4. .._.._.._.._„ — ._.._.„_.._.._.. — ._..___^, 
 
 i 
 
 Rome's Law 
 Or Ours™ 
 Which? 
 
 Ue..\A/ 
 
 By THOS. E. WATSON 
 
 Published and Copyrighted by 
 
 THE TOM WATSON BOOK CO., Inc. 
 
 Thomson, Georgia 
 
 1928 
 
ROME'S LAW, OR 
 OURS-WHICH? 
 
 A RE you willing to spend a few minutes 
 ''^*- sizing up a terribly dangerous situation, 
 and. getting your bearings, as an American 
 citiccn? 
 
 There never was an oath required of a 
 Christian minister, until hundreds of years 
 after Christ. When the bishops of Rome be- 
 gan to usurp the powers of the pagan Pontifex 
 maximus — in the absence of the Emperors 
 who had removed the capitol to Constanti- 
 nople — the priests who supported the Bishop's 
 usurpations were put under oath of allegiance 
 to him. just as feudal vassals swore allegiance 
 to feudal lords. 
 
 Professor Pulliam of Mercer University 
 was kind enough to translate for me the 
 original oath prescribed for all priests at the 
 Council of Trent (1545-63) and I ask you to 
 carefully read it, in order that you may com- 
 l)rehend how absolutely and unreservedly all 
 priests are the subjects of the Italian pope, and 
 how the oath places Catholic laymen on the 
 footing of subjects to the priest. 
 
 Thus, through obedience to the priests, they 
 themselves become subjects of a foreign po- 
 tentate : 
 
PART OF "THE SACREDOTAL OATH." 
 
 (Translation from "The Holy Council of Trent.") 
 
 I declare, in like manner, that in the Mass a 
 true, individual and propitiatory sacrifice is of- 
 fered for the living and the dead, and that in the 
 Sacrament of the Holy Communion there is truly, 
 really and substantially the body and the blood, 
 together with the life and divinity of our Lord, 
 Jesus Christ; and that there is a conversion of all 
 of the substance of the bread into the body, and 
 of all the substance of the wine into the blood, 
 which conversion the Catholic church calls Tran- 
 substantiation. I confess, likewise, that under 
 another form onlj' I have received Christ, the 
 whole and complete and the true Sacrament. 
 
 I firmly maintain that there is a Purgatpry, and 
 tliat souls detained there are aided by tlie prayers 
 of the faithful; and, likewise that the Saints, rul- 
 ing together with Christ, should be worshipped 
 and invoked, and that they offer prayers to God 
 for us, and that their Remains are to be wor- 
 shipped. I most firmly declare that Images of 
 Christ, as always of the Virgin Mother of God, 
 and of the other Saints also, should be had and 
 kept, and that adoration should be given them, 
 and veneration bestowed upQU them. Likewise, I 
 affirm that the right of indulgences was left by 
 Christ in the Church, and that the use of them 
 has been most salutary to the Christian people. 
 
 I recognize the Holy Catholic and Apostolic 
 Roman Church as the mother and mistress of all 
 'the Churches; and I solemnly promise and swear 
 true obedience to the Roman Pontiff, who is the 
 successor of the Blessed Peter, the chief of the 
 Apostles, and is the Vicegerent of Jesus_ Christ; 
 likewise I accept and acknowledge unhesitatingly 
 all the other things recorded, decreed, and de- 
 clared by the sacred Canons, and by the Ecu- 
 menical Councils; and at the same timel in like 
 manner condemn, reject and anathematize what- 
 ever heresies are condemned, rejected and ana- 
 thematized by the Church. 
 
 Tliis true Catholic faith out of which no one 
 can be saved, which in the present vow I profess 
 
 589151 
 
and truthfully uphold. I, in like manner, promise 
 and vow and swear to keep and own (God help- 
 ing) entire and inviolate up to the last breath of 
 life; and that I shall see to it, so far as it shall 
 be in my power, that it is held, taught and pro- 
 claimed by my subjects, or l>y those whose care 
 shall appertain to me in my official service. So 
 help me God, and this holy Evangel of God. 
 
 (Sacred Council of Trent. Padua, 1760, 800., 
 p. 312. By permission and prerogative of the 
 Superiors.) 
 
 On page 119, Book II. of Bishop Burnett's 
 "History of the Reformation of the Church 
 of England," you will find this statement: 
 
 On the 11th of May, 1532, King Henry 
 VIII. "sent for the Speaker of the House of 
 Commons, and told him that he found on 
 inquiry that all the '(Roman) prelates whom 
 he had looked on as wholly his subjects, were 
 but half-subjects: for at their consecration 
 they sw^ore an oath quite contrary to the oath 
 they swore to the Crown; so that it seemed 
 they were the Pope's subjects, rather than 
 his." 
 
 The King wanted the Speaker to bring the 
 matter to the attention of Parliament, in order 
 that some action should be taken against this 
 divided allegiance. 
 
 Bishop Burnett proceeds — 
 
 "Upon which the two oaths that the clergy 
 swore to the King and the Pope were read in 
 the House of Commons." 
 
 The oath of allegiance to the King was as 
 follows : 
 
 I, A. B. do utterly testify and declare in my 
 Conscience, that the King's Highness is the only 
 Supreme Governor of this Realm, and of all 
 other his Highness's Dominions and Countries, 
 
 Southern Pamphletii 
 
 4 
 Lare Book Collection 
 
as well in all spiritual and Ecclesiastical Thinpfs 
 and Causes as Temporal ; and that no Foreign 
 Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate hath 
 or ouglit to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Su- 
 ]>criority, preeminence of Authority Ecclesiastical 
 or Si>iritual within this Realm; And therefore I do' 
 utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Juris- 
 diction, Powers, S'uperiorities, and Authorities, 
 and do promise that from henceforth I shall hear 
 h'aith and true Allegiance to the King's Highness, 
 his Heirs and "Lawful Successors; and to my Power 
 shall Assist and Defend all Jurisdictions, Privi- 
 leges, Preeminences and Authorities, Granted or 
 helongiug to the King's Highness, his Heirs and 
 Successors, or united and annexed to the Imperial 
 Crown of this Realm. So help me God, and hy 
 tlie Contents of this Book. 
 
 The oath which all Catholic prelates took, 
 for flic Pope, contains the most sweeping sub- 
 mission to his authority, the obligation to main- 
 tain him in all his claims of power, and the 
 vow to ol)ey all Rules, Decrees, Ordinances, 
 Sentences, Dispositions, Reservations and Pro- 
 visions issuing from Rome. Then follow 
 these words : 
 
 "Heretics, schismatics, and Rebels to our 
 Holy Father and his Successors, I shall resist 
 and persecute" 
 
 In a marginal note. Bishop Burnett states 
 that the actual words in the Latin oath are, 
 "Prosequar in pugnaho." 
 
 (The word pugnabo implies physical force, 
 violence, battle. Our words pugnacious, pug- 
 nacity, and piinitiz'c belong to the same class.) 
 
 In consequence of King Henry's discovery 
 of the divided allegiance of Roman Catholics, 
 he caused Parliament to enact severe laws. 
 
which required Englishmen to swear that the 
 King of England was Supreme within the 
 realm. 
 
 Catholics had to make oath that the\- owed 
 no allegiance, temporal or spiritual, to any 
 foreign prince, power or potentate. 
 
 (The State of New York copied that law, 
 and used to enforce it upon Roman Catholic 
 immigrants, before our War Between the 
 States.) 
 
 Many English Catholics refused to take the 
 oath of "Supremacy" — as it was called — and 
 they were put to death as traitors. 
 
 Sir Thomas More, the Chancellor, who had 
 barbarously burnt fellow-Christians for de- 
 nying that priests could create God out of wine 
 and bread, was himself beheaded because he 
 refused to take the oath of undivided allegiance 
 to King Henry. 
 
 To meet another clause of the treasonous 
 oath of the priests, it was made a capital of- 
 fense to introduce into England any papal 
 order, decree, excommunication, or other pro- 
 vision, without the consent of the King. 
 
 Had Gibbons, O'Connell, and Farley lived 
 in Great Britain, a few generations ago, they 
 would ha^'e been put to death, for treason, on 
 account of the infamous A'^^ teinere decree 
 which they brought into this countr}' in 1908. 
 
 Had they gone to Rome, taken that treason- 
 ous oath of blind obedience to the Italian pope, 
 
 6 
 
;ind returned to England. Queen Elizabeth, 
 or Kini,'' Edward VI. would have had tlieir 
 heads cut off. 
 
 Lord Baltimore sneaked out of England 
 under King James I., rather than take the 
 oath of undivided allegiance, and the Catholics 
 whom he settled in Maryland did the same 
 thing. 
 
 They were not willing to swear, that the 
 Pope had no right to overthrow Protestant 
 governments, subvert Protestant laws, and 
 persecute to death such heretics as you and I. 
 
 Right now. if a real oath of allegiance were 
 offered to either of these three Irish Cardinals, 
 or to Archbishop Blenk. or to Bishop Keiley, 
 he would refuse to take it. 
 
 He couldn't take it, without perjuring him- 
 self, although he might do so with "a mental 
 reservation." 
 
 The Pope's is the only church that is foreign ; 
 the only church whose laws antagonize de- 
 mocracy aiid republican institutions ; the only 
 church that sends and receives ambassadors ; 
 the only church that has a secret cipher, a 
 secret service and a world-wide network of 
 secret societies ; the only church whose theo- 
 logy teaches murder, and whose literature is 
 so obscene that she savagely prosecutes ex- 
 • monas, ex-nuns, ex-priests, and Protestants 
 who expose it. 
 
 The Pope's is the only church which or- 
 ganizes for political purposes, and calls upon 
 
her meml)ers to so use their votes as to change 
 our laws into conformity with hers. 
 
 The Pope's law condemns freedom of the 
 press and of speech ; and Catholics now are 
 hending every energy to put the Pope's law 
 in place of ours. 
 
 Liberty of worship would go next, and then 
 the schools would fall completely into the 
 power of Rome. 
 
 In essentials, we would be the subjects of 
 a foreigner, just as we were in the days of 
 King Geoi-ge, only the oppression would be in- 
 finitely worse. 
 
 If these Irish Cardinals could Mcxicauicc 
 us. they would. 
 
 If we don't wake up and get busy, thcv 
 ivW. 
 
 For 400 years, the Roman prelates had full 
 control of Mexico, one of the richest lands 
 on the globe; and see what they did for it! 
 
 They enslaved the people, robbed them of 
 their produce, kept them in ignorance, filled- 
 them with degrading superstitions, vilely mis- 
 used their women; and built gorgeous Cathed- 
 rals and palaces for themselves, leaving the 
 miserable peon to live in a wretched hut, hard- 
 ly fit for a decent man's dog. 
 
 That's what they did in Cuba and South 
 America; what they did in the Philippines; 
 what they did in Italy itself, until Garibaldi, 
 Cavour and Victor Emmanuel broke the papal 
 yoke. 
 
 Portugal was sunk to the lowest depths by 
 the same detestable svstem, and onlv sue- 
 
ceeded in throwing it off six or eight years 
 
 But our daily papers and many Protestant 
 preachers are mysteriously convinced, that 
 the Roman system is not the same that it was 
 in Italy, in 1848: in Portugal, in 1908; in the 
 Philippines, in 1898; in Mexico, in 1895. 
 
 In iNIexico, the Catholic priests were burning 
 heretics in 1895 ; in Rome, they were starving 
 and assassinating them, in 1848; in Portugal, 
 the nuns and their l)ahies left the convents 
 together, in 1908 ; and in the Philippines, the 
 Taft Commission uncovered a situation as 
 hideous as the darkest days of medievalism. 
 
 But if can't conic to us, they say! 
 
 CAN'T IT? 
 
 In the very Convention that heard so much 
 loyalty to American institutions the professions 
 were belied by the speakers themselves. 
 
 Thcx demand control of our national policy 
 toward Mexico. 
 
 They crave another 400 years of peonage, 
 of unrestricted vice, of unrelieved ignorance, 
 and of profligate living for immoral priests. 
 
 They demand tJiat the Pope's lazv of Di- 
 vorce drive ours off the Statute book. 
 
 They crave complete ownership of the wife 
 and child, in order that American mothers may 
 l)e abject slaves, as European women used to 
 be, when Popes were supreme. 
 
 Tlicy denuind that the U . S. mails be closed 
 
to all sucJi Protestant literature as dares to tell 
 the truth on Rome's infernal foreign system. 
 
 Popery never was accepted by any nation. 
 It has always been an organization of brute 
 force. 
 
 Christianity had won Italy, long before the 
 sons of Constantine, and Theodosius forced 
 Popery upon the churches. 
 
 Charlemagne forced popery upon the Sax- 
 ons, just as Henry II. of England forced it 
 upon the independent Christians in Ireland. 
 
 Without exception, every nation that yielded 
 to the yoke of Rome, was made to do it, by 
 the ruthless employment of military force. 
 
 In England. France, Belgium. Spain, Por- 
 tugal, Mexico, Central America, South Ameri- 
 ca, Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Italy, the 
 story has ever been the same. 
 
 No nation voluntarily accepted Popery ; and 
 wherever the Papacy has conquered, it was a 
 tale of blood, of carnage, of pitiless crime. 
 
 The very laiv of popery makes it a criminal, 
 against God and man. 
 
 The very law of the Roman church makes 
 it a church of persecution, of oppression, of 
 MURDER! 
 
 Its very law is against Light, Progress, 
 mental integrity, and independent Thought. 
 
 Its very purpose is to enslave, to domi- 
 nate, to pillage, to debase, to rule the very 
 
 10 
 
minds of men, women and children, from the 
 cradle to the grave; and to dupe, mistreat, 
 and plunder them, at every stage of the jour- 
 ney. 
 
 It is a marvelous circumstance, that edi- 
 tors and preachers will take the irresponsible 
 word of American priests, when everybody 
 can read the law itself, as laid down by the 
 Popes, and codified by Vatican officials. 
 
 Tliat foreign code is horrible, and it means 
 war li'ifh ours. 
 
 Gladstone warned England ; and now Eng- 
 land sees how popish treason hampers her in 
 Canada and Ireland. 
 
 Gaml)etta warned France ; and France heed- 
 ed the warning, thereby securing a unity which 
 England lacks in the crisis of her fate. 
 
 Bismarck warned the Germans, and he drove 
 the Jesuits out; but William II. let them re- 
 turn, and they have been conspiring for a 
 general war, ever since. 
 
 Is there no need of a warning to our people ? 
 
 In the New York Convention, these Jesuits 
 actually declared, that our Government should 
 use its influence to hav^ the Pope created arbi- 
 ter of tlic Peace Conference ivhen the ivar is 
 over. 
 
 Why not have the Methodist church repre- 
 sented ? 
 
 Why not demand that the Baptists have a 
 representative ? 
 
 W'hy not place in the Peace Conference for 
 the Arch-bishop of Canterbury. 
 
 11 
 
The Turks saved Austria and Germany : 
 why not demand representation for the Sheik 
 ul Islam ? 
 
 Mahomet was much nearer Christianity 
 than most of the Popes have been. 
 
 The present pope is a Jesuit, and no 
 Christian could possibly subscribe to the Jes- 
 uit oatJi. 
 
 The Jesuits had a famous law case in France, 
 growing out of Jesuit mercantile transactions 
 on the Island of Martinque, West Indies. 
 
 These Jesuits were so powerful, that they 
 believed themselves above the law, and they 
 l)ecame piratical with their ships. Their re- 
 fusal to pay an honest debt to the Lioncy 
 Brothers and Gouffre forced the Marseilles 
 merchants into bankruptcy ; but litigation en- 
 sued, and the High Court at Paris forced the 
 Jesuit Society to produce secret books. 
 
 "Father" Lavalette was the name of the 
 defendant, and the consecjuence of his exposure 
 was that this criminal secret socictv was ex- 
 pelled. 
 
 The bloody clause in its oath is that which 
 swears them to extirpate heretics and here- 
 sies. 
 
 The oath also contains the orthodox Catho- 
 lic dogma, that the Pope has the power to 
 depose non-catholic rulers, and to destroy non- 
 Catholic governments. 
 
 According to the affidavit of the Rev. P. 
 A. Seguin. and the editorial sta!tement of 
 
 12 
 
liishop Manuel Ferrando, the oath of the priest 
 is fully as treasonous and miu'derous as that 
 of the Jesuits. 
 
 There is no doubt whatever that the 4th 
 Degree Knights of Columbus and the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians take a similar oath. 
 
 In Ireland, it has been proved in Court on 
 the Hibernians, time and again; and Father 
 McDermott accuses them of the Molly 
 ]\IcGuire murders in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Now reflect what all this tends to, inevita- 
 bly: 
 
 Three Irish cardinals sworn to persecute 
 their fellow citizens ; 
 
 Bishops and Arch-bishops sworn to the 
 same thing; 
 
 ' Twenty thousand priests sworn to perse- 
 cute ;^ and Jesuits flocking here from all parts 
 of the world, sworn to extirpate non-Catho- 
 lics. 
 
 Are the oaths meaningless ? 
 
 If so, why do they sign them? 
 
 Those oaths led to civil war in Ireland, 
 England, and Scotland. 
 
 Those oaths drenched Italy in blood, blasted 
 Protestantism in Bohemia, and cursed Ger- 
 man}- with a Thirty Years' War. 
 
 Those oaths brought a French army upon 
 IMexico in 1864, and caused the Armageddon 
 now raging. 
 
 The Pope is a Jesuit — and the private secre- 
 tary of President Wilson is not only a lay- 
 Jesuit, but a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus. 
 
 13 
 
The— three Irish cardinals are Jesuits, sworn 
 to persecute Olid TO EXTIRPATE, if they 
 took the usual Jesuit oath. 
 
 Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus hold 
 the most powerful governmental appointments. 
 
 Systematically, they are driving non-Catho- 
 lics out of the pul)lic service. 
 
 The head of the Army on the Mexican 
 border is O'Ryan, an Irish Catholic, and I pre- 
 sume a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus. 
 
 Knights of Columbus in Congress are striv- 
 ing to close the mails to anti-Catholic literature. 
 
 In the New York Convention, orders were 
 issued for all Catholic young men to form rifle 
 clubs, of their own. 
 
 None l)ut Catholics can join these rifle clubs ; 
 and as the K. of C. and the German Central 
 Verein are already armed and drilled, the Pope 
 will have three standing armies in this Repub- 
 lic read}^ to obey the three Irish cardinals who 
 are the sworn enemies of their non-Catholic 
 fellow citizens, and the sworn subjects of a 
 foreign chureli 7vhose Imv calls for heretic 
 BLOOD. 
 
 Separate Popish colonies aloof from Ameri- 
 cans : separate schools where un-American 
 principles are taught: separate secret societies 
 which lione but Catholics can join: separate 
 rifle clubs whose guns are for Catholics only : 
 a separate code of laws, irreconcileable to ours : 
 to what does all this tend, if not to Civil War? 
 
 14 
 
The En_i;lish historian, Fronde, says, in his 
 "Short StncHes of (ireat Snhjects": 
 
 In countries governed by authority, intelligence 
 rules. In free countries, numbers rule. The 
 supremacy of the Church is incompatible with any 
 kind of liberty — liberty of conscience or of reason, 
 lilicrty for man to expand in any direction save 
 \vli;it tlie church marks out for him. 
 
 OI)viously and confessedly, it is enemy of every- 
 thing which we now call civilization and improve- 
 ment. Yet it is an enemy against which self- 
 governed peoples, who are most proud of their 
 supposed advancement, contend at greatest disad- 
 vantages. Power follows the majority of votes. 
 The Church marshals its forces in an unbroken 
 phalanx. The theory of a free government sup- 
 poses every citizen to be influenced by patriotism, 
 to exert his own intelligence, to take a personal 
 and individual share in the business of the State. 
 The Roman Catholics have no country but their 
 church. They are allowed no independence. They 
 are private soldiers in an army whicli is command- 
 ed by the priests, and united and organized action 
 is as superior at the polling-booth as an army is 
 superior to a mob in the field. They claim their 
 right to the free assertion of their opinions in the 
 name of republican principles, and it cannot be de- 
 nied them. But no such republican liberty is 
 permitted within their own lines. They obey their 
 commanders, and their commanders care nothing- 
 for tile nation in the management of which they 
 arc challenging a share. They are members of a 
 spiritual empire which aims only at submitting 
 all other powers under the feet. They are Catho- 
 lics first, and Americans or English afterwards. 
 Yet as English or American citizens, they possess 
 the privileges of freemen, and the wire-pullers 
 at ]iolitical elections, whose horizon is bounded 
 I)y the result of some immediate struggle, know 
 too well the value of such allies to be unwilling 
 to liid high for their support. Thus it is that in 
 the English Parliament, though England does not 
 herself return a single Catholic representative, 
 the Catholics, through the Irish members, often 
 
 15 
 
hold the balance of power, and governments exist 
 but by their sufiferance. 
 
 (Short Studies, Etc. page 106.) 
 
 Rome's criminal secret societies. 
 
 What will he the natural fruits of those 
 Romanist secret societies, anned, drilled, and 
 sworn to murder ? 
 
 If the oaths mean nothing, why are they 
 prescribed, and why do Catholics swear to 
 obey them? 
 
 In the l)ook whose title is "Pope, or Presi- 
 dent" I find the following, which is in sub- 
 stance the same as the oath of the Jusuits. the 
 Sinn Fein, the Ancient Order Hibernians, the 
 4th Degree Knights of Columbus, and the 
 Clan-na-Gael : the oath given below being 
 that of the Italian papal secret order, called the 
 San Fidesti, organized under Pope Pius IX : 
 
 "I, N. N., in presence of Almighty God, the 
 Fatlier, Son and Holy Ghost, of the ever im- 
 maculate Virgin Mary, and of all the celestial 
 court, etc.; of 3'ou, honored father, swear,' that 
 I will sooner cut off my right hand, and die of 
 hunger, or under the greatest torments; and I 
 pray the Lord God Almighty to condemn me to 
 the endless pains of hell, than to betraj' or deceive 
 one of the honored fathers and brethren of the 
 Catholic Apostolical Society to which I subscribed 
 at this time, or if I do not scrupulously fulfill its 
 laws, or give assistance to my brethren in want. 
 I swear to defend myself in the cause which I 
 have embraced, never to spare a single individual 
 belonging to the infamous combination of tlie 
 Lilicrals, whatever may be his birth, parentage, 
 or fortune, and to have no pity for the cries of 
 children, nor of old men or women, and to shed 
 the blood of the infamous Liberals, even to the 
 last drop, without regard to age, sex, or rank. 
 Finally, I swear implacable hatred to all the ene- 
 mies of our Holy Roman Catholic religion, one 
 and true."