : " This ridiculous fable of the journey through the air of the Holy House, porringer and all, irre- sistably reminds one of the famous feat recorded by Mother Goose, about " the cow that jumped over the moon," and " the dish that ran off with the spoon." And yet, incredible as it may seem, the great body of Romanists, amidst the light of this nineteenth century, profess actually to believe this most absurd of all impostures; and a regular establishment of priests is maintained, with an annual revenue of many thousands of dollars, the proceeds of the exhibition. A small pebble, picked up in the house, has been sold for ten dollars ; and an unfortunate mouse that concealed itself under the Virgin's dress, for as much as would purchase an ox, and after- ward embalmed by the purchaser and kept as a preservative against diseases and accidents." " The Litany of the Lady of Loretto " may be found in " The Garden of the Soul," (page 114), and in most other Romish prayer books. Many Protestants, in their simplicity, say, when these pious frauds are referred to, " 0, such things Another Lying Wonder. 237 were done, no doubt, in the dark ages ; but Rome has changed." No ! Rome has not changed. Her boast is that she is infallible, and infallibility can- not change. We are speaking of " lying wonders" that are being wrought by Rome's juggling priests at this very time. One of these stupendous frauds of modern invention is what is called the " Holy Coat of Treves." A pretty full account of this pious fraud is contained in the following letter written by Professor G. de Felice, dated Montauban, November 24th, 1844. " It would be difficult to imagine anything more scandalous, more disgusting, more contrary to the spirit of the gospel, than the popish farce recently en- acted at Treves, a city of Germany, belonging now to the kingdom of Prussia. The clergy of Treves pretend to have in their hands the seamless coat of Jesus Christ (John xix : 23, 24), and they made a formal exhibition of it from the 8th of August last to the 6th of October, inviting all Romanists to come, and see, and touch, this precious relic. Some journals say that eleven hundred thousand pilgrims responded to this call. The most moderate compu- tation says the number was at least five hundred thou- sand. "What a striking proof that the church of Rome shows the same spirit in all ages, the same conduct, the same contempt of the common sense of man- kind, and the same disposition to deceive miserably the consciences of men ! In the nineteenth cen- tury, in the heart of all Europe, by the side of the 238 Ambitious and Greedy Priests. flourishing literary institutions of Germany, where a thousand periodical journals are daily relating all the news, are priests who dare, in the face of heaven and earth, to exhibit an old bit of cloth, which they call our Saviour's coat ! and they promise a plenary indulgence to all who will come to view it ! and they assert that this relic will work miracles ! and a million of people are found flocking from all parts to countenance this absolute sacrilege. Oh ! let us not be so proud of what we call the intelligence of our age. Gross darkness still covers the people. There are still thousands, millions, of unhappy men, who are the dupes of ambitious and greedy priests. " If we were told that in the interior of Africa the degraded natives prostrated themselves before a fetish, or that on the banks of the Ganges a blind multitude sought the pardon of their sins by wor- shipping idols, it would seem credible to us, be- cause those poor creatures have never heard the name of Jesus Christ. But that in a church pre- tending to be Christian, and even more Christian than all others, such idolatries should occur, that they should be sanctioned by bishops, cardinals, even the Pope himself, would seem incredible at first view ; we should require most authentic evi- dence to believe this fact ; and now we ask, how can reasonable and intelligent men remain in a church which has sunk so low ? Will not a sense of shame force them to disown a clergy who speculate so imprudently upon the stupidity of the mass of the people ? The Holy Coat of Treves. 239 " Cicero said that two soothsayers of Rome could not meet without smiling. I presume it is so with the priests of Treves. No, they would not dare to affirm, with their hands on their hearts, that they believe this bit of old cloth is the real coat of Jesus Christ ! Be this as it may, the invitation was made to all Romanists, and on the 18th of August the Bishop of Treves performed mass in his pontifical robes, and afterward exhibited the seamless coat. All the parishes in the city made a pompous pro- cession. The civil and military authorities, the students of college, the school children, the me- chanics, tradesmen, all attended. In the evening the houses were illuminated. The soldiers were led by their officers before the relic, with their colors lowered. Three hundred prisoners asked permis- sion to see the holy garment, and they came with great gravity and compunction. During the whole exhibition the cathedral was open from five o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock at night, and it was constantly filled with an immense crowd. " Pilgrims came from all countries, chiefly from Germany, and the eastern frontiers of France. They were for the most part peasants, who with their vicar at their head, looked at this pagan spectacle. The city of Treves presented, during the exhibition, a lively scene. In all the streets and public places processions were continually passing. Ordinarily the pilgrims marched two and two, and chanted a monotonous litany. All the hotels were crowded. Extensive wooden barracks were erected at the gates 240 Holy Thieves and Robbers. of the city, and there, for a penny or two a head, the pilgrims found a little straw to lie upon. At two o'clock in the morning the noise began again, and continued till a very advanced hour of the night. Play actors of all sorts established themselves at Treves, and ever}^ day the theatres were opened to amuse the strangers. There were panoramas, dio- ramas, menageries, puppet shows, all the diversions which are found in France at fairs. Everywhere mirth and revelry abounded, wholly unlike the composed and pious feelings inspired by the per- formance of a pious duty. " Let us now accompany the pilgrims to the cathedral. At the bottom of the nave or an altar brilliantly lighted, is the relic, in a golden box. Steps placed at each side lead to it. The pilgrims approach, mount the steps, and pass their hand through an oval aperture in the box to touch the coat of the Lord. Two priests sitting near the relic receive the chaplets, medals, hoods, and other articles of the faithful, and put them in contact with the marvellous coat, because mere contact is a means of blessing. Objects which have touched the relic are consecrated, sanctified ; they then become holy chaplets, holy medals, etc. ; and after this ceremony the pilgrims go away rejoicing, thinking they have received the remission of all their sins. It is need- less to say that this exhibition was distinguished by numerous miracles. Has not Rome miracles always at her service ? Is not her whole history filled with striking prodigies ? Better than a Gold Mine. 241 " This exhibition, of course, brought a great amount of money to the priests. This is the true explanation of the riddle. It is estimated that the offerings of the faithful amounted to five hundred thousand francs (one hundred thousand dollars), in the space of six weeks, without reckoning the 80,000 medals of the Virgin which were sold, and the profits from the sale of chaplets and other objects of devotion. Even now, in all the towns of France, the priests employ persons, especially women, to sell at an exorbitant price a thousand petty articles which have touched the holy coat I such as — ribbons, bits of cloth, cotton and silk, some of which are shaped like the coat, besides crucifixes and images, in wood, or in glass. The clergy have monopolized all the old rags in the neighborhood of Treves, and sell them for their weight in gold, and they find dupes weak enough to purchase these amulets ! The product of this traffic, added to the offerings of the pilgrims, will be, perhaps, from one to two millions of francs. "We mention, however, one honorable exception among the Romish clergy. A German priest, named John Rouge, has published a letter, addressed to the Bishop of Treves, which has produced much sensa- tion. Fifty thousand copies of this letter were sold in a few days. All Germany exulted as if they heard the voice of a new Luther. It is said that this bold and fearless priest has been summoned before the ecclesiastical courts, and is to be deposed from the priesthood. I give you some extracts from this protest. He says : c What would have seemed till 242 A Brave Priest now a fable, a fiction, Bishop Arnold, of Treves, pre- senting to the adoration of the faithful a garment called the coat of Christ ; you have heard it, Chris- tians of the nineteenth century ; you know it, men of Germany ; you know it, spiritual and temporal governors of the German people — it is no longer fable, or fiction, it is a real fact Truly we can here apply the words : ( Whoever can believe in such things without losing his reason has no reason to lose. 1 " The author of the protest then points out the dan- gers to which pilgrims were exposed who visited this relic. " This anti-christian spectacle," he says, " is but a snare laid for superstition, formalism, fanaticism ; to plunge men into vicious habits. Such is the only benefit which the exhibition of the holy coat, whether genuine or not, could produce. And the man who offers this garment — a human work — as an object of adoration ; who perverts the religious feelings of the credulous, ignorant, and suffering multitudes ; who thus opens a door to superstition and its train of vices ; who takes the money and the bread of the poor starving people ; who makes the German nation a laughing-stock to all other nations — this man is a bishop, a German bishop : Bishop Arnold, of Treves ! " Bishop Arnold, of Treves ! I turn to you, and I conjure you as a priest, as a teacher of the people, and in the name of her rulers ; I conjure you to put an end to this Pagan exhibition of the holy coat ; to take away this garment from public view, and not to let this evil become greater than it is already. A Well Deserved Rebuke. 243 " Do you not know — as a bishop yon must know, that the founder of the Christian religion left to his disciples and their successors, Not His Coat, But His Spirit. His coat, Bishop Arnold, of Treves, was given to his executioners ! "Do you not know — as a bishop you ought to know, that Christ has said, " God is a spirit, and they that ivorship him must worship him in spirit and in truth f" "Do you not know — as a bishop you ought to know, the Gospel expressly forbids the adoration of images and relics of every kind ; that the christians of the apostolic age, and of the first three centuries, would never suffer an image or a relic in their churches ; that it is a Pagan superstition, and that the Fathers of the first three centuries reproached the Pagans on this account ? "Be not misled by the great concourse of visi- tors. Believe me, that while hundreds of thou- sands of pilgrims go to Treves, millions of others groan in anger and bitterness over the indignity of such an exhibition. And this anger exists not in this or that class, this or that party only, it exists among all, and everywhere, even in the very bosom of the Catholic clergy, and the judgment will come sooner than you think. Already, history takes her pen ; she holds up your name, Arnold, of Treves, to the contempt of the present age and posterity, and stigmatizes you as The Tetzel of the Nineteenth Century ! " In a subsequent letter, addressed to the Romanists of Germany, and dated on the New Year of 1845, 244 "Holy Coat, Pray for Us." Rouge mentions a fact which sets this gross popish imposture in the most ludicrous point of view, and challenges his opponents to deny it — that pilgrims to this mavellous piece of old cloth have been heard in numbers to offer this prayer, " Holy coat I pray for us /" And this in the nineteenth century, and in Germany, one of the most enlightened nations in the world, and in the name of the holy religion of our Lord Jesus Christ ! "Holy coat ! pray for us ! " "Lying wonders." Such is popery. This faithful and fearless man, as might have been expected, was degraded from the priesthood and excommunicated. CHAPTER XII. " Lying Wonders," Continued. "And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs and lying wonders." This is the way in which Paul speaks of the Antichrist ; and we have advanced far enough in this examination to see how exactly this prophecy has its fulfilment in the Church of Rome. We could fill a volume, or volumes, with examples of the " lying wonders " that enter so largely into the history of the Romish Church, and that have brought millions of money into her yawning coffers. And these shameful frauds and deceptions are not merely things of the past, for, as we have seen, they are practiced at the present day. It was only six months ago, December 2, 1895, that the New York Herald contained the following report of a discourse by Archbishop Corrigan. The Herald says: " After the solemn high mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday, Archbishop Corrigan preached on his recent visit to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico, where he attended the centenary ceremonies. He said the shrine was to Mexico what Our Lady of Lourdes was to France. More than one hundred thousand persons attended the services, the most noteworthy feature of which was crowning of the picture of Madonna with a crown valued at $25,000. Archbishop Corrigan explained the character of the picture, and recounted the his- 245 246 Feeding Sheep on Chaff. tory of the miracle to which the scene owed its origin, much as it has already been told in the Herald. He dwelt at length on the wonders of the cape, on which had been imprinted a miraculous picture of the Virgin. More than three hundred years have passed, he said, and the imprint has retained its wonderful fresh- ness. The cape is made of the "maguey" plant, peculiar to Mexico, and is woven loosely like a net. For centuries it has been a puzzle to scientists and artists. An imitation of it, painted by an artist named Raphael Gutierrez, became discolored after ten years, yet the original remains unchanged after the lapse of centuries. It is encased in an immense solid gold frame. It was upon this, he said, that the crown, studded with diamonds and other precious stones was placed, while hosannas arose from the throats of the thousands present. He closed his dis- course with a panegyric of the Madonna, who, he said, had twice appeared on earth to show her love for the Catholic Church." However splendid and costly the St. Patrick's Cathedral may appear in its external grandeur, and internal finishings and furnishings, the spectacle presented in that great Church on the first Sunday in December, 1895, was such as might well cause a real Christian to blush with shame, and almost cause tears to fill even angels' eyes. In the pulpit stands a man calling himself a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus, and a successor of the humble apostle Peter, to whom the Saviour said : " Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs." This archbishop, clothed Virgin Mary an Artist. 247 in an outfit far more heathen than christian, sees before him a mighty host of people on the way to eternity, and the judgment seat of Christ. He claims to be the shepherd, and the sheep have come to be fed at the shepherd's hands. The Lord Jesus Christ, in his last commission to his apostles, said : " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark xvi : 15, 16). In these words of the Master he declares the true work of the Chris- tian minister, and the true conditions of salvation. Instead of preaching the gospel, the Archbishop of New York, a professed shepherd of the flock, undertakes to instruct the minds and feed the souls of the people with " a cock and bull story " of a pretended miracle, wrought by the Virgin Mary, who had become an artist since she went to heaven, and painted her own portrait on " a cape made of the maguey plant, peculiar to Mexico." And this veracious and holy priest of God declares that the painting of that " cape " was certainly a miracle because the colors retain their original freshness, while the colors of a picture painted as an imitation of it " became discolored after ten years ; " which only proves that the artist who sought to imitate the pic- ture did not understand his trade ; for the frescoes of Raphael, who was born more than four hundred years ago, " retain all their original freshness." So this proof that the picture was painted miraculously is no proof at all. Did, or does, Archbishop Cor- 248 A Depraved* Archbishop. rigan believe for one moment that the Virgin Mary, or any other celestial being, painted that " cape," especially when he teaches that she has her hands full and her time fully occupied with presenting the petitions of two hundred millions of " the faith- ful " that are coming to her day and night from every part of the world ? Whenever did this dear, busy woman find time to learn to paint pictures ? This humble (/ /) minister of the gospel (/ /) says that " the most noteworthy feature of the occasion was the crowning of the picture of the Madonna with a crown valued at $25,000." Just think of it ! Twenty-five thousand dollars expended in providing, not for the instruction of the ignorant — and ninety- three per cent, of the people of Mexico are set down as being unable to read and write — not to provide food for the starving people, but to buy a golden crown to be set on the head of a silly and worthless " picture ; " and this money, or a large part of it, w T rung from the ignorant and superstitious poor, who labor for from six cents a day for laborers, and twenty-five to thirty cents a day for skilled mechanics ! " Archbishop Corrigan," says the New York Herald, " explained the character of the picture, and re- counted the history of the miracle" The Arch- bishop, while " recounting the history of the miracle" must have looked off into space, lest he should meet the eye of a brother priest and be betrayed into an audible smile, or a downright outburst of laughter. But no doubt His Eminence managed to keep a Heathenism in St. Patrick's Cathedral. 249 straight face while " recounting the nature of the miracle" restraining his risibilities until here turned to the fisherman's — that is to say, to the Episcopal palace. The Archbishop, in his eloquent sermon (?) de- clared that " more than one hundred thousand persons attended the services." Ah ! that was the saddest part of the whole affair ! " More than one hundred thousand persons- attended the services ;" joyfully exclaims this humble, and holy minister of — whom ? Of what ? This vast multitude, equal to the entire population of a great city, decoyed away from their homes, their business, and their serious occupations, for the silly and contemptible purpose of crowning a picture with a " golden crown, studded with diamonds, and other precious stones ! " What op- portunities for disease ! what temptations to sin ! But each one of this vast multitude is expected to make an offering to the priests ! Ah ! yes : that is it ! An offering ! An offering ! The Holy Church must be supported ; and the holy priests can perform the farce of the Mass better ; and be better fitted to con- fess their female penitents, if their stomachs are filled with the good things, and their pockets with gold. Offerings! Yes : this is the explanation and purpose of the vast imposture ! We are further informed by the Archbishop — the present Archbishop of New York — that "the picture is encased in an immense solid gold frame. It was upon this, he said, that the crown, studded with diamonds, and other precious stones, was 250 St. Patrick's a Heathen Temple. placed ; while hosannas arose from the throats of the thousands of persons present." Had the Archbishop been a true minister of Jesus Christ, those " hosan- nas " would have filled him with grief rather than exultation. Hosanna is an exclamation of praise to God. But hosannas offered to God on such an occasion, and by such a crowd, would have been sacrilege, and well nigh blasphemy, for what had God to do with such a heathenish and iniquitous performance? Those hosannas were undoubtedly offered in worship to the picture. In any case it was a most melancholy exhibition of heathenism ! The Herald says : The Archbishop " closed his discourse with a panegyric of the Madonna, who, he said, had twice appeared on earth to show her love for the Catholic Church." A still more melancholy performance than that at Guadalupe, in Mexico, was the spectacle presented in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, on De- cember 1st, 1895. There, in a temple supposed to have been dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, stands a man taking advantage of the ignor- ance and superstition of the people, deliberately seeking to render that ignorance more dense, and that superstition more ruinous, by giving utterance to statements that he certainly knew to be ridiculous fables and monstrous falsehoods. No sane man can for a moment suppose that the Archbishop of New York believed a word of what he said, beyond the description of the horrible festival. This spec- tacle of a professed priest of God, deliberately teach- Shall We Return to the Dark Ages ? 251 ing the most degrading heathenism in the very Metropolis of the most advanced and intelligent city in the world, at the very close of the nineteenth century, is most discouraging and appalling, and American citizens cannot too soon be aroused to the fact that all the priests, and bishops, and arch- bishops, and cardinals, and all the Romish newspa- pers of the land, aided by the so-called " Legate," who is no legate at all, although his bastard flag in Washington insults our glorious Stars and Stripes, — all these have but one purpose, and that is to drag this nation back, so far as possible, to that golden age of Popery , called by all others, the dark ages. How shamefully the Romanists have treated the Virgin Mary ! They degrade her while pretending to honor her, and while glorifying and deifying her, they insult her. All Protestant Christians love and honor her, whom God himself so greatly honored and distin- guished, by choosing her from among all the women of the human race to be the mother of the world's Redeemer. Marvellous indeed was the ap- parition that appeared to Mary, the sweet and modest maid of Nazareth, and sweet and simple is the story, as the Evangelist, Luke, records it: — " And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, called Naza- reth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David ; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, ' Hail thou that art highly favored ; the Lord is with thee : blessed art thou among women.' " 252 The Immaculate Conception, All true christians must feel the profoundest respect and admiration for her whom God chose to confer such unspeakable blessings on our fallen race, and this respect and admiration are accorded her by all Protestant believers ; while conferring on her spurious titles, and false dignities, — to call her the " Mother of God" and to make her the chief mediator in heaven, and to offer worship and prayers to her— all this is to grieve her, if a spirit in heaven can be grieved, and it is also an insult to the Father and the Son. How infinitely absurd, and even blasphemous, is it for Romanists to call Mary the " Mother of God ! " It is true that Jesus Christ was " God manifest in the flesh." He had two natures, and Mary was the mother of " the man, Christ Jesus." The God nature, having existed from eternity, could have no mother. This title, then, is one of the " lying wonders " of the Romish Antichrist. In December, 1854, the Roman Catholic Church gave the lie to Almighty God, and insulted the intel- ligence of the world by decreeing the dogma of the "Immaculate Conception" of the Virgin Mary. This was done at the instigation and command of Pope Pius IX. It would be interesting to insert in this place the entire decree as formulated and given to the world by said Pope ; but we can only quote a few of the closing sentences, which will be sufficient to show the absurdity and wickednees of the whole decree. The Pope says : " Let all the Children of the Catholic Church, The Horrible Definition. 253 most dear to us, hear these our words, and with a more ardent zeal of piety, religion and love, pro- ceed to worship, invoke, and pray to the most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived with- out original sin, and let them fly with entire con- fidence to this most sweet mother of mercy and grace, in all dangers, difficulties, doubts, and fears. For nothing is to be feared, and nothing is to be despaired of under her guidance, under her aus- pices, under her favor, under her protection, who, bearing toward us a maternal affection, and taking up the business of our salvation, is solicitous for the whole human race, and appointed by God the queen of heaven and earth, and exalted above all the choirs of angels, and orders of saints, standing at the right hand of Jesus Christ, our Lord, inter- cedes most powerfully, and obtains what she asks, and cannot be frustrated. Finally, in order that this, our definition of the immaculate conception of the most blessed Virgin Mary, may be brought to the knowledge of the universal church, we will these letters apostolic to stand for a perpetual remem- brance of the thing, commanding that two tran- scripts or printed copies, transcribed by the hand of some notary public, and authenticated by the seal of a person of ecclesiastical rank appointed for the purpose, the same faith shall be paid which would be paid to these presents if they were exhibited or shown. Let no man interfere with this our declara- tion, pronunciation, and definition, or oppose or con- tradict it with presumptuous rashness. If any should 254 Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth ! presume to assail it, let him know that he will incur the indignation of the Omnipotent God, and of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord, 1854, the sixth of the ides of December, in the ninth year of our ponti- ficate." Pius IX., Pope, Although in these few sentences we quote but a small part of the quite lengthy document in which Pope Pius IX. promulgated his decree of the im- maculate conception, they are sufficient to show, very clearly, that the Pope sets himself most de- cidedly against the most positive teachings of the Almighty, as made known to us in the holy scrip- tures. The Pope declares that Mary was " appointed by God the queen of heaven and earth." When was that appointment made ? There is not a word written within the covers of the Bible to the effect that God ever made such an appointment. It is one of the lying traditions of the papacy. God himself declares that He is " our refuge and strength, a present help in time of trouble." God himself says — " Call upon Me in the time of trouble, and I will deliver thee." In direct and insulting opposition to this word of God the Pope says — " Pray to the most blessed Virgin Mary .... fly with active con- fidence to this most sweet mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, doubts and fears." God says : — " Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God." The Pope says : " Proceed to worship the Virgin Mary." And so the Pope "exalts himself The Blasphemous Decree. 255 above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. " God says of our Lord Jesus Christ : " He ever liveth to make intercession for us." But the Pope says " that Mary intercedes most powerfully, and ob- tains what she asks, and cannot be frustrated." How insolent ! How horrible ! How blasphemous is all this ! And how clearly do the words of the Pope himself declare him to be Antichrist ! Here again we see the Little Horn " speaking great things against the Most High." Still more insulting to the Great Author of our salvation are the following words of the Pope, in the same paper : " For nothing is to be feared, and nothing is to be despaired of, under her guidance, under her auspices, under her favor, under her pro- tection, who, bearing toward us a maternal affection, and taking up the business of our salvation, is solicitous for the whole human race." There is not one word in the holy scriptures about Mary "taking up the busi- ness of our salvation." Jesus himself declared : " The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." And again : " No man cometh unto the Father but by me" It is the plain teaching of the Bible, from beginning to end, that it was Jesus " who took up the business of our salvation," and not Mary. Here, then, the so-called infallible Pope cunningly holds up Mary as the hope of the lost, and not Christ, and in all the litanies to Mary, as found in all their books of devotion, the poor deceived Romanists are taught to pray to Mary as " The refuge of sinners," " Comforter of the 256 More "Lying Wonders" afflicted/' "Cause of our joy," — prayers that should be addressed to Christ alone. How certain is it that the Pope is the greatest enemy of God and man. While Romanists pray to Mary and worship her as if she were God, and offer more prayers to her than to Him, they, as we have said, degrade and dishonor her by the absurd stories they tell about her, and the silly tricks they attribute to her, and which they magnify into miracles. The following are quoted from Dowling's " History of Romanism :" 1. " A knight to whom Dominic presented a rosary, arrived at such a perfection of piety that his eyes were opened, and he saw an angel take every bead as he dropped it, and carry it to the Queen of Heaven, who immediately magnified it, and built with the whole string a palace upon a mountain in Paradise. 2. " When Dominic entered Toulouse, after one of his interviews with the Virgin, all the bells of the city rang to welcome him, untouched by human hands ! But the heretics neither heeded this, nor regarded his earnest exhortation to them to abjure their errors and make use of the rosary. To punish their obstinacy a dreadful storm of thunder and lightning set the whole firmament in a blaze ; the earth shook, and the howlings of affrighted animals were mingled with the shrieks and groans of the terrified multitudes. They crowded to the church where Dominic was preaching as to an asylum. i Citizens of Toulouse/ said he, ' I see before me a hundred and fifty angels, sent by Christ and his mother to punish you ! This tempest is the right Wonderful Dominic ! 257 hand of God ! There was an image of the Virgin in the church, who raised her arm in a threatening attitude as he spoke.' c Hear me/ he continued, 1 that arm shall not be withdrawn till you appease her by reciting the rosarj^.' New outcries now arose. The devils yelled because of the torment this in- flicted on them. The terrified Toulousians prayed and scourged themselves, and told their beads with such good effect that the storm at length ceased. Dominic, satisfied with their repentance, gave the word, and down fell the arm of the image ! 3. "In one of his visits to heaven, Dominic was carried to the throne of Christ, where he beheld many religionists of both sexes, but none of his own order. This so afflicted him that he began to lament aloud, and to inquire why they did not appear in bliss. Upon this, Christ, laying his hand on the Virgin's shoulder, said, 1 1 have committed your order (the Dominicans) to my mother's care,' and she, lifting up her robe, discovered an innumerable company of Dominicans, friars, and nuns, nestled under it ! 4. " The next of these foolish legends is almost too impious to be repeated, but these are only some of the ' lying wonders ' on which their priests and their books undertake to feed the minds and souls of the ignorant and superstitious Romanists. The Dominicans — the inquisitors, and the most blood- thirsty men that ever cursed this world — tell us that 'the Virgin appeared to Dominic in a cave near Tou- louse ; that she called him her son and her husband ; 258 Tricks Attributed to Mary, that she took him in her arms and bared her breasts to him that he might drink their nectar ! She told him that were she a mortal she could not live with- out him, so excessive was her love ; and even now, immortal as she was, she should die for him, did not the Almighty support her, as he had done at the Crucifixion ! At another visit she espoused him, and the saints, and the Redeemer himself came down to witness the marriage ceremony !' " In this last story the Virgin Mary is dishonored and really accused of immorality. But such are the inconsistencies of popery. Similar to this is a fact stated by that grand and noble man, Father Chiniquy. He says : " Unfortu- nately, many of the books placed in our hands by our superiors to confirm our faith, form our char- acter, and sustain our piety and our confidence in the dogmas of the Church of Rome, had a fright- ful resemblance to the histories I had read of the gods and godesses. The miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary often appeared to be only a reproduction of the tricks and deceits by which the priests of Jupiter and Venus and Minerva, etc., used to obtain their ends and grant the requests of their worshippers. Some of those miracles of the Virgin Mary equalled, if they did not surpass, in absurdity and immor- ality, what my theology taught us among the most hideous accounts of the heathen gods and godesses. I could cite hundreds of such miracles which shocked my faith, and caused me to blush in secret, at the conclusion to which I was forced to come in com- The Glories of Mary. 259 paring the worship of ancient and modern Rome. I will only quote three of these modern miracles, which are found in one of the books, the best approved by the Pope, entitled, " The Glories of Mary." First Miracle. " The great favors bestowed by the Holy Virgin upon a man named Beatrix, of the convent of Frontebraldo, show how merciful she is to sinners. The fact is related by Cesanus and by Father Rho. This unfortunate nun, having been possessed by a criminal passion for a young man, determined to leave the convent and elope with him. She was the doorkeeper of the convent, and having placed the keys at the feet of a statue of the Virgin, she boldly went out, and lived the life of a prostitute for fifteen years, in a far off place. One day, acci- dentally meeting the purveyor of the convent, and thinking she would not be recognized by him, she asked him news of Sister Beatrix. " ' I know her well/ answered this man. ' She is a holy nun, and mistress of the novices.' "At these words Breatrix was confused ; but to understand what it meant she changed her clothing, and going to the convent inquired after Sister Beatrix. " The Holy Virgin instantly appeared to her in the form of the statue, at whose feet she had laid the keys at her departure. The Divine Mother spoke to her in this wise : i Know, Beatrix, that in order to preserve your honor, I have taken your place, and done your duty aver since you left the convent. 260 The Idling Head. My daughter, return to God, and be penitent, for my Son is still waiting for you. Try by the holiness of thy life to preserve the good reputation which I have earned you.' Having thus spoken, the Holy Virgin disappeared. Beatrix re-entered the monas- tery, donned her religious dress, and grateful for the mercies of Mary, she led the life of a saint." (Glories of Mary, chap, vi., sec. 2.) Second Miracle. " Rev. Father Rierenberg relates that there lived in a city called Aragona, a beautiful and noble girl by the name of Alexandra, whom two young men loved passionately. One day, mad- dened by the jealousy one had of the other, they fought together, and both were killed. Their parents were so infuriated at the young girl, that they killed her, cut her head off, and threw her into a well. A few days after, St. Dominic, passing by the place, came to the well, and was inspired to cry out, 'Alex- andra, come here P The head of the deceased im- mediately placed itself on the edge of the well and entreated St. Dominic to hear its confession. Having heard it, the Saint gave her the communion in the presence of the great multitude of people, and then commanded her to tell them why she had re- ceived so great a favor. " She answered that although she was in a state of mortal sin when she was decapitated, yet as she had a habit of reciting the holy rosary, the Virgin had preserved her life. The head, full of life, re- mained on the edge of the well two days in the presence of a great many people, and then the soul Mary Takes the Place of a Wife. 261 went to purgatory. But fifteen days after this the soul of Alexandra appeared to St. Dominic, bright and beautiful as a star, and told him that one of the surest means of removing souls from purgatory was the recitation of the rosary in their favor." (Glories of Mary, ch. viii.) Third miracle. "A servant of Mary one day went into one of her churches to pray, without tell- ing her husband of it. Owing to a terrible storm, she was prevented from returning home that night. Harassed by the fear that her husband would be angry with her, she implored the Virgin's aid. But on returning home she found her husband full of kindness. After asking her husband a few ques- tions on the subject, she discovered that on that very night the Divine Mother had taken her form and features, and had taken her place in all the affairs of the household. She told her husband of the great miracle, and they both became very much attached to the Holy Virgin." (Glories of Mary. Examples of Protection, 40.) In two at least of those " lying wonders," Mary is represented as doing things that would blast the reputation of any woman in the estimation of all virtuous people. And thus this truly lovely and God-honored woman, beloved by all true christians, has her memory insulted, and her morality im- pugned even while a saint in Heaven ! The chief of all the " lying wonders " of the Romish priesthood is presented in their changing — as they claim — a bit of baked dough into the real 262 Transubstantiation a Fraud. flesh and blood and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In " The Full Catechism of Catholic Re- ligion/' that bears the endorsement of Cardinal Wiseman and Archbishop Hughes, and published by " The Catholic Publication Society/' in 1875, we have the following questions and answers : " What is the Holy Eucharist ? " It is the true Body, and true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is really, and substantially present under the appearances of bread and wine for the nourishment of our souls. " Is there in the Holy Eucharist all that is re- quisite for constituting a Sacrament? " Yes ; there is. 1. The visible sign, i. e. the appear- ance of bread and wine ; 2. The invisible grace, i. e. Jesus Christ Himself, the Author and Dispenser of all graces; and 3. The institution by our Lord Jesus Christ. " 7. What is understood by the appearances of bread and wine ? " All that which of bread and wine are perceived by the senses ; as form, colour, taste, smell, etc. "9. Did Christ also give to the Apostles the power to change bread and wine into His Sacred Flesh and Blood ? " Yes ; He gave them that power with these words, ( Do this for a commemoration of Me! " 10. To whom did this power pass from the Apostles ? " It passed from the Apostles to the Bishops and Priests. A Hideous Blasphemy. 263 " 11. When do the Bishops and Priests exercise this power ? " At Mass, when they pronounce over the bread and wine these words, ' This is My Body, this is My Blood. ? " 12. Is there then, after the consecration, no longer bread and wine on the altar ? " No ; there is then on the altar the true Body, and the true Blood of Jesus Christ under the appear- ances of bread and wine. " This change is properly called l Transubstanti- ation] which means, a real conversion of the whole sub- stance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ our Lord, and of the substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. " 15. When the Priest breaks or divides the Sacred Host, does he also break the Body of Christ ? " No ; he breaks or divides the appearances only ; the Body of Christ itself is present in each part entire and living, in a true, though mysterious manner." This hideous blasphemy of Transubstantiation is even now taught in all the Romish schools, and colleges, and churches, and the Council of Trent declares that every one is bound to believe this blasphemous lie, under pain of eternal damnation ! It is certain that those who do believe it are in far greater danger of eternal damnation than those who do not. This monstrous doctrine blasphemes God, and insults the human intelligence, and belittles the great atonement made on Calvary for the sins of the world. 264 Creating the Creator. The doctrine which requires such pious frauds, as above related, to gain it credence, is so gross an out- rage upon common sense, that no arguments are needed to disprove it. Its very statement is its refu- tation. But it has been a source of immense gain to the treasury of Rome. It raises the clergy to the dignity of being the Creators of their Creator, and hence the secret of its success. It is almost im- possible to quote the horrible impiety of Pope Urban, and Cardinal Biel, without shuddering. " The hands of the Pontiff," said Urban, in a great Roman Council, " are raised to an eminence granted to none of the angels, of Creating the Crea- tor of all Things, and of offering Him up for the sins of the world. This prerogative, as it elevates the Pope above angels, renders pontifical submis- sion to Kings an execration." To all this the Sacred Synod, with the utmost unanimity, responded Amen. Cardinal Biel extends this power to all priests. " He that created me," says the Cardinal, " gave me, if it be lawful to tell, To Create Him- self." This power, he declares, exalts the clergy not only above emperors and angels, but, which is a higher elevation, above the Lady Mary herself. " Her Ladyship," says the Cardinal, " once conceived the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world, while the priest daily calls into existence the same Deity:' And for what purpose is this greatest of all the " lying wonders " of popery insisted on by the Papacy? It is that in what they call the Holy u Lying Wonders " of the Mass. 265 Mass, they may " crucify the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame/' In the " Full Cate- chism of Catholic Religion " from which we have already quoted, we find (p. 266) the following questions and answers : " 26. What, then, is the Mass ? " The Mass is the perpetual Sacrifice of the New Law, in which Christ our Lord offers himself, by the hands of the priest, in an unbloody manner, under the appearance of bread and wine, to His Heavenly Father, as He once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the cross. " 27. What is the difference between the Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Sacrifice of the Cross ? " The Sacrifice of the Mass is essentially the same Sacrifice as that of the Cross ; the only difference is in the manner of offering. " 28. Why is the Sacrifice of the Mass the same Sacrifice as that of the Cross ? " Because in both it is the same who offers, and who is offered, namely, Jesus Christ our Lord. " 29. How is the manner of offering different in both? " On the Cross, Christ offered himself in a bloody manner ; but in the Mass He offers himself in an unbloody manner, whilst He renews the Sacrifice accomplished on the Cross, without suffering or dying any more. " 30. If Christ dies no more, how then can the Sacrifice which He consummated on the Cross, be renewed in the Mass ? 266 A Monstrous Doctrine. " It is renewed because in the Mass Christ offers Himself really and truly under the emblems of the bloody death which He suffered on the Cross, that is, under the appearance of bread and wine." The wickedness of this doctrine of the Mass, and the manner in which it flatly contradicts the Word of God, will be seen by comparing it with the plain statements of Paul, the apostle of Christ. In Heb., chapter ix., Paul says : " Nor yet that He should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others ; for then must he often have suffered since the foun- dation of the world : but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." " So Christ was Once offered to bear the sins of many." And in chapter x. Paul says : " Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Once For All." (ver. 10). " But this man — Christ — after he had offered One sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God." And again : "By One offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." (ver. 14). And the infinite efficacy and sufficiency of that " one offering" on Calvary is the plain teaching of the New Testament, while the priests of Rome insultingly and wickedly deny the efficacy of that one offering of Christ as a sacrifice, by offering him up millions of times in a year. The absurdities connected with this monstrous doctrine of the Mass, make it to appear almost in- credible that any sane man or woman should treat The Papist Swallows His God. 267 it with anything but ridicule or scorn. The poor superstitious papist is bound to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, " whole and entire ; body and soul and divinity," is in each wafer, after the words of consecration by the priest, and yet, although mil- lions of wafers are thus changed into the " real Christ " each day, there is but one Christ. He is bound to believe that after the wafer has been broken by the priest, each part is the whole Christ ; and yet there is but one Christ. His reason, com- mon sense, and all the instincts of his intelligence tell him that what he eats of that wafer is a bit of baked dough ; but he is bound to believe that bit of dough is the " real blood and flesh and bones and divinity of Jesus Christ." He is bound to give the lie to all his bodily senses, sight, touch, smell, taste, etc., — all of which are given to us by our Creator to enable us to distinguish one thing from another, — in order to believe the priestly lie. And believing that what is placed on his tongue by the priest is " the real living body of Christ," he acts the part, and commits the crime of the cannibal by eating human flesh. And worse still : he falls down before the wafer, and worships it as God, and then swallows his God! And the priests of Rome, in this great, free country, dotted all over with schools, and colleges, dare to teach these horrible lies and blasphemies for the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ! We will close this chapter on " lying wonders" by presenting a few, out of hundreds, of the " lying 268 The Wafer Becomes a Child. wonders" wrought by the wafer God, and devoutly believed by millions of the " faithful." The means by which the belief in the wafer God was established by artful monks and priests, were worthy of the doctrine itself. If we are to believe the wondrous legends that are even now to be found in the books read by the faithful, the most marvellous miracles were frequently wrought to testify to the reality of the transmutation effected by those to whom it was given " to create their Creator" Some of them, attested upon oath, swearing upon their sacred vestments, that they had seen the blood trickle in drops, as it does from a human body, from the consecrated wafer, held in the hands of the priests ; and others, that they had received far more ocular demonstration of the change of the bread into the real body of Christ, inasmuch as they had actually seen it thus changed into the Saviour himself, sitting in the form of a little boy upon the altar ! (1.) Petrus Cluniac reports that a certain peasant of Auvergne, a province in France, perceiving that his bees were likely to die, to prevent this mis- fortune was advised to keep the host, after commun- ion, and blow it into one of his hives ; and of a sudden all his bees came forth out of their hives, and ranking themselves in good order, lifted the host up from the ground, and carrying it upon their wings, placed it among the combs ! After this the man went out about his business, and on his return, found that his advice had succeeded contrary to his Bees Erect a Chapel of Wax. 269 expectations, for all his bees were dead. Nay, when he lifted up the hive he saw that the host — or wafer — was turned into a fair child among the honey combs ! and being much astonished at this change, and seeing that this infant seemed to be dead, he took it in his hands, intending to bury it privately in the church, but when he came to do it, he found nothing in his hands, for the infant was vanished away. This thing happened in the county of Clermont, which, for this irreverence, was, awhile after, chastised by divers calamities, which so dis- peopled those parts that they became like a wilder- ness. From which it appears that bees honor the holy host divers ways, by lifting it from the earth, and carrying it into their hives, as it were, in proces- sion." (2) Csesarius reports, " That a certain woman, having received the communion unworthily, car- ried the host to her hives to enrich the stock of bees ; and afterwards, coming again to see her suc- cess, she perceived that the bees, acknowledging their God in the Sacrament, had, with admirable artifice, erected to him a chapel of wax, with its walls, windows, bells and vestry, and within it a chalice, in which they laid the holy body of the Lord Jesus. She could no longer conceal this wonder. The priest, being advised of it, came thither in procession, and he himself heard harmonious music which the bees made flying round about the Sacrament ; and, hav- ing taken it out, he brought it back to the church, certifying that he had seen and heard our Lord acknowledged and praised by these little creatures." 270 Asses Kneel to the Wafer. (3) P. Orlandi, in his History of the Society, says, " That in the sixteenth century, within the Venetian territories, a priest carrying the holy host, without pomp or train, to a sick person, he met, out of the town, some asses going to their pasture, who, perceiving by a certain sentiment what it was which the priest carried, they divided themselves into two companies, on each side of the way, and fell on their knees; whereupon the priest, with his clerk, all amazed, passed between those peaceable beasts, which then rose up as if they would make a pompous show in honor of their Creator, followed the priest as far as the sick man's house, where they waited at the door until the priest came out from it, and did not leave him until he had given them his blessing. Father Simon Rodriguez, one of the first companions of St. Ignatius, who then travelled in Italy, informed himself carefully of this matter, which happened a little while before our first fathers came into Italy, and found that all hap- pened as has been told." (4) Nicholas de Laghi, in his book on the Mira- cles of the Holy Sacrament, says that, "A Jew, blaspheming the Holy Sacrament, dared to say that if the Christians would give it to his dog, he would eat it up without showing any regard to their God. The Christians being very angry at this outrageous speech, and trusting to Providence, had a mind to bring it to a trial ; so, spreading a napkin on the table, they laid on many hosts, among which one only was consecrated. The hungry dog being put A Mule Converts His Master. 271 upon the same table, began to eat them all ; but coming to that which had been consecrated, with- out touching it he kneeled down before it, and after- wards fell with rage upon his master, catching him so closely by the nose that he bit it off with his teeth. The same which St. Matthew warns such like blasphemers, saying, ' Give not that which is holy unto dogs, lest they turn again and rend you.' " (5) "St. Anthony of Padua, disputing one day with one of the most obstinate heretics that denied the truth of the Holy Sacrament, drove him to such a plunge that he desired the saint to prove this truth by some miracle. St. Anthony accepted the condition and said that he would work miracles upon his mule. Upon this the heretic kept her three days without eating or drinking, and the third day the saint, having said mass, took up the host, and made him bring forth the hungry mule, to whom he spoke thus : ' In the name of the Lord I command thee to come and do reverence to thy Creator, and confound the malice of heretics.' While the saint made this discourse to the mule, the heretic sifted out oats to make the mule eat ; but the beast, having more understanding than his master, kneeled before the host, adoring it as its Creator and Lord. This miracle comforted all the faithful and enraged the heretics, except him that disputed with the saint, who was converted to the Catholic faith." (See Dowling's History of Romanism, where many authorities are given.) 272 They Hate\the Truth. Who can doubt that the Pope is " the man of sin, the son of perdition .... whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders ; with all deceivableness of unright- eousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thess., 2). CHAPTER XIII. Unmistakable Marks of Antichrist. In opening the word of God at 1 Timothy, chap- ter 4, we shall find again the " little horn" with a big mouth, " speaking great things against the Most High." Paul says : " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy, hav- ing their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbid- ding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." Paul says : " Some shall depart from the faith." The Greek word here is apostesontai, and is the word from which we derive our word apostasy, and apostatize. The meaning is that they would apostatize from the truth of the Gospel. It does not mean that as indi- viduals they would have been true Christians, but that there would be a departure from the great doc- trines that constitute the Christian faith. The ways in which they would do this are immediately speci- fied, showing what the apostle meant by "departing from the faith." They would "give heed to seduc- ing spirits and doctrines of devils," etc. The word translated " depart from the faith " is the same that, in 2 Thess., 2 : 3, is translated, " a falling away ; an apostasy." The use of the word " some " here does not imply that the number would be small. The meaning is that certain persons would thus 273 274 Giving Heed to Seducing Spirits. " depart from the faith," or that there would be an apostasy of the kind here mentioned, in the last days. From this and the parallel passage in Thes- salonians it would seem there was to be an exten- sive apostasy. "Giving heed to seducing spirits" rather than to the Spirit of God. It would be a part of their system to yield to those spirits that led astray. This is literally true of the Church of Rome, as we have already seen. The spirits here referred to are any that lead astray, and the most obvious and natural construc- tion is to refer it to the agency of fallen spirits. Though it may refer to false teachers, yet, if so, it is rather to them as under the influence of fallen spirits. This may be applied, so far as the phrase- ology is concerned, to any false teaching, but it is evident that the apostle had a specific apostacy in view — some great system that would greatly corrupt the Christian faith ; and the words here should be understood with reference to that. It is true that in all ages men are prone to give heed to seducing spirits ; but the thing referred to here is some grand apostacy, in which the characteristics would be manifested, and the doctrines held, which the apos- tle proceeds immediately to specify. (See Barnes' Notes, on 1 Tim. 4 : 1.) "And doctrines of devils." In both the Old and New Testaments the demons are regarded as evil spirits. Among the ancient Pagans, or heathens, demons were middle powers between the sovereign gods and mortal men. Plato, who must be regarded Doctrines of Devils. 275 as eminent authority on such a subject, declares : " Every demon is a middle being between God and mortal man." The demons were regarded as medi- ators and agents between the gods and men. Plato says : " God is not approached by man ; but all the commerce and intercourse between gods and men is by the mediation of demons." He says: " The demons are the interpreters and conveyors from the gods to men, and from men to the gods, of the supplications and sacrifices, on the one part, and of the com- mands and rewards of sacrifices on the other." Apuleius, a later philosopher, gives a similar descrip- tion : " Demons," says he, " are middle powers, by whom both our desires and deserts pass unto the gods ; they are carriers between men on earth and the gods in heaven : hence of prayers ; thence of gifts : they convey to and fro; hence petitions, thence supplies ; or they are interpreters on both sides, and bearers of salutations, for it would not be for the dignity of the celestial gods to take care of these things." The same Pagan philosopher declares : " All things are done by the will, power, and authority of the celestial gods ; but by the obedi- ence, service, and ministry of the demons." Of these demons there were accounted two kinds. One kind of demons were the souls of men deified, or canonized, after death. So Hesiod, one of the most ancient heathen philosophers, describing that happy race of men who lived in the first and golden age of the world, says that "After this generation were dead, they were by will of the great Jupiter promoted to 276 Demon Worship. be demons, keepers of mortal men, observers of their good and evil works, givers of riches, etc.; and this, he says, is the royal honor they enjoy." Plato concurs with Hesiod, and asserts that, " He and many other poets speak excellently, who affirm that when good men die they attain great honor and dignity, and become demons." The same Plato, in another place, maintains that, " All those who die valiantly in war are of Hesiod's golden generation, and are made demons ; and we ought forever after- ward to serve and adore their sepulchres, as the sepulchres of demons. The same also we decree that when any of those who were judged excellently good in life, die either of old age, or in any other manner." There is another, a higher kind of demons, such as had never been the souls of men, nor ever dwelt in mortal bodies. Thus Apulius informs us, " There is another and higher kind of demons, who were always free from the encumbrances of the body, and out of this higher order Plato supposeth that guardians were appointed unto them." Ammonius, likewise in Plutarch, reckons two kinds of demons, " Souls separated from bodies, or such as had never inhabited bodies at all." These latter demons may correspond with angels, and the former with canonized saints. According to Plutarch, " It was a very ancient opinion that there are certain wicked and malignant demons, who envy good men, and endeavor to hinder them in the pursuit of virtue, but they should be partakers at last of greater hap- Papists are Demon Worshippers. 277 piness than they enjoy. (See Newton on the Proph- ecies, p. 421 , etc.) In studying Roman Catholic history, and even the present practice of Romanists, we find that their worship of the Virgin Mary, and other canon- ized " saints," is in imitation of the belief and prac- tice of the pagans, and is strictly heathenish ! It cor- responds entirely with the reverance paid by the heathen to the spirits of heroes, or to demi-gods. The saints are supposed to have extraordinary power with God, and their aid is implored as inter- cessors. The following extracts from the catechism of Dr. James Butler, approved and recommended by Dr. Kendrick, " Bishop of Philadelphia," ex- presses the general views of Roman Catholics on this subject. Q. " How do Catholics distinguish between the honor they give to God, and the honor they give to the saints, when they pray to God and the saints ? A. " Of God alone they beg grace and mercy ; and of the saints they only ask the assistance of their prayers. (This is not true, as is proved in their " Mission Book," p. 161, etc., where Mary is in- voked as " the great Advocate of sinners ;" an office ascribed to Jesus Christ alone (1 John 2 : 2). She is invoked as " the refuge and salvation of every crea- ture." As " the solace of the weak, the comfort of the afflicted ; the sure asylum of all who are in danger ; the source of grace; the Mediatrix between God and man^ And in the same prayer to Mary are these words : " I render thee my humble homage, 0, great 278 Mary Delivers from Hell. Queen, and I thank thee for all the graces which thou hast bestowed upon me until now, particularly for having delivered me from hell" etc. Here titles and offices which, in the holy scriptures, are ascribed to our Saviour alone, are ascribed, without the least authority, to Mary. Surely this is not to " only ask the assistance of their prayers ! ") Q. " Is it lawful to recommend ourselves to the saints ; and to ask their prayers? Yes : as it is law- ful, and a very pious practice to ask the prayers of our fellow creatures on earth, and to pray for them." In the " Prayer to be said before mass," the following language occurs : " In union with the holy church, and its minister, and invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and all the angels and saints, we now offer the adorable sacri- fice of the mass/' etc. In the " General Confes- sion," it is said — " I confess to Almighty God, to the Blessed Mary, ever virgin ; to blessed Michael, the archangel ; to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and to all the saints, that I have sinned exceedingly," etc. So, also the Coun- cil of Trent declared, Session 25, Concerning the In- vocation of the Saints, that " it is good and useful to supplicate them, and to fly to their prayers, power, and aid ; but that they who deny that the saints are to be invoked, or who assert that they do not pray for men, or that their invocation of them is idolatry, hold an impious opinion." In the Romish Church the doctrine of exorcism is still held — implying a belief that evil spirits or Priests Casting Out Devils. 279 demons have power over the human frame — a doc- trine which comes fairly under the meaning of the phrase here used — " doctrines of devils " — or demons. Thus in Butler's Catechism : Q. " What do you mean by exorcism ? A. " The rites and prayers instituted by the Church for the casting out of devils, or restraining them from hurting persons, disquieting places, or abusing any of God's creatures to our harm. Q. " Has Christ given his church any such power over devils ? A. "Yes; he has. (See St. Matt, x: 1; St. Mark iii : 15; St. Luke ix : 1.) And that this power was not to die with the apostles, nor to cease after the apostolic age, we learn from the perpetual prac- tice of the church, and the experience of all ages." Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, surrounded as he was by the monuments and memorials of heathen worship, and beholding everywhere the demoraliz- ing consequences and results of that worship, ex- horts the Christians in Corinth to "Flee from idola- try." In 1 Cor. x : 21, etc., he warns them of the danger to which they were exposed from the de- grading Gentile practices. " But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils — demons — and not to God, and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils" — demons. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils : ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and the table of " devils." The apostle is here showing the great inconsistency of the Chris- 280 Romanists are Idolaters. tian worship with the idolatrous worship practiced by the heathens. The heathens ivorshipped the spirits of departed persons; and the apostle declares that such worship is utterly inconsistent with the true worship of Christ. But notwithstanding the repeated warning of God's Word to " Flee from idolatry " — and all other heathen practices — the Council of Trent, the highest authority in the Romish Church, and whose decrees are binding on all Romanists throughout the world, declares that " it is good and useful " to do what God warns men not to do ; and so this heathen demon-worship is practiced by all Romanists throughout the world, and all the bishops and priests of the Romish Church are encouraging among their people the grossest idolatry. And who are the demons — or canonized saints — whom the papists everywhere worship ? Are they the truly saintly, whose lives were luminous with purity of life, and christian charity and gentleness, and mercy; and who lived to bless their fellow men? Not at all. The standard of saintliness in the Church of Rome is not, and never was, holiness towards God; but slavish submission to the Pope, and the Church ! Savonarola ; John Huss, of Bohe- mia ; Jerome, of Prague ; Archbishop Cranmer ; Bishops Latimer, and Ridley ; the godly Albigenses, and Waldenses, and tens of thousands of others, were persecuted, tortured, and cruelly murdered, not because they were immoral, or guilty of any crime against God or man ; but because they wor- Dr. Southey on St. Dominic. 281 shipped God through Jesus Christ, and in the manner and spirit taught in the Gospels, and re- fused to acknowledge the false claims and teachings of the Popes of Rome, whom they believed to be Antichrist ! Those whom the bishops and priests of Rome re- gard as saints, and who have been canonized, and who are now worshipped and invoked as holy intercessors in heaven, are those whose most shin- ing virtues consisted in kissing the Pope's toe, wearing his collar, and slavishly submitting to his authority. Many of these so-called saints were the vilest of mankind ! We have already seen how highly the Romanists esteem, and how reverently they worship, the " holy St. Dominic ;" and how greatly he is beloved in heaven by the Virgin Mary, and the other saints ; and we have seen the wonderful miracles ascribed to him. And yet this Saint Dominic exceeded even Nero in his thirst for human blood, and in his wholesale butchery of his fellow beings, both men and women. Dr. Robert Southey, poet-laureate of England, in an able arti- cle on the Inquisition, says this cruel persecutor — who was the first inquisitor-general of the horrible tribunal called the Holy Inquisition — " Being em- ployed/' says Dr. Southey, " against the Albigenses, St. Dominic invented the Inquisition to accelerate the effect of his sermons. His invention was readily approved at Rome, and he himself nominated in- quisitor-general. The painful detail of his crimes may well be spared ; suffice it to say that in one day 282 The Saintly Fiend. four-score persons were beheaded, and four hun- dred burnt alive by this man's order and in his sight. St. Dominic is the only saint in whom no solitary speck of goodness can be discovered. To impose privations and pain was the pleasure of his unnatural heart, and cruelty in him was an ap- petite and a passion. No other human being has ever been the occasion of so much misery. The few traits of character that can be gleaned from the lying volumes of his biographers are all of the darkest colors. If his disciples have preserved few personal facts concerning their master, they have made ample amends in the catalogue of his miracles. Let the reader have patience to peruse a few of those tales, not copied from Protestant — and there- fore suspected — authors ; but from the Dominican historians themselves, and every one of them au- thorized by the Inquisition." {Quarterly Review for December, 1811.) We have already presented some of the " lying wonders " connected with Dominic ; we will simply add the following : Among the vast multitude of their ridiculous, and fabulous stories, these disciples of Dominic relate that the mother of their master dreamed that she brought forth a dog, holding a burning torch in its mouth, wherewith he fired the world. Earth- quakes and meteors announced his nativity to the earth and the air, and two or three suns and moons extraordinary were hung out for an illumination in heaven ! The Virgin Mary received him in her Ants and Wasps Help St. Dominic. 283 arms as he sprung to birth ! When a sucking babe, he regularly observed fast days ; and would get out of bed, and lie upon the ground as a penance ! His manhood was as portentous as his infancy. He fed multitudes miraculously, and performed the miracle of Cana with great success ! Once, when he fell in with a troop of pilgrims, of different countries, the curse which had been inflicted at Babel was suspended for him, and they all were enabled to speak one language ! Travelling with a single com- panion, he entered a monastery, in a lonely place, to pass the night ; he awoke at matins, and hearing yells and lamentations instead of prayers, went out and discovered that he was among a brotherhood of devils ! Dominic punished them upon the spot with a cruel sermon, and then returned to rest. At morning the convent had disappeared, and he and his comrade found themselves in a wilderness ! He had one day an obstinate battle with the flesh : the quarrel took place in a woods ; and finding it neces- sary to call in help, he stripped himself and com- manded the ants and the wasps to come to his assistance : even against these auxiliaries the con- test was continued for three hours before the soul could win the victory ! (Dowling's History.) This bigotted and blood-thirsty tyrant, and wholesale butcher of his fellow beings, whose horrible cruel- ties and crimes entitle him to the everlasting hatred and scorn of his fellow-men, stands high in the calender of Romish saints, simply because his terrible crimes were committed in the interest of the Pope, and the Church ! 284 Loyola and the Jesuits. Saint Ignatius Loyola is another of the canon- ized saints — or demons — invocated, and worshipped by the papists all over the world. As Dominic invented the bloody Inquisition — the very mention of which causes men to shudder even now — so Igna- tius Loyola was the originator of the order of the Jesuits, and their first Vicar-General. This order — blasphemously calling itself " The Society of Jesus" — was originated soon after Luther's Reformation, in Germany, and for the express purpose of extir- minating Protestantism, and undoing the work of the Reformation throughout the world, as well as for the purpose of more firmly establishing monarchism, and defeating all tendencies toward civil and relig- ious liberty. Both the principles and purposes of this order are most infamous, and their effects in society most injurious. Lying, fraud, perjury, for- gery, rebellion, treason and murder, are justifiable and meritorious, according to their principles and teaching, if done for the good of the Church, or the accomplishment of their objects. All this has been acknowledged, over and over again, by Roman Cath- olic writers. They have meddled with every govern- ment in Christendom, and have been expelled from every nation as public enemies, and disturbers of the peace. They call themselves " Soldiers of the Church," and yet have rebelled against the Church, and have actually murdered two at least of their Popes — Clement XIII. and Clement XIV., — the former for having expressed his determination to suppress their order, and the latter for doing it. (See Loyola Greater Than Christ. 285 " Foot-Prints of the Jesuits," by R. W. Thompson, 1894). And yet the infamous founder of this in- iquitous " Society of Jesus" (!) is extolled and glori- fied, by the papists, and worshipped as a holy and powerful saint in Heaven. They assign to him the performance of more miracles than Christ, even while Loyola was still on earth, and do not hesitate to record that he not onty restored the dead to life, but, in one conspicuous case, gave life to a child born dead ! What Paul affirmed of the Gentiles may be as truly affirmed of the papists, even of our own day — " The things which the — Papists — sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God." As the ancient pagans worshipped many thou- sands of demons, so Romish writers acknowledge that between twenty thousand and thirty thousand saints are on their Calendar; and these are the " devils" — or demons — whom the papists worship. Not only is this the grossest idolatry, but it is also blasphemy, for they endow these saints with divine attributes ; certainly with the attribute of omnipre- sence, which is an attribute that belongs to God alone. In America, in Ireland, in Australia and in all parts of the world, Romanists are offering up their prayers to Mary and the saints ; and for their prayers to be heard by them they must be omnipre- sent. But the entire system of popery is a system of blasphemy against our God, and against His Christ. This multiplying of mediators, and intercessors, represents our Saviour as hard-hearted, and hard to be moved with tenderness and sympathy toward our 286 Christ Dishonored. sinful race. Is He so steel-clad, and stern, and has so little regard for our sinful race, that it is neces- sary that thousands of saints must present their petitions to him in behalf of a poor sinner before He can be induced to extend a helping hand ! 0, what a misrepresentation of our adorable Christ and Lord ! 0, the gross impertinence of the Romish priests to push these thousands of demons in between the helpless soul and his Almighty, and all-loving Saviour ! Christ himself says to each anxious and troubled soul — " Come unto Me, all ye that are weary, and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Christ says — " I am the good shepherd : the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep." And is it possible that this tender Shepherd, who was willing to die for his sheep — he loves them so — needs to be invoked and entreated, and coaxed, before he will permit his sympathy to go out to one poor, sick lamb, that needs the Shepherd's care ? As the Romanists have " another gospel," so they have another Christ. Rev, " Father Chiniquy" — one of the best and noblest men now living, and very aged — says : " I must confess further, that though I was bound to believe in the existence of Christ in heaven, and was invited by my church to worship him as my Saviour and my God, I had, as every Roman Catholic has, more confidence, faith, and love towards the Christ which I had created with a few words of my lips, than towards the Christ of heaven. " My Church told me every day of my life and I had to believe and preach it, that though the Christ Their Christ a Tyrant 287 of heaven was my Saviour, He was angry against me on account of my sins ; that He was constantly disposed to punish me according to His terrible jus- tice ; that he was armed with lightning aud thunder to crush me ; and that were it not for his mother, who day and night was interceding for me, I should be cast into that hell which my sins had so richly deserved. All the theologians, with Ligouri at their head, whose writings I was earnestly studying, and which had received the approbation of infallible popes, persuaded me that it was Mary whom I had to thank and bless, if I had not yet been punished as I deserved. Not only had I to believe this doctrine, but I had to preach it to the people. The result was for me, as it was for every Roman Catholic, that my heart was really chilled, and I was filled with ter- ror every time I looked to the Christ of heaven through the lights and teachings of my Church. He could not, as I believed, look to me except with an angry face ; He could not stretch out his hand toward me but to crush me unless His merciful mother, or some other mighty saint interposed their saving supplications to appease his just indignation. When I was praying to that Christ of the Church of Rome, my mind was constantly perplexed about the choice I should make of some powerful protector, whose influence could get me a favorable hearing from my irritated Saviour. " Besides this, I was told, and I had to believe it, that the Christ of heaven was a mighty monarch — a most glorious King — surrounded by an innumer- 288 Jesus Christ Alone. able host of servants, officers, and friends, and that, as it would not do for a poor rebel to present him- self before his irritated King to get his pardon — but he must address himself to some of his most influ- ential courtiers, or to his beloved mother, to whom nothing can be refused — that they might plead his cause ; so I believed that it was better for me not to speak myself to Jesus Christ, but to look for some one who would speak for me. In fact," says Father Chiniquy, " the Roman Catholics have no other Saviour to whom thej^ can betake themselves than the one made by the consecration of the wafer" — (Chiniquy's " Fifty Years In The Church of Rome/' page 168, etc.) How very different from all this heathen teaching of Rome, is the teaching of Jesus Christ and his apos- tles ! Paul says, (1 Cor. viii.) " For though there be that we called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many), as with the Romanists ; but to us there is but one God, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ." " There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." And our Saviour himself declares : " I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Not by Mary, or by this, that, or the other " saint ;" but by Christ alone. And Christ, to show his willing- ness to have us come directly to Him, says : " Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." But Rome worships departed spirits — demons — be- cause Rome is Antichrist Popery and Bhoodism. 289 The following letter, written by the Rev. Eugenio Kincaid, a Baptist Missionary in Burmah, will suf- fice to show how like Bhoodism is the religion of the Roman Catholic Church. "Bhoodism," says Mr. Kincaid, " prevails over all Burmah, Siam, the Shan Principalities, and about one-third of the Chinese empire. Gaudama was the last Bhood, or the last manifestation of Bhood, and his relics and images are the objects of supreme adora- tion over all Bhoodish countries. In passing through the great cities of Burmah, the traveler is struck with the number and grandeur of the temples, pagodas, and monasteries, as also with the number of idols, and shaven-headed priests. Pagodas are solid structures of masonry, and are worshipped because within their bare walls are deposited images or relics of Gaudama. The temples are dedicated to the worship of Gaudama ; in them thrones are erected, on which massive images of Gaudama are placed ; in some of the larger temples are the im- ages of five hundred primitive disciples who were canonized about the time, or soon after the death of Gaudama. " The monasteries are the abodes of the priests, and the depositories of the sacred books, with their end- less scholia and commentaries. These monasteries are the schools and colleges of the empire. They are open to all the boys of the empire — rich and poor. No provision is made for the education of girls. Priests are monks, as monasticism is universal ; they take the vow of poverty and celibacy; their 290 Heathenism in the United States. heads are shaved, and without turbans, and dressed in robes of yellow cloth, they retire from society, or, in the language of their order, retire to the wilder- ness. Henceforth they are addressed as lords, or saints, and over the entire population they exert a despotic influence. Priests, dead and alive, are wor- shipped the same as idols and pagodas, because they are saints, and have extraordinary merit. "All devout Bhoodists, whether priests or people, male or female, use a string of beads, or rosary, in the recitation of their prayers, and their prayers are in the unknown tongue, called Pali, a language that has ceased to be spoken for many hundred years, and that was never the vernacular of Burmah. The frequent repetition of prayers with the rosary, fast- ing, and making offerings to the images, are merito- rious deeds. Celibacy and voluntary poverty are regarded as evidence of the most exalted piety. To build temples, pagodas, and monasteries, and pur- chase idols, are meritorious acts. The burning of wax tapers and candles of various colors, both day and night, around the shrines of Gaudama, is uni- versal in Bhoodist countries, and is taught to be highly meritorious. Social prayer is unknown — each one prays apart, and making various prostra- tions before the images, deposits upon the altar offerings of fruit and flowers. "The priests are required to fast every day after the sun has passed the meridian till the next morning. Besides this, there is a great fast once a year, con- tinuing four or five weeks, in which all the people An Awful Parallel. 291 are supposed to live entirely on vegetables and fruits. During this great fast the priests retire from their monasteries, and live in temporary booths, or tents, and are supposed to give themselves more exclu- sively to an ascetic life. At a certain time in the year, the priests have a practice of confessing and exorcising each other. This takes place in a small building erected for the purpose over running water. " There are various grades of rank in the priest- hood, and the most unequivocal submission of the lower to the higher orders is required. Tha-tha-na- bing is the title of the priest who sits on the high- est ecclesiastical throne in the empire (and thus corresponds to the Pope among Romanists.) He is Primate or Lord Archbishop of the realm, receives his appointment from the King, and from this Tha- tha-na-bing (or Pope) emanate all other ecclesiasti- cal appointments in the kingdom and its tributary principalities. He lives in a monastery built and furnished by the King, which is as splendid as gold can make it. " I should observe that intelligent, learned Bhood- ists (like some Romanists) deny that they worship the images of Gaudama, but only venerate them as objects that remind them of Gaudama, the only object of supreme adoration — but the number of Bhoodists who make this distinction is very small. " Often/' says Mr. Kincaid, " when standing in a great Burman temple, and looking around upon a thousand worshippers prostrating themselves before images, surrounded by wax candles, uttering prayers 292 Christianized Heathenism. in a dead language, each one with a rosary in his hand, and the priests with long, flowing robes and shaven heads, I have thought of what I have seen in the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Montreal, Canada, and it has required but a very small stretch of the imagination to suppose myself transported to the opposite side of the globe, looking not upon the ceremonies of an acknowledged heathen temple, but upon the Christianized heathenism of Rome." And this " Christianized heathenism of Rome " is firmly planted on the free soil of this great Repub- lic ; and all the subtle, and cunning, and unscrupu- lous agents of the Pope are at work to cause this " Christianized heathenism of Rome " to supplant the pure religion of Jesus and the Bible, and to undo the great achievements of the framers of our glorious Constitution ; of the patriotism that has maintained it for more than one hundred years ; and of the heroism that has defended it in many a bloody conflict. It is for this that cardinals, and bishops, and priests are plotting. It is for this the Jesuits are sapping and mining our institutions by night and by day. It is for this the Romish Church is multiplying the Parochial schools in which the young are being trained in treason to our govern- ment and laws, and in hatred of all those things that have made our country great. It is for this the priests are bringing thousands of ignorant and superstitious Romanists from distant lands to give them the balance of power through the ballot box ; and it is for this that tens of thousands of foreign Protestants! Wake Up / 293 Romanists in this country are organizing them- selves into military companies, and who even now boast of their great military power. The past his- tory, and the present teachings and practices of the Church of Rome amply prove that she has given heed to " seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. CHAPTER XIV. A Chapter of Infallible Falsehoods. The Prophet Daniel prophesied that the Little Horn of the fourth beast would have " a mouth," and that he would " speak great things against the Most High ;" and in the chapter now before us (1 Tim. iv.) Paul declares that another characteristic or mark of Antichrist would be that he would be given to " speaking lies in hypocracy ;" thus indi- cating one of the ways in which the Little Horn would speak great words against the Most High — it would be by " speaking lies ;" and surely no one can speak against God without speaking lies. It is plain then that the great apostasy of the latter times was to prevail through the hypocrisy of liars " hav- ing their conscience seared with a hot iron ;" and has not the idolatry of the Church of Rome, and the worship of the dead, particularly, been diffused and advanced in the world by such instruments and agents, who have (Rom. 1 : 25) " changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for- ever ?" It is impossible to relate or enumerate all the various falsehoods which have been invented and propagated for this purpose ; the fabulous books, forged under the names of apostles, saints, and mar- tyrs ; the fabulous legends of their lives, actions, sufferings, and deaths; the fabulous miracles as- cribed to their sepulchres, bones, and other relics ; 294 Better Foundations. 295 the fabulous dreams and revelations, visions, and apparitions of the dead to the living, some of which we have already recorded ; and even the fabulous saints, who never existed but in the imagination of their worshippers. And all these stories, or " lies" as Paul plainly calls them, the monks, the priests, and the bishops of the Church have imposed upon mankind, it is difficult to say whether with greater artifice or cruelty, with greater confidence or hypoc- risy and pretended sanctity, a more hardened face or a more hardened conscience. " The history of the Church," says Pascal, " is the history of truth ; but as written by bigoted papists it is rather the history of lies. So well does this prophecy coincide with the preceding one, that the coming of the man of sin should be after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceiv- ableness of unrighteousness." An intelligent and candid examination of the history, statements, doctrines, practices, claims, and results of the Roman Catholic Church will prove conclusively, that the whole superstructure of the Church is a stupendous system of lying, from the foundation to the top stone. The very first stone in the foundation of this vast superstructure is the claim that Peter, the apostle of Christ, was the first Pope of Rome, and that the popes are the successors of Peter by the appointment of Jesus Christ. And this claim is what Paul calls a " lie, spoken in hypocrisy." It is a claim that contradicts the word of God, the facts of history, and the common sense of men. 296 Convenient Anathemas. In the Decree of Infallibility, passed July 18, 1870, Pope Pius IX. says : " For none can doubt, and it is known to all ages, that the holy and blessed Peter, the Prince and Chief of the Apostles, the Pil- lar of the faith, and Foundation of the Catholic Church, received the Keys of the Kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind, and lives, presides, and judges to this day, and always in his successors, the Bishops of the Holy See of Rome, which was founded by him and conse- crated by his blood," etc. (Chapter 2.) " If any one, therefore, shall say that Blessed Peter, the apostle, was not appointed the Prince of all the apostles, and the Visible Head of the whole Church militant, or that the same directly and im- mediately received from the same our Lord Jesus Christ a primacy of honor only, and not of true and proper jurisdiction, Let Him Be Anathema." " If, then, any should deny that it is by the insti- tution of Christ, the Lord, or by Divine right, that Blessed Peter should have a perpetual line of suc- cessors in the primacy over the Universal Church, or that the Roman Pontiff is the successor of Blessed Peter in this primacy, Let Him Be Anathema." This arrogant claim is utterly opposed to the Word of God, which says : " Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are in Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Ye are no mere strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the house- hold of God, and are built upon the foundation of the Peter not the First Pope. 297 apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone." (Eph. 2 : 19-21.) " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus" (1 Cor. 3 : 11.) "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Rev. 21 : 14.) In these texts of scripture there is no hint of " the primacy of blessed Peter," or of any one else, except our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church of Rome in putting forth such a claim ought to have been prepared to substantiate the claim with proofs the most undoubted, and clear to every mind. Had she claimed Paul as being the first Pope of Rome, she would have had a better case, so far, at least, as to be able to show most clearly that Paul actually lived in Rome, while there is no proof whatever that Peter was ever in Rome, and there is abundance of proof to the contrary. A full presentation of all that has been written on this subject would require a volume: we can present only a few facts. Had the Lord Jesus Christ made Peter the first Pope of Rome, to be followed by a long line of in- fallible successors, He certainly would have made the fact so plain in the scriptures that the humblest readers of his Word would understand the fact, and especially if he had made acceptance of that doctrine " necessary to salvation," and denounced an ana- thema, or eternal damnation, against all who should reject it. And as the Romish Church so positively makes this claim she is bound to prove it from the 298 Peter Was Never in Rome. plain declarations of the holy scriptures, which she does not, and dare not attempt ; for she well knows there is no mention whatever in the New Testament that Peter was ever in Rome ; and hence Scaliger, Salmasius, Spanheim, Adam Clarke, and many other learned writers have denied that he ever visited that city. The utter silence of the scriptures as to Peter having been appointed pope, or as to his ever being in Rome, is unaccountable, had it been true. We know that Paul was in Rome, and that " he dwelt two whole years in his own hired house." (Acts. 28 : 30.) Although Paul wrote five or six of his Epistles while a resident in Rome, and sent kind remembrances to many Christian friends and fellow- workers, yet he never once mentions Pope' Peter, although the Romanists insist that he was pope at that time. In the closing part of Paul's Epistle to the Romans he sends affectionate greetings to be- tween twenty and thirty persons, whom he mentions by name, but says not one word about Peter, an omission and mark of disrespect, or at least of neglect, that does not seem possible, had Peter been the " Prince of Apostles/' and the " Vicar of Jesus Christ," and the " Visible Head of the Church," as the Romanists declare that he was. In writing to the Christians in Rome, (Chap. 1 : 11.) Paul says : " I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established." This would look like arro- gance in Paul, if he knew that the infallible Pope Peter was in Rome, and as the holy and " Visible Was Peter Infallible ? 299 Head of the Church " must have been far more competent to impart " spiritual gifts " than himself, who was only one of the " inferior clergy." As Paul was the "Apostle of the Gentiles," he felt that he was especially called of God to do pioneer work, and in his letter to the Romans, (Chap. xv. : 20) he says : " So have I strived to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation," and surely had Peter been the founder, and organizer, and infallible Pope of Rome, he, of course, was every way competent to do for the Christians, and sinners too, of Rome, all that was needed to be done for them ; and for Paul to have gone there to labor he would have violated his own rule — not " to build upon another man's foun- dation" It was clearly because Paul knew that Peter was not in Rome, that he proposed to go there. No doubt the Christian Church in Rome resulted from the great revival in Jerusalem at Pentecost, many having come to Rome from Jerusalem bringing the blessed news of salvation with them. If Peter was the first Pope of Rome he never knew it ; nor did any of the other apostles. This is the humble way in which he speaks of himself : — " Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith." (2 Pet. 1 : 1.) Compare this with the inflated, and pompous style in which Pope Gregory speaks of himself in his Encyclical Letter, in 1832 — " Ency- clical Letter of our Most Holy Father, Pope Gre- gory, the sixteenth of the name ; addressed to all 300 Successors of the Lying Peter. Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops." Can we imagine the humble fisherman, Peter, writ- ing in that style? From what we know of the character and life of Peter, it is not easy to conceive that our Saviour would have chosen him especially from among the apostles to be his special repre- sentative, and the first of a long line of infallible popes, when there were other members of the apos- tolic college far more consistent than he, and far more worthy. Noble, and warmhearted, and gen- erous, and full of zeal for Christ, as Peter was, he was the most inconsistent, and blundering of the whole company, and the most ready to commit sin. On one occasion his Divine Master had to rebuke him sharply, saying : " Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God ; but the things that be of men." He nobly confessed his Lord, and the Master honored him for it ; but he shamefully denied his Lord, even with lying, and cursing, and swearing. If the popes of Rome are the " successors of Peter/ 7 it is of the lying, and cursing Peter; and not of the confessing Peter; nor of the Peter that " went out, and wept bitterly." In the Council held in Jerusalem, as recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts, in regard to the matter of circumcision, although Peter was present he was not there as pope; nor did he in any way attempt to take precedence of his brother apostles. If either of the apostles was pope at that Council it was James, for it was he who summed up the matter, and pronounced his decision : he said, " My God's Order vs. The Pope's. 301 sentence is" etc. And his sentence prevailed. Did any one ever hear, or read, of a priest or bishop of the Romish Church, in a solemn council, ignore the presence of the pope, assume his prerogative, and say, " My sentence is" so and so ? It is certain that none of the apostles knew anything of Peter being pope. It is worthy of consideration in this brief discus- sion, that God himself has established the order of the Christian ministry, as we read in 1 Cor. xii : 28. " God hath set some in the church ; First apostles ; secondarily, prophets ; thirdly, teachers ; after that " etc. Here we see plainly that the apostolic office was the highest in the church ; if therefore the Church of Rome, or any other, sets a pope above an apostle, then that church, by setting aside the Divine arrangement for one of its own, shows itself to be Antichrist. And this is exactly what the Romish Church presumes to do. In the " Full Catechism of Catholic Religion ; " published under the auspices of Cardinal Wiseman, and Archbishop Hughes, of New York, a list of all the popes is given, and in the following order : " St. Peter at Rome, from 42. St. Linus 67. St. Cletus (Anacletus) . — St. Clement .... 92. St. Evaristus .... 100." Each of these, in his turn, therefore, was the Vicar of Christ upon earth, and as such, the Supreme Visible Head of the Church. It is gener- 302 The Apostle John Dishonored. ally agreed among biblical scholars that the Apos- tle John outlived Peter about thirty years, and died about the year A. D. 100 ; having been the contem- porary of Linus, Cletus, and Clement, at least. If, then, Peter was the Supreme Head of the Church, and Linus was his successor in the supremacy, then, of course, the inspired Apostle John must have been inferior to Linus in rank and dignity ; and subject to him in precisely the same way as Roman Catholic Bishops are subject to the Pope. If Peter was the first Pope of Rome, as the Papists assume, then Linus was ordained Bishop by Peter, with the full understanding that Linus was to be his successor in the popedom, and that from him — Linus — would proceed all the long succession of infallible popes throughout the coming centuries. And yet the apostle John was still living — John, the apostle " whom Jesus loved ; " who " leaned on the Saviour's bosom ; " to whom Jesus Christ, in the agonies of his dying hour, committed his beloved mother. John, who had shared with him the spe- cial honor of witnessing the glorious mysteries of the Transfiguration. John, who had been Peter's truest friend, and intimate associate, and who had shared with him the special honors conferred by Christ ; for we read : " Jesus taketh Peter, James, John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart; and was transfigured before theni." "And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat." And in the Acts we read (Acts viii : 14). " They A Strong Argument. 303 sent unto them Peter and John/' on a special mission, etc. To believe that pope Peter would thus pass by this highly honored and inspired Apostle John, and appoint to the highest office in the Chris- tian Church a man who was neither inspired, nor an apostle ; and a man whose name is not once mentioned in the Scriptures, is too absurd for any intelligent man to believe. On this point a very interesting and instructive writer has this to say: "Testimony higher and more reliable than man's, aids our investigation, and fixes our judgment, as will be fully demonstra- ted by the following facts which challenge the scru- tiny of the most zealous advocate of the doctrine of papal supremacy. Let us see. The Apostolic age was drawing to its close. More than a quarter of a century had elapsed since James, and Peter, and Paul, and all those who had constituted the College of the Apostles, had passed away. Of the original members of this order, St. John alone re- mained, an exile in the Isle of Patmos; whilst, according to Romanists, the successors of Peter, as the Vicars of Christ, taught the whole Church from Rome. At this critical juncture, (about A. D. 96) it had become necessary to communicate to the Church those startling " Revelations " of the mys- teries of the Kingdom of Christ, which, embracing a review of things that were, and the prophetic announcement of things that were to be thereafter, (Rev. 1 : 19), were to close forever the Sacred Canon of the Christian Scriptures. But in choosing the 304 God Chose the Apostle John. channel of the solemn and important communica- tion between Himself and His Church, God took no notice whatever of the successor of Peter. f He sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John/ (Rev. 1 : 1), the last venerable relic of the inspired Apostolic Twelve. " These Revelations, as a whole, were written for the instruction of the Church at large, the Church of Rome included. If the Book of Revelation was in- spired by God, and was intended for the instruction of the Roman Catholic Church, why was the Roman Pontiff not chosen to be the bearer of the mysterious truths and prophesies therein contained ? Whether it is true or not that Peter had chosen and ordained Linus as his successor in the See of Rome — con- sidered as a mere historical fact — does not even merit discussion. But when it is contended that he designed to transmit (or knew that he was trans- mitting) to the latter, and thus to all in the line of succession, a universal supremacy in teaching and governing the Church, it is sufficient to reply that God refused emphatically to sanction any such design or arrangement, and signified that refusal by completely ignoring Clement I., the third in the suc- cession from Peter, and that, too, when most import- ant communications were to be made to the Church, and that therefore the latter could not have been, by the fact of such succession, either indispensable in teaching, or supreme in governing. Or to put the case in another form, either Clement was an Apostle in the same sense, and to the same purpose as St. John, or he was not. If he was not, then the God Ignores the Pope. 305 successors of St. Peter had not inherited from him those gifts peculiar to the Apostolic Order, and the act of God in the case under consideration was con- sistent with the order and the purpose of the ar- rangement expressed in the words : " God hath set some in the Church, first, Apostles" etc. If he was, then Romanists must explain God's unequivocal preference for St. John above Clement, and must reconcile it w T ith the doctrine that the latter was the " Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth/' and " Supreme Visible Head of the Church." Let it be candidly admitted that no Principal treats his Vicar in the manner in which God treated Clement, unless he means that such . Vicar should understand by the treatment that he has ceased to be the depository of his confidence. " If it be conceded that events have a logic well nigh irresistible, this event proves that up to the year A. D. 100 — that is, thirty years after the death of Peter — God did not regard the Church of Rome as the centre of Christian knowledge and authority ; nor did he regard the successors of Peter, of whom there had already been four — -as the Romanists claim — as either the indispensable teachers, or the supreme rulers of His Church ; that St. John, the last surviving representative of the Order of Apos- tles (at least of the twelve) received from heaven the communications which were intended for the church, and that when God wished to speak, He spoke through John precisely as if there had been no occupant of the " Chair of Peter ;" — from all 306 A Blunder as Well as a Crime. which it follows, as a logical result, that since Clem- ent L, the Pope so excluded, did not possess the supremacy of teaching, or of jurisdiction, he had not received it by virtue of his succession from Peter, and that not having received it he could not have transmitted it to his successors in the Bishop- ric of Rome." (" Romanism Not Christianity," by T. Robert Love, 1893). However certain it may appear to the Romish priests and bishops that there is no truth whatever in their preposterous claim, first made in the Dark Ages ; that Peter was the first Pope, and that all the popes of Rome have been his successors — and they must certainly know their claim to be false — they cannot relax this claim without destroying their Church. They have made it an essential article of faith, and every Romanist is bound to accept it as true, under penalty of eternal damnation ! Every one uniting with the Church of Rome is required to take the following oath : " I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman Bishop, the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ, etc." In claiming Peter for the first Pope, instead of Paul, they committed a blunder, as well as a crime ; but it is too late for them to rectify it ; and they are bound to maintain and defend this stupendous falsehood to the last gasp, for their very existence depends on it. It is the consciousness that what Paul says of Anti- christ, " speaking lies in hypocrisy" applies to the Romish Church, that compels her priests and bish- The Forged Decretals. 307 ops to do all in their power to hold their people in ignorance, and to keep from them the Bible ; to separate their children from ours, by erecting the parochial schools ; and by commanding their men to leave Protestant Orders and Societies. Their whole aim is to keep the light from breaking in upon their poor, deceived and defrauded people. The Popes of Rome had made such advances toward absolute power, and had put forth such arro- gant and audacious claims by virtue of their pre- tended succession from Peter, that it became neces- sary to be able to present to the world something that should serve as a basis for such high pretensions. Accordingly Rome's priests and bishops resort to the most barefaced forgeries. Gibbon, Mosheim, Hal- lam, and indeed all historians of what are called the Dark Ages, have something to say of certain docu- ments known by the name of the Forged De- cretals, or the Isidorian Decretals. These de- cretals consisted of about one hundred decrees of the earliest Popes, together with certain spurious writings of other church dignitaries, and all designed to prove that the great power and authority claimed by the popes in the ninth century had always been exercised by the popes, and rightfully belonged to them by virtue of their succession from Pope Peter. These decretals were brought forward in the ninth century and bore the name of Isidore, Bishop of Seville, to make the world believe they had been collected by that prelate some two or three centuries before. 308 Unimpeachable Witnesses. It is most astonishing that upon the strength of these documents, now acknowledged even by Fleury and Baronius, and, I believe, all other Romish writers, to be forgeries, the world should have quietly submitted for centuries of gloom and darkness to the tyrannical usurpations of the haughty and profligate prelates of Rome. Hallam says (" Middle Ages," vol. ii., p. 297, note) : " The fabric erected upon these forged documents has stood after the foundation upon which it rested has crumbled beneath it ; for no one has pretended to deny for the last two centuries that the imposture is too palpable for any but the most ignorant ages to credit." In 1870 a volume was translated from the Ger- man, and written by some one who subscribes him- self " Janus." The title of the book is " The Pope and the Council," and was written by a scholarly and learned Roman Catholic in protest against the Vatican Council formulating the decree of papal infallibility. This book produced great excitement inside the Romish Church, and great interest among thoughtful men outside of it, evidently because it is written by one inside the Romish Church, and because it bears evidence of great learning, and shows the author to be thoroughly familiar with his subject. For these reasons, I prefer to pass by other authorities and to quote from this unpreju- diced writer, and not to follow out any of his argu- ments, but simply to prove that Rome has this mark of Antichrist — that she is given to " speaking lies in A Learned Romanist Speaks. 309 hypocrisy." Janus says : " But in the middle of that century (about 845) arose the huge fabrication of the Isidorian decretals, which had results far beyond what its author contemplated, and gradually but surely changed the whole constitution and government of the Church. It would be difficult to find in all history a second instance of so successful and yet so clumsy a forgery. For three centuries past it has been ex- posed, and yet the principles it introduced and brought into practice have taken such deep root in the soil of the Church, and have so grown into her life, that the exposure of the fraud has produced no result in shaking the dominant system. " About a hundred pretended decrees of the earliest popes, together with certain spurious writings of other Church dignitaries, and acts of Synods, were then fabricated in the west of Gaul, and eagerly seized upon by Pope Nicolas I., at Rome, to be used as genuine documents in support of the new claims put forward by himself and his successors. It is true that the immediate object of the compiler of this forgery was only to protect bishops against their metropolitans and other authorities, so as to secure absolute impunity and the exclusion of all influence of the secular power. But this end was to be gained by such an immense extension of the papal power, that, as his principles gradually penetrated the Church, and were followed out in their consequences, she necessarily assumed the form of an absolute monarchy, subjected to the arbitrary power of a single individual, and the foundation of the edifice 310 A Convenient Fraud. of Papal Infallibility was already laid." Again, Janus says : " Before this fabrication many very efficacious forgeries had won a gradual recognition at Rome since the beginning of the sixth century ; and on them was based the maxim that the Pope, as supreme in the Church, could be judged by no man. That the pseudo-Isidorian principles event- ually revolutionized the whole constitution of the Church, and introduced a new system in place of the old. On that point there can be no controversy among candid historians. Soon after receiving the new implements forged in the Isidorian workshop, (about 863 or 864) Nicolas met the doubts of the Frankish bishops with the assurance that the Roman Church had long preserved all those documents with honor in her archives, (" lies in hypocrisy ") and that every writing of a pope .... was bind- ing on the whole Church. In a synod at Rome in 863 he had accordingly anathematized all who should refuse to receive the teaching or ordinances of a pope. If, indeed, all papal utterances were a rule for the whole Church, and all decrees of coun- cils dependent on the Pope's good pleasure, as Nicolas asserted on the strength of the Isidorian forgery, then there would be but one step further to the promulgation of Papal Infallibility, though it has been long delayed." This learned Romish author has stated, as we have seen, that Rome had found it convenient to practice forgery even before the invention of these False Decretals, and we shall find him asserting that Rome Finds Forgery Profitable. 311 Rome found so much profit from these lying decre- tals that she continued her forgeries even down to and during the reign of Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. No Pope had ever carried his pretensions to such extreme lengths as did Hildebrand, who claimed the right to depose emperors and kings, to revoke the laws of parliaments, to absolve subjects from their allegiance to their rightful rulers, to lay nations under interdict, and to trample underfoot all human authority and law. And our learned Janus tells us that this tyrannical Hildebrand based all his monstrous demands on the Isidorian Decre- tals, that are declared both by Romish and Protes- tant scholars to be false, and forgeries. He says, " Gregory borrowed one main pillar of his system from the False Decretals. Isidore had made Pope Julius (about 338) write to the Eastern bishops : ' The Church of Rome, by a singular privilege, has the right of opening and shutting the gates of heaven to whom she will.' On this Gregory built his scheme of dominion. How should not he be able to judge on earth, on whose will hung the salvation or damna- tion of men?" Not only did the False Decretals of the pseudo- Isidore greatly serve the wicked purposes of the popes and prelates, but, as they had been so success- fully used for hundreds of years, without the mon- strous fraud being discovered, Janus, as well as other historians, proves that the Romish authorities formed the habit of inventing new forgeries whenever the interests of the Church required. Our author says, 312 Holy Fabrications! " Gregory himself had his own little stock of fabri- cated or distorted facts to support pretensions and undertakings which seemed to his contemporaries strange and unauthorized. ... At the same time, Gregory thought it most important, with all his legislative activity and lofty claims, and high- handed measures, not to seem too much of an inno- vator and despot; he constantly affirmed that he only wished .to restore the ancient laws of the Church and abolish late abuses. When he drew out the whole system of papal omnipotence, in twenty-seven theses, in his Dictatus, these theses were mere repetitions, or corollaries, of the Isidorian Decretals ; partly he and his friends and allies sought to give them the appearance of tradition and antiquity by new fictions" " Like the successive strata of the earth, covering one another, so layer after layer of forgeries and fabrications was piled up in the Church" There is much more to the same effect, but this must suffice. (See " The Pope and the Coun- cil/' by Janus, who proves all his statements by abundant quotations from learned authors). How absolutely overwhelming is the proof that the Roman Catholic Church is a lying church, and therefore it is impossible she can be the Church of Christ ! The so-called Donation of Constantine affords another illustration of the fearful mendacity of the Romish Church. This also was a forged docu- ment, in which it was declared that the Emperor Constantine had conferred on Sylvester, then Bishop Romish Forgeries Multiply. 313 of Rome, the city of Rome, and all Italy, with the crown, the mitre, etc. The following extract from this pretended deed of donation will be sufficient to show the character of this bungling imposture: " We attribute to the chair of St. Peter all the impe- rial dignity, glory and power. . . . Moreover, we give to Sylvester and his successors our palace of Lateran, incontestably one of the finest palaces on earth ; we give him our crown, our mitre, our dia- dem, and all our imperial vestments ; we resign to him the imperial dignity. . . . We give as a free gift to the Holy Pontiff the city of Rome and all the western cities of Italy, as well as the western cities of the other countries. To make room for him we abdicate our sovereignty over all these provinces ; and we withdraw from Rome, transfer- ring the seat of our empire to Byzantium, since it is not just that a terrestrial emperor shall retain any power where God has placed the head of religion." Like the Isidorian Decretals, this so-called Dona- tion of Constantine is now acknowledged, even by the most prominent Romish authorities, to be a shameful forgery. Gibbon, in his great work on " The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire/' says : " By an epistle of Pope Adrian I. to the Em- peror Charlemagne, he exhorts him to imitate the example of the great Constantine in his liberality to the See of Rome. According to the legend, the first of the Christian emperors was healed of the leprosy, and purified in the waters of baptism by 314 The Forged Donation of Constantine. St. Sylvester, the Roman bishop ; and never was physician more gloriously recompensed. His royal proselyte withdrew from his seat and patrimony of St. Peter, declared his intention to found a new capital in the East, and resigned to the popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the prov- inces of the West. This fiction was productive of the most beneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guilt of usurpation, and the revolt of Pope Gregory was the claim of his lawful inheri- tance. The popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude, and the nominal gifts of the Carlovin- gians were no more than the just and irrevocable restitution of a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical state. The sovereignty of Rome no longer depended on the choice of a fickle people ; and the successors of St. Peter and Constantine were invested with the purple and prerogatives of the Caesars. So deep was the ignorance and credulity of the times that this most absurd of fables was received with equal rev- erence in Greece and in France, and is still enrolled among the decrees of the canon law. The emperors of the Romans were incapable of discerning a forgery that subverted their rights and freedom, and the only opposition proceeded from a Sabine mon- astery, which, in the beginning of the twelfth cen- tury, disputed the validity of the donation of Con- stantine. " In the revival of letters and liberty this fictitious deed was transpierced by the pen of Laurentius Valla, an eloquent critic, a Roman patriot. His Gibbon's Testimony to the Fraud. 315 contemporaries of the fifteenth century were aston- ished at his sacrilegious boldness ; yet, such is the silent and irresistible progress of reason, that before the end of the next age the fable was rejected by the contempt of historians, though, by the same for- tune which has attended the Decretals and the Sybilline Oracles, the edifice has subsisted after the foundations have been undermined." As this mat- ter is of such vast importance, the temporal domin- ion of the popes for a thousand years having resulted from this stupendous fraud, I will quote a few para- graphs from our learned Roman Catholic, " Janus." He says : " After the middle of the eighth century the famous Donation of Constantine was concocted at Rome. It is based on the earlier fifth century legend of his cure from leprosy and his baptism by Pope Sylvester, which is repeated at length, and the Emperor is said, out of gratitude, to have bestowed Italy and the western provinces on the Pope. . . . The forgery betrayed its Roman authorship in every line. It is self-evident that a cleric of the Lateran Church was the composer. The document was obvi- ously intended to be shown to the Frankish king, Pepin, and must have been compiled just before 754. Constantine relates in it how he served the Pope as his groom, and led his horse some distance. This induced Pepin to offer the Pope a homage, so foreign to Frankish ideas, and the Pope told him from the first that he expected not a gift, but a restitution from him and his Franks. The first reference to this gift of Constantine occurs in Adrian's letter to 316 Ignorance Profitable to Rome. Charlemagne in 777, where he tells him that, as the new Constantine, he has indeed given the Church what is her own, but that he has more of the old imperial endowments to restore to her Such language first became intelligible when the Donation of Constantine was brought forward to show that the Pope was the rightful possessor as heir of the Roman Caesars in Italy ; for, he being at once the successor of St. Peter and Constantine, what was given to the Roman Republic was given to St. Peter, and vice versa. " There was no danger of such documents as the Epistle of Peter, and the Donation of Constantine being critically examined at the warlike court of Pepin. Men who might be written to that their bodies and souls would be eternally lacerated and tormented in hell if they did not fight against the enemies of the Church, believed readily enough that Constantine had given Italy to Pope Sylvester. Those were days of darkness in France, and in the complete extinction of all learning, there was not a single man about Pepin whose sharpsightedness the Roman agents had reason to dread. " One is tempted to ascribe to the same hand the Epistle of St. Peter to his " adopted son," the King of the Franks, which appeared also at this moment of great danger and distress, as well as of lofty hopes and pretensions, — a fabrication which for strangeness and audacity has never been exceeded. Entreating, and promising victory, and then again threatening the pains of hell, the Prince of the A Letter from Peter in Heaven. 317 Apostles adjures the Franks to deliver Rome, and the Roman Church. The Epistle really went from Rome to the Frankish Kingdom, and seems to have produced its effect there." (" The Pope and The Council/' p. 131, etc.) But what is this " Epistle of St. Peter/' to which our Romanist author refers ? It is another great forgery — "A fabrication which for strangeness and audacity has never been exceeded." We shall find a copy of this forged Epistle in Dow- ling's " History of Romanism/' page 171. The his- torian says : " As some time elapsed, and the Pope had received no intelligence of the March of Pepin, Stephen began to fear that the impression produced by his letter on the mind of the King had not been sufficiently powerful to induce him to cross the Alps a second time, and as the city, unless relieved, could not sustain the siege much longer, he adopted the extraordinary expedient of pretending, by one of those pious frauds, which papists have always re- garded as lawful and commendable, to have received a letter from St. Peter in heaven, beseeching the imme- diate interposition of the French on behalf of his successor, and his See. This most singular docu- ment has been preserved in the Codex Carolinus, as well as the last quoted letter of Pope Stephen. The superscription is as follows : ' Simon Peter, a ser- vant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to the three most excellent Kings, Pepin, Charles, and Carloman ; to all the holy bishops, abbots, presbyters, and monks ; to all the dukes, counts, commanders of the French army, and to the whole people of France; Grace 318 Pope Peter in Heaven Wants Blood. unto you, and peace be multiplied.' The letter then proceeds thus : " I am the Apostle Peter, to whom it was said, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock, etc., Feed my sheep, etc. ; And to thee will I give the keys, etc. As this was all said to me in particular, all who hearken unto me, and obey my exhortations, may persuade themselves, and firmly believe that their sins are forgiven them ; and that they will be admitted, cleansed from all guilt, into life everlasting. Hearken, therefore, to me, to me, Peter the apostle and servant of Jesus Christ, and since I have preferred you to all the nations of the earth, hasten, I beseech and conjure you, if you care to be cleansed from your sins, and to earn an eternal reward, hasten to the relief of my city, of my church, of the people committed to my care, ready to fall into the hands of the wicked Lombards, their mer- ciless enemies. It has pleased the Almighty that my body should rest in this city ; the body that has suffered for the sake of Christ such exquisite tor- ments ; and can you, my most excellent sons, stand by unconcerned, and see it insulted by the most wicked of nations ? No, let it never be said, and it will, I hope, never be said, that I, the apostle of Jesus Christ, that my apostolic church, the founda- tion of the faith; that my flock, recommended to you by me and my vicar, have trusted in you, but trusted in vain. Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, joins in earnestly entreating, nay, commands you to hasten, to run, to fly to the relief, of my favorite people, reduced almost to the last Peter in Heaven Flatters the French. 319 gasp, and calling in that extremity night and day upon her, and upon me. The thrones and domin- ions, the principalities and the powers, and the whole multitude of the heavenly hosts, entreat you, together with us, not to delay ; but to come with all possible speed, and rescue my chosen flock from the jaws of the ravening wolves ready to devour them. My vicar might, in this extremity, have recurred, and not in vain, to other nations; but with me the French are, and ever have been, the first, the best, and most deserving of all nations, and I would not suffer the exceeding great reward that is re- served in this, and in the other world, for those w r ho shall deliver my people, to be earned by any other." In other portions of this shameful letter, which the " holy " Pope had forged, and declared to have been written by the apostle Peter himself in heaven, Peter is made to repeat all that the Pope had said in his letters, to court the favor and protection of the French, with the most abject flattery; to assail with the most bitter rancor " the most wicked nation of the Lombards ; " and to entreat his most Christian, and zealous sons to come with all possible speed to the relief of his vicar and people, lest they should fall into the hands of their implacable enemies, and those from whom they had a right to expect relief, incur the wrath of the Almighty, and his, and be thereby excluded, notwithstanding all their other good works, from the kingdom of heaven. Enough has been quoted in this chapter, as well as preceding chapters, from most reliable 320 A Foundation of Sand. authorities, to prove that the Romish Church pos- sesses that shameful characteristic of Antichrist — " Speaking lies in hypocrisy" It cannot be denied that the Church of Rome is, and always has been, a lying Church. This is the indisputable truth. Her chief claim is that she is apostolic by virtue of the fact that her popes are the successors of " Peter, who was the first Pope of Rome." All history and scripture conspire to prove the utter falsity of such pretensions. Then all her great pretensions to being superior to emperors, and kings, and governments, and laws, and to being " the only true church, out of which there is no salvation," are based chiefly on the Forged Decretals, that are abundantly proved to be unmitigated lies, even by her own recognized authorities; who also declare that the Donation of Constantine was a fraud and forgery that " betrayed its Roman authorship in every line." And yet on this forged will of Constantine, and by virtue of it, the popes of Rome, for a thou- sand years, exercised temporal and kingly dominion over states and kingdoms that were wrested from their rightful owners by injustice, robbery, blood- shedding, and innumerable murders ! It must not be forgotten that the apostle Paul, in the passage of Scripture that furnishes the basis for this chapter, says that this lying is done " in hypoc- risy " — or hypocritically. Or more strictly, per- haps, " Through the hypocrisy of those speaking lies." All the false and blasphemous teachings of the Romish priesthood derive their chief infamy Seared Consciences. 321 from the fact that they are being palmed off on the ignorant and superstitious as the true teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of his true Christian Church. The priests of the Romish Church certainly know that the legends, and pretended miracles of their Church are utterly false and fraudulent, and in- tended to deceive the people, and to maintain the hold of the priests on the minds of the credulous. Well and truly does Paul say of such hypocrites that their " consciences are seared as with a hot iron" Men who can knowingly teach falsehood for truth, and do it in the name of God and religion, and to the peril of souls, are men who by wicked practices have deadened all moral sensibility and are " past feeling " — " having their conscience seared with a hot iron." CHAPTER XV. Antagonistic Laws. Among the " doctrines of devils " spoken of by- Paul, in 1 Timothy 1 : 1-3 ; are " Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." These are pointed out as indisputable signs of the apostasy, and marks of Antichrist As these are cherished doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome, and known to all to be such, it inevitably follows that in her we find that great system of fraud and deception so clearly portrayed, and so severely denounced in the Word of God, as the great enemy of God and the human race. The teachings of the Papacy in regard to marriage are directly opposite to the teaching of the Almighty himself on this subject, and clearly prove that the Pope of Rome, deliber- ately, and blasphemously, sets his authority above the authority of God himself. The inspired Paul says : " This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, The Husband of One Wife; .... One that ruleth well his own house, having his Children in subjection, with all gravity ; for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?" (1 Tim. iii : 1, etc.) In describing the qualification of elders, or bishops, Paul says: " If any be blame- less, The Husband of One Wife ; having faithful Children, etc." (Titus 1 : 5, etc.) " Marriage is 322 Priestly Celibacy Not of God. 323 honorable in all." (Heb. 13 : 4.) If marriage is honorable in All, as God says it is, then it is hon- orable in the ministers of religion. Peter, whom Romanists say was the first Pope, undoubtedly was a married man, for in Matthew 8 : 14, we read, u And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever," etc. The Evangelists, Mark and Luke, also make the same statement. It is the same in the Roman Cath- olic Bible. The Apostle Paul asks — " Have we not power to lead about a sister, a Wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas ? (1 Cor. 9 : 5.) " Let every man have his own wife, etc." (1 Cor. 7 : 2.) At a very early period in the history of the Christian Church unscriptural notions began to prevail in regard to celibacy and marriage. Even in the time of Tertullian, who lived at the begin- ning of the third century, the notion prevailed that celibacy was highly meritorious, and that marriage was discreditable. Hence, when dissuading from second marriages, this eminent " Father " uses the following language : " May it not suffice thee to have fallen from that high rank of immaculate vir- ginity by once marrying, and so descending to a second stage of honor ? Must thou yet fall farther ; even to a third, to a fourth, and perhaps yet lower ? " No doubt the glorification of celibacy to be found in the early Christian ages was largely due to Pagan influences. Wherever dualistic ideas of a good and evil principle, and of matter as the seat of 324 God's Law of No Account. evil, prevailed, there it was natural that ascetic notions of virginity should arise. These unscrip- tural notions, — no doubt imbibed from the sur- rounding paganism, — began to prevail at a very early period, together with other superstitious con- ceits in regard to the influence of malignant demons. Mosheim says it was an almost universal persuasion that they who took wives were, of all others, the most subject to their influence. And as it was of infinite importance to the interests of the Church that no impure or malevolent spirit entered into the bodies of such as were appointed to govern, or to instruct others ; so the people were desirous that the clergy should use their utmost efforts to abstain from the pleasures of the conjugal life. The natural consequence of the prevalence of such views was that unmarried men began to be regarded as far more suitable for the office of the sacred min- istry than married men. After awhile second mar- riages were, by many, condemned in any case, and were regarded as wholly inconsistent with the purity of the sacred office, and therefore entirely inadmissible in the clergy. For centuries this question of the celibacy of the clergy was a subject of constant struggle within the Church. Many priests had wives, although the councils were issuing new orders every now and then against them. Pope Leo IX., (1048-1054) and Pope Nicolas II., (1058-1061) interdicted all priests that had wives, or concubines, from the exercise of any spiritual functions, on pain of excommuni- Priests Opposed to Celibacy. 325 cation. Alexander II., (1061-1073) decreed excom- munication against all who should attend a mass celebrated by a priest having a wife or concubine. This decision was renewed by Hildebrand (Gre- gory VII.,) in a council held at Rome in 1074, and a decretal was issued that every layman who should receive the communion from the hands of a married priest should be excommunicated, and that every priest who married should be deposed. This decree met with the most violent opposition in all coun- tries ; but Gregory succeeded in carrying it out with the utmost rigor ; and though individual instances of married priests were still to be found in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the celibacy of the Roman Catholic priesthood was established, and has since continued both in theory and practice. Nevertheless, after the Reformation, the question came up, and at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) several bishops, and the Emperor Charles V., favored a relaxation of the rule. In spite, however, of every objection and protest, this unscriptural, unnatural, and infamous rule was carried by the Council, and celibacy was forever imposed on the priests of the Roman Catholic Church. The Council of Trent was convened chiefly for the purpose of destroying, so far as possible, the influence of the Reformation and antognizing the doctrines of Martin Luther — doctrines that were agitating all the European nations. Much has been written in regard to the dignity, pomp and splendor of that notable assembly ; but considered from a moral 326 Blasphemy of the Council of Trent point of view, the Council of Trent was, perhaps, the most wicked and blasphemous assembly of men ever convened together since the creation of the world. The different sessions of that great Council extended over nearly eighteen years, so that what was done, was done deliberately, and with much premeditation. The light that streamed from a long closed, but now open Bible, had dazzled the eyes of the popes and prelates of Rome, and as " the wicked love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil," they assembled together for the evil pur- pose of extinguishing that light. Martin Luther, with the open Bible in his hand, had shown men how God had legislated for the emancipation of human society and the salvation of the human soul, through simple faith in Jesus Christ, and the Coun- cil of Trent assembled for the very purpose of antagonizing the Divine legislation by setting up their own laws in opposition to the laws of God. Almost their entire work was of this blasphemous character; but we have only to do now with their prohibition of marriage to their bishops and priests. These men pretended to be acting in the fear of God, and for His glory, and in the interests and defense of revealed truth, while all the time they were set- ting their own authority above the authority of the Almighty. We have seen how distinctly and repeatedly God, in His holy word, approves and commends marriage, and especially to the Christian ministry, declaring, "A bishop must be the husband of one wife." This is Evil Results of Celibacy. 327 not simply a quotation from the Protestant Bible, for their Roman Catholic Bible says the same thing. I will give the exact words of their own version, now before me : " It behooveth, therefore, a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife" etc. " One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection, with all chastity." (1 Tim. 3 : 1-4.) In spite, then, of the plainest declarations of God's holy word, that celebrated Council, composed of the highest dignitaries and official representatives of the Church, dared to legislate in direct opposition to the legislation of God himself. But what makes the crimes of that Council all the greater is the fact that all the best men in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the people in general, were crying out against the shocking immoralties of the priesthood, resulting from the enforced celibacy to which they were subject. Luther, Calvin and the other reform- ers were constantly crying out against the great scandals brought on the very name of religion through the horrible corruptions of the priests and bishops of the Church. Calvin speaks as follows of the monstrous evils resulting from the unscriptural and infamous law of celibacy : " With what im- punity fornication rages among them it is unneces- sary to remark ; emboldened by their polluted celi- bacy they have become hardened to every crime. Yet this prohibition clearly shows how pestilent are all their traditions, since it has not only deprived the Church of upright and able pastors, but has formed a horrible gulf of enormities, and has pre- 328 The Augsburg Confession. cipitated many souls into the abyss of despair. The interdiction of marriage to the priests was certainly an act of impious tyranny, not only contrary to the word of God, but at variance with every principle of justice. In the first place, it was on no account lawful for men to prohibit that which the Lord had left free. Secondly, that God had expressly provided in his word that this liberty should not be infringed, is too clear to require much proof." The Augsburg Confession has a long article (xxiii.) on the subject, from which we extract a passage: " Matrimony is moreover declared a lawful and hon- orable estate by the laws of your imperial Majesty and by the code of every empire in which justice and law prevailed. Of late, however, innocent sub- jects, and especially ministers, are cruelly tormented on account of their marriage. Nor is such conduct a violation of the Divine laws alone ; it is equally opposed to the canons of the Church. The Apostle Paul denominates that a ' doctrine of devils ' which forbids marriage, (1 Tim. iv. : 1-3) and Christ says (John viii. : 44.) ' The devil is a murderer from the beginning.' For that may well be regarded as a doctrine of devils which forbids marriage and en- forces the prohibition by the shedding of blood." A council held at Rome removed the pastors from their families, and obliged them to devote them- selves individually to the hierarchy. The law of celibacy, devised and carried into effect by the popes, (who were themselves monks) changed the clergy into a monastic order. The legates of Hildebrand Bitter Fruits of Celibacy. 329 passed through the provinces depriving the pastors of their lawful wives, and the Pope himself, if neces- sary, excited the populace against the married clergy. The annals of the age swarm with scandals. In many places the people were well pleased that the priest should have a woman in keeping, that their wives might be safe from their seductions." What scenes of humiliation were witnessed in the house of the pastor. The wretched man supported the mother and her children with the tithe and the offering ; his conscience was troubled ; he blushed in presence of his people, of his servants, and before God. The mother, fearing to come to want when the priest should die, provided against it beforehand, and robbed the house. Her character was gone; her children were a living accusation of her. Treated on all sides with contempt, they plunged into brawls and debaucheries. Such was the family of the priest. These horrid scenes were a kind of instruction that the people were ready enough to follow. The rural districts were the scene of numerous excesses. The abodes of the clergy were frequently the resorts of the dissolute. Cornelius Adrian, at Bruges; the Abbot Trinkler, at Chappel, imitated the customs of the East, and had their harems. " Priests consorted with abandoned characters, fre- quented the taverns, played dice, and finished their orgies with quarrels and blasphemies." " Rome was one vast scene of debaucheries." In several places the priest paid to the bishop a regular tax for the woman with whom he lived. A German bishop, 330 In Defiance of Holy Scripture. who was present at a grand entertainment, publicly declared that in one year eleven thousand priests had presented themselves to him for that purpose. It is the learned Erasmus who records this. The higher orders of the hierarchy were equally corrupt. (See " D'Aubign&'s History of the Reformation " for the facts given on this page.) Martin Luther declared, " The ecclesiastical order is opposed to God and to his glory. The people well know it, and it is but too evident, from the many songs, proverbs, and jests on the priests, current among the common people, as also from figures of monks and priests scrawled on the walls, and even on the playing cards, that everyone has a feeling of disgust at the sight or name of a priest." In spite of the fact of this general " feeling of dis- gust" with the Romish priesthood, on account of their great immorality, resulting from the rule of celibacy ; in spite of the fact that all Europe was crying out against this priestly profligacy ; in spite of the fact that Luther and Calvin, and the entire company of the reformers had turned the search- light of God's holy word on this law of celibacy ; and in spite of the fact that the bishops and others, composing the Council of Trent, had in their hands the Bible, which plainly reveals the Divine approval of the marriage relation, and especially for the Chris- tian ministry, and God's disapproval of celibacy — in spite of all this, the Council deliberately decreed : "(Whosoever shall say that the married state is to be preferred to a state of virginity or celibacy, and Another Mark of Antichrist. 331 that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity or celibacy, than to be joined in marriage, let him be accursed." Thus this notable Council of Trent, by particularly pretending to represent God and his true Church, passes sentence of eternal dam- nation on all who dare to obey God rather than men ! In doing this they blasphemed God ; trampled under foot the natural rights of men ; insulted the intelli- gence of the world, and unwittingly put upon the brazen forehead of the Church of Rome the brand of Antichrist. Another sign of the apostacy and mark of Anti- christ, as mentioned by Paul, (1 Tim. iv. : 3) is "Commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving," etc. To forbid the use of certain meats is here described as one of the characteristics of those who would claim to be instructors of the Church in the times of the apostacy. It is not necessary to suppose that there would bean entire prohibition, but only a prohibi- tion of certain kinds and at certain seasons. That this characteristic is found in the papacy more than anywhere else in the Christian world it is needless to prove. The following questions and answers are from Dr. Butler's Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, and will show what is the belief of Roman Catholics on this subject : — " Q. Are there any other commandments besides the ten commandments of God ? " A. There are the commandments or precepts of the Church, which are chiefly six. 332 Rome Legislates for the Stomach. " Q. What are we obliged to do by the second commandment of the Church ? " A. To give part of the year to fast and abstinence. " Q. What do you mean by fast days ? " A. Certain days, on which we are allowed but one meal, and forbidden flesh meat " Q. What do jou mean by days of abstinence ? " A. Certain days, on which we are forbidden to eat flesh meat, but are allowed the usual number of meals. " Q. Is it strictly forbidden by the Church to eat flesh meat on days of abstinence ? " A. Yes ; and to eat flesh meat on any day on which it is forbidden, without necessity and leave of the Church, is very sinful." Could there be a more impressive and striking commentary on what the apostle says here, that in the latter days some would depart from the faith under the hypocritical teaching of those who " com- manded to abstain from meats?" The authority claimed by the papacy to issue commands on this subject may be seen still further by the following extract from the same catechism, showing the gra- cious permission of the Church to " the faithful." " The abstinence on Saturdays is dispensed with, for the faithful throughout the United States, for the space of ten years, (from 1833) except when a fast falls on Saturday. The use of flesh meat is allowed at present by dispensation, in the diocese of Phila- delphia, on all the Sundays of Lent, except Palm Sunday, and once a day on Monday, Tuesday, and Changing Sins into Virtues. 333 Thursday in each week, except the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, and also excepting Holy Week." Such is the Roman Catholic religion! (See also Peter Den's Moral Theology, pp. 321-339. Albert Barnes on 1 Tim. 4 : 3.) Here we have the most disgusting trifling with the laws of God and with God-given rights and comforts of men. In this case of eating meat, as in the previous case of the celibacy of the Romish clergy, what God himself graciously and freely permits, the Church of Rome daringly and impudently prohibits. As we have seen, in the Romish catechism, for a papist to eat meat on certain days "is very sinful" and we are told by the same infallible authority that " The abstinence on Saturday is dispensed with for the faithful throughout the United States for the space of ten years. The use of flesh meat is allowed at present by dispensation, in the diocese of Philadel- phia," etc. Here we see that " The faithful in the United States " are given the privilege and the right to commit sin, or do that which is " very sinful" for the space of ten years." What is " very sinful " for the faithful outside of the United States, is virtuous and commendable within these limits. What is black in other countries is white here ! It is taught that " The Pope alone can grant a dispensation" Thus the Pope claims the ability to change the nature of sins and to transmute vices into virtues ! But if any common priest can, by the utterance of five Latin words, actually change a bit of baked dough into the literal living body and soul, and divinity of 334 A Permission to Sin. Jesus Christ, why should not the Pope be able to change sins into virtues? It is said by Paul (II. Thess. ii. : 4) that Antichrist " Opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." And here we see the Pope, not only setting aside God's laws, and putting his own laws in their place, and setting them "above " God's laws, but in his dispensations he does what God has never attempted to do, and which by virtue of his infinite holiness he cannot do ; for the Pope declares a thing to be " very sinful" and then gives men permission to commit that sin. God forgives sin ; but he never gives a dispensation to sin, nor does he ever change the nature of sins by transmuting them into virtues. All that sort of thing is the exclusive privilege of the wicked blasphemer of the Seven Hills, who " exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." The Pope, as a matter of favor, graciously gives permission to eat meat on certain days, when God gives to every man the right to eat meat every day in the year, if he feels like it. No Pope, or government, or church has a right to compel men to keep a religious fast. It is a matter between the individual and his God. There can be no true fast where there is compulsion. Our Saviour said : " Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypo- crites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy An Instructive Comment. 335 face ; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father, which seeth in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." (Matt, vi: 16, &c.) An eminent author has this to say on the passage of Scripture now under consideration : " The last note and character of these men is ' commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth ; ' where in the original the word commanding is not expressed, but understood, with an ellipsis that commentators have observed to be sometimes used by the best classic authors. The same lying hypocrites who should promote the wor- ship of demons, should not only prohibit lawful marriage, but likewise impose unnecessary absti- nence from meats : and there, too, as indeed it is fit they should, usually go together as constituent parts of the same hypocrisy. As we learn from Irenseus, the ancient heretics, called Continents, who taught that matrimony was not to be contracted, repro- bating the primitive work of God, and tacitly accus- ing him who made man and woman for the production of human kind, introduced abstinence also from animal food, showing themselves ungrate- ful to God, who made all things. It is as much the law and constitution of all monks to abstain from meats as from marriage. Some never eat any flesh, others only certain kinds, and on certain days. Frequent fasts is the rule and boast of their order ; and their carnal humility is their spiritual pride. 336 " Idle, Popish, Monkish Abstinence." So lived the monks of the ancient church ; so live, with less strictness, perhaps, but with greater osten- tation, the monks and friars of the Church of Rome ; and these have been the principal propagators and defenders of the worship of the dead, both in former and in later times. The worship of the dead is indeed so monstrously absurd, as well as impious, that there was hardly any possibility of its ever succeeding and prevailing in the world but by hypocrisy and lies: but that particular sorts of hypocrisy, celibacy under pretence of chastity, and abstinence under pretence of devotion, should be employed for this purpose, the Spirit of God alone could foresee and foretell. " There is no necessary connection between the wor- ship of the dead, and forbidding to marry and com- manding to abstain from meats : and yet it is certain that the great advocates of this worship have, by their pretended purity and mortification, secured the greater reverence to their persons, and the readier reception to their doctrines. But this idle, popish, monkish abstinence is as unworthy of a Christian as it is unnatural to a man. It is perverting the purpose of nature, and l commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by the believers, and them that know the truth.' The apostle therefore approves and sanctifies the religious custom of blessing God at our meals, as our Saviour, when he was to dis- tribute the loaves and fishes, ' looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake.' And what, then, can be Who are " Good Ministers t " 337 said of those who have their tables spread with the most bountiful gifts of God, and yet constantly sit down and rise up again without suffering so much as one thought of the giver to intrude upon them ? It is but a thought, it is but a glimpse of devotion, and can they who refuse even that, be reputed either to believe or to know the truth ? Man is free to par- take of all the creatures of God ; but thanksgiving is the necessary condition. " For," as the apostle says, " every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer." The apostle proceeds to say that it is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to press and inculcate these things. " If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith, and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained." (1 Timothy, 4: 1-6.) All that is preached up of such abstinence and mortification, as well as all the legends of the saints, are no better than " profane and old wives' fables :" godliness is the only thing that will avail us here or hereafter ; " but refuse pro- fane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness : for bodily exercise profiteth little ; but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." (Newton, " On the Prophecies.") The apostle Paul says, as above quoted — u If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ," etc. 338 Priests Not Good Ministers. " These things " refers to what he had just written in regard to the wickedness and apostacy — or " falling away " from God — of those " Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." Paul was an inspired servant of God, and therefore taught the truth, and the truth only, in regard to the matters referred to, and could truly say that Timothy, who was a young preacher, would show himself to be " a good minister of Jesus Christ" if he faithfully preached what he had been taught. As the priests and bishops of Rome do not teach what Paul taught in regard to marriage, and the right of every man to eat what he pleases, it is quite certain that the Roman Catholic priests are not " good ministers of Jesus Christ ;" and as they do teach for truth what Paul condemns as heresy, and " doctrines of devils," it follows that they are not ministers of Jesus Christ at all, but are ministers of the devil, whose " doctrines " they teach. In the gospel of John we read (Chapter VIII.) that certain men, who made very high religious pretensions, and claimed to be of " the only true church," came to Christ denying his doctrines, and insisting on thier own infalli- bility. They insisted that they were in the true line of succession from Abraham, and declaring, " We have one Father, even God." To those self- satisfied members of " the true church " our Saviour replied : " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speak- The Saviour's Severe Rebuke. 339 eth a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth ye believe me not. He that is of God heareth God's words ; ye, therefore, hear them not, because ye are not of God." In all candor and charity, do not these severe and awful words of our Saviour justly apply to the priests of the Church of Rome? " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and command- ing to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." But " the Little Horn had a mouth, speaking great things against the Most High." CHAPTER XVI. Voices From the Apocalypse. As this volume is being written for popular read- ing, it is written in popular style; avoiding, so far as possible, all that is abstruse, and technical ; our aim being to give to the people a strictly truth- ful view of the Roman Catholic Church, as she is presented to the world in the Word of God, and the most reliable History. Therefore coming, as we now do, to the most difficult of all the books of the Bible — the Apocalypse, or Revelation — we shall be compelled to pass over many very decided references to the Papacy ; first, because their expo- sition would require too much space ; and secondly, because, after all, the explanation given of the intensely figurative language of this portion of the Bible might fail to satisfy some readers that the explanation given is the correct one. We shall, therefore, refer those who desire a full understand- ing of this interesting book, to the learned exposi- tions of men who have made it their special study ; while we confine ourselves to those portions that are plain, and easily understood, and that refer without question to the Papacy. It is well known that many intelligent Christians take but little interest in this book of Revelation, believing that it is so intensely figurative and sym- bolical that it is impossible to understand it. But the Divine Author of the book says, plainly, "Blessed 340 An Interesting Quotation. 341 is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things that are written therein : for the time is at hand." (Chapter 1 : 3.) From these words it seems that it is possible to un- derstand the book, provided it is reverently studied, with prayer for divine light ; for it is difficult to see how any one can be " blessed " in reading, or hear- ing, what it is " impossible to understand." The eleventh chapter of Revelation contains sev- eral very interesting references to the Romish Church ; but they are so intensely metaphorical that we will not rely on anything in this chapter in proof of what we have to say in this argument against Rome ; and yet will quote a few verses from it, at least to show the method of interpretation adopted by many of the most scholarly, and candid expositors, and because the facts made use of by these students of prophecy afford very interesting, and instructive reading on the subject of Roman- ism. Beginning at the third verse we read : "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three- score days clothed in sack cloth. (4) These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. (5) And if any man shall hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies : and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed. (6) These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy ; and have power over waters, to turn them to blood, and to smite the 342 An Instructive Prophecy. earth with all plagues, as often as they will. (7) And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. (8) And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spirit- ually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (9) And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. (10) And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tor- mented them that dwelt on the earth. (11) And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that saw them. (12) And they heard a great voice from heaven say- ing unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud ; and their enemies beheld them." Divesting these remarkable verses of their metaphorical drapery we find the following facts : In the darkest times God has had his wit- nesses to his truth. They who hurt God's witnesses shall be hurt themselves. The great enemy of God's true people is represented as a "beast from the bottomless pit ; " who shall triumph over God's people for awhile. That God's slain witnesses shall be refused decent burial by their cruel enemies. That the enemies of truth shall be filled with joy An Intelligent Interpretation. 343 for a season on account of their success. After awhile the friends of God who seemed to be dead were raised to life by the Spirit of God, and were honored and exalted. Now all these things have literally come to pass in the history of the Chris- tian Church. The learned Dr. Newton, Bishop of the English Church, in his " Dissertations on the Prophecies," says, on the above quotations : " At the same time God should raise up some true and faithful witnesses to preach and protest against these innovations and corruptions of religion ; for there were Protestants long before the name came into use. Of these wit- nesses there should be, though but a small, yet a competent number, and it was a sufficient reason for making them ' two witnesses/ because that is the number required by the law, and approved by the gospel. (Deut. xix : 15 ; Matt, xviii : 16.) l In the mouth of two witnesses every word shall be estab- lished ; ? and upon former occasions two have often been joined in commission, as Moses and Aaron, in Egypt ; Elijah and Elisha, in the apostasy of the ten tribes, and Zerubbabel and Jeshua, after the Baby- lonish captivity, to whom these witnesses are par- ticularly compared. Our Saviour himself sent forth his disciples, i two and two ;' and it hath been observed, also, that the principal reformers have usually appeared, as it were, in pairs, as the Wal- denses and Albigenses, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, Luther and Calvin, Cranmer and Ridley, and their followers. Not that I conceive that any 344 Beast from the Bottomless Pit. two particular men, or two particular churches, were intended by this prophecy ; but only it was meant in the general that there should be some in every age, though but a few in number, who should bear witness to the truth, and declare against the iniquity and idolatry of the times. They should not be dis" couraged even by persecution and oppression ; but though ' clothed in sackcloth,' and living in a mourning and afflicted state, should yet ' prophesy ' — should yet preach the sincere word of God, and denounce the divine judgment against the reigning idolatry and wickedness : and this they should con- tinue to do as long as the grand corruption itself lasted ; for the space of l a thousand two hundred and sixty days.' It is the same space of time with the ' forty and two months ' before mentioned. For ' forty and two months,' consisting each of thirty days, are equal to ' a thousand two hundred and three score days,' or years in the prophetic style, and ' a thousand two hundred and three score years,' as we have seen before in Daniel, and shall see here- after in the Revelation, is the period assigned for the tyranny and idolatry of the Church of Rome. The witnesses, therefore, cannot be any two men, or any two churches, but must be a succession of men, and a succession of churches. ... "'And when they shall have finished their testi- mony (or shall be about finishing their testimony) the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit (the tyrannical power of Rome, of which we shall see more hereafter) shall make war against them, The Beast Triumphant. 345 and shall overcome them and kill them/ The beast indeed shall make war against them all the time they are performing their ministry ; but when they shall be near finishing it, he shall so make war with them as to ' overcome them and kill them.' They shall be subdued and suppressed, be degraded from all power and authority, be deprived of all offices and functions, and be politically dead, if not natu- rally so. In this low and abject state they shall be sometime (verse 8) in the street of the great city, in some conspicuous place within the jurisdiction of Rome, which spiritually is called Sodom (for cor- ruption of manners) and Egypt (for tyranny and oppression of the people of God), w where, also, our Lord was crucified/ spiritually being crucified afresh in the sufferings of his faithful martyrs ; their dead bodies shall not only be publicy ex- posed (verse 9) but they shall be denied even the common privilege of burial, which is the case of many Protestants in popish countries ; and their enemies shall rejoice and insult over them, and shall send mutual presents and congratulations one to another for their deliverance from these 1 tormentors? whose life and doctrine were a con- tinual reproach to them. . . . " Some interpreters are of opinion that this death and resurrection of the witnesses received its com- pletion in the case of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who were two faithful witnesses and martyrs of the blessed Jesus. It is very well known that they were condemned to death, and afterwards burnt 346 Protestants Bleeding : Rome Rejoicing. for heresy by the (Roman Catholic) Council of Con- stance ; which council, sitting about three years and a half, from November, 1414, to April, 1418, their bodies may that time be said to have lain ' unburied in the street of the great city' of Constance, where was the greatest assembly not only of bishops and car- dinals, but likewise of ambassadors, barons, counts, dukes, princes, and the emperor himself. But after the council was dissolved, these two preachers were restored, as it were, to life in their disciples and fol- lowers, who propagated the same doctrines, main- tained them by force of arms, as well as by preaching, and even vanquished the imperial forces in several battles. It was truly said to them, ' Come up hither/ when they were invited to the Council of Basil with a promise of redress of grievances ; but the council having dealt fraudulently with them, they broke out again in open rebellion, and ' the tenth part of the city fell/ the Kingdom of Bohemia revolted, and fell alike from its pope and emperor. " Others refer this prophecy to the Protestants of the League of Smalcald, who were entirely routed by the Emperor Charles V., in the battle of Mul- berg, on the 24th of April, 1547, when the two great champions of the Protestants, John Frederic, Elec- tor of Saxony, was taken prisoner, and the Land- grave of Hesse was forced to surrender himself and to beg pardon of the Emperor. Protestantism was then in a manner suppressed, and the mass restored. The witnesses were dead, but not buried, and the papists ' rejoiced over them, and made merry, and Resurrection of the Witnesses. 347 sent gifts one to another.' But this joy and triumph of theirs were of no long continuance, for in the space of about three years and a half the Protestants were raised again at Magdeburg, and defeated and took the Duke of Muhlenburg prisoner in Decem- ber, 1550. From that time their affairs changed for the better almost every day ; success attended their arms and counsels, and the Emperor was obliged, by the treaty of Passau, to allow them the free exer- cise of their religion and to readmit them into the imperial chamber, from which they had, ever since the victory of Mulberg, been excluded. Here was indeed ' a great earthquake ' — a great commotion — in which many ' thousands were slain? and i the tenth part of the city fell? a great part of the Ger- man Empire renounced the authority and aban- doned the communion of the Church of Rome. "Some, again, may think this prophecy very ap- plicable to the horrid massacre of the Protestants at Paris, and in other cities of France, begun on the memorable eve of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572. According to the best authors, there were slain thirty or forty thousand Huguenots in a few days, and among them, without doubt, many true wit- nesses and faithful martyrs of Jesus Christ. ' Their dead bodies lay in the streets of the great city/ one of the greatest cities of Europe ; for they were not suffered to be buried, being the bodies of heretics, but were dragged through the streets or thrown into the river, or hung upon gibbets and exposed to pub- lic infamy. Great rejoicings, too, were made in the 348 Treaty with the Huguenots, courts of France, Rome and Spain ; they went in procession to the churches; they returned public thanks to God, they sung Te Deums, they celebrated jubilees, they struck medals, and it was enacted that St. Bartholomew's Day should ever afterwards be kept with double pomp and solemnity. But neither was their joy of long continuance, for in little more than three years and a half, Henry III., who suc- ceeded his brother, Charles IX., entered into a treaty with the Huguenots, which was concluded and published on the 14th of May, 1576, whereby all the former sentences against them were reversed, and the free and open exercise of their religion was granted to them. They were to be admitted to all honors, dignities, and offices as well as the papists, and the judges were to be half of one religion and half of the other, with other articles greatly to their advantage, which were in a manner the resurrection of the witnesses and their ascension into heaven. The ' great earthquake,' and the falling of the tenth part of the city, and the slaying of thousands of men, accord- ing to this hypothesis, must be referred to the great commotions and civil wars which for several years afterwards cruelly disturbed and almost destroyed the kingdom of France." It would be both pleasing and instructive to fol- low this learned and interesting student of the prophecies still further, but our space forbids. The views expressed by Dr. Newton are the same as those entertained by the generality of Protestant biblicists who have given special attention to this subject. The Same Evil Beast 349 In explanation of " the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, making war against " God's faithful witnesses, a well-known and highly-respected Bible scholar, Rev. Albert Barnes, has this to say, after having spoken of the many things said of this beast in other parts of the Scriptures: u These things serve to characterize the ' beast' as distinguished from all other things, and they are so numerous and definite that it would seem to have been intended to make it easy to understand what was meant when the power referred to should appear. In regard to the origin of the imagery here, there can be no reasonable doubt that it is to be traced to Daniel, and that the writer here means to describe the same 1 beast ' which Daniel refers to in chapter 7 : 7. The evidence of this must be clear to anyone who will compare the description in Daniel (chap. 7) with the minute details of the Book of Revelation. No one, I think, can doubt that John means to carry forward the description in Daniel and to apply it to new manifestations of the same great and terrific power, the power of the fourth monarchy, on the earth. For full evidence that the representation in Daniel refers to the Roman power prolonged and perpetu- ated in the Papal dominion, I must refer the reader to the Notes on chapter vii : 25, of Daniel. (Barne's Notes on Daniel.) It may be assumed here that the opinion thus defended is correct, and conse- quently it may be assumed that the ' beast ' of this book refers to the Papal power. ■ That ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.' This would properly mean 350 Truth Again Defeated. that its origin is the nether world ; or that it will have characteristics which will show that it is from beneath. The meaning clearly is, that which was symbolized by the beast would have such charac- teristics as to show that it was not of divine origin, but had its source in the world of darkness, sin and death. This, of course, could not represent the true Church, or any civil government that is founded on principles which God approves. But if it represent a community pretending to be a Church, it is an apostate Church ; if a civil community, it is a com- munity the characteristics of which are that it is controlled by the Spirit that rules over the world beneath. For reasons which we shall see in abund- ance in applying the descriptions which occur of the ' beast/ I regard this as referring to that great apostate power which occupies so much of the pro- phetic descriptions — the Papacy" What is said in the tenth and eleventh verses of the chapter before us seems to have been so literally fulfilled that we venture to call the reader's special attention to it. In plain words, the statement is that the enemies of true religion were so delighted that they had silenced God's faithful witnesses, whose faithful testimony to the truth has so " tor- mented " them that they " made merry " and " sent gifts to each other/' etc. They rejoiced because true religion seemed to be dead, and all opposition had come to an end. And yet in "three days and a half" those who seemed to be dead, again " stood upon their feet." Now all the accounts given us of the Popery Triumphant. 351 Reformation under Luther agree in the fact that a little before that event Rome seemed to have crushed the life out of the opposition with which she had long had to contend. That time was during the session of the Council of Lateran, which was assem- bled A. D. 1513, and which continued its session to May 16, 1517. In the ninth session of this Council a remarkable proclamation was made, indicating that all opposition to the papal power had now ceased. The scene is thus described by Mr. Elliott (ii. 396, 397.) " The orator of the session ascended the pulpit, and amidst the applause of the assembled Council uttered that memorable exclamation of tri- umph — an exclamation which, notwithstanding the long multiplied anti-heretical decrees of popes and councils; notwithstanding the yet more multiplied anti-heretical crusades and inquisitorial fires, was never, I believe, pronounced before, and certainly never since : ' There is an end of resistance to the papal rule and religion; opposers there exist no more.' And again, l The whole body of Christendom is now seen to be subjected to its Head, i. e., to Thee! " This occurred May 5, 1514. " It is probably from this time," says Mr. Barnes, that the " three days and a half," or the three years and a half, (prophetic time) during which the dead bodies " of the wit- nesses " remained unburied, are to be reckoned. But it was with remarkable accuracy that the period of " three years and a half" occurred from the time when this proclamation was made, and when it was supposed that these " witnesses " were 352 Rome Rejoicing Again. " dead/' to the time when the voice of living wit- nesses for the truth was heard again, as if those witnesses that had been silenced had come to life again ; and " not in the compass of the whole eccle- siastical history of Christendom, except in the case of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ him- self, is there any such example of the sudden, mighty and triumphant resuscitation of his Church from a state of deep depression, as was the case just after the separation of the Council of Lateran, and which was exhibited in the protesting voice of Luther, and the glorious Reformation." (See Bower's Lives of the Popes, iii. : 295, etc.) All accounts agree in placing the beginning of the Reformation in A. D. 1517. The effect of this, as compared with the sup- posed suppression of heresy, or the death of the wit- nesses, and as an illustration of the passage before us, will be seen from the following language of a writer in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the writer, of course, having no reference to the matter now before us, but thus he speaks of the period just preceding the Reformation : " Everything was quiet, every heretic was exterminated, and the whole Christian world supinely acquiesced in the enormous absurdities in- culcated by the Romish Church, when, in 1517, the empire of superstition received its first attack from Luther." Another witness we have in that most excellent and respected writer, Dr. Milner (History of the Church, p. 660, Edin. Ed., 1835.) He says : " The sixteenth century opened with a prospect, of all A " Dark Age " Indeed 353 others, the most gloomy in the eyes of every true Christian. Corruption both in doctrine and in prac- tice had exceeded all bounds, and the general face of Europe, through the name of Christ was every- where professed, presented nothing that was prop- erly evangelical. The Waldenses were too feeble to molest the popedom, and the Hussites, divided among themselves, and worn out by a long series of contentions, were reduced to silence. Among both were found persons of undoubted godliness, but they seemed incapable of making effectual impressions on the Kingdom of Antichrist. The Roman pontiffs were still the uncontrolled patrons of impiety; neither the scandalous crimes of (Pope) Alexander VI., nor the military ferocity of Julius II. seemed to have lessened the dominion of the Court of Rome, or to have opened the eyes of men so as to induce them to make a sober investigation of the nature of true religion." Another learned writer, Mr. Cun- ningham, says : "At the commencement of the six- teenth century Europe reposed in the deep sleep of spiritual death under the iron yoke of the papacy. That haughty power, like the Assyrian of the pro- phet, said, in the plentitude of his insolence, ' My hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathereth eggs, I have gathered all the earth, and there was none that moved the wing, or opened his mouth, or peeped.' " These quotations will show the propriety of the language used by John in the chapter now before us, on the supposition that it was intended to refer to this period. No symbol 354 The Welcome Voice of Luther. would be more striking, or more appropriate to that state of things, than to represent the witnesses for the truth as overcome and " slain," so that, for a time, at least, they would cease to bear their testimony against the prevailing errors and corruptions. It will be remembered also that this occurred at a time when it might be said that they had " fulfilled " their testimony, or when in a most solemn manner, they had protested against the existing idolatries and abominations. It was at the close of the three years and a half that " the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them that saw them." " When suddenly," says Mr. Cunningham, " in one of the Universities of Germany, the voice of an obscure monk was heard, the sound of which rapidly filled Saxony, Germany, and Europe itself, shaking the very foun- dations of the Papal power, and arousing men from the lethargy of ages." "And I," said John Huss, speaking of the gospel preachers who should appear after he had suffered at the stake ; "And I awaking as it were from the dead, and rising from the grave, shall rejoice with exceeding great joy." Again in 1523, after the Reformation had broken out, we find Pope Hadrian saying, in a missive addressed to the Diet at Nuremburg, " The heretics, Huss and Jerome, are now alive again, in the person of Martin Luther." God has his own wise reasons for clothing the prophecies in the drapery of figure, and metaphor, Fulfilled in the Papacy. and symbol. One of his reasons doubtless is that he does not intend that their true meaning shall be known to men until the things predicted shall have taken place ; for did wicked men know beforehand that certain things had been predicted, they, no doubt, would seek to prevent their occurrence, and thus give God the lie. It was predicted of the true Messiah that they should give him gall and vine- gar ; that they should pierce his hands, and his feet ; that they should cast lots for his garments ; and that none of his bones should be broken. All these things were literally fulfilled, and yet had Christ's enemies understood that these prophetic utterances applied to the Messiah, they could have prevented the fulfilment of these predictions, unless miraculously prevented. We read the meaning of these prophecies in their fulfilment, or in the historic facts. And so, to read the eleventh chapter of Revelation is confusing, unless we are acquainted with the facts of history ; but the facts in the history of the Roman Catholic Church so entirely coincide with the predictions in this eleventh chapter of Revelation, that it seems almost impossible for any intelligent investigator of this subject to avoid the conclusion that these predictions have special refer- ence to the Papacy. The 12th chapter of Revelation presents us with most interesting reading, and should not be passed by by the student of the Papacy ; although it has to do chiefly, and almost exclusively, with the persecution of the Church by Pagan Rome ; but is evidently in- 356 A Woman Clothed with the Sun. tended to be introductory to what God has to say in regard to the Papal persecutions of his true Church and people. (1) "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. (2) And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. (3) And there appeared another wonder in heaven ; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. (4) And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth : and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. (5) 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. (6) And the woman fled into the wilder- ness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there, a thousand, two hun- dred, and three score days," etc. A quotation or two from eminent students of the prophecies will greatly assist the reader to an un- derstanding of this remarkable passage of Scripture. Bishop Newton says : " St. John resumes his subject from the beginning, and represents the Church as a woman, and a mother bearing children unto Christ. She is ' clothed with the sun ' — invested with the rays of Jesus Christ, the sun of righteousness; hav- ing ' the moon ' — the Jewish new moons and festi- vals, as well as all sublunary things ; ' under her Red Dragon with Seven Heads. 357 feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars ' — an emblem of her being under the light and guid- ance of the twelve apostles. ... At the same time 1 there appeared a great dragon/ which is the well known sign or symbol of the Devil and Satan, and of his agents and instruments. That the Roman empire was here figured, the characters and attrib- utes of the dragon plainly evince. He is the ' great, red dragon ; ' and purple or scarlet was the distin- guishing color of the Roman emperors, consuls, and generals, as it hath been since of the popes arid car- dinals. His ' seven heads/ as the angel afterwards (xvii : 9, 10) explains the vision, allude to the seven mountains upon which Rome was built, and to the seven forms of government which successively pre- vailed there. His ' ten horns J typify the ' ten king- doms ' (see Dan. vii : 24) into which the Roman empire was divided ; and the ' seven crowns upon his heads ' denote that at this time the imperial power was in Rome, (the high city, as Propertius describes it) seated on the seven hills, which pre- sides over the whole world. ' His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.' That is, he subjected the third part of the princes, and potentates of the earth ; and the Roman empire, as we have seen before, is repre- sented as ' the third part ' of the world. ' He stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour the child as soon as it should be born ; ' and the Roman emperors and magistrates kept a jealous watchful eye over the Christians from 358 Pagan Persecutions. the beginning. As Pharaoh laid snares for the male children of the Hebrews, and Herod for the infant Christ, the son of Mary, so did the Roman dragon for the mystic Christ, the son of the church, that he might destroy him even in his infancy. But notwithstanding the jealousy and envy of the Romans the gospel was Widely diffused and propa- gated, and the Church brought many children unto Christ, and in time such as were promoted to the empire." This is the interpretation given by the generality of expositors, so far as I know, except Romanists, and such as are tainted with Romish ideas in regard to the union of Church and State, etc. The last struggle of Pagan Rome to destroy the church by persecution, before the triumph of Con- stantine and the public establishment of the Chris- tian religion, might well be represented by the attempt of the dragon to destroy the child ; and the safety of the church, and its complete deliverance from pagan persecution, by the symbol of a child caught up to heaven and placed near the throne of God. Gibbon, the historian, by no means prejudiced in favor of Christianity, records the following in regard to the last of the ancient Pagan persecutions : " The next day the general edict of persecution was published, and though Diocletian, still averse to the effusion of blood, had moderated the fury of Galerius, who proposed that every one refusing to offer sacri- fice should immediately be burnt alive, the penal- ties inflicted on the obstinacy of the Christians might be deemed sufficiently rigorous and effectual. Last of the Pagan Persecutions. 359 It was enacted that their churches, in all the prov- inces of the empire, should be demolished to their foundations ; and the punishment of death was pro- nounced against all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purpose of religious wor- ship. The philosophers who now assumed the unworthy office of directing the blind zeal of perse- cution, had diligently studied the nature and genius of 'the Christian religion, and as they were not ignor- ant that the speculative doctrines of the faith were supposed to be contained in the writings of the prophets, of the evangelists, and of the apostles, they most probably suggested the order that the bishops and presbyters should deliver all their sacred books into the hands of the magistrates, who were commanded, under the severest penalties, to burn them in a public and solemn manner. By the same edict the property of the church was at once confiscated, and the several parts of which it might consist were either sold to the highest bidder, united to the imperial domain, bestowed on the cities and corporations, or granted to the solicitations of rapa- cious courtiers. After taking such effectual measures to abolish the worship and dissolve the government of the Christians, it was thought necessary to subject to the most intolerable hardships the condition of those perverse individuals who should still reject the religion of nature, of Rome, and of their an- cestors. Persons of a liberal birth were declared incapable of holding any honors or employments ; slaves were forever deprived of the hope of freedom, 360 Mistaken Zeal of a True Christian. and the whole body of the people were put out of the protection of the law. The judges were in- structed to hear and to determine every action that was brought against a Christian. But the Chris- tians themselves were not permitted to complain of any injury which they themselves had suffered. . . " This edict was scarcely exhibited to the public view, in the most conspicuous place in Nicomedia, before it was torn down by the hands of a Christian, who expressed, at the same time, by the bitterest invectives, his contempt as well as abhorrence of such impious and tyrannical governors. His offence, according to the mildest laws, amounted to treason and deserved death. He was burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire ; and his executioners, zealous to re- venge the personal insult which had been offered to the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty without being able to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady and insulting smile which in his dying agonies he still preserved in his countenance. The Christians, though they confessed that his conduct had not been conformable to the laws of prudence, admired the divine fervor of his zeal, and the exces- sive commendations which they lavished on the memory of their hero and martyr contributed to fix a deep impression on the mind of Diocletian. . . . But when Galerius had obtained the supreme power and government of the east, he indulged in their fullest extent his zeal and cruelty, not only in the provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his immediate jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, The Rift in the Clouds. 361 Palestine and Egypt, where Maximin gratified his own inclination by yielding a rigorous obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor. The frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the expe- rience of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which a lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of Galerius, at length con- vinced him that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of re- pairing the mischief he had occasioned, he published in his own name, and in those of Licinius and Con- stantine, a general edict, which, after a pompous recital of the imperial titles, proceeded in the follow- ing manner : " ' Among the important cases which have occu- pied our mind for the utility and preservation of the empire, it was our intention to collect and re-estab- lish all things according to the ancient laws and public discipline of the Romans.' " (In a word, Gibbons tells us that the Emperor Galerius gave the Christians release from persecution.) " But," says the historian, i( this treacherous calm was of short duration ; nor could the Christians of the east place any confidence in the character of their sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means, the latter pointed out the objects of persecu- tion. The emperor was devoted to the worship of the Gods, to the study of music, to the belief of oracles. The prophets, or philosophers, whom he 362 Hypocrisy of False Religions. regarded as the favorites of heaven, were frequently raised to the government of provinces and admitted into his most secret councils. They easily convinced him that the Christians had been indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and that the weakness of polytheism had principally flowed from a want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion. A system of government was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from the policy of the church. In all the great cities of the empire the (pagan) temples were re- paired and beautified by the order of Maximin ; and the officiating priests of the various dieties were subjected to the authority of a superior pontiff destined to oppose the bishop, and to promote the cause of paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged in their turn the supreme jurisdiction of the metropoli- tans, or high priests, of the province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the emperor himself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity, and these new prelates were carefully selected from the most noble and opulent families. By the influence of the magistrates and of the sacerdotal order, a great number of dutiful addresses were obtained, particularly from the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and Tyre, which artfully presented the well-known intentions of the court as the general sense of the people ; solicited the emperor to consult the laws of justice rather than the dictates of his clemency; expressed their abhorrence of the Christians, and humbly prayed that those impious sectaries might The Fierce Maximin is Dead. 363 at least be excluded from the limits of their respec- tive territories. The answer of Maximin to the address which he received from the citizens of Tyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and devotion in terms of the highest satisfaction ; descants on the obstinate impiety of the Christians, and betrays by the readiness with which he consents to their banish- ment that he considered himself as receiving, rather than as conferring, an obligation. The priests as well as the magistrates were empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which were engraved on tables of brass ; and though it was recommended to them to avoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and ignominious punishments were inflicted on the refractory Christians. " The Asiatic Christians had everything to dread from the severity of a bigoted monarch, who pro- posed his measures of violence with such deliberate policy. But a few months had scarcely elapsed before the edicts published by the two western emperors obliged Maximin to suspend the execution of his designs; the civil war which he so rashly undertook against Licinius employed all his atten- tion, and the defeat and death of Maximin soon delivered the church from the last and most implacable of her enemies" (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.) My excuse for such a lengthy quotation from this interesting author is the importance of the subject — the last effort of the Dragon, under pagan Rome, to destroy the church of Jesus Christ, and her deliver- 364 Rest from Persecution. ance from her great enemy after three hundred years of persecution. The successor of Maximin on the imperial throne was Constantine, who gave rest to the church by declaring himself a Christian. Many learned writers have expressed their belief that the " man child," spoken of in Rev. xii : 5, was Constantine. Bishop Newton quotes the text, and says : " St. Paul hath made use of the same metaphor, and applied it to his preaching and propagating the gospel in the midst of tribulation and persecution. (Gal. iv : 19). ' My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.' But the words of John are much stronger, and more em- phatically express the pangs, and struggles, and torments which the church endured from the first publication of the gospel until the time of Constantine the Great, when she was in some measure eased of her pains, and brought forth a deliverer." He also quotes from another learned student of the pro- phecies, Mr. Winston, who says : " It is well known that from the first rise of pur Saviour's Kingdom, at his resurrection and ascension, A. D. 33, till the famous proclamation of Constantine, which put an end to the pangs of birth in the heaviest persecution that ever was then known," etc. At a more recent period Rev. Albert Barnes, in commenting on the same verse in Revelation, says : u It cannot be sup- posed that anything like this will literally occur. Any divine interposition to protect the church in its increase, or to save it from being destroyed by the dragon — the fierce Pagan power would be properly Horrible Tortures by Pagans. represented by this. Why may we not suppose the reference to be to the times of Constantine; when the church came under his protection; when it was effectually and finally saved from Pagan persecu- tion ; when it was rendered safe from the enemy that sought to destroy it ?" And this author quotes Mr. Gibbon as saying : " The gratitude of the church has exalted the virtues of the generous patron who seated Christianity on the throne of the Roman world." Before closing this chapter it will be well to men- tion some of the cruel methods employed by Pagan Rome in torturing and murdering the Christians. Gibbon says: "I have purposely refrained from de- scribing the particular sufferings and deaths of the Christian martyrs. It would have been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius ; from the declamations of Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of most horrid and most disgust- ful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, w T ith iron hooks, and red hot beds, and all the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savage executions, could inflict on the human body." But this eminent author refrains from entering into such shocking details. From many reliable records, however, we are furnished with abundant information in regard to this painful subject. In regard to the last of the persecutions under the Pagan emperors, we are told : " Great numbers of Christians suffered the severest tortures in this persecution. . . . The human imagination was indeed almost exhausted in inventing a variety 366 Man's Inhumanity to Man. of tortures. Some impaled alive, some had their limbs broken, and in that condition were left to expire. Some were roasted by slow fires, and some suspended by their feet, with the head downward, and a fire being placed under them, were suffocated by the smoke. Some had melted lead poured down their throats, and the flesh of some was torn off with shells, and others had splinters of reeds thurst under the nails of the fingers and toes. The few who were not capitally punished had their limbs and their features mutilated." In this dreadful persecution, which lasted ten years, houses filled with Christians were set on fire, and numbers of them were tied together with ropes and cast into the sea. It is related that seventeen thousand were slain in one month, and that during the continuance of this persecution, in the province of Egypt alone, no less than one hundred and forty- four thousand Christians died by the violence of their persecutors, besides seven hundred thousand that died through the fatigues of banishment, or the public works to which they were condemned. (See " Cyclopedia of Biblical. Theological, and Ecclesias- tical Literature," where numerous authorities are given.) This horrible work was worthy of the Great Red Dragon — " that old serpent, called the devil and Satan," who was the instigator and presiding genius of this Pagan onslaught on the Church of Christ. But this Dragon is not easily foiled or dis- couraged, and what he failed to accomplish through Pagan Rome, he hopes to accomplish through Papal Rome, as the following chapters will make clear. CHAPTER XVII. Apocalyptic Voices, Continued. "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 upon his heads the name of blasphemy. (2) And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. (3) And I saw one of his heads, at it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world won- dered after the beast. (4) And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast ? Who is able to make war with him ? (5) And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. (6) And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. (7) And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, and power was given unto him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. (8) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (9) If any man have an ear, let him hear. (10) He that lead- 367 368 The Beast with Ten Horns. eth into captivity shall go into captivity ; he that killeth with the sword must be killed wdth the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." (Rev. xiii. : 1-10.) When we compare what is here said with what we read in the seventh chapter of Daniel, we cannot fail to see that in both the subject is the same. Daniel saw four beasts — a lion, a bear, a leopard, and the fourth an indescribable monster. John, in the chapter before us, saw a monster combining all these beasts in one, representing the cruel and mer- ciless Roman empire. Both Daniel and John saw these beasts " coming up out of the sea" Daniel says the fourth beast " had ten horns" and the interpreting angel told him " the ten horns are ten kings" John also saw the beast with ten horns, and of these also the angel said, " the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings" Daniel saw that among the ten horns " there came up a little horn " — a simple bishop of Rome, that was to become in after years a boastful, arrogant, cruel power. Daniel says this horn had " a mouth speak- ing great things against the Most High." John saw the beast, and he had " a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies" "And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name," etc. (Rev. xiii. : 6.) Daniel's " little horn " " made war with the saints" "And shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and they shall be given into his hand," etc. And of the beast w r hich John saw it is said : "And it was given unto him to make war with Rome a City of Seven Hills. 369 the saints, and to overcome them." From all this it is certain that the seventh chapter of Daniel, and the thirteenth chapter of Revelation speak of the same things. As we have already had occasion to show, when the Roman Empire was broken up by the invasion of the northern hordes — the Goths, Huns, Vandals, etc., — the empire was divided up into " ten king- doms." John speaks of the same kingdoms as repre- sented by the beast with "seven heads and ten horns." The " seven heads " represented the seven hills on which Rome was built. This is expressly declared in Rev. xvii., 9 : " The seven heads are seven moun- tains," etc. " No doubt is to be made," says Bishop Newton, " that this beast w r as designed to represent the Roman Empire, for thus far both ancients and moderns, Papists and Protestants, are agreed. . . St. John saw this beast rising out of the sea ; but the Roman Empire was risen and established long before John's time ; and therefore this must be the Roman Empire, not in its then present, but in some future shape and form; and it arose in another shape and form after it was broken to pieces by the incur- sions of the northern nations. The beast hath ' seven heads and ten horns/ which are the well-known marks and signals of the Roman Empire, the seven heads alluding to the seven mountains whereon Rome was situated, and to the seven forms of gov- ernment which universally prevailed there, and the ten horns signifying the ten kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided. It is remarkable that 370 Pagan or Papal ; The Same Spirit the dragon had ( seven crowns upon his heads ; ' but the beast hath £ upon his horns ten crowns ; ' so that there had been in the meanwhile a revolu- tion of power from the heads of the dragon to the horns of the beast, and the sovereignty which before was exercised by Rome alone was now transferred and divided among ' ten kingdoms ; ' but the Roman Empire was not divided into ten kingdoms until after it was become Christian. Although the heads had lost their crowns, yet they still retained ' the name of blasphemy.' In all its heads, in all its forms of government, Rome was still guilty of idol- atry and blasphemy. Imperial Rome was called, and delighted to be called, ' The Eternal City/ 1 The Heavenly City/ ' The Goddess of the Earth/ 'The Goddess/ and had her temples and altars, with incense and sacrifices offered up to her, and how the papal Rome likewise hath arrogated to her- self divine titles and honors there will be a fitter occasion for showing in the following part of this description. "As Daniel's fourth beast was without a name, and devoured and broke in pieces the three former, so this beast is also without a name and partakes of the nature and qualities of the three former, having the body of a leopard (which was the third beast, or Grecian Empire), and the feet of a bear (which was the second beast, or Persian Empire), and the mouth of a lion (which was the first beast, or Baby- lonian Empire), and consequently this must be the same as Daniel's fourth beast, or the Roman Empire. The Beast with a Deadly Wound. 371 But still it is not the same beast, the same empire, entirely, but with some variations : 'And the dragon gave him his power (or his armies) and his seat (or his imperial throne) and great authority ' or jurisdic- tion over all parts of his empire.) The beast, there- fore, is the successor and substitute of the dragon, or of the idolatrous heathen Roman Empire ; and what other idolatrous power hath succeeded to the heathen emperors of Rome all the world is a judge and a witness. The dragon having failed in his purpose of restoring the old heathen idolatry, dele- gates his power to the beast, and thereby introduces a new species of idolatry, nominally different, but essentially the same — the worship of angels and saints, instead of the gods and demi-gods of antiquity." We will again remind the reader that a full exposition of the symbols in this book of Revela- tion must be sought elsewhere ; the purpose of the present writer is to show that the actual history of the Roman Catholic Church is thus far a most strik- ing fulfilment of the things predicted of the beasts, and therefore we are entirely justified in concluding that the Holy Spirit had the Romish Church in his mind when he inspired his servants to write these prophecies. The prophet saw that the beast had received a il deadly wound, and this deadly wound was healed." John saw a wound inflicted on the beast that would have been fatal but for a healing that was effected in a marvellous way. The facts here presented are 372 How the Deadly Wound was Healed, simply these : The Roman Empire, once so power- ful, and seemingly irresistible, was soon to be so weakened, and peeled, and broken up that its utter ruin seemed inevitable, when, contrary to all that seemed probable, or even possible, the beast was well again — the empire was restored, but in another form. This restoration of the civil power of Rome was, as a distinct historical fact, effected by the Papacy. The whole Roman power over the world would have died away if it had not been restored and perpetu- ated by means of this new and mighty influence. Under this new form Rome had all the power which it had ever had, and was guilty of all the atrocities of which it had ever been guilty. It was Rome still Every wound that was inflicted on that power by the incursions of barbarians, and by the dividing off of parts of the empire, was healed by the Papacy, and under this form its dominions became as wide and as formidable as under its ancient mode of administration. "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast ? Who is able to make war with him ? " Bishop Newton says : " No kingdom or empire was like unto that of the beast. It had not a parallel upon earth, and it was vain for any to resist or oppose it : it prevailed and triumphed over all ; and all the world in thus sub- mitting to the religion of the beast, did in effect submit again to the religion of the dragon ; it being the old idolatry w r ith only new narnes." The worship- More Dragon than Lamb. 373 ping of demons and idols (as Romanists do) is in effect the worshipping of devils. Wonderful as the beast was, his words and actions are no less wonderful. He perfectly resembles the little horn in Daniel. As the little horn had " a mouth speaking great things," and " spake great things against the Most High," so " there was given unto the beast a mouth speaking great things ;" and " he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God." And what can be greater things than blas- phemies, — than the claims of " universal bishop," " infallible," " sovereign of kings," and " disposer of kingdoms," " vicegerent of Christ," and " God upon earth ? " It is said (Rev. 13 : 7) of this Romish beast, that, " It was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them." We shall have more to say of the dreadful and wholesale murders, committed by the Church of Rome, a little farther on. Suffice it now to say that nothing in history is more certain than that, for ages and centuries, one of the chief occupations of the Romish Church was the torturing, and murdering of the very best men and women that ever lived on earth. John says (Rev. xiii : 11) " And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth ; and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon" Here is a most striking and remarkable picture of the Papacy. Popery makes great pretensions to piety ; it claims to be especially, and even exclusively, devoted to the salvation of souls ; it is especially anxious to be thought of as being gentle, and meek, 374 The Same Old Tyranny. and spiritual, and lamb-like. The priests of Rome deal much in soft religious phrases, and are glib in quoting Scripture, and in these ways they practice the deepest hypocrisy and deception. " Whose coming is with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish," (2 Thess. 2 : 10). But this beast has " two horns like a lamb" but he " spake as a dragon" While assuming great sanctity and sweetness, Rome shows the dragon spirit in haugh- tily deposing kings ; giving away crowns, and kingdoms ; absolving from oaths ; sentencing thou- sands to gloomy dungeons of the Inquisition, and causing the blood of saints to flow in torrents. "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast be- fore him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed," (verse 12). The same amount of power, the same kind of power. This shows a remarkable relationship between these two beasts ; and proves that it was intended to refer to the same power substantially, though manifested in a different form. In the fulfilment of this, we should naturally look for some government whose authority extended far, and was absolute and arro- gant in its character ; for this is the power attribu- ted to the first beast. This description had a re- markable fulfilment in the papacy considered as a spiritual dominion. The relation to the secular power is the same as would be indicated by these two beasts ; the dominion was as widespread : the authority was as absolute and arrogant. In fact, on They Help Each Other. 375 these points they have been identical. The one has sustained the other ; either one would have long since fallen if it had not been upheld by the other. The Papacy, considered as a spiritual dominion, was in fact a new power starting up in the same place as the old Roman dominion, to give life to it as it was tending to decay, and -to continue its ascendency over the world. These two things, the secular, and the spiritual power, constituting the Papacy j in the proper sense of the term, are in fact the continuance or prolongation of the old Roman dominion — the fourth kingdom of Daniel — united so as to constitute in reality but one kingdom, and yet so distinct in their origin, and in their manifes- tations, as to be capable of separate contemplation and description and thus properly represented by the two " beasts " that were shown in vision to the apostle John. (See Albert Barnes, Bishop Newton, and Matthew Henry, on this chapter.) The Romish Church claims that she has the power to work miracles, and boasts that this is a mark and proof of her apostolic origin, and divine commission ; but God himself teaches that her claim to miracle-working power is an evidence of her being Antichrist. "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do." We have already had occasion to refer to what Paul calls the " signs, and lying wonders," so extensively practiced, 376 Making an Image of the Beast. even at the present day, by the Church of Rome. It is by means of winking Madonnas, and talking statues ; the liquifaction of the blood of St. Janua- rius, and a multitude of other " lying wonders," that Rome deceives her ignorant and superstitious multitudes, and holds them in servile and degrad- ing subjection to the Romish "Beast." It appears that in order to make this great system of iniquity the most effective, it was necessary to " make an image of the beast." All that is stated here would be fulfilled if the old Roman civil power should become to a large extent dead, or cease to exert its influence over men, and if then the Papal spiritual power should cause a form of domination to exist, strongly resembling the former in its general character and extent, and if it should secure this result — that the world should acknowledge its sway, or render it homage, as it did to the old Roman government. All this was actually accomplished by the Papacy, which secured the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West. Mr. Gibbon says : " It was after the Nicene Synod, and under the reign of the pious Irene, that the Popes con- summated the separation of Rome and Italy (from the Eastern Empire) by the translation of the empire to the less orthodox Charlemagne. . . . The title of patrician was below the merit and greatness of Charlemagne; and it was only by reviving the western empire that they could pay their obligations or secure their establishment. By this decisive measure they would finally eradicate the claims of Giving Life to the Image of the Beast. 377 the Greeks; from the debasement of a provincial town the majesty of Rome would be restored ; the Latin- Christians would be united under a supreme head in their ancient metropolis ; and the conquerors of the West would receive their crown from the successors of St. Peter. The Roman Church would acquire a zeal- ous and respectable advocate, and, under the shadow of the Carlo vingian power, the bishop might exer- cise, with honor and safety, the government of the city." And again Mr. Gibbon says — and without the least reference, of course, to anything said in the Scriptures — " On the festival of Christmas, the last year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the Church of St. Peter ; and to gratify the vanity of Rome, he exchanged the simple dress of his country for the habit of a patrician. After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a precious crown on his head, and the dome resounded with the acclamations of the people, 1 Long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God the great and pacific emperor of the Romans.' The head and body of Charle- magne were consecrated by the royal unction ; his coronation oath represents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the Church ; and the first fruits are paid in rich offerings to the shrine of the apostle." (Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.") In connection with these quota- tions from Mr. Gibbon, we may add, from Sigonius, the oath which the Emperor took on the occasion of his coronation : " I, the Emperor, do engage and 378 Charlemagne Crowned by the Pope. promise, in the name of Christ, before God, and the blessed apostle, Peter, that I will be a protector and defender of this holy Church of Rome, in all things wherein I can be useful to it, so far as divine assist- ance shall enable me, and so far as my knowledge and power shall reach." We learn also from the biographers of Charlemagne that a commemorative coin was struck at Rome, under his reign, bearing the inscription, " Renovatio Imperii Romani " {Re- vival of the Roman Empire?) These quotations will serve to show how the beast that " had received a deadly wound " was restored by the Papacy. It was the Papacy that " gave life to the beast." All the tyrannical and cruel power of Pagan Rome is now exercised by Papal Rome. From Charlemagne to Charles V., nothing was more remarkable than the readiness of this restored secular power to sustain the Papacy and to carry out its designs, or than the readiness of the Papacy to sustain an absolute civil despotism, and to make the world subject to it by suppressing all attempts in favor of civil liberty. The learned Bishop Newton, while insisting that the " image of the beast " was the product of Papal authority, expresses his conviction that by the " image of the beast " is meant the Pope of Rome. He says : " What appears most probable is that this image and representative of the beast is the Pope. He is properly the idol of the Church. He represents in himself the whole power of the beast, and is the head of all authority, temporal as well as spiritual. He is nothing more than a private person, without Kissing the Pope's Feet. 379 power and without authority, till the two-horned beast, or the corrupted clergy, by choosing him pope, give life unto him and enable him to speak and utter his decrees, and to persecute, even to death, as many as refuse to submit to him and to worship him. As soon as he is chosen pope he is clothed with the pontifical robes, and crowned, and placed upon the altar, and the cardinals come and kiss his feet, which ceremony is called adoration. They first elect and then they worship him, as in the medals of Martin V., where two are represented as crown- ing the pope, and two kneeling before him, with this inscription, ' Quam Creant Adorant ( Whom they create they adore)' He is the principle of unity to the ten kingdoms of the beast, and causeth, as far as he is able, all who will not acknowledge his supremacy to be put to death. In short, he is the most perfect likeness and resemblance of the ancient Roman emperors ; is as great a tyrant in the Chris- tian world as they were in the heathen world ; pre- sides in the same city ; usurps the same powers ; affects the same titles, and requires the same uni- versal homage and adoration. So that the prophecy descends more and more into particulars, from the Roman State, or ten kingdoms in general, to the Church or clergy in particular, and still more par- ticularly to the person of the Pope, the head of the State as well as of the Church ; the king of kings, as well as the bishop of bishops/' (Newton On The Prophecies.) Both the views here presented are strictly and 380 Romish Boycotting, Ancient and Modern. historically true. It is true that the crowning of Charlemagne by the Pope was the revival of the defunct Roman empire — the healing of the " deadly wound " of the beast; and it is also strictly true that all the tyranny and cruelty of Pagan Rome is still represented in the Pope. We regretfully pass over many things in this thirteenth chapter of Revelation lest this volume may become more bulky than was intended, but a few words must be said on verse 17, and especially on what is said of " buying and sell- ing "; "And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast/' etc. Every papist carries " the mark of the beast " that is known to every other papist, and also to many who are not papists. When we see a person making the sign of the cross on his person when entering a church, or bowing before the wafer god, we know he has the mark of the beast, or, in other words, that he is a. papist. We have simply to do with the state- ment that only certain persons were permitted to " buy or sell" According to the interpretation here proposed the meaning is that the papacy would claim jurisdiction over traffic and commerce, or would endeavor to bring it under its control, and make it subservient to its own ends. Traffic or com- merce is one of the principal means by which prop- erty is acquired, and he who has control of this has, to a great degree, the control of the wealth of a nation, and the question now is whether any such jurisdiction has been set up, or whether such control has, in fact, been exercised, so that the wealth of the Holy Boycotting. 381 world has been subject to papal Rome. It has been the manifest aim of the papacy during its entire history to control the world, and to get dominion over its wealth in order that it might accomplish its own purposes. But besides this there have been numerous specified acts more particularly designed to control the business of " buying and selling." It has been common in Rome to prohibit, by express law, all traffic with heretics. Thus a canon of the Lateran Council, under Pope Alexander III., com- manded that no man should entertain or cherish them in his house or land, or traffic with them. The Synod of Tours, under the same Pope Alexander, passed a law that no man should presume to receive or assist the heretics, no, not so much as to exercise commerce in selling or buying. And so, too, the Council of Constance, as expressed in Pope Martin's bull. (Newton, Elliott, etc.) It is a remarkable, although somewhat discourag- ing fact, that at this hour, Roman Catholics in this country, and especially in New England, are " boy- cotting " Protestants, and especially those whom they believe to be opposed to the election to political positions of those who owe their first allegiance to a foreign Pope. They will neither buy nor sell with Protestants, and they do all they can to prevent other worshippers of the beast from buying and selling with the same. It is certain that a thorough investi- gation of this matter would prove that this boycot- ting is practiced by Romanists in this country far more extensively than is generally supposed. 382 Worship the Beast or Die. We have a very striking statement in the fifteenth verse of our chapter, (Rev. xiii.) for it declares that the chief object of giving " life to the image of the beast," was " that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed" And as a matter of historical fact, the popes of Rome have been noted for their speaking and killing. Speaking " like a dragon" and killing like a wild and savage beast. Nor can it be denied that all the persecutions and tortures and wholesale murders practiced by the papacy for a thousand years, have been for the purpose of compelling men to " worship the image of the beast." It is undeniably true that Rome has slaughtered her thousands, and tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of men and women, not because they were guilty of great immoralities and crimes, for her warfare has always been against the purest and noblest and most honorable and most useful of the human race. Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and Savanarola and Cranmer, and Ridley and Latimer, and the Waldenses and the Albigenses — these are the representatives of the victims of popish tyranny, and their only crime was that they would not worship the beast nor his image. No Pope ever spoke more like a dragon than Gregory VII. — Hildebrand. Bowers, in his " Lives of the Popes," in speaking of this haughty and arro- gant Pope, says : " Gregory was, to do him justice, a man of most extraordinary parts, of most uncommon ability, both natural and acquired, and would have A Tyrant Defines His Rights. 383 had at least as good a claim to the surname of Great, as either Gregory or Leo, had he not, led by an ambition the world never heard of before, grossly misapplied those great talents to the most wicked purposes, to the establishing of an uncontrolled tyranny over mankind, of making himself the sole lord, spiritual and temporal, over the whole earth, becoming by that means sole disposer, not only of all ecclesiastical dignities and preferments, but of empires, states and kingdoms. That he had nothing less in his view sufficiently appears from his whole conduct, from his letters, and from a famous piece, containing his maxims, entitled, Dictatus Papae." This piece, which is found in the fifty-fifth letter of the second book of Gregory's epistles, contains his twenty-seven celebrated propositions, among which are the following : — " The Roman Pontiff alone should of right be styled Universal Bishop. " No man ought to live in the same house with persons excommunicated by the Pope. " The Pope alone can wear the imperial ornaments. " All princes are to kiss his foot, and pay that mark of distinction to him alone. " It is lawful for him to depose emperors. " No general council is to be assembled without his order. " His judgment no man can reverse ; but he can reverse all other judgments. " He is to be judged by no man. " No man shall presume to condemn the person that appeals to the apostolic See. 384 Beast and Dragon in One. " The Roman church has never erred, nor will she ever err, according to Scripture. " He can depose and restore bishops without as- sembling a synod. "The Pope can absolve subjects from the oath of allegiance which they have taken to a bad prince." (All princes are bad that will not " worship the beast.") " And he spake as a dragon" In speaking of this ambitious, pompous and arro- gant pope, Hallam says (Middle Ages) : " But the disinterested love of reformation, to which candpr might ascribe the contention against investitures, is belied by the general tenor of his conduct, exhibit- ing an arrogance without parallel, an ambition that grasped at universal and unlimited monarchy. He may be called the common enemy of all sovereigns whose dignity, as well as independence, mortified his infatuated pride." About a century later than this Hildebrand, however, the papal chair was occu- pied by a pope quite as arrogant and tyrannical in his claims and usurpations, and even more brutal and blood-thirsty in his spirit than he. This was Pope Innocent III., who became pope in 1194. " The maxims of Gregory VII.," says Hallam, " were now matured by more than a hundred years, and the right of trampling on the necks of kings had been received, at least among churchmen, as an inherent attribute of the papacy. ' As the sun and moon are placed in the firmament/ says Innocent, 1 the greater as the light of day, and the lesser of the night ; thus are there two powers in the church — England Degraded by Pope Innocent III. 385 the pontifical, which, as having the charge of souls, is the greater ; and the royal, which is the less, and to which the bodies of men only are intrusted.' Thus claiming universal supremacy over all govern- ments, powers, and authorities, whether spiritual or temporal. "It was this same Pope Innocent who humbled two, at least, of proud England's kings — Richard Coeur de Lion and King John — compelling Richard and his Archbishop to demolish the palace of Lambeth, which they were erecting contrary to the Pope's will, and compelling King John to surrender his crown and kingdom to the Pope, and then humbly to re- ceive them again from his Holiness, acknowledging before all the world that he was the Pope's vassal and England a part of the patrimony of St. Peter." Hume, in his History of England, referring to the effects of the interdict that was laid on the English nation by the Pope in order to punish the King, and bring him to submission, says : " The execution was calculated to strike the senses in the highest degree, and to act with irresistible force on the superstitious minds of the people. The nation was, of a sudden, deprived of all exterior exercise of its religion ; the altars were despoiled of their ornaments ; the crosses, the relics, the images, the statues of the saints, were laid on the ground ; and as if the air itself were pro- faned, and might pollute them by its contact, the priests carefully covered them up, even from their own approach and veneration. The use of bells entirely ceased in all the churches ; the bells them- 386 Awful Effects of an " Interdict" selves were removed from the steeples, and laid on the ground with the other sacred utensils. Mass was celebrated with closed doors, and none but the priests were admitted to that sacred institution. The laity partook of no religious rite, except the com- munion to the dying ; the dead were not interred in consecrated ground ; they were thrown into ditches or buried in common fields, and their obsequies were not attended with prayers or any hallowed ceremony. Marriage was celebrated in the church- yard, and that every action in life might bear the marks of this dreadful situation, the people were prohibited the use of meat, as in Lent, or times of the highest penance ; were debarred from all pleas- ures and entertainments, and were forbidden even to salute each other, or so much as to shave their beards, or give any decent attention to their apparel. Every circumstance carried symptoms of deepest distress, and of the most immediate apprehension of divine vengeance and indignation." These grave and awful consequences of the interdict, acting on the superstitious fears of the King, operated to bring him to the Tyrant's terms. It was this Pope Innocent III. that treated with the greatest insult and cruelty the Count Raymond, of Toulouse, because he refused to enter upon the wholesale murder of his own unoffending subjects. In the year 1207 Count Raymond was required by the pope's legate to sign a treaty with other neigh- boring princes to engage in the extermination of the heretics. But the Count was by no means in- A Savage Letter from a Pope's Legate. 387 clined to do anything that would cause his states to be overrun by hostile armies for the purpose of slaughtering such of his subjects as the Romish priests might choose as the victims of their cruelty. He therefore refused to engage in the butchery, and the Legate, in his insolent fury, excommunicated him and laid his country under an interdict. The Pope confirmed what his Legate had done, and with his own hand wrote the following savage letter to Count Raymond : " If we could open your heart we should find, and would point out to you, the detest- able abominations that you have committed ; but as it is harder than the rock, it is in vain to strike it with the sword of salvation ; we cannot penetrate it. Pestilential man ! what pride has seized your heart, and what is your folly, to refuse peace with your neighbors and to brave the divine laws by protect- ing the enemies of the faith ? If you do not fear eternal flames, ought you not to dread the temporal chastisements which you have merited by so many crimes ?" Terrified by the thunders of the Vatican, and knowing that the Pope was determined to destroy him unless he submitted, Count Raymond saw no alternative but to yield to the Pope, and so he en- gaged to exterminate the heretics from his terri- tories. Peter of Castelnau, the Pope's Legate, soon went to the Count and sternly rebuked him for his want of zeal in the bloody work, and insolently charged him with baseness and perjury, and as a favorer of heretics, and a tyrant. Raymond was 388 Pope Innocent Hates Heretics. greatly provoked at the Legate's insolence, and threatened to make him pay for it with his life. They parted without a reconciliation, and came to sleep at a little inn on the bank of the Rhine, which river they intended to pass on the following morn- ing. On that morning one of Count Raymond's friends entered into a dispute with the Legate on the subject of heresy and its punishment, and feeling insulted at the language of the insolent priest, he drew his dagger and killed him on the spot. The report of this murder coming to the ears of the Pope, he was filled with rage, and immediately pub- lished a bull addressed to all the counts, barons and knights of the four provinces of the northern part of France, in which he declared it was the devil who had instigated the Count of Toulouse against the Holy See. He laid under interdict all places that should afford a refuge to the murderers of his legate Castelnau; he demanded that Count Ray- mond should be publicly anathematized in all the churches, adding that, " as following the canonical sanctions of the holy fathers, we must not observe faith towards those who keep not faith towards God, or who are separated from the communion of the faithful. We discharge, by apostolical authority, all those who feel themselves bound towards this Count by any oath either of allegiance or fidelity ; we permit every Catholic man, saving the right of his prin- cipal lord, to pursue his person, to occupy and retain his territories, especially for the purpose of exter- minating heresy." The Count, now thoroughly Treachery of an Infallible Pope. 389 terrified, declared himself ready to submit to any- thing, even to becoming the executioner of his own subjects, in order to escape the storm which he saw was now gathering for his destruction. Count Raymond now sent ambassadors to the Pope to make known his submission, and to await the commands of his Holiness. The Pope demanded that Raymond should make common cause against the heretics and assist in their extermination, and that he should surrender to him seven of his prin- cipal castles, as a pledge of his sincerity. On these conditions the Pope not only gave Raymond the hope of absolution, but promised him his entire favor. All this, however, was hollow and deceitful ; for when making these promises he wrote to the ecclesiastics who were conducting the crusade against the heretics, thus : " We counsel you, with the apostle Paul, to employ guile with regard to this Count; for in this case it ought to be called pru- dence. We must attack separately those who are separated from unity. Leave for a time the Count of Toulouse, employing toward him a wise dissimu- lation, that the other heretics may be the more easily defeated, and that afterwards we may crush him when he shall be left alone." Such were the means this crafty and tyrannical Pope thought fit to employ even against Roman Catholic princes who were not inclined to be over-zealous in exe- cuting the murderous plans of this " holy " vicar of the meek and lowly Jesus ! Count Raymond was ordered to repair to the 390 The Pope a Cruel Master. Church that he might receive absolution from the Pope's legate. But before this was granted he was required to take a solemn oath upon the Corpus Domini, (that is, the consecrated host) and upon the relics of the saints, that he would obey the Pope and the holy Roman Church, so long as he lived ; that he would pursue the Albigenses with fire and sword till they were totally exterminated, or subjected to the Pope. Having taken this oath at the door of the Church, he was ordered by the Legate to strip himself naked, and humbly submit to the penance imposed on him for the death of the monk, Peter Castelnau. Count Raymond earnestly protested against this humiliating penance, solemnly assert- ing that he had no part in the murder of the monk. But his protestations were all in vain. The great army of the crusaders was at his gates, and he had no resource but unqualified submission to the popish tyrants who now held him in their grasp. " The Count having stripped himself naked from head to foot, with only a linen cloth around his waist, for decency's sake, the Legate threw a priest's stole around his neck, and leading him by it into the Church, nine times around the pretended mar- tyr's grave, he inflicted the discipline of the Church by lashing the humble prince upon his naked body with a scourge he had provided for the purpose." (See' Bower's History of the Popes : Dowling's His- tory of Romanism, etc.) The real name of this proud, ambitious, and tyrannical pope, was Lothario Conti ; but when he Pope Innocent not an Innocent Pope. 391 became pope he chose the name of Innocent ! This assuming a name suggestive of an attribute univer- sally ascribed to the lamb — " as innocent as a lamb " — while exhibiting in his life and conduct the savage ferocity of the leopard, and bear, is singularly suggestive, in view of the text that has been before us — "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth ; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a Dragon." In view of what we have already seen, who can doubt that the popes, and the whole hypocritical system of the Papacy, are in- tended, since they so perfectly agree with the pro- phetic description. CHAPTER XVIII. A Chapter of Horrors. The growing spirit of independence among the princes of Southern France, which Innocent III. felt sure gave encouragement to the heretics, and tended to increase their numbers, made him still more furious against the Albigenses, whom he determined to destroy from the face of the earth. He proclaimed a crusade against those humble followers of Christ, and sent forth a multitude of priests throughout all Europe, to exhort all to engage in this Holy War against the enemies of his Holiness, the Pope, and of the "Holy Catholic Church." It was certainly the purpose of this Innocent and lamblike Pope, that "as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." To this end he addressed a bull to all who were capable of assisting in the de- struction of the Count of Toulouse and his in- offensive subjects. In particular, the Pope addressed a letter to Philip Augustus, King of France, urging him to engage personally in this sacred war of ex- termination against heretics. " We exhort you," said the Pope, " that you would endeavor to destroy this wicked heresy of the Albigenses, and to do this with more vigor than you would toward the Saracens themselves. Persecute them with a strong hand ; deprive them of their lands and possessions ; banish them, and put Roman Catholics in their room." He stirred up the bigoted brotherhood of Citeaux, 392 Murder Merits Heaven. 393 Bernardines, to take the lead in this murderous assault on the Albigenses, nominating their abbot, Arnold Amalric, as his Legate, and sending them forth to overrun the neighboring provinces with havoc, fire, and sword. He sent forth his priests and monks to excite the people to engage in this holy crusade. Transported with joy, those infatu- ated mortals, encouraged with the prospect of plun- dering and ravishing, and shedding heretic blood without restraint, flocked to the standards of the Duke of Burgundy, the Count of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, and other military leaders. Never be- fore had there been such a popular crusade ! Arnold Amalric, the Abbot of Citeaux, distinguished him- self, with his whole congregation, by his zeal in preaching up this war of extermination. In the name of the Pope, and of the apostles Peter and Paul, they promised to all who should lose their lives in this holy crusade, plenary absolution of all sins committed from the day of their birth to that of their death, and a sure admission into Paradise. A vast army had been started on the march, which, according to the lowest estimate, numbered fifty thousand regular troops, besides thousands of disorderly followers, who joined them in order to share the plunder, and the blessings promised by the Holy Father to all who should take part in mur- dering heretics. Count Raymond had a nephew, Roger, the Viscount of Beziers, who was a much braver man than himself, and whose territories were doomed to be swept by fire and death, as well as 394 The Brave Roger, of Beziers. those of his uncle, of Toulouse. This brave young Lord, anxious to save his people from the mighty wave of desolation and death now threatening them, appeared before Arnold, the haughty Legate, and offered to make every concession consistent with his honor. He pleaded again his unshaken fidelity to the Church, and solemnly declared that he had never given encouragement to heretics, or done any- thing to injure the Church, or displease the Pope. But all his protestations and appeals were unavail- ing. The Legate was thirsting for blood, and the brave young prince, Roger, turned away, deter- mined to defend his people and his estates to the last extremity. Chassenueil was the first fortress that offered a determined resistence, and here the bloody work commenced. The majority of the de- fenders of this place were Roman Catholics, and faithful slaves of the Pope, and in order to weaken their hands the Legate advanced at the head of the army, tricked out in all his sacerdotal paraphernalia, and having the wafer god borne in front of him, thus making it appear that God himself was leading the bloodthirsty armies of the crusades, and that all who opposed the armies of the Pope were fighting against God. There can be no doubt that this appeal to their superstition had no little influence in para- lyzing the efforts of the defenders of the fortress. And then the banners that floated over that destroy- ing host bore the figure of the cross, to fight against which, as many of them believed, was to fight against Christ himself. Besides all this, the Romish histo- Priests Sing while Heretics Burn. 395 rians of these events themselves proudly tell us that the music of this advancing host was not the bugle and drum and cornet; not the martial music by which warriors are inspired for the deadly onset, but the loud voices of a multitude of priests, who, arrayed in their robes, and surrounding the wafer god of their base idolatry, pealed forth in mighty chorus the Latin hymn, "Veni Creator Spiritus." What an insult to God ! What horrible blasphemy ! After some hard fighting the garrison of Chassenueil were compelled to capitulate, and obtained permis- sion to march out, but no terms were listened to in respect to the unarmed inhabitants. It was known that there were many in the city " who refused to worship the beast, and they must be killed ; " accord- ingly, as the historian tells us, they were abandoned to the merciless host, who permitted the soldiers to depart, and then burst in upon the helpless citizens. It was their first prize, the first fruits of their san- guinary toils, and whatsoever of unbounded crime and cruelty was suggested to their minds, that they perpetrated. " To select the followers of a true faith from among the inhabitants was not worth their while. When nothing more was left for their vic- tims to suffer but death, these wretched criminals kindled fires wheresoever they could, and amid the applauding acclamations of the crusaders, and the triumphant Te Deums of the priesthood, they hurled them all into the flames" Chassenueil having fallen, and leaving nothing but a blackened heap of ruins, sprinkled far and 396 Brave Men Hurl Defiance. wide with the bones and ashes of those who had been burned in heaps within it, the next point of attack was Beziers. The brave young Roger had determined to make every effort to defend his two principal cities, Beziers and Carcassone, and for this purpose had divided between them his military forces. About the middle of July, 1209, the Pope's army arrived at Beziers and encamped outside the walls in three divisions. Before an attack was made the Bishop, having assembled the people in the cathedral, addressed them and sought to excite their fears by describing in the most alarming terms the awful miseries that await them unless they agree to give up to destruction their neighbors and friends who were offensive to the Pope. He assured them that this was the demand of the Legate, Arnold, and in no other way could they preserve themselves, their wives and children from the horrors of such pillage and massacre as would follow a successful assault upon their city, and their souls from the dreadful wrath of heaven and the church. It was an awful moment for the people of Beziers, for like swarms of locusts the army of blood-thirsty bigots were spread over the surrounding country, and ready to pounce upon their prey. The people paused for a moment, as if fully realizing their fearful position, and then they cried, " No ! Tell the Legate that our city is good and strong — that in this, our great necessity, the Lord our God will not fail to succor us; and that rather than be guilty of such an act of treachery we will eat our own children." Thirsting for More Blood. 397 The ordinary population of Beziers was fifteen thousand ; but at this time, it is said, not less than sixty thousand people were in the city, multitudes having come in from the surrounding districts, and especially women and children. As the defenders of the city surveyed the enemy from the towers and walls, and noticed that they were engaged in form- ing and settling their camp, they considered it the most favorable moment for rushing down upon them while they were off their guard and not ex- pecting an attack, and so they formed in a body and made a furious attack upon the crusaders. These, however, had the advantage in numbers, in ferocity, and in being inured to deeds of blood. The enemy's infantry sustained the shock, and then, becoming the assailants, they turned the disheartened citizens back, and in one dense mass of pursuers and pur- sued, they all entered the gates together. Beziers was in the hands of the crusaders. As a massacre of the heretics was decided on, some of the leaders of the pope's army asked Arnold, the Legate, how they should distinguish the Catholics from the heretics, to which he made this reply — " Kill them all; the Lord will know well those that are his." While this was going on the poor devoted flock crowded into the churches, hoping to find a refuge ; but the wolves of Rome, thirsting for blood, pursued their prey even into the most sacred places. The large cathedral church of St. Nicaise was completely thronged ; and the canons, ministers as they were of the Romish religion, putting on their sacerdotal 398 Sixty Thousand Murdered. habit, which they felt sure would be a sufficient protection against the soldiers of their own faith, ranged themselves round the altar. No voice of supplication nor cry for mercy could have been heard amid the din, and the crash, and the shrieks of that fearful scene of blood ; but the clergy sounded the bells in solemn and appealing tones, hoping in that way to touch the hearts of the furious assail- ants. All in vain ! " The tide of cowardly massacre rolled on ; cut down and crushed beneath the armed heel, and mangled with the spear, one after another the victims fell as the blood-stained fanatics ap- proached the altar ; and there the canons fell also, hurled upon the general heap, while the progress of the work was marked by the ceasing of successive bells, as the hands that tolled them fell powerless in death, and the silence that followed the last sad note proclaimed the consummation of that fearful massacre. The dead bodies that lay bathed in blood on the. pavement of one church, the Magdalen, amounted to seven thousand. The babe at its mother's breast, the aged man beneath his daugh- ter's arms, vainly uplifted to defend his silver locks, while her own bright ringlets were dripping blood. Yes, they killed them all /" " Of the sixty thousand in the city," says the historian, " not one person was spared alive" This fearful massacre was soon accomplished, since no resistance could be offered, and then the invaders, like vultures, pounced upon the prey. From the valued heirloom of the humble cottage, to Roger's Brave Defense of Carcassone. 399 the costly elegancies of the palace and the mansion, all became the spoil of the holy crusaders. As all these fearful crimes were committed in the name of religion and for the glory of God, masses were cele- brated and thanksgivings pealed forth from thou- sands of voices to the God of love, and holiness, and peace ! while the blood of his saints that day shed like water on every side, coagulated on the very spot where those blood-stained worshippers stood ; and the unburied corpses, with glassy stare fixed on the calm, blue sky, seemed to offer their mute appeal to that blasphemed and insulted Deity, who declares, " Vengeance is mine : I will repay." When the cru- saders had massacred the last human being in Beziers, and had pillaged the houses of all they thought worth carrying off, they set fire to the city in every part at once, reducing it to a vast funeral pile, consuming it with its sixty thousand slaughtered inhabitants, and " not a house was left standing." Having slaughtered all the inhabitants of Beziers, and laid the noble city in ashes, the worshippers of the beast turned their faces toward Carcassone, into which the inhabitants of the surrounding country, in their terror, had fled, hoping to find a refuge from the death-dealing weapons of the crusaders. This city was better fortified than Beziers, and the brave young Roger had put forth his utmost efforts to prepare it and its people to resist the attacks of the ferocious legate and his bloodthirsty general-in-chief, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, " whose char- acter stands out in frightful prominence, embodying 400 The Legate's Terms Rejected. all that was most flagitious in perfidy ; most grasp- ing in avarice and ambition ; most pitiless in cruelty, and most grovelling in the debasing superstition, of which he was the abject slave. Nothing could better accord with the bent of this man's mind than the present war with the saints. He hated with deadly venom the faith and the followers of Jesus, and sweet to his spirit must have been the dying cries that resounded through Beziers." During eight days of furious fighting, Roger and his brave army of defenders defeated all the at- tempts of the enemy to capture the city, although after again and again driving back the assailants, and inflicting on them considerable loss, he felt it necessary to abandon the weakly fortified suburbs ; and after deliberately setting fire to the buildings that composed it, he retired into the city. The king to whom Raymond Roger had vowed fealty was Peter II., King of Arragon, who was also his uncle. He having ascertained from Count Roger his wil- lingness to submit to any fair and honorable terms of capitulation for the sake of the thousands of help- less people who had sought safety within the walls of his city, and who must certainly perish in a pro- tracted siege ; " but for whom/' said the Count, " I swear to your Majesty, that I and my people would rather die of famine than surrender to the Legate." The cruel and haughty Arnold, as a matter of special grace to his Majesty's kinsman, condescended to consent to Raymond Roger leaving the city, to- gether with any twelve persons whom he might The Legate Resorts to Treachery. 401 choose to take with him ; but the interests of the holy church demanded that, with this exception, all should be abandoned to her mercy — which meant, of course, such mercy as she extended to the sixty thousand people of Beziers. When the King made his report to the anxious people of Carcassone their noble Prince Roger's indignant reply was, " Rather will I submit to be flayed alive ! The Legate shall not have at his mercy the least of my companions, who for my sake have braved the dangers that surround us." Very soon after this a furious assault was made on the walls of the city, the soldiers endeavoring to fill the ditches with faggots in order to reach the ram- parts. As they were about to scale the walls a sudden deluge of boiling oil and water was let loose upon them, while stones, bars of iron and missiles of every description were hurled upon them from the walls, and this was repeated every time the besiegers returned to the charge. Baffled in every attempt to take the city, and seeing no signs of those miracles being wrought in their favor which their priests had taught them to expect, signs of discouragement began to appear throughout the camp of the cru- saders. The Legate now determined to accomplish by treachery and lying what his armies had so far failed to achieve by fighting. For this purpose he made use of a gentleman who had been on very in- timate terms with the brave and noble Roger. This gentleman assured him that he would find it to his interest to appear personally before the Legate, and 402 Roger Deceived and Made Prisoner. he feeling sure that could he have an opportunity of pleading his own cause, and the cause of his people, which he knew to be just and righteous, and would succeed in securing favorable terms, and save from destruction the thousands who had put them- selves under his protection. Having received the most solemn pledge of safety in coming and return- ing, from the Legate himself, and the sworn assur- ances of his officers, Roger placed himself at the head of three hundred chosen knights and appeared before the Pope's representative. In a speech full of the noblest sentiments he pleaded the cause of his persecuted people as well as his own. In the course of his remarks he took the liberty to suggest to the Legate the propriety of ex- ercising a little more lenity and moderation in his dealings with his subjects as a procedure that might have the happiest tendency in reclaiming the Al- bigenses into the pale of the Church of Rome. The Legate replied that the people of Carcassone might exercise their own pleasure, but that it was now unnecessary for the Earl to trouble himself any fur- ther about them, as he was himself a prisoner until Carcassone was taken, and his subjects had better learned their duty ! " In a moment the overpower- ing rush of armed men decided the matter. Ray- mond Roger was disarmed, bound, and delivered as a traitor to the custody of the dark and merciless Simon de Montfort. His knights were in like man- ner seized, and within sight of the agonized citizens of Carcassone, all were led away into captivity, to The Subterranean Passage. 403 what fate might easily be conjectured. The shout of anticipated triumph, of unbounded vengeance, rose high from the perfidious camp towards the walls of the city." No sooner had the people of Carcassone become aware of the treachery practiced towards their almost idolized leader than they burst into tears, and gave themselves up for lost. Well they knew that Rome shows no mercy. Their first thought now was how to save themselves and their loved ones from death. But situated as they were, hemmed in on all sides by thousands who thirsted for their blood, their situation seemed desperate and helpless. The start- ling report was spread, however, that there was somewhere in the city an entrance to a subterranean passage that led to the castle of Cabaret, a distance of about nine miles. The entrance to this secret passage was found, and at the beginning of the night they all made their escape, taking with them only enough food to serve through a few days. " It was a dismal and sorrowful sight to witness their removal and departure," says the historian, " ac- companied with sighs, tears, and lamentations, at the thought of quitting their habitations and all their worldly possessions, and betaking themselves to the uncertain event of saving themselves by flight ; parents leading their children, and the more robust supporting decrepit old persons, and espe- cially to hear the affecting lamentations of the women." They, however, arrived the following day at the castle, from whence they dispersed themselves 404 The Holy Assassins Disappointed. through different parts of the country, some going to Arragon, some to Cattalonia, others to Toulouse, and the cities belonging to their party, wherever God in his providence opened a door for their admission. Great must have been the surprise of the assail- ants, as, on the following morning they found the city abandoned, and great, no doubt, was their in- dignation as they found themselves robbed of their feast of blood. It would be instructive and sadly interesting to dwell at large on the sufferings of the brave and noble Albigenses, but the limits of this work will permit us to give merely some of the prominent facts connected with the horrible cruelties inflicted on them by the two inhuman monsters, Arnold and Simon de Montfort, by the authority, and with the approval of " his holiness" Innocent III., the infal- lible vicar of that " meek and lowly " Jesus, who de- clared : " The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (Luke ix. : 56.) And let it be remembered that we derive our authority for the facts here recorded from Roman Catholic writers themselves, among whom is the brutal Pope, who is a witness against himself, in his " Epistles." And the popish monk, Peter de Vaux Cernay, who was an eye witness of many of these atrocious scenes, has left a record of what he saw and knew, and expresses almost unbounded delight at the slaughter of the " heretics." The testimony of these Romish wit- nesses is to be found in Sismondi's " History of the Italian Republics," and other of his works. Murder of Four Hundred and Fifty Heretics. 405 Carcassone having fallen into the hands of the crusaders, the Legate, with great formality and pomp, took possession of the deserted city, confiscating all the property in the interest of the Church, and caused it to be reported that the escape of the people was due to his gracious permission. Scouts from the army of the crusaders, in scouring the country in search of heretics, had brought in a number of poor, harassed creatures who were trying to escape. Some of these were overtaken in the mountain passes, and some were found hiding in the forests. Many of these were women — mothers, with their infants and loving sisters, young women who were ready to ex- pose themselves to any peril in order to save their brothers and sisters, many of them fatherless and motherless, from their savage and bloodthirsty ene- mies. From all these, Arnold, the Legate, selected four hundred and fifty persons, as being justly sus- pected of heresy, and condemned them to be exe- cuted. For some reason or other he directed that fifty of these should be put to death by hanging, while four hundred were burnt alive. The last sparks of the martyr fires had died away, and ghastly corpses of the slain swayed to and fro, as they still hung suspended from their gibbets, and none sur- vived but the noble Roger in his gloomy and dismal dungeon. In the place of the once happy inhabi- tants of Carcassone were to be seen the motley and eager multitudes whose hands were blood-stained from the slaughter of the people of God. Superadded to the mighty wrongs inflicted by 406 Earl Roger Robbed and Poisoned. Arnold on Earl Roger, he expressed his determina- tion to give his estates to some nobleman devoted to the Pope. After having been offered to three different persons, and the offer refused out of regard for the rights of the noble prisoner, they were offered to the cruel Simon de Montfort and eagerly ac- cepted, and as the rightful ruler, although now a prisoner, might still prove to be a dangerous rival, Montfort caused him to be put to death by poison. In the year 1210, Montfort caused Count Ray- mond, uncle of Roger, to be again excommunicated, and this weak and superstitious man, standing in awe of the papal thunder, burst into tears. The holy monks and priests w T ere intensely active in the north of France in raising a new army of crusaders, and as soon as they had put themselves under the banners of Montfort, he again gave full scope to his cruelty. Previous to the mustering in of this new army, some of the ruling lords began to show their disgust with the brutal tyranny of de Montfort, and a disposition to resist his aggressions. The King of Arragon had broken off all negotiations with him, and uniting his forces with those of the surround- ing chiefs, they were so successful in repelling the usurper, that at the end of a few months they had captured nearly two hundred of the cities and fort- resses that were in the hands of the tyrant. He, however, reinforced with this new army of recruits, each of whom had been blessed by the priests, and made perfectly sure that the killing of heretics is a most meritorious work, and highly pleasing to God, De Montfort and His Wife well Mated. 407 entered upon the work of recovering what he had lost. These troops, enlisted for the express purpose of wholesale and indiscriminate massacre, were led to the scene of their cruel exploits by a woman! Alice de Montmorency, the wife of de Montfort, headed the fresh host, whose approach gladdened the fiendish heart of her husband, and was a pre- sage of new horrors for the saints of the Lord. Placing himself at the head of the army, he com- menced his furious campaign, attacking one castle after another on his way, dragging forth the in- habitants and hanging them on gibbets, and then passing on to the next. In this way he swept over the country like a fury from the bottomless pit, taking special vengeance on those whose special bravery, or strength of position, caused him delay. On such he inflicted the most horrible cruelties. For instance, Brom having a strong castle, and very determined defenders, occupied him three days in reducing it, and when he had done so he selected more than a hundred of the inhabitants, and with the most ferocious barbarity he caused their eyes to be torn out, and their noses to be cut off. and having left one single individual with one eye, to be the guide of the rest, he sent them to the castle of Cabaret to intimate to the garrison of that place the fate that awaited them. Some of these fortresses he found deserted, and he sent out his soldiers to de- stroy the vines and olive trees and other valuable property in the surrounding country. In the month of June, 1210, Montfort, with his 408 Must Have His Feast of Blood, popish army, appeared before the walls of Menerbe, a castle that was perched on a lofty rock, and sur- rounded on all sides with precipices that made it difficult of approach. This was considered to be the strongest fortress in southern France, and it was de- fended by Guiard, one of the bravest of the loyal knights who had been devotedly attached to the brave and unfortunate Raymond Roger, and now held the castle for his infant son, the lawful in- heritor of his possessions. This place contained more Albigenses than any place thus far assailed, thus making it a most tempting prize to the cruel Legate and his chief butcher, de Montfort. After seven weeks of the most determined efforts on the part of both besiegers and besieged, the serious want of water compelled the brave Guiard to seek terms of capitulation, and when terms of surrender had been agreed on between Montfort and Guiard, in the absence of the Legate, he, on his return, broke up the agreement, for no other apparent reason than that the terms were too favorable to the heretics, and would deprive him, to some extent, of his antici- pated feast of blood. The monk, Peter de Vaux Cernay, who records these facts, and who gloried in all the sufferings of God's saints, says : " When the terms of the capitulation were read in the council of war, Robert de Mauvoisin, a nobleman, and entirely devoted to the Catholic faith, cried that the pilgrims (crusaders) would never agree to that," — permitting such as should be converted to the Catholic faith to live — that it was not to show mercy to the here- Sadly Preparing for Death. 409 tics they had taken the cross, but to put them to death ; but Arnold replied, " Be easy, for I believe there will be but very few of them converted." With feelings of deep anguish, the noble Guiard was compelled to surrender the fortress. It was as if a faithful shepherd were compelled to abandon his sheep to the tender mercies of a pack of hungry wolves. Soon was presented a scene that must have shocked the very angels in heaven. First came the banners of de Montfort, preceded by a cross. Then followed a band of holy priests in full canonicals, blasphemously chanting the Te Deum, and these were followed by soldiers of Innocent III., ready for the hideous work of killing those " who will not worship the beast and his image." The people well knew that certain death awaited them. Then began the solemn parting scenes and the last farewells. Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, weeping and sobbing, clung to each other's, necks, encouraging each other to be faithful to Christ, and sustained by the blessed assurance of soon meeting again in heaven. Then the males re- paired to a large mansion, and the females to another, and prayerfully awaited their doom, with firm trust pleading the all-prevailing merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Romish priests exhorted the heretics to abjure their false doctrines and be reconciled to the Church, but were interrupted by the people, who cried out : " We will have none of your faith. We have renounced your Church, and your labor is in vain to move us from the truth we 410 A Hundred and Forty in One Bonfire. have embraced, and from which nothing either in life or in death can move us." The women were as firm and resolute as the men, for they were full of hope and joy, and seemed eager to lay dow T n their lives for Christ. While this was going on, de Montfort caused a great pile of wood to be gathered in preparation for a large bon- , fire. He then went to each of the two assemblies, and pointing to the great pile of wood and faggots, he said : " Be converted to the Catholic faith, or be burnt on this pile." Not one of them quailed in view of the terrible alternative. Fire was applied to the great mass of conbustibles, and there was a mighty blaze. " Then might be seen the eager rush of armed men, each hoping to seize some helpless victim, and to propitiate God, yea, even our own God, by casting the form of decrepit age, or bloom- ing youth, or terrified childhood into the burning gulf. But most of them were disappointed in the hope, for with light step all who could do so glided by and cast themselves into the fire, as into a glo- rious chariot prepared to bear them to their bright and blessed home. With loud voices they com- mended themselves to Him for whom they counted it all joy to suffer this terrible martyrdom, and thus did a hundred and forty human beings perish from the sight of man in a single pile of fire, kindled from the materials of their own peaceful homes." We cannot pursue this subject further than to mention two or three incidents, as illustrative of the fiendish cruelty of the beast, in " wearing out the "Burnt Them All with* Infinite Joy." 411 saints of the Most High." Simon de Montfort, after a brave defence on the part of the inhabitants, captured the place, and the murderous host en- tered, being led by holy priests, in their canonicals, singing hymns of praise to God as the work of the slaughter began. " Very soon/' says their own monkish historian, " they dragged out of the castle, Aimery, Lord of Montreal, and other knights, to the number of eighty. The noble count (Montfort) immediately ordered them to be instantly hanged upon the gallows, but as soon as Aimery, the stout- est among them, was hanged, the gallows fell, for, in their great haste, they had not fixed it well in the earth. The count, seeing that this would produce great delay, ordered the rest to be massacred, and the pilgrims, receiving the order with the greatest avidity, very soon massacred them all on the spot. The lady of the castle, who was sister of Aimery, and an execrable heretic, was, by the Count's order, thrown into a pit, which was then filled up with stones. Afterward our pilgrims collected the innumerable heretics which the castle contained, and burnt them with the utmost joy." In capturing the castle of Cassoro, this bigoted monk declares : " The pilgrims, seizing nearly sixty heretics, burnt them all with in- finite joy." This is the language invariably employed by this Romish monk, Peter de Vaux Cernay, who was the delighted witness of the three awful butch- eries which he describes with undisguised delight. There are apologists for Rome who insist that the cruelties and murders we have spoken of, and which 412 Popery Always Cruel. cannot be denied, are to be attributed to the secular powers, and to the unenlightened ages in which they were perpetrated. No doubt Satan and the popes and bishops of Rome are delighted with such deluded apologists, and would have the world accept such contemptible excuses ; but such excuses have no basis in truth. We have seen that these terrible persecutions, tortures and murders were inflicted by the direction of the Pope himself, and that his Legate, and bishops, and priests were directly and actively engaged in this work. They preached up the crusades and declared to their people that the destruction of heretics was exceedingly meritorious in the sight of God, and would be rewarded with everlasting life. It was by such preaching and assurances that they filled with recruits the armies of de Montfort. And as Innocent III. taught that he was the direct vicegerent of Jesus Christ, and under the inspiration of the Almighty, it is certain " the times " had nothing to do with it. And all these cruel and horrible murders were committed in the name of religion, and for the honor of God ; thus clearly showing itself to be a system of lying, and fraud, and hypocrisy and blasphemy. " The beast had two horns, like a lamb; and he spake as a dragon" We see how exactly this prophecy finds its fulfilment in the Papacy. From all we have yet seen, it is most evident that the Roman Catholic religion is a cruel religion, and begets cruelty in its members. A single fact will, perhaps, be sufficient to prove that the Papacy is as cruel to-day as it was Torture of TJgo Bassi in 184,8. 413 in the " dark ages ;" but in Protestant countries the beast may show his teeth, but he dare not bite. During the revolution in Italy, in 1848, when the Italian people determined to cast off the tyrannical political government of the Pope, Ugo Bassi, a most eloquent and patriotic priest, and one of the bravest, was chaplain to the immortal Garibaldi. Having been captured and cast into prison, without loss of time he was brought before an Austrian court-mar- tial. He did not attempt to make any defense— he avowed that he had done his duty as a man, and asserted that he was quite ready to die, if death was the penalty they attached to honor. The sentence of death was passed upon him instantly ; but before it could be carried into execution, the Cardinal Legate interfered in the name of the church, declar- ing that no priest could be put to death, and that he must first be handed over to the clergy to be dese- crated. To this the military made no objection, and the papal authorities proceeded to perform the dese- cration in the most horrible manner. The crown of the head, where the tonsure of the priest exists; the forehead, where the sign of the cross is made with holy oil, and the fingers and insides of the hands, which on performance of the mass had touched the Holy Wafer, being considered sacred, the skin was flayed from the flesh ! In this state did the Romish priests, whom Ugo Bassi had protected from popular vengeance, hand out their brother and former protector to the military to be executed, after having performed thus an act of barbarity 414 The Brave Patriot Murdered. even more revolting than even the savage Indians would be guilty of, who, before scalping their enemy, have the humanity to kill him. On the morning of the 8th of August, Ugo Bassi was brought out of his cell at an early hour and was conducted to a field outside of the city, where his grave had already been dug. Looking his murderers calmly in the face, he fell — one bullet piercing his breast and another his shoulder. The few persons who at that earty hour became apprised of the completion of the tragedy, hurried to the spot to take a last look at their friend. Their handkerchiefs, dipped in the blood of their murdered fellow-patriot, says Colonel Forbes, will one day serve as banners to lead the people against the assassins. (Colonel Forbes, who wrote this narrative, was himself a soldier in this Italian war for freedom.) It will be remembered that the heavenly messen- ger who interpreted Daniel's dream said to him (Dan. vii : 17) : " These great beasts, which are four, are four ' Kings ' (or ' Kingdoms] Verse 23)." As we have seen, these four kingdoms were the Baby- lonian, the Persian, the Grecian and the Roman. These kingdoms are represented as beasts because of the cruelty with which they persecuted the true religion ; first the Jewish, and afterwards the Chris- tian religion. But the last of the four beasts was so hideous as not to be compared with any known living creature, and hence Daniel says of the fourth beast that it was " dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had great iron teeth : it devoured More Biblical Proof. 415 and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it" This " dreadful and terrible " beast representing the Roman empire, and then the Papacy and the popes of Rome, was to be more cruel and blood-thirsty than all the beasts; and the exact truth of this we have already seen, and we shall have still further proof of it as we proceed. In our verse in Rev. (xiii: 15) we are told that "as many as would not worship the beast should be killed" And we have found that the awful and wholesale murders that have been perpetrated by the Romish church were inflicted on men and women, not because they were perjurers, or adulterers, or murderers, or athe- ists, but simply because they " would not worship the beast " — or submit to be controlled, body, soul and spirit, by the Pope. CHAPTER XIX. A Chapter of Abominations. "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither ; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters : with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness ; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her fore- head was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abomina- tions of the Earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." (Rev. xvii : 1-6.) Without attempting a critical explanation of the details of this chapter — which our space will not permit, and which is unnecessary — it will be easy to show that the woman above spoken of is the Papacy. This is the conclusion at which the most learned, and unbiased students of the prophecies have arrived, and which it is almost impossible to 416 God's Portrait of the Papacy. 417 avoid by those who are familiar with the history of the Romish Church. The interpreting " angel " (ver. 15) declares that, " the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues," indicating the vast extent of the papal dominion. Even at this moment the Pope claims to have about two hun- dred million subjects, scattered over every part of the world. And how truly it may be said of the Church of Rome, that she is " the great whore ivith whom the kings of the earth have committed fornica- tion" or spiritual adultery. Papal Rome, unfaith- ful to God, and idolatrous and corrupt, has seduced the rulers of the earth, and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and corruption. All the princes and kings of Europe in the dark ages, and for many centuries were, and not a few of them are now, entirely under the influence of Papal Rome. This iniquitous and God dishonoring con- sorting with the kings of the earth, has resulted in corrupting the world ; for " the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her forni- cation." At this very hour, kings, and govern- ments, and countless millions of people are in a con- dition of mental and moral intoxication through the deceitful, and hypocritical blandishments of this " great whore that sitteth on many waters." This " great whore " is also spoken of as " a woman sitting on a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blas- phemy, having seven heads and ten horns." The angel declares, " The seven heads are seven mountains, on 418 The Tell- Tale Color. which the woman sitteth, and there are seven kings, etc." The seven mountains clearly indicate the city of Rome, built on seven hills ; and the seven kings indicate, or refer to, the seven forms of gov- ernment, which Rome had literally passed through. We have already shown most clearly that the Romish Church is a blasphemous Church, and of this we shall have still more abundant proof. "Scarlet color " has long been, and still is, the favor- ite color of papal Rome. Scarlet might well repre- sent the cruel persecuting, and blood-thirsty charac- teristics of the Papacy. Travellers who have visited Rome have been struck with the prevalence of this color. Rev. Albert Barnes says, " I caused this inquiry to be made of an intelligent gentleman who had passed much time in Rome — without his know- ing my design — what would strike a stranger on visiting Rome, or what would be likely particularly to arrest his attention as remarkable there, and he unhesitatingly replied, " the scarlet colorT This is the color of the dress of the cardinals — their hats, and cloaks, and stockings being always of this color. It is the color of the carriages of the cardinals, the entire body of the carriage being scarlet, and the trappings of the horses the same. On occasion of public festivals and processions, scarlet is suspended from the windows of the houses along which pro- cessions pass. The inner color of the cloak of the Pope is scarlet ; his carriage is scarlet ; the carpet on which he treads is scarlet. A large part of the dress of the Pope's body-guard is scarlet ; and no The Mother of Harlots. 419 one can take up a picture of Rome without seeing that this color is predominant." " And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings,' 9 etc. It will be remembered that in the fourth beast of Daniel's vision (Dan. vii : 7) there were " ten horns" and the angel that interpreted Daniel's vision said : " The ten horns are ten king- doms that shall arise." It is certain then that we are studying the same subject we began with in Daniel, and that the Little Horn that came up among the ten horns has long ago developed into the system of Papacy which for a thousand years has been the enemy of God, and the curse of the world — " mak- ing war with, and wearing out the saints of the Most High." "And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth." The ancient Babylon, situated on the Euphrates, had long since wasted away under the curse of God, and for ages had been hidden from the sight of men, and therefore as the apostle John is speaking of the future, it is certain that the reference is not to that city. It was generally understood by the early Christians that by Babylon, is meant Rome; and this is the view entertained at present, I believe, by nearly all Biblical scholars. As ancient Babylon was proud, and haughty, and the persecutor of God's people, so Rome, both Pagan and Papal, has always exhibited these characteristics. Both in Revelation, and in the book of Daniel, Rome, Pagan 420 Mother of Abominations. and Papal, is recognized as one power, standing in deadly opposition to the kingdom of Christ. Mr. Gibbon, the historian, says : "As long as the em- perors before Constantine persisted in the profession of idolatry, the epithet of Babylon was applied to the city and empire of Rome.". The fact also that the Roman empire was in all its glory when the Apostle wrote of its being cursed of God, and doomed to certain ruin, may have furnished a very good reason for speaking of Rome under another name. Rome is the mystical Babylon. How justly and truly may Papal Rome be called " the mother of harlots /" Not only may Rome — Papal Rome — be called "the great whore," and "the mother of harlots," in a mystical and spiritual sense, but it is literally true that her institutions and teach- ings tend to promote, and do promote, the crimes suggested by the epithets applied to her. No sys- tem of religion ever devised has been so productive of lewdness and licentiousness as the system of popery. The truth of these statements will be abundantly confirmed as we proceed with this work. Indeed, we have had abundant proof already. Not only is the Papacy called " the mother of har- lots" but it is added, " and abominations of the earth." This word is most significant and comprehensive, and we shall occupy some space in particularizing some of these " abominations" In reading the Old Testament we find that the Almighty was constantly complaining that men pretending to be priests of Paganized Christianity. 421 God were continually substituting heathen cere- monies for true worship. We read : u Moreover, all the chief of the priests and the people transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hal- lowed at Jerusalem." (2 Chron., xxxvi : 14.) This charge might justly be brought against the Romish Pope and priests of the present day. Romanism at the present moment is baptized heathenism, as we will plainly show. Mosheim, in his Ecclesias- tical History, declares that the Jews, as well as the Pagans, taunted the Christians because of the sim- plicity of their worship, and because they had neither temples, altars, victims, or priests, nor any- thing of that external pomp in which the vulgar are so apt to place the very essence of religion. It was to attract the Pagans to the so-called Christian Church that pagan rites and observances were intro- duced. "After the conversion of Constantine, in the fourth century, when Christianity was taken under the protection of the state, this sinful conformity to the practices of paganism increased to such a degree that the beauty and simplicity of Christian worship were almost entirely obscured, and by the time these corruptions were ripe for the establishment of the popedom, Christianity — the Christianity of the State — seemed but little else than a system of Christianized Paganism" Dean Waddington, in his History of the Church, says : " The copious transfusion of heathen ceremo- nies into Christian worship, which had taken place 422 Pagan Use of Incense. before the end of the fourth century, had, to a cer- tain extent, paganized the outward form and aspect of religion ; and these ceremonies became more general and more numerous, and, so far as the calam- ities of the times would permit, more splendid in the age which followed. To console the (heathen) con- vert for the loss of his favorite festival, others of a different name, but similar description, were intro- duced ; and the simple and serious occupation of spiritual devotion was beginning to degenerate into a worship of parade and demonstration, or a mere scene of riotous festivity." In the year 1729, Rev. Conyers Middleton, of the English Church, visited the city of Rome for the purpose, as he says, of studying the remains of ancient and classic antiquity ; but while in Rome he found such an exact resemblance between the temples, images and ceremonies of popery and those of paganism that he came to the conclusion that he could in no way more effectually increase his famili- arity with the latter than by directing his attention to the former. After his return to his native land he published a book on " The Exact Conformity of Popery and Paganism." In this book he says : " The very first thing that a stranger must neces- sarily take notice of as soon as he enters their churches is the use of incense, or perfumes, in their religious services. The first step which he takes within the door will be sure to make him sensible of it by the offense that he will immediately receive from the smell, as well as the smoke, of this incense, Holy Water a Pagan Abomination. 423 with which the whole church continues to be filled for some time after every service. A custom received directly from paganism" etc. And yet this pagan performance may be witnessed in every Romish church in our land. Holy water. " The next thing that, in the Romish worship, will arrest the attention is the use the papists make of holy water , for nobody ever goes in or out of a church, but is either sprinkled by a priest, who attends for that purpose on solemn days, or else serves himself with it from a vessel, usually of mar- ble, placed just at the door. Now this ceremony is so notoriously and directly transmitted to them from Paganism that their own writers make not the least scruple to own it. The Jesuit, LaCerda, in his notes, on a passage in Virgil, where this practice is mentioned, says : i Hence was derived the custom of the holy church, to provide purifying of holy water at the entrance of their churches/ We find the primitive fathers speaking of it as a custom purely heathenish, and condemning it as impious and detestable. Justin Martyr says, ' that it was invented by demons in imitation of the true baptism signified by the prophets, that their votaries might also have their pretended purifications by water; and the Emperor Julian, out of spite to the Christians, used to order their victuals in the markets to be sprinkled with holy water, on purpose either to starve, or force them to eat what by their own principles they es- teemed polluted. Thus we see what contrary notions the primitive and Romish Church have of this 424 More Pagan Abominations. ceremony ; the first condemns it as superstition, abominable, and irreconcilable with Christianity; the latter adopts it as highly edifying and applicable to the improvement of Christian piety ; the one looks upon it as the contrivance of the devil to delude mankind ; the other as the security of mankind against the delusions of the devil ! ! " It would be both interesting and instructive to follow this scholarly writer as he shows that the en- tire system of popery is but Paganism baptized with the name of Christianity, but as his letter is too long for insertion here, suffice it to say that Dr. Mid- dleton shows most clearly that the burning of wax candles in the daytime; votive gifts ; the worship of images ; religious pomps and processions ; the religious orders of monks and nuns, etc., are all of Pagan ori- gin. He says : " In their very priesthood they have contrived to keep up as near a resemblance as they could to that of Pagan Rome, and the sovereign Pontiff, instead of deriving his succession from Peter, who, if he ever was at Rome, did not reside there in any worldly pomp and splendor, may with more reason and much better plea style himself the successor of the Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest of old Rome, whose authority and dignity was the greatest in the Republic, and who was looked upon as the arbiter and judge of all things, civil as well as sacred, human as well as divine, whose power, established almost with the foundation of the city, 1 was an omen/ says Polydore Virgil, ' and sure presage of priestly majesty, by which Rome was Origin of Kissing the Pope's Toe. 425 once again to reign as universally, as it had done before by the force of its arms.' " But of all the sovereign Pontiffs of Pagan Rome, it is very remarkable that Caligula (a perfect mon- ster of wickedness and cruelty) was the first who ever offered his foot to be kissed by any who ap- proached him, which raised a general indignation throughout the city, to see themselves reduced to so great an indignity. Seneca declaims against it as the last affront to liberty, and the introduction of a Persian slavery into the manners of Rome. Yet this servile act, unworthy either to be imposed or complied with by man, is now the standing cere- monial of Christian Rome, and a necessary condi- tion of access to the reigning popes, though derived from no better origin than the frantic pride of a brutal Pagan tyrant.'' Some years ago Father Gavazzi, the eloquent Ital- ian patriot and ex-priest of Rome, delivered lectures in this country to vast audiences of people, who were both delighted and instructed by his burning utter- ances, as he exposed the wickedness and tyranny of the papacy, and warned the people of this land against it as the most deadly enemy of our liberties and institutions. He delivered a course of lectures in New York City, one of which was entitled the Identity of Romanism and Paganism, of which we can quote but a few sentences. He said : " My brethren, do not suppose the Church of Rome, when she became apostate from the Church of Christ, was a blind and foolish one. Oh, no ! She knew very 426 Testimony of Father Gavazzi. well that Paganism was profitable to the ancient priests, and she knew too that she could make it profitable to the new priesthood of Christ. I say that in the present popish system, Paganism is the most profitable aid in support of the authority and the pocket of the popish priest. And, therefore, the conclusion of this part of our subject is, that at the present day the popish Church is no more the Church of the Gospel, but is the church of heathenism. Thus is the Gospel of Christ — the spiritual Gospel of Christ — the chronic Gospel of Christ — ' transub- stantiated ' into the flesh and blood of the ancient Pagan practices. " The ancients had many hundreds and thousands of gods. According to St. Augustine they had in the city of God, in Rome alone, not less than twenty- two thousand different Gods. They have not only twenty-two thousand different gods, but according to martyrology, a hundred thousand different Gods in the Church of Rome. That is to say, they have not less than a hundred thousand saints among the Romans, and these saints are really in place of the ancient gods of Paganism." And so by numerous indisputable facts and arguments this eloquent Ital- ian patriot proves, what all intelligent students of popery well know, that popery is heathenism bap- tized with the Christian name. Romish baptism is an " abomination" — The Romish Church ensnares the new born, and even the unborn babe in the toils of her deception, fraud, and false- hoods. She teaches the unscriptural and horrible Romish Baptism an Abomination. 427 doctrine that " Without baptism no one can be saved." The Council of Trent declared, " Whoever shall affirm that baptism is indifferent, that is, not necessary to salvation, Let Him Be Accursed," which means, let him be eternally damned, thus not only consigning to perdition countless millions of unbap- tized infants, but also the countless millions of adults who refuse to believe this monstrous and God-dis- honoring doctrine. I have known a priest positively refuse to permit a new-born babe to be placed in the coffin of its mother, who died in child-birth, in spite of the entreaties of the broken-hearted husband and father, and the little creature was buried by itself in " unconsecrated " ground. And this is the shame- ful practice of the Romish Church. This doctrine makes the Roman Catholic's God a monster of cruelty. No being less wicked than the devil him- self could send an infant to an eternal hell because some one omitted to sprinkle a few drops of water on its head. And yet this is the wicked doctrine of the Church of Rome. The efficacy attributed to baptism by the Church of Rome is unscriptural and blasphemous. Dr. Challoner, Romanist, in his " Catholic Christian In- structed," declares that baptism washes away origi- nal sin ; it remits all actual sin ; it infuses the habit of divine grace into the soul ; it gives a right and title to heaven ; it makes us children and members of the Church. Wh-at the Bible attributes to the blood of Christ and the operations of the Holy Spirit, the priests of Rome attribute to the efficacy 428 "Kirwan" on Romish Baptism. of water. They declare and teach that there can be no salvation without water baptism, so that in spite of the mercy of God, and the blood of Christ, and the power of the Holy Ghost, even the little in- fant will be eternally damned unless baptized. This is blasphemy, and an insult to Almighty God, as well as to the intelligence of mankind. The Bible teaches us that it is " the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses from sin/' and not a little water adminis- tered in baptism. The rite of baptism, as administered by the priests, is a silly, heathen performance. For brevity and conciseness I will quote from the noted Kirwan, whose " Letters to Archbishop Hughes," of New York, made such a stir some time ago, as well re- membered by some of us : " If your doctrine of bap- tismal regeneration is true/' says Kirwan, " what a singular commentary we have of it in the lives of your people ! What singular manifestations of the habits of divine grace which your baptism infuses into the soul, you see daily among your people ! I only wonder that the facts in the case have not long ago exploded your doctrine, and led you back to the simplicity of the sacrament as taught in the Bible. The apostles administered baptism to those who confessed faith in Jesus Christ, and through this sacrament we obtain a name and a place in the visible Church. This all men can understand, but how you, or any other mortal man, by the applica- tion of water in any or all ways, can wash away the original and actual sins of the sinner, infuse into Satan Exorcised by Holy Salt and Holy Spittle. 429 his soul the habits of grace,, and give him a title to heaven, I cannot understand. If your baptism could only do this it would wonderfully mend the habits of many of your people, and save some of the crim- inal courts of New York a world of trouble. a And the power you claim for it is no more un- meaning than the ceremonies you connect with it. This sacrament, ordinarily, must be administered in churches with fonts, whose water must be blessed 1 on the vigils of Easter and Whitsunday.' There must be godfathers and godmothers. The priest blows in the face of the subject of baptism thrice, to drive Satan out of him ! Then blessed salt is put in his mouth ! Then exorcism is performed to drive the devil out of him ! (to make sure.) This is all done in the porch of the Church. Then he is brought into the Church, where prayers are said. Then the priest puts his spittle on the ears and nose. (Think of this, in the case of a lady !) Then he is anointed with holy oil on the top of his head. Then a lighted candle is put in his hand ! Then the cere- mony is ended, and the person is dismissed, his sins all washed away, the habits of grace infused into his soul, and his title to heaven in his pocket ! Now, sir, excite my wits as I may, I cannot understand all this. It is addressed to my ignorance." Kirwan had been educated as a Romanist. It seems as if intelligent people must be compelled to ask what possible connection there can be between such a performance and the salvation of a soul. How is it possible that holy water, and holy salt, 430 Another Abomination is the Mass. and the holy breath, and holy spittle of a priest can have any part in promoting the spiritual welfare of any human soul ? But then Rome is the " mother of abominations" and this is one of them. As we have spoken of the Mass in a previous chapter, (chapter twelve) we will simply introduce it here as another of the " abominations " of Rome, and will quote two or three brief paragraphs from our intelligent and witty " Kirwan." " The whole ceremony of your Mass is yet more unmean- ing to me. Often as I have witnessed it I never gleaned one intelligent idea from it, nor does one out of one million of your people. I have just read through the labored explanation of it by Bishop England, and it is truly painful to see so noble a mind expending its powers in the vain attempt to give meaning to every thread of such a gossamer web ; to give sense and significance to what is so utterly nonsensical. ' In the mass/ says Dr. English, ' Christ is the victim, he is produced by the conse- cration, which by the power of God and the institu- tion of the Redeemer, and the act of the priest, place the body and blood of Christ, under the appearance of bread and wine, upon the altar ; then the priest makes an oblation of this victim to the Eternal Father on behalf of the people, and the victim undergoes a destructive change, showing forth the death of the Redeemer, and making commemora- tion thereof by the exhibition of the apparent sepa- ration of the body from the blood, the former being under the appearance of bread, and the latter The Mass Blasphemous Nonsense. 431 under the appearance of wine, and by the consump- tion of both by the priest.' This is on the whole," says Kirwan, " the clearest account of the mass that I have ever seen from the pen of a priest, and yet what mind can understand it? Sir, do you un- derstand it? Christ produced from some bread and wine by a priest ; this produced Christ is laid upon the altar by the priest ; an oblation of this produced Christ is made to the Eternal Father by the priest ; the produced Christ undergoes a destruc- tive change in the act of oblation; this oblation of the produced Christ is offered for the people ; and then this produced, offered Christ, — and after he has undergone a destructive change — is eaten by the priest ! Sir, all this is as unmeaning to me as the leaves which the fabled Sybil scattered on the winds. And this unmeaning Mass, — a greater mass of absurdity than heathen ingenuity or depravity ever invented — is the chief source of edification to nine-tenths of the heathen world ! If it were merely unmeaning, without being blasphe- mous and wicked, I could extend to it some tolera- tion. " And the absurdity of the whole thing is in- creased to intensity by the fact that the pantomime is performed in Latin ! Pray, Sir, how many of your worshippers at St. Patrick's understand English, not to say Latin ? Why use a language now no longer spoken by any nation of people, which is now simply a medium of intercourse among scholars? The answer given to this question by Challoner is one of 432 Why the Mass in Latin ? the most cool insults that I have ever known offered to the common sense of the world. Here it is: 1. Because it is her ancient language . . . and the Church, which hates novelty, desires to celebrate her liturgy in the same language. 2. For a greater uniformity in public worship, that a papist, wher- ever he wanders, may witness the ceremonies of the mass in the same language. 3. To avoid the changes to which all vulgar languages are exposed. He also tells us that it is unnecessary to understand what we are saying if our hearts are only sincere ! Sir, I see not how men who offer, or receive such statements as reasons, can have the faculty of understanding a reason. Because the ritual of the mass was first formed in Latin ; because mass was first said in Latin at Rome, the hatred of your church to novelty forbids her to change the language of her ritual, when there is not a congregation on earth that can understand it ! And is it not necessary to under- stand the language in which we address ourselves to God, if we only intend to worship him ! And such is the excuse you make for a man who may be wor- shipping a false relic for a true one. If he only means to honor the true relic, it makes no differ- ence ! If he mistakes the thigh of Barabbas for that of Barnabas ; or the finger of Pilate for that of Peter ; or the hair of Jezebel for that of Mary ; or the head of Balaam's ass for that of Paul, it is all the same, if he only means to worship the true relic. And I suppose the difference, sir, is very little. These things may be very clear to you, and to your priests Indulgences an Abomination. 433 and people, but to me they are utterly without meaning, save a meaning that insults my common sense." . Another of the " abominations " of Rome is to be found in her system of indulgences. The Church of Rome teaches that she has a treasury, of which the Pope has the key, and this treasury contains the superfluous merits of Jesus Christ, and of the saints and martyrs. From these merits, of which Christ and certain saints had more than they needed, the Pope can take, and by an indulgence impart to such as have not merit enough to save them. Pope Ur- ban II., the originator of the crusades, in the eleventh century, appears to have been the first who made any extensive use of these indulgences as a reward for those who engaged in the meritorious enterprise of conquering the Holy land, though it is admitted by Cardinal Baronius, that Gregory VII. had, some few years earlier, granted the full remission of all their sins to those who would fight against his great enemy, Henry IV. We have already had occasion to notice that indulgences, the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of eternal life, were offered to all who would engage in the murder of heretics. We learn from Mosheim, the historian, that in the twelfth century the Roman pontiffs thought proper to limit the power of the bishops, who had been driving a very lucrative trade in the sale of indul- gences, and assumed this lucrative traffic to them- selves. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of Rome's great theologians, taught that there actually existed an 434 Shameful Traffic in Indulgences. immense treasure of merit, composed of the pious deeds and virtuous actions of the saints, and which was beyond what was necessary for their own salva- tion, and which were therefore applicable to the salvation of others ; that the guardian and dispenser of this precious treasure was the Pope, and that he had the right to assign to such as he thought proper so much of this superabundant merit as might be necessary in certain cases. It was the bold and blasphemous manner in which indulgences were offered for sale by a certain monk that was the direct cause of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. As we have a most interesting account of this transaction in D'Aubigne's " History of the Reformation," we will give a few paragraphs from that reliable work. A great agitation reigned at that time among the people of Germany. The Church had opened a vast market on the earth. Judging from the crowd of buyers, and the noise and jests of the dealers, we might call it a fair, but a fair held by monks. The merchandise they ex- tolled, offering it at a reduced price, was, said they, the salvation of souls ! The dealers passed through the country in a gay carriage, escorted by three horsemen, in great state, and spending freely. One might have thought it some dignitary on a royal progress, with his attendants and officers, and not a common dealer, or a begging monk. When the procession approached a town a messenger was sent to the magistrate : "The grace of God, and of the Holy Father is at your gates," said the envoy. Instantly A Blasphemous Pageant. 435 everything was in motion in the place. The clergy, the priests, the nuns, the council, the schoolmasters, the trades, with their flags, men and women, young and old, went forth to meet the merchants, with lighted tapers in their hands, advancing to the sound of music, and all the bells of the place ring- ing, " so that/' says an historian, " they could not have given a grander welcome to God himself." Salutations being exchanged, the whole procession moved towards the Church. The pontiff's bull of grace was borne in front, on a velvet cushion, or cloth of gold. The chief vendor of indulgences fol- lowed, supporting a large, red, wooden cross, and the whole procession moved in this manner, amidst singing, prayers, and the smoke of incense. A sound of organs, and a concert of instruments received the monkish dealer and his attendants into the Church. The cross he bore with him was erected in front of the altar, on it was hung the pope's arms, and as long as it remained there the clergy of the place, the penitentiaries, and the sub-commissioners, with white wands in their hands, came every day, after vespers or before the salutation, to do it homage. This great bustle excited a lively sensation in the quiet towns of Germany. One person in particular drew the attention of the spectators in these sales. It was he who bore the great red cross, and had the most prominent part assigned to him. He was clothed in the habit of the Dominicans, and his port was lofty. His voice was sonorous, and he seemed yet in the prime of his 436 The Holy Mountebank. strength, though he was past his sixty-third year. This man, who was the son of a goldsmith, of Leipsic, named Diez, bore the name of John Diezel, or Tet- sel. He had studied in his native town, and taken his bachelor's degree in 1487, and entered two years later into the Order of the Dominicans. Numerous honors had been accumulated "on him. Bachelor of Theology, Prior of the Dominicans, Apostolical Com- missioner, Inquisitor ; he had ever since the year 1502, filled the office of an agent for the sale of in- dulgences. The experience he had acquired as a subordinate functionary had very early raised him to the position of chief commissioner. He had an allowance of eighty florins per month, all his ex- penses defrayed, and he was allowed a carriage and three horses, but we may readily imagine that his indirect emoluments far exceeded his allowance. In 1507, he gained in two days at Freyburgh two thousand florins. If his occupation resembled that of a mountebank, he had also the morals of one. Convicted at Inspruck of adultery and abominable profligacy, he was near paying the forfeit of his life. The Emperor Maximilian had ordered that he should be put in a sack and thrown into the river. The Elector Frederick, of Saxony, interceded for him and obtained his pardon. But the lesson he had re- ceived failed to teach him more decency. He carried about with him two of his children. To the theology of a monk, and the zeal and spirit of an inquisitor, he united the greatest effrontery. What helped him most in his office was the facility he displayed in John Tetsel the Devil's Auctioneer. 437 the invention of strange stories, with which the taste of the common people is generally pleased. No means came amiss to him to fill his coffers. Lifting up his voice, and giving loose to a coarse volubility, he offered his indulgences to all comers, and ex- celled any salesman at a fair in recommending his wares. As soon as the cross was elevated, with the pope's arms suspended upon it, Tetsel ascended the pulpit, and with a bold tone began in the presence of the crowd, whom the ceremony had drawn to the sacred spot, to exalt.the efficacy of indulgences. The people listened, and wondered at the admirable virtues ascribed to them. A Jesuit historian says, himself, in speaking of the Dominican friars whom Tetsel had associated with himself: " Some of these preach- ers did not fail, as usual, to distort their subject and so to exaggerate the value of indulgences as to lead the people to believe that as soon as they gave their money, they were certain of salvation, and of the deliverance of souls from purgatory." " Indulgences," says Tetsel, " are the most precious and sublime of God's gifts. This cross (pointing to the red cross) has as much efficacy as the cross of Jesus Christ. Draw near, and I will give you letters, duly sealed, by which even the sins you desire to commit shall be all forgiven you. " I would not exchange my privileges for those of St. Paul in heaven, for I have saved more souls with my indulgences than he with his sermons. " There is no sin so great that the indulgence can- 438 Salvation Offered for Money. not remit it, and if any one should ravish the Holy Virgin, Mother of God, (which is doubtless impos- sible) let him only pay largely and it shall be for- given him. u Even repentance is not indispensible. " But more than this, indulgences save not the living alone, they also save the dead. " Ye priests, ye nobles, ye tradesmen, ye wives, ye maidens, and ye young men, hearken to your de- parted parents and friends who cry to you from the bottomless abyss : ' We are enduring horrible tor- ment. A small alms would deliver us, you can give it and you will not.' " The very moment," cried Tetsel, " that the money clinks against the bottom of the chest, the soul es- capes from purgatory, and flies free to heaven. " 0, senseless people, and almost like beasts, who do not comprehend the grace so richly afforded ! This day heaven is on all sides open. Do you now refuse to enter ? When then do you intend to come in ? This day you may redeem many souls. Dull, and heedless man, with ten groschen you can de- liver your father from purgatory, but you are so ungrateful that you will not rescue him. In the day of judgment my conscience will be clear, but you will be punished the more severely for neglecting so great a salvation. I protest that although you should have only one coat, you ought to strip it off and sell it, to purchase this grace. Our Lord God no longer deals with us as God. He has given all power to the Pope. Bring your money ! Bring money ! Bring Making Merchandize of Souls. 439 money ! " Luther said, " He uttered this cry with such a dreadful bellowing that one might have thought that some wild bull was rushing among the people, a goring them with his horns ! " For par- ticular sins Tetsel had a private scale. Polygamy cost six ducats ; sacrilege and perjury, nine ducats; murder, eight ; witchcraft, two. Samson, who carried on in Switzerland the same traffic as Tetsel in Germany, had rather a different scale. He charged for infanticide, four livres tour- nois ; for a parricide or fratricide, one ducat. It would be interesting to pursue this subject fur- ther, but space will not permit. In England and the United States, the priests of Rome seek to cast dust in the eyes of Protestants by trying to explain away the more repulsive aspects of the system of indulgences, while compelled to acknowledge that the system still exists. As God alone can remit either the guilt or penalty of sin, the Pope, in grant- ing indulgences, stands forth, branded by Almighty God as the great blasphemer, and Antichrist. Here is still the little horn " speaking great words against the Most HighP CHAPTER XX. Purgatory and The Confessional. Purgatory is another offspring of this " Mother of abominations." The Holy Scriptures know nothing whatever of purgatory. It most plainly teaches that the human soul in leaving the body departs either to heaven or hell. There is no intermediate state. Jesus Christ said to the dying thief, who sought his help : " This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise " — Heaven. There was no purgatory even for this man who had spent all his life in wickedness. Being fully forgiven, he was a child of God, and fit for eternal glory. Our Saviour said : " The rich man died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in tor- ments," with no hope of deliverance even suggested to him. "And it came to pass," said Jesus, " that the beggar died, and angels carried him to Abra- ham's bosom." And many other scriptures teach the same truth. But the very fallible Romish Church has invented a purgatory for the replenishing of her coffers, and which the popes have found exceedingly profitable, for it has brought countless millions of gold to the treasury of the Church. In the Roman Catholic " Mission Book," which is in general use among Romanists, (page 256, etc.) we have these questions and answers : — " Q. After this particular judgment, what will happen ? 440 What is Purgatory ? 441 "A. The soul will go either to Purgatory, or to Paradise, or to Hell. " Q. What is Purgatory ? "A. Purgatory is a place where some souls suffer for a while on account of those sins which they have not expiated during this life. u Q. What souls are they which go to Purgatory? "A. The souls of those who die in the grace of God, but are nevertheless still soiled by venial sins, or who have not done, during their life, sufficient pen- ance for their sins. " Q. How may these poor souls in Purgatory be aided by us ? "A. They may be aided : 1. Bypraj^er. 2. By the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 3. By other good works •done for their sake. 4. By indulgences. " Q. What is Hell ? "A. Hell is a place of eternal torment, where the damned are punished forever. Those who die in mortal sin go there. "Q. What is Heaven? "A. Heaven is the blessed abode of the saints, where the faithful servants of God are rewarded, and enjoy his presence forever. Those go to Heaven who die in the grace of God" In these few questions and answers the most un- scriptural and delusive doctrines are taught to the young Romanist. It is said that those go to Purga- tory " who have not expiated their sins during this life." The word of God teaches that Jesus Christ alone can " expiate" or make satisfaction or atone- ment for man's sin. 442 An Insult to the Atoning Christ. When the priests teach, as they do, that a man can be suffering in the flames of purgatory, or in any other way expiate, or atone for his own sins, they insult the Son of God, by denying the sufficiency of his atonement and cleansing efficacy of his blood, The purifying flames of purgatory are more effica- cious in fitting souls for heaven than the cleansing blood of Christ. Such is the teaching of Rome. But in this brief catechism it is said that " those go to purgatory who die in the grace of God" And on the same page it is said : " Those go to Heaven who die in the grace of God" Here, then, we have the unscriptural and shameful doctrine that many of God's own redeemed and regenerated people are at death plunged into the awful fires of purgatory to " expiate " their " venial " or lesser sins, while their ■ " mortal sins" or far more heinous iniquities, have been forgiven ! And this distinction between mortal and venial sins is another of the vile inventions of this " Mother of abominations." In the " Garden of the Soul," a book in common use among Romanists, and which, like the " Mission Book," was published with the approval of Arch- bishop Hughes, of New York, we find that the souls in purgatory are spoken of, again and again, as " the faithful departed" On page 272, etc., is " The Litany for the Dead," in which purgatory is represented as " The shades of death" " The bonds of sin" " The pains of purgatory," " That dreadful prison" " Torments incomparably greater than the sharpest pains of this life" " Receptacles of sorrow" etc. In this " Litany for Sins Burnt Out; Not Washed Out 443 the Dead," prayers are offered again and again for " the souls of the faithful departed" Here the Almighty is blasphemously accused of sending to a place of " torments/' Christians who have been "faithful, and who died in the grace of God /" It is impossible to say here all we would like to say on this infamous teaching of "the only true church/' and we will introduce a few paragraphs from our brilliant and witty friend " Kirwan," who, it must be remembered, was educated as a Roman Catholic. In one of his " Letters to Archbishop Hughes/' he says : " The doctrine of purgatory is one of the peculiar doctrines of your Church. You teach that nearly all Christians when they die are neither so perfectly pure and clean as to exempt them from the least stain of sin ; nor yet so happy as to die under the guilt of unrepented sin. It is for these middling Christians that you make a pur- gatory, where they remain until they make full satisfaction for sin, and then they go to heaven. And the profession of faith of Pius IV. tells us l that the souls therein detained are helped by the suf- frages of the faithful ; that is, by the prayers and the alms offered for them, and principally by the holy sacrifice of the mass.' And the doctrine of your Church is so expounded upon this matter, that but few, if any, die, however good, without needing pur- gatorial purification, and that few are so bad but that they may there be fitted for heaven. This you will admit is a fair statement. The more you get into purgatory, the more you will receive of the 6 suffrages of the faithful/ that is, of their money. 444 Purgatory Better than a Gold Mine. " I have already told you my estimate of this doc- trine. It is that by which your Church traffics in the souls of men, and an amazingly profitable traffic it makes of it. It has placed in your possession riches far exceeding in value the mines of Peru. And because of the value of this doctrine you seek in all possible ways to sustain it. With me the authority of your popes and councils is not worth a penny. I would rather have one text of scripture bearing upon the point, than the teachings of as many such as you could string between here and Jupiter. . . . Popery builds up a place that belongs neither to this world nor the world to come, and fills it with fire, and calls it purgatory ! Like Ma- homet's coffin, it floats somewhere between heaven and hell. Into this world of fire you drive the souls of men as they leave the body, and let them out only on the reception of ' the suffrages of the faith- ful/ that is, their money ! Now, sir, what do you say to all this ? Let any intelligent man read chap- ter xiv. of Challoner's ' Catholic Christian/ (Chal- loner was a Romanist) and he will rise from it with amazement that God could ever leave men to the folly of so perverting scripture, or that even the devil could permit them so absurdly to misapply it. Permit me to quote an instance by way of applica- tion. We are taught in Matt. 12 : 36, that we must give account for every idle word in the day of judg- ment. Now how does this text prove a purgatory ? In this wise : ' No one can think that God will con- demn a man to hell for every idle word ; therefore, Absurd Defense of Purgatory. 445 there must be a purgatory to punish those guilty of these little transgressions.' If you or any mortal man think I am joking, let him turn to the chap- ter. Let me quote the answer in full to the question, 'Are not souls in purgatory capable of relief in that state ? Yes, they are, but not for anything they can do for themselves, but from the prayers, alms, and other suffrages offered to God for them by the faithful upon earth, which God in his mercy is pleased to accept, by reason of that communion we have with them, by being fellow-members of the same body of the Church, under the same head, which is Jesus Christ/ Now, sir, if in this answer you substitute the word 'priest' for 'God/ then we come to the facts in the case. The ' alms/ and the other ' suf- frages of the faithful/ are pocketed by the priest. And purgatory was invented for the special purpose of securing these alms, and other ' suffrages of the faithful/ to popes, prelates, and priests. " Now, sir, let me ask you a few questions : What has the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, to do with the venial sins of those middling Chris- tians who die, not good enough to go to heaven, nor bad enough to go to hell ? What has the blood of Christ, his atonement, his finished work, at all to do, on your plan, with the saving of a sinner ? If my child should die and go to Purgatory, would a thou- sand dollars given to you at once have the same effect as a hundred dollars a year for ten years? How can you tell when enough is given to get the soul out ; or has your purse no bottom ? As souls 446 Puzzling Questions for the Priests. are spirits without bodies, how can you tell one soul from another as they issue from the gates of purga- tory ? In the prayer ' Hail Mary/ we are taught to offer the following petition : i Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.' Why not solicit her to pray for us after our death, to get us out of purgatory ? Is it because you are afraid the good woman would get us out before the priests had gotten enough of the ' alms and suffrages of the faithful V " My dear sir, the absurdities connected with your doctrine of purgatory are sickening. It is based on the love of money. The Bishop of Air candidly confesses that it is not revealed in the Scriptures. It came into the church in the seventh century ; it was affirmed in the twelfth ; it was stereotyped at Trent, and fearful anathemas are hurled at all who deny it. It puts away the work of Jesus Christ, and sends the sinner, riot to 'the blood of sprinkling,' but to the fires of purgatory, in order to secure a meetness for heaven. And why this purgatory — this caricature of the religion of God ? Simply to put the ' alms ' and ' suffrages of the faithful ' in the pockets of your priests ! What an outrage on the common sense of the world to have men dressed up in canonicals, teaching things as true, of which the beast that Balaam rode might well be ashamed ? " I entreat you, my dear sir, to review this doctrine of your church. You, surely, must see its absurdity. Neither in the word of God, nor in the common sense of man, is there the shadow of an argument to Cruelty and Blasphemy of Purgatory. 447 sustain it. Nor is there a class of men on the face of the earth who deserve a purgatory, from which 1 the alms and suffrages of the faithful ' would never release them, as do those who preach up a purgatory, and its fearful torments, for the sake of filthy lucre. But as Father O'Leary said to Can- ning, ' I am afraid many of them will go farther and fare worse.' I wish you not to be one of the dumb herd who hold the truth in unrighteousness, and believe a lie that they may be damned." There can be no doubt that the popish system of masses for the dead, under pretence of getting them out of Purgatory, is the most extensive, the most cruel, and the vilest system of robbery ever devised by man. It has existed for centuries, and to-day extends over the earth. It not only plunders the possessions of the very poor, as well as the rich ; but with the in- genuity of fiends it lacerates the inmost souls of those already crushed with the sorrows of bereave- ment; and it thrusts the sharp dagger into the already bleeding heart of the bereaved husband, or wife, by telling them that the beloved companion is writhing in unspeakable agony in the scorching flames of Purgatory. And this tremendous wicked- ness is perpetrated on people of either sex, and of every condition, and the men who do this pretend to be the priests of the Most High God, and acting by the authority and for the honor of our Holy and Gentle Redeemer — even him who came into our world to bind up the broken-hearted ; to wipe away the widow's tears, and to hush the orphan's cry ! Oh, the cruelty of it ! Oh, the blasphemy of it ! 448 Masses for the Dead. The Romish priest will take the last dollar from the weeping widow and her hungry babes. Father Chiniquy, that venerable and noble ex-priest, so beloved throughout this country and Canada, tells us how his poor widowed mother was robbed of her cow by her holy priest, in payment for masses. We can quote but few of his words, although we would like to tell the whole story as told by him. In his book entitled " Fifty Years in the Church of Rome/' he says : " Only a few days had elapsed after the death of my father, when I saw Mr. Curtois, the parish priest, coming to our house, (he who had tried to take away our Bible from us). He had the reputation of being rich, and as we were poor and unhappy since my father's death, my first thought was that he had come to comfort and help us. I could see that my mother had the same hopes. She welcomed him as an agent from heaven. The last gleam of hope is so sweet to one who is unhappy ! From his first words, however, I could see that my hopes were not to be realized. He tried to be sym- pathetic, and even said something about the confi- dence we should have in God, especially in times of trial ; but his words were cold and dry. Turning to me, he said : " ' Do you continue to read the Bible, my little boy?' " ' Yes, sir,' I said, with a voice trembling with anxiety, for I feared he would make another effort to take away that treasure, and I no longer had a father to defend it. " Then addressing my mother, he said : A Specimen Priest 449 " ' Madam, I told you it was not right for you or your child to read that book.' " My mother cast down her eyes, and answered only by the tears that ran down her cheeks. u That question was followed by a long silence ; and the priest then continued : ' Madam, there is something due for the prayers that have been sung, and the services which you requested to be offered for the repose of your husband's soul. I will be very much obliged if you will pay me that little debt.' " ' Mr. Curtois/ my mother said, ' my husband left me nothing but debts. I have only the work of my own hands to procure me a living for my three children, the eldest of whom is before you. For these little orphan's sake, if not for mine, do not take from us the little that is left/ " ' But, madam, you do not reflect. Your husband died suddenly and without any preparation ; he is therefore in the flames of purgatory. If you want him to be delivered you must necessarily unite your per- sonal sacrifices to the prayers of the Church and the masses which we offer/ " ' As I said, my husband has left me absolutely without means, and it is impossible for me to give you any money/ replied my mother. " l But, madam, the masses offered for the rest of your husband's soul must be paid/ answered the priest. " My mother covered her face with her handker- chief and wept. After a long silence, my mother raised her eyes, reddened with tears, and said : 450 Priest Stole the Widow's Cow. " l Sir, you see that cow in the meadow, not far from our house? Her milk, and the butter made from it form the principal part of my children's food. I hope you will not take her away from us. If, however, such a sacrifice must be made to deliver my poor husband's soul from purgatory, take her as payment for the masses to be offered to extinguish those devouring flames.' " The priest instantly arose, saying, ' Very well, madam,' and went out. Our eyes anxiously fol- lowed him ; but instead of walking towards the little gate which was in front of the house, he directed his steps towards the meadow, and drove the cow before him in the direction of his home. At that sight I screamed with despair : l 0, my mother ! he is taking our cow away ! What will become of us ? ' " Lord Nairn had given us that splendid cow when it was three months old. I fed her with my own hands, and I loved her as a child always loves an animal which he has brought up himself. She seemed to understand and love me also. My mother also cried out with grief as she saw the priest taking away the only means which heaven had left her to feed her children. " Throwing myself into her arms I asked her, 1 Why have you given away our cow ? What will become of us? We shall surely die of hunger.' c Dear child,' she answered, ' I did not think the priest would be so cruel as to take away the last resource which God had left us.' She was pale and trembling. Cold sweat was flowing on her face, and Masses for the Dead are Robbery. 451 she fell on the floor. I thought she was going to die. I ran for cold water, which I gave her, saying : ' 0, dear mother, do not leave me alone upon earth ! ' After drinking a few drops, she felt better, and taking my hand, she put it to her trembling lips ; then drawing me near her, and pressing me to her bosom, she said : ' Dear child, if ever you be- come a priest, I beg of you never to be so hard-hearted towards poor widows as are the priests of to-day.' While she said these words I felt her burning tears falling upon my cheek. " The memory of those tears has never left me. I felt them constantly during the twenty -five years I spent in preaching the inconceivable superstitions of Rome." This excellent and most respected Father Chin- iquy, now a true minister of Christ, also tells* us of another instance of priestly infamy quite as ap- palling as the one here recited. He says that as he was walking the road, in company with another priest, they " met a poor man who looked more like one coming out of the grave, than a living man ; he was covered with rags, and his pale and trembling lips indicated that he was reduced to the last degree of human misery. Taking off his hat, he said to Rev. Mr. Primeau, with a trembling voice, ' You know, Mr. le Cure, that my poor wife died, and was buried ten days ago, but I was too poor to have a funeral service sung the day she was buried, and I fear she is in purgatory, for almost every night I see her in my dreams, wrapped up in burning flames. 452 You Must Pay, or She Must Burn. She cries to me for help, and asks me to have a high mass sung for the rest of her soul. I come to ask you to be so kind as to sing that high mass for her.' " 'Of course/ answered the curate, ' your wife is in the flames of purgatory, and suffers there the most unspeakable tortures, which can be relieved only by the offering of the holy sacrifice of the mass. Give me five dollars and I will sing that mass to-morrow morning.' The poor man declared his utter inability to pay, and the priest replied : ' If you cannot pay, you cannot have any mass sung. You know it is the rule.' The poor man again de- clared, ' in a most touching way,' his great poverty and utter inability to pay, and said : ' I cannot leave my poor wife in the flames of purgatory ; if you cannot sing a high mass, will you please to say five low masses to rescue her soul from those burn- ing flames ? ' " The priest turned toward him and said : l Yes, I can say five masses to take the soul of your wife out of purgatory ; but give me five shillings, for you know the price of a low r mass is one shilling.' The poor man answered : ' I can no more give one dollar than I can five. I have not a cent, and my three poor little children are as naked and starving as myself.' " ' Well ! well I ' answered the curate, ' when I passed your house this morning I saw two beautiful sucking pigs. Give me one of them, and I will say your five low masses.' " The Priest and the Sucking Pig. 453 Father Chiniquy says that a day or two after this incident he was invited to take dinner with this priest in company with several other priests, and as he sat at table : " The first dish was a sucking pig, roasted with an art and a perfection that I had never seen ; it looked like a piece of pure gold, and its smell would have brought water to the lips of the most penitent anchorite." Chiniquy says he was very hungry, and very fond of roast pig, and so — " I could not conceal that it was with real pleas- ure I saw the curate cutting a beautiful piece from the shoulder and offering it to me. I was too hun- gry to be over-patient. I was carrying to my mouth the tempting and succulent mouthful, when, sud- denly, the remembrance of the poor man's sucking pig came to my mind. I laid the piece on my plate with painful anxiety, looked at the curate, and said : 6 Will you allow me to put to you a question about this dish ? ' Having been answered in the affirmative, Mr. Chiniquy said : 6 Is this the suck- ing pig of the poor man of yesterday?' With a convulsive fit of laughter, he replied: i Yes; it is, just it. If we cannot take away the soul of the poor woman out of the flames of purgatory, we will, at all events, eat a fine sucking pig.' " The other thirteen priests filled the room with laughter, to show their appreciation of their host's wit. " However, their laughter was not of long dura- tion. With a feeling of shame and uncontrollable indignation, I pushed away my plate with such 454 The Interrupted Feast. force, that it crossed the table, and nearly fell on the floor, saying, with a sentiment of disgust which no pen can describe : ' I would rather starve to death than eat of that execrable food ; I see in it the tears of the poor man ; I see the blood of his starving children ; it is the price of a soul. No ! no ! gentlemen, do not touch it. You know, Mr. Curate, how 30,000 priests and monks were slaughtered in France in the bloody days of 1792. It was for such iniquities as this that God Almighty visited the Church in France. The same future awaits us here in Canada, the very day that people shall awaken from their slumbers and see that, instead of being ministers of Christ, we are vile traders of souls, under the mask of religion.' " These last words of Mr. Chiniquy most fitly and truthfully characterize the Romish priesthood throughout the world ; they are " vile traders of souls, under the mask of religion" It is greatly to the discredit and dishonor of this great and intelligent nation that these " vile tra- ders of souls " are permitted to commit such bare- faced robberies " under the mask of religion." Millions of christian and patriotic hearts will re- joice when to accept payment for masses offered for the dead shall be declared to be felony, and the priestly felons be given long terms in state prison. May God hasten the day ! Auricular Confession is another of the " abomi- nations " mothered by the Church of Rome. We regret that our space demands that we say much Auricular Confession. 455 less on this subject than its importance demands. The so-called sacrament of auricular confession was established by the fourth Lateran Council in 1215 ; and it was reaffirmed by the Council of Trent in the following decrees : " Whoever shall deny that sacramental confes- sion was instituted by divine command, or that it is necessary to salvation ; or shall affirm that the practice of secretly confessing to the priest alone as it has ever been observed from the beginning by the Catholic Church, and is still observed, is foreign to the institution and command of Christ, and is a human invention : — Let Him Be Accursed." " Whoever shall affirm, that in order to obtain forgiveness of sins in the sacrament of penance, it is not by divine command necessary to confess all and every mortal sin which occurs to the memory after due and diligent premeditation — including secret offences, etc. : — Let Him Be Accursed." The horrible disorders, seductions, adulteries, and abominations of every kind that have sprung from this practice of auricular confession, especially in Spain and other popish countries, are familiar to all acquainted with the history of popery for the six centuries that have transpired since the fourth Council of Lateran. The details of individual facts on this subject are hardly fit to meet the public eye, though multitudes of them might easily be cited, derived not only from the testimony of Pro- testants, but from the admissions of Papists them- selves, and from the numerous, though ineffectual 456 Shameful Questions of the Confessional. laws that have been passed to restrain the prac- tice of priestly solicitation of females at confession. Nor can this be matter of surprise. The evil is inherent in the system. Let any person of common sense examine the list of subjects, and the questions for the examination of conscience in any popish book of devotion, but more especially (if he under- stands Latin) the directions to young priests in Dens, and other standard works for the study of popish theology; then let him remember that the subjects of these beastly inquiries are often young, beautiful, and interesting females ; and that the questioners are men, often young and vigorous, burning with the fires of passion ; in some instances almost wrought up to phrenzy by a vow of celibacy which they would be glad to shake off, and then he will cease to wonder that the confessional has so often been turned into a school of licentiousness, seduction, and adultery. (See Dowling's " History of Romanism.") As the debasing questions put to wives, mothers and daughters by priests in the confessional are pub- lished in plain English in books in general use among Roman Catholics, I shall make no apology for intro- ducing them here, omitting the most offensive of them : " Have you been guilty of fornication, or adultery, or incest, or any sin against nature, either with a person of your own sex or with any other creature? How often? Or have you designed or attempted such sin, or sought to induce others to it ? How often? Have you been guilty of self-pollu- Is it Your Wife or Daughter ? 457 tion, or of immodest touches of yourself? How often? Have you touched others or permitted yourself to be touched by others immodestly ? How often? Or given or taken wanton kisses or embraces, or any other improper liberties ? How often? Have you looked on immodest objects with pleasure or danger? Read immodest books or songs to yourself or others ? Kept indecent pic- tures, or sought to have or use anything that was immodest? How often? Have you abused the marriage bed by any actions contrary to nature? How often ? Have you been guilty of any irregu- larities in order to hinder your having children ? How often ? Have you ever tried to excite your own passions ? How often ? Have you ever taken indecent liberties with yourself or with your hus- band ? Have you without just cause refused the marriage debt ? And what sin may have followed from it? Have you debauched anyone that was innocent before ? Have you taken any one to lewd houses ? etc." (See Dowling.) We will now simply quote a few paragraphs from each of three well-known gentlemen, all of whom spent many years in the Romish Church, but heard the voice of God saying to them, " Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues ; for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." (Rev. xviii., 4, 5.) As many deluded Protestants believe that " the Romish Church has improved" and is very different from what she was 458 Reliable Testimony. in the days of " Bloody Queen Mary," for instance, we will quote from those who have left her com- munion within the last fifty years or so. Rev. William Hogan, who had been for many years a Roman Catholic priest in Philadelphia, and other parts of the country, left that communion, and, having been bitterly persecuted by the papists, he published a book telling what he knew about popery. That book was published in 1845, and in eight years more than fifty-six thousand copies were sold; and from 1854 to 1860, it is said, probably forty thousand additional copies were disposed of. Mr. Hogan, after quoting some of the questions asked in the confessional, says : " Does any husband really know that when his wife goes to confession — and probably she leans on his arm while she is go- ing there — that the above questions are put to her ? Assuredly he does not. Otherwise we must suppose him to be a man of base principles in permitting such a thing. But even if he should suspect it, and ask his wife whether they were put to her ; should he call upon the priest and bring him and his wife face to face ; should he ask them severally whether such questions were put to the wife by the priest, they will jointly and severally deny it under oath, and in doing this they both feel justified ; or, to speak more correctly and plainly, the priest is laughing in his sleeve, and his wife is the dupe. The reason, however, for the course they pursue is this : The infallible Church teaches that when a priest is in the confessional he sits there as God, An Important Witness. 459 and not as man ; and when he denies, under oath, that he put such questions, he means that he did not put such questions as man, but as God ; and when the lady is asked whether such questions were put to her, she will say, on oath, they were not, because it was God, and not man, that asked them. I have asked such questions and given such reasons over and over again while acting as a Romish priest. I have asked till my soul sickened with disgust. There is not a priest in the United States that does not ask them. No, not one. Judge, then, of the moral waste and wilderness which Romish priests are effecting by hewing and cleaving down everything that blooms, or bears the fruit of virtue and holi- ness." Father Hogan says : " While officiating as a Roman Catholic priest in , I became acquainted with a Roman Catholic lady and gentleman of good character and considerable wealth. The husband stood well in society, and so did the wife ; and I believe both deserved it. There was but one barrier, to all appearance, in the way of their happiness. They had no children, and, having no blood or family alliances in the country, this seemed a source of distress to the wife; though, I could not help remarking that they w T ere an extremely fond couple. Not very long after my acquaintance with them, the wife called on me, told me her grievance in not having children, and asked me how much it would cost her to purchase from the Church her interfer- ence in the matter, and the blessing of having chil- 460 Anxious Wife and Accommodating Friar. dren. I forgot my usual caution. Indignation took the place of policy (It is evident that Father Hogan was no Jesuit) ; I forgot for a moment that I was bound to keep the secrets of the Pope and the infallible Church, and to defend them both, right or wrong. I replied indignantly, ' Madam, you are the dupe of priestcraft. There is no power in the Church to countervail the will of God/ The lady retired ; and I cannot give the reader a better idea of the papist women, or the consummate villainy of Romish priests in the confessional, than by relating what followed. She called upon me the day follow- ing, related that since she saw me she called on the Rev. Mr. , a Franciscan friar, who lived only a few doors from me ; and having told him what I said to her, he raised his hands in pious astonish- ment, and told her he expected nothing better from me ; that he had suspected me of heresy for some time past, and had now a proof of it, and that I should be cast out of the pale of the Church as fit society only for the devils ; and, accordingly, in a few months after, this holy friar and the holy bishop of the diocese solemnly cursed me, from the head to the toe-nails, casting me into hell for such damnable heresies. I understand that the lady of whom I have spoken is now blessed with an interesting family of children, and her husband one of the hap- piest fathers in the world. Thus are the streams of domestic happiness and social life polluted in our very midst by Romish priests ; and yet, they are encouraged, they are fed, they are sustained, they Husbands and Fathers ! Think ! 461 are received into society by the very men whose wives and daughters they have ruined, and with whose happiness they have sported and gambled. " It is well known to Protestants, even in the United States, that it is a common practice of Romish priests to seduce females in the confessional, and it is, or should be, equally well known that these very priests hear the confessions of the very females whom they have seduced. It is an article of faith in the Roman Catholic church that the crimes of a priest do not disqualify him from for- giving the sins of his penitent, and hence it is that their opportunities for demoralizing every commu- nity where they are in the ascendant almost exceed conception. Persuade a woman that if she sins, you can forgive her as truly and effectually as Almighty God could forgive her, and you take away every check from vice. All restraint is removed. The voice of true religion is silenced, and sin prevails. " The iniquity of Romish priests in the confessional can scarcely be imagined. There is nothing like it ; it is a thing by itself; there is a chasm between itself and other crimes which human depravity cannot pass. Just fancy our innocent female on her knees before an artful, unbelieving priest ! Why will they entrust themselves, alone and unprotected by father or mother, or brother or honorable lover, with these scheming, artful priests? Why will mothers, married women, go to confession to these men, or why will husbands be such inconceivable dupes as to permit it ?" 462 Some Fruits of Auricular Confession. Father Hogan relates a fact well known to him when an officiating priest in Albany, N. Y. He says : " The Roman Catholics of Albany had, during about two years previous to my arrival among them, three Irish priests alternately with them, occasion- ally preaching, but always hearing confessions. I know the names of these men ; one of them is dead, the other two living, and now in full communion in the Romish church, still saying mass and hearing confessions. As soon as I got settled in Albany, I had, of course, to attend to the duty of auricular con- fession, and in less than two months I found that these priests, during the time they were there, were the fathers of between sixty and one hundred child- ren, besides having debauched many who had left the place previous to their confinement. Many of these children were by married women, who were among the most zealous supporters of those vaga- bond priests, and whose brothers and relatives were ready to wade, if necessary, knee deep in blood for the holy , immaculate and infallible church of Rome /" Father Hogan says that in the church in which he officiated in Albany there were no confessional boxes, so that "the priests had to hear confessions in the sacristy of the church. This is a small room back of the altar, in which the Eucharist, containing, accord- ing to the Romish belief, the real body and blood of Jesus Christ is kept while the mass is not celebrating in the chapel. This room is always fastened by a lock and key of the best workmanship, and the key kept by the priest, day and night. This sacristy, con- Confessor Before Husband. 463 taining the wafer which the priests blasphemously adore, was used by them as a place to hear confes- sions, and here they committed habitually those acts of immorality and crime of which I have spoken. " I have seen husbands unsuspiciously and hos- pitably entertaining the very priest who seduced their wives in the confessional, and was the father of some of the children who sat at the same table with them, each of the wives unconscious of the other's guilt, and the husbands of both not even suspecting them. The husband of her who goes to confession has no hold upon her affections. If he claims a right to her confidence he claims what he can never receive ; he claims what she has not to give. She has long since given it to her confessor, and he can never regain it. She looks to her confessor for advice in everything. She may appear to be fond of her husband ; it is even possible she may be so in reality. She may be gentle, meek and obedient to her husband, — her confessor will advise her to be so ; but she will not give him her confidence ; she cannot, — that is already in the hands of her con- fessor. He stands as an incarnate fiend between husband and wife, mother and daughter. All the ties of domestic happiness and reciprocal duties are thus violated with impunity through the instru- mentality of auricular confession. " I care not how intelligent he may appear to be, or what his acquirements or accomplishments may be ; if he is weak enough, fool enough, or hypocrite enough and mean enough to go to confession to a 464 Lovers of Liberty, Wake Up ! Romish priest, he deserves not the name of a freeman" It would be instructive and profitable to follow this earnest and respected ex-priest further, but we cannot ; but again and again this excellent writer warns the American people to arouse themselves from their indifference, and to resolutely resent the insults offered to the Protestants of this land, while they at the same time repel the insidious and con- stant efforts of the bishops and priests of Rome to undermine and destroy these glorious institutions that have cost the people of these United States so great a price. CHAPTER XXI. Priestly Celibacy Made Easy. Rev. Dr. Giustiniani, who was a Romish priest in the city of Rome itself, but who became converted to the truth as it is in Jesus, left the priethood, and afterward wrote a book entitled, " Papal Rome, as it is." From this work we can quote only two or three facts which will serve to illustrate the utterly unchristian, and shameful character of the Confes- sional. The first is in reference to a young lady of about seventeen years of age, in the family where the Doctor was boarding. ''One day the mother told the daughter to prepare to go with her to-mor- row to confess and to commune. The mother unfor- tunately feeling unwell the next morning, the young lady had to go alone ; when she returned her eyes showed that she had been weeping, and her countenance indicated that something unusual had happened. The mother, as a matter of course, in- quired the cause ; but she wept bitterly, and said she was ashamed to tell it. Then the mother in- sisted, so the daughter told her that the parish priest to whom she constantly confessed, asked her questions this time which she could not repeat with- out a blush. She, however, repeated some of them, which were of the most licentious and corrupting tendency, and which were better fitted to the lowest sink of debauchery than the confessional. Then he gave her some instructions which decency forbids 465 466 " What Fools These Mortals Be." me to repeat ; gave her absolution, and told her be- fore she communed she must come into his house, which was contiguous to the church. The unsus- pecting young creature did as the father confessor told her. The rest the reader can imagine. The parents, furious, would immediately have gone to the archbishop, and laid before him their com- plaint; but I advised them to let it be as it was r because they would injure the character of their daughter more than the priest. All the punish- ment he would have received is a suspension for a month or two, and then be removed to another parish, or even remain where he was. With such brutal acts, the history of the confessional is full" He also relates the manner of confessing ladies in their bed-chamber, in the city in which he had long resided. " In that city," he says, " you will see the indisposed fair penitent remain in her bed, and the Franciscan friar leaving his sandals before the door of her bed-chamber, as an indication that he is performing some ecclesiastical act, and then not even the husband can enter the chamber of his wife until the friar has finished his business and leaves the chamber ; then the husband, with rever- ence ready waiting at the door, kisses the hand of the father Franciscan for his kindness in having administered spiritual comfort to his wife, and very often gives him a dollar to say a mass for his indis- posed spouse." " But why," continues the doctor, " shall I speak of the moral corruption of popery in Rome? It is Father Chiniquy on the Confessional 467 everywhere the same ; it appears differently, but never changes its character. In America, where female virtue is the characteristic of the nation, it is under the control of the papal priest. If a Roman Catholic lady, the wife of a free American, should choose to have the priest in her bed-room, she has only to pretend to be indisposed, and asking for the spiritual father, the confessor, no other person, not even the husband, dare enter. In Rome, it would be at the risk of his life ; in America at the risk of being excommunicated, and deprived of all the spiritual privileges of the church, and even ex- cluded from heaven." The third author whom I will quote, is that ven- erable, and useful, and greatly admired ex-priest, and servant of God, Father Chiniquy. Father Chiniquy is now living, and active in Christ's service, although he is about eighty-six years of age. He is greatly beloved by Christians of all denomi- nations. He has led many thousands out from the darkness of Popery into " the glorious liberty of the children of God," and from a ruinous faith in the Pope to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father Chiniquy 's book — " The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional " — is now before me. We can only quote a few brief passages from different parts of the book. u I do not exaggerate when I say," says Mr. Chiniquy, "that for many noble-hearted, well-educated, high-minded women, to be forced to unveil their hearts before the eyes of a man, to open to him all the most secret recesses of their souls, all 468 Women Driven to Despair, the most sacred mysteries of their single, and mar- ried life, to allow him to put to them questions which the most depraved woman would never con- sent to hear from her vilest seducer, is often more horrible and intolerable than to be tied on burning coals. " More thart once I have seen women fainting in the confessional-box, who told me afterwards that the necessity of speaking to an unmarried man on certain things, on which the common laws of de- cency ought to forever have sealed their lips, had almost killed them. Not hundreds but thousands of times, I have heard from the lips of dying girls, as well as of married women, the awful words ; * I am forever lost ! All my past confessions and com- munions have been so manj^ sacrileges. I have never dared to answer correctly the questions of my confessors ! Shame has sealed my lips, and damned my soul ! ' " Would the priest so freely ask this and that from a married woman, if he knew that the husband could hear him? No, surely not! for he is well aware that the enraged husband would blow out the brains of the villain who, under the sacrilegious pretext of purifying the soul of his wife, is filling her soul with every kind of pollution and infamy. The confessional is, in the hands of the devil, what West Point is to the United States, and what Wool- wich is to Great Britain — a training of the army to fight and conquer the enemy. It is in the confes- sional that five hundred thousand women every " The Pope's Black Spidery 469 day, and one hundred and eighty -two millions every year, are trained by the Pope in the act of fighting against God, by destroying themselves, and the whole world, through every imaginable kind of im- purity and filthiness. Once more I entreat the legislators, the husbands and the fathers ... in America ... to read in Dens, Liguori, De- breyne, — in every theological book of Rome, what their wives and their daughters have to learn in the confessional " What remains of the impendent fly after she has been entrapped in the nets of her foe ? Nothing but a skeleton. So is it with your fair wife, your pre- cious daughter ; nine times out of ten, nothing but a moral skeleton returns to you, after the Pope's black spider has been allowed to suck the very blood of her heart and soul. . . . " When, very early the next morning, I had begun to hear the confessions, one of those unfortunate victims of the confessor's depravity came to me, and in the midst of many tears and sobs, she told me, with great details, what I repeat here in a few lines : " 1 1 was only nine years old when my first con- fessor began to do very criminal things with me, every time I was at his feet confessing my sins. At first I was ashamed and much disgusted ; but soon after I became so depraved that I was looking eagerly for every opportunity of meeting him, either in his own house or in the church, in the vestry, and many times in his own garden when it was very dark at night. That priest did not remain very 470 A Dreadful Confession. long ; he was removed, to my great regret, to another place, where he died. He was succeeded by another, who seemed at first to be a very holy man. I made to him a general confession with, it seemed to me, a sincere desire to give up forever that sinful life ; but I fear that my confessions became a cause of sin to that good priest ; for not long after my con- fession was finished he declared to me, in the con- fessional, his love, with such passionate words that he soon brought me down again into my former criminal habits with him. This lasted six years, when my parents removed to this place. I was very glad of it, for I hoped that, being away from him, I should not be any more a cause of sin to him, and that I might begin a better life. But the fourth time I went to confess to my new confessor he in- vited me to go to his room, where w T e did things so disgusting together that I do not know how to con- fess them. It was two days before my marriage, and the only child I have had is the fruit of that sinful hour. " 'After my marriage I continued the same crimi- nal life with my confessor. He was the friend of my husband ; we had many opportunities of being together, not only when I was going to confess, but when my husband was absent and my child was at school. It was evident to me that many other women were as miserable and criminal as I was myself. This sinful intercourse with my confessor w r ent on till God Almighty stopped it With a real thunderbolt. My dear only daughter had gone to A Mother's Shocking Story. 471 confess, and received the holy communion. As she came back from church much later than I expected, I inquired the reason that had kept her so long. She then threw herself into my arms, and, with con- vulsive cries, said, i Dear mother, do not ask me to go to confess any more. Oh, if you could only know w T hat the confessor asked me when I was at his feet! And if you could know what he has done with me. and has forced me to do with him, when he had me alone in his parlor!' My poor child could not speak any longer; she fainted in my arms. As soon as she recovered, without losing a minute I dressed myself, and, full of an inexpressi- ble rage, I directed my steps toward the parsonage. But before leaving my house I had concealed under my shawl a sharp butcher's knife, to stab and kill the villain w r ho had destroyed my dearly beloved child. Fortunately for that priest, God changed my mind before I entered his room. My words to him were few and sharp. " 4 You are a monster !' I said to him. ' Not satis- fied to have destroyed me, you must also destroy my own dear child, which is yours also! Shame upon you ! I had come with a knife to put an end to your infamies, but so short a punishment would be too mild a one for such a monster. I want you to live, that you may bear upon your head the curse of the two unsuspecting and unguarded friends whom you have so cruelly deceived and betrayed. But know that if you are not away from this place before the end of this w r eek, I will reveal everything 472 " That Bottomless Sea of Iniquity" to my husband, and you may be sure that he will not let you live twenty-four hours longer ; for he sincerely thinks that your daughter is his; he will be the avenger of her honor ! I go this very day to denounce you to the bishop, that he may take you away from this parish, which you have so shamelessly polluted.' " ' The priest threw himself at my feet, and, with tears, asked my pardon, imploring me not to denounce him to the bishop, and promising that he would change his life and begin to live as a good priest. But I remained inexorable. I went to the bishop and warned his Lordship of the consequences that would follow if he kept that curate any longer in the place, as he seemed inclined to do. But before the eight days had expired he was put at the head of another parish, not very far away from here/ n Mr. Chiniquy says : " The reader will, perhaps, like to know what became of that priest. He remained at the head of that beautiful parish of Beaumont, where, I know it for a fact, he continued to destroy his penitents till a few years before he died, with the reputation of a good, an amiable man, and a holy confessor." In conversation with another priest on the con- fessional, Mr. Chiniquy says : " With a blush on my face, and regret in my heart, I confess before God and man that I have been, like you, and with you, through the confessional, plunged for twenty-five years in that bottomless sea of iniquity in which the blind priests of Rome have to swim day and night. " Confessional a School of Perdition. 473 I had to learn by heart, like you, the infamous ques- tions which the Church of Rome forces every priest to learn. I put those impure, immoral questions to old and young females who were confessing their sins to me. These questions (you know it) are of such a nature that no prostitute would dare to put them to another. These questions and the answers they elicit are so debasing that no man (you know it), except a priest of Rome, is sufficiently lost to every sense of shame to put them to any woman. Yes, I was bound in conscience, as you are bound to-day, to put into the ears, the mind, the imagina- tion, thje memory, the heart and soul of females, questions of such a nature, the direct and immedi- ate tendency of which (you know it well) is to fill the minds and hearts of both priests and female penitents with thoughts, phantoms and temptations of such a degrading nature that I do not know any words adequate to express them. Pagan antiquity has never seen any institution more polluting than the confessional. I know nothing more corrupting than the law which forces a female to tell her thoughts, desires and most secret feelings and actions to an unmarried priest. The confessional is a school of perdition. " The confession-box is the daily witness of abom- inations that would hardly have been tolerated in the lands of Sodom and Gomorrah. " Study the pages of history — the history of Eng- land, France, Italy, Spain, etc., etc. ; and you will see that the gravest and most reliable historians 474 The Priest Rules the Home. have, everywhere, found mysteries of iniquity in the confessional-box which their pens refused to trace. In the presence of such public, undeniable facts have not the civilized nations a duty to per- form ? Woman is to society w r hat the roots are to the most precious trees of your orchard. If you knew that a thousand worms were biting the roots of those noble trees, that their leaves are daily fading away, their rich fruits, though yet unripe, are falling on the ground, would you not unearth the roots, and sweep away the worms ? " The confessor is the worm which is biting, pol- luting, and destroying the very roots of civil and religious society, by contaminating, debasing, and enslaving woman. " Can a man be free in his own house so long as there is another who has the legal right to spy all his actions, and direct not only every step but every thought of his wife and children ? Can that man boast of a home whose w r ife and children are under the control of another? Is not that unfortunate man really the slave of the ruler and master of his household ? And when a whole nation is composed of such husbands and fathers, is it not a nation of abject, degraded slaves f "And free America will see all her so dearly bought liberties destroyed, the day that the confes- sional-box is universally reared in her midst. " Auricular Confession and Liberty cannot stand together on the same ground ; either one or the other must fall. Sweep Away the Confessional. 475 "Liberty must sweep away the confessional, as she has swept away the demon of slavery, or she is doomed to perish" Monasticlsm is also an " abomination" assiduously cherished by the " Mother of harlots " as one of her own offspring ; while in fact it had long existed as a Pagan institution — like almost everything else connected with the Papacy — and adopted by her in order to conciliate Pagan worshippers, and entice them into the so-called Christian Church. This is the last of the " abominations " we shall have space to mention; although it must be apparent to all thoughtful readers of this book that the w T hole sys- tem of the Papacy is a system of abominations. In speaking of the monastic life, or life in monasteries, nunneries, and convents, we shall confine ourselves to quoting the language of those w T ho have been be- hind the scenes, and are, therefore, the most compe- tent witnesses. As the licentious and profligate character of these institutions is so generally w r ell- known to intelligent readers, it will suffice here to present a few facts, and personal experiences, as given by these witnesses. Rev. Mr. Hogan — who brought to this country the most flattering testimonials from bishops and priests, and others — says : u How, for instance, could it be expected that American Protestants believe what is related by Michelet of the Capuchin friar, as quoted by me in one of the preceding pages? Can an American Protestant suppose it pos- sible that a Romish priest could persuade all the 476 Shocking Revelations. nuns in a convent that he had a revelation from God, commissioning him, especially, to tell those nuns individually, that it was their duty to have a criminal connection with himself, under pain of eternal damnation ? Such a thing would only excite the risible faculties of an American Protestant ; even the male portion of Roman Catholics will not believe such a thing possible. There was a period when I would not believe it myself, and when the idea of a popish priest seducing a nun, or adminis- tering poison to get possession of a man's w r ife, or his daughter, or his property, was impossible,, though history informed of such things being done in a Romish Church ; and had I not become a Roman Catholic priest, and been myself a confessor,. I should until this day have turned a deaf ear ta such facts. I should look upon popish priests and bishops, who were charged with them, as persecuted men, and probably extend to them the sympathy and support which Protestant Americans are now doing throughout this country. " Were any one to come to me before I was a Roman Catholic priest, and confessor, and tell me that the Protestant young lady to whom I have so often alluded, should go to a school kept by Popish nuns, — that they w T ould convert her from the relig- ion of her birth, make her a Papist, cause her to go to confession, — that the confessor would seduce her, and that the superior mother abbess would cause her death in trying to produce an abortion, — I would not have believed him. I should have looked Shall Pope or People Rule ? 477 upon him as some fanatic, or some evil disposed person, actuated by malice against Romish priests and nunneries ; but after becoming a priest myself, and a confessor, I not only believed such a thing possible, but witnessed it. And though I could weep, I could not prevent it ; such was the nature of my sacerdotal oath of secrecy ; such were my obliga- tions to support the Pope, and the honor of his infallible church. " This country is now a fair field for popish ma- noeuvering. Rome has seen this for twenty years past, and has made her preparations accordingly. While this new country was busy in forming her alliances abroad, regulating her commerce, and making her treaties with foreign nations ; while she w r as dividing her states, settling her domestic terri- torial disputes, regulating her laws, and defining her bounderies, Rome was awake, — her spies were amongst you. They walked carefully round the citadel of your freedom ; they saw that it was not sufficiently manned, that it was accessible from many points, and accordingly they poured into it platoon after platoon, regiment after regiment of the Pope's troops, until they had sufficient force to take possession whenever they deemed it necessary ; and they now tell Americans that the Pope is their legitimate sovereign, and that Americans are but ' the cowardly sons of cowardly pirates/ They even go further; they perpetuate the grossest out- rages upon every law, moral and civil, in defiance of American jurisprudence. They keep their nun- 478 The Prioress of St. Catherine. neries, or rather seraglios, in the very midst of them, surround them with ramparts, and not only deny to their civil magistrates the right of entrance, but they defy them to do so. This every American citizen knows to be a fact; at least it is known in the city of Boston, where I now write." While on this subject, I will again quote a few lines from Father Chiniquy's interesting book. He gives us the statements of the Prioress of St. Cathe- rine, who, in writing of her own knowledge and ex- perience with priests and nuns, says : " ' They are on more intimate terms with the nuns than if they were married to them ! I repeat it, it would require a great deal of time to tell half of what I know. It is the custom now, when they come to hear the con- fessions of a sick sister, to sup with the nuns, sing, dance, play, and sleep in the convent. It is a maxim of theirs that God has forbidden hatred, but not love ; and that man is made for woman, and woman for man. I say that they can deceive the innocent, and the most prudent and circumspect, and that it would be a miracle to converse with them and not fall ! u ' The priests are the husbands of the nuns, and the lay brothers of the lay sisters. In the chamber of one of the nuns I have mentioned, a man was one day found ; he fled away, but soon after they gave him to us for our confessor extraordinary. How many bishops there are in the Papal States who have come to the knowledge of these disorders, have held examinations and visitations, and yet A Voice from the Nunneries. 471> never could remedy it, because the monks, our con- fessors, tell us that those are excommunicated who reveal what passes in the Order ! " ' Poor creatures ! the) 7 think they are leaving the world to escape dangers, and they only meet with greater ones. Our fathers and mothers have given us a good education, and here we have to unlearn, and forget what they have taught us. " ' Do not suppose that this is the case in our con- vent alone. Everywhere it is the same. Yes, every- where the same disorders, the same abuses prevail. I say, and I repeat it, let the superiors suspect as they may, they do not know the smallest part of the enormous wickedness that goes on between the monks and the nuns whom they confess. Every monk who passed by on his way to the chapter, entreated a sick sister to confess to him, and ! " ■ With respect to Father Buzachini, I say that he acted just as the others, sitting up late in the nunnery, diverting himself, and letting the usual disorders go on. There were several nuns who had love affairs on his account. His own principal mis- tress was Odaldi, of St. Lucia, who used to send him continual treats. He was also in love with the daughter of our factor, of whom they were very jealous here. He ruined also poor Cancellieri, who was sextoness. The monks are all alike with their penitents/ " My pen," says Father Chiniquy, " refuses to re- produce several things which the nuns of Italy have published against their father confessors. But 480 Throw Open the Nunneries. this is enough to show to the most incredulous that the confessional is nothing but a school of perdition, even among those who make a profession to live in the highest regions of Roman Catholic holiness — the monks and the nuns." There are many Protestants, and even Protestant ministers, who delude themselves into saying — " 0, the Roman Catholic Church is different from what it once was ; it has greatly improved, so we have nothing to apprehend from its growth." We will quote Father Hogan's reply to this. He says : u I tell you, Americans, that you are mistaken in your inference. Priests, nuns and confessors are the same now that they were then, all over the world. Many •of you have visited Paris, and do you not there see, at the present day, a lying-in hospital attached to every nunnery in the city ? The same is to be seen in Madrid, and the principal cities of Spain. I have seen them myself in Mexico, and in the city of Dublin, Ireland. And what is the object of these hospitals? It is chiefly to provide for the illicit offspring of priests and nuns, and such other unmar- ried females as the priests can seduce through the confessional. But it may be said there are no lying-in hospitals attached to nunneries in this country. True, there are not ; but I say, of my own knowledge, and from my own experience through the confessional, that it would be well if there were ; there would be fewer abortions, there would be fewer infants strangled and murdered. It is not generally .known to Americans that the crime of producing Another Escaped Nun Testifies. 481 abortion — a crime which our laws pronounce to be felony — is a common, every-day crime in Popish nunneries. It is not known to Americans, but let it henceforth be known to them, that strangling and putting to death infants is common in nun- neries throughout this country." This is the testi- mony of scores of priests and nuns who have left the Church of Rome. Mrs. Margaret L. Shepperd, now living, and who was an inmate of Arno's Court Convent, Bristol, England, and who is well known in this country as a most useful, eloquent lecturer, endorsed by scores of Protestant ministers and some of the very best people in the land, says, in a book now before me : " Oh, how many sad, heart-breaking stories could the walls of the convent of Arno's Court reveal if they were but able to speak ! How some priests who now walk with uplifted heads would shrink away from the gaze of their fellow-men, if their dark and evil deeds were known I And how unnecessary would such penitential nunneries be, if it were not for a licentious and lecherous priesthood ! These holy celibates, who are wolves in sheep's clothing, and who, under the cassock, carry a heart full of corruption ; who know no pity when seeking to lure a young and innocent girl into sin — ah, how easy the church makes it for such lepers by placing the victim in a house of penance, and the child born of sin into one of the foundling hospitals under the care of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul. " I do not hesitate to say," says this escaped nun, 482 Foundling Hospitals. " that eighty per cent, of the children in these institu- tions are the illegitimate offspring of Roman Catho- lic priests; and Protestants sometimes vie with each other in giving large donations to support these foundling hospitals. "I have often been asked whether nunneries are places where Roman Catholic priests commit im- morality with the Sisters. All I can say is, that when a woman enters such an institution and takes her vow of obedience, she is told that she must do whatever is requested of her. She must sink her in- dividuality into that of her spiritual superiors ; and should she be told to do anything that is against her conscience, then she is told that the moral obli- gation of the sin rests upon the one who told her under obedience to commit it, and that all she has to do is to be Obedient ! Should she hesitate, then her life becomes a perfect hell upon earth. For her there is no womanly sympathy. She is told that any intercourse between herself and the priest is similar in character to the shadowing of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, and that the body of the priest is sanctified, that it is her duty to submit to him, for the union thus effected is blessed of God, and is ' Holy.' It is usual for a Sister to go into retreat for one day when expecting a visit from these ' holy fathers.' " Having acquainted the Reverend Mother of the date of the proposed visit, she gives the Sister per- mission to absent herself from the duties of the day. The priest arrives; he is shown into the retreat Convent Life a Hell Upon Earth. 483 parlor; and no matter how long he remains there, no one will disturb him. He is supposed to be talk- ing with ' his penitent on the welfare of her soul. Could any one look through the door they would find the confessor with his arms around the fair penitent, or, perhaps, in a far more compromising position. Does my reader ask whether the Sister is willing to submit to these embraces ? I answer that, in fifteen out of twenty cases, No ! But she is there helpless, the priest has seen her, taken a fancy to her, and, willing or not, he compels her to allow him to satisfy his passion. Oh, God ! Great God ! When I think of this System, this System born of the devil ; nurtured in hell — and realize that under the cloak of religion it is stealing away our liberities, entering into our homes, ruining our pure woman- hood, despoiling childish purity, defiling every- thing with which it comes in contact, then in spite of all that has been said and done against me it seems as if I cannot remain quiet. But closing my eyes and ears to every other thing, I have to stand up, and cry out, and warn the people of this and other lands of the great danger threatening us. Convent life is a hell upon earth, it is a blot on any land." Sufficient has been said to prove that " convent life is a hell upon earth." But the evidence of this fact has not just now been presented ; it has been before the world for ages and centuries. Prophets and apostles, inspired of God, many centuries ago predicted the coming of Antichrist Many figures, 484 Nunneries are Disorderly Houses. symbols, and names have been employed to desig- nate and describe this great foe of God and man. We are now regarding her as she is described by the apostle John, as the " Mother of harlots, and abomina- tions of the earth" No system of iniquity that has ever arisen to curse the world has so completely and exactly corresponded to the prophetic description as the apostate Church of Rome. The dreadful l< Beast " that came up " out of the bottomless pit " has reached the shores of this fair land, and is to-day blighting, and withering, and cursing, and defiling everything with which it comes in contact. Again and again the attention of the rulers and people of these United States has been called to the convents and nunneries that are so numerous in our free country, and that are a disgrace to our Ameri- can civilization. Almost times without number evidence has been presented that these convents and nunneries are houses of prostitution and dens of moral uncleanness. As such they should be raided by the police, like other disorderly houses. The Constitution of the United States provides that no one shall be deprived of his liberty except for crime, nor " without due process of law ;" and yet there are nearly ninety thousand helpless women and girls confined within the gloomy walls of these prisons, called convents and nunneries, placed beyond the protection of our laws, and are held in bondage in violation of their constitutional rights. These many thousands of women and young girls are pining away in unutterable misery and grief; The Dying Nun. 485 separated from fond fathers, and mothers, and brothers, and sisters, and all that is dear to them on earth. We will give a simple but very pathetic fact from Mrs. Margaret L. Shepperd's book — " My Life in the Convent" — as a specimen of multitudes of similar cases. It appears that a young nun was dying of consumption and was in great distress of mind, feeling sure that she would have to spend a long time in purgatory. " ' I know/ she said, i that I shall have a long purgatory.' She shuddered as she spoke. ' And oh ! I do hope the dear Sisters will remember me in their prayers and commu- nion/ " Dear Sister Madeline/' I said at last, " purgatory is better than hell ; and our Blessed Lady will inter- cede for you." " ' Yes, dear Sister Magdalene Adelaide/ she said, 1 you are right ; but oh ! I cannot help the shudder that passes through me as I think of the suffering I shall be in for years, especially after all the mortifi- cations I have practiced here, the discipline I have applied to myself, the days I have abstained from food, the prayers I have offered, the tears I have slled ; and now that death approaches, there is no prospect before me but a long term of purgatorial punishment. Besides, the punishment will be all the greater since I have given way to an unnatural thought.' " And what, may I ask, do you call an unnatural thought ? "' Sister Magdalene Adelaide, come close to me/ " I rose from my chair and knelt down beside her. 486 The Dying Nun wants Her Mother. " i Dear Sister, I have endeavored to bear my cross/ she commenced, speaking with difficulty; 1 but oh ! Sister, I dread the end. I have so much to expiate, and oh ! ' she continued, her voice now choked with sobs, ' if I could only have my mother with me ; if I could only hear her voice once more ; it is so long since I have seen her. I have asked for any letter that may have come, but they tell me none has arrived, and oh ! I don't think my mother has quite forgotten me.' Presently she said, ' I know it is wrong to grieve so much ; but oh, I am so weak I ' " Presently I heard her murmur, and, listening, I heard her whisper, i My feet ! oh, my feet ! ' I arose from my chair and removed the sheet, with the in- tention of rubbing her limbs; as I did so her feet were disclosed. A thrill of horror passed through my being as I looked at them ; for they were all cut, festered, and bruised. A fearful suspicion took possession of me, and stooping down, I picked up her shoes. On examination I discovered in them pieces of broken glass. A thrill akin to horror ran through my whole frame. I held the shoes in my hands, and looked at the pale, suffering face of Madeline as she lay on her bed ; and as I write this evening, the whole scene rises before me. There she lay ; the sin of her past life being that she, too, had been deceived at the altars of Rome, a victim of priestly solicitation in the confessional. Even as she lay there in the last stages of consumption, traces of what had at one time been a beautiful face Rome Mocks the Dying. 487 were clearly discernible. What had she not suffered for years ! And yet she was young — hardly twenty- five years old. " Oh, Madeline, poor, wounded, betrayed one ! Who can wonder, as you lay there with the fever of consumption running and coursing through your veins, that in spite of all the teachings and practices of self-denial in the convent life in which you had lived so many years, yet, when the hour of death drew nigh, and your soul was hovering on the borders of an unknown eternity, your thoughts went back once more to the old home scenes, and you longed, as only a child can, for the sight of your mother's face, the sound of your mother's voice, and the touch of the cool, soothing hand of your mother on your fevered brow ? They tried to crush down the natural love that God placed in your heart for your mother ; but they could not." It is the pride and boast of the American people that in no country in the world are women so re- spected, and honored, and protected as with us ; but where is the manhood and chivalry of American fathers and brothers, who will permit ninety thou- sand women to be held in bondage behind prison walls for the gratification of the licentious priests of Rome, without even so much as an earnest protest at the ballot-box against the monstrous outrage ? Why do American statesmen seem indifferent to these foreign institutions, whose existence in this land is an affront to justice, and an insult to the very spirit of our free institutions ? Is it not because the priests of Rome control so many votes? 438 Husbands, Sons and Brothers, Listen ! Of late there has come into existence a patriotic order known as the " A. P. A." — American Protec- tive Association — one of whose contentions is that all convents and nunneries shall be open to public inspection, and that no woman shall be restrained of her liberty against her will. Let every American citizen show his respect for womanhood by co- operating with these noble patriots at the ballot-box, in their endeavor to remove this great curse from our land. It is needless to pursue this enumeration of Romish abominations any farther, for the facts here presented furnish most conclusive and over- whelming proof that the predicted Antichrist, " the Mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth" finds a complete fulfilment in the Church of Rome. CHAPTER XXII. The Woman Drunken With Blood. " And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus : and when I saw her I wondered with great admira- tion. "And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. " 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. " And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven Kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. " And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdi- tion. " And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten Kings," etc. (Rev. xvii : 6-12.) We will speak of the locality of the " Mother of harlots/ 7 before speaking of her being " drunken 489 490 Rome, the Harlot's Headquarters. with the blood of the saints,'' as this will help to identify her as unmistakably the Church of Rome. The angel said to John, " I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads, and ten horns," etc. The mystery of the beast is first explained ; and the beast is considered first in general under a three- fold state, or succession, as existing, and then ceas- ing to be, and then reviving again, so as to become another, and yet the same. A beast in the prophetic style, as before observed, is a tyrannical idolatrous empire: and the Roman Empire was idolatrous under The Heathen Emperors, and then ceased to be so under the Christian emperors, — for a time — and then again became idolatrous under the Roman Pontiffs, and so hath continued ever since. It is the same idolatrous power revived again, but only in another form ; and all the corrupt part of man- kind, whose names are not enrolled as good citizens in the registers of heaven, are pleased at the revival of it; but in this last form it shall "go into perdition." It shall not, as it did before, cease for a time, and revive again ; but shall be destroyed forever. The seven heads have a double signification. They are primarily "seven mountains on which the woman sitteth," — on which the capital city is seated, which all students know to be the actual situation of Rome. Historians, geographers, poets, all speak of Rome as the city of seven hills, and a Pagan Becomes Papal Rome. 491 plainer description could not be given of it, without expressing the name, which there were excellent reasons for not doing. " And there are seven Kings " etc. And here again we see that Rome is meant, for here is reference to the seven forms of government that have succeeded each other in the history of Rome. " Five are fallen : " five of these forms of government have already passed ; and " one is : " the sixth is now subsisting ; in the time when these words were written : " and the other is not yet come." It evidently appears that the sixth form of government which was existing in John's time was the imperial ; and w r e all know that the Papal form of government succeeded the imperial, and has con- tinued to exist until the present time. " The ten horns which thou sawest are ten Kings" etc. This is in exact accordance with the statement in Daniel (Chapter vii : 24) "The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise." So we see that the inspired Prophet, and the inspired Apostle are both speaking of the same hateful power, and that power is the Church of Rome. (See Newton, On the Prophecies). We now return to what was said of " the Mother of harlots : " "I saw 7 the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." A reeling, intoxicated harlot — for that is the image that is kept before us all along. The phraseology is derived from the barbarous custom (still extant among many pagan nations) of 492 Rome' 8 Right to Murder. drinking the blood of enemies slain in the way of revenge. The effect of drinking blood is said to be to exasperate, and to intoxicate with passion and a desire to revenge. The meaning here is that the persecuting power here referred to would shed the blood of the saints, and that not merely once or twice, as in outbursts of passion or uncontrollable rage ; but would do it deliberate^, extensively, as if streams of blood should flow sufficiently to keep the slaughterers in a constant state of intoxication,, and the more blood they drank the more their rage against the saints would increase. And where shall we look for that accursed persecuting power, which r according to Daniel, was to " make war with the saints," and " wear out the saints of the Most High;" and which, according to John, was to be- come " drunk with the blood of the saints," except to the cruel, and persecuting, and blood-thirsty Romish Church ? Our limits preclude our giving more than a mere outline of the history of Rome's bloody deeds. It w T ill be well to bear in mind that Romish bishops and cardinals, and even councils, have publicly declared that the Church has a right to persecute and kill heretics. Cardinal Bellarmine is the great champion of Romanism, and expounder of its doctrines. He was the nephew of Pope Marcellus, and is acknowledged by Romanists to be one of their standard writers. In the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of his book on The Laity, he Cardinal Bellarmine. 493 -enters on an eleborate argument to prove the right of the Romish Church to punish heretics with death. He says : " We will briefly show that the Church has the power, and ought to cast off incor- rigible heretics, especially those who have relapsed, and that the secular power ought to inflict on such, temporal punishments, and even death itself. " He presents many arguments to prove this proposition which we cannot present here ; but we give the fol- lowing as a specimen : " Experience proves that there is no other remedy ; for the Church has step by step tried all remedies, — first, excommunication alone, then pecuniary penalties ; afterward, banish- ment ; and lastly, has been forced to put them to death ; to send them to their own place" The Pope, it is known, sends all heretics to hell, as " their own place." That the Church of the Pope has the right to murder heretics is the claim of the Church at this present time. The last pope, Pius IX., no longer ago than 1864, in his Syllabus of Errors of that date, infallibly declares it to be an error " to say that" the Roman Pontiffs, and ecumenical councils have exceeded the limits of their power, and have usurped the rights of princes," etc., (23). He de- nounces it as " an error" to say that " the Church has not the power of availing herself of force, or any direct, or indirect temporal power." (24). Here the Pope justifies all the horrible, and wholesale murders that have been committed by his prede- cessors, and insists that they had a right to do what 494 Wolves Destroy God's Sheep. they did, and that she still has the right to murder Protestants. Thank God, she has not the power, as yet, in these United States ! We have already seen the bloody havoc made of the noble and godly Albigenses by the authority of Pope Innocent III. Nothing more than a very brief sketch of the barbarities perpetrated on the Wal- denses can now be given. They were a Bible-lov- ing, popery-hating, God-fearing people. Romanists themselves bear testimony to the purity of their lives. About the year 1400 a violent outrage was commit- ted upon the Waldenses, who inhabited the Valley of Pragela, in Piedmont, where, shut in by the lofty and snow-capped mountains, they were in some degree sheltered from their popish persecutors. The attack was made toward the end of December, when the mountains are covered with snow. Being ap- prised of their danger, in order to escape from the fierce human wolves that were ready to destroy them, their only alternative was to flee to the highest mountains of the Alps with their wives and' chil- dren, the unhappy mothers often carrying their infants in their arms and leading such little ones as could walk ; and so they climbed the snow-covered hills in search of a refuge from their pursuers, and many of them were slaughtered by the pious mem- bers of " the only true church " before they could reach a hiding place. But the terrible exposure to the biting cold of the mountains was more destructive than the swords and daggers of " the faithful," for in the morning it was found that four- Four Hundred Children Perish. 495 score of their infants had expired during the night, many of them pressed to their mother's bosoms ; and many mothers, too, were dead, and others dying. Nearly a century later, in consequence of a fero- cious bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII., (another innocent ! !) a most fierce and cruel persecution was carried on against the Waldenses in the valleys of Loyse and Frassiniere. A band of soldiers having found the villages deserted, led on by their bigoted and blood-thirsty lieutenant, sought out the hiding- places of the frightened fugitives, and, having found some of them hiding in caves, and causing wood and stubble to be placed at the entrances to the caves, he kindled a fire, by which four hundred chil- dren were suffocated, many of them in the embrace of their mothers and fathers, many of whom also per- ished from suffocation, while multitudes, in order to escape, rushed headlong from their caverns upon the rocks below, w T here they were dashed in pieces ; or, if any escaped death from these causes, they were immediately slaughtered by the cruel soldiery. " It is held as unquestionably true," says Perrin, in his History of the Waldenses, "that more than three thousand persons belonging to the Valley of Loyse perished on this occasion." Speaking of the horrible cruelties inflicted on the Waldenses, in 1560 a Neapolitan historian of that age, Tommaso Costo, himself a Roman Catholic, 'after giving some account of the Calabrian heretics, says : " Some had their throats cut, others were sawn 496 Mother and Babe Hurled Over the Rocks. through the middle, and others thrown from the top of a high cliff. All were cruelly, but deservedly, put to death. It was strange to hear of their obsti- nacy, for, while the father saw his son put to death, and the son his father, they not only showed no symptoms of grief, but said joyfully that they would be angels of God. So much had the devil, to whom they had given themselves up as a prey, deceived them." About the middle of the seventeenth century, the barbarity and wholesale cruelty and slaughter in- flicted on the Waldenses in the valleys of Piedmont, by their popish persecutors, was such as to excite a general feeling of indignation and remonstrance in all the Protestant states of Europe. Many were hurled over precipices and dashed to pieces. Sir Samuel Morland, who was appointed ambassador by Oliver Cromwell to bear the remonstrances of Protestant England against these popish cruelties, published, on his return, a minute account of the sufferings of the Waldenses, in which he relates that, in one instance, at least, u a mother was hurled down a mighty rock, with a little infant in her arms, and, three days after, was found dead, with the little child alive, but fast clasped between the arms of the dead mother, which were cold and stiff, insomuch that those who found them had much ado to get the young child out." The great poet, John Milton, the author of Para- dise Lost, mentions this fact in a sonnet intended to excite sympathy for the " slaughtered saints." Can This be the Church of Christ ? 497 On the Late Massacre in Piedmont. Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones Forget not : in thy book record their groans Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled Mother with infant doivn the rocks. Their moans The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven. Their martyr' d blood and ashes sow O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway The tripled tyrant ; that from these may grow A hundredfold, who having learned thy way Early may fly the Babylonian woe. fSee any of the numerous Histories of the Waldenses.] The infernal barbarities perpetrated on the Pro- testants, throughout the whole world, by means of that bloody tribunal, blasphemously called the " Holy (! ! !) Inquisition/ 7 it is impossible for human language to describe. Numerous w r ere the persecu- tions of different sects from Constantine's time to the Reformation ; but when the famous Martin Luther arose and opposed the errors and ambition of the Church of Rome, and the sentiments of this great and good man began to spread, the pope and his clergy joined all their forces to prevent, or at least to hinder, their progress. A general council of the clergy was called : this was the famous council of Trent, which was held in different sessions during eighteen years for the purpose of establishing popery in greater splendor and preventing the Reformation. The friends of the Reformation were anathematized, and excommunicated, and the life of Luther was 498 Rivers of Protestant Blood. often in danger, though at last he died on the bed of peace. From time to time innumerable schemes were suggested to overthrow the Reformed Church, and wars were set on foot for the purpose. The In- quisition, which was established in the twelfth cen- tury, was now more effectually set to work. Terrible persecutions were carried on in different parts of Germany, and even in Bohemia, which continued about thirty years, and the blood of the saints was said to flow like rivers of water. The countries of Poland, Lithuania and Hungary were in a similar manner deluged with Protestant blood. The " Mother of harlots " was " drunk with the blood of the saints" We shall present just a bird's-eye view of the bloody work of the Popes of Rome during the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries. Let us begin with France. After the grossest injustice and the most barbarous cruelties had been exercised towards the French Protestants — called Huguenots — there was a most violent persecution of them in 1572, in the reign of Charles IX., and especially in what is known throughout the world as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in Paris, on the 24th of August of that year. Many of the leading Protestants had been invited to Paris, under a solemn oath of safety, upon occasion of the marriage of the King of Navarre with the sister of the French King. The queen- dowager of Navarre, however, a zealous Protestant, was poisoned by a pair of gloves before the marriage was solemnized. Admiral Coligny, who was looked Massacre of St. Bartholomew. 499 upon as the leader of the Huguenots, was basely murdered in his own house and then thrown out of the window, to gratify the malice of the Duke of Guise ; his head was afterwards cut off and sent to the King and queen-mother, and his body, after a thousand indignities offered to it, was hung by the feet on a gibbet. After this the murderers ravaged the whole city of Paris, and butchered in three days about ten thousand lords, gentlemen, presidents and people of all ranks. A horrible spectacle was pre- sented, say the historians of that time, when the very streets and passages resounded with the noise of those who had met together for murder and plunder; the groans of those who were dying, and the shrieks of those who were just going to be but- chered were everywhere heard ; the bodies of the slain were thrown out of the windows ; the courts and chambers of the houses were filled with them ; the dead bodies of others were dragged through the streets; their blood ran through the channels in such plenty that torrents seemed to empty them- selves in the river : in a word, an innumerable mul- titude of men, women with child, maidens and children, were all involved in one common destruc- tion; and the gates and entrances of the King's palace were smeared with blood. From the city of Paris the massacre spread throughout the whole kingdom. In the city of Meaux they threw about two hundred into jail; and after they had ravished and killed a great number of women, and plundered the houses of the Protestants, they executed their 500 The Pope Delighted with the Slaughter. fury on those they had imprisoned, and calling them one by one, they were killed, " like sheep in the market." In Orleans they murdered above five hundred men, women and children, and enriched themselves with the spoil. The same cruelties were practiced at Angers, Troyes, Bourges, La Charite, and especially at Lyons, where they cruelly mur- dered more than eight hundred Protestants — child- ren hanging on their parents' necks, and parents embracing their children. Ropes were thrown about their necks and they were dragged through the streets^ and then, half dead, and others dead, they were throw r n into the river. The number of those who were murdered in that horrible massacre are variously estimated at from seventy thousand to one hundred thousand. The King and his infamous mother gazed with delight on the heaps of the slain that filled the royal court, and the King went to see the corpse of the noble Coligny, and remarked that " the smell of a dead enemy is agreeable" His majesty went to Mass and returned thanks to God for the glorious victory over the heretics. When the news of the wholesale butchery reached Rome the Pope and his cardinals were almost beside themselves with joy^ and the event was celebrated by the ringing of bells, the booming of artillery, priestly processions, the Te Deum, and every expression of delight. The Pope, not satisfied with such temporal demonstra- tions, caused a medal to be struck to be a permanent commemoration of the event. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 501 But all their persecutions were far exceeded in cruelty by those which took place in the time of Louis XIV. after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. This Edict had secured certain privileges to the Protestants ; but at the instigation of the bishops, Louis revoked this Edict, and now the fiercest persecution broke forth. One of the most terrible and shameful modes of inflicting punishment on the unoffending Huguenots was by means of the dragonades, or dragooning. Soldiers, and dragoons, were quartered on the Huguenots, and "there w T as no wickedness," says Mr. Quick, in his Synodicon, u though ever so horrid, which they did not put in practice to compel the people to change their religion." The brutal soldiers, troopers and dragoons, w r ent into the houses of the Protestants, where they defaced and destroyed the furniture, broke their looking glasses, and sold what they could not destroy; and thus in a few days the Protestants were stripped of five millions of dollars. They turned the dining rooms of the gentry into stables for their horses, and treated the owners with the most barbarous cruelty, striking them, and not permitting them to eat or drink. When they saw the blood and sweat run down their faces they dashed water on them, and putting kettle-drums upon their heads they made a continual din upon them, till these unhappy people lost their senses. At Negre- plisse, they hung up Isaac Favin, a Protestant citizen of that place, and tormented him a whole night by pinching, and tearing off his flesh with 502 Horrors of the Dragonades. pincers. They made a great fire round about a boy twelve years old, who, with eyes and hands lifted up to heaven, cried out, " My God, help me ! " and when they found the youth resolved to die rather than renounce his religion, they snatched him from the fire after being severely burned. In several places the soldiers applied red-hot irons to the feet of men, and to the breasts of women. At Nantes they hung up several women and maids by their feet, and others by their arm-pits, and thus exposed them to public view, stark naked. They bound nursing mothers to posts, and let sucking infants lie languishing in their sight for several days and nights, crying, and gasping for life. Amid a thou- sand hideous cries, they hung up men and women by their hair, and some by their feet, on hooks in chimneys, and smoked them with wisps of smoulder- ing hay until they were suffocated. They tied some under their arms with ropes, and plunged them again and again into wells ; they found others, put them to the torture, and with a funnel filled them with wine until they were intoxicated, and then made them say they consented to be Catholics. They stripped them naked, and after a thousand insults and indignities, stuck them with pins and needles from head to foot. In some places they tied fathers and husbands to bed posts, and before their eyes ravished their wives and daughters with impunity. They blew up men and women with bellows till they burst them. With these scenes of desolation, and cruelty, and The Irish Massacre of 16 4.1. 503 horror, the popish clergy feasted their eyes, and made only matter of laughter and sport of them. The Irish Massacre of 1641 furnishes us with another fearful illustration and confirmation of the fact that the Romish Church is truly the " Mother of harlots, drunk with the blood of the saints." The following facts are from the statements of Sir John Temple, Master of the Rolls, and one of the royal Privy-Council in Ireland, and who writes from his own knowledge and observation. No detailed account can here be given, as this volume is already larger than was intended. " Roger Moore, one of the prime conspirators, told Master Coley, then prisoner with him, 'that the plot had been in framing several years, and should have been executed several times but they were hindered.' By letters sent from Rome to Sir Philip O'Neale and the Lord MacGuire, which were inter- cepted and brought to the Lord Parsons, though the friar that wrote them doth not express any certain knowledge of this very plot, yet this much appears to them, that they had long desired to hear of the rising of the Irish ; that the news of Sir Phelim O'Neale's taking arms was very acceptable to the Pope and his two cardinal nephews, assuring him of all assistance from thence," etc. " The Lords and Commons of this present parliament being adver- tised of the dangerous conspiracy and rebellion in Ireland, by the treacherous and wicked instigation of the priests and Jesuits for the bloody massacre and destruction of all the Protestants living there," etc. 504 Massacre Instigated by Priests. " Edward Deane, of Ocram, in the county of .Wicklow, tanner, deposeth, 'That the said rebels burnt two protest ant Bibles, and then said that it was hell fire that burnt : ' " John KerdifFe, clerk of the county of Tyrone,, deposeth, ' That Friar Malone, of Skerries, did take the poor men's Bibles which he found in the boat, and cut them in pieces, and cast them into the fire with these words, that he would deal in like manner with all Protestant and Puritan Bibles.' " Adam Clover, of Slonosie, in the county of Cavan, duly sworn, deposeth, ' That James O'Rely, Hugh Brady, and other rebels, did often take into their hands the Protestant Bibles, and wetting them in the dirty water, did five or six several times dash the same in the face of this deponent, saying, etc. That dragging many Protestants by the hair of their heads, and in other cruel manner, into the Church, they there stripped, robbed, whipped, and most cruelly used them, saying, If you come to- morrow you shall hear the like sermon/ " The people being now set at liberty from the restraints of conscience, and prepossessed by their priests with a belief that it was lawful for them to rise up and destroy all the Protestants, who they told them were worse than dogs ; that they were devils, and served the devil; assuring them that the killing of such was a meritorious act, as well as a preventive againt the pains of purgatory, etc. a John Parry, of Druermosh, in the county of Armagh, deposeth, ' That O'Cullan, a priest, told his Unspeakable Barbarities, 505 auditors at mass, that the bodies of such as died in this quarrel should not be cold before their souls should ascend up into heaven, and that they should be free from the pangs of purgatory." The writer hesitates to quote the statements of Sir John Temple, as many of the facts sworn to by most respectable, and reliable witnesses seem to be too shocking and revolting for belief. But as his book is in print, and has been read by many thou- sands of people, I will venture to give only the facts that are given on less than two pages of his report, as his book, opened at random, now lies before me. " Margaret Fermeny, in the county of Fermanagh, deposeth, ' That the rebels bound her and her husband's hands behind them, to make them con- fess their money ; and dragged them up and down by a rope ; and cut his throat in her own sight with a skain, having first knocked him down, and stripped him ; and that being an aged woman of seventy-five years old, as she came up afterwards to Dublin, she was stripped by the Irish seven times in one day, the rebels telling her to go and look to her God, and bid him give her clothes. " Edward Wilson, of the county of Monaghan, deposeth, 'That among other cruelties used by the rebels to the English, they hung up some by the arms, and then hacked them with their swords to see how many blows they could endure before they died. Some they ripped up, and then left them with their bowels hanging out. Anne, the wife of 506 li The Only True Church." Merwin Madesley, late of city of Kilkenny, gent, sworn and examined, deposeth, that some of the rebels in Kilkenny aforesaid, struck and beat a poor English woman until she was forced into a ditch where she died ; those barbarous rebels having first ripped up her child, of about six years of age/ " Owen Frankland, of the city of Dublin, deposeth, 1 That Michael Garry told this deponent, that there was a Scotchman that, being driven by the rebels out of the Newry, and knocked on the head by the Irish, recovered himself and came again into the town, naked ; whereupon the rebels took him and his wife out of the town, cut him all to pieces, and murdered his wife, though great w T ith child.' But this horrible cruelty was principally reserved by these inhuman monsters for women, whose sex they neither pitied nor spared, hanging up several women, many of them pregnant, whom they inhumanly mutilated, a course they ordinarily took with such as they found in that condition. At Ballincolough, within four miles of the city of Rosse, in April, 1642, John Stone, of the Graige, his son, two sons-in-law, and his tw T o daughters were hanged: one of his daughters being then pregnant, they treated her in such a barbarous manner as is not fit to be men- tioned. " And sometimes they gave their children to swine. " Philip Taylor, late of Portnedown, de- poseth, ( That the rebels killed a dyer's wife, of Rossetrever, at the Newry, and ripped her up, she being pregnant, with two children, and threw her and her children into a ditch ; and that he, this de- Butcher Alva in the Netherlands. 507 ponent, drove away swine from eating one of her children." But we can go no further with this hor- rible recital, for things more shocking still are related by the score. One of the chief pleasures of the papists was to strip Protestant women of all their clothing and leave them, young and old, to perish from cold and exposure. They even taught their children to strip and kill the children of Pro- testants, and to dash out their brains against the stones. Many wives and young virgins were abused in sight of their nearest relatives. It is estimated that one hundred and fifty-four thousand Protest- ants perished in this massacre. One Irish woman is credited with the murder of forty-five Protest- ants — all for the glory of the Church. When the inhabitants of the Netherlands, who had been accustomed to freedom, revolted against the tyranny of Spain, and especially against the hated Inquisition, the Duke of Alva's counsel was to suppress the insurrection forcibly and with rigor. The king accordingly committed the matter to his hands and sent him to the Netherlands, in 1567, with unlimited power and a large military force. His first step was to establish what was called " the bloody council," in which he himself at first pre- sided, and over which he afterwards appointed Don Juan de Vargas — a man almost as cruel and blood- thirsty as himself. This "bloody council" con- demned all, without distinction, whose opinions seemed to be at all dubious, or whose wealth excited his cupidity. This man Alva was like an incarnate 508 A Cruel Church has Cruel Agents. fiend, and swept over the country like a destroying pestilence, so great was his delight in causing blood to flow T , and hearts to break. The present and the absent, the living and the dead, were subjected alike to trial, and their property confiscated to the Coun- cil. So greatly was this furious tyrant hated by the people that above 100,000 of them abandoned their native country, many merchants and mechanics going to England. This inhuman monster boasted that he had put to death 18,000 people. Alva was just the man for the Pope, who expressed his satisfaction with Alva's bloody work by present- ing him with a consecrated sword and hat, as de- fender of the Holy Church. "Drunk with the blood of the saints" It is estimated that one hundred thousand died under the hand of the executioner. Here, however, Satan and his agents failed of their purpose; for in the issue great part of the Nether- lands shook off the Spanish yoke, and elected them- selves into a separate and independent state, which has ever since been considered as one of the principal Protestant countries of the world. Careful writers of English history inform us that during the five years during which " Bloody Mary n occupied the English throne, two hundred and eighty- eight persons were burnt alive by her order for the crime of heresy. She was proclaimed Queen on the 17th of July, 1553, and it was not till the beginning of 1555 that the venerable John Rogers, the proto- martyr of the Marian persecution, sealed the truth with his blood by being burnt alive at Smithfield. Bloody Queen Mary. 509 It was by order of this bigoted and wicked queen that Bishops Latimer and Ridley, and Archbishop Oranmer suffered martyrdom. The murder of those godly and useful ministers of Christ reflects eternal disgrace and shame on the Roman Catholic church, as well as on the memory of the poor, deluded Queen of England. The last of these bloody sacrifices to the papal Moloch was made on the 10th of November, only one week previous to the death of Queen Mary, in the burning of three men and two women, at Can- terbury, for denying transubstantiation and the worship of images. The names of this last company of victims who brought up the noble army of martyrs under this persecution were John Corneford, John Hurst, Christopher Brown, Alice Snoth and Cathe- rine Tinley. The last was an aged and helpless woman, whose years and debility, one would have thought, might awaken pity even in the breast of a savage. But popish bigotry knows no pity ; and the feeble and withered body of the aged saint was con- sumed to ashes in the torturing flames. One week after, Mary died, and England was happy. Great was the sorrow and disappointment of that bloody persecutor and promoter of the Inquisition, Pope Paul IV., at hearing of the death of his " faithful daughter," Mary, and the accession of her Protestant sister, Elizabeth, to the throne of England. In answer to the ambassador sent to the court of Rome, in common with the other European courts, the Pope replied in a haughty style, " That England 510 Queen Elizabeth Cxirsed by the Pope. was held in fee of the Apostolic^See. . . . That it was great boldness in her to assume the crown without his consent ; for which, in reason, she de- served no favor at his hands; yet, if she would renounce her pretensions, and refer herself wholly to him, he would show a fatherly affection towards, and do everything for her that he could, consistently with the dignity of the Apostolic See J 9 As Elizabeth showed no disposition to " resign her pretensions " to the British throne, she was excom- municated a few years afterward, and deposed by pope Pius V., and her subjects absolved from their alle- giance and forbidden to obey her, under penalty of the Pope's anathema ! Of course, the loss of Eng- land was a hard blow for the Pope, and he deter- mined to do his utmost to bring the British realm again under his dominion. For this purpose King Philip of Spain, a most bigoted son of the church, was to invade and crush England with force of arms. In order to accomplish this holy purpose, a great navy was provided, which the Spaniards proudly called " The Invincible Armada. 99 The principal motive for this enterprise was the desire to strike a decisive blow at the Protestant faith, of which Eng- land was then the bulwark. For many months the whole energies of the Spanish nation had been directed toward the building and equipment of the requisite ships. The devout Christian has delighted to perceive in the history of this " Invincible Ar- mada 99 a striking evidence of that gracious Provi- dence, which has so often interposed for the The Invincible Armada. 511 protection and defence of Old England. In 1587 everything was nearly ready ; but the sailing of the expedition was delayed for a year by Drake, who made a bold dash into the harbor of Cadiz, and destroyed nearly a hundred ships, with immense stores of provisions. A further delay was caused by the sudden death of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, who had been originally entrusted with the chief com- mand. His loss was a serious blow to the Spanish cause, for he was an experienced sailor. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, a man almost entirely ignorant of naval affairs, was then made admiral. All pre- parations being at length completed, the great fleet sailed from Lisbon on the 29th of May, 1588. It consisted of 130 large vessels, and carried about 20,000 soldiers, 8460 sailors, besides slaves, as rowers, and 2431 cannon. Their destination was the coast of Flanders, where Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, was lying with about 35,000 men and a flotilla of boats. This force was to be landed on the Isle of Thanet, at the mouth of the Thames, under the 'protection of the Armada, which would be able to keep the channel perfectly clear. Another body of troops was then to be landed further north ; and it had been hoped, at one time, that the Duke of Guise would effect a diversion by landing a force on the west coast. These plans, however, were con- siderably deranged by the length of time occupied in preparing the expedition, and by the further delays encountered. For the fleet had scarcely sailed from Lisbon when it was overtaken by a 512 England to be Conquered by Rome. severe storm, which shattered several of the ships, and compelled them to put in for repairs at Corunna. It was the 22d of July before they finally sailed from Spain. England, meanwhile, had not been idle. When the news arrived that the great expedition was really about to set out, the most intense enthu- siasm took possession of the people, who gladly furnished ships and stores, and raised volunteer bands for coast defence. The command of the army was given to the Earl of Leicester, who took his post, with about 16,000 men, at Tilbury, to oppose the landing of Parma. About 45,000 military were assembled around the Queen to protect her person. The royal navy, which consisted of about thirty ships, was at once put in order, and gradually in- creased by the addition of merchantmen and priva- teers, to about 180 vessels. These carried about 18,000 sailors, but they had not half the weight of the Spanish artillery, and they were scantily sup- plied with ammunition and provisions. The ships, however, those of the Queen in particular, were in splendid order, and the sailors were the finest in England. The lord high admiral was Lord Howard, of Effingham, who had under him Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and others, the most celebrated mariners of the age. He took his station with the main body of the ships at Plymouth, and another squadron under Lord Seymour cruised off Dunkirk, com- manding the straits, and blockading the Prince of Parma. Meantime news was brought to England that the Armada had encountered severe storms, England's Hearts of Oak. 513 and that the expedition was given up. So much faith was put in this report that several of the ships began to discharge their crews. Howard, however, sailed down towards Corunna, and discovered that the report had no foundation. On the 29th of July the fleet was discovered enter- ing the channel, and the beacon-lights along the shore gave warning to England that the dreaded enemy was at hand. That evening Howard's ships were moored so as to be able to slip out of Plymouth Sound at a moment's notice. On the following day the Armada was seen standing up the English Channel in the form of a crescent, seven miles long and numbering 150 ships. They passed Plymouth towards evening, and during the night the English fleet sailed out of the Sound and took up a position to windward. On the following day the action began by the Duke of Medina Sidonia attempting to close and bring on a general engagement. But he found this to be impossible ; the English ships, light, and admirably handled, sailed so swiftly and were manoeuvred with such dexterity that it was out of his pow T er to inflict any injury upon them. Their fire also was rapid and deadly, while the Spanish guns were worked slowly, and generally sent the shot far over the English ships. Dismayed at their want of success, the Spanish fleet stood off up the Channel, closely pursued by the English. Through all the next week the same tactics were pursued ; the English hovering on the rear of the Armada, harassed and weakened it without coming to a close engagement. At length, on the 6th of 514 Not Quite " Invincible." August, Medina Sidonia cast anchor in the roads of Calais, and sent messengers to the Prince of Parma, asking him for ammunition and light vessels, and suggesting that he should now attempt his landing on the coast of England. But he declared that it was impossible to cross the Channel while the Eng- lish fleet was on the sea ; that he had no light ships, and that the state of the weather prevented him from sending such ammunition as he could spare. Lord Howard had now been joined by Seymour's squadron and by many private ships ; but he and the other commanders were in the deepest anxiety. They were almost destitute of provisions and powder, and did not yet know what injury they had inflicted on the Armada, which, after all their endeavors, seemed to have reached its destination. At last it was resolved to drive the Spanish fleet out into the open sea, and to effect this by means of fire-ships. Eight ships were selected and filled with combus- tibles, their rigging was smeared with pitch, and on the night of the 7th of August they were drifted down with the tide and set on fire. The Spaniards, in great alarm, immediately cut their cables and cleared off from the shore. Next morning Drake pursued them, while Howard remained for some time to attack a galleon that had gone ashore during the night. The Spanish fleet was scattered over a large space off Gravellines, and Drake at once began the action, driving them together in a confused mass by his rapid firing and swift manoeuvering, and forcing the whole towards the coast of Flanders. Had his ammunition held out, he might have com- The Almighty Takes a Hand. 515 pleted the ruin by driving them on shore. As it was, the injury inflicted by this one day's fighting was enormous. Nearly four thousand men were killed and many of the ships were disabled, and the hopes of the Spaniards were broken. Their courage completely deserted them ; and next day, when a council of war was held, it was resolved to try the perilous voyage to Spain by the North Sea and Pentland Firth, rather than again face Drake and the English fleet. The whole fleet, still numbering one hundred and twenty ships, stood off accordingly towards the North Sea. Drake and Howard pur- sued for some days, till want of provisions compelled them to return. But the weather proved a suffi- ciently formidable enemy to the unhappy Spaniards. The continuous violent gales which accompanied them along their route by the north of Scotland and the wild Irish coast completely shattered their unseaworthy vessels. The shores were strewn with wrecks, and many hundreds of unfortunates who were saved from the sea were slain by the Irish. Constant sickness had decimated the troops, and when at length, in September and October, fifty -four shattered vessels reached Spain, they conveyed only nine or ten thousand men, and these were in a pitiable state from sickness and want. (Ency. Brit. For the facts presented in this chapter see Elliot, Romanism ; Jones' Church History ; Foxe's Book of Martyrs ; Dowling's Romanism, etc.) Enough has been said to prove that " the woman drunk with the blood of the saints" is the Church of Rome. And " the half has not been told." CHAPTER XXIII. Shall the Potomac or the Tiber Rule Us ? We have seen that Romanists claim that their church is of apostolic origin; that all their popes were infallible, and that they are the divinely ap- pointed vicegerents of God himself; that God com- municates his will to men through them ; that they stand among men as God himself, and that they are to be universally obeyed, as God is to be obeyed. The foregoing pages prove conclusively that such claims are false, presumptuous, impossible, and blas- phemous. We have traced the Papacy, as an ob- jective system, back to Constantine; but the Papacy has a subjective force, or power, and she claims that this subjective power is the Holy Spirit of God. But we have shown that the Papacy is a system of lying deception, robbery, hypocrisy, murder, and blas- phemy ; and therefore it cannot be from God. If not from God, then from whence does it derive its in- spiring, and actuating spirit, and force? This ques- tion is of very great importance, and its importance demands that the answer to it shall be plain, posi- tive, and authoritative. Many very excellent Christians — there is reason to believe — will find fault with the strong language often used by the present writer, in these pages. Christian charity is a beautiful thing, and pleasing to God ; but that is a false charity, and a ruinous liberality, that will apologize for sin, and whitewash 516 The True Origin of Papacy. 517 iniquity, and especially when that iniquity is organ- ized into a vast and compact system of wrong, the object of which is to destroy the church of Christ as instituted by himself, and whose whole tendency is to degrade human society, and destroy the souls of men. All this is exactly true of the Roman Catho- lic Church. This has been abundantly proven, over and over again. In Mrs. Margaret L. Shepherd's book — from which we have quoted — she says : il Where did I learn all the evil they accuse me of, but from a system Born in Hell, — Nurtured in Hell ?" Now there are many who pride themselves on their liberality, and charity, who express them- selves as horrified at such language, and declare it to be " illiberal/' " unchristian," and " wicked," — not knowing that her words expressed the exact truth as taught in the holy Scriptures, a fact prob- ably unknown to Mrs. Shepherd herself. God him- self declares that the Papacy was " born in hell, — nur- tured in hell." Here is the proof. In Revelation xii : 3, it is said : "And behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns ; and seven crowns upon his heads " — Rome ! In the 9th verse we are told, distinctly that the red dragon is the devil; — " And the great dragon was cast out ; that old ser- pent called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world " — through the Church of Rome. In the 13th verse it is said : "And when the dragon saw that he was cast out unto the earth he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child." " The woman " is Christ's Church, whom the Devil 518 Ascended Out of the Bottomless Pit. persecutes through the Church of Rome. In chapter xvii : 8, it is said : " The beast that thou sawest was and is not, and yet is ; shall ascend Out of the Bottomless Pit, and go into perdition." "Was" — Pagan Rome ; " and is not " — for a time it looked as if Pagan Rome had ceased to be ; " and yet is " — the same old Pagan Rome revived in another form, — that of Papal Rome ! At this hour Papal Rome is the old despotic, bloody, Pagan Rome, ruling in another form — the Papacy. And both " ascended out of the bottomless pit " — that is, Hell. Here then the Word of God plainly declares that the Church of Rome was born in hell ! Surely it is an awful thing to say ! But it is God himself who says it ! And who are we, that we dare to express sym- pathy for, or extend charity towards, a system that God hates, and has cursed? But if God had not said it, surely the history of the Roman Catholic Church as written by a hundred capable, and truth- ful men, most plainly teaches that she was born in hell, and "ascended out of the bottomless pit." "And goeth into perdition." What, according to the Word of God, is the actual spiritual condition and outlook of the great mass of the Roman Catholic people ? The Romish priests proclaim to the world, and teach their people that their Church is the only true Church of Christ, " out of which there is no salvation." The very oppo- site of this is taught in the Holy Scriptures, by God himself. That some Roman Catholics are Christians — and probably very few comparatively — is certain, " Come Out of Her," My People. 519 from the fact that God says to some in that commu- nion : "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins ; and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities." (Rev. 18 : 4, 5.) The Scriptures, however, teach that the great mass of the Roman Catholics are lost and doomed to " perdition." Awful as this statement is, it is God's Word, and we dare not gainsay it. When the Scriptures speak of the Romish Church as the beast, it speaks of the great body of the people — bishops, priests, and people that constitute that horrible communion ; and of this vast body it de- clares that they shall "go into perdition" (verse 8.) In chapter xvi: 9,10,11, are these very solemn and significant words : c< If any man shall worship the beast and his image, or receive his mark on his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out with- out mixture into the cup of his indignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the hoh r angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ; and the smoke of their torment as- cendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." Every Roman Catholic has " the mark of the beast," in the habit of crossing himself, and in other ways. It may be very charitable to say, " Poor souls, they know no better ; they have been trained and 520 They Prefer Lies to Truth. educated to believe as they do, and God will not hold them accountable." But God does not say so. He saj^s something vastly different. The fact is the Roman Catholic people of this country wilfully close their eyes and ears to the truth. In this land certainly God has given all men abundant opportu- nities for knowing the saving truths of the GospeL Bibles are plenty; Gospel churches are on every hand ; intelligent Protestant Christians are willing to point out to any Romanist the simple gospel way of salvation ; but they will not come to the light, nor permit the light of truth to enter their minds. Aside from all the external facilities for knowing the truth, God has put into the minds, and even into the bodies of men, teachers, of whose teaching and assistance the Romanist stubbornly refuses to avail himself. Take, for example, the Romanist's wafer god. The priest tells him that the little wafer is no longer a wafer after the words of so-called " consecration " have been uttered over it, and that the wafer is suddenly and entirely changed into the literal, liv- ing, breathing body and soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only does the person who believes this lie of the priest, do violence to his own intelligence, and common sense ; not only does he insult the noblest faculties and powers of his man- hood, but he gives the lie to his bodily senses. These bodily senses — sight, taste, touch, smell, etc., — are given to us to save us from being deceived. They are, so to speak, God's own vicegerents in Their God a Bit of Dough. 521 the human body. They are in the body to enable us to distinguish one thing from another — form, size r color, hardness, etc. The priest, wicked man that he is, seeks to deceive and impose on the man by assuring him that the little wafer he has just swal- lowed, is actually and truly the Lord Jesus Christ — body, flesh, bones, life, soul, divinity — and he, like a brutal cannibal, has swallowed not only a w r hole man, but the living Son of the living God I And the degraded and superstitious Papist prefers to be- lieve the w T icked and lying priest in preference to the holy God, who speaks to him through his men- tal and bodily instincts. As the wafer is before him, his sense of sight declares to him that it is not a human body, but a simple wafer. His sense of touch; his sense of smell ; his sense of taste — all these witnesses in his own bodj^ declare it to be a wafer — a bit of baked dough — and yet the disgusting wretch insults his Maker by kneeling down and worship- ping the bit of dough, and then insisting that he has swallowed his Creator ! Horrible ! Now let us see what Almighty God has to say about this inexcusable perversity. He has this to say : " Be- cause they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. . . . God shall send them strong delusion; that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. 2 : 10, etc.) I scarcely know of a more awful state- ment in the Bible than this. Men often say, — "0, it doesn't matter what a man believes, if he is only sin- 522 Romanists are a Lost People. cereP God says something very different from this. He declares that when men trifle with the truth, and prefer to believe falsehoods, he will in his anger leave them to actually " believe a lie; " he shall sin- cerely believe it, and " be damned " for it. This is the condition of the Romanists to-day. They are doomed to eternal "perdition ! " The condition and character of the great mass of the Roman Catholics present conclusive evidence that they are not Christians. They all practice the most wicked idolatry, and, even in the enlightened Protestant countries, the crimes committed by the Romanists are out of all proportion to their num- bers, and the more thoroughly they are under the influence and control of the Priests the worse they are ; showing that the very tendency of the Romish system is to make criminals instead of Christians. Dr. De Sanctis, who is a most capable and truthful witness, says : " But I take for an example Rome, the city which boasts to be the centre of religion, the seat of the pretended Vicar of Jesus Christ, the city w T here, more than in any other place, confession is largely practiced. I like to take Rome as an example, because of that city I speak with certain knowledge. That city was my native place, and I discharged in it for fifteen years the ministry of hearing confession : I fulfilled for eight years the duties of a parish priest. These facts give me suffi- cient knowledge to speak with certainty. " Rome is the city that surpasses all the other cities of Italy in immorality. But perhaps the Rome the Wickedest City in Italy. 523 blame ought to be imputed to the Roman people ? No. The Roman people, noble and generous as their forefathers, would be the people of the greatest virtue, if it were educated in the Gospel. But all the fine qualities of that people are stifled by the teachings of its church, and the people are brutalized in guilt. Blasphemy against God is the predomi- nant vice of the people ; but the blasphemer con- fesses, departs absolved, and is no sooner out of the church than he blasphemes again; drunkenness, murder, theft, fraud, adultery, are crimes inces- santly repeated ; but whoever commits them con- fesses and believes himself absolved ; and immo- rality is not arrested, but by the facility of pardon at the cost of a few prayers, is committed again without scruple." He says . "Let statistics be ap- pealed to, and it will be seen that if Catholic crimi- nals are in ratio to the population as ten to a thou- sand, for instance, Protestant criminals are only one to a thousand." Not true piety toward God ; but ignorance, and crime, and moral degradation are the natural products of the Roman Catholic system, as attested by her entire history, and hy the present aspect of Roman Catholic countries. As now stated by De Sanctis, the nearer the people live to the infallible head of their church, the more ignorant, immoral and degraded they are. All of which tends to confirm the belief of the wisest and best men of all ages that the Romish Church is the Anti- christ of the Scriptures. Several of the ancient Fathers, as they are called, 524 Important Witnesses. contended that the Little Horn of Daniel's prophecy was the predicted Antichrist. Cyril of Jerusalem, who flourished about the middle of the fourth century, speaking of Antichrist's coming in the latter times of the Roman Empire, says : " We teach these things not of our own invention, but having learned them out of the divine Scriptures, and especially out of the prophecy of Daniel, which was just now read ; even as Gabriel, the archangel,, interpreted, saying, ' The fourth beast shall be the fourth Kingdom upon earth, which shall exceed all the Kingdoms, but that this is the empire of the Romans, ecclesiastical interpreters have delivered. 7 "" Jerome, Theodoret, and Austin entertained the same view. But as they lived before the bishops of Rome, the Little Horn had swelled out into popes, and as prophecy can only be understood in the light of its own fulfilment, their views were not very distinct. In later times the identity of papal Rome with Antichrist was maintained by Luther, Melancthon,. Calvin, and all the Continental reformers ; by Lati- mer, Ridley, Cranmer, and all the British reformers;, by Sir Isaac Newton, Mede, Whiston, Bishop New- ton, Lowth, Daubuz, Vitringa, Bedell, and a host of other godly and distinguished interpreters of the Scriptures ; so that the present writer finds himself in most excellent company. It is a very interesting, and to not a few a very anxious, question as to what is to be the future of this " Man of sin," some believing that it is again to prevail over all the earth, and some go so far as to The Papacy is Doomed. 525 predict that the Inquisition will j r et be set up in these United States. This is, no doubt, the hope and expectation of the Romanists themselves. The Pope and the whole hierarchy are at this moment putting forth their utmost efforts to subjugate this country, and bring it into subjection to the so-called Holy See. Whatever mischief that accursed Beast may accomplish, here or elsewhere, its ultimate destruction is clearly revealed in God's word, which says : " And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power ; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, ' Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornica- tion, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the abundance of her deli- cacies.' And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ( Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of 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 works : in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her; for she saith in her 526 Near the End of Her Tether. 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 God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burn- ing, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, l Alas, alas, that great city, Babylon, that mighty city ! for in one hour is thy judgment come.'" (Rev. xviii : 1-10. The whole chapter should be read carefully). The Scriptures give us some very interesting data from which w r e may know somew T here about the time when the power of the Papacy shall be broken. In 2 Thess. 2 : 8, Paul, speaking of " the Man of sin" — the church of Rome — says : " Then shall that Wicked — or wicked one — be revealed, w T hom the Lord shall consume w r ith the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." In Daniel vii : 25, mention is made of " a time, and times, and the dividing of time ;" that is a year ; two years; and half a year, or three years and a half; and the ancient Jewish j T ear, consisting of thirty days in a month, give 1260 days, and a prophetic day is a year. " I have appointed thee each day for a year," God said to Ezekiel (Chap. 4 : 6). In Reve- lation we read (Chap, xi : 3) : " And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score The 1260 Prophetic Years. 527 days " — 1260 years. In the sixth verse of the follow- ing chapter we read : k ' 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 " — 1260 years. And in the 14th verse we read that the woman — the true church of Christ — is nourished for " a time, and times, and half a time" — or 1260 years. So long: Antichrist, or the little horn, will continue ; but from what point of time the commencement of these 1260 years is to be dated, is not easy to determine. Some students of prophecy suppose them to have begun in 606, when the pope assumed the title of Universal Bishop ; in that case the 1260 years ter- minated in 1866, w r hich there is no reason to believe. Others believe the 1260 years began at the time that the Papacy was established as a temporal power r which was near the close of the eighth century. If that is the true reckoning, then this dreadful and ruinous power has nearly a century more of life in which to blaspheme the Almighty, to curse the world, and ruin the souls of men. It is as Si political force, how r ever, that the Ameri- can nation has reason to be on its guard against this subtle and heartless foe. It has been abundantly shown in these pages that the church of Rome has publicly declared itself to be the enemy of modern progress — to freedom of thought; the liberty of speech, and the freedom of the press, as also against the separation of Church and State ; and thus would gladly turn the wheels of human progress back- 528 Are We a Nation of Atheists ? ward, and, if it were possible, re-establish the state of things that existed in the dark ages. No longer ago than 1874 Lord Robert Montague, a member of the British Parliament, and a Roman Catholic, wrote a translation of a work from the pen of P. Franco, in which the relations between the church of Rome and secular governments were very fully discussed. In this translation Lord Montague is very free in giving his own views in regard to the matters dis- cussed. We have room only for a few brief quota- tions. He considers the present " spread of false principles " now prevailing in Protestant countries as chiefly due to two causes: "Modern civilization" and "freedom of conscience," or "the right of private judgment." He says, " Catholics certainly are intolerant, and so they ought to be," because " if a Catholic is not intolerant, he is either a hypocrite or else does not really believe what he professes." He insists that the temporal power must be subject to the spiritual ; " the civil authority, and its rights and powers, must be placed at the absolute disposal of the Church" This language is, surely, sufficiently ex- plicit; and is no less than an insulting demand that all free governments — and especially the govern- ment of the United States — shall disband, and sur- render all their rights, powers, and institutions to the Pope of Rome ! Lord Robert Montague further says : " A State that is free from the Church " (the Romish Church, of course), " is an atheistical State" (which is an unmitigated falsehood) — "it denotes a godless government and godless laws .... which An Intelligent {?) English Lord. 529 knows nothing of any kind of religion, and which, there- fore, determines to do without God." It certainly seems that this book — " Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion " — must have been written exclusively for the eyes of Romanists ; for it seems incredible that an educated man should make such reckless statements for general reading, when all men know them to be utterly untrue. In this country, " which is free from the Church," this Romish writer sees " an atheistical State" ! This nation, with its millions of Bibles in the hands and homes of the people ; with its thousands and tens of thousands of Christian ministers; with its millions of youth in the Sunday Schools, and Christian Endeavor Societies, and Young Men's Christian Associations ; with its mil- lions of prayer meetings ; with its numerous chap- lains in the army and navy ; with its National and State legislative sessions opened with prayer ; with its innumerable Christian Churches; and with its vast religious literature falling on the homes of the people like the leaves of the forest — and this great Christian nation " is an atheistical State " ! It must be so; for it is affirmed by an English Roman Catholic Lord, who is a member of Parliament, and assists in making laws for the government of the " atheistical " British Empire ! " Let the form of government be a republic" says he, " and you will then endure the horrors of the Democracy of '89, or the Commune of 71 ; for a nation will assuredly plunge itself into misery as 530 7s he a Knave or a Fool ? soon as it attempts to govern itself'' The following paragraph is most significant: "Thus it is that Catholics, in some countries, ask for libery of educa- tion, liberty of worship, liberty of speech, liberty of the press, etc.; not because these are good things, but because in those countries the compulsory educa- tion, the law for conformity of worship, the press law, etc., enforce what is far worse. In the Egyptian darkness of error, it is good to obtain a little struggling ray of light. It is better to be on a Cunard steamer than on a raft; but if the steamer is going down, a raft would be preferable. So it is relatively good, in a pagan or heretic country, to obtain liberty of worship, or religious liberty ; but that choice no more proves that it is absolutely good, and should be granted in Catholic countries also, than your getting on a raft in mid-ocean proves that every one, in all cases, should do so. Still less does it follow that, because liberty of worship is demanded in Protestant countries, therefore it should be granted in Catholic countries. To deny religious liberty would be con- tradictory of the principle of Protestantism, which is the right of private judgment. But the principle of Catholicism is repugnant to liberty of ivorship ; for the principle of Catholicism is that God has appointed an infallible teacher of faith and morals." This " infallible teacher," of course, is the infallible Pope ! It seems incredible that any man, unless he be an idiot or a lunatic, could deliberately declare that this country is " an atheistical nation," and that popish countries whose governments are under the Darkness Preferred to Light. 531 ' control of the Pope are superior to England and the United States ; and yet these statements are made by this Roman Catholic lord, and by hundreds of other educated Roman Catholics. This is the claim of the Pope, and all his cardinals and bishops ; and the explanation of this amazing perversity is to be found only in the statements of the holy Scriptures, which declare: " The god of this world (that is the devil) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them." And the position taken by these men affords an illustration of the text already quoted from Paul, " For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should Believe a Lie : that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness" " Speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having the conscience seared with a hot iron." We see again how perfectly Romish history is the fulfilment of the divine pro- phecies concerning the Antichrist. In his book (Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion) Lord Montague is not ashamed to make the menda- cious statement that "Protestantism has filled the world with ruins " /// The Jesuits — blasphemously calling themselves the " Society of Jesus " ! — came into existence soon after Luther's Reformation in Germany, and were organ- ized for the express purpose of antagonizing that Reformation and destroying Protestantism. This is the work in which they are engaged in this country and at this hour. They are the deadly enemies of 532 A Venerable American Speaks. free institutions. They have been driven out of almost every nation, both Romish and Protestant, as pestiferous intermeddlers with government and law. The Hon. R. W. Thompson, ex-Secretary of the U. S. Navy, has recently published a most ad- mirable book, entitled " The Footprints of the Jesuits," from which we will quote a few brief para- graphs. The extensive reading of Mr. Thompson's book would greatly benefit our country. He says : " No fair-minded people questioned the right of Pope IX. to declare himself infallible, or that of others to concede it to him in matters purely spir- itual. Nor is this same right denied to Leo XIII. But when he extends his infallibility so far as to include authority over the fundamental principles of civil government, and thus seeks to imperil the fortunes of the modern progressive nations, where Church and State have been separated, it should not. be expected that those who share those fortunes in common will sanction his imperial assumption by direct affirmance, or by silent acquiescence. The age of "passive obedience" has passed, and is not likely to be revived, so long as the Reformation period shall continue to bear its rich, abundant fruits, like such as spring from the popular institu- tions of the United States. The fundamental prin- ciple upon which all such institutions rest is the separation of Church* and State; for without that there can be no freedom of religious belief, and no such development of the intellectual faculties as fits society for self-government. Every assault upon The Pope's Audacious Claim. 533 this great fundamental principle must be resisted, no matter under what pretence it may be made or from what quarter it shall come. "We must not forget," says Mr. Thompson, "the claim of jurisdiction over the people of the United States which the Pope now makes by virtue of his assumed infallibility, and which has caused him to send Mgr. Satolli to this country — without diplo- matic recognition, and without our knowledge and consent — to instruct us that our form of government is heretical, and may for that reason be removed out of the papal pathway, like other heresies ; and that our public schools are nurseries of vice, because they do not also teach that Protestantism is heresy, w T iih the curse of God resting upon it. The Pro- testant people are, in the papal sense, excommuni- cated heretics, and their government is heretical, because it has separated the State from the Church. Consequently, the Jesuits maintain by their pecu- liarly subtle method of reasoning that both the government and the Protestant people of the United States ore within the circle of pontifical jurisdiction, and, therefore, that the Pope has the divine right, as the only infallible representative of God, to deal ivith this country according to his own discretion." He says : " We cannot, and must not consent to be included within the circle of any foreign jurisdiction, or within such spiritual jurisdiction as the papal doctrine of infallibility stretches out over the tem- poral affairs of all the nations. We cannot and must not allow the Stars and Stripes to be removed 534 Want no Papal Flag in Washington. from the dome of our National Capitol and the papal flag, with its cross and mitre, and without a single star, to be floated in its place." And yet toward this all the efforts and plotting of the Hierarchy are being directed. They are assiduously teaching their people that this country belongs to the Pope, and that he is being robbed of his rights by the Pro- testants and by our Protestant government. Their people are being taught to believe that any efforts on their part to destroy the government of this nation will be highl} r meritorious in the sight of God, and that no oath is binding — not even the Naturalization oath — if it is in any way opposed to the interests of the Romish church. The Romanists boast that they have in this country an army of 700,000 men. They offered the government 100,000 soldiers to fight England in case of war resulting over the Venezuelan affair, as some thought likely, a few months ago. What are these 700,000 Romish soldiers going to do? What is the object and purpose of the Jesuits, who are at the bottom of all these menacing preparations? Lord Montague says : " Let the form of government be a Republic, and you will then endure the horrors of the Democracy of '89, or the Commune of '71." If such scenes are ever witnessed in this country, the Romanists will be the first aggressors. Romish editors threaten violence even now, and everything among Romanists is tending to this result. Nothing is too daring or cruel for the Jesuits to engage in, if it only promises to be advantageous to the Romish Everything Lovely for the Papacy. 535 church. And to them the outlook is most promising. With a large Roman Catholic representation in Congress ; with the United States Senate, as shown by recent votes, almost wholly Romanized ; with Satolli, and Gibbons, and other dignitaries of the church so close to the centre of the government, and influencing legislation; with the departments in Washington crowded with Romanists; with the army and navy largely composed of slaves of the pope ; with the police of our cities chiefly composed of the Pope's own; with the secular and religious press largely under the spell of the great " mystery of iniquity ;" and with the Protestant ministry — with comparatively but few exceptions — either indifferent or apologetic ; and then added to all these advan- tages 700,000 armed men, inspired by bigotry, and sure of the Pope's blessing and priestly absolution — could there be a better time to strike a mighty blow for the rights of the unholy church and its infallible head? And who that remembers that there has been a St. Bartholomew's massacre, and an Irish massacre, can help asking : For what are Romanists arming and drilling throughout the length and breadth of this land ? One of the most discouraging things in view of the menacing aspects of the Church of Rome, is the apparent indifference — at least the reticence — of the Protestant Ministry. The present writer has been a pastor for more than forty years, and knows the temptations of the Protestant pastor to keep silent on this subject. From a large acquaintance with 536 Responsibility of the Protestant Clergy. the Protestant ministry of all denominations, I know there is no better, no nobler, or more useful class of men in all the world than the great body of the Protestant ministry, and I respect and love them all, and it is with great respect and diffidence that I even venture to suggest that this general silence of Protestant pulpits may be far from pleasing to the Master. It would seem to be the solemn duty of the Protestant ministry, especially as the commissioned ambassadors of the true Christ, to keep constantly before the people the blasphemous teachings, the idolatrous practices, and the dangerous encroach- ments of the false Christ — the Antichrist of Rome ; and no love of ease, or fear of inconvenience, or loss to themselves should be permitted to interfere with the faithful discharge of their duty in this respect ; for silence, or indifference, at this time is high treason to the King in Zion. God himself says to each man whom he has called to minister at his altars : — " Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them/ When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning ; if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. . . . But if the watchman seeth the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned ; if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken The Jesuits in High Feather. 537 away in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at the watchman 's hand.' " If all Protestant ministers in this land were truly faithful to Christ, and to their fellow-men in this matter, we should, as a nation, have nothing to fear from the conspiracy of the priests and politicians. As we are about writing the closing sentences of this book there comes to us the New York Herald of October 5th, 1896, describing the farewell reception of Satolli, and the presence of his successor, Mgr. Martinelli. The Herald's correspondent says : — " In speaking of the feeling of the Jesuits in regard to the appointment of Mgr. Martinelli, the Rev. Father Pardow — himself a Jesuit — said to me, ' The Jesuits feel extremely gratified in the thought that a repre- sentative of one of the oldest orders in the church should be called by the voice of the successor of St. Peter to assume so important a part in the church.' " This coming of Martinelli, whose appointment as American Pope is so " extremely gratifying " to the Jesuits, bodes no good, and much evil, to this country, as the Jesuits are everywhere, and always the most deadly enemies of Protestantism and free institutions. The same copy of the Herald also contains some things said to his congregation by Rev. Mr. O'Con- nor, of New York, who was for many years a Romish priest. Father O'Connor said : " I see that Martinelli has come from Italy to be the Pope of America. Satolli was a little too liberal for His Holiness ; he was making too many friends among the American 538 Martinelli a New Menace. people, and was in danger of becoming a Protestant himself; and he didn't say much against the public schools. Martinelli is sent here to reverse Satolli's policy. " What were Martinelli's first words to the re- porters? I want you all to mark them. He was asked/ In what country does the Pope think the Catholic Church will be the strongest V The answer, as given in the Herald, was : ' The Holy Father thinks that in future America will be the strongest Catholic country in the world.' " What does it mean for this country if his words should come true? It means splitting us into warring factions, like poor Ireland ; it means na- tional demoralization ; it means binding the intellect of man with bands of iron ; it means the grip of the priesthood on your souls ; it means that they will not open the gates of heaven for you unless you grease their palms ; it means the closing of the Bible. We must be up and doing. God bless those patriotic societies that have risen up during the past few years, who say to the Roman Catholic Church, ' Thus far, and no further ! Hands off our public schools I Hands off our institutions! Bew T areP There is need for the multiplication of these societies. Every Protestant church in our land should raise its voice and say to Martinelli — i Sir, you are mistaken. If you try new methods here, by and by we shall elect the right men to Congress, and request them to pass a law to place a Federal soldier at your back, put you on a steamer, and send you packing to Italy. We do not want you here.' " Elect the Right Men to Congress. 539 These are strong and wise words from one who has been for many years a Romish priest, and who well knows from personal observation and expe- rience the hypocrisy, the lying, the deception, the blasphemy, and the political intrigues and plottings of this great system of wickedness — this cruel foe of civil and religious liberty. Yes ; by all means let all true patriots see to it that they " elect the right men to Congress" And no man who owes his first allegiance to the Pope of Rome can be " the right man " to send to Congress ; for in being loyal to the Pope, he will be a traitor to his country. Let every true American citizen insist that United States Senators shall be elected by the direct vote of the people; and incompetent millionaires and the agents of the Pope will find it far more difficult to bribe fifty thousand voters than half a dozen State legislators. In the meantime, let all who would perpetuate the free institutions of our country send only patriotic men to the State legislatures ; for this alone can secure an incorruptible National Senate. God bless all the patriotic orders, which are seek- ing to arouse an indifferent or too confident people to the dangers that threaten our liberties, from the " Beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit, and that shall go into perdition!" Let all who extenuate or apologize for the crimes of the " Mother of Har- lots" remember that to defend in any way the Romish Antichrist, is to affront and dishonor the true Christ — the Son of God — who, by the mouth of his apostle John, declared — " Whosoever trans- 540 For Christ or Against Him. gresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ. hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, (Christ's doctrine), receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds" Solemn and awful are the words uttered by the inspired Paul in Galatians, first chapter — " There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ " — as the Church of Rome does ; as we have seen — " But though we, or any angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you 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" The gospel that Paul, and the other apostles, preached, declares that, " Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ " — not through pope, or priest, or confes- sional. " By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast." " There is one God, and One Mediator between God and man ; the man Christ Jesus." " The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Hallelujah ! ■ p ■yrt-f^c^i^^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Jan. 2006 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 : ; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HBHHH 017 318 585 6 §s8§5$fiSS§i^