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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012686089 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BX 1765.C59 
 
 Romanism in America / 
 
 3 1924 012 686 089 
 
EOMANISM 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 REV. RUFUrf W. CLARK, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "HEAVEN AXD ITS EMBLEMS," "LECTURES TO 
 TOUNG MEN," " LIFE SCENES OF THE MESSIAH," ETC. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 S. K. WHIPPLE AND COMPANY, 
 
 100 Washington Street. 
 
 18 5 5. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congreae, in the year 1854, by 
 8. K. WHIPPLE & CO., 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maasachusetts. 
 
 STEREOTTPED AT THE 
 BOSTON 3TEHE0TTFE FOUHDRT. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Ret. R. W. Clabk. 
 
 Dear Sir ; Having listened with much interest to your course 
 of lectures on KomaiiiBm, and believing them calculated to do 
 great good in the community at the present time, the undersigned 
 members of your church respectfully request a copy of the same 
 for publication. 
 
 Tours very truly, 
 
 Thomas D. Demond, Elijah C. Crane, 
 
 F. C. Swett, W. J. Cheney, 
 
 L. James, Albeht Huse, 
 
 William R. Lotejot, Epheaim A. Hah, 
 
 Geo. E. James, Daniel V. Folts. 
 John H. Tomlinson, 
 
 Boston, November 18, 1854. 
 
 Messes. T. D. Demond, F. C. Stvett, and others. 
 
 Gentlemen: Your note requesting the publication of the 
 series of lectures on Romanism, recently delivered by me, was 
 duly received. With the hope that yo\iT expectations in regard 
 to their more extended usefulness may be realized, I comply with 
 your request. 
 
 Very respectfully and truly yours, 
 
 R. W. Clabk. 
 East Boston, November 20, 1854. 
 
 (3) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Leotube page 
 
 I. — ORIGIN AND PROGEESS OF ROMANISM, 5 
 
 II. — FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, 26 
 
 III. — PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED, . 50 
 
 IV. — ANTAGONISM BETWEEN POPERY AND 
 
 CIVIL FREEDOM, 76 
 
 v. — THE ORDER OF JESUITS, . . . .105 
 VI. — THE PAGANISM OF POPERY, . . .131 
 VII. — PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM, . 155 
 VIII. — THE INQUISITION, ... .182 
 IX. — THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, . 220 
 X. — THE BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CON- 
 TINUED, . 248 
 
EOMAJS^ISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 ORIGIN ANB PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 
 " Pbote all things." — 1 TAess. V. 21. 
 
 The subject of E-omanism in America is 
 one vitally connected with our national welfare, 
 and the perpetuity of our civil and religious 
 institutions. Whether we look at the inherent 
 principles of the Romish system, or the designs 
 of its advocates in regard to its extension in 
 our country, or to its actual growth and pro- 
 spective power among us, we find abundant 
 reason for a thorough and candid discussion of 
 the question. Nor are we conscious, in ap- 
 proaching it, of being influenced by any narrow 
 or sectarian views, or any feelings of hostility 
 towards those who are the members and advo- 
 cates of the Papal church. 
 
 There are some in the community who sup- 
 pose that every religious discussion must grow 
 out of the spirit of bigotry and intolerance, 
 
 1* (6) 
 
D ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 and must partake, in some measure at least, of 
 contention and personal animosity. There are 
 others who regard the differences in what they 
 term the various branches of the Christian church 
 as of minor importance, and as unworthy the 
 attention of liberal minded and enlightened cit- 
 izens. But we do not belong to the class who 
 would be silenced and lulled into a. feeling of 
 security by such opinions. We believe that it is 
 the duty as well as the right of every American to 
 examine the claims of the Roman Catholic 
 faith, to study its history, to watch with a care- 
 ful eye its progi'ess in our land, to inquire into 
 its influence upon our Protestant churches, our 
 free institutions, and the national and social 
 blessings which Heaven has granted to us. 
 Our fathers, in leaving us the rich legacies of a 
 pure gospel and a free government, also imposed 
 upon us the responsibility of fearlessly defend- 
 ing this gospel and firmly maintaining this 
 government. And if, through indifference or 
 timidity, or a feeling of false security, we do 
 not heed their admonitions, we are justly 
 chargeable with being recreant to our highest 
 duty, and the unworthy recipients of the no- 
 blest institutions ever bequeathed to a gene- 
 ration of men. 
 
 Besides, the relations of our republic to the 
 cause of Christianity and the progress of civil- 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. / 
 
 ization throughout the world greatly enhance 
 this responsibility. Under the smiles of divine- 
 Providence there has grown up upon this conti^ 
 nent, with a rapidity unparalleled in history, 
 a Christian power, which, by its influence, com- 
 merce, and missions, is blessing all the nations 
 of the earth. The light of our Protestant faith 
 has reached the most distant continents and the 
 islands of the sea ; the stars of our national 
 banner have become stars of hope to millions- 
 who have been wandering in the darkness of 
 heathenism, and oppressed by the cruelties of 
 despotism. What, then, shall be the moral 
 character and future influence of this growing 
 republic is a question second only in importance 
 to that of our personal salvation. It is a ques- 
 tion that presses upon every mind that has any 
 adequate sense of its obligations and duties ; 
 upon every heart that beats in sympathy with 
 the spirit of liberty and a pure religious faith. 
 
 We would not exaggerate the evils or the 
 strength of Romanism ; neither would we utter 
 a word to excite unnecessary alarrn with regard 
 to the prevalence of the system in our land.. 
 But we contend that a system in the very heart 
 of our republic, deadly hostile to our churches^ 
 public schools, and free institutions, that num- 
 bers three millions of votaries, and is sustained 
 by nearly sixteen hundred priests, thirty-two 
 
8 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 bishops, seven archbishops, more than one hun- 
 dred colleges and seminaries, and seventeen 
 hundred churches, is a system that should not 
 be passed by with a sneer, or treated with cold 
 indifference. The recent aggressions of this 
 power, the arrogant assumptions of its promi- 
 nent writers, the astounding insolence of such 
 publications as the Freeman's Journal, Shep- 
 herd of the Valley, and Brownson's Review, in 
 asserting that heretics, that is, American Protes- 
 tants, should be punished by the sword if they 
 cannot be forced into the Catholic church, 
 should arouse the citizens of this nation, and 
 prompt them to plant themselves at once in 
 opposition to this power. We would deprecate 
 all violence and unnecessarily harsh and denun- 
 ciatory language; but we would use all the 
 moral means that God has placed in our hands 
 to break down a system that at every point is 
 antagonistic to our dearest privileges and 
 blessings. 
 
 In seeking, however, the destruction of Ro- 
 manism, we would do all in our power to save 
 the Romanist, not, indeed, as a Romanist, but 
 as a man, as a sinner like ourselves, for whom 
 Christ died. In seeking the annihilation of 
 Popery, we would save the pope as one who 
 specially needs the benefits of the atoning sac- 
 rifice of Christ. We declare war, not against 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 9 
 
 men, but against principles that are subversive 
 of our liberties and religion. We declare war, 
 and, God helping us, we will prosecute it, against 
 that system which in the Holy Scriptures is de- 
 nominated "the man of sin and son of perdi- 
 tion," "the mystery of iniquity," "the mother 
 of harlots and abominations." And we would 
 break it down that its victims. themselves may 
 be delivered from its grasp, and saved from its 
 pernicious influences ; for a greater calamity 
 could not befall the Roman Catholics than to 
 have Romanism triumph in this nation. Such 
 a conquest would be the destruction of the very 
 privileges and advantages that they have come 
 to our shores to enjoy. 
 
 I have often wondered why the Romanist 
 did not, in moments of reflection, ask himself 
 these simple questions : " Why have I left the 
 home of my fathers and the scenes of my child- 
 hood, and come to live in this Protestant land, 
 and dwell among these heretics ? How does it 
 happen that I have here better food and cloth- 
 ing, higher wages, more constant employment, 
 a more sure protection to my life and property, 
 free education for my children, and far greater 
 facilities for rising in the world, than I had in 
 my Catholic home ? Whence this thrift, pros- 
 perity, and general happiness that I see around 
 mp ?" 
 
10 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 It seems to us as though the man who could 
 see the sunlight at noonday could see the an- 
 swer to these inquiries, could see the world-wide 
 difference between Popery and Protestantism, 
 as elements of civilization and social happiness, 
 to say nothing of the religious and spiritual 
 bearings of the two systems. Yet we are pre- 
 sented with the strange spectacle of a large 
 class of persons, who, after having experienced 
 the miseries of the Papal system in their native 
 country, are here, under the guidance of a cor- 
 rupt and bigoted priesthood, laboring to break 
 down the very government that affords them 
 protection, destroy the sources of their daily 
 comfort, sweep away the system of public 
 education that seeks to elevate and enlighten 
 them, and annihilate the Protestant faith, that 
 has made America what it is — the asylum of 
 the oppressed, and the hope of all nations. That 
 this state of things does not prevail universally 
 among the Papal comnmnity in our country 
 we are glad to allow. Some avalanches have 
 slid away from this great Alps of iniquity, 
 which in itself remains as cold and unmoved 
 as ever. Into some minds the light has broken, 
 and revealed the error and corruption of the 
 Komish apostasy. But over the mass of the 
 people the cloud of ignorance and superstition 
 is too dense to allow them to see what is so 
 obvious to the enlightened observer. 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 11 
 
 In treating the subject before us, I purpose 
 to exhibit, in a form adapted to the popular 
 mind, its leading characteristics, as they stand 
 related to American institutions, rather than to 
 enter into a critical and elaborate exposition of 
 all the principles and doctrines of the Papal 
 system. The literature in this latter department 
 is so abundant, and the ablest Protestant minds 
 have elucidated so thoroughly the elements and 
 workings of Romanism, that it is unnecessary 
 to enter again upon this field. 
 
 While surveying the movements and growth 
 of the Papacy around us, we naturally inquire, 
 in the first place, into the origin and history 
 of this remarkable and mysterious power. A 
 slight examination into the elements of Popery 
 reveals the fact, that it has its source in the de- 
 pravity of the human heart. It is virtually an 
 embodiment of the evil principles and passions 
 of the human soul. Selfishness, avarice, super- 
 stition, and despotism are among its constit- 
 uent elements ; and these, with others, are 
 woven together with such skill, and form a 
 combination of such prodigious strength, that 
 Popery has ,been properly termed " Satan's 
 masterpiece." It contains the principles of 
 other false religions, of paganism and a de- 
 generate Judaism, all fused into one gigantic 
 system. As an instrument for gaining temporal 
 
12 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 power and holding in subjection the thoughts 
 and purposes as well as the conduct of men, it 
 has no parallel in the history of religions. As 
 a force destructive to vital piety and the pure 
 doctrines of Christianity, it has no rival. 
 
 During the first three centuries, when the op- 
 position to the church was from without, and 
 the engines of paganism were arrayed against 
 her, she yet advanced with wonderful rapidity. 
 With her doctrines pure and her advocates fired 
 with a heavenly zeal, the principles of the gos- 
 pel spread throughout the Roman empire, and 
 extended to regions which the sway of imperial 
 Rome had not even reached. Churches arose 
 in the capital of the empire ; in the provinces 
 of Asia Minor and in Ethiopia ; at Corinth, Phi- 
 lippi, Thessalonia. The principles of the true 
 faith were early introduced among the Gauls, 
 Germans, Spaniards, and Britons. So rapid 
 was the progress of the gospel, and so complete 
 its triumphs, in spite of the storms of persecu- 
 tion that raged against it, that, in the year 325, 
 during the reign of Constantine the Great, the 
 system of Paganism was demolished, and on 
 the ruins was established the Christian faith. 
 But Satan, unwilling to be baffled in his wicked 
 designs, sought to plant within the church itself 
 the elements of destruction. Unable to check 
 the tide of blessings that was flowing through 
 
ORIGIN ANB PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 13 
 
 the nations, he labored to poison the stream. 
 And as the church gained in power and out- 
 ward prosperity, she lost in spirituality, and in 
 the graces of a sincere and ardent piety. 
 
 The city of Rome, around which so many 
 interesting and hallowed associations clustered, 
 became the seat of authority. The bishop, by 
 the strength which his position gave to him, 
 and by being called upon to decide the disputes 
 which arose in churches abroad, as well as at 
 home, gradually gained supreme power. One 
 nation after another submitted to his dictation. 
 What he could not gain by persuasion he se- 
 cured by the arts of diplomacy, or by the stern 
 mandates of the sword. Over millions of con- 
 sciences he held undisputed sway. All the 
 avenues of influence centred at Rome, and 
 thence emanated the laws that governed the 
 civilized world. 
 
 As early as during the first and second cen- 
 turies we can trace the embryo developments 
 of the Papal system. They appeared in many 
 of the Christian churches, disturbing the faith 
 and obstructing the spiritual growth of the 
 members. St, Paul, in his letter to the Colos- 
 sians, uses the following language : " Beware 
 lest any man spoil you through philosophy and 
 vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after 
 the rudiments of the world, and not after 
 2 
 
14 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Christ." And again : " Let no man judge you 
 in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy 
 day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath 
 days. * * * Let no man beguile you of your 
 reward, in a voluntary humility and worshipping 
 of angels." Here we find these primitive dis- 
 ciples warned against the very errors which af- 
 terwards gained such prodigious power, and 
 contributed so largely to the secularization and 
 corruption of the Christian church. The re- 
 gard which was paid and continues to be paid 
 to traditions ; the influence of a vain and de- 
 ceitful philosophy ; the rules respecting meat, 
 and fast and feast days ; the worship paid to 
 angels and saints, of which the Romish 
 churches and the Pantheon at Rome bear 
 abundant testimony, — all show the importance 
 of the apostolic injunctions addressed to the 
 Christians at Colosse.. 
 
 In the second century we discover in some 
 minds a tendency towards monastic austerities. 
 The doctrine was advanced, that the virtues 
 of continence and chastity were specially pleas- 
 ing to God, and that the marriage relation, un- 
 der the mbst favorable circumstances, received 
 but little divine favor. In the extravagant and 
 unscriptural views advanced upon this subject, 
 w^e perceive the germ of that system of monas- 
 ticism, which, with its inevitable perversions 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 15 
 
 and corruptions, overspread in later years a 
 large portion of the Christian church. 
 
 At this period, also, the vital interests of re- 
 ligion suffered from controversies which arose 
 respecting minor observances, and the disposi- 
 tion which was manifested by some religious 
 teachers to lay more stress upon the " mint, 
 anise, and cumin" of religion than upon the 
 " weightier matters of the law." 
 
 During this and the following century, sev- 
 eral superstitious practices were introduced ; 
 such as the use of holy water, arid regulations 
 respecting the number of times that the eucha- 
 rist should be celebrated. Traces of the doc- 
 trines of baptismal regeneration, and of pur- 
 gatory, may be found in the works of some of 
 the distinguished writers who belong to this 
 period. 
 
 But although these errors and aberrations be- 
 gan thus early to appear, yet we should not 
 forget that the great mass of the disciples of 
 Christ, previous to the establishment of Con- 
 stantine upon the imperial throne, were distin- 
 guished for their integrity, faith, and devotion 
 to the Redeemer's cause. Their constancy in 
 the midst of difficulties and dissensions, their 
 patience and humility under the most grievous 
 wrongs, the stern resolution with which they 
 resisted the proud philosophy and haughty tyr- 
 
16 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 anny of their times, their self-denial and toil 
 in making known the glad tidings of salvation 
 to the ignorant and destitute, and their assidu- 
 ous care in preserving the sacred writings from 
 the grasp of their heathen persecutors entitle 
 them to our gratitude and admiration. Many 
 of the religious teachers and theological writers 
 of this period were men of eminent talents, 
 extensive learning, and glowing eloquence. 
 The age was one of the noblest Christian hero- 
 ism — a heroism that even the remorseless cru- 
 elties of Nero, Domitian, Maximinus, Decius, 
 and Diocletian could not extinguish. The 
 more bitter and terrible the persecutions were, 
 the more Christians multiplied. At periods 
 when the Roman tyrants supposed that they 
 had effaced the very name of Christianity from 
 the empire, the system rose with fresh strength 
 and new splendors. But this glorious era was 
 destined to suffer an eclipse, which continued 
 through long and dreary ages. With the out- 
 ward prosperity and authority of the church, in 
 the fourth century, there rolled in a tide of evils 
 that deluged the nations of Europe. The er- 
 rors and superstitions to which we^ have re- 
 ferred, which at first were but little rivulets, 
 became swollen, and united in one mighty 
 stream, that rushed through the valleys and 
 over the plains, reaching almost the summits 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 17 
 
 of the mountains, and sweeping all before it. 
 The fair heritage of God was changed into a 
 wilderness — a wilderness not indeed without 
 its prophets and saints scattered here and there, 
 who, amid the general wreck, clung to the faith, 
 and were ready to lift their warning voices 
 against the prevailing wickedness; but yet a 
 moral desert, over which darkness and desola- 
 tion long reigned. The worst passions of the 
 soul took the place of the noblest virtues. 
 Pride, ambition, avarice, and infidelity sup- 
 planted the fruits of the spirit of love, peace, 
 gentleness, and truth. The pure doctrines of 
 the gospel were corrupted by the rise of the 
 Arian and Pelagian heresies, the infusion of 
 pagan philosophy, and debasing superstitions. 
 Instead of the simple institutions established 
 by our Savior, we find monasticism, image 
 worship, a passion for relics, and various agen- 
 cies for securing the absolute dominion of Pa- 
 pal power. 
 
 V As early as in the fifth century, — a period 
 adorned by those distinguished fathers, the elo- 
 quent Chrysostom, the learned Jerome, and the 
 able defender of the faith, Augustine, — we find 
 the reverence of the people passing from Christ 
 to the material cross to which he was nailed ; 
 from the lives of holy men to the localities 
 which they occupied ; from the precepts and 
 
18 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 instructions of the apostles to the garments 
 which they wore. And in the following cen- 
 turies, so rapid was the growth of superstition, 
 that very soon it was deemed a higher virtue 
 to possess a piece of wood supposed to be a 
 part of the cross, than to obey the commands 
 of a crucified Redeemer. It was deemed far 
 more meritorious to make a pilgrimage to Je- 
 rusalem, than to follow in the footsteps of 
 prophets and Christians who had fallen martyrs 
 to the truth within its walls. Among the mass 
 of the people there were stronger desires to visit 
 the places to which Christ resorted, and the 
 mountains where he meditated and poured 
 forth his fervent prayers, than to cultivate the 
 true spirit of devotion ; stronger desires to view 
 the spots where he was betrayed, tried, and 
 crucified, than to sympathize with him in his 
 sufferings, — to stand in his tomb than to be- 
 lieve in the doctrine of the resurrection, and 
 secure the hopes of a blessed immortality. 
 
 The various historical events connected with 
 the career of the papacy from the time of Con- 
 stantine to the reformation under Luther, in 
 1517, the limits which we have prescribed to 
 ourselves will not allow us to notice. But we 
 cannot forbear speaking of the corruptions which 
 prevailed among the clergy and the popes dur- 
 ing a large portion of this period. Accord- 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 19 
 
 ing to the testimony of their own historians, 
 the clergy and laity, during the six centuries 
 that preceded the reformation, were addicted to 
 every form of vice and iniquity. One writer, 
 in speaking of the eleventh century, says, 
 " Faith was not found upon the earth. Justice, 
 equity, virtue, and the fear of God perished, 
 and were succeeded by violence, fraud, luxury, 
 and debauchery. All kinds of abomination and 
 incest were committed without shame or pun- 
 ishment." 
 
 St. Bernard, who lived in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, says, " The clergy are called pastors, but 
 in reality are plunderers, who, unsatisfied with 
 the fleece, thirst for the blood of the flock, and 
 merit the appellation, not of shepherds, but of 
 traitors, who do not feed, but devour the sheep. 
 The Savior's reproach, scourges, nails, and 
 cross, his ministers who serve Antichrist melt 
 in the furnace of covetousness, and expend on 
 the . acquisition of filthy gain, differing from 
 Judas only in the magnitude of the sum for 
 which they sell their Master. * * * Sump- 
 tuous food, overflowing cellars, drunken ban- 
 quets, accompanied with the lyre and violin, 
 are the means by which these ministers of the 
 cross evince their self-denial and indifference to 
 the world." 
 
 Edgar, in his " Variations of Popery," quotes 
 
20 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the authority of Petrarch, Mariana, ^gidius, 
 Mirandula, and others, in regard to the gross 
 impiety and corruptions of the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries. Petrarch does not hesitate 
 to call Rome " Babylon, the great whore, the 
 school of error, and the temple of heresy." 
 
 Mariana declared that "every enormity had 
 passed into a custom and law, and v.'as com- 
 mitted without fear. Shame and modesty were 
 banished, while the most dreadful outrages, 
 perfidy, and treason were better recompensed 
 than the brightest virtue. The wickedness of 
 the pontiff descended to the people." 
 
 jEgidius says, " Licentiousness reigned. All 
 kinds of atrocity, like an impetuous torrent, 
 inundated the church, and like a pestilence in- 
 fected nearly all its members. Ignorance, am- 
 bition, and libertinism triumphed, while the 
 plains of Italy were drenched with blood and 
 strewed with the dead." 
 
 The descriptions given of the abominations 
 and miseries in the sixteenth century are equal- 
 ly revolting. We cannot gaze upon them 
 without shuddering. Antonius, in his address 
 to the fathers and senators assembled at Trent, 
 depicted in dark yet truthful colors the condi- 
 tion of the church at that period. He stated' 
 that " each succeeding day witnessed a deterio- 
 ration in devotion, divine grace, Christian vir- 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS O'^ ROMANISM. 21 
 
 tue, and other spiritual attainments. No age 
 had ever seen more tribunals, and less justice; 
 more senators, and less care of the common- 
 wealth ; more indigence, and less charity. The 
 pastor was without vigilance, the people with- 
 out obedience, the monk without devotion, and 
 every Christian without religion. The wicked 
 were exalted, and the good depressed. Virtue 
 was despised, and vice in its stead reigned in 
 the world." 
 
 But we need not multiply the pictures which 
 have been drawn of the sad degeneracy of 
 those times. History is full of records of the 
 impiety, lewdness, avarice, and infidelity that 
 every where prevailed. And yet we find at 
 this very period the ecclesiastics claiming the 
 divine sanction for all their acts, and firmly 
 maintaining the doctrme of the infallibility of 
 the church. 
 
 The title " his holiness " was applied to popes 
 whose character was such that their presence 
 would no sooner be tolerated in modern socie- 
 ty than that of the most notorious profligate. 
 Think of Sergius III., who received the epithet 
 " scelestissimus," (most wicked ;) of Benedict IV., 
 who made a brothel of the Papal court; of 
 Boniface VII., whose cruelties and atrocities 
 outraged every principle of right and humanity, 
 as approached with awe and reverence, and 
 
22 EOMAl>fISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 receiving the title " his holiness " ! A more 
 palpable perversion of language is not conceiv- 
 able. It is as though we should speak of the 
 immaculate purity of a prostitute, of the ten- 
 der humanity of Nero and Domitian, or of the 
 noble devotion and heavenly aspirations of Ju- 
 das Iscariot. Many of the popes, we do not 
 say all of them, but many, were in fact the 
 successors of the persecuting, bloodthirsty Ro- 
 man emperors, rather than of the holy apostles 
 of the Lord Jesus. They were actuated by the 
 same principles, and were ready to adopt the 
 same measures, in order to accomplish their 
 ambitious designs. Distinguished Roman Cath- 
 olic writers admit the sad degeneracy of the 
 popes during the tenth and eleventh centuries. 
 Christina, the Popish Queen of Sweden, said, 
 " that the ignorance and wickedness of the 
 popes in that age were all put together — a 
 striking proof of God's superintending the af- 
 fairs of his church in this lower world ; other- 
 wise his divine providence ■would never have 
 suffered such wretches to enjoy such dignified 
 titles.'' Another, in a controversy, admitted that 
 fifty of the popes were unholy and immoral 
 men. 
 
 History also furnishes incontrovertible proofs 
 that the corruptions of the Papal court travelled 
 down through all orders of the ecclesiastics. 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 23 
 
 through the charitable and religious institutions 
 of the church, and through a large portion of 
 the laity 
 
 Now, although this gigantic system of in- 
 iquity was smitten by the strong arms of a 
 Wickliffe, a Huss, a Luther, and a Calvin, yet 
 it was far from being demolished. Although 
 the pillars of the great superstructure have been 
 made to tremble, yet, in some countries at 
 least, they retain their colossal strength. We 
 glory in the reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. We thank God for what the noble re- 
 formers, by their fervent piety, extensive learn- 
 ing, and indomitable energy, were enabled to 
 accomplish in Germany, Switzerland, France, 
 England, and the northern countries. But we 
 should remember that there are strenuous ef- 
 forts yet to be made, and battles yet to be 
 fought, before the power of the man of sin is 
 effectually broken. 
 
 There is too much truth in the following 
 declaration of Macaulay : — 
 
 " The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a 
 mere antique, but full of life and youthful 
 vigor. The Catholic church is still sending 
 forth to the farthest ends of the world mission- 
 aries as zealous as those who landed in Kent 
 with August] n, and still confronting hostile 
 kings with the same spirit with which she con- 
 
24 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 fronted Attila. The number of her children is 
 greater than in any former age. The members 
 of her community are certainly not fewer than 
 a hundred and fifty millions ; and it will be dif- 
 ficult to show that all the other Christian sects 
 united amount to a hundred and twenty mil- 
 lions. Nor do we' see any sign that the term 
 of her long dominion is approaching. She 
 saw the commencement of all the governments, 
 and of all the ecclesiastical establishments, that 
 now exist in the world ; and we feel no assur- 
 ance that she is not destined to see the end of 
 them all. She was great and respected before the 
 Saxon had set foot upon Britain — before the 
 Frank had passed the Rhine — when Grecian 
 eloquence still flourished at Antioch — when 
 idols were still worshipped in the temple of 
 Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished 
 vigor when some traveller from New Zeedand 
 shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his 
 stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to 
 sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." 
 
 A power that has resisted so many shocks 
 from the friends of truth, — that has withstood 
 the combined influences of the word of God, 
 the reason, and religious convictions of en- 
 lightened millions, — that numbers in France 
 thirty-four millions of subjects out of a popu- 
 lation of thirty-six millions ; in Great Britain 
 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ROMANISM. 25 
 
 two millions ; in Germany twenty millions, that 
 is, one half of the population ; in the United 
 States three millions, — that embraces nearly 
 the whole of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, 
 and South America, — such a power is not one 
 to be trifled with, or to be disposed of with a 
 sneer. It musi be met in every part of Chris- 
 tendom, among the islands of the sea, and on 
 the most distant continents of the earth. It 
 must be met in our own beloved America. We 
 must become acquainted with, its history, study 
 its principles, and examine its relations to our 
 free institutions. 
 
 As republicans, as Christians, as the friends 
 of civil and religious liberty, of a free press, 
 free schools, and the right of the whole people 
 to possess and read the word of God, we are 
 bound to be thoroughly acquainted with this 
 system. Our responsibilities in relation to this 
 matter we cannot shake off. Our fathers were 
 true to our interests and happiness ; let us be 
 true to the generations who are to come after 
 us, that they may receive unimpaired those 
 great national institutions that are the source 
 of our prosperity, usefulness, and power. 
 3 
 
11. 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OP POPERY. 
 
 "Let no man deceive you by any means; fok that day 
 shall not come, except there come a halltnct away 
 first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of 
 perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above 
 all that is callld god, or that is worshipped, so that 
 HE, AS God, sitteth in the temple OF God." — 9 Thesa. ii. 
 3,4. 
 
 Having briefly considered the rise and prog- 
 ress of the Romish apostasy, we proceed to 
 examine some of its fundamental principles. 
 A system which has acquired such power as 
 this, which has survived so many changes in 
 the political and religious world, which at this 
 hour holds under its sway so many millions of 
 the human family, must have some constituent 
 elements which impart to it it-s prodigious 
 strength. Nor have we any difficulty in de- 
 ciding what these elements are. The canons 
 of councils, the decrees of popes, the writings 
 of standard Catholic authors, and the practices 
 of the church afford us the most abundant ma- 
 terials upon this subject. And the first glance 
 
 (26) 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 27 
 
 at the distinctive features of Romanism reveals 
 the marked contrast which this system presents 
 to the purity and simplicity of the Christian 
 faith. Instead of one spiritual head, to whom 
 alone worship is rendered, — instead of a few 
 simple rites, a single ecclesiastical order, free- 
 dom of conscience, and gospel principles ap- 
 plicable to all classes of men, and inculcating 
 reverence, humility, and love, — we find the 
 Romish system made up of a pope, cardinals, 
 bishops, orders of monks, friars, and nuns, doc- 
 trines of infallibility, celibacy, and purgatory, 
 indulgences, worship of the saints and images, 
 mitres, crosiers, holy water, and a variety of 
 superstitions and practices adapted to the char- 
 acter and circumstances of its victims. The 
 Christian confesses his sins to God, the Ro- 
 manist to his priest. The former makes the 
 Bible his only rule of faith and practice; the 
 latter depends upon the decrees of councils and 
 the traditions of the fathers. The former is 
 actuated in the discharge of his religious du- 
 ties by love, the latter by fear. The Protestant 
 or Christian clergy throw open every doctrine 
 to the free discussion and research of the peo- 
 ple. The Catholic clergy demand only faith, 
 leaving no room for the exercise of reason. 
 The former exhort ; the latter command. The 
 former seek to educate and enlighten the peo- 
 
28 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 pie, that they may appreciate and love God's 
 truth; the latter keep the people in ignorance, 
 that they may believe and cling to the dogmas 
 of the church. The former would bring the 
 whole world into the liberty of the gospel ; the 
 latter would bring the whole world under the 
 dominion of the pope. The two systems 
 therefore, in many of their elements, are di- 
 rectly opposed to each other. They cannot 
 harmonize ; they cannot compromise. As well 
 attempt to mingle truth and error, light and 
 darkness, the spirit of Jesus and the spirit of 
 Satan. The principles and essence of Popery, 
 as it now exists, are embraced in the canons of 
 the famous Council of Trent, the last of the 
 nineteen general councils held by the Romish 
 church. Trent is a city in the north of Italy, 
 delightfully situated on the banks of the Adige, 
 and commanding a view of the beauties and 
 grandeurs of the Alps. Here, in December, 
 1545, the council commenced its sessions, and, 
 after protracted discussions, the doctrines of the 
 church were decided upon. Subsequently, Pope 
 Pius IV. drew up, with the sanction of the 
 council, a summary of its decrees, which con- 
 stitutes the basis of the Romish faith, and 
 which every pope, cardinal, bishop, and priest 
 is bound to subscribe. 
 
 Did our limits allow, we should be glad to 
 
FUNDAMExNTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 29 
 
 give a history of this council, and show what 
 unfair means were used to prevent free discus- 
 sion, secure the supremacy of the pope's influ- 
 ence in its deliberations, and crowd down those 
 who were anxious that abuses might be re- 
 formed and the truth triumph. It should, how- 
 ever, be distinctly understood, that, notwith- 
 standing the efforts of the advocates of Popish 
 intolerance and tyranny, the votes of the coun- 
 cil were far from being unanimous. On many 
 points every inch was strenuously contested, 
 and some doctrines were carried through only 
 by the force of Papal authority and chicanery. 
 Doctors were arrayed against doctors, argument 
 against argument, — showing that the idea of 
 the unity of the church was a mere phantom. 
 
 The creed of Pope Pius IV., which imbodies 
 the results of this council, is a mixture of truth 
 and error, of wisdom and folly, that is calcu- 
 lated to deceive the unwary and superstitious. 
 There is first presented the Nicene creed, con- 
 sisting of twelve orthodox articles prepared by 
 the bishops, who, in the year 325, met in the 
 Council of Nice. This document is one of the 
 most interesting and valuable productions of 
 the primitive church. " Never," says an able 
 writer, "did Constantine, the first Christian 
 emperor, appear so truly great as when he took 
 part in the council of Christian ministers he 
 3* 
 
30 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 had summoned from every province over which 
 his sceptre extended. Including bishops and 
 presbyters, not less, perhaps, than six hundred 
 met at Nice. They were in many cases poor ; 
 and some, like veteran soldiers, could exhibit 
 the marks of the wounds they had received 
 when fighting the battles of the cross in the 
 days af paganism." To the sentiments of this 
 creed we can cordially subscribe. But then 
 follow the articles that contain, in a condensed 
 form, the very essence of Popery — articles 
 which constitute the basis of the literature and 
 devotional books of the Papal church, and are 
 now yielding their poisonous fruits in every 
 community over which the Papacy has extended 
 its power. 
 
 The first of these propositions, which is the 
 thirteenth article of the whole creed, is as fol- 
 lows : " I most steadfastly admit and embrace 
 the apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions, and 
 all other observances and constitutions of the 
 same church." In this article we have the 
 corner stone of the whole Papal superstition. 
 Upon it may be built every form of error which 
 the wickedness, pride, or ambition of man may 
 devise. While the Protestant takes the Bible 
 as his only rule of faith and practice, the Ro- 
 manist rests upon traditions. It is true that 
 there is a feeble acknowledgment of the Scrip- 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPEKY. 31 
 
 tures, but it is a mere formality; as the man- 
 ner in which the Bible has been uniformly 
 treated by Catholics abundantly proves. The 
 acknowledgment is made in the next article of 
 the creed, in these words : " I do admit the 
 Holy Scriptures in the same sense that holy 
 mother church does, to whom it belongs to 
 judge of their true sense and interpretation; 
 nor will I interpret them otherwise than ac- 
 cording to the unanimous consent of the fa- 
 thers." You will observe that the Scriptures are 
 simply admitted, while traditions are mostbj 
 steadfastly admitted and embraced. The former 
 are barely recognized, evidently under the fear 
 that their entire omission would be noticed, and 
 subject the church to censure, while the latter 
 are most cordially welcomed. Besides, the 
 Scriptures are admitted with such glaring and 
 positive qualifications as to deprive them of 
 their life-giving power. 
 
 Instead of the reader's exercising hi§ own 
 reason and judgment in interpreting the lan- 
 guage of the sacred volume, — instead of search- 
 ing the Scriptures for himself, as a free, intelli- 
 gent moral agent, accountable to his God 
 alone, — he binds himself by an oath, or vow, 
 to adopt the meaning given by the mother 
 church. Whatever grounds or arguments may 
 exist for differing from her teachings, to what- 
 
32 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 ever extent she may pervert the language of 
 inspiration to suit the designs of profligate 
 popes or wicked priests, the Romanist is bound 
 to admit the whole. He virtually yields up his 
 reason and conscience to others, without re- 
 serving to himself the privilege of inquiring 
 into the foundation of the doctrines which he 
 is taught to believe. Nor is this all. In the 
 latter clause of the article he binds himself 
 to interpret the Scriptures only according to 
 the unanimous consent of the fathers. But 
 what is to be done if the fathers themselves 
 are not unanimous in their interpretations ? 
 What is to be done when councils are arrayed 
 against councils, and popes against popes, in 
 their decrees respecting the teachings of the 
 Bible ? The idea of the unanimity of the 
 fathers or of the ecclesiastics of the church is 
 the merest chimera that can be imagined. Even 
 the members of single councils were not agreed 
 among themselves. " The requisition of una- 
 nimity would in fact," says Edgar, " explode 
 the majority of all the eighteen general coun- 
 cils. A few, indeed, have been unanimous, but 
 many divided. The Nicene, Byzantine, Ephe- 
 sian, and Chalcedonian synods contained fac- 
 tions that favored Arianism, Macedonianism, 
 Nestorianism, Eutychianism, and Monothelit- 
 ism. * * * No assembly, civil or ecclesias- 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 33 
 
 tical, ever showed less unity than the Council of 
 Trent. Theologian opposed theologian, and 
 bishop withstood bishop, in persevering imper- 
 tinence and contention. The Dominican fought 
 with the Franciscan in a provoking war of 
 rancor and nonsense. The French and Spanish 
 encountered the Italians, with inferior numbers, 
 indeed, but with far superior reason and elo- 
 quence. The bishops, learned in general in the 
 law, but unskilled in divinity, were utterly con- 
 founded by the distinctions, scholasticism, and 
 puzzling diversity of opinion which prevailed 
 among the theologians. The discord of the 
 Trentine fathers became, in the French nation, 
 the subject of witticism and mockery. 
 
 " The contentions of the French synod of 
 Melun, preparatory to that of Trent, afforded a 
 striking prelude and specimen of the noisy and 
 numerous altercations which were afterwards 
 displayed in the latter assembly. The French 
 king convened the Parisian doctors at Melun, 
 for the purpose of arranging the dogmas of 
 faith, which, on the assembling of the general 
 council, were to be proposed for discussion. 
 The Parisians, however, could agree on nothing. 
 The time was spent in wrangling about things 
 essential and non-essential, and the king was 
 obliged to dissolve the council without their 
 having arrived at any satisfactory conclusion. 
 
34 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 A scene of equal dissension is not to be found 
 in all the annals of Protestantism." 
 
 To rest therefore one's faith upon the una- 
 nimity of the fathers in their interpretation of 
 of the Scriptures is to rest upon that which has 
 no existence. The claim of unanimity and in- 
 fallibility is the greatest absurdity imaginable. 
 
 We pass on to notice the next article of the 
 Roman Catholic creed. This refers to the be- 
 lief in seven sacraments ; namely, baptism, 
 confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme 
 unction, orders, and marriage. Where the 
 Council of Trent obtained their authority for 
 these seven sacraments, we are not informed. 
 Two of them, the eucharist, or the Lord's 
 supper, and baptism', are obviously derived 
 from the Holy Scriptures. The Savior dis- 
 tinctly required of the disciples to partake of 
 bread and wine as the emblems of his body 
 and blood ; and he commanded them to teach 
 all nations, " baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost." But what passages can be cited to 
 prove that Christ instituted, as sacraments, con- 
 firmation, penance, extreme unction, orders, 
 and marriage ? It is true that he required be- 
 lievers in him to make a public profession of 
 their faith ; he called sinners to repentance ; he 
 established the gospel ministry, and breathed 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 35 
 
 upon the apostles the Holy Ghost; he was 
 present at a marriage feast, and thus sanctioned 
 the institution of marriage. But what evi- 
 dence is there that he established these as sac- 
 raments ? We do not wonder that Romanists 
 are required to understand the Scriptures as 
 the holy mother church sees fit to interpret 
 them, if such doctrines are to be promulgated. 
 It is a very convenient way of getting over the 
 want of evidence for any particular dogma, 
 just to force upon the people an interpretation 
 which suits the purposes of crafty bishops and 
 priests. If the people are not allowed to in- 
 vestigate, nor even to understand, the Scrip- 
 tures for themselves, — if they are at the outset 
 required to throw aside, as utterly useless, their 
 own reason, and the mental powers which the 
 Almighty has given to them, — then they may 
 be led to adopt the most palpable and gross 
 errors, which the ambition or wickedness of 
 their leaders may devise. 
 
 Under a deep conviction of the want of scrip- 
 tm'al proof for these and other Popish dogmas, 
 a distinguished advocate of the reformed 
 church threw out to his antagonists this chal- 
 lenge : " I defy you to find Romanism in the 
 Bible. I defy you to uphold it by the author- 
 ity of the earliest interpreters of the Bible. 
 I defy you to establish it by the consent of 
 
36 ROMANISM IM AMERICA. 
 
 those who in primitive times bore witness to 
 the truth." Such was the confidence of this 
 earnest and learned divine in the strength of 
 his own )Dosition, and the fallacy of the Romish 
 doctrines, that he was willing to stake his cause 
 upon this challenge. He saw clearly that the 
 Popish superstition rested upon ignorance of 
 the Bible and of the teachings of the early 
 fathers, and that, with the premises laid down 
 in this creed, the people could be easily led into 
 every form of error and absurdity. 
 
 The next article of belief refers to original 
 sin and to justification. But the fathers of 
 Trent were greatly divided as to the import of 
 the phrase " original sin ; " and justification, in 
 their opinion, was a medley of faith, good 
 works, priestly absolution, and virtue imparted 
 to the soul by the power of the church. To 
 such an extent had the doctrine of human 
 merit supplanted the efficacy of Christ's aton- 
 ing- sacrifice for sin, that the reformers felt 
 called upon to lay particular stress upon this 
 point. It constituted the main battle ground 
 which the immortal Luther occupied. To the 
 doctrine of justification by faith alone he clung 
 with the greatest tenacity. The errors wliicli 
 robbed Christ of his glory — which led sinful 
 man to believe that he could by hfs own merits 
 secure the favor of God — which encouraged 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 37 
 
 the expectation that a finite, fallen creature 
 could secure the release of a fellow-sinner 
 from the penalties of his transgressions — such 
 errors Luther resisted with all his power. 
 
 It is true that this noble man has been charged 
 with having indulged in a spirit of harshness 
 and violence, unbecoming a true follower of the 
 meek and lowly Jesus. But those who are so 
 free to censure him, forget that the exigencies 
 of the times, and the fearful corruptions of the 
 church, demanded the greatest earnestness and 
 zeal in those who would break down the ex- 
 isting superstitions, and sweep away the pre- 
 vailing errors. We believe that Luther was 
 naturally of a mild and loving disposition. 
 Though by no means a perfect man, he was 
 yet free from a sordid ambition, from selfish- 
 ness, bigotry, and vindictiveness. He loved 
 God's truth with an intensity which no waters 
 or floods could extinguish. He mourned over 
 the corruption of the times with a bitterness 
 and sorrow that came from the depths of his 
 soul. " At times," says one, " the word of God 
 is as fire shut up in his bones. He is indignant 
 at oppression and wrong. He longs to strike 
 the hoary lust from its throne. His words, 
 rough, vehement, jagged, tumultuous, are 'half 
 battles.' They go burning and crashing amid 
 the idols of superstition. He must be honest, 
 4 
 
38 
 
 ■ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 he must be true ; and sometimes he must be ve- 
 hement — fearfully vehement. And as he is 
 only a man, sometimes he may be imprudent, 
 and both say and do things which subsequently 
 he regrets. But in the main he is honest — 
 terribly, gloriously honest. Let him, then, 
 speak out ; let him lay stunning blows on the 
 head of despotic error and fiendish lust. Let 
 him trample in the dust the mean arguments 
 and meaner wiles of his opponents. Are they 
 not the enemies of God and man? and has 
 not the Almighty made him the battle axe to 
 grind them to powder ? Men stood aghast 
 when Luther burned the pope's bull ; but to us 
 it is a magnificent sight. With what lofty 
 disdain he tears it to atoms, and commits it to 
 the flames, as a weak and worthless thing, 
 which it behooves all honest men to despise! 
 ' Too much imprudence,' replied Luther to 
 Spalatin, who had counselled him to sobriety, 
 ' is displeasing to man, but too much prudence 
 is displeasing to God.'" 
 
 Such was the heroic reformer who thundered 
 in the ears of priests, bishops, cardinals, and 
 the pope the doctrine of "justification by faith." 
 He had experienced in his own history the utter 
 inefficacy of the requisitions and mummeries 
 of the Romish church to satisfy the soul and 
 afford a well-grounded hope for the future. He 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 39 
 
 had felt the blessedness of that faith which 
 " worketh by love ; " and his aim was to estab- 
 lish the authority of this great principle, and 
 sweep away the whole system of penances and 
 human merit, whereby the pride of the heart 
 was fostered and souls were deluded. 
 
 The next article in the creed to which the 
 Roman Catholic subscribes contains the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation, and is in the fol- 
 lowing words : " I also profess that in the mass 
 there is offered unto God a true, proper, and 
 propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the 
 dead ; and that, in the most holy sacrament of 
 the eucharist, there is truly, really, and substan- 
 tially the body and blood, together with the 
 soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and that there is a conversion made of the 
 whole substance of the bread into the body, 
 and of the whole substance of the wine into 
 the blood, which conversion the Catholic church 
 calls transubstantiation." 
 
 This monstrous proposition, which sounds so 
 strangely to Protestant ears, and which is so 
 contrary to the Holy Scriptures and to human 
 reason, is one of the cardinal points of the Pa- 
 pal system. By the celebration of the mass 
 every Sabbath in the Catholic churches, it is 
 constantly kept before the people, and their cor- 
 dial and unqualified faith in it is demanded aa 
 
40 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the condition of church membership and of 
 salvation. 
 
 When the priest holds up the wafer, or bread, 
 consisting of flour and water, and pronounces 
 the words, " Hoc est enim meum corpus" (for 
 this is my body,) it is maintained that every 
 particle of the bread is substantially and really 
 changed into the flesh and blood, spirit and di- 
 vinity, of Jesus Christ. It is adored by the priest, 
 and the people kneel and worship it as the real 
 Son of God. The priest then takes that which 
 we know is nothing but flour and water, and 
 offers it up to God as a propitiatory sacrifice for 
 the living and the dead, teaching that it has 
 the same efficacy to cleanse from all sin, as the 
 atoning sacrifice which Christ made of his own 
 body on the cross. Thus, throughout the seven- 
 teen hundred Catholic churches in these United 
 States, there is, according to the teachings of 
 the Romish church, an atoning sacrifice every 
 Sabbath made for the sins of the people. In 
 this enlightened Christian land, a wafer, or a bit 
 of bread, is by three millions of people wor- 
 shipped as the Son of the most high God, and 
 believed in as a propitiatory sacrifice for their 
 sins. 
 
 And so tenaciously does the church cling to 
 the superstitious dogmas involved in this rite, 
 that a fearful curse is pronounced upon those 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES OF POPERY. 41 
 
 who do not subscribe to them. The language 
 of the first canon of the Council of Trent on 
 the eucharist is, " If any man shall deny that 
 in the sacrament of the most holy eucharist 
 there is contained truly, really, and substantially 
 the body and blood, together with the soul and 
 divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so a 
 whole Christ, but shall say that he is only in 
 it in sign, or figure, or power, let him be ac- 
 cursed." Again, in the Tridentine canons on 
 the mass, we read, " If any man shall say that 
 in the mass there is not offered to God a true 
 and proper sacrifice, let him be accursed." The 
 third canon is, " If any man shall say that the 
 sacrifice of the mass is only a sacrifice of praise 
 and thanksgiving, * * * and that it is not pro- 
 pitiatory, * * * and that it ought not to be 
 offered for the living and the dead, for their sins, 
 &c., let him be accursed." And again : " If any 
 man shall say that, by the sacrifice of the mass, 
 blasphemy is offered to the most holy sacrifice 
 of Christ accomplished on the cross, or that it 
 is dishonored, let him be accursed." Such are 
 the decrees of the Papal church upon this sub- 
 ject ; and that, in its official documents, it deals 
 vastly more in curses than in blessings, and is 
 ready to heap the most terrible anathemas upon 
 those who will not swallow all their dogmas 
 and superstitions, we shall have abundant 
 4* 
 
42 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 occasion to show. The fathers, so called, in- 
 stead of manifesting the mild and persuasive 
 spirit of their professed Master, seem', in their 
 dealings with those who dissent from them, to 
 be possessed with the passions of fiends. They 
 rush upon them with a volley of curses, which 
 threaten to annihilate every comfort that they 
 possess in heaven or in earth. Let me give a 
 single specimen, taken from Dr. Cumming's 
 work on Romanism. 
 
 " Should a father in this audience have a 
 daughter in a nunnery, whom he should attempt 
 to rescue from the superstitious and polluting 
 influences of such an institution, the following 
 curse would be pronounced against him : ' By 
 the authority of the omnipotent God, and of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul, his apostles, we firmly, 
 and under threat of anathema, enjoin that no 
 one carry off these virgins, &c. If any one 
 shall have presumed to attempt this, may he be 
 cursed in his house and out of his house ; may 
 he be cursed in the state (or city) and in the 
 field ; cursed in watching and cursed in sleep- 
 ing ; cursed in eating and drinking ; cursed in 
 walking and sitting : may his flesh and his 
 bones be cursed, and from the sole of his foot 
 to the crown of his head may he enjoy no 
 health. May there light upon him the curse 
 which the Lord sent in the law by Moses on the 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 43 
 
 sons of iniquity. May his name be erased 
 from the book of the living, and not be recorded 
 with the righteous. May his portion and his 
 heritage be with Cain the fratricide, with Da- 
 than and Abiram, with Ananias and Sapphi- 
 ra, with Simon Magus, and with Judas the 
 traitor, and with those who said to God, ' De- 
 part from us ; we will not follow thy ways.' 
 May eternal fire devour him with the devil and 
 his angels, unless he make restitution, and come 
 to amendment. So be it.' " 
 
 Such is the amiable, heaven-born, forgiving 
 spirit of Popery ! — a spirit that is the same 
 to-day that it was a hundred years ago — that 
 is the same in Boston and at Rome — the 
 same in America as in Spain and Austria. 
 It is the boast of the Romish church that it 
 does not change, and that its doctrines and 
 decrees are infallible, and of course its curses 
 are infallible. And the men who utter these 
 imprecations, the fathers, (Heaven deliver us 
 from such a parentage !) profess to be the fol- 
 lowers of the meek and holy Jesus. Over the 
 head of a parent seeking to rescue a beloved 
 daughter from the dangers and pollutions of a 
 nunnery, they cause to be heard the thunder 
 crash of this terrible, blasting anathema. 
 
 Not very long since, a young man, having by 
 the study of the Bible become convinced that 
 
44 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Popery was not the religion there inculcated, 
 renounced it, very much to the distress of his 
 mother, who believed that no salvation could 
 be found out of the pale of the Romish church. 
 She accordingly requested two bishops to argue 
 with him, which they did to no avail, until, 
 weary of so fruitless a discussion, one of them, 
 a man of commanding presence, slowly arose, 
 and, lifting up his hand, said, impressively, " It 
 must be done" and forthwith hurled upon him 
 a terrible anathema. Amid the long string of 
 imprecations, " the curse of a widowed mother " 
 was invoked upon him, when the youth burst 
 into tears, but made no reply until the whole 
 was finished, when he said, " While you were 
 speaking, I could not but think, is this the reli- 
 gion of Christ ? While your mouth was filled 
 with cursing, I prayed that I might be enabled 
 to fulfil the injunction, ' Bless them that curse 
 you, pray for them that despitefully use you 
 and persecute you, that thus ye may be the 
 children of your Father in heaven.' " 
 
 This incident places in true contrast the spirit 
 of Romanism with the spirit of Jesus. 
 
 But let us return to the mass, for dissenting 
 from which we Protestants are pronounced ac- 
 cursed. It will be observed that there are two 
 distinct points in this rite which should be con- 
 sidered separately — the changing of the bread 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OP POPEKY. 45 
 
 and wine into the body and blood of Christ, 
 and the offering of a propitiatory sacrifice. As 
 the authority for the first, the Papists rely upon 
 the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, partic- 
 ularly the 53d and 54th verses. " Then Jesus 
 said unto them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and 
 drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso 
 eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath 
 eternal life.'' This language, the Popish fathers 
 contend, must be taken literally ; and upon it 
 they found the doctrine of transubstantiation. 
 But in their definition of transubstantiation, 
 which includes the soul and divinity of Christ, 
 they are the first to violate the literal import 
 of Christ's words, for these refer simply to the 
 body, the flesh and blood. 
 
 There is obviously no authority here for in- 
 cluding the spiritual nature of the Savior. Be- 
 sides, the bread to which Christ refers in this 
 chapter is 'the bread which came down from 
 heaven. And he says, " Not as your fathers did 
 eat manna, and are dead ; he that eateth of this 
 bread shall live forever.'' But did Christ's body, 
 his flesh and blood, come down from heaven? 
 What is to be done with the doctrine of the 
 incarnation, and with the Virgin Mary, in this 
 connection ? 
 
 There are still other points that perplex a 
 
46 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Protestant, common-sense mind. You observe 
 that Christ says that " except ye eat the flesh 
 of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have 
 no life in you." But the wine which represents 
 the blood is withheld from the laity, and drank 
 only by the priest. In this way the people get 
 only hal^ a sacrament. How is this difliculty 
 disposed of ? O, very easily ; the Catholic 
 will tell us. The Council of Trent have attached 
 to the article on transubstantiation the soothing 
 and accommodating declaration, " I also confess 
 that under either kind alone (the bread or wine) 
 Christ is received whole and entire, and there 
 is a true sacrament." A very convenient and 
 satisfactory solution for ignorance and bigotry 
 to receive, but not for those who are accustomed 
 to give a reason for the faith that is in them ! 
 Nor is it likely that we should be driven from 
 the field of debate by that short and compre- 
 hensive argument employed by our opponents, 
 " Let him be accursed." Such a sort of finality 
 may be agreeable to others, but it does not ex- 
 actly suit American ideas of free discussion and 
 independent belief. 
 
 But how does it happen that the learned 
 fathers should have overlooked the 63d verse 
 of this chapter, in which Christ distinctly ex- 
 plains the import of his own words ? He says, 
 " It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh prof- 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 47 
 
 iteth nothing; the words that I speak, they 
 are spirit and they are life." Can any thing be 
 plainer? Is it not obvious that Christ uses the 
 bread and wine, simply, as signs or symbols of 
 his body and blood, and that spiritual nourish- 
 ment is to be derived from spiritual communion 
 with him, from his words, his teachings, and 
 his holy doctrines ? Is it not clear that the 
 strong language which he uses is purely figura- 
 tive, and is in accordance with the Oriental style 
 of speaking, when the aim is to render the idea 
 or command emphatic and impressive ? 
 
 And what shall we say of the influence of 
 such a dogma as tran substantiation upon the 
 mind and conscience of the victim who is 
 forced to embrace it ? How disastrous must 
 be the effects of such a draft upon the credulity 
 of the human intellect! We do not wonder that 
 the road is so short from such a superstition to 
 infidelity. We do not wonder that whole nations, 
 where the triumphs of Romanism have been the 
 most complete, have swung from such absurdities 
 into the grossest atheism. We do not wonder 
 that Luther, on his first visit to Rome, found 
 even the highest ecclesiastics infidels at heart, 
 and ready to ridicule the vital principles of their 
 faith. 
 
 But supposing that the principle of literal 
 interpretation be applied to the words of Christ 
 
48 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 when he says of the bread, " This is my body," 
 then it is fair and right that it be applied to other 
 passages of a similar character. For example, 
 Christ says, " This cup is the New Testament in 
 my blood." Taken literally, the cup is really 
 transformed into a New Testament. Christ also 
 says, " I am the door," " I am the vine," " I am 
 the way," that is, at one time he is a door, at 
 another a true and real vine, and at another a 
 way. So in other passages the same form of 
 expression occurs. " The seven ears of corn 
 are seven years ; " " the seven candlesticks are 
 seven churches," &c. We see at once into 
 what absurdities we are led by the application 
 of this principle of interpretation to such pas- 
 sages. Other arguments might be adduced 
 from the Scriptures, which show^ that there is 
 not the shadow of a foundation for the dogma of 
 transubstantiation. Indeed, there are passages 
 which directly oppose it. Christ himself, after 
 he had consecrated the elements, speaks of the 
 wine as the fruit of the vine in the words, " I 
 will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, 
 until that day when I drink it new with you, 
 in my Father's kingdom." Christ, also, in 
 instituting the supper, said to the disciples, 
 " Do this in remembrance of me." Now, we 
 remember that which is past or absent, and not 
 what is present ; and all Christ's instructions 
 
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF POPERY. 49 
 
 show that the idea of his bodily presence in the 
 bread and wine was utterly foreign from his 
 mind. 
 
 The other feature of the mass, which consists 
 of offering the wafer to God as a propitiatory 
 sacrifice for sin, our limits will not allow us to 
 dwell upon ; neither is it necessary. For the 
 reader of the Bible knows that a full and sufS- 
 cient atonement has been made by Christ on 
 Calvary, and all the mummeries of designing 
 men can neither add to nor detract from that 
 great atonement. We are distinctly informed 
 that "without the shedding of blood there is 
 no remission ; " that " Christ was once offered to 
 bear the sins of many;" also, "we are sancti- 
 fied through the offering of the body of Jesus 
 Christ once for all." Thus we might go through 
 the New Testament, and on every page find ar- 
 guments against this absurdity. The whole 
 Bible is against it. Reason is against it. The 
 common sense of this nineteenth century is 
 against it. 
 
 The light upon the subject of the atonement 
 comes to us clear, direct, and full of splendor 
 from the eternal throne. A free and complete 
 salvation is offered to all who will exercise re- 
 pentance and faith. 
 
 D 5 
 
III. 
 
 PRINCIPLES OP POPERY, CONTINUED. 
 
 " Then shall that wicked ee revealed, even him whose 
 coming is after the working of satan, with all pow- 
 ER, AND SIGNS, AND LYING WONDERS." — 2 Tlt^ss. ii. 8, 9. 
 
 In our last lecture we examined several arti- 
 cles of the Roman Catholic creed, and showed 
 their inconsistency with the dictates of reason 
 and the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. We 
 proceed to notice other doctrines of this creed; 
 and we invite to the discussion of these articles 
 your earnest attention, because they constitute 
 the basis, or rather, I would say, the very es- 
 sence and substance of the Papal church. When 
 we examine any system of science, government, 
 or religion, through its acknowledged and estab- 
 lished principles, through the doctrines which its 
 advocates, after diligent study and protracted 
 debate, have fixed upon and published to the 
 world, we cannot be charged with unfairness, 
 or with bringing false accusations against the 
 system. If the principles or doctrines are 
 founded in truth, if their influence is beneficial 
 
 (50) 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 51 
 
 upon society, then the discussion of them will 
 add to their stability and power. If, on the 
 other hand, they are false and pernicious in 
 their influence, then they ought to be exposed, 
 and their power for evil destroyed. And the 
 rights that we claim for ourselves we readily 
 concede to our opponents. We would have 
 the advocates of Romanism discuss, fairly 
 and openly, the creed and principles of the 
 Protestant faith. We would have them ex- 
 amine these principles in the light of reason 
 and of the Scriptures; study their influence 
 upon society, upon morality, education, in- 
 dustry, commerce, the arts, social happiness, 
 and national prosperity. We have nothing 
 that we would hide from the gaze of the world. 
 We have no secret ecclesiastical assemblies, no 
 inquisitorial halls, no convents barred with iron 
 against the intrusion of the world. We invite 
 discussion and investigation. We have conse- 
 crated this American soil to freedom — to free- 
 dom in religion, in politics, in thought, and 
 opinion. K the Chinese who are landing upon 
 our western shores, and are building their 
 pagodas in California, choose to discuss the 
 merits of heathenism, and can show that Con- 
 fucius was superior to Christ, and their system 
 of religion is superior to Christianity, why, let 
 them do so. 
 
52 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 In our debate, however, with the Romanist, 
 we are a little fastidious as to the kind of 
 weapons to be employed. We prefer reason to 
 denunciation — sound logic to a sophistry suited 
 only to the ignorant and bigoted — convincing 
 arguments to the terrible anathemas in which 
 his church so freely deals, and the spirit of the 
 gospel, to those fearful curses that blast and 
 scath the very language that imbodies them. 
 
 But to proceed with our work. The next 
 article of the Romish creed is as follows: " I 
 firmly believe that there is a purgatory, and 
 that the souls imprisoned there are helped 
 by the suffrages of the faithful." This doc- 
 trine was discussed by the Council of Trent, 
 towards the close of its sessions, and the re- 
 sult was imbodied in this decree. The bishops 
 were instructed to see to it that this " whole- 
 some doctrine of purgatory, delivered by ven- 
 erable fathers and holy councils, should be be- 
 lieved and held by Christ's faithful, and every 
 where taught and preached." It was also 
 gravely declared, that the prayers of the faith- 
 ful, and the sacrifices of the mass, were of great 
 service to those who were detained in purgatory. 
 
 According to the Roman Catholic belief, 
 there is in the future world, besides a heaven 
 and a hell, a middle state, or place, where de- 
 parted souls make expiation for venial sins, 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 53 
 
 and are purified, preparatory to entering upon 
 the joys of heaven. Those who die guilty of 
 what are termed mortal sins are doomed to 
 eternal punishment, while those who die guilt- 
 less of either kind of sin are immediately ad- 
 mitted to the glories of heaven. 
 
 While the Popish fathers are agreed as to 
 the existence of a place called purgatory, they 
 make sad work with fixing its locality, and de- 
 fining the nature and degree of its punish- 
 ments. Some divest it of all material locality, 
 and say that it is a spiritual residence for de- 
 parted souls ; others declare that it is in the 
 bowels of the earth ; others that it is in the 
 air ; others that it is in the vicinity of hell ; and 
 others that it is identical with the abodes of 
 the lost. Even infallible councils and infalli- 
 ble popes have been unable to decide this ques- 
 tion. Many of the opinions which have been 
 advanced respecting it are too ridiculous even to 
 be recited. His infallibility Gregory the Great, 
 believing the place of punishment to be in the 
 centre of the earth, considered the volcanic 
 eruptions of ^Etna, Vesuvius, and Hecla as 
 flames bursting from the fiery abodes of the 
 guilty. 
 
 In regard to the nature of the punishment in 
 purgatory, there is as great a variety of opinions 
 as in reference to its locality. The Council of 
 
54 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Florence endeavored to fix upon fire as the in- 
 strument of punishment. Others have enlisted 
 the aid of frosts, ice, and violent tempests. 
 Some writers describe the unhappy victims as 
 hurried from one extreme of suffering to an- 
 other — from scorching flames to the most in- 
 tense frosts. 
 
 As for the authority, human or divine, for 
 such a place as purgatory, the holy and learned 
 fathers afford us very little that is satisfactory 
 to a Protestant mind. In the first place, even 
 the name of purgatory is not to be found in 
 the Scriptures. Nor is there any mention made 
 of the punishment which is ascribed to it. 
 Certain passages are twisted and tortured out 
 of their legitimate meaning to favor it, but the 
 ingenuity of man is very severely taxed to ob- 
 tain from this source even the shadow of an 
 argument. " The body," says one, " of an un- 
 happy heretic was never more unmercifully 
 mangled and disjointed in a Spanish Inqui- 
 sition, with the design of forcing confession, 
 than the book of divine revelation is tortured, 
 with the intention of compelling it to patron- 
 ize purgatory." But the labors of the holy in- 
 quisitors and zealous tormentors have been in 
 vain. 
 
 Many distinguished theologians have frankly 
 acknowledged that there is no scriptural evi- 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 55 
 
 dence for this doctrine. One declares that 
 " purgatorial punishment is a matter of humaa 
 opinion, which can be proved neither from 
 Scripture, fathers, nor councils." Another says, 
 that " the belief of this intermediate place was 
 unknown to the apostles and original Chris- 
 tians." 
 
 But multitudes profess to found this doctrine 
 upon scriptural authority. The following pa- 
 thetic words of Job, we are informed, are used 
 as the motto of purgatorial societies : " Have 
 pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my 
 friends ! for the hand of God hath touched me." 
 But it is an unfortunate circumstance Sox the 
 advocates of this doctrine, that the patriarch 
 uttered this lamentation while he was on the 
 earth, and not in purgatory. Yet ignorant Pa- 
 pists believe that Job was in purgatory when 
 he uttered these words. So much for under- 
 standing the Scriptures according to the 
 " teachings of the holy mother church, and the 
 unanimous consent of the fathers." 
 
 Another passage, which is relied upon, is the 
 expression of Christ, in his sermon on the 
 mount, that the debtor in a prison shall not 
 come out thence till he has " paid the utter- 
 most farthing." But it is obvious to every can- 
 did reader, that this is simply a metaphor drawn 
 from a legal transaction, and can have no ref- 
 
56 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 erence whatever to purgatory. If the meta- 
 phors and image.s used by Christ and his apos- 
 tles are to be taken as the basis of fundamental 
 doctrines of faith, we may draw from the Bi- 
 ble the greatest errors and absurdities. 
 
 Another argument in favor of purgatory is 
 drawn from the declaration of Christ, that the 
 sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall 
 not be forgiven in this world, nor in the next. 
 From this passage the inference is drawn that 
 some sins are forgiven in the next world. But 
 according to the Romanist, purgatory is a place 
 for punishment, not for forgiveness. Only 
 those are sent there who have been guilty of 
 trivial sins, and they are there to make a fuU 
 expiation for their transgressions. Besides, the 
 fact that one sin is unpardonable in a future 
 state does not prove that other sins are pardon- 
 able. If it is certain that I shall be drowned 
 in crossing the Atlantic, this is not proof that 
 others who accompany me will be saved. The 
 conclusion is not contained in the premise. 
 
 It' should also be observed that the original 
 Greek word translated world signifies also du- 
 ration, time, age, an indefinite period. And 
 the idea intended to be conveyed is that ex- 
 pressed by St. Mark — "But he that shall 
 blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never 
 forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damna- 
 tion." 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 57 
 
 The passage in the First Epistle of Peter, 
 wherein it is said that Christ " went and 
 preached unto the spirits in prison," is cited as 
 a very strong and convincing argument in fa- 
 vor of purgatory. But let us examine the 
 whole passage ; for as St. Peter was the first 
 pope of Rome, (without, however, the least ev- 
 idence that he was ever in Rome at all,) his 
 authority on this point should have weight ! 
 After speaking of the death of Christ, he adds, 
 " But quickened by the Spirit, by which also he 
 went and preached unto the spirits in prison, 
 which sometime were disobedient, when once 
 the long suffering of God waited in the days 
 of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein 
 few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." 
 Now, the Romanist contends that this prison 
 was purgatory, and that Christ, after his cruci- 
 fixion, went and preached to the spirits detained 
 there. But the very obscurity and difficulties 
 connected with the passage, should exclude it 
 from a place among the proof texts of any ar- 
 ticle of faith. Christ, when on the cross, said 
 to the penitent thief, " This day shalt thou be 
 with me in paradise." But is paradise a prison 
 filled with guilty sinners? 
 
 You will notice that in the Scripture quoted, 
 the reference is to those who were disobedient 
 in the time of Noah ; and we are distinctly in- 
 
58 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 formed in the first chapter of this epistle, that 
 the spirit which animated the ancient prophets 
 was the Spirit of Christ. The meaning, there- 
 fore, is, that through this Spirit, imparted to his 
 faithful servant Noah, he preached to the sin- 
 ners before the flood, who are now lost spirits. 
 The passage is thus paraphrased by Dr. Dod- 
 dridge : " But quickened by the Spirit of God, 
 even that Spirit, by the inspiration of which 
 granted to Noah, * '^ * he preached to those 
 notorious sinners who for their disobedience 
 have since experienced the just severity of the 
 divine vengeance, and are now in the condition 
 of separate spirits, reserved, as it were in pris- 
 on, to the severe punishment at the great day. 
 I speak of those who were long since disobe- 
 dient, when once the long suffering of God 
 waited upon them in the days of the patriarch 
 Noah, during one hundred and twenty years, 
 while the ark was preparing." In this inter- 
 pretation the most eminent Protestant com- 
 mentators agree, and certainly it corresponds 
 with the language and the context. 
 
 But, besides the absence of scriptural proofs, 
 the doctrine of purgatory has not even the 
 sanction of tradition. " None of the ancients," 
 says Edgar, "for four hundred years after the 
 Christian era, mention any such place as pur- 
 gatory. Many of the fathers testify, in the 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 59 
 
 plainest, language, against an intermediate state 
 of expiation. Augustine, while he admits that 
 there is a heaven and a hell, rejects the idea of 
 a third place, as unknown to the church and 
 foreign to the Sacred Scriptures. Ephraim and 
 Epiphanius disclaim the belief in a middle 
 state." A doctrine, therefore, that is sustained 
 neither by Scripture nor tradition, must be 
 traced to the superstition and avarice of the 
 times that gave it birth. That it is profitable, 
 if not to the souls of the departed, at least to 
 the pockets of the priests, we are ready to al- 
 low. There are few decrees of the Council of 
 Trent that yield a greater revenue, than, that 
 the souls imprisoned in purgatory, are helped 
 by the suffrages of the faithful. 
 
 The next article of the Roman Catholic creed 
 is as follows : " I do likewise believe that the 
 saints reigning together with Christ are to be 
 worshipped and invoked, and that they do offer 
 prayers unto God for us, and that their relics 
 are to be had in veneration." Here we have a 
 wide door opened for saint worship and the 
 veneration of relics. The scriptural authority 
 for this article, is about as clear and abundant, 
 as that which sustains the other points which 
 we have examined. Indeed, with the teachings 
 of the Bible in regard to the duty of rendering 
 worship to God only, I see not how such a 
 
60 KOMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 dogma could find a place in the creed of what 
 is called a Christian church. That the fathers 
 have not been unanimous in sustaining saint 
 worship, appears from the fact that it was con- 
 demned in the Council of Constantinople, in 
 754, established by the second Council of Nice, 
 in 787, and again condemned by the Frankfort 
 Council, in 794. In proportion as superstition 
 prevailed in the church, the influence of this 
 practice increased or decreased. As late, how- 
 ever, as the time of the sessions of the Council 
 of Trent, we find saint worship in full force. 
 This council solemnly enjoined upon all bishops 
 and teachers of religion to make it a chief 
 point, not indeed to preach Christ and him 
 crucified, — not to discourse from the texts, 
 " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
 and him only shalt thou serve ; " " Thou 
 shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 
 or any likeness of any thing that is in 
 heaven above or in the earth beneath : " no ; 
 the holy synod gives no such comrnands, but 
 this is their language : the bishops are " dili- 
 gently to instruct the faithful, concerning the 
 intercession and the invocation of saints, the 
 honor of relics, and the lawful use of images; 
 teaching them that the saints reigning together 
 with Christ, offer to God their prayers for 
 men." 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. Gl 
 
 But you may ask, Suppose one, having ob- 
 tained access to a Bible, and having read 
 such passages as I have quoted, should dissent 
 from this doctrine, and refuse to worship and 
 pray to finite beings ; vt^hat is to be done with 
 him ? Is he met with proofs, persuasion, and 
 convincing arguments by the fathers of the holy 
 Catholic church? I would reply, that he is 
 met with one very short, and, to the church, 
 convenient argument. It is in these words: 
 " But they who deny that the saints are to be 
 invoked, or who assert either that they do not 
 pray for men, or that the invoking them that 
 they may pray for us is idolatry, or that it is 
 contrary to the honor of God, are to be ac- 
 cursed." They are not to be convinced, nor 
 persuaded, nor prayed for, but simply accursed. 
 
 It is true that the Romish fathers make a 
 distinction between the worship rendered to 
 God, and that to be rendered to the Virgin 
 Mary and to the saints. But if you will read 
 the titles which are conferred upon the Virgin 
 Mary, and the prayers which are offered up to 
 her and to the saints, you can judge how far 
 this worship is removed from the grossest idol- 
 atry. 
 
 In a book entitled the " Garden of the Soul, 
 a Manual of Fervent Prayers, Pious Reflec- 
 tions, and Solid Instructions" for Papists, I 
 6 
 
62 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 find, in a single petition, no less than forty-five 
 different titles given to the Virgin Mary. 
 
 The following is a portion of the prayer to 
 be offered by the suppliant while kneeling be- 
 fore an image of the Virgin : — 
 
 " We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother 
 of God! Despise not our petitions in our neces- 
 sities, but deliver us from all dangers, O ever- 
 glorious and blessed Virgin ! Holy Mary, Holy 
 Mother of^God, Holy Virgin of virgins. Mother 
 of Christ, Mother of divine grace. Mother of our 
 Creator, Mirror of Justice, Seat of Wisdom, 
 House of God, Ark of the Covenant, Gate of 
 Heaven, Morning Star, Refuge of Sinners, &c., 
 &c., pray for us." 
 
 In another volume, which is very popular in 
 the Catholic church, may be found the follow- 
 ing prayers : — 
 
 " Queen of heaven and of earth ! Mother of 
 God ! my sovereign mistress ! I present myself 
 before you, as a poor mendicant before a mighty 
 queen. From the height of your throne, deign 
 to cast your eyes upon a miserable sinner, and 
 lose not sight of him till you render him truly 
 holy. O illustrious Virgin ! you are the queen 
 of the universe, and consequently mine. I de- 
 sire to consecrate myself more particularly to 
 thy service ; dispose of me according to your 
 good pleasure." 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 63 
 
 Again: "Blessed Virgin, who through your 
 double quality of queen and mother, dispense 
 your favors with such munificence and love ! 
 I, who am so poor in merit and virtue, and 
 greatly indebted to the divine justice, humbly 
 recommend myself to you. You, O Mary, 
 have the keys of divine mercy ; draw on thine 
 inexhaustible treasure, and dispense its riches 
 to this poor sinner in proportion to his immense 
 wants." « 
 
 In a devotional book entitled > the j^' Sacred 
 Heart," we read the following exPirtation: 
 " Come, poor and hardened sinners, ho^v great 
 soever your crimes may be, come and behold. 
 Mary stretches out her hand to receive you. 
 Though insensible to the great concern of your 
 salvation, though unfortunately proof against 
 the most engaging invitations and inspirations 
 of the Holy Ghost, fling yourselves at the feet 
 of Mary, this powerful advocate. Her heart is 
 all love, all tenderness." Thus we see that 
 greater efficacy in securing the conversion of 
 men, is attributed to the Virgin Mary, than to 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 But the most remarkable specimen of Ro- 
 man Catholic idolatry, says Dr. Gumming, is 
 that furnished in a work called the " Psalter of 
 the blessed Bonaventura," the author being a 
 distinguished saint in the Roman Catholic oal- 
 
64 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 endar. On St. Bonaventura day, the faithful, 
 so called, offer up the following prayer : " O 
 Lord, who didst give blessed Bonaventura to 
 thy people for a minister of eternal salvation, 
 grant that he who was the instructor of our 
 life here on earth, may become our intercessor 
 in heaven." Of course, the teachings of such 
 a saint must be very valuable. Listen, then, 
 to some extracts f^aggL his extraordinary book. 
 It dom^ertqip thus : " Come unto Mary, all ye 
 that laffor aft(d are heavy laden, and she will 
 give yoi^TC^f^ The nineteenth Psalm reads 
 thus : " The heavens declare the glory of the 
 Virgin, and the firmament showeth forth her 
 handy work." Even the one hundred and tenth 
 Psalm, which so directly refers to the Son of 
 God, does not escape the corrupting pen of this 
 sainted divine. In his version it is thus : " The 
 Lord said unto Mary, Stand thou at my right 
 hand, until I have made thine enemies thy foot- 
 stool." 
 
 There is also in the same work a most blas- 
 phemous perversion of a sublime passage of 
 the liturgy of the ancient church. Instead of 
 the words, " We praise thee, O God ; we ac- 
 knowledge thee to be the Lord," the sainted di- 
 vine teaches the people thus : " We praise thee, 
 O Mary ; we acknowledge thee to be a virgin. 
 All the earth doth worship thee. To thee an- 
 
CONTINUED. 65 
 
 gels and archangels, to thee thrones and princi- 
 palities, cherubim and seraphim, continually 
 cry, Holy, holy, holy art thou, O Mary, mother 
 of God ! " Can language be conceived more 
 revolting to a pious heart? 
 
 But you may ask. Why does the Papist him- 
 self tolerate such idolatry, when every page of the 
 Bible so plainly condemns it? I answer by ask- 
 ing. How does he know that the Bible condemns 
 it ? The Bible to the millions of Romanists in 
 Europe is a sealed book. But I am told that 
 they have their catechisms, which contain scrip- 
 tural truth. It is true they have, and I will 
 give a short extract from one called the 
 "Abridgment of Christian Doctrine."* On 
 page 119 is the question, " Is it lawful to honor 
 the angels and the saints?" Answer. "YesP 
 Question. " How prove you that ? " A71S. "By 
 Revelation xix. 10. ' And I fell down, said he, 
 to worship before the feet of the angel, which 
 showed me these things.' " Observe that the 
 answer stops here, leaving entirely out of view 
 the emphatic reply of the angel, " See thou do 
 it not ; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy 
 brethren that have the testimony of Jesus : 
 worship God." Very properly is this work 
 called an abrids'ment of Christian doctrine. 
 
 * See Dr. Cumming's work, page 314. 
 E 6* 
 
66 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 The advocates of this doctrine pretend to 
 find support for it in the Scriptures ; but it is 
 only by misrepresenting the words of inspira- 
 tion, and mutilating passages of the Bible, that 
 even the show of authority for it is obtained. 
 These zealous and learned Romanists entirely 
 overlook such passages as the following, which 
 teach directly the opposite doctrine : " There 
 is one God, and one mediator between God 
 and man, the man Christ Jesus." " For 
 through him we both have access by one spirit 
 unto the Father." " Jesus saith unto him, I 
 am the way, and the truth, and the life ; no 
 man cometh unto the Father but by me," — 
 not by saints, nor by angels, but "by me." 
 Can any thing be plainer than this language ? 
 Yet throughout Catholic Europe we find wor- 
 ship rendered to the Virgin and to saints. Dur- 
 ing the service of the mass, the priest frequently 
 refers to them, as in the prayer, " Deliver us, 
 we pray thee, O Lord, from all evils, past, pres- 
 ent, and to come, and the blessed and glorious 
 Mary, mother of God, with thy blessed apostles, 
 Peter, and Paul, and Andrew, and all saints in- 
 terceding." 
 
 So prevalent is this idolatry in Italy that, 
 Gavazzi tells us, the nation "is called the 
 nation of the Virgin, and of the Virgin's prod- 
 igality. At every step [he says] we stumble 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 67 
 
 against an altar dedicated to the Virgin, a 
 church consecrated to her warship, and every 
 day we hear of prodigies wrought by her. In 
 Rome more than seventy of her images open 
 and shut their eyes; in Ancona her image 
 winked before many hundred thousand specta- 
 tors, and for many months." 
 
 How wonderful! How extremely edifying 
 and improving to hundreds of thousands of 
 spectators, to stand and see an image wink ! 
 What an exalted privilege ! to say nothing of 
 the machinery behind the picture worked by 
 infallible priests — by the illustrious successors 
 of the apostles. But, what is still more re- 
 markable, one of her images in Rome shed 
 tears in great profusion, and another at Lucca, 
 " with maternal fondness, moved the infant Je- 
 sus from one side to another, to save him from 
 a stone cast at him by an impious hand, and 
 received it on her own face, which still retains 
 the trace of the blow." In Italy there are 
 many original portraits painted by St. Luke, 
 who never was a painter. In Geneva, Flor- 
 ence, Naples, Palermo, Messina, and in almost 
 every town, there are sanctuaries, shrines, and 
 relics of the Madonna, the blessed mother of 
 God. 
 
 The expenses of this idolatry are enormous. 
 While the gospel of Jesus Christ is furnished 
 
68 
 
 EOMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 without money and without price, the worship 
 of the Virgin, and the other rites of the Papacy, 
 impoverish the people. " Her altars and tem- 
 ples are extremely rich, abounding in gold, sil- 
 ver, diamonds, mosaics, carvings, laces, and 
 embroideries — all wrung from the sweat and 
 blood of the people. The revenues of her 
 house of Loretto alone amount to eighty thou- 
 sand dollars. All her festivals cost the people 
 dearly. Her shrines and sanctuaries every 
 where, but especially at Oropa, Genoa, Turin, 
 Florence, Leghorn, Naples, &c., are exorbitantly 
 rich, and are maintained at a vast expenditure, 
 wrung from the wretched people in minute 
 sums. The people are plundered to support 
 this superstition. They starve, while the wealth 
 extorted from them, exceeds the united wealth 
 of all the monarchs of Europe. These vast 
 sums, applied to commerce, would make the 
 prosperity of Italy, the safety of all Italians ; 
 but they are robbed from the community, and 
 set apart for dumb, idle, idolatrous, show, to in- 
 flate the pride of Jesuits and priests, to lead for- 
 eigners to visit, marvel at, and pay a tribute to, 
 the shrines of the blessed Virgin Mary." 
 
 This idolatrous worship is also made use of 
 to strengthen the chains of despotism. Pope 
 Pius IX. atti'ibutes his restoration to the throne, 
 and the defeat of the Italian patriots, to the 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 69 
 
 agency of the Virgin Mary ; although it should 
 be remembered that the Virgin was assisted in 
 this work by four foreign armies ! As proof, 
 however, of the correctness of the pope's view 
 of the matter, we are informed that the miracu- 
 lous Virgin at Rimini, pleased with his resto- 
 ration to the throne, for many months opened 
 her eyes in the presence of the people. His in- 
 fallibility, in return, in order to confirm the 
 miracle in the eyes of the deluded people, and 
 to show his gi-atitude, presented, ^ot^vithstand- 
 ing his poverty, to the Virgin, a crown of gold. 
 There is scarcely a scene in the history of 
 Italy, more melancholy, than that connected 
 with this instance of superstition. After ages 
 of oppression, suffering, and galling tyranny, 
 the people had succeeded in breaking the iron 
 framework of despotism, that had so long 
 crushed them. The pope had been compelled 
 to flee from Rome. His sceptre appeared to be 
 broken. Hope had dawned upon the nation, 
 and the people breathed an air of freedom. But 
 suddenly a vast crowd is seen approaching the 
 city. The music of foreign drums and trumpets 
 is heard. Foreign bayonets are seen flashing 
 in the distance. The tyrant is being borne 
 back to his throne by the steel-clad hosts of 
 despotic Europe. A strange position for the 
 the vicar of Christ, for the representative of the 
 
70 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 meek and lowly Jesus ! Not in every particu- 
 lar like Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem 
 is this scene! The feelings and purposes of 
 the heroes differ as widely as heaven and hell. 
 Instead of blessings, the monster comes with 
 the most terrible curses and anathemas for 
 the people. Instead of flowers and branches 
 strewed along the way, the road is covered 
 with the mangled forms of the dead. Instead 
 of the shout, Hosanna to the Son of David, the 
 awful cry of despair ascends from the doomed 
 victims of Papal wrath. Rivers of blood flow. 
 Twenty thousand noble Italian patriots are 
 driven into exile or chained in gloomy dungeons. 
 And to crown the infamous and bloody tragedy, 
 the sanction of Heaven is claimed for the tri- 
 umph, andthe proof is furnished by the wink- 
 ing Virgin. Thus superstition and despotism 
 join hand in hand. Thus, these Christian idol- 
 ators deal with those who would escape from 
 their grasp, and worship the only living and 
 ti'ue God. 
 
 In the article of the creed which we have 
 quoted, the veneration of relics is also enjoined 
 upon the faithful. This feature of the Papacy 
 is also a source of great superstition to the 
 people, and great profit to the priests. The 
 affection with which we regard the mementoes 
 
PEINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 71 
 
 of departed friends is by the Romish church 
 perverted, and made the basis of one of the 
 most stupendous systems of fraud and impos- 
 ture that ever disgraced human society. The 
 extent to which this superstition is carried is 
 perfectly astounding. While the pagans were 
 content to worship the sun, moon, stars, birds, 
 and beasts, the Papist explores dark and gloomy 
 cemeteries, invades the sanctity of the grave, 
 ransacks the very regions of death and corrup- 
 tion, and with decayed bones, bits of wood and 
 clothing, decorates the altars of religion. The 
 relics connected with Christ — the cross, the 
 spear, the sponge, the nails, and the crown of 
 thorns — are innumerable. Also those con- 
 nected with the Virgin Mary it would weary 
 you to enumerate. 
 
 In the little chapel that contains the cele- 
 brated staircase, which thousands ascend upon 
 their knees, there is a picture of the Savior, by 
 Luke — also a feather from the wing of the 
 archangel, which he dropped on the salutation 
 of Mary — a bottle of the tears which Christ 
 shed at the grave of Lazarus — the cord which 
 bound the Savior when he was scourged — and 
 numerous other irelics. The Church of Santa 
 Croce is famous for its relics. A distinguished 
 writer says that near the chancel are two cata- 
 logues, hung up for the perusal of all. One is 
 
72 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 a detail of the indulgences granted to all who 
 there worship, and the other is a list of its sa- 
 cred relics. I will quote a portion of them : — 
 
 " Three pieces of the true cross, deposited by 
 Constantine, and kept in a case of gold and 
 jewels. ■ 
 
 " The title placed over the cross, with the 
 writing in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. 
 
 " One of the most holy nails by which our 
 Lord was crucified. 
 
 " Two thorns from the crown of our Lord. 
 
 " The transverse beam of the cross of the 
 penitent thief. 
 
 " One of the pieces of money supposed to 
 have been given for the betrayal of Christ. 
 
 " The cord by which our Lord was bound to 
 the cross. 
 
 " A large piece of the coat of Christ. 
 
 " Some of the clothing of St. John the Bap- 
 tist. 
 
 " Portions of the arms of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul. 
 
 " A piece of the sepulchre of Christ. 
 
 " Some of the manna which fell in the wil- 
 derness. 
 
 " A piece of Mount Calvary. 
 
 " Some relics of eleven prophets. 
 
 " A part of the head of John the Baptist. 
 
 " A tooth of St. Peter," &c. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 73 
 
 Then follows a list of some bones of one 
 hundred and one apostles, prophets, martyrs, 
 widows, and virgins, and the whole closes up 
 with '' a hundred and thirty-seven cases of 
 other relics of saints, both male and female, 
 whose names antiquity has not distinguished." 
 
 Thus richly is this one church endowed with 
 holy relics. On certain occasions they are ex- 
 hibited by venerable cardinals and bishops, for 
 the adoration and worship of the people. 
 
 " In St. Peter's they show you the very pillar 
 against which Jesus leaned in the temple at Je- 
 rusalem — portions of the cross — the head of 
 St. Andrew. In St. John Lateran is the table 
 at which the Lord's supper was instituted. At 
 St. Pietre di Vinculo they show you the chain 
 that bound Peter, and which was miraculously 
 broken by the angel ! Filings from this chain 
 have been sold at exorbitant .prices, to be set in 
 rings and breastpins by the faithful." 
 
 But I will not weary you, with the recital of 
 the evidences of the gross ignorance and super- 
 stition of the people, and the wickedness of the 
 priests who thus delude them. It is most 
 painful to reflect upon the fact, that one hun- 
 dred and fifty millions of the human family are 
 under the dominion of such superstitions. And 
 those whose office and solemn duty it is to en- 
 lighten, and elevate, and save these millions 
 7 
 
74 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 are employing all their energies to keep them 
 in darkness, perpetuate these delusions, and 
 prevent a single ray of gospel light from enter- 
 ing their minds. Instead of exhibiting the 
 doctrines of the glorious gospel of the blessed 
 God, — instead of stimulating the people to a 
 life of virtue and holiness, by a presentation of 
 the glories of heaven, — the pope, cardinals, and 
 bishops bring forth, with great pomp, these bits 
 of dry bones, ragged coats, rotten wood, and 
 compel the people to bow down and worship 
 them. And this they call the religion of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ! This, forsooth, is the only 
 way of salvation ! And if one of these poor 
 devotees is found reading his Bible, — is found 
 searching the Scriptures according to the di- 
 vine command, — he is anathematized or cast 
 into prison. He must bow down to these gath- 
 erings from old graveyards and cemeteries, or 
 he is pronounced accursed. 
 
 But you may ask. What can be the motive 
 for perpetuating such gross superstitions ? Av- 
 aricious priests and monks can answer this 
 question. These relics have a great mercantile 
 value in the Papal markets. They yield im- 
 mense revenues. Multitudes are attracted to 
 their shrines, and pay largely for a sight of the 
 relics. Even Protestants pay thousands of dol- 
 lars, annually, and then laugh at the supersti- 
 
PRINCIPLES OF POPERY, CONTINUED. 75 
 
 tion of those whose credulity is so completely 
 imposed upon. 
 
 When relics are needed for new churches in 
 this country, they are ordered from Rome; and 
 it is a remarkable feature of this trade, that 
 however numerous the orders are from every 
 part of the world, the supply is always equal to 
 the demand. Whether they are multiplied mi- 
 raculously, or not, we are not informed. 
 
IV. 
 
 ANTAGONISM BETWEEN POPERY AND CIVIL 
 FREEDOM. 
 
 " Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with 
 
 THEE, WHICH FRAMETH MISCHIEF BY A LAW." — Psalm XCiV. 
 20. 
 
 I PROPOSE, in this lecture, to discuss the bear- 
 ing of Popery upon freedom, and social and 
 national happiness. 
 
 That we may not be charged with bringing 
 against the Romish church unfounded accusa- 
 tions, or with dealing with antiquated princi- 
 ples of government which have been abandoned 
 or repudiated, we will quote the opinions which 
 have recently been advanced by the advocates 
 of Romanism in America. And it should be 
 observed, that whatever is said against religious 
 freedom, bears with equal force against civil 
 freedom, for the two are inseparably connected. 
 One cannot exist without the other. 
 
 Hear, then, the language used by the " Shep- 
 herd of the Valley," November 23, 1851: 
 " The church is of necessity intolerant. Heresy 
 
 (76) 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 77 
 
 she endures when and where she must ; but she 
 hates it, and directs all her energies to its de- 
 struction. If Catholics ever gain an immense 
 numerical majority, religious freedom in tlys 
 country is at an end. So our enemies say. So 
 we believe." 
 
 Another authority, high in the church, has 
 said, " That popes and general councils have 
 passed the most bloody and persecuting laws 
 against all whom they were pleased to denomi- 
 nate as heretics, is now generally conceded by 
 intelligent defenders of the Catholic faith, and 
 it is maintained, as we have seen, that if they 
 should ever obtain a decided numerical major- 
 ity in this country, they will be bound by the 
 very nature of their religion to act on the same 
 principles, and consequently religious liberty 
 will thus be at an end. ' So our enemies say. 
 So say we.'' " 
 
 Listen to the words of Brownson's Review, 
 which is the acknowledged organ of Romanism 
 in this country, and is indorsed by nearly 
 the whole Roman Catholic hierarchy in the 
 United States. Indeed, Mr. Brownson has 
 asserted that he writes nothing without the 
 sanction of his bishop. On the subject of the 
 pope's authority, he says, in his Review for 1854, 
 page 57, "We believe in the direct temporal 
 authority of the pope, as vicar of Jesus Christ 
 7* 
 
78 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 on earth." " The church (in the person of the 
 pope) bears, by divine right, both swords (tem- 
 poral and spiritual.) The temporal sovereign 
 hplds it, [that is, the temporal sword,] to be ex- 
 ercised under her directions." 
 
 And what, you may ask, is the authority of 
 the pope, according to the admissions of the 
 Romish church? The question is answered 
 by the Council of Trent, in the following lan- 
 guage : " Sitting in the chair in which Peter, 
 the prince of the apostles, sat to the close of his 
 life, the church recognizes in his person the 
 most exalted degrees of dignity, and the full 
 amplitude of jurisdiction — a dignity and juris- 
 diction not based on synodal, or other human con- 
 stitutions, but emanating from no less authority 
 than God himself." 
 
 Here we see the most absolute despotism 
 conferred upon the head of the Papal church, 
 and conferred in the name of Almighty God. 
 Powers the most unlimited, in civil, social, and 
 religious matters, are committed to him, and all 
 the forces and influences at the command of 
 the church are employed to sustain his supreme 
 authority. 
 
 The sentiments of Brownson, with regard to 
 the constitution of the United States, are thus 
 responded to by one who signs himself Apos- 
 tolicus : " I say with Brownson, that if the 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 79 
 
 church should declare that the constitution, and 
 the very existence of this or any other country, 
 should be extinguished, it is a solemn ordinance 
 of God himself, and every good Catholic ivould 
 he bound, under the penalty of the terrible pun- 
 ishment pronounced against the disobedient, to 
 obey!' 
 
 Bishop O' Conner, of Pittsburg, says, "Re- 
 ligious liberty is only endured till the opposite 
 can be established with safety to the Catholic 
 world." The Bishop of St. Louis declares, 
 " America will soon be Catholic, and then re- 
 ligious liberty will cease to exist." 
 
 Such are the sentiments which are openly 
 proclaimed in free America, not by men who 
 have been wronged, or who have suffered under 
 our institutions, but by those who have access 
 to all the advantages which the nation affords, 
 and whose lives, property, and right of speech 
 are protected by the very government which 
 they so bitterly and wantonly assail. 
 
 We throw wide open the gates of our nation 
 to the oppressed and suffering of all countries 
 and languages ; we place at the feet of the mil- 
 lions who come to our shores all the social, 
 civil, educational, and religious advantages 
 which the toil of our fathers and the industry 
 and enterprise of their descendants have secured ; 
 and we are repaid by sentiments most insulting 
 
80 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 to our national honor, by designs against our 
 government of a most treasonable character, 
 and by attempts to destroy that liberty which 
 constitutes the attraction and glory of our land. 
 A.nd if we raise our voices in reply, if we pre- 
 sume to inquire into the nature and fruits of 
 that system which boldly proclaims its antag- 
 onism to freedom and to the constitution of the 
 United States, why, the Roman Catholic cries 
 out that we are persecuting him, and that we 
 had better look to our own affairs, and not med- 
 dle with others'. He would have, I presume, 
 the millions of Protestants in America listen to 
 the astounding quotations which I have made, 
 in meek silence, and be the quiet and uninter- 
 ested observers of the efforts that are being made 
 to corrupt our government, destroy our free 
 schools, and overthrow our liberties. He must 
 indeed have an exalted view of our amiable- 
 ness and meekness, to entertain such an idea. 
 Certainly the past history of the American 
 people, in their dealings with the foes of their 
 liberties, does not warrant the Romanist in enter- 
 taining such an opinion. I hope that we are not 
 deficient in the virtue of amiableness, nor slow, 
 on all proper occasions, to exercise it ; but that 
 this is not the only virtue of the American peo- 
 ple, I need not stop to prove. I believe that there 
 is in this land such a thing as patriotism. I 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 81 
 
 believe that there is here a love of civil and 
 religious liberty which Romish priests and po- 
 litical demagogues combined will find it exceed- 
 ingly difficult to destroy. And the right to 
 discuss every question, and examine every 
 movement that touches our religious or nation- 
 al welfare, the American people will never 
 relinquish. 
 
 The despotic character of Popery is developed, 
 in the first place, in the uniform and persevering 
 efforts of its leaders to destroy liberty of thought. 
 The first object aimed at is, to break down the 
 independence of the mind and enslave the con- 
 science. The position is taken at the outset, 
 that the whole machinery of the intellect, of the 
 emotions, desires, and will, shall be worked and 
 guided by the church ; that a man shall think, 
 reason, and believe, only as the church shall 
 prescribe. Now, such an assumption of power 
 is a direct attack upon the foundations of mo- 
 rality and human responsibility. The Almighty 
 has conferred upon man reason, judgment, and 
 conscience, that they may be exercised inde- 
 pendently, in regard to questions of truth and 
 duty. And to place the conscience in the 
 power of another, — to require a man to con- 
 fess his sins to a priest rather than to God, — 
 is to remove the strong barriers of virtue, and 
 open the floodgates of every form of abuse and 
 
82 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 tyranny. Even allowing that the priests are 
 as pure and holy as the angels of heaven, the 
 influence of suc'h a doctrine cannot be other- 
 wise than most pernicious. But if the priest 
 becomes corrupt, and abuses the immense 
 power which he wields, we readily see how dis- 
 astrous must be the consequences. The inti- 
 macy of the relation that subsists between him 
 and the people, — the opportunity afibrded at 
 stated periods of knowing their secret thoughts 
 and purposes, and suggesting, by inquiries or 
 otherwise, evil principles, — give to him a power 
 to undermine virtue and corrupt the conscience, 
 that belongs to no other system. And the extent 
 to which such a power has been exercised, it is 
 most appalling to contemplate. From the con- 
 fessional there have flowed influences that have 
 poisoned thousands of hearts, blasted the noblest 
 virtues, destroyed the peace of families, and cor- 
 rupted every class in society. Children have 
 been led to inform against parents, and parents 
 against children. Secrets essential to domestic 
 happiness have been extorted from members of 
 families. , Friend, under the influence of threats, 
 or promises, or flatteries, has been made to tes- 
 tify against friend, and one citizen against an- 
 other. 
 
 We are told that auricular confession is a 
 religious institution; but even a superficial 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 83 
 
 examination of its workings shows that it is a 
 mighty political engine. It is a most skilfully 
 arranged machinery for sustaining tyrants, and 
 keeping the people in absolute subjection. The 
 idea that it originated in Christianity, ^r was 
 sustained by Christ or the apostles, is too absurd 
 to require a formal refutation. It is sufficient 
 to condemn it just to state, that its first patron 
 was Pope Innocent III., whose career of tyran- 
 ny and usurpation surpassed even that of the 
 cruel Gregory. This bloodthirsty tyrant saw the 
 necessity of this instrument for the full accom- 
 plishment of his despotic purposes, and hence 
 employed it. And we are free to declare, that 
 where this system of auricular confession pre- 
 vails, there can be no real religious or civil free- 
 dom. Just look at it for a moment. Here is 
 a class of men, calling themselves priests, who 
 hold supreme power over the consciences of the 
 people ; who stand in the place of God to them, 
 receiving the confession of their sins, and grant- 
 ing them absolution. They have access to the 
 most secret thoughts, motives, and desires of 
 their victims. Their selfish purposes they can, 
 in Papal countries, enforce, not only by the 
 authority and power of the church, with the 
 horrors of the Inquisition at its command, but 
 by the strong arm of the civil government. 
 Now, upon such a basis, how is it possible to 
 
84 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 establish free institutions? Even if, in the 
 heat of successful revolution, liberty is pro- 
 claimed throughout a Papal country, how 
 long do the people continue to enjoy it? Let 
 the history of the revolutions in Catholic 
 France answer. Even with the glorious watch- 
 words, " Liberty, equality, fraternity," we find 
 that liberty soon yielding to the. demands of 
 an iron despotism, that equality lost in the 
 arrogant assumptions of ecclesiastical and priv- 
 ileged classes, and fraternity swallowed up 
 in a grasping selBshness, that knows no law 
 but that which contributes to pride, lust, and 
 avarice. 
 
 Besides the control gained over the mind and 
 the conscience by the confessional, this institu- 
 tion works most disastrously upon the virtues 
 and integrity of society, and thus unfits the 
 people for sustaining republican institutions. 
 The code of morals which has been adopted 
 for the government of the confessional allows 
 practices ^.nd immoralities that are utterly sub- 
 versive of public integrity. Special prominence 
 is given to the two principles, that a man may 
 " do evil that good may come," and that " the 
 end sanctifies the means." Under the shelter 
 of these false maxims, the people have been 
 encouraged to utter falsehoods, commit perjury, 
 swear under mental reservations, and practise 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 85 
 
 deceit, whenever the interests of the Papacy 
 could thereby be promoted. Under the same 
 license the most atrocious acts have been com- 
 mitted, of which the gunpowder plot, so well 
 known in English history, is an example. Rev- 
 olutions, too, have often been extinguished, 
 and the efforts of the noblest patriots thwarted, 
 by means of the confessional. " We have," 
 says a distinguished convert from Romanism, 
 " in Italy three bulls of three different popes, 
 Pius VII., Leo XII., and Gregory XVI., obli- 
 ging all penitents to discover all among their 
 relatives who are adherents to the liberal cause." 
 Thus the names of all patriots are known to 
 the authorities of the church, so that in Italy 
 a control over one heart (generally a female 
 one) implicates many others. Sisters betray 
 their brothers, wives their husbands, and, what 
 is horrible to relate, being against the law of 
 nature, and only possible in the cruel system of 
 Rome, mothers are obliged to accuse their own 
 children I We have in Italy, not one; but hun- 
 dreds of thousands of brothers, husbands, and 
 sons, young men, condemned to the galleys, 
 exile, and the scaffold, only in order that their 
 sisters, wives, and mothers can receive sacra- 
 mental absolution from the priests." 
 
 The most bloody wars against heretics, that 
 is, believers in a pure and living gospel, have 
 
ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 been stimulated by promises of the pardon of 
 sin. When that cruel monster, Pope Innocent 
 III., offered the pardon of sin and the rewards 
 of martyrdom to all who would enlist for the 
 destruction of the Albigenses, half a million of 
 holy warriors, consisting of bishops, soldiers, 
 and private citizens, responded to the call, and 
 entered with zeal into the ^var. Deluded with 
 the idea that, if they fell in battle, they would at 
 once be received to the honors and glories of 
 heaven, they prosecuted the slaughter of these 
 innocent Christians with the most relentless 
 cruelty. At the storming of the city of Beziers, 
 in 1209, all were put to the sword without regard 
 to age, condition, sex, or even religion. " When 
 the crusaders and Albigenses were so mixed 
 that they could not be discriminated, Arnold, the 
 Papal missionary, commanded the soldiery ' to 
 kill all, and God would know his own.' Seven 
 hundred were slain in the church," and the 
 altars wene drenched with blood. Some histo- 
 rians estimate that sixty thousand perished in 
 this awful battle. 
 
 The beautiful province of Languedoc was 
 swept by the devastating fire of these infuriated 
 victims of Romish superstition and despotism. 
 It is said that in a single day a hundred thou- 
 sand Albigenses fell. Wherever the holy war- 
 riors went, the burning of villages and harvests, 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 87 
 
 the groans of the dying and the shrieks of the de- 
 spairing, bore witness to their atrocity and cruel- 
 ty. This war, with its accompanying calamities, 
 lasted twenty years, and involved the destruction 
 of hundreds of thousands of crusaders, as well as 
 the slaughter of the vast multitudes, against 
 whom the arms of the Papal church were directed. 
 Such is but one instance of the many fur- 
 nished by history, of the effects of the principles 
 under consideration. Let the doctrine be es- 
 tablished, that one erring, sinful man can par- 
 don the sins of another, can have unlimited 
 control over the consciences of a people, and 
 not only is freedom crushed, but the most 
 atrocious and despotic measures may be car-, 
 ried out. And the bold announcement in the 
 Catholic journals of America, that religious 
 liberty must end here with the triumph of 
 Popery, and that every Catholic will be sol- 
 emnly bound to destroy the constitution of the 
 United States if the church decrees it, should 
 arouse us to a sense of our duties and respon- 
 sibilities. Whether these astounding and trea- 
 sonable threats are ever carried into execution or 
 not, depends, in my view, upon the vigilance, 
 patriotism, and Christian efforts of the Protes- 
 tant community. If there is added to Papal 
 aggression a general apathy on the part of the 
 true followers of Christ, a disposition to quietly 
 
88 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 yield to the encroachments upon our free school 
 system, and to court the popular favor and votes 
 of the Catholic population, then we have grounds 
 for serious apprehensions. If, on the other hand, 
 Protestants can be brought up to the standard 
 of their duty, if patriotism can maintain the 
 ascendency over party politics, and the freedom 
 of our school system be preserved, we have, 
 with the blessing of God upon our efforts, noth- 
 ing to fear. 
 
 But let us judge the tree by its fruits. Let 
 us inquire what are the actual effects of Roman- 
 ism upon civil freedom and national prosperity 
 and happiness in those countries where it holds 
 _^ undisputed sway. Take, for example, Rome, 
 the Holy City, so called — the seat of the pope 
 — where the people have been for long ages 
 under the moulding influence of the priests and 
 bishops of the church — where no reformation 
 has disturbed the public order and the estab- 
 lished religious services, and what is the con- 
 dition of the people ? If there is a spot on the 
 earth where, allowing the claims of the Papacy, 
 we should look for the brightest virtues, purest 
 morals, best government, and the choicest spir- 
 itual and temporal advantages, that spot is the 
 city of Rome. But what are the facts in the 
 case? Listen to the testimony of a distin- 
 guished divine, who was born in Ireland, of Ro- 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOJI ANTAGONISTIC. 89 
 
 man Catholic parents, and educated in the faith 
 of the Papal church, and was led by reading the 
 Bible to embrace the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 This honest and impartial witness thus testifies : 
 " I have been to the Holy City ; I have seen its 
 pope, cardinals, and pviests. I sought there 
 information as to its civil, social, and religious 
 state ; and from personal examination, and 
 from testimony received from the most credible 
 witnesses, both natives and foreign residents, I 
 am prepared to say that, from the extent of its 
 population, there is not a worse governed, less 
 religious, a more immoral people in Chris- 
 tendom. And, tried by its priests, where there 
 are no obstacles to prevent its natural results, 
 Romanism should be the abhorrence of all flesh. 
 " There is no personal libert/in Rome. Since 
 the return of the pope from Naples to the Vat- 
 ican, the reins of despotism have been tight- 
 ened by a powerful hand. The patriots that 
 could escape have fled ; and you find them in 
 Genoa., Turin, Geneva, France, and Britain, 
 homeless, yet hopeful exiles, strong in faith 
 that the sun of liberty will yet rise, even over 
 Rome. The suspected are in prison, and the 
 prisons are crowded. Spies, by day and by 
 night, surround those who show any lack of 
 confidence in the priests. While I was there, 
 the plan was completed of dividing the city into 
 
90 ROMANISM I7< AMERICA. 
 
 small sections of about twenty families each, 
 and of placing a priest over each of these sec- 
 tions; nominally to look after their religious 
 wants, but really to act as the spies of the 
 government." 
 
 The writer then proceeds to cite some in- 
 stances illustrative of the extent to which the 
 oppressive measures of the government are car- 
 ried. " A young Roman, a few years since, 
 went to Sardinia, where he married. Business 
 failed him, and he returned to Rome to seek 
 employment, leaving his wife and children be- 
 hind him. He entered the employment of a 
 person who in the revolution took part against 
 the government. Within the present year, that 
 man wished to return to his family ; and with 
 the certificate of the magistrate of his district, 
 and of the priest of his section, he presented him- 
 self to the head of the police, who, I learned, 
 is a priest. But simply because he was recorded 
 as having been in the employ of an enemy of 
 the old government, instead of getting his pass- 
 
 & 
 
 port, he was ordered to prison ; and where im- 
 prisoned, none know but God and the priests." 
 " Take another instance of the glorious lib- 
 erty with which Romanism would bless us. 
 The government holds a monopoly in tobacco, 
 and this monopoly it farms out to the highest 
 bidder. The more tobacco used, the greater 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 91 
 
 the duties accruing, and the higher the church 
 can sell the monopoly. Knowing this, and to 
 curtail the revenues of the priests, those who 
 bear no fervent love to them agreed to refrain 
 from its use, and to induce their friends to do 
 the same. One evening, a man named Peter 
 Ercolo met a friend in a coffee room smoking 
 a cigar, and persuaded him to smoke no more. 
 There were several bystanders. Soon Ercolo 
 was arrested, was tried before the Second Tri- 
 bunal, and found guilty of the crime of per- 
 suading his friend to use no more cigars ; and 
 for this crime a respectable man, between thirty 
 and forty years of age, was torn from his family, 
 and sentenced for twenty years to the galleys! 
 And I read," adds the writer, "the sentence as 
 placarded on the chief corners of the city of 
 Rome, and as signed by Cardinal Antonelli." 
 
 The annoyances and vexations to which the 
 people are subject from the police are absolutely 
 intolerable. In our beloved country, we look up 
 to this order of men with respect, because they 
 dispense justice, protect the injured, and con- 
 tribute to the peace and happiness of society. 
 But in Italy, they are every where present, 
 watching the people in all their movements, 
 prying into secrets, searching ' papers, and 
 throwing into prison every one who becomes 
 in the least degree obnoxious to the commis- 
 
92 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 sary of police. On this subject Gavazzi, in his 
 lecture on the present state of Italy, says, " The 
 police enter into our houses, our private rooms, 
 our domestic cabinets. They inspect, judge, 
 and ■condemn our thoughts, looks, words, and 
 acts. We have no free speech, no free meet- 
 ings, no free press ; nothing is free in Italy. If 
 we only have an aspiration for the freedom of 
 Italy, the police persecute it, stifle it. 
 
 " At Rome, sisters, wives, and mothers, for 
 dropping some tears on the tombstones of 
 brothers, husbands, or children, were flung into 
 prison by Pius IX., ' Christ's vicar,' because to 
 shed tears upon the graves of martyrs for Ital- 
 ian freedom is considered more than a crime — a 
 treason ! Our police is worse than the dreadful 
 ear of Dlonysius of Syracuse, who from the 
 bottom of a well could hear every word spoken 
 by his prisoners in their dungeons. We must 
 suspect every one — frie;ids, relatives, domestics ; 
 for any one of these may be an emissary of the 
 police. To meet friends it is necessary to ob- 
 tain a license ; and in some parts of Italy, if 
 more than three speak together in streets or 
 coffee houses, the police interfere, as in an ac- 
 tual mob. If at a dinner party you have more 
 than ten, this is a crime; and to avoid disturb- 
 ances, you must solicit beforehand a permis- 
 sion for your dinner. In the Roman states, the 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGOMISTIC. 93 
 
 masters of houses were obliged to pay some 
 government ruffians, who with sword and mus- 
 ket were introduced into the very room where 
 the company were assembled during all the 
 time of the party. These vexations and cruel- 
 ties have now reached such a height, that when 
 relatives, even brothers, desire to visit their dear- 
 est friends in exile, the police deny them pass- 
 ports, and instead grant them papers for their 
 own exile. This," adds the illustrious exile, " is 
 no life, but a continual death, a perpetual an- 
 guish ; it is to be held in constant torture, be- 
 tween love of native country and the hell of 
 our tyrants." 
 
 Such, then, is the civil liberty enjoyed in 
 the " Holy City," the metropolis of Christen- 
 dom, the residence of godly cardinals and 
 priests, the spot whence flow the temporal and 
 spiritual blessings that fill the Papal world. 
 Such is the care which the holy father, the 
 pope, exercises over his dear children ; and his 
 watchful tenderness is still further displayed by 
 the aid which he receives from Austrian swords 
 and French bayonets, in administering the af- 
 fairs of his paternal. Christian government! 
 Nor is this all. Every confessor, bishop, and 
 priest is a spy, to watch the people, and is 
 ready to crush the least movement towards 
 freedom in religion, politics, or social life. 
 
94 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Such, too, is the liberty with which the sixteen 
 hundred priests, thirty-two bishops, and seven 
 archbishops, in America, would bless our land ! 
 They would exchange our admirable system of 
 police for the iron, cold-blooded despotism that 
 prevails in Italy ; our free discussion for a si- 
 lence that is preserved at the point of the bayo- 
 net ; our liberty to worship God according to 
 the dictates of our own consciences for idle 
 forms and superstitious mummeries, enforced 
 by the horrors of the Inquisition, and by curses 
 that would shock any but a fiend to hear recit- 
 ed. For it should be remembered that these 
 priests in America receive all their authority 
 from these Roman tyrants. To them they are 
 responsible ; to them they owe an allegiance 
 which compels them to be the foes of American 
 liberty. The moment they transfer their alle- 
 giance and affections to our government, the 
 moment they imbibe the sentiments of Ameri- 
 can patriotism, and live and labor for the good 
 of the country of their adoption, that moment 
 they cease to be Roman Catholic priests ; and 
 they are free to tell us, through their journals, 
 that this is, in truth, their position. They tell 
 us that they intend, when they get the power, 
 to destroy American liberty and the United 
 States constitution ; and I must say that we 
 are much obliged to them for giving us, thus 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 95 
 
 early, this piece of iuformation. With all their 
 deceit and treachery they have been honest for 
 once! 
 
 In studying the condition of Italy, I am un- 
 able to discover that any measures are adopt- 
 ed by the Romish church to promote the good 
 of the people. All the laws of the government, 
 the duties of the priesthood, the rites, forms, 
 and even doctrines of the church, contribute to 
 the despotism, or pride, or avarice, or licentious- 
 ness of the rulers. The government, instead of 
 being a shield of protection, becomes, under 
 the workings of Romanism, a vast machinery 
 for crushing out the hopes, happiness, and very 
 life of the people. The penitent is summoned 
 to the confessional, not that his sins may be 
 pardoned, but that he may furnish the means 
 for strengthening the chains of his slavery. All 
 the hopes, aspirations, desires, and fears of the 
 human soul are seized, and perverted to some 
 atrocious or tyrannical purpose. The confiding 
 disposition and strong affections of the female 
 heart are used as instruments for the accom- 
 plishment of the basest designs. Even the so- 
 lemnity of the dying hour is invaded by the 
 rapacity of the priesthood. Through the prom- 
 ises and threats of the confessor, who is usually 
 left alone with the dying person, money and 
 whole estates are extorted from the poor victim. 
 
96 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 He is made to believe that his escape from pur- 
 gatory, and his admission to* heaven, depend 
 upon his leaving his property to the church ; 
 and when this plan is not successful, the prop- 
 erty is often secured by the perjury of a priest, 
 or by some other illegal means. I might cite 
 numerous cases in confirmation of this state- 
 ment. The traveller from whom we have al- 
 ready quoted states the following instances : 
 "A Roman of wealth married a lady of foreign 
 birth, by whom he had a large family of chil- 
 dren. After a life of affection and harmony, 
 he died, leaving his property to his widow and 
 children, by a will duly authenticated. Al- 
 though regardless of the priests in health, he 
 sent for one when dying; who confessed and 
 anointed him, and fixed him off for purgatory 
 or paradise. A few days after his death, that 
 priest swore, before the tribunal having jurisdic- 
 tion in such cases, that the dying man confessed 
 to him a great sin ; to atone for which he wished 
 his entire property, contrary to his will, to go 
 to the church. And on the oath of that priest, 
 the will of the deceased was set aside, his prop- 
 erty was turned into the treasury of the church, 
 and his widow and children were turned out 
 penniless on the world." 
 
 Another instance was that of " an old man 
 of large possessions, who married a young and 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGOiMISTIC. 97 
 
 beautiful lady, and died, leaving a son behind 
 him, the heir of his possessions. Just on the 
 eve of the child's majority, a suit was institut- 
 ed to prevent his entering on his paternal pos- 
 sessions, on the ground of his illegitimacy ; and 
 the church gained the suit — the mother of the 
 boy testifying to her own shame, and confessing 
 that the father of the child was a crimson- 
 capped cardinal." 
 
 Such are the> workings of justice under a Ro- 
 man Catholic government. Nor does this cov- 
 etousness stop with the last breath of the dying 
 man. It follows his soul into purgatory, and 
 prosecutes a brisk trade upon the probabilities 
 of the spirit's escaping the tortures of that im- 
 aginary prison. If the man dies wealthy, leav- 
 ing enough to have a great many masses cele- 
 brated for his soul, his detention in these disa- 
 greeable regions is short, compared with that 
 of the poor man from whom fortune has with- 
 held its gifts. Now, there is reason in all things ; 
 and I say that, after the poor victim has been 
 taxed, fleeced, and has lived through a long life 
 with the terrors of the Inquisition, and curses, 
 and exile, and death, before his eyes, and been 
 true to all the superstitions of the Romish faith, 
 his soul should be allowed to rest in peace. 
 The solemnities of death and the tremendous 
 realities of an immortal state are enough to 
 a 9 
 
98 ROMANISir IN AMERICA. 
 
 absorb the attention and anxieties of the dying 
 man, without his being annoyed by a corrupt 
 priest bargaining with him for the price to be 
 paid for masses for his soul. It is certainly a 
 refinement of avarice, it is a depth in human 
 depravity which is not often reached, for a claf^s 
 of men in the name of religion to speculate 
 upon the dead, and divide the profits of a busi- 
 ness that has its locality in the infernal region". 
 
 But we have further evidence of the misera- 
 ble condition of the Roman states under the 
 Papal government. Intelligent and Christian 
 travellers assure us that even in Rome itself 
 there is found no vital religion, no Sabbath, no 
 stated preaching, no meetings for any Christian, 
 humane, or benevolent purpose, no freedom of 
 the press, or protection to one's rights. 
 
 The oabbath is only distinguished from other 
 days by greater gayety in the streets, more buy- 
 ing and selling, and larger crowds in the mar- 
 kets and places of public resort. If occasion- 
 ally there is preaching, the truths of the gospel 
 are not presented to the people, but the virtues 
 of some saints or the piety and authority of the 
 pope, or the wickedness of the reformers, are 
 discoursed upon. The appointed feast days and 
 festivals of the church are much more respected 
 than the Christian Sabbath. Should a meeting 
 be held for any humane or benevolent purpose, 
 
POrERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 99 
 
 it would bo at once broken up. Gavazzi, for 
 attempting once to preach a sermon in behalf 
 of an infants' school, was compelled to abstain 
 from preaching for twelve months. 
 
 The freedom of the press has no existence in 
 the Roman states. If a man writes a book, 
 and wishes to publish it, he must submit it to 
 three revisions before he is allowed to print a 
 single page. It must be first carefully reviewed 
 by a priest appointed by the bishop, who is at 
 liberty to expunge whatever he deems objec- 
 tionable or dangerous to the state. Then the 
 author must take it to the civil reviser, and al- 
 low him to alter, amend, or expunge, according 
 as his ignorance, bigotry, or intolerance may 
 suggest. Finally, it must be revised by an offi- 
 cer of the Inquisition ; and after the mapuscript 
 has been tortured and mangled, and the lan- 
 guage made to express just what the tyrants 
 desire, the happy author is permitted to pub- 
 lish. Should he, however, alter a single word 
 after these revisions, he is thrown into prison 
 and fined a thousand francs. 
 
 In regard to public improvements and prog- 
 ress in the useful arts, the Roman states are 
 perfectly dead. Conservatism reigns trium- 
 phant. The same habits and modes of life 
 that existed centuries ago exist now. So afraid 
 are the tyrants of any kind of light, that it is 
 
100 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 only recently, and at the urgent demands of the 
 French government, that gas has been intro- 
 duced into Rome. For six years it was stren- 
 uously opposed. The godly fathers wished the 
 outwa'rd darkness to correspond with the dark- 
 ness of their doctrines and the gross darkness 
 of their characters. The idea of walking 
 through streets lighted with gas filled them 
 with pious horror. 
 
 There is not a railroad in the Roman states, 
 excepting one about fifteen m.iles in length, from 
 Rome to Frascati. This was commenced sev- 
 eral years ago, and has not yet been opened. 
 It is called the " Great Central Railroad ; " and 
 I suppose that the pope fears the day when it 
 shall be opened, as much as we should fear the 
 small pox or yellow fever. 
 
 Such is the progressive spirit of the true, in- 
 fallible church. Every thing that is new is 
 feared as an innovation, that endangers the ex- 
 isting order of things. It is more to the taste 
 of these reverend fathers to be concerned about 
 relics, antiquated ruins, and tombstones, than 
 to encourage any thing that relates to the com- 
 fort or prosperity of the people. 
 
 Did our limits allow, we might speak of the 
 condition of Spain, Ireland, Mexico, and other 
 Papal countries, as illustrating the influence of 
 Romanism upon civil liberty and social prosper- 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 101 
 
 ity. Ill Spain the Papal authority has reigned 
 triumphant for over three hundred years. There 
 the reformation, with all its benign influences, 
 was crushed ; there the Inquisition was estab- 
 lished, and its terrible machinery was worked 
 without hinderance or opposition. Every thing 
 was made to bow to the will of the supreme 
 despot at Rome. No heresy, no preacher of 
 God's truth, obstructed the progress of Papal 
 principles ; and what was the consequence ? 
 That once noble, enterprising, learned, high- 
 spirited nation was stripped of every thing that 
 contributed to its honor, power, and prosperity. 
 The Inquisition was a vast infernal machine, 
 placed in the very heart of the country. All 
 intellectual and moral freedom was crushed ; 
 the love of philosophy and learning was extin- 
 guished ; a race of noble heroes were converted 
 into cringing slaves ; bigotry took the place of 
 liberality ; cruelty and baseness supplanted 
 courage; industry, commerce, and the arts per- 
 ished. Spain, that once occupied a high rank 
 among the European nations ; whose sway ex- 
 tended over Italy, Germany, and the Nether- 
 lands ; whose colonies were not surpassed by 
 those of any other sovereignty, and whose gold 
 and silver, possessions were so immense, — has 
 sadly fallen from her exalted position, and be- 
 come the object of the world's contempt. At 
 9* 
 
102 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 this moment the people are suffering from pov- 
 erty, ignorance, vi;;:-, and anarchy. The priest- 
 hood are corrupt and despised; infidelity has 
 swept through all classes of society, and nothing 
 can save the nation from the abyss towards 
 which it is so rapidly tending but the gospel of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 With the miserable condition of the Catholic 
 population of Ireland, and v/ith the debasement 
 of Mexico and the Catholic nations of South 
 America, you are more or less familiar. A son 
 of Ireland thus writes respecting his native 
 land: "There you find a warm-hearted, gener- 
 ous, impulsive people, and, as the world know?, 
 capable of the highest improvement; and what 
 is their state ? Go to their holy wells and holy 
 places, to their fairs, their villages, and their 
 cabins ; and what is their state ? * - - "phe 
 Papal population of Ireland are greater Papists 
 than the pope himself, and are under more 
 priestly influence than the people of Rome — far 
 more ; and what good has Popery done them 
 or their island ? The curse of Ireland has been, 
 and is now, its Popery. Its lands are fertile, its 
 climate is genial, its people are industrious; 
 but the influence of the priest, like the breath 
 of the sirocco, has blighted the land, has de- 
 based its people, has made them a byword in 
 all the lands of their dispersion." 
 
POPERY AND CIVIL FREEDOM ANTAGONISTIC. 103 
 
 And it may be asked, What are the priests 
 doing in this country for the moral welfare of 
 their people ? For example, in regard to the 
 temperance cause — what have they done to 
 deliver the victims of intemperance from the 
 power of this vice ? On this point the New 
 York Tribune Says, " We have looked to see 
 them uttering some decided and forcible con- 
 demnation of that trade in ardent liquors whose 
 horrible consequences no part of the clergy can 
 have better opportunities of appreciating than 
 themselves. We have hoped that they might 
 be led to use the authority they have, especially 
 among the Irish, for an end so beneficent and so 
 necessary ; particularly now that so much odi- 
 um is excited against that class of our popula- 
 tion, on account of their political subserviency 
 and intemperate habits. It would seem that 
 the Catholic priesthood ought to spare no effort 
 that could tend to put their flocks, or at least so 
 numerous a division of them, in another aspect 
 before the community at large. 
 
 " This hope does not seem likely to be grati- 
 fied. We hear of no movement among the 
 Catholic hierarchy for the suppression of this 
 deadly and crime-generating traflSc. And yet 
 there seems to be great occasion for an effort of 
 that sort. We published, the other day, a sta- 
 tistical paper, showing that a gi-eat majority of 
 
104 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the murders committed in this state are by 
 Irishmen, and those Irishmen drunk. But why- 
 were they drunk, when there is an archbishop 
 and priesthood with such powers of moral and 
 spiritual control among their flocks ? Why is 
 there not a reform ? Why is there not a total 
 abstinence association, in place of every rum 
 hole kept by an Irish Catholic ? 
 
 " These are not sectarian or untimely ques- 
 tions. They touch the vital roots of society. It 
 is a fact that the highest crime — murder — in- 
 creases. It is a fact that murders are due, ninety 
 per cent, to drunkenness. It is a fact that of the 
 drunken murderers a large proportion are Irish- 
 men. It is a fact that these drunken, murdering 
 Irishmen are nearly all Catholics." 
 
 These inquiries ought to be answered; and 
 until they are answered satisfactorily, we must 
 hold these priests accountable for the most pal- 
 pable neglect of their duty, and an utter disre- 
 gard to the interests of morality. 
 
V. 
 
 THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 
 
 "Now, THE Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the lat- 
 ter TIMES SOME SHALL DEPART FROM THE FAITH, GIVING 
 HEED TO SEDUCING SPIRITS AND DOCTRINES OF DEVILS, 
 SPEAKING LIES IN HYPOCRISY, HAVING THEIR CONSCIENCES 
 SEARED WITH A HOT IRON." — 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2. 
 
 The order of Jesuits arose at a most impor- 
 tant crisis ill the history of the Romish church. 
 The vast superstructure of error, superstition, 
 and despotism had received from the gathering 
 army of reformers shocks which threatened its 
 entire destruction. Bigotry and intolerance 
 had gone so far, and heaped up so many ab- 
 surdities and burdens, that the reason and com- 
 mon sense of Europe were giving way under 
 the pressure. Priestly craft and domination 
 were losing their hold upon the consciences of 
 the people. The spirit of inquiry into the ar- 
 rogant claims of popes and cardinals, and into 
 the truth of the dogmas of the church, was 
 every where springing up. Entire nations were 
 swinging from ^heir moorings, and bidding 
 
 " (105) 
 
106 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 farewell to Popish authority; were launching 
 forth upon the broad ocean of freedom and 
 truth. The northern countries of Europe were 
 lost beyond the hope of recovery. Germany 
 and Switzerland were fast adopting the prin- 
 ciples of the reformation. Beneath the sur- 
 face of France the fires were working with 
 prodigious energy, and were breaking out in 
 different parts of the kingdom. Even Spain 
 and Italy felt the influence of the mighty move- 
 ment which was going forward. Indeed, the 
 whole system of Papal authority, venerable for 
 its antiquity, associated with the stirring events 
 of past ages, sustained by kings, councils, and 
 armies, was weakened in every part, and in 
 danger of being swept away before the con- 
 quering hosts of the reformed church. 
 
 At this crisis, Ignatius Loyola appeared at 
 Rome, and laid at the feet of the pope his 
 masterly agency for serving the church, and 
 arresting the tide of evils which threatened its 
 ruin. At first his plan met with little favor 
 from the highest dignitaries of the Romish 
 church. The cardinals were opposed to it on 
 the ground that there were already too many 
 religious orders in the church, and that the ad- 
 dition of another might be more burdensome 
 than serviceable to their interests. But Paul 
 III. perceived that Loyola and his companions 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 107 
 
 were just the men that the church needed, in 
 the present critical state of her affairs. He 
 had the sagacity to discern that they were ar- 
 dently devoted to the interests of the Papacy ; 
 that they were men of decided pm-poses, of 
 great endm-aiice in the prosecution of ditlicult 
 enterprises, of intellectual discipline, and ac- 
 complished in the learning of the times. They 
 had already gained a wide reputation for zeal, 
 self-denial, and laborious efforts. Accordingly, 
 in October, 1540, a bull was issued which gave 
 the order an existence, under the name of " the 
 Society of Jesus." At first the number of its 
 members was restricted to sixty ; but three 
 years later this restriction was entirely removed. 
 If the biographers of Loyola can be relied 
 upon, his history was marked by great self- 
 denial, severe hardships, ecstasies, visions, and 
 a variety of experience suited to qualify him 
 for his work. Contemporary with Luther, there 
 were certain points of resemblance between 
 the two heroes. Both were men of fixed de- 
 termination and indomitable energy. Both 
 repudiated a mere ascetic life, and cr.ived ac- 
 tivity. Both were trained in the school of ad- 
 versity. Both brought to their work ail' their 
 powers of body and mind. But in other re- 
 spects, and especially in their aims, they occu- 
 pied positions as wide asunder as the heavens 
 
108 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 and the earth. Loyola clung to the Romish 
 church, and depended for strength upon its rites 
 and dogmas ; Luther broke the chain that 
 bound him to the man of sin, and depended 
 for nourishment and power upon the sacred in- 
 fluences that come from .above. The former 
 represented the idea of absolutism ; the latter 
 that of freedom. Loyola threw himself at the 
 feet of the pope, and acknowledged him master ; 
 Luther prostrated himself before God, and laid 
 upon his altar the services of his life. Loyola 
 bent his mighty energies to the work of check- 
 ing the tide of the reformation, rolling back 
 its waters, and restoring the ancient church to 
 its former position of dignity and power ; Lu- 
 ther, by all the force of his piety, learning, and 
 iron resolution, strove to increase this tide and 
 give to it a resistless energy. 
 
 In another respect, the two men greatly dif- 
 fer. In the character of Luther there is a 
 unity, symmetry, and singleness of purpose 
 that are at all times, and on all occasions, ap- 
 parent. Whether he is in public or in private, 
 before princes and august councils or in his 
 closet, he is the same earnest, devoted, heroic 
 servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 But in Loyola two characters appear, bearing 
 distinct marks and peculiarities ; so that, in 
 following his career, we seem to have the his- 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 109 
 
 t 
 
 tory of two persons before us. The facts in the 
 case are thus summarily stated by an eloquent 
 writer : " A Spanish gentleman of bold bear- 
 ing, and who courts every chivalrous distinction, 
 is grievously wounded and thrown upon his 
 bed, where he endures weeks of anguish and 
 months of languor. Spoiled for war and pleas- 
 ure by the hurt he has received, and fired in a 
 moment by a new ambition, he breaks from his 
 home, and sets forward as a' Christian fakir, to 
 amaze the world by feats of wild humility. 
 He undergoes mental paroxysms, sees visions, 
 and exists thenceforward in a condition of in- 
 tense emotion, resembling, in turns, the ecsta- 
 sies of the upper and the agonies of the nether 
 world. He dedicates himself, body and soul, to 
 the service of the blessed Virgin — the queen of 
 angels. He sets out on a preaching pilgrimage 
 to convert the Mahometan world, and he con- 
 temns all prudence and common sense, in apply- 
 ing himself to an enterprise so immensely 
 disproportioned to his abilities. 
 
 " But now this same devotee — this unman- 
 ageable enthusiast, as he seems, and whose 
 cheeks are furrowed with perpetual streams 
 of penitence and rapture — suddenly conceives, 
 and brings into operation, a scheme of life and 
 a polity, of which nothing more need be said, 
 than .that it has proved itself to be the most 
 10 
 
110 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 firmly compacted, and the most efficient of any 
 which the world has seen. A scheme so bold, as 
 to the means of which it avails itself, and so re- 
 fined in its modes of dealing with human nature, 
 and so elaborate in its framework, and so far- 
 reachingin its views and purposes, could not have 
 sprung from any but a mind of extraordinary 
 compass — a mind self-possessed and tranquil, 
 delicate in its perceptions, sure in its intuitions, 
 and capable of a wide comprehension of various 
 objects. The framer of this spiritual polity, if 
 he was not moved by, must have mastered, a 
 boundless ambition, and must have known how 
 to beseem himself a lamb, while planning noth- 
 ing else than the subjugation of the world. 
 
 " If we cannot entirely reconcile these ap- 
 parently conflicting characters, we must allow 
 that the founder of the order of Jesuits was no 
 dreamer or mere enthusiast, but possessed, in a 
 most eminent degree, a knowledge of the prin- 
 ciples of human nature, and of the springs of 
 human action, a power of government, a facul- 
 ty for enlisting powerful minds in his service, 
 and an executive force for the accomplishment 
 of difficult and arduous enterprises." 
 
 The grand aim of Loj'ola was to obtain a 
 complete domination over the minds of men, 
 to control their thoughts, feelings, and conduct, 
 and to centralize this power in one chief, whose 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. Ill 
 
 will should be law to the whole b-ody. He 
 sought to establish telegraphic communication 
 with all classes of men and varieties of dis- 
 position, from the king upon his throne to the 
 most obscure subject ; from the wild enthusiast 
 to the calm, cautious plodder ; so that the 
 general of the order, through these galvanic 
 currents, extending from his office in every 
 direction, could shape the destinies of the 
 world. And, to an extent unprecedented in 
 history, he succeeded. So rapid was the in- 
 crease of his society, that, at his death, it num- 
 bered one thousand members ; and in the year 
 1608, there were enrolled ten thousand five 
 hundred and eighty-one members. " It con- 
 tinued," says one, " to advance in wealth and 
 numbers, spreading itself over all parts of the 
 habitable globe, supplying missionaries for the 
 heathen, instructors for youth, confessors for 
 kings and princes, mercantile associations for 
 commerce, spies and informers for government, 
 skilful mechanics, wily and determined states- 
 men, until, in the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, it had reached the height of its power. 
 It now stood, a vast tree, its trunk rooted in the 
 Vatican, while its branches overshadowed the 
 earth, and were entwined with all the interests 
 of society. Every breeze that stirred them 
 shook Europe to its basis, and threatened the 
 very existence of her institutions." 
 
112 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Even the founder of the Jesuits, in his mo- 
 ments of most sanguine hopes and wildest 
 expectations, could not have dreamed that his 
 order would have attained such an eminence 
 of power ; that its elements would constitute 
 the basis of a system so comprehensive, gigan- 
 tic, and far-reaching in its influence and au- 
 thority; that it would inspire princes and popes 
 with dread, and upon so wide a field stifle the 
 breath of freedom, and check the progress of 
 truth, humanity, and civilization. 
 
 " We cannot but suppose," says one, "that 
 its head was now and then struck with terror 
 at the awful energy of the machinery which he 
 essayed to guide, as the electrician will at 
 times watch, with a solicitude approaching to 
 dread, the slumbering power that he has so 
 quietly accumulated, in the frail enginery by 
 his side." 
 
 While Jesuitism sprang from the Romish 
 church, and has devoted to her interests its 
 mighty energies, yet it should not be confound- 
 ed with Romanism. It commenced, and has 
 maintained, a separate existence. 
 
 While it embraces all the principles of Po- 
 pery that are at war with freedom and human 
 progress, yet it has laws and aims peculiar to 
 itself. In many respects it differs from other 
 religious orders — from the Augustinians, Fran- 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 113 
 
 ciscans and Dominicans. It does not, like 
 these, profess to promote individual piefy and 
 spiritualism. It seeks rather to govern men 
 than to reform them. It acts upon the will 
 rather than the affections. It is a vast machine 
 for crushing and moulding into one form the 
 varied powers of the human soul. It might 
 exist as a system even after Romanism had 
 perished. Indeed, it has been detached from 
 the Eomish church, and has been cast off' as a 
 power too full of danger for even an alliance 
 with Popery. 
 
 In examining into the principles of Jesuitism, 
 we find the most perfect military discipline run- 
 ning through all grades in the society. Loyola 
 having been a soldier, and subject to the disci- 
 pline of the camp, he carried the spirit into his 
 association. The power of every officer over 
 those who were under him was complete and 
 despotic. Every member took the most solemn 
 vow of prompt and implicit obedience to his 
 superior. It mattered not what might be the 
 nature of the command, or at what time in the 
 day or night it was received, or whether it sent 
 the member a short distance or to the remotest 
 parts of the world ; it was instantly obeyed. At 
 the organization of the society, and afterwards 
 at the installation of Loyola at Rome, in April, 
 1541, as the first general, the vows of poverty, 
 H 10* 
 
114 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 chastity, and obedience were taken by all the 
 members. 
 
 Nor was this obedience confined simply to a 
 rigid discharge of all prescribed duties. It re- 
 lated to the whole conduct at all times and un- 
 der all circumstances — to the employment of 
 every hour, and even to the thoughts and pur- 
 poses of the mind. The Jesuit literally offered 
 himself up, soul and body, to his superior, to be 
 a passive instrument for the execution of his 
 decrees. He was carried through a process of 
 training that broke him down to the perform- 
 ance of the most servile, tedious, and self-deny- 
 ing offices. Loyola himself set an example of 
 humility to the members, by performing in the 
 kitchen and elsewhere menial duties. Indeed, 
 both by example and precept, by the most rigid 
 rules and exacting requisitions, he sought to in- 
 fuse his spirit and will throughout every rank 
 in his society. And his system, says a late his- 
 torian, " developed human devotedness to its 
 extremest capacity, and made of the most ab- 
 solute obedience a lever, the incessant and ever- 
 present activity of which must necessarily take 
 the place of every other species of power." 
 
 An order thus trained and disciplined could 
 not fail to possess a mighty efficiency. Wher- 
 ever it was brought to bear, whether upon the 
 thrones of princes, or the interests of education, 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 115 
 
 or the institutions of society, or the principles 
 of the reformation, it was certain to produce 
 marked effects. Its blighting and tyrannical in- 
 fluence was as perceptible as the marks of a 
 fearful conflagration, that has swept through a 
 village or a densely-crowded city. 
 
 The Jesuit, in order to be entirely untrammel- 
 led in his movements, was exempt from many of 
 the austerities and devotions which the church 
 so rigidly requires of its ordinary members. If 
 these austerities, fastings, and self-tortures were 
 needed to fit him for his work, they were im- 
 posed with terrible exactness. But if they 
 interfered in any way with the prompt fulfil- 
 ment of his mission, they were strictly forbidden. 
 
 Through the confessional, also, the power of 
 a superior over the members was greatly aug- 
 mented. Each member was required to reveal 
 to the confessor his most secret thoughts, not 
 only upon spiritual themes, but upon every sub- 
 ject that entered the mind. Nothing was to be 
 withheld, however secret, or however connected 
 with the most private feelings and emotions. 
 
 Besides, says an able writer, " That escape 
 from inspection might be impossible, that dis- 
 guise might be precluded, and that the whole 
 society might be fused into a common mass of 
 cooperating and harmonious minds, each man 
 was set as a spy over his fellow ; every look 
 
116 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 and smile, and even the lifting of the eyelids, 
 was to be accounted for. Loneliness and in- 
 dividuality were impossible, or rather they were 
 absorbed and overborne, by the force of an om- 
 nipotent and omnipresent organization. If one 
 was sent on secret errands, or despatched upon 
 a delicate or difficult service, he might lay aside 
 the dress of the order, and assume any disguise, 
 however unseemly. 
 
 " The Jesuit could perform priestly duties in 
 any diocese or cure. He might, at any moment, 
 take the place of any ecclesiastic to any man 
 or woman. He could preach, confess, or ab- 
 soIyc, whenever it might seem expedient. Even 
 the highest and most awful function of the 
 sovereign pontiff — that of granting dispensa- 
 tion from religious duties, from the most sacred 
 moral obligations, and the plain commands of 
 God — was delegated to the general, that con- 
 science need interpose neither scruple nor de- 
 lay to the execution of any measure, or to the 
 prompt efficiency of the instrument in his 
 hands." 
 
 The system of the Jesuits is as thorough a 
 despotism as could be framed. It is a sort of 
 double despotism, acting with fearful power 
 upon its own members within, and upon the 
 world without. It seizes and holds within its 
 iron graap all the faculties of the intellect, and 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 117 
 
 the affections and powers of the soul. To the 
 Jesuit, his system is his politics, his religion, 
 his social life, his all. His freedom of will is 
 taken from him and absorbed by it. Created 
 in the image of the Almighty, — with moral 
 obligations of the most sacred character, — with 
 responsibilities resting upon him weighty as 
 eternity, — he becomes a mere tool in the hands 
 of another. If conscience stands in the way 
 of his work, that conscience must be broken 
 down and trampled under foot. If the laws 
 of God or the claims of humanity intervene, 
 those laws and claims must be treated as 
 though they had no existence. Indeed, the 
 general of the order was in the place of God 
 to the Jesuit. He recognized no other Deity. 
 
 As an outward force, this system was the 
 very essence of tyranny. It was a cold, heart- 
 less, relentless tyrant. It strangled in the birth 
 every movement for liberty in Europe. It 
 crushed every interest that opposed its progress. 
 It set princes against princes, and kingdom 
 against kingdojn, involving empires in a net- 
 work of difficulties, from which the most skil- 
 ful diplomacy could not extricate them. By its 
 secret machinery it could spring upon an ob- 
 noxious king, or bishop, a force of opposition 
 that would either break down his power, or 
 bring him to its terms. It went to its object 
 
118 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 with the directness and precision of a cannon 
 shot, shattering in pieces every thing that was 
 in its path. Jesuitism allied itself to the 
 sternest despotisms of Europe, and uniformly 
 acted with them and for them. It was to these 
 despotisms, what the principle of moral evil is 
 to the kingdom of Satan. It nourished them. 
 It protected them from outward dangers and 
 from internal dissensions. It hushed the faint- 
 est whisper of freedom within their domains. 
 It was as a wall of adamant around the throne 
 of every tyrant. It took the place of spies, ar- 
 mies, prisons, chains, — all the machinery and 
 instruments of despotism. Even the Russian 
 government, with all its bitter hostility to the 
 Romish church, yet called to its aid the Jesuits. 
 
 The popes relied upon them in every emer- 
 gency, and they were ever ready to sustain the 
 cause of absolutism — knowing that its inter- 
 ests were identical with their own. 
 
 I would pass, in the next place, to consider the 
 progress of Jesuitism in the different countries 
 where it gained a footing. From the beginning, 
 it met with great success in Spain and Portugal. 
 In these kingdoms, where there seemed to be but 
 little need of such an organization to root out 
 heresy, the order advanced with great rapidity. 
 Houses and colleges were every where estab- 
 lished. 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 119 
 
 In France, however, the society met with a 
 strong opposition from the government, the 
 regular clergy, and the universities. But, re- 
 solved on success, they used every means in 
 their power to gain an influence, and at last 
 became, established, and exerted their power to 
 crush the Huguenots, and destroy all true re- 
 ligious faith. 
 
 In many parts of Germany, they were hailed 
 as powerful auxiliaries to those who were la- 
 boring to stop the tide of the glorious reforma- 
 tion. The fame of their devotion, discipline, 
 and exploits having gone abroad, they were 
 sent for from Hungary, Poland, Silesia, and 
 were encouraged to establish colleges in Italy, 
 Germany, England, Switzerland, and other 
 countries. From Rome its teachers went forth 
 to poison the minds of the youth throughout 
 Europe. In 1557, the society numbered " among 
 its scholastics Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, 
 French, Greeks, Illyrians, Belgians, Scotch, and 
 Hungarians." 
 
 In Poland, the influence of these foes of God 
 and man was fearfully disastrous. That coun- 
 try had become so extensively imbued with 
 Protestant principles, that " its nobility could 
 have elected a Protestant king. What is worth 
 recording is, that it gave to Europe the first ex- 
 ample of religious toleration, and this centuries 
 
120 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 ago. But the Jesuits were soon in the field. 
 They established colleges at Cracow, Grodno, 
 and Pultusk. They took possession, to a great 
 extent, of the nobility. The college at Pultusk 
 contained four hundred pupils, all nobles. In 
 Poland proper, says one of their number, ' hun- 
 dreds of learned, orthodox, and devout men of 
 the order are employed in rooting out errors 
 and implanting Catholic piety, by schools and 
 associations, by preaching and writing.' " 
 
 The principles and achievements of this re- 
 markable order are forcibly and eloquently de- 
 scribed by Macaulay, in the following language : 
 " With what vehemence, with what policy, with 
 what exact discipline, with what dauntless 
 courage, * * » with what intense and stub- 
 born devotion to a single end, with what un- 
 scrupulous laxity and versatility in the choice 
 of means, the Jesuits fought the battles of their 
 church, is written in every page of the annals of 
 Europe, during several generations. * * * 
 The order possessed itself at once of all the 
 strongholds which command the public mind — 
 of the pulpit, the press, the confessional, and 
 the academies. Wherever the Jesuit preached 
 the church was too small for the audience. The 
 name of Jesuit on a title page secured the cir- 
 culation of a book. It was in the ears of the 
 Jesuit that the powerful, the noble, and the 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 121 
 
 beautiful breathed the secret history of their 
 lives. It was at the feet of the Jesuit that the 
 youth of the higher and middle classes were 
 brought up from the first rudiments to the 
 courses of rhetoric and philosophy. * * * 
 Nor was it less their office to plot against the 
 thrones and lives of apostate kings, to spread 
 evil rumors, to raise tumults, to inflame civil 
 wars, to arm the hand of the assassin. Inflex- 
 ible in nothing but in their fidelity to the 
 church, they were equally ready to appeal in 
 her cause to the spirit of loyalty and to the 
 spirit of freedom. Extreme doctrines of obe- 
 dience and extreme doctrines of liberty — the 
 rights of rulers to misgovern the people, the 
 right of every one of the people to plunge his 
 knife in the heart of a bad ruler — were incul- 
 cated by the same man, according as he ad- 
 dressed himself to the subject of Philip or the 
 subject of Elizabeth. * * * 
 
 " The old world was not wide enough for 
 this strange activity. The Jesuits invaded all 
 the countries which the great maritime discov- 
 eries of the preceding age had laid open to 
 European enterprise. In the depths of the Pe- 
 ruvian mines, at the marts of the African slave 
 caravans, on the shores of the Spice Islands, in 
 the observatories of China, they were to be 
 found. They made converts in regions which 
 11 
 
122 
 
 EOMANISSI I.\ AMERICA. 
 
 neither avarice nor curiosity had tempted any 
 of their countrymen to enter, and preached 
 and disputed in tongues of which no other na- 
 tive of tiie west understood a word." 
 
 We may judge of the immense power of 
 this institution in 1762, when we are informed 
 that at that period there were two hundred and 
 forty-nine houses for the professed, six hun- 
 dred and ninety-nine colleges, one hundred and 
 seventy-six seminaries, three hundred and thirty- 
 five residences, two hundred and twenty-three 
 missionaries, and twenty-two thousand seven 
 hundred and eighty-seven Jesuits, of whom 
 eleven thousand and ten were priests. Nor 
 can we wonder, with such a wide-spread, ef- 
 ficient, compact organization, that the glori- 
 ous reformation was arrested in Poland, Aus- 
 tria, Hungary, Bohemia, and a portion of Ger- 
 many and Switzerland — that the noble Hu- 
 guenots were driven from France, and that 
 the spirit of inquiry was stifled in Italy and 
 Spain. We cannot wonder that Italy, the seat 
 of genius and the arts, the mother of nations, — 
 Italy, so rich in historic associations and 
 classic lore, was reduced to ignorance and beg- 
 gary — that Spain was hurled from her lofty 
 eminence of power and fame, despoiled of her 
 enterprise and genius, robbed of her vast colo- 
 nies, and made the slave of bigotry and super- 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 123 
 
 stition. But the Jesuits did not plunder this 
 noble nation of every thing — they left them 
 one institution, and that was the Inquisition I 
 
 But this vast enginery, that had rendered 
 such valuable services to the ecclesiastical and 
 political despots of Europe, began to be feared 
 as much as it had been courted. The tyrants 
 who had used it saw that it was only necessary 
 for the leaders to turn the wheels in another 
 direction, and that which had so promptly and 
 efficiently aided them might crush them. So- 
 ciety, also, became at first excited, and after- 
 wards enraged against them. The principles 
 that they advocated were so subversive of all 
 order, confidence, safety, and happiness, — their 
 deeds were so atrocious, — that every where bit- 
 ter enemies arose against them. Pascal, in his 
 powerful, keen, and convincing provincial let- 
 ters, inflicted upon the order a blovi', from the 
 effects of which it has never recovered. He 
 exposed their infamous doctrines upon mo- 
 rality, loyalty, and the manner of exercising 
 love towards God, quoting from their standard 
 authors, and presenting an argument that could 
 not be refuted. 
 
 The following are specimens of the opinions 
 and doctrines which Pascal adduced : One Jes- 
 uit says, " A doctor of theology may give ad- 
 vice contrary to his own opinion, if it is held 
 
124 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 probable by others, when this advice is more 
 agreeable to him who consults him ; nay, even 
 when he is assured that it is absolutely false." 
 Another, Sanchez, says, in regard to duelling, 
 that it is reasonable to fight a duel ; but he ad- 
 vises, as the better way, for one to slay his en- 
 emy secretly. 
 
 The doctrine of mental reservation is a very 
 favorite one with these men. The writer just 
 referred to says, " A man may swear that he 
 has not done a thing which he has done, by un- 
 derstanding within himself that he has not 
 done it on such a day, or before he was born, 
 as this is often convenient, and always very 
 just, when it is necessary or useful for his 
 health, honor, or property." 
 
 Escopar says, " Promises oblige not when 
 we have no intention to oblige ourselves in 
 making them ; " and thus with Molina, Lip- 
 sius, and others, who confound all distinctions 
 of right and wrong, and labor to break down 
 the whole system of morality and virtue. 
 
 With regard to the duty of loving God, their 
 atrocious opinions almost stagger our belief. 
 " Suarez says, that it is enough that we love 
 him before the moment of death, without de- 
 termining any time ; Vasquaez, that it is suffi- 
 cient at the moment of death ; others, when we 
 receive baptism ; others, when we are obliged 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 
 
 125 
 
 to be contrite; others, on festival days." One 
 says, that it is sufficient to love God once in a 
 year; another says, once in five years, &c. 
 
 So completely did these sentiments outrage 
 the common sense and moral feelings of soci- 
 ety, that every one in whom a spark of con- 
 science remained, felt that the order ought to 
 be crushed. And this feeling was increased by 
 the abundant evidence, which the Jesuits every 
 day fm-nished, that they were governed by these 
 pernicious principles. Accordingly, in 1759, 
 having been accused of the assassination of the 
 King of Portugal, they were banished from that 
 kingdom. In France the order was abolished 
 by the Parliament, in 1762. The reasons as- 
 signed for their suppression were the following : 
 " The consequences of their doctrines destroy 
 the law of nature. They break all the bonds 
 of civil society, by authorizing theft, lying, per- 
 jury, the utmost licentiousness, murder, and all 
 manner of sins. These doctrines, moreover, 
 root out all sentiments of humanity, overthrow 
 all governments, excite rebellion, and uproot 
 the foundation and practice of religion. And 
 they substitute all sorts of superstitions, irre- 
 ligion, blasphemy, and idolatry." 
 
 Even in Spain the order could not be tol- 
 erated. For on the night of the 81st of March, 
 1767, the troops surrounded the six Jesuit col- 
 li* 
 
126 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 leges in Madrid, and hurried away the fathers 
 to Carthagena. Subsequently the other col- 
 leges in the kingdom were dealt with in a sim- 
 ilar manner. At last, in 1773, the infamous 
 and hated order was abolished by Pope Clem- 
 ent XIV. Their property was confiscated, and 
 the wretches were banished. The pope de- 
 clared, " It will cost me ray life ; but I must 
 abolish this dangerous order." Nor was he 
 mistaken ; for in a few days he was poisoned ; 
 and on his dying bed he remarked, " I am going 
 to eternity, and I kndw for what." 
 
 But the order, though abolished, was not an- 
 nihilated. The members kept up a secret or- 
 ganization. For many years their general re- 
 sided at Rome, and, in 1814, Pope Pius VII., 
 feeling the need of their despotic power to sus- 
 tain the Papacy, restored the order, and con- 
 ferred upon them the highest privileges and 
 prerogatives. In his bull he annulled the acts 
 of Clement XIV., and declared that his own 
 was " above the recall or revision of any judge, 
 with whatever power he may be clothed."' 
 Thus he annihilated the infallibility of Clem- 
 ent, but wishes to protect his own against aU 
 the authorities and governments of the earth. 
 
 Since the revival of Jesuitism, and its pro- 
 tection by the pope, the members of the order 
 have been active throughout Christendom in 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 127 
 
 sowing the seeds of dissension, plotting against 
 governments, and undermining the liberties of 
 mankind. In Belgium, France, Italy, Great 
 Britain, and in every Papal and Protestant 
 country in Europe, they have been at work. 
 But their great hope is in extending their influ- 
 ence over America, and thus gaining here what 
 they have lost in the older countries. They 
 profess to feel a great interest in our nation 
 and in our republican institutions — the same 
 kind of interest, doubtless, that Satan felt in 
 the prosperity of Paradise — the same that a 
 pirate feels in watching the noble ship that is 
 under full sail, and laden with costly treasures. 
 They offer to educate our children, and for this 
 purpose they have established schools, semina- 
 ries, and colleges at the west and south. 
 
 " In 1790, there were but about forty priests 
 in this country, and the system of Romanism 
 had but few open adherents and advocates 
 among us. The then existing public sentiment 
 in regard to those European organizations, civil, 
 political, and religious, from whose oppressive 
 power the people had but recently escaped, of- 
 fered but little encouragement to th* hopes of 
 Papal propagandists. The Jesuit, however, was 
 here, and covertly engaged in his evil work. 
 
 " In 1808, the organized force- of Romanism 
 in the United States comprised one diocese, 
 
128 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 two bishops, sixty-eight priests, eighty churches, 
 two ecclesiastical institutions, one college, and 
 two female academies. 
 
 " In 1834, the Jesuits had nine ecclesiastical 
 institutions, six colleges, and twenty female 
 academies. 
 
 " This year, [1854,] they have in the United 
 States twenty incorporated colleges, with two 
 thousand two hundred and forty-seven students, 
 twenty-nine theological seminaries, with up- 
 wards of four hundred students, and one hun- 
 dred and twelve female academies. 
 
 " The total accession of priests for the year 
 ending with the beginning of 1854 was up- 
 wards of two hundred and fifty-six. 
 
 " In commenting on their growth in the 
 United States, the publishers of the ' Metropol- 
 itan Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory' 
 say, ' From 1834 to 1844 the personal and ma- 
 terial force of the church in the United States 
 increased at the rate of about one hundred per 
 cent. — the number of dioceses, bishops, priests, 
 churches, seminaries, colleges, and female acad- 
 emies having about doubled during that period. 
 During tne last ten y%ars — from 1844 to 1854 — 
 nearly the same ratio is observable, except in the 
 number of churches and priests ; in these de- 
 partments the ratio of increase has been about 
 one hundred and seventy per cent.' " 
 
THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 129 
 
 At the south and west, even Protestants have 
 more or less encouraged these Jesuit teachers, 
 by their influence or their patronage. As one 
 among many instances, I would cite the follow- 
 ing : " A few years since, at the commencement 
 of the Jesuit college at Georgetown, in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, a dinner, as usual, was given 
 in honor of the college. The archbishop of the 
 Roman Catholic church in the United States was 
 there, in his official robes, and also several dis- 
 tinguished Protestants were present. The arch- 
 bishop, and Mr. MuUedy, the president of the 
 college, made speeches on the occasion. So 
 also did Mr. George Washington P. Custis, Mr. 
 Seaton, editor of the ' Intelligencer,' and Ma- 
 jor General Macomb, at that time commander- 
 in-chief of the American army. 
 
 " Mr. Seaton not only made a speech, but 
 gave a toast in honor of the Jesuits, as an or- 
 der of men devoted for three centuries to re- 
 ligion and learning. General Macomb gave 
 the following toast : ' The health of the pope, 
 and prosperity to the Catholic religion.' " 
 
 Many of the Jesuits connected with schools 
 and seminaries advertise that the religion of 
 the pupils will not be interfered with ; and yet 
 the most artful and persevering measures will 
 be adopted, to bring the children of Protestant 
 parents into the Catholic church. The follow- 
 
130 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 ing facts were stated by a gentleman of un- 
 questionable veracity. " He said that he was 
 acquainted with two families who sent their 
 daughters to a Roman Catholic seminary. The 
 fathers are highly respectable men, and officers 
 in Protestant churches. The daughters having 
 completed their course of instruction at the 
 seminary, and returned to their fathers' house, 
 the parents anticipated a great increase of 
 pleasure in their mental improvement. You 
 can imagine their surprise and horror, when 
 the daughters told them that they had joined 
 the Catholic church. So complete was their 
 apostasy from the true faith, that they would 
 not even attend family prayers — saying, that it 
 was not right to hear heretics pray." 
 
 Many facts, of a similar character, might be 
 stated, showing particularly the influence of 
 these institutions in our Western States. Prot- 
 estants cannot be too muth on their guard 
 against these schools, nor can' they labor too 
 zealously to plant institutions of learning, that 
 will be in accordance with the genius of our 
 civil government, and the principles of our re- 
 ligious faith. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE EAGANISM OF POPERY. 
 
 " Upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Bab- 
 ylon THE great, the MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMI- 
 NATIONS OF THE EARTH." — Bco. xvii. 5. 
 
 In the preceding pages we have shown how 
 utterly incompatible are the claims of Roman- 
 ism with the principles and spirit of Chris- 
 tianity. We have proved that many of its 
 fundamental doctrines are directly at variance 
 with the teachings of the Bible — that tradition 
 and the decrees of councils are of higher au- 
 thority among its advocates than the word of 
 God — that the gSspel of Jesus Christ is the 
 very last thing with which its ministers have to 
 do — and that the whole system is a master- 
 piece of superstition and cruelty, for enslaving 
 the mind, deadening the conscience, and grati- 
 fying the ambition, lust, and avarice of its 
 leaders. 
 
 We are now prepared to show the striking 
 resemblance that exists between Romanism 
 and paganism — a resemblance which warrants 
 
 (131) 
 
132 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 US in giving to the Romish system the title of 
 a baptized paganism. 
 
 After the conversion of Constantine, Chris- 
 tianity became the established religion of the 
 Roman empire ; and, as laws were passed re- 
 quiring that all who would obtain public offices, 
 or serve in the army, must profess the Christian 
 faith, multitudes of pagans at once, from mer- 
 cenary motives, entered the church. Hav- 
 ing been educated in the rites and doctrines 
 of the pagan religion, no change was wrought 
 in their feelings and views, only in their profes- 
 sions. And as vast numbers poured into the 
 Christian church, in every part of the empire, 
 directly from their heathen temples and idola- 
 trous worship, they naturally carried with them 
 not only the spirit of paganism, but many of 
 their customs, rites, and even their idols. Had 
 the true church at that time been powerful, it 
 would have been a very difficult task to have 
 purified and trained for the service of Christ 
 this mass of pagan mind. But it should be 
 remembered that the church was itself weak, 
 and there was more probability that the pagan 
 element would work into and corrupt the Chris- 
 tianity that existed, than that the Christian el- 
 ement would subdue and destroy the paganism. 
 Besides, the very prosperity that so suddenly 
 burst upon the Cliristians, under Constantine, 
 
THE PAGANISM OF POPERY. 133 
 
 after the long nights of sorrow and persecution 
 through which they had passed, was calculated 
 to peril their faith. Under ordinary circum- 
 stances, it is very difficult for a church to 
 maintain a high state of spirituality and de- 
 votion, in the midst of great worldly prosper- 
 ity. But here was a company of disciples 
 who had known little else than hardships. 
 They had been hunted from city to city, and 
 from one hiding-place to another — had been 
 banished — had their property confiscated — 
 seen their brethren imprisoned, scourged, and 
 slaughtered by thousands — and had assembled 
 for the worship of God at the peril of their 
 lives, — and now, all at once, they are pro- 
 tected, favored, admitted to posts of honor and 
 distinction. Their religion becomes the na- 
 tional religion. It exists by authority, is de- 
 fended by powerful armies, and enjoined upon 
 all faithful subjects. The change is so sudden 
 and so great, that it cannot fail to be disastrous 
 to the interests of vital piety. Besides, while 
 we hope that the conversion of Constantine 
 was genuine, yet he was far from governing his 
 life according to the rigid precepts of the gos- 
 pel. He was guilty of many sins, which it 
 would require more than the skill of Papal 
 logic to reconcile with a pure Christian charac- 
 ter. He may have been influenced, in part at 
 12 
 
134 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 least, by worldly motives, and have thought 
 that Christianity, as an element of national 
 power, possessed more efficiency than idolatry, 
 and would strengthen the laws, and secure 
 greater obedience than paganism. It is cer- 
 tain, that at that period the Roman character 
 had sadly degenerated. The stern virtues, fidel- 
 ity, and heroism of the old Romans had given 
 place to vices, shameful profligacy, weakness, 
 and cruelty. The intelligent classes were losing 
 their reverence for the superstitions and rites of 
 paganism. On the other hand, the honesty, 
 firmness, and noble characteristics of the Chris- 
 tians were attracting public attention, and the 
 sagacity of Constantine may have discovered 
 that there was a power in the Christian religion 
 which he could use to immense advantage. 
 As evidence that his views of Christian humil- 
 ity and self-sacrifice did not accord with those 
 of the primitive disciples, we are informed that 
 " he gave to the clergy the former privileges of 
 the pagan priests, and allowed legacies to be 
 left to the churches, which were every where 
 erected and enlarged. He was gratified with 
 seeing the bishops assume great state ; for he 
 thought, the more respect the bishops com- 
 manded, the more inclined the pagans would 
 be to embrace Christianity ; and thus he intro- 
 duced the love of pomp and display among the 
 clergy." 
 
THE PAGANISM OF POPERY. 135 
 
 While some of the heathen temples were de- 
 stroyed by the emperor, others were retained ; 
 land the images of the heathen gods, in several in- 
 stances, were, by a sort of baptism, converted into 
 the statues of the apostles and eminent saints. 
 
 In tracing the resemblance between Popery 
 and paganism, I would in the first place prove 
 the truth of this statement, in regard to temples 
 and images. 
 
 A distinguished Christian traveller gives the 
 following account of his visit to the Church of 
 St. Paul, in Naples — a city where the sur- 
 passing beauty and magnificence of the scenery 
 present a striking contrast to the wretchedness 
 and degradation of the people : — 
 
 " During the morning, I made a visit to the 
 Church of St. Paul, major, which is one of the 
 sights of this beautifully-located, but misgov- 
 erned and priest-ridden city. This is really the 
 old temple, of Castor and Pollux transformed 
 into a church. There stand the old pillars of 
 the heathen temple ; there, before the door, is 
 the statue of a heathen god converted into a 
 statue of St. Paul; on either side of the great 
 door, and over it, are left remaining the pictures 
 of the heathen priests offering sacrifices ; and 
 all over the interior of the building are the rep- 
 resentations of heathen mythology, mixed up 
 with the myths and superstitions of Popery. 
 
136 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Priests, in their robes, were mumbling mass at 
 its altars ; women and beggars were kneeling 
 before the altars, and gazing around, or were 
 troubling you for alms at every turn. And to 
 a person at all acquainted with heathen mythol- 
 ogy, Eoman antiquities, and with the manner 
 of the worship of the old Italians, the concep- 
 tion, on entering the church, would be neither 
 violent nor unnatural, that he was in a heathen 
 temple, whose altars were surrounded by hea- 
 then priests, upon which they were offering their 
 unmeaning sacrifices." 
 
 On entering St. Peter's Church, at Rome, 
 you observe a bronze statue of this apostle, the 
 toe of which has been worn away by the kisses 
 of the faithful. How many of the vast multi- 
 tudes who have thus honored this image, do 
 you think, were aware that it once represented 
 Jupiter, and that heathen priests burnt incense 
 before it, and worshipped it as their God ? An 
 Englishman, in passing this image, raised his 
 hat to it, not as ^t. Peter, but as Jupiter, and 
 requested him, should he ever regain his power, 
 to reward the only individual who ever bowed 
 to him in his adversity ! At stated periods, the 
 pope and his cardinals approach it with great 
 pomp and splendor, and render to it a far more 
 profound worship than the ancient Romans 
 ever paid to Jupiter. 
 
THE PAGANISM OF POPERY. 137 
 
 The Pantheon, at Rome, — one of the most 
 magnificent and celebrated monuments of an- 
 tiquity, — was built by Agrippa, and dedicated 
 to Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and, as its name indi- 
 cates, to all the gods. When a nation was 
 conquered by the Romans, some of their gods 
 were sent, and placed in this edifice, that the 
 inhabitants, on visiting Rome, might recognize 
 and worship the images before which they were 
 accustomed to bow. This heathen temple was 
 by Pope Boniface IV., in 607, converted into 
 a church, and dedicated, not to the worship of 
 the true God, but to the Virgin Mary, and to 
 all the saints in the Romish calendar. None 
 of the images were removed, but Venus was 
 transformed into Mary, and Jupiter, Mars, &c., 
 into Christian saints. These statues of heathen 
 deities were passed off upon the people as the 
 images of the most eminent disciples of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. And now, persons may be 
 seen in the Pantheon, worshipping their favor- 
 ite saints, as the pagans formerly worshipped 
 their favorite deities. 
 
 The Romanists also equal, and in some re- 
 spects surpass, the pagans in the number and 
 variety of their gods, or objects of worship. 
 According to St. Augustine, there were over 
 twenty thousand pagan deities ; but according 
 to the Papal martyrology, there are a hun- 
 12* 
 
138 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 dred thousand saints, or, as we might call them, 
 deities, that are worshipped by the deluded 
 victims of Romanism. 
 
 The pagans had their distinct classes of gods, 
 who presided over nations, towns, temples, and 
 rural districts. Belus was the god of the Bab- 
 ylonians, Isis and Osiris of the Egyptians, &c. 
 So among the Romanists, St. Stephen is the 
 patron of Hungary, St. Louis of France, St. 
 Patrick of Ireland. 
 
 Among the ancient towns, Carthage was 
 presided over by Juno, Athens by Minerva ; so 
 under Romanism, Naples has its St. Janua- 
 rius, Bologna has its St. Petronio. 
 
 The pagans had a deity for almost every 
 altar and temple — deities to preside over 
 woods, pathways, and gardens. So have the 
 Romanists. 
 
 And in regard to the qualifications for canon- 
 ization, the latter have not improved upon the 
 former. If we are ready to condemn the 
 grounds upon which the pagan deities are 
 made to claim the reverence of the people, 
 much more ought we to condemn the course 
 pursued by the Papal church. For in this 
 church not only virtues and humanity, but 
 vices and cruelty, have been regarded as quali- 
 fications for saintship. Among other saints, 
 we might mention Gregory VII., who, by Car- 
 
THE PAGANISM OF POPERY. 139 
 
 dinal Bemo, was charged with being guilty of 
 almost every crime. He obtained the Papacy 
 by force and bribery, and his career was marked 
 by the greatest cruelty, and by acts of treason, 
 murder, and adultery. The Councils of Worms 
 and Brescia did not hesitate to pronounce him 
 guilty of usurpation, apostasy, treason, fornica- 
 tion, and perjury. And yet this vile and cruel 
 pontiff is held up as a saint, to be worshipped 
 by the faithful. 
 
 Pius V. is another saint of the same stamp. 
 We are informed that he was canonized, as a 
 reward for his cruelty towards the enemies of 
 the Papacy, that is, the friends of vital religion. 
 The only piety about him was in his name. 
 Among the inquisitors he stood preeminent for 
 his atrocious cruelty. He caused to be built 
 the inquisitorial dungeons, at Kome, which 
 were literally hells upon earth. The sufferings 
 of hundreds of tortured victims bore witness to 
 his vUlany. And for this he is constituted a 
 saint. 
 
 How much the Romanist has improved upon 
 the pagan, in his deities, you can judge. If I 
 were to have my choice, I should prefer Jupiter, 
 Ceres, Neptune, and even Vulcan, and Mars, 
 as objects of worship, to these Romish saints. 
 
 The resemblance between Popery and pagan- 
 ism in regard to their priesthood is also very 
 
140 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 striking. In ancient Rome the priests were 
 very numerous, and possessed immense power 
 over all classes in society. Their chief was 
 called Pontifex Maximus, or sovereign pontiff. 
 He was the acknowledged head of the national 
 religion, and decided all questions relative to 
 the discipline, rites, and ceremonies of the pa- 
 gan faith. He lived in the splendor and lux- 
 ury of a prince, levied taxes upon the people, 
 could hinder any person from leaving the city 
 without his permission, and required the most 
 profound homage from all classes. No one 
 could approach him without kissing his feet. 
 He usuallyTvore a gorgeous robe, and appeared 
 in public with great pomp, and attended by a 
 long and imposing procession of various orders 
 of priests. Indeed, we need only to describe to 
 you the Pontifex Maximus of the ancient Ro- 
 mans, and the same picture will present before 
 you the present Pope of Rome. In justice, 
 however, to the pagan pontiff, we would state 
 that the resemblance between the two does not 
 hold in every point. While the pagan sover- 
 eign and his college had the power of life and 
 death, his decision could be reversed by the 
 people. But under his holiness the pope, the 
 oppressed people have no such power to reverse 
 his decisions. If he decrees that a patriot, or 
 a believer in vital godliness, shall be imprisoned, 
 
P.AGANISM OF POPERY. 141 
 
 driven into exile, or destroyed, the decree is 
 final. Nor did the pagan sovereign find it 
 necessary to be constantly surrounded with a 
 body of Swiss guards, and to call in French 
 and other foreign soldiers, to help him take 
 care of the religious affairs of the nation. 
 
 In another point, also, we would not claim 
 a resemblance. In ancient times, the Pontifex 
 Maximus was not permitted to leave Italy. 
 To-day the infallible Pius IX. is not only at 
 liberty to leave Italy, but the people would be 
 very thankful to have him leave, never to re- 
 turn. 
 
 The various classes of priests and religious 
 orders in the Romish church have their counter- 
 part among the pagans. The cardinals of the 
 pope correspond with the flamines of the pa- 
 gans, who wore a purple robe and a conical 
 cap. Instead of the colleges of augurs, the 
 Roman church has its convents of friars. In- 
 stead of Vestal virgins, whose duty it was to 
 worship Vesta, and keep a fire constantly burn- 
 ing in her sanctuary, we find here nuns, whose 
 duty it is to worship the Virgin Mary. Both 
 orders had peculiar privileges, and wore gar- 
 ments that distinguished them from other fe- 
 males. 
 
 There were also orders of brothers among 
 the pagans, whose places are taken by the 
 
142 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 monks, the Franciscans and Dominicans. For 
 the Jesuits of the Romish church, it is hard to 
 find a parallel order among the priests or dei- 
 ties of the pagans. Their cunning, duplicity, 
 cruelty, and iniquity it is difficult to match, 
 even among the victims of pagan superstition. 
 The nearest approximation to them is found 
 in the monsters called " Harpies," who lived in 
 the vicinity of the Furies, and are represented 
 as having the faces of virgins, the bodies of 
 vultures, and their feet and hands armed with 
 claws. These creatures might, if any could, do 
 the work of the Jesuits among the pagans. 
 
 In regard to the persecuting spirit of Roman- 
 ism, the resemblance is very striking. The 
 pagan emperors, who so bitterly persecuted 
 the early Christians, have a long line of, not 
 illustrious, but infamous successors among the 
 popes of the church. For the bloody Nero, we 
 find, in the chair of St. Peter, Gregory VII. 
 For Domitian and Diocletian, the Romanists 
 have Boniface VII., Pius V., and others of a 
 kindred spirit. If the pagan emperors were 
 cruel, bloodthirsty, and relentless towards the 
 victims of their wrath, so were these popes. 
 It is estimated that in the persecutions under 
 the Emperor Diocletian, forty thousand Chris- 
 tians suffered martyrdom ; but the infallible 
 Innocent III. advanced greatly on this, for he 
 
PAGANISM OF POPERY. 143 
 
 caused the destruction of one hundred thousand 
 Christians in a single day. 
 
 Nero took special delight in witnessing the 
 tortures of his victims, in seeing them torn by- 
 wild beasts, and writhing in agony while the 
 flames were spreading around them ; but his 
 gratification could not have been more intense 
 than that of Pope Pius V. on gazing upon the 
 suflerings of those who fell into the hell of his 
 inquisitorial dungeons. Nero and his holiness 
 could have met as fellovv^-fiends, with similar 
 tastes and desires. They could have drank 
 from the same cup of blood, and feasted their 
 eyes upon the same writhing, dying victims. 
 We read of the cruelties under the Emperors 
 Trajan, Severus, Decius, Valerian, and others ; 
 but the popes Alexander, Clement, Lucius, and 
 Martin equalled, and, in some respects, sur- 
 passed them. Between the cruelties of the 
 two systems there is probably little to choose. 
 We think, however, were we forced to make a 
 choice, we should prefer to encounter the wild 
 beasts in an old Roman amphitheatre, to the 
 infernal machinery of a Romish Inquisition. 
 The beasts would at least make shorter work 
 of it than the officers of the Inquisition. 
 
 But we hasten to speak of the points of re- 
 semblance in the doctrines and rites of the two 
 systems. 
 
144 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 In the first place, the idea of purgatory is 
 derived from the pagans. Plato, in his philos- 
 ophy, develops the theory four hundred years 
 before the Christian era. Like the Romanist, 
 he divided men into three classes — the good, 
 who at death were at once admitted to the 
 regions of blessedness ; the bad, whose crimes 
 doomed them to endless torment in Tartarus ; 
 and a third class, between the other two, who 
 were guilty of only slight offences. These, 
 after having been purified in purgatory, were 
 supposed to be released and admitted to a 
 state of endless happiness. The Grecian phi- 
 losopher presents this theory adorned with all 
 the beauties of an elegant style and glowing 
 imagery. Cicero and Virgil also adopt the 
 fiction, and represent the spirits of the departed 
 as making expiation for their sins in regions 
 between Tartarus and Elysium. 
 
 This superstition, therefore, of the Papist is 
 no new discovery. It existed, as a prominent 
 element of paganism, nearly a thousand years 
 before it was adopted by Popery. Every reader 
 of the ancient classics is familiar with Charon 
 and his boat, and the River Styx and Acheron, 
 over which he carried the souls of the departed. 
 But the Romanist has improved upon this sys- 
 tem in one particular. The pagan had a small 
 piece of money deposited to defray the expenses 
 
PAGANISM OF POPERY. 145 
 
 of the passage across the River Styx. Those 
 who did not pay, and were not honored with 
 funeral rites, were compelled to wander on the 
 shore for a hundred years before they could be 
 transported. But instead of an obolus, or small 
 piece of money, the Romanist must pay, if he is 
 wealthy, thousands of dollars for the release of 
 his soul. To say the least, the pagan system is 
 decidedly the more economical of the two. 
 
 The use of holy water is also a pagan as 
 well as Romish rite. In both systems it is re- 
 garded as possessing great efficacy. On enter- 
 ing a Romish church, you may observe a stone 
 basin containing water, into which the faithful 
 dip their fingers and cross themselves. The 
 process by which the holy element is imparted 
 to the water, and the uses to which it is applied, 
 are supremely ridiculous. After being prepared 
 by the priest, by making signs and breathing 
 upon it, and casting into it a little fine powder, 
 it is used for a great variety of purposes. It is 
 sprinkled upon houses, furniture, horses, mules, 
 dogs, and sheep ; upon the clothes of the living 
 and the coffins of the dead. It is supposed to 
 bless every thing that it touches. The ignorant 
 and superstitious are taught to believe that this- 
 water purifies the atmosphere, heals diseases, 
 drives away evil thoughts, gives strength to 
 resist temptation, expels Satan and wicked 
 13 
 
146 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 spirits from the house, and secures the presence 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 In Rome, on a certain day, the horses and 
 mules of the city and surrounding country are 
 gayly decorated, and brought before the Church 
 of St. Anthony, to be sprinkled with holy water 
 by the priest. A small sum is paid to the 
 priest for every animal that he sprinkles, and 
 the people are made to believe that unless their 
 animals are thus sprinkled, they will die during 
 the year, or meet with some accident or great 
 calamity. In order to keep up the delusion, 
 the pope annually sends his horses to be sprin- 
 kled. 
 
 Now, the common-sense spectator will natu- 
 rally ask, Whence this silly and ridiculous cus- 
 tom? Where is the doctrine found that a 
 little water sprinkled upon a beast wiU save 
 his life and protect him from accident ? Not 
 in the Bible, certainly — not in the teachings 
 of the primitive Christians. It is simply a 
 heathen custom transferred from paganism to 
 Romanism. 
 
 Dr. Middleton, in his letter from Rome, says 
 that " this ceremony is so notoriously and di- 
 rectly transmitted to them from paganism, that 
 their own writers make not the least scruple to 
 own it. The Jesuit La Cerda, in his notes on a 
 passage of Virgil where this practice is men- 
 
PAGANISJI OF POPERY. 147 
 
 tioned, says, ' Hence was derived the custom 
 of holy church to provide purifying or holy 
 water at the entrance of their churches.' Aqua- 
 minarium or ainula, says the learned Montfau- 
 con, was a vase of holy water, placed by the 
 heathen at the entrance of their temples, to 
 sprinkle themselves with. The same vessel 
 was by the Greeks called periranterion ; two 
 of which, the one of gold, the other of silver, 
 were given by Crresus to the temple of Apollo 
 at Delphi ; and the custom of sprinkling them- 
 selves was so necessary a part of all their re- 
 ligious offices, that the method of excommuni- 
 cation seems to have been by prohibiting to 
 offenders the approach and use of the holy 
 water pot. The very composition of this holy 
 water was the same also among the heathen as 
 it is now among the Papists, being nothing 
 more than a mixture of salt with common wa- 
 ter ; and the form of the sprinkling brush, called 
 by the ancients aspersoriuvi or aspergillu7n, 
 (w^hich is much the same with what the priests 
 now make use of,) may be seen in bass-reliefs 
 or ancient coins, wherever the insignia or em- 
 blems of the pagan priesthood are described, 
 of which it is generally one." 
 
 The custom of burning candles in the Ro- 
 mish cathedrals and churches is also derived 
 fi-om the pagans. On great occasions, a large 
 
148 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 number of candles or lamps are kept burning. 
 Under the dome of St. Peter's Church, at 
 Eome, one hundred and twelve are perpetually 
 lighted. There is a festival called Candlemas, 
 which is celebrated with great splendor in 
 Rome, and derives its name from the fact that 
 a large number of candles are used in the pro- 
 cession, and are consecrated for the ensuing 
 year. The festival is thus described : " Sitting 
 in the chair of state, the pofie is borne on the 
 shoulders of eight men into St. Peter's, attend- 
 ed by huge fans made of ostrich feathers, and 
 by cardinals, bishops, prelates, and priests. 
 When every thing is arranged for the senseless 
 ceremony, candles are brought to him in im- 
 mense numbers. They are incensed, sprinkled 
 with holy water, and blessed. Then they are 
 distributed. Each cardinal approaches, receives 
 a candle, kisses the pope's hand, and retires. 
 Each bishop approaches, receives a candle, 
 kisses the pope's knee, and retires. Each in- 
 ferior functionary on the occasion approaches, 
 receives a candle, kisses the pope's foot, and 
 retires. On a sudden, an immense number of 
 candles are lighted, in the blaze of which the 
 pope is carried round the church, and retires, 
 granting an indulgence of thirty years to aU 
 the faithful present. This is Candlemas at 
 Rome ; and if any one wishes an indulgence 
 
PAGANISM OF POPERY. 149 
 
 for all his sins during life, he has only to attend 
 this festival three times, and he receives indul- 
 gence for ninety years, beyond which he will 
 not probably need it." 
 
 Now, Herodotus mentions that the Egyptians 
 instituted a great festival called " the lighting 
 up of candles." One of the holy fathers thus 
 condemns this heathen custom : " They light 
 up candles to God, as if he lived in the dark ; 
 but do they not deserve to rank as madmen 
 who offer lamps to the Author and Giver of 
 light?" But whether the benighted pagans 
 or these so called Christian priests are the 
 greatest madmen, we leave you to judge. 
 
 By some in the church, the pagan origin of 
 this rite is admitted. Bishop England says 
 that " lights are placed upon the altar from 
 the usage of the most ancient times. It is an 
 Eastern custom to express joy ; for, even in the 
 light of the sun, the torches and candles were 
 lighted to express this feeling ; and as our re- 
 ligion is received from the East, most of our an- 
 cient customs are of Eastern origin." Here is 
 an express admission that the Romanists have 
 copied the pagan mode of expressing joy. 
 
 The Protestant is contented with the light 
 of the sun and the light of God's truth, with- 
 out resorting to the faint glimmerings of dimly- 
 burning candles. It is enough for him that his 
 13* 
 
150 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 great Master has said, " I am the light of the 
 world." Under the splendors of that light he 
 hopes to walk in the path of truth, and be con- 
 ducted to the bright mansions in the skies. 
 
 The burning of incense, so common in Cath- 
 olic churches, is a pagan custom. During the 
 ceremonies of worship, you will see a little boy, 
 dressed in white, swinging a little vessel, from 
 which the incense ascends, and soon fills the 
 house. The priest will indeed tell you that 
 this incense is the emblem of prayer ascending 
 to God ; but what auditor is rendered more de- 
 votional by seeing this little boy swinging his 
 censer, and by breathing and smelling the in- 
 cense, which is often very far from being agreea- 
 ble? Who, that desired real and delightful com- 
 munion with God, would not be greatly annoyed 
 by such an absurd practice ? 
 
 And we would ask, Do we find this custom 
 prevailing in the churches of the early Chris- 
 tians ? Is there any mention made of it in the 
 Gospels or the Epistles of the New Testament ? 
 Is it anywhere enjoined or alluded to by Christ ? 
 We can find it nowhere but among the rites 
 of pagan worship ; and here it is found in the 
 same form in which it now prevails in the Ro- 
 mish churches. Boys dressed in white, and 
 with censers in their hands, appeared before the 
 pagan altars, and offered incense to the gods. 
 
PAGANISM OF POPERY. 151 
 
 In fact, the most thorough pagan might enter 
 a Romish church, and witness a very consider- 
 able portion of the ceremonies and rites of wor- 
 ship, without discovering that he was not in a 
 pagan temple. When the priest, in his discourse, 
 alludes to the virtues of St. Patrick and the 
 Virgin Mary, instead of those of Jupiter and 
 Venus, the pagan listener might become some- 
 what bewildered, and yet he might reasonably 
 suppose that these were some new gods, of whom 
 he had not before heard. On looking round 
 upon the burning candles, and the altar, and the 
 images, he might assure himself that he was 
 indeed in a pagan temple. The prayers uttered 
 in a tongue unknown to the people would also 
 help the delusion. He might think that the 
 supplication was addressed to Jupiter in Latin, 
 because the priest supposed this god was ac- 
 quainted with only this language. 
 
 The portions of the discourse that heaped 
 terrible anathemas upon all who did not con- 
 form to the Romish form of worship, might 
 seem to him very tolerable pagan bigotry, and 
 as carrying out the spirit of Nero and Diocle- 
 tian. Indeed, he might retire from the church 
 comforted with a very considerable degree of 
 pagan edification. 
 
 The two systems correspond, also, in several 
 other particulars. In both, pilgrimages to holy 
 
152 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 places, and the infliction of bodily suffering, are 
 regarded as in the highest degree meritorious. 
 Both make use of gay costume, and a variety 
 of showy dresses, to please the ignorant and 
 deluded populace. Both have their holy wells 
 and rivers, to which the devotees resort for spir- 
 itual benefits. 
 
 In this country, the Romanists are rather 
 poor in holy wells, but they have an abundance 
 of them in Ireland, which are minutely de- 
 scribed by Christian travellers. There is one in 
 the county Mayo which is dedicated to a fe- 
 male saint, whose festival is held on the 10th 
 of August. " It stands," says one, " in a se- 
 cluded spot, and is surrounded by a very rough 
 wall of stones, upon some of which are cut 
 Popish hieroglyphics in the most primitive style 
 of the art. I found old rags between the stones, 
 in place of mortar; and in lifting up some stones, 
 I found knots of thread under them ; and upon 
 the branches of the little shrubbery by which it 
 was surrounded, there were tied pieces of old 
 cloth. These were left behind as mementoes of 
 their visits by the poor devotees who go there 
 to make their stations ; that is, to go round it 
 upon their knees, praying to the saint of the 
 well for her intercessions." 
 
 " There is another, nearBallina, in Connaught, 
 on the side of the public highway. It is sur- 
 
PAGANISM OF POPERY. 153 
 
 rounded with mud, which was so deep on the 
 15th of July as to prevent me from reaching 
 its brink ; and through that mud all the devo- 
 tees wade in making their stations. After 
 making the required prayers around the well, 
 they cross the road, and pass over a stone wall 
 into a field, in which there is a rock. They 
 walk round this rock praying, dropping, at 
 each circuit, a little stone upon it. When the 
 required circuits are all made, they return to 
 the well, and gaze into its shallow waters until 
 they see the holy trout, whose appearance is an 
 evidence that their prayers are answered." 
 
 As the Hindoos, at the present day, gather 
 around their holy founts and rivers, so do these 
 Papists gather around their holy wells ; nor is 
 it easy to decide which class manifest the most 
 ignorance, superstition, and degradation. 
 
 But I need not multiply evidences upon a 
 point so clear as that of the resemblance be- 
 tween Popery and paganism. It would be far 
 more pleasant to trace the likeness of Popery 
 to Christianity — to exhibit the members of 
 this ancient system as possessing the spirit of 
 Jesus, and as walking in the footsteps of the 
 apostles and primitive disciples ; but we are 
 bound to look at the system as it actually ex- 
 ists, and if w^e find that it is little else than a 
 baptized paganism, we are bound to deal with 
 
154 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 it as such. We are under obligations to en- 
 lighten, and to do all in our power to save, 
 those who are blinded and held in bondage by 
 this superstition. We would not denounce 
 this class of our citizens. We would not harbor 
 a prejudice against them. In making an ex- 
 position of their principles, we are conscious of 
 no other motive than a desire to promote the 
 highest good of our Catholic population. But 
 when this system of Romanism is presented to 
 us, not only as a Christian system, but as the 
 only pure and divinely authorized religion, and 
 when efforts are made to break down our insti- 
 tutions, that upon their ruins may be built the 
 faith of Rome, we are bound to resist it. As 
 Christians, as philanthropists, as patriots, we are 
 under solemn obligations to do all in our power 
 to expose the true character of this system, and 
 warn the people against its pernicious influence. 
 
VII. 
 
 PERSECUTING SPIEIT OP ROMANISM. 
 
 "And I HEAED ANOTHEE VOICE FROM HEAVEW, SAVINe, COME 
 OUT OF HEE, MY PEOPLE, THAT YE BE NOT PAKTAKEE3 OB 
 HEH SINS, AND THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES. 
 FOR HER SINS HAVE REACHED UNTO HEAVEN, AND GOD 
 HATH REMEMBERED HER INIQUITIES." — JJeu. XViii. 4,5. 
 
 We enter now upon a dark and melancholy 
 chapter in the history of the Romish apostasy. 
 The shadows fall thick and fast around us as 
 we leave the light of a pure gospel, and enter 
 those regions black with the crimes of the Pa- 
 pal church ; and bearing the marks of cruelties 
 and atrocities, the mere recital of which sends 
 a shudder through the whole frame. Of aU 
 the contrasts ever exhibited on the earth, that 
 presented by the principles of Christianity on 
 the one hand, and the persecutions of Rome on 
 the other, is the greatest. Place side by side 
 Jesus Christ and a Romish inquisitor, and you 
 have the very extremes of benevolence and cru- 
 elty, of holiness and iniquity, of heavenly mer- 
 cy and fiendish barbarity. The one is all ten- 
 
 (155) 
 
156 HOMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 derness and compassion, the other thirsts for 
 the blood of the saints. The one is clothed 
 with humility, his countenance radiant with 
 celestial virtues ; the other is a monster in hu- 
 man form, who delights in the tortures and ag- 
 onies of his victims. 
 
 The persecutions which have afflicted the 
 Christian church may be assigned to three dis- 
 tinct periods — the first extending from the time 
 of our Savior to the reign of Constantine ; the 
 second, from Constantine to the reformation un- 
 der Luther ; and the third, from Luther to the 
 present time. In the first ages of the church, 
 although the disciples of our Lord were exposed 
 to every species of insult and cruelty that their 
 enemies could devise, yet they never manifested, 
 in the slightest degree, the spirit of persecution. 
 In imitation of their divine Master, when they 
 were reviled, they reviled not again ; when they 
 suffered, they threatened not. For curses they 
 returned blessings ; and they prayed for those 
 who despitefully used them and persecuted them. 
 The early fathers imitated Christ and his apostles 
 in this particular. Origen took the ground that 
 Christians should not use the sword. Lactan- 
 tius remarked that coercion and injury are un- 
 necessary, for religion cannot be forced ; " nor 
 can truth be joined with violence, or justice with 
 cruelty. Religion is to be defended, not by kill- 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 157 
 
 ing, but by dying ; not by inhumanity, but by 
 patience." The same sentiments were advanced 
 by TertuUian, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Augustine, 
 and others. The Emperor Constantine, during 
 the first part of his reign, manifested a liberal 
 spirit towards those who differed from him, and 
 respected the rights of conscience throughout 
 the Roman empire. The imperial edict of 
 Milan was the great charter of toleration, which 
 secured the rights of religious liberty to all. 
 But subsequently the mind of the emperor was 
 poisoned, by the advice of bigoted and intoler- 
 ant priests, and ere long the bright prospects of 
 the church, faded away before the dark spirit of 
 persecution. Heresy was soon regarded as one 
 of the greatest crimes, and as requiring the in- 
 terference of the secular power for its suppres- 
 sion. At first, the penalty for heresy was ban- 
 ishment, or the confiscation of the heretic's 
 goods, or depriving him of the privileges of a 
 citizen. Capital punishment was seldom in- 
 flicted. This state of things continued till 
 about the beginning of the ninth century, when 
 a great change in connection with the eastern 
 schism came over the church. The Latin and 
 Greek churches were rent asunder, and for 
 three hundred years various punishments were 
 inflicted for heresy. " This period," says one, 
 " was distinguished by superstition, ignorance, 
 14 
 
158 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 revolution, and confusion. Egyptian darkness 
 reigned, and triumphed over learning and mo- 
 rality. The world sunk into a literary lethargy, 
 and in the language of some historians, slept 
 the sleep of orthodoxy. Learning, philosophy, 
 and religion reposed in inactivity, or fled from the 
 view amidst the wide and debasing dominion 
 of ignorance, immorality, and superstition, 
 which superseded the use of the inquisitor and 
 crusader." 
 
 With the revival of learning in the twelfth 
 century, there appeared various denominations 
 that were opposed to the bigotry, intoler- 
 ance, and superstition of the Romish church. 
 Among these, the most prominent were the 
 Waldenses and Albigenses. These sects could 
 not endure the usurpation of the Papacy, the 
 luxury and corruption of the priesthood, the 
 traffic in indulgences, and the fearful wars that 
 had so long desolated the Christian world. 
 They saw how utterly inconsistent these things 
 were with the spirit and principles of the gos- 
 pel, and how they tended to the destruction of 
 all vital piety and true devotion. 
 
 But this hostility soon produced a reaction, 
 and aroused among the adherents of the Papa- 
 cy a spirit of enmity towards the friends of 
 true religion, that raged with intense fury. 
 Popes, kings, councils, and the crusaders united 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 159 
 
 their forces to crush and exterminate these for- 
 midable adversaries. Frederic, the Emperor of 
 Germany, and Louis, King of France, were 
 particularly zealous in enacting persecuting 
 laws, heaping upon these faithful Christians 
 the most opprobrious and insulting epithets, 
 and seeking their destruction. Under the pre- 
 tence of acting with divine authority, they con- 
 demned these heretics to the flames, confiscated 
 their property, and doomed their posterity to 
 infamy. They required all under their com- 
 mand to use their utmost endeavors to extermi- 
 nate heresy from their dominions. 
 
 The popes united with these persecuting 
 kings, and even vied with them in relentless 
 cruelty. Urban II. in the year 1090, decided 
 that if a zealous Romanist killed one of the 
 excommunicated, he was not guilty of murder. 
 Lucius III. hurled the most terrible anathemas 
 against the Waldenses, and consigned over to 
 the sevei'est punishment any who should favor 
 or protect those who rebelled against the Papal 
 authority. Innocent IV. decreed that those 
 who did not adopt the dogmas and supersti- 
 tious rites of the church, should be burned 
 alive. He even commanded that the house 
 that sheltered an Albigensian should be demol- 
 ished. To those crusaders who should make 
 war upon this noble band of disciples, prom- 
 
160 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 ises were made of a full pardon for sin, and the 
 rewards of heaven. 
 
 The provincial and national councils also 
 added their zeal and decrees to swell the storm 
 of persecution, and sweep from the earth those 
 who could not be forced to bow to the man of 
 sin. The most bloody were those that met at 
 Toledo, Oxford, Avignon, Albi, and Tolosa. 
 More than thirty 'Waldenses,who had immigrat- 
 ed to England, were condemned by the Coun- 
 cil of Oxford in 1160, and consigned over for 
 punishment to the secular powers. Henry II. 
 ordered that they should be publicly whipped, 
 branded on the cheek with a red-hot iron, and 
 driven half naked out of the city; while all 
 persons were positively forbidden to afford them 
 the least hospitality or consolation. Even the 
 dictates of a common humanity were to be 
 suppressed in reference to them. Consequent- 
 ly, the winter being severe, they perished with 
 hunger and cold. 
 
 The Councils of Tours, Albi, Beziers, and To- 
 losa issued various enactments of extermina- 
 tion against the Albigenses and Waldenses. 
 On the Sabbath, and on festival occasions, 
 these devoted Christians were excommunicated, 
 and in order to make a deep impression upon 
 the minds of the people, the bells were tolled 
 and the lights extinguished. All persons were 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 161 
 
 forbidden to trade with them, or to show them 
 any sympathy or favor. Barons and magis- 
 trates were required, under the penalty of for- 
 feiting their estates, to exterminate from their 
 dominions these foes of the Papacy. 
 
 Each council surpassed those that preceded 
 it in the severity and cruelty of its enactments. 
 The fourth General Council of the Lateran, in 
 1245, thundered its anathemas against heretics 
 of every class, and their protectors. It required 
 that all kings and princes should prosecute the 
 work of extermination with the most relentless 
 vigor. Those who neglected this work, or 
 showed any mercy, were liable to be excom- 
 municated, and to have their subjects absolved 
 from allegiance to them. 
 
 The defenders of the Papacy have endeavored 
 to ward off this charge of persecution by say- 
 ing that the whole responsibility rested with 
 the secular powers. But in these councils the 
 laity never voted. The decrees are the work 
 of the clergy alone. And it is a fact abundant- 
 ly sustained by history, that princes and emper- 
 ors were stimulated to the exercise of cruelty 
 by the councils and the popes. They were 
 threatened with the ruin of both their temporal 
 and eternal interests, if they refused to obey. 
 
 Among the numerous instances that we 
 might cite, our limits will only allow us to 
 K 14* 
 
162 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 refer to the intense sufferings and heroic forti- 
 tude of the Waldenses through so many ages, 
 as affording melancholy evidence of the perse- 
 cuting spirit of Romanism. This interesting 
 people, as you well know, occupy the valleys 
 of Piedmont, on the verge of Italy, and at the 
 foot of the Alps. These valleys, lying im- 
 bosomed in ranges of mountains that rise in 
 solemn grandeur one above another, are sur- 
 passingly wild and beautiful. The scenery 
 presents, in striking contrast, the verdure and 
 mildness of spring, and huge masses of ice, 
 and mountains perpetually covered with snow. 
 Many of the passes to these valleys are strong- 
 ly fortified, not by forts and battlements erected 
 by human hands, but by towering rocks, dense 
 forests, and dangerous precipices. " It appears," 
 says one, " as if the all-wise Creator had from 
 the beginning designed that place as a cabinet 
 wherein to put some inestimable jewel, or in 
 which to reserve many thousand souls who 
 should not bow the knee to Baal." 
 
 In this secluded and beautiful spot, this peo- 
 pie for ages have worshipped the God of their 
 fathers, and protected their institutions and 
 their faith against the repeated assaults of their 
 adversaries. At times they have had to flee 
 and seek shelter in Provence, in Dauphiny, and 
 in the obscure recesses of the Pyrenees. Their 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 163 
 
 heresy consisted in rejecting the superstitions 
 of Romanism, the doctrines of Papal infalli- 
 bility, transubstantiation, purgatory, and indul- 
 gences, and in clinging to the truths of the 
 Holy Scriptures, and believing that salvation 
 is to be alone obtained through the sufferings 
 and mediation of Jesus Christ. 
 
 With regard to their origin, a careful writer, 
 the Rev. Dr. Baird, in his excellent History of 
 the Waldenses, makes the following state- 
 ments : " It is well known that centuries before 
 the reformation by Luther, Zwingle, and Cal- 
 vin, there was a considerable body of Chris- 
 tians inhabiting the valleys which lie in the Alps, 
 about midway between the Mediterranean Sea 
 and the Lake Leman, who did not symbolize 
 with Rome. Through the region which they 
 inhabited lay the great road by which the Ro- 
 mans passed from Cisalpine to Transalpine Gaul. 
 And it is natural to suppose that the early 
 Christian missionaries, who carried the truth into 
 the latter, passed through this country, and 
 preached the blessed gospel to its inhabitants. 
 It is even possible that the voice of Paul was 
 heard in those deep valleys ; for if he ever made 
 that journey into Spain, which he tells the breth- 
 ren at Rome, in his epistle to the church of that 
 city, that he purposed to make, he must have 
 passed, it is believed, by that same way. How- 
 
164 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 ever that may have been, it is certain that 
 there vi^as a great body of Christians in the 
 north of Italy, even down to the eleventh cen- 
 tury, who nobly maintained the truth, and did 
 not bow their necks to Rome." 
 
 Indeed, the Waldenses themselves date back 
 their history to the earliest periods of the Chris- 
 tian church. They entertain the opinion that 
 the gospel was preached to their forefathers by 
 missionaries from Rome and other cities of 
 Italy, or that it was introduced by the early 
 Christians, who escaped the persecutions of the 
 Roman emperors, and fled from the plains be- 
 low to these mountain retreats. Probably in 
 both of these ways the truth was introduced. 
 In a petition that was presented by the Wal- 
 denses, in 1559, to Philibert Emanuel, Duke of 
 Savoy and Prince of Piedmont, the following 
 language is used : " We likewise beseech your 
 royal highness to consider, that this religion 
 which we profess is not only ours, nor hath it 
 been invented by men of late years, as is false- 
 ly reported, but it was the religion of our 
 fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, 
 and other yet more ancient predecessors of 
 ours, and of the blessed martyrs, confessors, 
 prophets, and apostles ; and if any can prove 
 the contrary, we are ready to subscribe and 
 yield thereunto." Their historians also main- 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 165 
 
 tain that they have enjoyed Christian privileges 
 and liberty of conscience from time immemorial. 
 Nor were these claims called in question by 
 any of the dukes of Savoy or their ministers. 
 One distinguished Protestant writer remarks, 
 concerning them, " As for the Waldenses, give 
 me leave to call them the very seed of the 
 primitive and pure Christian church, being 
 those who have been so upheld by the wonder- 
 ful providence of God, that neither those num- 
 berless storms and tempests whereby the whole 
 Christian world hath been shaken, nor those 
 horrible persecutions which have been so di- 
 rectly raised against them, have been able to 
 prevail upon them to yield a voluntary submis- 
 sion to Roman tyranny and idolatry." 
 
 It would be impossible, within the limits of 
 a single discourse, to specify all the instances, 
 of severe persecution which this noble people 
 have suffered. Up to about the beginning of 
 the twelfth century, the Waldenses were com- 
 paratively unmolested in their mountain re- 
 treats. The popes did not succeed in subduing 
 the bishops in the north of Italy until the 
 eleventh century, and had not time to look 
 after these poor disciples of Christ who inhab- 
 ited the valleys of the Alps. The success, how- 
 ever, of Peter Waldo, the rich merchant of 
 Lyons, in his reformatory measures, and in his 
 
166 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 zealous labors to promote the interests of vital 
 religion, excited the spirit of persecution which 
 was first directed towards the Waldenses, who 
 were in the western valleys, in Dauphiny and 
 Provence. Peter Waldo, after his conversion, 
 consecrated his wealth to the service of the 
 Savior, and went from place to place preaching 
 the truths of a pure and living faith. He had 
 the Bible translated into the language of the 
 people, and distributed a large number of cop- 
 ies. His labors were blessed by the outpour- 
 ing of the Spirit of God, and the conversion of 
 many souls. 
 
 Indeed, this missionary spirit was a promi- 
 nent characteristic of the Waldenses from the 
 earliest periods. During the dark ages, when 
 the clouds of superstition, ignorance, and error 
 hung over the nations of Europe, these faithful 
 men sent forth their missionaries, who went, two 
 by two, on foot, to their brethren scattered over 
 France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Italy. 
 Their meetings were held in private houses, 
 where the ordinances were administered, dea- 
 cons ordained, and the faithful encouraged to 
 endure their trials and persecution as good sol- 
 diers of the cross. With the most noble self- 
 denial, with a zeal equal to that of the apostles, 
 with a holy ardor and devotion to Christ that 
 no waters could quench or floods drown, they 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 167 
 
 strove to fulfil that last great command, " Go 
 ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
 every creature." 
 
 Besides these ministers, there were humble 
 and pious pedlers, who travelled from village to 
 village with their jewels and wares, for the ex- 
 press purpose of distributing religious tracts 
 and making known the glad tidings of salva- 
 tion to the poor and destitute. After exhibiting 
 some of their articles, if they were asked wheth- 
 er they had others of more value, they would 
 produce a religious book, or the word of God, 
 and manifest more anxiety to have these treas- 
 ures received than to effect a sale of their mer- 
 chandise. 
 
 Even the bitter enemies of the Waldenses 
 bear witness to the excellence and purity of 
 their characters. " These heretics," writes an 
 inquisitor, " are known by their manners and 
 conversation ; for they are orderly and modest 
 in their behavior and deportment; they avoid 
 all appearance of pride in their dress ; they are 
 chaste, temperate, and sober ; they seek not to 
 amass riches ; they abstain from anger ; and 
 even while at work, are either learning or 
 teaching." A Romish prelate says of them, 
 " Their heresy excepted, they generally live a 
 purer life than other Christians. In their mor- 
 als and lives they are perfect, irreprehensible, 
 without reproach among men." 
 
168 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 But such a people and such an organization 
 were dangerous to the power of the pope, and 
 to the doctrines and rites of the Papal system. 
 Hence, by the highest authorities in the Romish 
 church, they were denounced, excommunicated, 
 and the work of persecuting them was com- 
 menced. The Dukes of Savoy were enlisted 
 in the bloody enterprise. At first, individuals 
 were seized and cast into prison. Those who 
 came down from the valleys to the plains on 
 business, or for any purpose, were arrested and 
 treated with cruelty. Inquisitors traversed the 
 valleys and the recesses of the mountains, and 
 arrested thosq whose religious fervor rendered 
 them specially obnoxious to the Papal hie- 
 rarchy. 
 
 But these skirmishes soon resulted in open 
 war. The dukes were required by the pope's 
 legates to furnish the armies for the extermina- 
 tion of this dangerous people. 
 
 "The first notable onset," says one, "was 
 made on Christmas, A. D. 1400, when an armed 
 force of Roman Catholics from Susa invad- 
 ed the valley of Pragela, then occupied wholly 
 by the Waldenses, and fell unexpectedly upon 
 the peaceable inhabitants. Many were slain 
 on the spot. All that could fled to the Alber- 
 gean, a high mountain which separates the val- 
 ley of Pragela from that of St. Martin. Among 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 169 
 
 the wretched beings who were seen clambering 
 up the mountain side amid the deep snow, 
 were mothers carrying their infant children in 
 cradles on their backs, and leading those of 
 greater age, who were able to walk. But when 
 arrived at the summit, exhausted with fatigue, 
 and having no means of creating a fire to re- 
 lieve themselves from the piercing cold, most 
 of them became quite benumbed during the 
 night ; and when the morning came, it found 
 not fewer than eighty infants dead in their cra- 
 dles, and their mothers stretched by their side 
 in a dying state ! This was among the first of 
 Rome's eflbrts to convert these poor people by 
 force to her faith." 
 
 In the year 1487,* the regular crusades 
 against the Waldenses commenced. An army 
 of twenty-four thousand men was organized, 
 and the country was attacked at different points 
 at the same time. A large force was sent 
 against the valley of Angrogna, where many 
 of the inhabitants were assembled. But the 
 enemy were repulsed with great loss ; and the 
 other expeditions were unsuccessful in subduing 
 this brave people. 
 
 Another crusade was made against them by 
 Charles, Duke of Savoy, at the instigation of 
 
 See Dr. Baird's History of the Waldenses, pp. 343, 356. 
 
 15 
 
170 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the Archbishop of Turin and the inquisitors. 
 This was entered upon and prosecuted with 
 great barbarity. Many of the Waldenses were 
 indiscriminately murdered, and others were 
 thrown into prison, and into the dungeons of 
 the Inquisition, where they were left to perish. 
 Some were burned alive, and not a few suffered 
 martyrdom with a heroism worthy of universal 
 admiration. 
 
 In 1560, another army was sent against this 
 unoffending people,- They humbly petitioned 
 that they might remain unmolested ; but their 
 petition was disregarded. They were guilty of 
 the crime of worshipping God according to the 
 dictates- of their own consciences. They would 
 not believe in the mass, in purgatory, or in the 
 infallibility of the pope. They would not pray 
 to the saints, nor worship images, nor put con- 
 fidence in the sham miracles of the Romish 
 church. They were resolved to live according 
 to the requirements of a pure gospel, to follow 
 Christ through evil and through good report, to 
 do right whatever might be the consequences. 
 Hence they were dangerous men to the Papacy, 
 and must be hunted down and shot like wild 
 beasts. 
 
 In the appalling circumstances in which they 
 were again placed, they appointed a day of 
 fasting and prayer. They then placed their 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMAMIS.M. 171 
 
 wives and children, the sick and aged, in the 
 most secure recesses of the mountains, and 
 went forth tq meet the enemy. Again was the 
 invading army repulsed, although the soldiers 
 fought with desperation. 
 
 Gradually, however, the territory of this brave 
 and heroic people became more and more re- 
 stricted. Their relentless foes pressed upon 
 them from every quarter; their villages were 
 pillaged, their best citizens were seized and 
 hurried away to prison, and every right and 
 principle of huinanily and justice was trampled 
 in the dust. But in the year 1655, a most ter- 
 rible storm of persecution burst upon this de- 
 voted people. The emissaries of the pope hav- 
 ing become enraged at their want of success 
 in subduing these heretics, resolved that they 
 would make a powerful effort to crush and de- 
 stroy them. Accordingly an army was raised 
 consisting of fifteen thousand Piedmontese, 
 several regiments of French soldiers, a German 
 corps, and twelve hundred Irishmen. This for- 
 midable force entered the valleys, commanded 
 by the Marquis of Pianessa. At a signal 
 which was agreed upon, the soldiers rushed 
 upon the Waldenses, and scenes of cruelty fol- 
 lowed too barbarous and horrible to be even 
 recited. Dr. Baird sums up the wicked and 
 bloody deeds in the following language : 
 
172 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 " Houses and churches were burned to the 
 ground ; infants were remorselessly torn from 
 their mothers, and dashed against the walls or 
 thei rock's, or had their brains dashed out against 
 each other. The sick were either burned alive, 
 cut in pieces, or thrown down the , precipices. 
 Mothers and daughters were violated in each 
 other's presence, impaled, and either carried 
 naked as ensigns upon pikes at the head of the 
 regiments, or left upon poles by the roadside. 
 Others had their arms and breasts cut off. Men, 
 after being indecently and barbarously mutilat- 
 ed, were cut up limb by limb, and had gunpow- 
 der thrust into their mouths, and then were 
 blown up. Some, both men and women, were 
 buried alive ; some were dragged by the hair 
 on the ground at the tail of a mule. Numbers 
 were cast into a burning fi^rnace. Young 
 women fled from their pursuers, and leaped 
 down precipices, and were killed, rather than 
 submit to their brutal violence. That these 
 things occurred, we have in proof the deposi- 
 tions of more than one hundred and fifty wit- 
 nesses, taken in the presence of notaries public, 
 and of the consistories of the different localities." 
 These awful barbarities produced an instan- 
 taneous and immense sensation throughout 
 Protestant Europe. Remonstrances came in 
 from every quarter, and contributions were 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 173 
 
 made for the sufferers in England, Holland, 
 Switzerland, and other Protestant countries. 
 An envoy sent by Cromwell closed an address 
 that he made to the Dulie of Savoy, iff the fol- 
 lowing bold and earnest language : " In the 
 mean time the angels are seized with horror! 
 Men are amazed ! Heaven itself is astonished 
 with the cries of dying men I The earth blush- 
 es, being discolored with the blood of so many 
 innocent persons. Do not thou, O most high 
 God ! do not thou take that revenge which is 
 due to such aggravated wickedness and horrible 
 villany ? Let thy blood, O Christ, wash away 
 the stain of this blood." Although large col- 
 lections were taken up and sent to the relief of 
 the sufferers who survived the carnage, yet mul- 
 titudes continued to be in great distress for the 
 want of the necessaries of life. Morland, in 
 his work relative to the Waldenses, says, " To 
 this very day they labor under heavy burdens, 
 which are laid on their shoulders by those rigid 
 taskmasters of the church of Rome. To this 
 very day do the enemies of the truth plough 
 and make furrows upon the;r backs, by robbing 
 them of their goods and estates ; by banishing 
 their ministers who were the shepherds of the 
 flock, that the wolves may the better come in 
 and devour them ; by ravishing their young 
 women and maidens ; by murdering many in- 
 15* 
 
174 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 nocent souls; by cruel mockings and revilings; 
 by continued menaces of another massacre. 
 What shall I say ? Those very valleys which 
 they inhabit are no other than a prison or dun- 
 geon, to which the port at La Tour serves as a 
 door. To all this I must add, that, notwith- 
 standing those large supplies which have been 
 sent them from England and other foreign 
 states, yet so great is the number of hungry 
 creatures, and so grievous the oppressions of 
 their Popish enemies, who lie in wait to bereave 
 therti of whatsoever is given them, and snatch 
 at every morsel of meat that goes into their 
 mouths, that verily they are ready to eat their 
 flesh for the want of bread. The tongue of 
 the suckling cleaves to the roof of its mouth ; 
 and the young children ask bread, and no man 
 gives it to them. The young and the old lie 
 on the ground in the streets. Their miseries 
 are more sad and grievous than words can ex- 
 press. They are in a manner dying, whilst 
 they yet live ; no grapes in their vineyards; no 
 cattle in their fields; no herds in their stalls ; 
 no corn in their garners; no meal in their bar- 
 rel ; no oil in their cruse." 
 
 But as though the cup of this people was 
 not full, they were again smitten, in 1663, with 
 the scourge of war, which lasted fourteen 
 months. Although wasted, and torn, and bleed- 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 175 
 
 ing, from past conflicts, yet they were forced 
 again to arouse themselves to the defence of 
 their altars, their habitations, and their lives. 
 As in past conflicts, the movements of the en- 
 emy were marked with treachery, cruelty, and 
 the most high-handed atrocities; while the 
 Waldenses maintained their heroic fortitude 
 and devotion to the religion of their fathers. 
 It is difficult for us, protected as we are in all 
 our rights and privileges, to realize the alarming 
 excitement and terror in which this people con- 
 stantly lived. Scarcely did Ihey recover from 
 the stunning effects of one war, before another, 
 more terrible and bloody, burst upon them. 
 Scarcely were their tears, over the fall of near 
 friends, wiped away, before they were called to 
 weep over other victims of the fury of their en- 
 emies. Even during the seasons when the 
 storms of war abated, they lived in constant 
 fear of their enemies. If they cultivated their 
 fields, they knew not but that, they would be 
 trampled beneath the feet of their persecutors. 
 If they built houses, in all probability they 
 would only be fuel for the incendiary. If they 
 erected churches, they might soon be demol- 
 ished. If they reared and educated their chil- 
 dren, they might reach manhood only to be 
 pierced through with the sword, or to linger out 
 a miserable existence in the dungeon of an 
 
176 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Inquisition. They were literally strangers and 
 pilgrims on the earth ; they had here no abiding 
 city. Yet, through all their trials and agonies, 
 we find them maintaining their faith, and trust- 
 ing in their glorious Redeemer. They seek a 
 city that hath foundations, whose builder and 
 maker is God. They know that there remain- 
 eth a rest for the people of God. Noble men ! 
 Heroic Christians! Kings and princes, not of 
 this earth, — for no thrones here are worthy of 
 them, — but kings and princes unto God ! mon- 
 archs upon the thrones of an everlasting king- 
 dom ! They have gone hence to join the noble 
 army of martyrs, the general assembly and 
 church of the first born. To-day they swell 
 the multitude of worshippers who bow before 
 the Lamb, and sing the glories of redeeming 
 love. They have left their mountain home for 
 the heights of the spiritualJerusalem, where no 
 din of war or groans of the dying can reach 
 their ears ; where no mansions are invaded, no 
 temple falls, but where the broad shield of an 
 almighty King is thrown over them. 
 
 But the sufl'erings of this people ended not 
 with the war of 1663. The storm of persecu- 
 tion had lulled only to break out with still greater 
 fury. After twenty years of oppression, the most 
 horrible of the thirty-three wars, which they had 
 endured on account of their religion, burst upon 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 177 
 
 them. Louis XIV., having crushed Protestant- 
 ism in France, called upon the Duke of Savoy 
 to imitate his example in reference to the Wal- 
 denses. The duke at first declined the request ; 
 but Louis threatened that, if he did not exter- 
 minate the Waldenses, he would send his ar- 
 mies against them, and annex the valleys to his 
 own dominions. The duke became alarmed, 
 and issued an edict calling upon the inhabit- 
 ants to abandon their religion, break up their 
 churches, send away their pastors, allow their 
 children to be educated by Roman Catholics, 
 and, in short, become Papists. But the com- 
 mand being disobeyed, the forces were sent 
 against them, and in the first two battles were 
 repulsed with serious loss. On the third day, 
 from some unaccountable cause, the Waldenses 
 laid down their arms, and fourteen thousand of 
 them were taken prisoners, and crowded into 
 miserable dungeons. In a few months eleven 
 thousand died from cold, hunger, and various 
 privations. Two thousand children were car- 
 ried away to be educated by Popish teachers. 
 The valleys, and all the property of the unfor- 
 tunate people, were given up to the Roman 
 Catholics. Three thousand, who survived, were 
 allowed to retire to the Protestant cantons of 
 Switzerland, where they were kindly received 
 by their brethren. 
 
178 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 But we may be asked, Does not the spirit 
 of persecution belong to the past ages of the 
 Romish church, rather than to these modern 
 times ? To this question I would reply by re- 
 ferring to the recent treatment of the Madiai 
 family by the Popish authorities, to the spirit 
 manifested towards Protestants in France and 
 Ireland, and to the language used in the Roman 
 Catholic journals of America, in regard to the 
 right of the Papal church to exterminate heresy. 
 The truth is, that the persecution of opponents 
 is an element inherent in the very system of 
 Romanism. Their journals in this country 
 have repeatedly avowed that no faith is to be 
 kept with heretics, and that, had they the power 
 to destroy religious liberty and Protestantism 
 in America, they would instantly exert that 
 power. One of their papers at the west does 
 not hesitate to say " that the temporal punish- 
 ment of heresy is a mere question of expediency ; 
 that Protestants do not persecute us here, sim- 
 ply because they have not the power ; and that 
 where we abstain from persecuting them, they 
 are well aware that it is merely because we can- 
 not do so, or think that, by doing so, ive should 
 injure the cause that we wish to serve." 
 
 A most daring outrage has recently taken 
 place in Ireland, which is thus described in one 
 of the religious papers in this city : — 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 179 
 
 " A party of Protestants from Enniskillen, 
 eight hundred in number, had chartered a rail- 
 way train for an excursion to Derry ; but on 
 their return, they encountered some heavy 
 stones, which had been placed on the track, 
 near an embankment, where it was expected 
 that the cars would be thrown off, with the de- 
 struction of an incalculable amount of life. 
 One of the stones weighed over one thousand 
 pounds, and must have required twenty men to 
 have placed it there. The train was drawn by 
 two engines, both of which were thrown off the 
 track, and one engineer was killed; but, as the 
 fastening of the trains to the engines was bro- 
 ken, the cars were not thrown off, and no per- 
 son in them was injured. Lord Enniskillen 
 was on the engine, but he jumped off, and es- 
 caped with some bruises. Several arrests of 
 persons suspected of the crime have been made. « 
 The religion which could have prompted such 
 an act must be the religion of the devil. It is 
 evident that the catastrophe was expected by 
 the editors of some of the Romish papers. A 
 correspondent of one of them writes as follows, 
 just previous to the occurrence : — 
 
 '"On to-morrow, (Friday,) there will be a great 
 gathering of the Orangemen of the counties of 
 Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Londonderry, or the 
 city of Derry. The Londonderry and Enniskil- 
 
180 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 len Railway has proved useful to the Orangemen 
 in this part of Ulster to hold processions. How 
 the gathering of to-morrow may come off., Heav- 
 en alone can tell. The probabilities are, we shall 
 have a similar scene as that which has taken 
 place at Newtownlimavady. Should any thing 
 happen in Derry to-morrow, I will send it to you 
 in time for your Saturday's edition. The great 
 danger to be apprehended from the government 
 refusing to take vigorous steps to suppress these 
 proceedings, is the revival of the old Ribbon 
 system.' 
 
 " After the accident, which providentially de- 
 feated the intention of wholesale murder, (only 
 two being killed, and one of these a Romanist 
 engineer,) the people gathered about; but no 
 one offered the least assistance, and some re- 
 fused to bring water, or even a door on which 
 «to carry the wounded, after taking pay for doing 
 it. It providentially happened, that the train 
 was passing slowly at the time of the accident, 
 and so kept from being thrown off the track. 
 This resulted from one of the engines not being 
 in working order, of which fact the engineer 
 could give no account. 
 
 " But one of the most remarkable things 
 about it is, that some of the Romish papers in 
 Ireland openly justify the outrage. To the 
 Mercury belongs this consummation of infamy. 
 
PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 181 
 
 That paper doubts whether the attempt was so 
 much to be reprehended, when the positions of 
 the two parties are considered ! That is, the 
 deliberate murder of Protestants is not to be 
 deprecated ! " 
 
 If Rome has improved in regard to its perse- 
 cuting spirit, we should be glad to be furnished 
 with the evidence. 
 
 16 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE INQUISITION. 
 
 "INSTEUMENTS OF CEHELTY ARE IN THEIB HABITATIONS. O MY 
 SOUL, COME NOT THOU INTO THEIR SECRET; UNTO THEIR 
 ASSEMBLY, MINE HONOR, BE NOT THOU UNITED." — Gen. zlix. 
 5,6. 
 
 The most palpable contradiction of ideas 
 that is conceivable to the human mind is ex- 
 pressed in the phrase "the holy Inquisition." 
 With as much propriety might one speak to us 
 of a holy hell, or the immaculate purity of 
 devils, as to talk about a holy Inquisition. 
 
 Papal writers have been distinguished for their 
 skill and daring in the perversion of language, 
 but in this expression they reach the very 
 highest point of perversion. They cannot go 
 beyond this, themselves. " A holy prostitute," 
 " a holy murderer," " the holy Judas Iscariot," 
 these expressions are feeble compared with " the 
 holy Inquisition." 
 
 Bring together all the crimes in the catalogue 
 of human wickedness, — fuse into one mass, 
 treachery, hypocrisy, fraud, cruelty, and the 
 greatest atrocities and vallanies of which this 
 
 (182) 
 
THE INQUISITION. 183 
 
 earth has ever been the theatre, — and you may 
 obtain a conception of the horrors of the Romish 
 Inquisition. No one, with the least degree of 
 sensibility, can read the history of this institu- 
 tion without having his soul filled with the 
 keenest indignation, and without feeling that 
 even fallen human nature is disgraced by its 
 atrocities. 
 
 The founder of the Inquisition was one 
 Dominic, although some historians are inclined 
 to think that the benevolent idea was first 
 suggested to the mind of Pope Innocent III. 
 Either of these worthies might receive the 
 honor without any violence being done to their 
 dispositions and characters. 
 
 Dominic was eminently qualified, by nature 
 and experience, for his work. He was a man 
 who rose above every feeling of compassion 
 or pity, and who seems never to have had the 
 slightest conception of what is called human- 
 ity. His cruelty was of that cold, intense, im- 
 pregnable sort, upon which no amount of suffer- 
 ing or anguish could make any impression. 
 His highest happiness consisted in witnessing 
 the tortures, and listening to the gi-oans of his 
 victims. If he could have before him a heretic 
 bleeding at every vein, with dislocated joints, 
 and torn nerves, and lacerated limbs, he was in 
 paradise. He completed his preparation for 
 
184 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the office of inquisitor, during the bloody wars 
 that raged against the Albigenses. In the 
 hottest of the battle, he might have been seen, 
 with a crucifix in his hand, at the head of the 
 soldiers, urging them on to the slaughter of 
 the Christians. He used the emblem of the 
 Prince of Peace, as the means of firing the 
 souls of men with the fiercest passions, and 
 stimulating the barbarities of war. 
 
 If there were any tendencies in his nature 
 towards mercy, they were under such complete 
 discipline that they never manifested them- 
 selves. They were crushed in their incipient 
 stages, if they ever existed, so that the man 
 could prosecute his fiendish work with energies 
 untrammelled by scruples of conscience, and 
 with a vigor that was not weakened by a re- 
 morse that would have affected ordinary minds. 
 As a reward for his valuable services, this mis- 
 creant was canonized, and is to this day wor- 
 shipped as a saint in the Romish church. The 
 Roman breviary praises " his merits and doc- 
 trines, which enlightened the church ; his in- 
 genuity and virtue, which overthrew the To- 
 losan heretics ; and his many miracles, which 
 extended even to the raising of the dead." 
 
 His own letters and preaching bear witness 
 to his atrocious cruelty. After receiving his 
 appointment as inquisitor, he preached a ser- 
 
THE INQUISITION. 185 
 
 mon in the church of St. Prullian, before a vast 
 crowd, in which he declared that " he was re- 
 solved to defend with his utmost vigor the doc- 
 trines of the faith, and that, if the spiritual and 
 ecclesiastical arms were not sufficient for this 
 end, he was determined to call in the secular 
 arm, to excite and compel the Catholic princes 
 to take arms against heretics, that the very 
 mention of them might be utterly destroyed." 
 
 Some of the princes and bishops, shrinking 
 from this bloody work, Dominic, in order par- 
 ticularly to exterminate the innocent Albi- 
 genses, formed an order called the Militia of 
 Christ, which was approved of by the pope, 
 and protected by the Emperor Frederic II. 
 
 Pope Innocent III. not living to complete the 
 organization of' the Inquisition, the work was 
 prosecuted with great vigor by his successors, 
 Honorius HI. and Gregory IX. The latter, in 
 the year 1229, called a council at Toulouse, 
 which, among other enactments, ordained that 
 appointed persons, lay and clerical, should 
 search for heretics, and that no territorial lord 
 should harbor any suspected person. At the 
 same time it was required that all the inhab- 
 itants of each district should be registered, and 
 that every person arriving at a certain age, 
 should take an oath of adhesion to the Catho- 
 lic faith, and of renunciation of heresy. 
 16* 
 
186 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 The tribunal of the Inquisition was first es- 
 tablished at Toulouse, in 1233. Gradually in- 
 creasing in power and cruelty, the institution 
 was afterwards introduced into Spain, Portu- 
 gal, and other Papal countries. The managers 
 of these inquisitorial courts were selected chief- 
 ly from the Dominicans and Franciscans, as 
 these orders of monks were the most zealous 
 advocates of Popish doctrines, and were well 
 qualified, by their low origin and brutal nature, 
 for their bloody work. From the pope they re- 
 ceived unlimited powers to excommunicate or 
 condemn to death any persons whom they sus- 
 pected of heresy. They could also engage in 
 crusades against heretics, and unite with sover- 
 eigns in making war upon any who were ob- 
 noxious to the Papal authorities. 
 
 In 1244, Frederic II. greatly aided them by 
 publishing two very cruel edicts. First, that 
 all heretics who continued obstinate should be 
 burned, and, second, that all heretics who re- 
 pented should be imprisoned for life. 
 
 Those persons were accounted guilty of her- 
 esy who uttered or wrote any thing against the 
 doctrines, traditions, or rites of the Romish 
 church, or who spoke a word against the In- 
 quisition. Also, if any one read a book that 
 had been condemned by the Inquisition, or 
 neglected mass, or allowed a year to pass with- 
 
THE INQUISITION. 
 
 187 
 
 out going to confession, or read the Holy Scrip- 
 tures in the language of the common people, 
 or listened to a sermon from a Waldensian, or 
 any other heretic, or prayed with a heretic, or 
 aided one in escaping from the horrors of the 
 Inquisition, or refused to obey the commands 
 that issued from these tribunals — he was pro- 
 nounced guilty of heresy. 
 
 Indeed, all Roman Catholics were com- 
 manded to inform against their nearest and 
 dearest friends, if they were but suspected of 
 entertaining heretical opinions, under the pen- 
 alty, if they refused, of excommunication. 
 Should one, under an impulse of humanity, 
 extend the least comfort or consolation to a 
 suffering disciple of Jesus, whose conscience 
 would not allow him to adopt the superstitions 
 of the Romish church, he would at once be 
 seized and punished by these merciless inquis- 
 itors. 
 
 Situated as we are, it is impossible for us to 
 realize the intense solicitude and emotions of 
 terror that must pervade a community in the 
 midst of which is planted this infernal tribunal. 
 
 Under its tyrannical sway, parents are re- 
 quired to stifle all their natural affections and 
 tender regard for their children, and become 
 their accusers, if they discover in them any 
 symptoms of a vital faith, or a disposition to 
 
188 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 study and obey the word of God. Children 
 must forget the reverence, gratitude, and love 
 due to their parents, and, under the severest 
 penalties, act as sfiies over their conduct, and 
 report to these tormentors the least deviation 
 from the despotic rules of the Papacy, and 
 the slightest remark that indicated disrespect 
 towards the Papal church, or disapproval of the 
 horrors of the Inquisition. No one is permitted 
 to visit his dearest relative or friend, w^ho has 
 been cast into one of its horrid dungeons. 
 Though he may be convinced of the perfect 
 innocence of that friend — though he may be 
 prompted to afford him aid and comfort by the 
 dictates of humanity and religion, as well as 
 feelings of personal friendship — though he may^ 
 know that in the arrest of his friend the prin- 
 ciples of justice have been grossly outraged — 
 yet it is at the peril of his own life that he ex- 
 tends the least sympathy to the unfortunate 
 victim. 
 
 In the organization of this institution, the 
 inquisitor general was at the head of the su- 
 preme council, which exercised authority over 
 all the inferior courts. His powers were im- 
 mensely great. He appointed the inferior in- 
 quisitors, who bore the title of most reverend, 
 and were equal in rank to the bishops. In 
 large districts, there were vicars, or commis- 
 
THE INQUISITION. 189 
 
 sioners, who aided the general in his infamous 
 ■wt)rk. The officer who brought the charges 
 against the accused was called the promoter 
 fiscal, who swore that he was not influenced 
 by malice. Those who acted as secretaries of 
 the tribunal were called notaries. It was their 
 duty, not only to keep a record of the transac- 
 tions of the court, but also to preserve an ac- 
 count of the most minute circumstances in the 
 trial, such as the appearance of the criminal, 
 his readiness or hesitation in answering ques- 
 tions, the changes in his countenance, manner, 
 voice, &c. 
 
 There were also treasurers, who took care of 
 the property that was confiscated, and held it 
 subject to the directions of the tribunal. It 
 was common for persons to be seized and mur- 
 dered, simply to gain possession of their prop- 
 erty ; so that wealth was as dangerous an ele- 
 ment as heresy. 
 
 Such a tribunal, possessed of unlimited pow- 
 ers, accountable only to the pontiff, who would 
 wink at the most palpable wrongs in order to 
 preserve its influence, prosecuting its nefarious 
 work in secret, and managed by the vilest set 
 of wretches that ever disgraced the world by 
 their presence, must necessarily be an engine 
 of terrible force and boundless cruelty. And 
 we are free to say that we search the history 
 
190 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 of the world in vain, to find an institution that 
 can at all compare with this, for atrocity and 
 merciless barbarity. Of all the tribunals that 
 have ever raised their hideous forms upon pa- 
 gan, Mahometan, or Christian soil, this is the 
 most frightful and stiipendous. Here malevo- 
 lence and misanthropy have rioted without 
 control. Here the most fiendish disposition 
 has been satiated, by tortures and agonies the 
 most intense ever endured by human beings. 
 
 The ministers of this tribunal usually issued 
 forth in the dead of night to execute their bar- 
 barous purposes. Approaching the house of 
 the alleged criminal, and knocking at the door, 
 they made known, in a few words, their deadly 
 mission. " The thunderbolt launched from the 
 black and angry cloud," says one, " strikes not 
 with such alarm as the sound of. Deliver your- 
 self up a prisoner to the Inquisition I Aston- 
 ished and trembling, the unwary citizen hears 
 the dismal voice ; a thousand different affec- 
 tions at once seize upon his panic-struck frame, 
 and he remains perplexed and motionless. His 
 life in danger — his deserted wife and orphan 
 children — eternal infamy the only patrimony 
 that now awaits his bereft family — are all ideas 
 which rush upon his mind. He is at once agi- 
 tated by an agony of dilemma and despair. 
 The burning tear scarcely glistens on his livid 
 
THE INQUISITION. 191 
 
 cheek ; the accents of woe die on his lips ; and 
 amidst the alarm and desolation of his family, 
 and the confusion and pity of his neighbors, 
 he is borne away to dungeons whose damp 
 and bare walls can alone witness the anguish 
 of his mind." Here, cut off from all intercourse 
 with his friends ; without society or books ; 
 without even a knowledge of the crime for 
 which he has been arrested ; with no compan- 
 ions but his own sad thoughts, and the dread 
 of the tortures that are before him, he must 
 linger, on from day to day, and week to week, 
 awaiting the issue of the terrible calamity that 
 has befallen him. We do not wonder that 
 many, under the influence of this protracted 
 anguish, have had their spirits broken ; and 
 that others, not governed by Christian princi- 
 ple, or sustained by Christian fortitude, have 
 terminated their sufferings by suicide. A 
 learned Spaniard, who, in the reign of Charles 
 v., was imprisoned under the suspicion of fa- 
 voring Lutheranism, exclaimed, " O, my God ! 
 were there no Scythians, or cannibals, or pagans 
 still more savage, that thou hast permitted me 
 to fall into the hands of these baptized fiends ? " 
 After lingering in his gloomy and filthy dun- 
 geon, which the persecutors never allowed to 
 be cleaned, he died, under circumstances too 
 painful to be narrated. Another learned and 
 
192 ' ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 devoted Christian, who was immured in the 
 prison of Seville, often said that his condition 
 was more dreadful than any kind of torture 
 that he could be called to endure. 
 
 When the poor victim was brought before 
 the tribunal, he was subjected to a series of 
 questions that required him to review nearly 
 all the events of his life. He was obliged to 
 state his parentage, the names of his relatives, 
 and whether any of them had ever been arrested 
 by the inquisitors. He was asked what he 
 supposed was the cause of his arrest, and was 
 required to give an account of his opinions and 
 thoughts, as well as of his actions. Sometimes 
 the questions were put in tones of persuasion 
 and apparent sympathy, in order to elicit a full 
 and frank confession. If this failed, other 
 modes were resorted to, which violated every 
 principle of right or justice. Take, for instance, 
 the following passage from the Directory of 
 Nicholas Eymeric, who was inquisitor general 
 of Arragon in 1536, and whose work was sanc- 
 tioned by Gregory XHI. : — 
 
 " When the prisoner has been impeached of 
 the crime of heresy, but not convicted, and he 
 obstinately persists in his denial, let the inquis- 
 itor take the proceedings into his hands, or 
 any other file of papers, and looking them over 
 in his presence, let him feign to have discovered 
 
THE INQUISITION'. 193 
 
 the offence fully established therein, and that 
 he is desirous he should at once make his con- 
 fession. The inquisitor shall then say to the 
 prisoner, as if in astonishment, ' And is it pos- 
 sible that you should still deny what I have 
 here before my own eyes ? ' He shall then 
 seem as if he read; and -to 'the end that the 
 prisoner may know no better, he shall fold 
 down the leaf, and, after reading some moments 
 longer, he shall say to him, ' It is just as I have 
 said ; why, therefore, do you deny it, when you 
 see I know the whole matter ? ' When the 
 inquisitor has an opportunity, he shall manage 
 so as to introduce to the conversation of the 
 prisoner some one of his accomplices, or any 
 other converted heretic, who shall feign that he 
 still persists in his heresy, telling him that he 
 had abjured for the sole purpose of escaping 
 punishment by deceiving the inquisitors. Hav- 
 ing thus gained his confidence, he shall go into 
 his cell some day after dinner, and keeping up 
 the conversation till night, shall remain with 
 him, under pretext of its being too late for him to 
 return home. He shall then urge the prisoner 
 to tell him all the particulars of his life, having 
 first told him the whole of his own ; and, in the 
 mean time, spies shall be kept at the door, as 
 well as a notary, in order to certify what may 
 be said within." 
 
 M 17 
 
194 
 
 ROMANISM IN, AMF.niCA. 
 
 In cases where the charge was of a grave or 
 important character, if these means failed of 
 extracting a confession, the torture was applied. 
 The victim was taken to a room under ground, 
 which no ray of light from the sun ever reached. 
 Here, around a table, were seated the inquisitor, 
 inspector, and secretary. In a corner of the 
 room stood the executioner, clothed in black, 
 and presenting a hideous and frightful appear- 
 ance. While the prisoner was supposed to be 
 terrified by the preparations that were being 
 made for his torture, he was again urged to 
 confess the whole truth. If he persisted in as- 
 serting his innocence, however well grounded 
 might be his declarations, he was given over to 
 the executioner. 
 
 After being stripped, without regard to sex 
 or decency, the prisoner was clothed in a tight 
 linen garment, leaving the arms bare. The 
 processes of the torture are thus described by 
 an able and truthful writer : * — 
 
 " The first process was that of the pulley. 
 
 * The most reliable sources of information, in regard to the 
 Inquisition arc Limborch's Inquisition. Puigblanch's work, and 
 the History of the Inquisition of Spain by Don Juan Antonio 
 Llorente, formerly Secretary of the Inquisition, Chancellor 
 of the University of Toledo, &c. For this and other extracts, 
 I am indebted to a work issued by the London Tract Society, 
 entitled " The Inquisition in Spain and other countries." 
 
THE INQUISITION. 195 
 
 By this the prisoner was hoisted to the roof of 
 the hall, his hands bound behind him, and at- 
 tached to the rope which elevated him, whilst a 
 heavy weight, sometimes of a hundred pounds, 
 was fastened to his feet. The simple elevation 
 of a human body six or seven feet from the 
 ground was dislocating; but this torture could 
 be severely increased. Sometimes, whilst in 
 this position, stripes were applied to his back ; 
 and s-ometimes, the rope being suddenly relaxed, 
 the weight descended in an instant towards the 
 ground, which, however, the body was not al- 
 lowed to touch ; and by this violent jerk the 
 limbs were disjointed with the most excruciat- 
 ing agony. In the mean time, the secretary 
 was precise in recording the whole process — 
 the weights which were attached to the body, 
 as well as how often, and during what length 
 of time the culprit was suspended. 
 
 " The next principal torture was that of the 
 rack. The victim was extended upon a wooden 
 frame, having transverse portions, like a ladder, 
 or sometimes only one cross piece, upon which 
 his back might uneasily rest, with his feet usu- 
 ally higher than his head. Small cords were 
 then affixed to the fleshy parts of his body, 
 namely, to the upper and lower arm, and to the 
 thigh and calf of the leg, which, being tight- 
 ened by the application of a bar, used after 
 
196 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the manner of a tourniquet, buried themselves 
 in the soft and yielding integuments, cutting 
 to the bone. A still more terrible torture be- 
 longed to this ' wooden horse,' as it was some- 
 times called. A thin wetted cloth was thrown 
 over the mouth and nostrils of the sufferer, 
 through which he could scarcely breathe ; then 
 a stream of water, sometimes amounting to 
 seven pints, was poured down his throat, pro- 
 ducing the sensation of drowning or suffoca- 
 tion. (During this time, the notary kept a min- 
 ute of the whole process, down even to the 
 quantity of water which was administered.) 
 When this cloth, which had during this time 
 penetrated considerably into the victim's body, 
 was removed, it was iisually covered with 
 blood, and its withdrawal was a renewal of the 
 agony of the previous process. 
 
 " The third principal torture was that of the 
 fire. The feet of the prisoner, already satu- 
 rated with tallow er oil, were placed in a kind 
 of stocks, and exposed to the heat of lighted 
 charcoal — a process of roasting alive. This 
 torture was, however, mainly confined to Italy, 
 and was especially adapted to persons who were 
 deformed, and to whom other modes of torture 
 were not so easily applicable. When his agony 
 had reached its crisis, a moment's intermission 
 was given by the interposition of a board ; the 
 
THE INQUISITION. 197 
 
 prisoner was then exhorted to confess ; but if 
 he would not, or could not, the roasting went 
 on. Heathenism might have exulted in so bar- 
 barous a cruelty. 
 
 " But though thesewere the principal tortures, 
 the Inquisition could boast of many others. 
 Sometimes a considerable amount of water was 
 allowed to trickle, drop by drop, upon the cul- 
 prit. Sometimes the body was enveloped in 
 a linen garment, which was drawn as tight as 
 possible, so as almost to squeeze the sufferer to 
 death ; then, being suddenly relaxed, it produced 
 by the change the severest anguish. Sometimes 
 small cords were bound around the thumbs so 
 tightly that the blood poured out from beneath 
 the nails. Sometimes the body, placed against 
 the wall, and adequately supported, was tightly 
 compressed by small cords affixed to the wall ; 
 then, the bench beneath the sufferer being re- 
 moved, the body was left to hang by these cords 
 alone. The reader can best conceive the suf- 
 fering. Sometimes a small ladder, the trans- 
 verse parts of which were made of sharpened 
 wood, was placed against the shins of the vic- 
 tim, and was then violently struck with a ham- 
 mer. The torture of this infliction was incred- 
 ible. Sometimes ropes were placed about the 
 wrists of the accused, and were then drawn tight 
 by being passed over the back of the torturer, 
 17* 
 
198 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 who leaned forward with all his might till the 
 flesh was severed. The last tortures were in- 
 flicted on Orobio, a Spanish Jew, who related 
 the facts to Limborch. 
 
 " One of the Italian tortures consisted of two 
 cubes of iron, concave on one side, which were 
 bound forcibly on the heel, then screwed into 
 the flesh. Another, called the canes, was com- 
 posed of a hard piece of wood, placed between 
 each finger ; the hand was then bound, and the 
 fingers forced together. Nor need we omit an 
 agonizing torture — the placing of a foot — 
 sometimes a woman's foot — in a heated 
 slipper. But Llorente relates a torment, ob- 
 served in Madrid, in the year 1820, which per- 
 haps surpasses all. We give it in his own 
 words : — 
 
 " ' The condemned is fastened in a groove, 
 upon a table, on his back ; suspended above 
 him is a pendulum, the edge of which is sharp, 
 and it is so constructed as to become longer 
 %\dth every movement. The wretch sees this 
 implement of destruction svi^inging to and fro 
 above him, and every moment the keen edge 
 approaching nearer and nearer; at length it 
 cuts the skin of his nose, and gradually acts on 
 until life is extinct.' 
 
 " Does any perceptible vestige of the religion 
 of love linger in such observances ? 
 
THE INQUISITION. 199 
 
 " On the subject of the torture Llorente 
 says, — 
 
 " ' I shall not describe the different modes of 
 torture employed by the Inquisition, as it has 
 been already done by many historians. I shall 
 only say that none of them can be accused of 
 exaggeration. I have read many processes 
 which have struck and pierced me with horror, 
 and I could regard the inquisitors who had 
 recourse to these methods in no other light 
 than that of cold-blooded barbarians. Suffice 
 it to add, that the council of the "supreme" 
 has often been obliged to forbid the repetition 
 of the torture in the same process ; but the in- 
 quisitors, by an abominable sophism, have 
 found m-eans to render this prohibition almost 
 useless, by giving the name of suspension to 
 that cessation from torture which is imperiously 
 demanded by the imminent danger to which the 
 victim is exposed of dying in their hands.' " 
 
 But some Romanists, while they admit that 
 these atrocious cruelties have been practised, 
 yet contend that they belong to a past age, and 
 that the present generation are not responsible 
 for them. Were such the fact, we would read- 
 ily allow that the force of the argument, as 
 bearing upon the present Papal church, would 
 be greatly weakened. But it is not a fact. The 
 Inquisition has been sustained whenever and 
 
200 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 wherever the Papacy has dared to open its dun- 
 geons, as we shall prove before we are through. 
 
 Indeed, it has been in these modern times 
 openly advocated by Popish writers. It is sus- 
 pended, but not annihilated. Where is the de- 
 cree or law from any pope or council, declaring 
 the institution abolished? We can find de- 
 crees enough that favor it, but none from any 
 Popish ecclesiastical authority denouncing it. 
 
 Among the fruits of this terrible tribunal, we 
 cannot overlook the auto da fe, or act of faith, 
 as the scene is called. When several of the 
 victims of the Inquisition were to be executed, 
 a day was fixed upon, usually the Sabbath, 
 when it was publicly announced that there 
 would be presented a view of the last judg- 
 ment. In this horrible scene, we have exhib- 
 ited every phase of wickedness and villany, the 
 most heartless cruelty, combined with hypoc- 
 risy, a mockery of mercy, and the most as- 
 tounding blasphemy. 
 
 When the inquisitors had prepared their vic- 
 tims, they sent word to the magistrates that 
 on the appointed day they would deliver the 
 prisoners into their hands for execution. The 
 magistrates, however reluctant to perform such 
 a service, did not dare to refuse, as they would 
 be themselves excommunicated, and exposed to 
 the wrath of the ecclesiastical tormentors. In 
 
THE INQUISITION. 201 
 
 order to secure a large and approving audience, 
 an indulgence of forty days was granted to 
 those persons who should be present. That 
 public order might be preserved, proclamation 
 was made that during the day no person should 
 carry firearms, or drive any vehicle through the 
 streets. The prisoners were dressed in robes 
 bearing various devices, which indicated the 
 supposed degree of their guilt. 
 
 From the numerous accounts given of this 
 barbarous ceremony, I would select the follow- 
 ing description of the auto da fe which took 
 place in Madrid, in 1680, at which Charles II. 
 and his queen were present: — 
 
 " At seven o'clock in the morning, the great 
 bell of the cathedral began to toll, and the pro- 
 cession moved forward. The way was cleared 
 by soldiers of the holy tribunal. Next came 
 surpliced priests, among whom the Dominican 
 monks were honored with precedence, and bore 
 the banner of the Inquisition, which in Spain 
 is a green cross on a black ground. A hundred 
 and twenty prisoners followed, some in person 
 and others in effigy borne on tall poles, the 
 least guilty having the honor of precedence. 
 Of these victims, forty-eight were men, seventy- 
 two were women — an appalling but significant 
 distribution. The effigies were sometimes ac- 
 companied by boxes containing the bones of 
 
202 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 deceased heretics. Last in the procession of 
 prisoners came twenty-one condemned to die, 
 the greater part of whom were gagged lest they 
 should utter words which might be dangerous 
 to the ears of spectators. These victims, wear- 
 ing the eoroza and sanbenito, were each at- 
 tended by two friars, torturing the miserable 
 sufferer to the last by useless and rejected over- 
 tures. The procession was wound up by the 
 local magistracy, the officers of state, the chief 
 bailiffs of the Madrid Inquisition, the familiars 
 of the holy office, on horses superbly attired, 
 the ecclesiastical ministers, the fiscal proctor of 
 the tribunal of Toledo, bearing the standard 
 of the faith, &c., and, last of all, the inquisitor 
 general, ' seated on a superb bay horse, with 
 purple saddle and housings, ornamented with 
 ribbons and fringe of the same color, and at- 
 tended by twelve servants in livery.' * * * 
 Olmo tells us that ' this procession was per- 
 formed in perfect silence.' 
 
 " A stage had been erected in the large 
 square, of temporary materials, and in the fol- 
 lowing manner : At the back of the stage were 
 three rows of galleries rising one above another, 
 covered with drapery. 
 
 " When the royal party had taken their seats, 
 the prisoners were paraded before them. An 
 oath was then administered to the king, that 
 
THE INQUISITION. 203 
 
 he would defend the Catholic faith, ' which ouv 
 holy mother the apostolic church of Rome 
 holds and believes ; and that he would perse- 
 cute, and .command to be persecuted, all here- 
 tics and apostates opposed to the same; that 
 he would give, and command to be given, to 
 the holy office of the Inquisition, and also to 
 the ministers thereof, all aid and protection, in 
 order that heretics, disturbers of our Christian 
 religion, might be seized and punished con- 
 formably to the laws and holy canons, without 
 any omission on the part of his majesty,' &c. 
 
 " Mass was then said, and the oath was ad- 
 ministered to the mayor of Madrid and to the 
 people present; after which a sermon was 
 preached by a Dominican qualifier. * * * 
 
 " The sermon being ended, the trials and sen- 
 tences were read, which occupied the multitude 
 till four in the afternoon. Those who were 
 condemned to die were, if ecclesiastics, stripped 
 of their robes with great solemnity. The vic- 
 tims were then delivered over to the magis- 
 trates, with the hypocritical request as to each 
 one, ' that they would treat him with much 
 commiseration, and not break a bone of his 
 body, or shed his blood.' But as the judge 
 had been already made acquainted with the 
 number of prisoners to be delivered over to 
 him, every preparation had been made for this 
 
"204 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 consummation. The place of execution was an 
 area suitably fitted up for the occasion, being 
 a stone platform of sixty feet square, and seven 
 feet in height. Some of t"hose who were con- 
 demned to be burned, anticipating the orders 
 of the executioners, cast themselves into the 
 fire. The rest were soon made to follow. The 
 bodies of those on whom the sentence of stran- 
 gulation before death had been carried out, 
 were then thrown into the flames, together with 
 the effigies or bones of such as had not fallen 
 into the hands of their merciless tormentors." 
 
 It seems to us, in this age of light and hu- 
 manity, scarcely credible that such barbarous 
 scenes could be enacted in any age of the 
 world, and especially that they could be de- 
 manded in the name of religion. Yet we find 
 them sustained by the whole authority of the 
 Papacy, and accompanied by a show of re- 
 ligious fervor that we wonder does not draw 
 down the vengeance of an insulted Deity. The 
 pretence, that because the secular officers exe- 
 cute the victims, therefore the members of the 
 Romish church are guiltless, is the most stu- 
 pendous piece of mockery that was ever ex- 
 hibited on the face of the earth. 
 
 But these awful scenes are not without some 
 redeeming features. In the fortitude, patience, 
 and faith of the heroic sufferers, we are furnished 
 
THE INQUISITION. 205 
 
 with new evidences of the energy and life-giving 
 power of the doctrines of the gospel. We are 
 taught that that system of religion must in- 
 deed be from God, that can carry believers 
 through such various and intense trials — that 
 can sustain them amid such manifestations of 
 hypocrisy and insolence, as well as cruelty, 
 and enable them, while the consuming flames 
 are around them, to sing the praises of their 
 Maker, to rejoice in God, and joy in the God 
 of their salvation. 
 
 Did our limits allow, we would speak of the 
 individual instances of noble Christian heroism 
 that lie scattered along the track of this in- 
 fernal tribunal. But we hasten to notice the 
 establishment of the Inquisition in Spain, which 
 took place under the reign of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella. Here new, and even more rigid prin- 
 ciples were introduced into the institution. 
 Llorente mentions them in his " History of 
 the Inquisition," among which are the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 The sixth article ordained that part of the 
 penance of a reconciled heretic should consist 
 in being deprived of all honorable employ- 
 ments, and of the use of gold, silver, pearls, 
 silks, and fine wool. 
 
 The eleventh article decreed that a penitent 
 who demanded absolution might receive it, but 
 18 
 
206 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 at the same time he must be condemned to per- 
 petual imprisonment. 
 
 By the nineteenth article, if an accused 
 man did not appear when he was summoned, 
 he was denounced as a heretic. The other ar- 
 ticles are equally atrocious. 
 
 The persecutions in Spain raged with great 
 violence against the Jews, who had acquired 
 wealth and influence. They were charged 
 with various crimes, of which they were never 
 guilty ; and so great was the excitement against 
 them, that the inquisitors declared that they 
 must be banished from Spain, in order to save 
 the Christian religion. Being greatly alarmed, 
 they offered to the sovereigns thirty thousand 
 pieces of silver, and promised to be obedient 
 and faithful citizens. 
 
 "These propositions," says one, "were con- 
 veyed to Ferdinand and Isabella by Abarbanel, 
 once a farmer of the royal revenue, who, hav- 
 ing been allowed to reach the royal presence, 
 in the Alhambra, kneeling at the royal feet, 
 besought the sovereigns to recall the sentence 
 which they had just pronounced, namely, that, 
 after the next 31st of July, every person harbor- 
 ing a Jew should incur the forfeiture of all his 
 property, and be deprived of any office he 
 might hold ; and that, during the interval, any 
 Jew might sell his estates, subject to the con- 
 
THE INQUISITION^ 207 
 
 dition that they were not to remove gold, sil- 
 ver, money, or other prohibited articles. The 
 entreaty was abject, the temptation groat, when 
 Torquemada burst into the apartment, and 
 drawing forth a crucifix, held it up as he cried 
 out, ' Judas sold his master for thirty pieces of 
 silver; your highnesses would sell him anew 
 for thirty thousand : behold him ! take him 
 and sell him with all the haste you can ! ' He 
 threw the crucifix on the table, and left the 
 apartment. Abashed and confounded, the royal 
 couple retraced their steps. Torquemada had 
 gained the victory, and the edict was signed 
 March 20, 1492. 
 
 " Nothing could exceed the consternation of 
 the Jews on the issuing of this proclamation. 
 The time was too short, the state of the market 
 (now presenting advantageous offers on every 
 hand) too unfavorable to allow of any fair 
 measure of compensation for the property they 
 were compelled to sacrifice. ' A house was 
 exchanged for an ass; a vineyard for a small 
 quantity of cloth or linen.' But in vain did 
 Torquemada urge them to receive baptism. A 
 few only listened to his exhortations. The 
 rest, to the number of eight hundred thousand, 
 quitted Spain ; some of them, in evasion of the 
 edict, carrying their money concealed in their 
 
208 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 saddles, or in their garments, whilst not a few 
 of them swallowed their gold. 
 
 " When the day named in the edict arrived, 
 all the principal roads witnessed a melancholy 
 spectacle in the crowds of sad and desolate 
 exiles by which they were thronged. Men, 
 women, children, on horses, or asses, or carts, 
 thronged the highways, attended by a great 
 multitude who performed the journey on foot. 
 Few knew the direction which they ought to 
 take. Their misery was aggravated, not re- 
 lieved, by the songs and music with which 
 their rabbis exhorted them to triumph over the 
 calamities of the occasion. Vessels had been 
 partially provided at the princijjal ports; but 
 the insufficient means of transport mocked 
 their hopes. They were assailed on their road 
 by multitudes of plunderers and debauchees, 
 who, in some cases, even tore open their bodies 
 in search of gold. Of those who reached their 
 provided vessels many were sold into slavery, 
 and many thrown into the sea. Pestilence in- 
 vaded some of the over-crowded vessels ; ship- 
 wreck and famine did their work on many 
 more. Some, who managed to reach Ercilla, a 
 Christian settlement in Africa, proceeded to 
 Fez, to be plundered by robbers, and then re- 
 turned to Ercilla, where their calamities induced 
 
THE INQUISITION. 209 
 
 them to accept an unwelcome baptism. Others, 
 journeying towards Italy, took refuge in Naples, 
 bringing with them a pestilential disorder, which 
 spread among the inhabitants, and carried off 
 twenty thousand in one year. Others again, 
 with better success, made their way into Portu- 
 gal, through which they were allowed a passage 
 at the rate of a cruzade a head; while they 
 were allowed, if they settled, to ply their skill 
 as artisans in that kingdom." 
 
 But we cannot follow out the history of this 
 terrible tribunal in Spain. We see that it has 
 left its blight upon all her institutions, and 
 proved a curse from which the nation cannot 
 for ages recover. It has darkened every hope, 
 blighted every prospect, and spread in every 
 direction despair, ruin, and death. 
 
 The terrible enginery of the Inquisition was 
 introduced by Spain into her South American) 
 colonies. It was established at Lima, and pro- 
 duced there the same fearful results that were 
 experienced elsewhere. Until quite recently 
 persons might be seen bearing the marks of its 
 tortures. 
 
 " A Spaniard," says Tschude, " whose limbs 
 were frightfully distorted, told me, in reply to 
 my inquiries, that he had fallen into a machine 
 which had thus mangled him. A few days 
 before his death, however, he confided to me 
 N 18* 
 
210 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 that in his twenty-fourth year he had been 
 brought before the tribunal of the holy Inquisi- 
 tion, and that, by the most horrible tortures, he 
 had been compelled to confess a crime of which 
 he was not guilty. I still shudder, when I 
 remember his crushed and twisted limbs, at the 
 thought of the agonies which the unhappy 
 wretch must have endured. 
 
 " On one occasion its power met with an 
 unexpected check. The viceroy, Castel Fuerte, 
 was denounced to it by his confessor as a here- 
 tic. He was summoned, accordingly, before 
 the holy office, always eager to show its author- 
 ity, even over the highest. He went, entered 
 the hall of judgment, took out his watch, and 
 said, ' Seiiores, I am ready to discuss this affair, 
 but for one hour only ; if I am not back by that 
 time, my officers have orders to level this build- 
 ing with the ground.' And, indeed, at that 
 very time his body guard, a company of in- 
 fantry, with two pieces of artillery, had taken 
 their station before the building. The inquisi- 
 tors, aghast at this information, consulted to- 
 gether during a brief colloquy ; then, with offi- 
 cious eagerness, complimented Castel Fuerte 
 out of their establishment." 
 
 In Portugal, the machinery of the Inquisi- 
 tion was worked with appalling power, and 
 with the most fatal results. Llorente, in speak- 
 
THE IMQUISITION. 211 
 
 ing of the cruelty of Cardinal Tabera, who was 
 the sixth inquisitor general in Portugal, says, — 
 
 " The nunfiber of victims, calculated as it was 
 for the time of Maurique, affords, for the seven 
 years of Cardinal Tabera's ministry, seven thou- 
 sand seven hundred and twenty individuals con- 
 demned and punished ; eight hundred and forty 
 were burned in prison ; four hundred and twenty 
 in effigy; the rest, in number five thousand four 
 hundred and sixty, were subjected to different 
 penances. I firmly believe that the number 
 was much more considerable ; but, faithful to 
 my system of impartiality, I have stated the 
 most moderate calculation." 
 
 After a revolution which shattered the iron 
 framework of tyranny in the nation, the office 
 of the Inquisition in Lisbon was abolished, and 
 the prisons were thrown open for public inspec- 
 tion. They are thus graphically described: — 
 
 « On the 8th of October, 1821, the palace of 
 the holy office was opened to the people. The 
 number which crowded to see it for the first 
 four days rendered it extremely difficult, and 
 even dangerous, to attempt an entrance. The 
 edifice is extensive, and has the form of an 
 oblong square, with a garden in the centre. It 
 is three stories high, and has several vaulted 
 galleries, along which are situated a number 
 of dungeons of six, seven, eight, and nine feet 
 
212 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 square. Those on the ground floor and on the 
 first story, having no windows, are deprived of 
 both air and light when the door is shut. The 
 dungeons of the next story have a kind of 
 breathing hole, in the form of a chimney, 
 through which the sky may be seen. Those 
 apartments were allotted to prisoners who, it 
 was supposed, might be set at liberty. In the 
 vaulted wall of each dungeon there is a hole 
 of about an inch in diameter, which communi- 
 cates with a secret corridor running along by 
 each tier of dungeons. By this means the 
 agents of the Inquisition could at any moment 
 observe the conduct of the prisoners without 
 being seen by them; and, when two persons 
 were confined in the same dungeon, could hear 
 their conversation. In these corridors were 
 seats, so placed that a spy could observe what 
 was passing in two dungeons by merely turn- 
 ing his eyes from right to left, in order to look 
 into either of the holes between which he might 
 be stationed. Human skulls and other bones 
 have been found in several of the dungeons. 
 On the walls of these frightful holes are carved 
 the names of some of the unfortunate victims 
 buried in them, accompanied with lines, or^ 
 notches, indicating the number of days of their 
 captivity. One name had beside it the date 
 ' 1809.' The doors of certain dungeons, which 
 
THE INQUISITION. 213 
 
 had not been used for some years, still remained 
 shut, but the people forced them open. In 
 nearly all of them human bones were found ; 
 and among these melancholy remains, in a 
 dungeon, were fragments of the garments and 
 the girdle of a monk. In some of these dun- 
 geons the chimney-shaped air hole was walled 
 up, which is a certain sign of the murder of 
 the prisoner. In such cases the unfortunate 
 victim was compelled to go into the air hole, 
 the lower extremity of which was immediately 
 closed by masonry. Quicklime was afterwards 
 thrown on him, which extinguished life and 
 destroyed the body. In several of these dens 
 of misery mattresses were found, some old, 
 others almost new — a circumstance which 
 proves, whatever may be said to the contrary, 
 that the Inquisition in these latter times was 
 something more than a scarecrow. The ground 
 on which the palace of the Inquisition stands 
 was covered with private houses before 1775 ; 
 whence it is plain that the victims who have 
 suffered here must all have been sacrificed 
 within less than sixty years. Besides the 
 dungeons which the people visited, there are 
 subterraneous vaults which have not yet been 
 opened." 
 
 The modern Inquisition in Italy shows us 
 hov/ slightly the persecuting spirit of Roman- 
 
214 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 ism has been affected by the light and progress 
 of civilization. In the year 1825, under Pope 
 Leo XII., the work of the inquisitors was re- 
 commenced with new vigor. The prisons w^ere 
 somewhat improved in regard to air and light, 
 but the spirit which caused the erection of 
 them was as dark, cruel, and hateful as ever. 
 From that period until the late revolution in 
 Italy, scenes of horror transpired within the 
 building, the details of which are known only 
 to their infamous authors. 
 
 In 1849, the Constituent Assembly deter- 
 mined that the tribunal should be abolished, 
 and the building appropriated to some military 
 purpose. The prisons at that time contained 
 but two persons, a bishop and a nun, the for- 
 mer having been imprisoned there for twenty 
 years. On examining the vaults, a great num- 
 ber of human bones were found, mixed up with 
 lime, and in a state of decay. Portions of 
 human hair and of female dresses were also 
 found, indicating acts of villany that one shud- 
 ders to contemplate. Between the splendid 
 apartment of the inquisitor and the hall of trial 
 there was a deep opening, at the bottom of 
 which human remains were found, and which 
 evidently was once covered with a trap door. 
 As the victims passed from the hall, their feet 
 would touch the treacherous floor, and, while 
 
THE INQUISITION. 215 
 
 perhaps receiving words of sympathy and prom- 
 ises of pardon, they would sink into the cav- 
 ern, never again to see the light of day. 
 
 As to the question whether the Inquisition 
 exists at the present day, we have no means 
 of forming a decided opinion. We are inclined, 
 however, to believe that, should another revolu- 
 tion take place in Italy, and the pope be again 
 compelled to flee, there would be revelations 
 of cruelty and suffering among the thousands 
 of Italian patriots now in the prisons of the 
 Papal States that would startle the civilized 
 world. If, at the present -time, a person who 
 applies for a permit to visit a brother or a son 
 in prison is liable to be himself banished from 
 the country, can we suppose that there is any 
 great lenity shown to the prisoner ? If there are 
 thousands of patriots to-day suffering, in gloomy 
 and filthy dungeons, all the horrors tnat the vic- 
 tims of the Inquisition endured, what means 
 have they of making known their agony to the 
 world ? What newspaper or telegraph can 
 communicate to us the information ? And 
 should the details be made known, how can 
 friends afford relief while French and Swiss 
 bayonets guard the despotism of Rome ? 
 
 The truth is, that the spirit of deadly perse- 
 cution is inherent in Romanism. It is one 
 of its vital forces. It can only be destroyed 
 
216 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 by the destruction of the system that it ani- 
 mates. 
 
 It is indeed a melancholy task to thus trace 
 the career of this church by its tracks of blood, 
 to gaze upon its unparalleled barbarities, to 
 listen to the groans of its victims, to watch the 
 course of that fiendish spirit that has so often 
 put the torch to the fagots around the Christian 
 martyr, and filled the earth with lamentation 
 and tears. Our great wonder is, that religion 
 itself has not been annihilated, and the earth 
 shrouded in the darkness of universal scepti- 
 cism. 
 
 But we are met with the declaration that 
 some Protestants have in times past employed 
 the weapons of persecution. That they have 
 been influenced by the spirit of the period in 
 which they lived we are ready to allow. The 
 dominant power of the Papal church, during 
 those dark ages which acknowledged her almost 
 boundless sway, lay too crushingly upon the 
 universal conscience to allow it completely and 
 at once to free itself. How nobly Protestant 
 Christianity has struggled against the bigotry 
 and intolerance which seemed for a time the 
 inheritance of the whole human family, — how 
 slowly but surely the liberty wherewith Christ 
 doth make his children free has disinthralled 
 the fettered conscience, the shackled soul, — we 
 
THE INQUISITION. 217 
 
 are willing for history to testify. Unlike our 
 opponents, we have never claimed infallibility 
 for our leaders. The stamp of human frailty 
 and of their age was upon themj although we 
 believe they were generally in advance of their 
 times, and their aspirations and their influence 
 were for the future's good. We speak now of 
 the acknowledged spiritual leaders ; not of 
 such men as Henry VIII., who used religion 
 as a mere political engine, and who, while ab- 
 juring Popery, still retained the Popish element 
 of despotism, the Popish union of church and 
 state, which has wrought such deadly harm 
 to vital piety in the British dominions. The 
 church of God seeks to free herself from the 
 virus of the beast with which she has been 
 inoculated; and in proportion a's she succeeds 
 will her purity and vitality be made apparent. 
 
 While Romanism prides itself upon its im- 
 movability, its conservatism, progress is an inte- 
 gral part of Protestantism ; and its onward 
 march, however slow, is steady and direct. 
 
 We have faith in the poetic utterance, — 
 
 " Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again ; 
 The eternal years of God are hers ; " 
 
 and nowhere are her triumphs so freely invited 
 as in this our beloved land. 
 
 We feel strong here in our position, our 
 19 
 
218 HOMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 numerical strength, our ancestry, wealth, and 
 power. But we have an insidious and mighty 
 enemy to work against ; and, while we would 
 show that the weapons of our warfare are not 
 carnal, but spiritual, we would guard against 
 every encroachment upon our civil and reli- 
 gious institutions. And among the means to 
 be used for our protection, we would insist 
 upon having the public establishments of the 
 Roman Catholics open to the inspection of the 
 community, just as Protestant institutions are. 
 We would have a law passed requiring the 
 foreman of the grand jury, or some other officer, 
 to visit, at stated periods, the nunneries, con- 
 vents, and all institutions of a similar charac- 
 ter. Our own safety and the safety of our 
 children demand such a measure. Here are 
 young ladies of Protestant parentage enticed, 
 under .the plea of superior religious advantages, 
 to enter these nunneries, from which they can 
 never afterwards make their escape. They take 
 the veil, which is literally a veil that is to hide 
 from the public gaze every insult or act of vil- 
 lany to which they are subject, and every suf- 
 fering that they are called to endure. That 
 these institutions are kept secret, and barred 
 with iron against the public inspection for any 
 good purpose, the past history of Romanism 
 will not allow us to admit for a single moment. 
 
THE INQUISITION. 219 
 
 If they are the depositories of such eminent 
 piety as the priests contend, why should the 
 world lose the advantage of its salutary influ- 
 ence ? If they are prisons in which the hopes 
 and happiness of the young and confiding are 
 buried, and in which deeds are performed that 
 the American people would not tolerate within 
 the limits of the republic, then the facts ought 
 to be known. I sincerely hope that such a law 
 will be passed, and that the Massachusetts 
 legislature will be the first to set the example. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be 
 
 IN THY HEART ; AND THOU SHALT TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY 
 UNTO THY CHILDREN, AND SHALT TALK OF THEM WHEN 
 THOU SITTEST IN THY HOUSE, AND WHEN THOU "WALKEST 
 BY THE WAY, AND WHEN THOU LIEST DOWN, AND WHEN 
 THOU RISEST UP."— 2>eu(.' vi. 6, 7. 
 " The ENTRANCE OF THY WORDS GIVETH LIGHT J IT GIVETH 
 UNDERSTANDING TO THE SIMPLE."— Ps. CZix. 130. 
 
 The recent systematic and powerful efforts 
 that have been made by Roman Catholics to 
 divide the public school fund, and banish the 
 Bible from our free schools, have aroused the 
 American community to a sense of their just 
 rights, and to the dangers which threaten our 
 invaluable system of education. The hostility 
 which has been and continues to be manifested, 
 though aimed professedly against sectarianism, 
 yet really exists against all education, that en- 
 lightens and purifies the masses of the people. 
 The cry which is raised about the Bible in pub- 
 lic schools, about the rights of the Catholic 
 population in regard to the school funds, is 
 
 (220) 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 221 
 
 really the clamor of the Romish priesthood 
 against the mental and moral light that is 
 pouring forth from our schools, and threatening 
 the existence of their system, that "loves dark- 
 ness rather than light;" that can thrive only 
 where ignorance, superstition, and bigotry pre- 
 vail. Indeed, their journals speak out the sen- 
 timents of Romanism upon this point as well 
 as upon the Bible question. Listen' to the fol- 
 lowing from a Catholic journal that was pub- 
 lished in St. Louis, Missouri : — 
 
 " We think that the ' masses ' wpre never less 
 happy, less respectable, and less respected, than 
 they, have been since the reformation, and par- 
 ticularly within the last fifty or one hundred 
 years — since Lord Brougham caught the ma- 
 nia of teaching them to read, and communicat- 
 ed the disease to a large proportion of the Eng- 
 lish nation, of which, in spite of all our talk, 
 we are too often the servile imitators. 
 
 " We do not believe that the masses are one 
 whit more happy, more respectable, or better in- 
 formed, for knowing how to read. We unhes-. 
 itatingly declare that we regard the invention 
 oi printing as the reverse of a blessing, and our 
 modern ideas of education as essentially erro- 
 neous." — Shepherd of the Valley, Oct. 22, 1852. 
 
 The Freeman's Journal, the organ of Arch- 
 bishop Hughes, in New York, says, — 
 19* 
 
222 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 " The withdrawal of Catholic children every 
 where from the godless schools should be the 
 first step : it is lamentable that it has not long 
 ago been taken. Next we must set to work, 
 patiently, calmly, resolutely, perseveringly, to 
 break off from our necks the yoke of state des- 
 potism, put upon them by Jacobins in the shape 
 of the school system in this and other states." 
 
 The Catholic editor of the Chicago Tablet, 
 in a lecture delivered at Joliet, Illinois, expressed 
 the following opinion of common schools : — 
 
 " The common' schools of America are foun- 
 tains of prostitution and crime, and all manner 
 of indecencies and immoralities is practised 
 in them : I know it to be so, because I was ed- 
 ucated the first twenty years of my life in them." 
 
 Here we have the sentiment which underlies 
 the whole movement, that takes the different 
 forms of hostility to the Bible, or a clamor 
 about conscientious scruples or the rights of 
 the Romanists to a portion of the school fund. 
 The war is in fact waged against education as 
 an enlightener of the public mind. 
 
 But leaving the other questions, we are ready 
 to meet the Romanists upon the simple issue 
 of the right of the American people to retain 
 the Bible in our public schools. 
 
 And in the first place I would remark, that 
 these schools were established by our forefathers 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 223 
 
 for the express purpose of giving to the young a 
 religious, as ivell as a secular education. They 
 recognized the principle that the Bible, being 
 the word of God, should be taught to all man- 
 kind. They regarded its principles and doc- 
 trines as designed for the human mind, as 
 clearly as that the light of heaven is designed 
 for the eye, or the air which we breathe for the 
 lungs. Accordingly, more than two centuries 
 ago, the colony of Massachusetts Bay made 
 provision by law for the establishment of 
 schools based upon the religious element. The 
 law was as follows : " It being one chief ob- 
 ject of Satan to keep men from the knowledge 
 of the Scriptures, as in former times, keeping 
 them in unknown tongues, so in these latter 
 times, by persuading them from the use of 
 tongues, that so at least the true sense and 
 meaning of the original might be clouded and 
 corrupted with false glosses of deceivers ; there- 
 fore, to the end that learning may not be buried 
 in the graves of our forefathers in church and 
 commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeav- 
 ors, it is ordered by this court, that, in every 
 township containing fifty householders or more, 
 one should forthwith be appointed to teach 
 such children as should resort to him to read 
 and write ; and that, in any township contain- 
 ing one hundred householders, they should set 
 
224 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Tip a grammar school, to fit youth for the uni- 
 versity." 
 
 Such was the law passed by the early colo- 
 nists, and it was, I believe, the first ever passed 
 by any Christian state, conferring the benefits 
 of education upon every citizen. And you will 
 observe that it was expressly designed to pre- 
 serve and to disseminate throughout the com- 
 munity a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 In the laws subsequently passed in this State 
 of Massachusetts, we find not only a recognition 
 of the religious element in education, but it is 
 set forth as a matter of primary importance. 
 Our school laws contain the following enact- 
 ment directly bearing upon this point : — 
 
 * " It shall be the duty of the president, profess- 
 ors, and tutors of the university at Cambridge, 
 and of the several colleges, and of all precep- 
 tors and teachers of academies, and all other 
 instructors of youth, to exert their best endeav- 
 ors to impress upon the minds of children and 
 youth committed to their care and instruction, 
 the principles of piety, justice, and a sacred re- 
 gard to truth, love to their country, &c. * * * 
 And it shall be the duty of such instructors to 
 
 * As quoted by Dr. G. B. Cheever in his able and convincing 
 work on " The Bible in our Public Schools ; " a work to which I 
 am happy to acknowledge ray indebtedness for several of the quo- 
 tations and views presented in this and the following lecture. 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 225 
 
 endeavor to lead their pupils into a clear under- 
 standing of, the tendency of the above-men- 
 tioned virtues, to preserve and perfect a repub- 
 lican constitution, and secure the blessings of 
 liberty, as well as to promote their future hap- 
 piness." 
 
 The same principles, substantially, entered 
 into the laws which were passed in Connecti- 
 cut, ill regard to education, as early as the year 
 1656. It was enjoined upon all the officers of 
 government to see to it that every child and ap- 
 prentice " attain at least so much as to be able 
 to read the Scriptures, and other good and prof- 
 itable printed books in the English tongue ; and 
 in some competent measure to understand the 
 main grounds and principles of the Christian 
 religion." And so thoroughly was this system 
 carried out, that for a century and a half it was 
 very rare to find a native of that state who 
 could not read the English language. 
 
 In New York, also, and other states that 
 adopted the free school system, the earliest ef- 
 forts were characterized by an earnest desire to 
 promote, by means of education, the interests- 
 of morality and religion. General Clinton, in 
 recommending the establishment of common 
 schools, said, " The advantage to morals, reli- 
 gion, liberty, and good government, arising from 
 the general diffusion of knowledge, being uni- 
 
226 
 
 EOMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 versally admitted, permit me to recommend this 
 subject to your deliberate attention." 
 
 But it is unnecessary for me to multiply wit- 
 nesses on this point. It is clear from the his- 
 tory of the free school system of America, that 
 it had its origin in the desire to maintain the 
 truths of the Bible in the hearts of all the peo- 
 ple. The Bible, in fact, is its source. Had 
 the Bible been proscribed in Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut, and New York, as it is in Italy, 
 Spain, and Mexico, this glorious system of ed- 
 iucation would never have had an existence. 
 Its blessed results in promoting public order, 
 general intelligence, and social happiness, and 
 in maintaining oar free and religious institu- 
 tions, would never have been experienced. To 
 .remove, therefore, the Bible and its sacred prin- 
 -ciples from our system of education, would be 
 to take from that system its life-giving power. 
 It would be like removing the soul from the 
 body. If it was essential to the highest good 
 of the people, and the prosperity of the nation, 
 to form at the outset this close alliance between 
 religion and education, it is .equally essential 
 now to maintain it. For we are acting in this 
 matter, not for the present generation alone, but 
 for the millions of youth who are in the future 
 to inhabit this continent. Should the enemies 
 of the Bible once succeed in legislating it out 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 227 
 
 of our schools, it would be no easy task to re- 
 store it. For the floods of infidelity and athe- 
 ism in the land would rush in and widen the 
 breach, and, by mingling with the Papal influ- 
 ence, swell the tide of opposition, and give to 
 it an almost resistless power. Indeed, already 
 have infidels and atheists joined hands with the 
 Romanists in this war against our system of 
 education. Nor, in my view, can there be a 
 more vital and solemn question presented to 
 the American people, than that of maintaining 
 the integrity and the religious character of our 
 free school system. " It is a question," said 
 the Hon. Mr. Webster, " which, in its decision, 
 is to influence the happiness, the temporal and 
 eternal welfare, of one hundred millions of hu- 
 man beings, alive and to be born in this land. 
 Its decision will give a hue to the apparent 
 character of our institutions ; it will be a com- 
 ment on their spirit to the whole Christian 
 world. I insist that there is no charity, and 
 can be no charity, in that system of instruction 
 fi-om which Christianity is excluded." * 
 
 * One of our editors remarks '* Among no people are the 
 blessings of education more generally diffused, and among no 
 people does there exist more wide-spread knowledge and intelli- 
 gence, than among the people of the United States. This happy 
 condition of affairs is the natural result of the common school 
 system which has been established throughout our land. Wher- 
 ever it has been introduced, it has raised up armies of intelligent 
 
228 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 But we are met by the Romanist with the 
 declaration, that the Bible is a sectarian book, 
 and as such ought not to be read or studied in 
 schools, where the children of different sects are 
 gathered to receive secular instruction. Now, 
 I contend that, of all the books in the world, 
 
 freemen around it ; and it should be cherished as the safest and 
 strongest bulwark which can be thrown up around the liberties 
 of our beloved country. 
 
 " From an interesting collection o.f educational statistics in the 
 last number of Norton's Literary Gazette, we learn that there are 
 now in the United States about sixty thousand common schools, 
 which are supported at an annual expense of nearly six million 
 dollars. Of this whole amount iScw York conti'ibutes more than 
 one third, and Massachusetts more than one sixth. In the year 
 1853, there were in New York eleven thousand six hundred and 
 eighty-four school districts, and instruction was afforded to sis 
 hundred and twenty-two thousand two hundred and sixty-eight 
 scholars — the total amount expended being two million four 
 hundred and sixty-nine thousand two hundred and forty-eight 
 dollars. Massachusetts, for the same year, numbered four thou- 
 sand one hundi'ed and thirteen schools, and more than two hun- 
 dred thousand scholars. Her aggregate expenditure for school 
 purposes was one million seventy-two thousand three hundred 
 and ten dollars. The old Bay State has a school fund of one mil- 
 lion two hundred and twenty thousand two hundred and thirty- 
 eight dollars. The city of Boston alone appropriates three hun- 
 dred and thirty thousand dollars annually to public schools of 
 various grades. In Pennsylvania, there are ten thousand schools, 
 attended by four hundred and eighty thousand pupils. In 1853, 
 the amount of school tax levied in the state, exclusive of Phila- 
 delphia, city and county, was one million four hundred and thirty- 
 two thousand six hundi'ed and forty-one dollars. In Ohio, the 
 school tax amounts to about one million two hundred thousand 
 dollars. Wisconsin has a fund of one million dollars, and land 
 which, when sold, will increase it to five millions. Texas has es- 
 tablished a permanent school fund of two million dollars." 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 229 
 
 the Bible is the most free from the charge of 
 sectarianism. What is this book but the mes- 
 sage of God to 'man — the revelation of the di- 
 vine will concerning man's duty and destiny? 
 What is it but a system of pure, momentous, 
 and glorious truths, that brings before us the 
 character and perfections of the Deity ; that 
 points out the paths of virtue, honor, and hap- 
 piness ; that throws open the gates of the heav- 
 enly city, and reveals the joys and glories of an 
 immortal state? And does not such a revela- 
 tion concern one mind as well as another, one 
 immortal being as well as another ? You 
 might as well call the sun that shines upon us 
 from the heavens a sectarian sun, or the stars 
 sectarian stars, as to call this gift of the univer- 
 sal Father a sectarian book. 
 
 But what does the Romanist mean when he 
 asks us to exclude the Bible from our free 
 schools, on the ground of its sectarian char- 
 acter ? Why, he can only mean that he is op- 
 posed to this book because it favors Protestant- ' 
 ism, and is hostile to Romanism. It is a book 
 which is very dangerous to the power of the 
 priesthood, and to the superstitions, rites, and 
 exactions of the Romish church. It is so dan- 
 gerous, that, in Italy and other countries where 
 Popery is in the ascendency, a man must obtain 
 a license in order to have the liberty of reading 
 20 
 
230 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the Bible. In the fourth rule of the Index of 
 the Council of Trent, we read as follows : 
 "Forasmuch as the reading of the Scriptures 
 in the vulgar tongue (that is, in the language 
 understood by the people) has been productive 
 of more evil than good, it is expedient that 
 they be not translated in the vulgate, or read 
 or possessed by any one without a written 
 license from the inquisitor or the bishop of the 
 diocese." 
 
 In this country, men are licensed to sell ar- 
 dent spirits and gunpowder, because ftthese 
 things are dangerous to life and property. But 
 in Rome, a man must obtain a license to read 
 the word of God, because this is dangerous to 
 the state and phurch. If the Bible is generally 
 read, there may be an explosion that will shat- 
 ter to atoms the vast fabric of Romish super- 
 stition and tyranny. The priesthood have had 
 experience in the case of Luther and his Bible, 
 which has taught them the importance of keep- 
 ing this book from the people. But with all 
 their watchfulness, they do not always succeed. 
 An instance is related of a pious Irishman, who 
 was discovered by a priest reading the Scrip- 
 tures in a cabin to some poor Roman Catholics, 
 who were delighted with hearing the precious 
 truths of God's word. " When the priest came 
 in, he asked him, in a most dictatorial tone, 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 231 
 
 ' How dare you read the Scriptures to any of 
 my flock ? ' ' Please your reverence,' said the 
 man, with the readiness for which an Irishman 
 is always distinguished, ' I have got a search 
 warrant to do it.' ' Produce it,' said the priest; 
 ' I am sure that it cannot be from the bishop, 
 or from his holiness the pope.' 'No,' said the 
 Scripture reader ; ' it is from God ; and here it 
 is, in John v. 39 — Search the Scriptures.' " 
 
 Now, in the very clamor that the Roman 
 Catholics have raised in our country against 
 having the Bible in the public schools, and in 
 the arguments which they have used, they have 
 virtually declared that the word of God is op- 
 posed to their system of religion ; that Roman- 
 ism cannot prosper where children are taught 
 to read the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 To meet this, however, the Papist is ready 
 to change his ground, and say that it is not the 
 Bible, but the Protestant version, that he ob- 
 jects to. But it has been truly said *that " there 
 is no such thing as a Protestant version ; there 
 never has been ; it is a mere figment used to 
 cover the attack against the word of God. 
 There is a Romish version, but there is no Prot- 
 estant version. There is an English version 
 for all who read English. The work was be- 
 
 * By Dr. Cheever. 
 
232 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 gun by Wickliffe, in the Romish church, before 
 the art of printing ; it was renewed and contin- 
 ued by Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, and others, 
 in the same Romish church, before the public pro- 
 testations against the errors of that church. It 
 was printed, published, and circulated by the au- 
 thority of a Romish king, Henry VIII., with a 
 license procured by Cranmer, and the vicar gen- 
 eral, Cromwell, of the Romish church, permit- 
 ting, in Cranmer's words, that it might be ' read 
 of every person without dangers of any act, 
 proclamation, or ordinance heretofore granted to 
 the contrary, until such time that we, the bish- 
 ops, shall set forth a better translation; which, I 
 think, will not be till a day after doomsday.' 
 This very translation, which, in the main, was 
 that of Tyndale, was substantially taken as 
 the basis of the translation issued under King 
 James. It was in effect adopted by the forty- 
 seven translators employed by him, so that our 
 present incomparable English translation of the 
 Scriptures cannot be called a Protestant trans- 
 lation, but simply the English translation ; and 
 of such perfect freedom from any thing secta- 
 rian, as between Romanism and other sects, 
 that the learned Dr. Alexander Geddes, an ec- 
 clesiastic of the Romish church himself, called 
 it ' of all versions, the most excellent for accu- 
 racy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 233 
 
 letter of the text.' The learned Selden called 
 our English translation ' the best version in the 
 world.' " 
 
 But while our Bible is as correct a transla- 
 tion from the original Hebrew and Greek as 
 pious and learned men could make it, and as 
 such deserves the title of the pure word of 
 God, the Romanists have a version which, ac- 
 cording to some of their most eminent writers, 
 is full of errors. 
 
 The first act of corruption was the introduc- 
 tion of the apocryphal books, which threw into 
 the church a flood of errors. These books were 
 rejected by the primitive church and early fa-- 
 thers; and yet the Romanists tell us that they 
 receive and interpret the Scriptures according 
 to the unanimous consent of the holy fathers. 
 
 The Council of Trent decreed that the Latin 
 vulgate should be the only authority in the Ro- 
 mish church. But what is the history of this 
 version ? When it was prepared by Hierony- 
 mus, it was shown by the scholars of that pe- 
 riod to be exceedingly incorrect. 
 
 After various changes, it was taken in hand 
 by Sixtus V., who issued a new edition, which 
 he commanded should be received as the only 
 authorized version, and read throughout the 
 Christian world. But subsequently Pope Clem- 
 ent VIII., as infallible as his predecessor, is- 
 20* 
 
234 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 sued a bull stating that the edition of Sixtus 
 v., called the reformed edition, contained two 
 thousand dangerous errors. Only think of an 
 infallible pope sending forth to the Christian 
 world an infallible version of the Bible, in which 
 another infallible pope discovers two thousand 
 dangerous errors! 
 
 But the edition of Clement VIII. is in turn 
 subjected to an examination by Father Unga- 
 relli, a man of learning, and an ardent Roman 
 Catholic, whose fondness for study leads him 
 to the research, and he discovers seven hundred 
 and fifty capital errors in this version. And 
 this is now the authorized edition in the Ro- 
 mish church. It is quoted by their writers as 
 scriptural authority, while it cannot in justice 
 be called a Bible. It is, in a great measure, 
 the word of popes and cardinals, rather than 
 the word of God. 
 
 So the Douay Bible is adapted to the errors 
 and corruptions of the Papal church. But 
 even this Bible, erroneous as it is, we do not 
 find in general circulation among Roman 
 Catholics. Who ever heard of the Romish 
 priests exhorting the people to read a Bible of 
 any kind ? Who ever undertook to show that 
 the Roman Catholic church was, as a church, 
 friendly to the Bible in any form ? On the 
 contrary, we have seen that in Catholic coun- 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 235 
 
 tries a man must obtain a license before he can 
 read a Bible. Yes, he must go to a fellow- 
 mortal, to an inquisitor or a bishop, whose 
 characters are certainly no better than they 
 ought to be, and obtain permission to read the 
 book, or the letter, which his heavenly Father 
 has addressed to him ! He must obtain per- 
 mission to learn from his .God how to repent, 
 and how to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
 and be saved ! Was there ever a more insolent 
 and outrageous act of despotism than this ? 
 With as much propriety might I go to a fellow- 
 mortal, and ask permission to breathe the air 
 of heaven, or drink of the pure water that 
 gushes from the mountain side, or use for a day 
 the light of the sun, as to crave the liberty of 
 reading the word of God. If there is a human 
 right which is inalienable — which ought never 
 to be brought into controversy — it is the right 
 of every child of God to read, study, and search 
 the Scriptures. 
 
 But the Romish church has not been con- 
 tented with simply the license system in this 
 matter. It has gone farther, and displayed its 
 opposition in more decisive acts. Councils and 
 popes, almost without number, have positively 
 prohibited the reading of the Scriptures by the 
 common people. When the Waldenses pub- 
 lished the first translation of the Bible into aver- 
 
236 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 nacular tongue, Pope Inaocent III. issued a bull 
 against them, ordering that all their books, most 
 of which were Bibles, should be burned. Leo 
 XII., Gregory XVI., Pius VI., VII., VIIL, as weU 
 as the present pope, prohibit the reading of the 
 Scriptures. Pius IX. has manifested a very- 
 intense hostility to Bible societies ; and we be- 
 lieve that he fears them in the Roman States 
 more than he fears the cholera. Of the two 
 calamities he would prefer the latter, as the 
 least dangerous to the interests of the holy and 
 infallible church ! 
 
 In 1229, the Council of Tolosa waged war 
 against the Bible, and forbade the laity possess- 
 ing it in a language which they could under- 
 stand. The Council of Bologna also con- 
 demned' the general reading of the Bible, as 
 dangerous to the interests of the church. In 
 1842, the Bishop of Bruges, in Belgium, sent 
 forth a circular letter, forbidding the circulation 
 of the Bible in the language of the country, 
 and among the poor people. 
 
 A short time since, a number of Bibles that 
 were sent to be gratuitously distributed at Cum- 
 minsville, Ohio, were gathered into a pile in 
 the road, and burned. The remains of some 
 of them are now in the Bible House, New York. 
 Now, this opposition, which has been raging in 
 New York, Baltimore, and Cincinnati against 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 237 
 
 the Protestant version of the Bible in our free 
 schools, is the old spirit of Romish hostility to 
 the Bible as the word of God. And the Bible 
 is assailed so as to strike, through this, the free 
 school system. The Papists in the United 
 States fear general education as much as they 
 fear the Bible. They know that if the rising 
 generation become enlightened, the days of 
 their superstitions and mummeries are num- 
 bered. They know that priestly arrogance and 
 intolerance here will end; that the people will 
 prefer the light of divine truth to lighted can- 
 dles ; will regard holy principles as of more 
 value than holy water; will seek the pardon of 
 their sins from God rather than from the priest; 
 and will prefer the glories of Christ to the 
 " glories of Mary." 
 
 But supposing that this demand to exclude 
 the Bible from the public schools is yielded to ; 
 the question comes up. What shall be done 
 with those books that contain extracts from the 
 Bible, or passages that speak in commenda- 
 tion of it ? Our best literature is so pervaded 
 with Bible truth and quotations from the Scrip- 
 tures, that it would be very difficult to compilfe 
 a reading book, or one to furnish pieces for 
 declamation, that would be unexceptionable to 
 the Roman Catholic. If the writings of Mil- 
 ton, Addison, Young, or those of our own 
 
238 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 poets, historians, or orators, are resorted to for 
 materials for reading books, it would be almost 
 impossible not to violate the principle for which 
 the Romanist contends. The work of expur- 
 gation would have to be carried so far, that 
 there would be comparatively little left worthy 
 of the pupil's attention. Besides, after the 
 Roman Catholic was satisfied, the atheist 
 might present himself, and urge his objections 
 to having the doctrine of God's existence taught 
 in the schools. He might point out a para- 
 graph on natural or revealed theology in one 
 of the school books that offends his conscience; 
 and, on the plea that he regularly pays his tax, 
 and thus helps to support the school, he might 
 say that it was unjust to have his child taught 
 what he regards as a fundamental error. He 
 contends that he sends his child to school to 
 learn geography, arithmetic, and philosophy ; 
 and for the teacher to give to his mind a reli- 
 gious bias in favor of the existence of a God, 
 is a direct infringement upon his religious lib- 
 erty. The committee, therefore, to be consist- 
 ent, must expunge from the books every allu- 
 sion to the divine existence. There must be no 
 prayer offered up in the school room, for this 
 would be a most palpeible acknowledgment of 
 the being of a God. There must be nothing 
 sung that has • the remotest allusion to the 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 239 
 
 Deity. The mind of the child must be care- 
 fully kept under the idea that the throne of 
 heaven is vacant; that blind chance reigns 
 throughout the universe ; that the sun rises 
 and sets purely by accident; that there is no 
 such thing as a divine moral government, or a 
 future state of being, with its rewards and pun- 
 ishments; and all this to meet the conscien- 
 tious scruples of the tax-paying atheist! 
 
 But we have still other classes of citizens to 
 suit. In California there are several thousands 
 of Chinese, many of whom own property and 
 pay their taxes. One of them, we will sup- 
 pose, sends his children to a public school ; and 
 there, in the reading lesson, they are taught 
 that Christ was superior to Confucius, and that 
 men ought to worship God rather than idols. 
 The children come home and do not manifest 
 the usual reverence for the idols that are in the 
 house. The parents become offended and ex- 
 cited, and soon the whole Chinese population 
 are making war against these sectarian schools. 
 They claim that the school fund ought to be 
 divided, that they may have such schools as 
 exist in the Celestial Empire, and be no longer 
 exposed to the religious sentiments of the 
 American barbarians with whom they have 
 taken up their abode. Now, what is to be 
 done? Who shall decide the question of the 
 
240 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 character of these schools — the Chinese idol- 
 ater, or the Deist, or the Roman Catholic, or 
 the American Protestant. We say that the 
 question must be left to the majority. We 
 can see no other way of deciding it; and to 
 yield to this clamor of the Romanists, who are 
 in the minority, is a policy fraught with the 
 greatest peril to all our institutions. 
 
 Yet the school commissioners in New York — 
 to their shame be it said — have set the example 
 of following the dictation of the Romish priests 
 in this matter. They have mutilated the school 
 books, expunging passages that were offensive 
 to the Pope of Rome and his adherents. On 
 this point Dr. Cheever, of New York, says, — 
 
 " To this day this disgrace stands perpetu- 
 ated in the school books. The Romish edict has 
 marked its way, as it generally does, so that there 
 is no mistaking it. And it stands a palpable 
 demonstration of the consequences to which this 
 argument against the Bible, at the demand of 
 the conscience of a single sect, must lead. Tlie 
 obliteration and mutilation of the school books 
 is one legitimate result; and some of the noblest 
 bursts of eloquence in the English tongue, and 
 most exquisitely wrought compositions, — his- 
 toric, poetic, and didactic, — must be cut away 
 and cast out as sectarian, against which the 
 suspicion of sectarianism was never before 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 241 
 
 breathed. Compositions of superior acknowl- 
 edged excellence and immemorial use are to be 
 charged as sectarian, in which no quality or 
 aspect of sectarianism can be detected, because 
 the imprimatur of a particular sect is with- 
 held from them ! Because they are not secta- 
 rian, because the historian was not a Romish 
 historian, because the poet was not a Romish 
 poet, coloring his descriptions with the colors 
 that the church demands, — therefore they are 
 to be marked and condemned as sectarian, and 
 on that pretence excluded! And in the gaps 
 thus made, in the speech of Lord Chatham, for 
 example, a blackened impression is stamped 
 upon the page. Whole pages were thus de- 
 faced ; at first, because this was a cheap mode 
 of accomplishing the Romish expurgation, the 
 remainder of the volumes being still readable. 
 In other pages, couplets of straggling stars filled 
 the omissions ; and in another edition the offen- 
 sive stereotype plate, where it formed a whole 
 page, was destroyed, and pages totally blank 
 were left here and there through the volume. 
 Such is the aspect of a portion of the school 
 literature at this moment." 
 
 Nor were we without serious apprehension, 
 
 at one time, that the enemies of the Bible in 
 
 New York would succeed in banishing the 
 
 sacred volume from the schools in that state. 
 
 p 21 
 
242 
 
 ROMANISM I.\ AMERICA. 
 
 Under the shelter of the laws passed in 1842 
 and 1843, forbidding sectarian teaching and 
 books, a strong effort was made to banish from 
 the schools the Bible, as being a sectarian book. 
 And even after an amendment made to the 
 school law in 1844, " prohibiting the Board of 
 Education from excluding the Holy Scriptures 
 from any school," many of the ward officers 
 still forbade the use of the Bible. The super- 
 intendent declared that " many of the teachers 
 were thus intimidated from an apprehension 
 lest they should lose their places, which indeed 
 was intimated in some cases and distinctly 
 threatened in others. Valuable teachers, in 
 several cases, for reading the Bible in their 
 schools, have been actually either dismissed or 
 compelled to resign." 
 
 Now, upon what principle of justice or right 
 such a course is pursued, we are totally unable 
 to determine. Supposing we allow that the 
 Roman Catholics are conscientiously opposed to 
 the Bible ; are not the Protestants equally con- 
 scientious in favor of it? Have we not rights 
 in this matter as well as the Roman Catholics? 
 Are the consciences of twenty millions of free 
 American Protestants to be trampled in the 
 dust, and entirely lost sight of, to gratify the 
 consciences of a few millions of Romanists, 
 the leaders of whom have declared themselves 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 243 
 
 the uncompromising foes of all our institutions, 
 civil, educational, and religious ? Shame upon 
 the man who advances so treasonable a doc- 
 trine! We have indeed reached a sad period 
 in our history, if the consciences of all the 
 Protestants in our land are to be thus violated, 
 and our free schools walled in against all reli- 
 gious influences, and against every ray of the 
 light of divine truth ! 
 
 But the Romanists have a great deal to say 
 about their rights in this matter. Let me ask, 
 what right is invaded, by the American people 
 believing and acting upon the principle that 
 moral and religious instruction should accom- 
 pany a system of general education ? Are not 
 these foreigners aware of the character of our 
 schools and our institutions before they come 
 to this country ? They are at liberty, if they 
 choose, to establish Romish schools, and they 
 have done so in various parts of the land. The 
 atheist, too, can have his school, and the Chi- 
 nese in California can do the same. But to 
 ask that the Bible be banished from our schools, 
 and our books expurgated of every passage 
 that is offensive to Romish ears, is what no 
 true American patriot or Christian will ever 
 grant. 
 
 Upon this subject, an antagonist of Bishop 
 Hughes, in a controversy which was held sev- 
 
244 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 eral years since, used the following just and 
 strong language : — 
 
 " The efforts of your priests and yourselves, 
 gentlemen, to get possession of the money ap- 
 propriated by the State of New York for the 
 support of the common schools has a singular 
 appearance. Bishop Hughes says, 'We come 
 here denied of our rights.' Pray, what are the 
 rights here, of a priest who holds his commis- 
 sion and his place by the will of a foreign 
 hierarch, and upon condition of continued obe- 
 dience? Such a man cannot, in the nature of 
 the case, become an American. He may swear 
 allegiance, and kiss the Bible and the cross ever 
 so many times ; he is a foreigner still. He may 
 have the privilege of staying here and being 
 protected by our laws, but as to rights for inter- 
 meddling with American affairs, he has none. 
 The amount which Catholics pay towards the 
 school money is exceedingly small; and all 
 your contributions to the state in every way are 
 greatly overbalanced by the donations made 
 back to you by our various public institutions. 
 You are almost all foreigners by birth here in 
 your first generation ; you profess a religion 
 subordinated to a foreign head — a religion 
 against which our ancestors entered their sol- 
 emn protest — a protest which their sons mean 
 to sustain while they live, and hand down from 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 245 
 
 generation to generation, while the country en- 
 dures. Your priests come here on a ' mission^ 
 as they profess ; and here, with some men of 
 intelligence and worth, and an army who can 
 neither read nor write, you clamor for your 
 rights. With the enjoyment of all the privi- 
 leges of American institutions, of liberty, reli- 
 gion, and science, bestowed on your landing, 
 you are still discontented. Pray, by what rule 
 should your rights be determined ? Shall it be 
 by the measure which would be meted out, 
 under a reverse of circumstances, to a like com- 
 pany of American Protestants in a Catholic 
 country? You claim the right especially to 
 interfere with the management of our public 
 schools. Pray, had you any such right in the 
 country of your birth, where your religion ad- 
 justed rights and dealt them out? Before 
 Americans intrust you with the management 
 of their public schools, they would like to see 
 the result of your labors in the same way in 
 Catholic countries. Can you point us to some 
 spot in Italy, Spain, or Austria, or any other 
 country under the influence of the Catholic 
 church, where the earliest care of Popery is to 
 establish common schools, in which all the chil- 
 dren shall be taught to read, and write, and 
 cipher ? We should like to visit that Catholic 
 country where, in every neighborhood, the dis- 
 21* 
 
246 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 trict school house is the centre of interest, and 
 to see the Catholic children, as, in neat attire, 
 they assemble blithely in the morning. Is there 
 any such spot in all the dominions of the pope ? 
 No ; common schools are the offspring of Prot- 
 estantism. We can have them because we are 
 not under the dominion of the pope. His let- 
 ter proves conclusively that Romanism is the 
 enemy of common schools, and of popular edu- 
 cation in every form. Americans will not, if 
 they are wise, put an institution which they 
 love so much into the hands of its enemies. 
 The glory of our system is universal educa- 
 tion ; that of yours is universal ignorance. The 
 meridian of Catholic ascendency was the mid- 
 night of the world's history. While our chil- 
 dren are taught the elements of all sorts of 
 useful knowledge, and each, with a Bible in his 
 hand, is instructed to read, and think, and act 
 independently, our institutions will be safe; 
 but such a system will lay Popery in the dust, 
 wherever it prevails. 
 
 " The common people in all Catholic coun- 
 tries are ignorant of the rudiments of educa- 
 tion. Those who come here can, in general, 
 only sign their names with a mark. The per- 
 sons who can neither read nor write, whose 
 numbers disfigure our census returns, are most 
 of them Catholics. Under all these circum- 
 
THE BIBLE IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 247 
 
 stances, gentlemen, your claim that a part of 
 our public school monefy should be put into the 
 hands of Catholic priests to manage, strikes us 
 as exhibiting a wonderful degree of assurance." 
 Upon no principle of justice or right can the 
 plea of the Romanist be maintained; and for 
 the American people to yield to this clamor, 
 would be the most suicidal course that could 
 be adopted. As Christians, we are bound to 
 resist it. As philanthropists and patriots, we 
 are bound to preserve the connection between 
 religious and mental culture. 
 
X. 
 
 THE BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTEnJED. 
 
 "Seek ye out of the book of the Losd, amd eead."— /«. 
 xxxiv. 16. 
 
 "Blessed are they that heak the word of God and keep 
 IT." — Luke xi. 28. 
 
 We have already otonsidered the principles 
 upon which the free school system was estab- 
 lished, and showed that the objections brought 
 by the Romanist against the Bible as a sec- 
 tarian book were entirely groundless, and grew 
 out of a deep-seated hostility to the word of 
 God. We showed the absurdities into which 
 school commissioners and committees would 
 be led, by once yielding to the arrogant claims 
 of the Romish priesthood. 
 
 In pursuing our argument, we would remark, 
 in the next place, that, as believers in the Bible, 
 we are under the most solemn obligations to 
 communicate its truths to the rising genera- 
 tion. 
 
 We believe that " all Scripture is given by 
 insoiration of God, and is profitable for doc- 
 
 (248) 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 249 
 
 trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
 in righteousness." It is as much my duty to 
 extend as widely as possible a knowledge of 
 the Scriptures, as it is to give bread to a starv- 
 ing man, or throw a plank to one who is drown- 
 ing. Being convinced by the authority of mir- 
 acles, prophecy, and the internal evidences of 
 the truth of the Scriptures, — being fully per- 
 suaded by the social, civil, and spiritual ad- 
 vantages that flow from the study of the Bible, 
 that this volume is the word of God, — I am 
 bound as a moral being, accountable to God 
 for my influence, to do all in my power to make 
 known its truths to every human being. I am 
 bound to send it to the most distant continents 
 and islands of the earth, that it may educate 
 the ignorant, enlighten the superstitious, and 
 fit man for duty in this life, and for happiness 
 in the life to come. Much more am I bound 
 to give it to the children in my own country, 
 where every valuable institution depends for 
 existence upon its circulation and influence. 
 
 Between the Holy Scriptures as the supreme 
 authority, and my conscience, I can allow 
 nothing to enter. To me the Bible is the higher 
 law, in church and state — in all the relations 
 of life. From this position I will not be driven 
 by all the hosts of Papists, with Pope Pius IX. 
 at their head. 
 
250 
 
 ROMAXIrJM IX A?,II3RICA. 
 
 But the Romanist tells me, that he is as con- 
 scientiously opposed to the Bible as I am in 
 favor of it. His conscience prompts him to ex- 
 clude from the child's mind the light of God's 
 word, and introduce in its stead the mummeries 
 and superstitions of Popery. I am, however, 
 convinced that his conscience is not enlight- 
 ened — that he has not been permitted to ex- 
 ercise his reason and judgment in matters of 
 religion — that he regards the traditions of men 
 as of higher authority than the word of God. 
 I cannot, therefore, admit such a conscience on 
 an equality with one that has been enlightened 
 by divine truth. If I do, then we must extend 
 the principle still farther, and recognize the au- 
 thority of the pagan's conscience, and even 
 that of the most degraded, superstitious, and 
 cruel heathen. 
 
 Suppose that, in the flood of immigration 
 that is pouring in upon our shores, there should 
 come a company of Hindoos, bringing with 
 them their habits, customs, and modes of wor- 
 ship. Suppose that at stated periods an infant 
 is cast into Boston Harbor, as a religious offer- 
 ing to appease the wrath of an offended deity. 
 If expostulated with, the Hindoos reply, that 
 they are perfectly conscientious in this act. 
 Their fathers, for ages, were in the habit of 
 performing this religious rite, and from their 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 251 
 
 earliest infancy they were taught that it is a 
 duty binding upon all Hindoo parents. But 
 the Massachusetts legislature takes the matter 
 in hand, and it is proposed that a law be passed 
 forbidding the casting of infant children into 
 Boston Harbor, under any circumstances what- 
 ever. In the midst of the debate, there rises up 
 in the House of Representatives a young and 
 aspiring politician, who is anxious to secure 
 Hindoo votes, and argues. First, that this is a 
 land of perfect religious liberty, and hence all re- 
 ligions should be tolerated and protected. Sec- 
 ondly, these Hindoos are perfectly conscien- 
 tious, and consider this rite as essential to their 
 peace here and happiness hereafter. Thirdly, 
 they have been naturalized, and pay their taxes, 
 which, it is true, do not amount to a large sum; 
 yet they ought not to be persecuted. Fourthly, 
 their religion, in this age of toleration, ought to 
 be respected on account of its antiquity, and 
 the vast number of human minds over which 
 it has held sway. Indeed, the young orator 
 might become almost eloquent in his praises 
 of the Ganges, of the sacred books of the Hin- 
 doos, called the Vedas, which are written in the 
 Sanscrit, or holy language, and of the noble 
 self-denial of the people in swinging on hooks, 
 and keeping their limbs in a certain position 
 until they are rigid. Such a speech might be 
 
252 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 very edifying to the Hindoo immigrants ; but 
 whether it would convince the American peo- 
 ple that the consciences of these idolaters 
 should rank with those that are enlightened by 
 divine truths, I leave you to judge. 
 
 Yet why not respect a conscience that be- 
 lieves in the holy water of the Ganges, as much 
 as one that believes in holy wells, and in the 
 holy water placed in church fonts ? Why not 
 respect consciences that approve of having 
 men crushed under the car of Juggernaut, as 
 much as those that approve of having men 
 crushed in the infernal machinery of a Spanish 
 Inquisition ? 
 
 The truth is, that the American people should 
 never retreat one iota from the principle that it 
 is their right and duty to circulate and teach 
 the word of God. This right is not derived 
 from any body or class of men — from any au- 
 thority in church or state — but it comes di- 
 rectly from the throne of the Eternal. As well 
 might we exclude from our school rooms the 
 light of the sun, and light them with Romish 
 candles, or exclude the air of heaven, and com- 
 pel the children to breathe a noxious gas, as 
 deprive them of the celestial light and inesti- 
 mable blessings of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 As an aid to the mental culture of-the pupils, 
 and to the discipline of the schools, the Bible 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 253 
 
 holds a most important rank. Its influence 
 cannot but be salutary and reformatory upon 
 the young minds that are collected together to 
 receive instruction in the various branches of 
 knowledge. Just imagine millions of children 
 in the various parts of our land at the same 
 moment under the persuasive, elevating, and 
 enriching influence of divine truth. See the 
 history, poetry, precepts, and eloquence of the 
 sacred volume, mingling in with the principles 
 of science, and throwing their hallowed influ- 
 ence around the secular knowledge that is 
 daily imparted. Follow these great principles 
 as they mould and control the faculties in their 
 progress towards maturity, and as they help 
 to form the character and shape the destiny. 
 Then think of these scriptural truths as travel- 
 ling down through successive generations, and 
 widening in their influence, until they reach 
 hundreds of millions of American youth, pre- 
 paring them to act well their part upon the 
 great theatre of human life. On the other 
 hand, imagine these schools with the Bible and 
 all religious influences banished from them at 
 the dictation of Romish priests. No word of 
 inspiration is uttered in the hearing of these 
 multitudes, who are so soon to enter upon the 
 duties of life, and take charge of the vast in- 
 terests of this free and Christian republic. No 
 22 
 
254 ROMANISM IN AMIiRICA. 
 
 prayer is offered up — no religious instruction is 
 imparted — lest the awful crime should be com- 
 mitted of teaching sectarianism ! The chills 
 of a cold infidelity hang over the school. The 
 teachers may be complete atheists, and yet be 
 qualified for all the duties that devolve upon 
 them. They may be believers in the Koran, or 
 in the sacred books of the Chinese, or the Hin- 
 doos, and yet be eligible to the important and 
 responsible ofEce of teaching the young. When 
 such a day arrives, we may bid farewell to all 
 that we hold dear as a nation. 
 
 Consider, also, the importance of the Bible 
 in our female schools. " It is ever to be re- 
 membered," says one, " how large a proportion 
 of the children attending our common schools 
 are girls, and the teachers females, and how 
 peculiarly appropriate and essential for them, 
 both for instruction and government, the les- 
 sons of the Sacred Scriptures. What agency 
 is so powerful for training the sensibilities, re- 
 fining the manners, purifying the heart, for di- 
 recting and establishing the feelings, the senti- 
 ments, the habits of thought, in that gentle and 
 yet elevated and impressive character, which 
 we wish to see possessed by every woman, and 
 especially every mother of our republic ? * * * 
 The idea of educating the female mind of our 
 country, in the proposed exclusion of the Bible, 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 255 
 
 and of all religious instruction, is really an in- 
 sult to the common convictions of humanity in 
 a Christian state. 
 
 "Just think of the absurdity, the tyranny, 
 of placing the children under such a regimen, 
 because of the fear of the charge of sectarian- 
 ism, that the teacher shall not dare to comment 
 even on the simplest, sweetest, most compre- 
 hensive sayings, invitations, parables, or actions 
 of the Savior of the world. * * * Think 
 of classes and teachers under this fear, lest 
 some inquisitorial commissioner should enter, 
 and mark this process of celestial light as en- 
 dangering the entrance of sectarianism, and 
 therefore not to be permitted, out of respect to 
 the conscientious rights of those who require 
 the exclusion of the Bible and of all religious 
 instruction." 
 
 The truth is, that, by yielding to this claim 
 of the Romish priesthood, we create a despot- 
 ism that acts with fearful power upon the mil- 
 lions of Protestants in America, who consci- 
 entiously believe that the word of God should 
 be taught to their children. Here is a citizen 
 who pays his tax for the support of the schools 
 which were by our fathers founded upon the 
 basis of Bible truth. As a Christian, he knows 
 that the religious element ought to enter into a 
 system of education that is to fit his child for 
 
256 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the duties of this life, and for the solemn reali- 
 ties of the future world. He cannot consistently 
 send his child to a school where the word of 
 God is proscribed, and where all the books are 
 expunged of every allusion to the sublime 
 words of inspiration — the beautiful Pslams of 
 David, the thrilling utterances of the prophets, 
 the glorious truths upon which Jesus and his 
 apostles delighted to dwell. 
 
 The very fact that the Bible is excluded from 
 the school room will exert an injurious influ- 
 ence upon the mind of the child. He will natu- 
 rally, sooner or later, ask, Why do I not meet 
 the word of God in some of the paths of sci- 
 ence and human learning ? Why do I not hear 
 a prayer offered for the blessing of God upon 
 the studies of the day ? Are the principles of 
 science incompatible with the truths of re- 
 ligion ? Is the school house beyond the domin- 
 ions of the Almighty Father ? And, as he sees 
 at stated periods a committee passing around 
 the school room, and carefully examining the 
 books in the desks of the pupils, and is in- 
 formed that these grave and solemn-looking 
 men are searching to satisfy themselves that 
 there are no scriptural passages, or words of 
 commendation of the Bible, in these books, 
 what must be the child's impression of the 
 character of the Bible? Can he avoid the 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 257 
 
 conclusion that it must be a very dangerous 
 book ? Can he avoid contracting a prejudice 
 against it ? 
 
 No Christian father would send his child to 
 such a school. 
 
 The necessity of providing religious instruc- 
 tion is also specially apparent in those schools 
 that are established by the state for the children 
 of paupers and criminals, for the blind, and for 
 the deaf and dumb. 
 
 In the schools at South Boston and Deer 
 Island, connected with the almshouses and 
 other public institutions, there are many chil- 
 dren, who, but for those schools, would never 
 have known any thing of the Bible, or of Jesus 
 Christ, or of the way of salvation. Their par- 
 ents, being vicious, or addicted to crime, have 
 left them exposed to every degrading and cor- 
 rupting influence. In visiting those schools, it 
 appeared to me that their great charm and 
 beauty was the religious influence that was 
 thrown over the pupils. It was a thrilling 
 spectacle, to see these poor outcasts thus 
 provided by the state with the bread of life, 
 and trained up for usefulness and happiness. 
 
 As an aid to discipline in these schools, the 
 teachers find the Bible absolutely indispensable. 
 Many of the children committed to their care, 
 owing to past neglect and to the wicked habits 
 
258 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 already contracted, would be beyond their con- 
 trol, were they not allowed to make use" of the 
 moral and religious teachings of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 In the school for juvenile offenders which I 
 once visited at South Boston, I found about 
 sixty boys between ten and sixteen years of 
 age, every one of whom had been arrested for 
 some crime. They were all bright and intelli- 
 gent looking lads, and appeared exceedingly 
 well in their deportment and recitations. After 
 the examination in their studies, the teacher 
 asked me if I should like to hear them sing. 
 Replying in the affirmative, the scholars at 
 once rose, and with clear, vigorous voices, and 
 in perfect harmony, chanted those beautiful 
 words, " I will arise and go to my father, and 
 say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
 in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be 
 called thy son." On being invited, immedi- 
 ately afterwards, to address them, I remarked 
 upon the appropriateness of those precious 
 words to their situation, and of the willingness 
 of that Father, from whom they had wandered, 
 to receive them back to his house, to embrace 
 them as children, to call for the best robes to 
 be put upon them, to rejoice over their repent- 
 ance and return, and to exclaim with intense 
 emotion, in relation to each of them, " This 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, COi\TINUED. 259 
 
 my son was dead, and is alive again ; he was 
 lost, and is found." 
 
 While speaking, I observed that every eye 
 was fixed upon me, and every heart seemed to 
 throb its response to the sentiments I was 
 uttering. 
 
 Now, suppose that, just as I was closing, a 
 Popish inquisitor, chairman of the school com- 
 mittee, had entered, and, by authority of a law 
 recently passed, should have positively forbid- 
 den the singing of any more such chants — 
 should have taken the Bible that was lying on 
 the teacher's desk, and hurled it out of the win- 
 dow — should have examined the books, and 
 torn out the leaves that contained scriptural 
 passages, or extracts from distinguished au- 
 thors, and thus should have taken from these 
 boys the only means that they enjoyed of ob- 
 taining a knowledge of the precious principles 
 of God's word, and of the terms of salvation. 
 I say that the devil himself could not do a 
 worse thing. For what hope of usefulness 
 and happiness, for time or eternity, have 
 these youth, except that which may be derived 
 from the religious instruction gained at this in- 
 stitution ? 
 
 Yet this inquisitor would see them grow up 
 in vice and crime, and prepare, in the cellars 
 of Ann Street or Fort Hill, to become, when 
 
260 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 they reach manhood, thieves, incendiaries, and 
 assassins,* rather than see them gathered in 
 this school, reading the Holy Scriptures, and 
 
 * " The Rev. M. H. Seymour has recently brought before the 
 public some statistical facts connected with the crime of murder, 
 in several of the European kingdoms, well deserving the atten- 
 tion of thoughtful men. From these facts, it would appear that 
 the farther a nation departs from the religion of the Bible, the 
 more numerous will be the transgressions of the divine command, 
 * Thou shalt do no murder.' 
 
 " Our own land, with all her sins, is far less stained with the 
 guilt of murder than countries where the Bible is not the book 
 which guides the people. In such countries the number of mur- 
 ders is fearfully larger than with us. And it is very remarkable, 
 and ought to be pondered by our statesmen, that most murders 
 abound in those nations where unmixed Popery prevails, and 
 where priests, monks, and nuns abound in largest numbers, and 
 710 Bibles circulated among the people ! 
 
 '* The following is the result of Mr. Seymour's inquiries, and 
 his information is derived from the most authentic sources. Di- 
 Tiding the population by the number of murders annually, there 
 will be in 
 
 England, 
 
 4 murders 
 
 to a million inhabitants. 
 
 Ireland, 
 
 19 
 
 
 tt 
 
 Belgium, 
 
 18 
 
 
 (( 
 
 France, 
 
 31 
 
 
 <( 
 
 Austria, 
 
 36 
 
 
 " 
 
 Bavaria, 
 
 30 
 
 
 « 
 
 Sardinia, 
 
 20 
 
 
 " 
 
 Lombardy, 
 
 45 
 
 
 " 
 
 Tuscany, 
 
 42 
 
 
 (( 
 
 Sicily, 
 
 90 
 
 
 " 
 
 Papal States, 
 
 100 
 
 
 (( 
 
 Naples, 
 
 200 
 
 
 " 
 
 *' These are startling facts. And yet, with such facts as these 
 and others before them, many an Englishman is still blind to the 
 real character and tendency of Romanism." 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 261 
 
 chanting the words, " I will arise and go to my 
 father." 
 
 Indeed, the superintendents informed me, that 
 the Roman Catholic priests complained bitterly 
 that the paupers and criminals of their faith, 
 old and young, in those institutions, had access 
 to the Bible. Although the instructions that 
 they there receive afford the qnly hope that 
 they will ever be lifted from their state of deg- 
 radation and pauperism, and saved from a ca- 
 reer of the blackest crime, yet these cruel 
 priests would taiie from them even this faint 
 hope. 
 
 Suppose, also, that the Bible is excluded 
 from the school for the blind, which is supported 
 by the state. Here are gathered, say one hun- 
 dred blind children, who, day after day, read 
 their lessons by tracing the raised letters with 
 their fingers. They become acquainted with 
 geography, philosophy, and portions of history, 
 but, from the beginning to the end of the year, 
 their fingers never light upon the word Bible. 
 They never trace out the words, " Believe on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 saved " — never read that sublime and stirring 
 declaration, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither hath it entered into the heart of man to 
 conceive, the joys which are laid up for those 
 that love God." 
 
262 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 Would it. not be the greatest cruelty to add 
 to the darkness that surrounds this unfortunate 
 class the deeper moral darkness produced by 
 the exclusion of the word of God ? 
 
 Take, also, the institution for the deaf and 
 dumb. Who, with one spark of humanity in 
 his soul, with the smallest possible amount 
 of interest in the spiritual welfare of others, 
 would even advance the idea, that this class of 
 persons should be deprived of religious instruc- 
 tion ? To those who visit these institutions, 
 one of the most interesting features in the ex- 
 amination is the progress that the pupils make 
 in a knowledge of the Scriptures, and their 
 promptness in replying to questions of a re- 
 ligious nature. 
 
 '' Who made the world ? " was the question 
 once proposed to a little boy in the institution 
 Without an instant's delay, the chalk had rap- 
 idly traced the answer, — 
 
 " In the beginning, God created the heavens 
 and the earth." 
 
 " Why did Jesus come into the world ? " was 
 the next question proposed. With a smile of 
 gratitude, the little fellow wrote in reply, — 
 
 " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
 acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the 
 world to save sinners." 
 
 The astonished visitor, desirous of testing 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 263 
 
 the religious nature of the pupil to the utmost, 
 ventured at length to ask, " Why were you 
 born deaf and dumb, when I can both hear 
 and speak ? " With the sweetest and most 
 touching expression of meek resignation on the 
 face of the boy, the rapid chalk replied, " Even 
 so, Father, for it seemeth good in thy sight." 
 
 Now, shall the Bible be removed from such 
 a school on the ground that it is a sectarian 
 book ? Shall it be banished from such an in- 
 stitution to meet the conscientious scruples of 
 a class of men who owe allegiance to the Pope 
 of Rome, and are engaged in burning Bibles 
 in various parts of Christendom ? 
 
 But, besides the right of the children to the 
 word of God, I would contend, in the next 
 place, that the very existence of our free gov- 
 ernment and our national prosperity depend 
 upon the influence and authority of the Bible 
 in the community. What is it, I would ask,, 
 that distinguishes the American people from sO' 
 many of the nations of the earth ? Whence 
 our unexampled growth, our commercial enter- 
 prise, our progress in the arts, in science, and 
 in the general diffusion of knowledge ? Why 
 are the people of all climes and languages at- 
 tracted to our shores ? Why do hundreds of 
 thousands of Roman Catholics seek here com- 
 forts and advantages such as cannot be obtained 
 
B64 nOMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 in their own countries, where their system of 
 religion has been for agps in the ascendency ? 
 The answer is obvious. The light of God's 
 holy word shines upon the nation. The Bible 
 lies at the basis of our civil, educational, and 
 religious institutions. Remove it, and you take 
 away the corner stone of the republic, and 
 leave the vast fabric to crumble, burying mil- 
 lions of now free, happy, and prosperous cit- 
 izens beneath the ruins. 
 
 The words of the immortal Washington, in 
 his Farewell Address, ought to be remembered 
 by every true American : " Of all the disposi- 
 tions and habits which lead to political pros- 
 perity, religion and morality are indispensable 
 supports. In vain would that man claim the 
 tribute of patriotism who should labor to sub- 
 vert these great pillars of human happiness, 
 the purest props of the duties of men and cit- 
 izens. The mere politician, equally with the 
 pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. 
 A volume could not trace all their connections 
 with private and public felicity. Let it simply 
 be asked, Where is the security for property, 
 for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious 
 obligation desert the oaths which are the 
 instruments of investigation in courts of 
 justice ? And let us with caution indulge the 
 supposition that morality can be maintained 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 265 
 
 without religion. Whatever may be conceded 
 to the influence of refined education on minds 
 of peculiar structure, reason and experience 
 both forbid us to expect that national morality 
 can prevail, in exclusion of religious principle." 
 Now, it is not necessary that infidel and athe- 
 istical sentiments be actually taught to the pupils 
 in order to destroy the national morality. Ac- 
 cording to the views of the father of our country, 
 the mere absence of religious principle will pro- 
 duce this result. You have only to remove the 
 Bible from our schools, and sever the connection 
 between religious culture and secular education, 
 and the work is done. Every blow that is aimed 
 against the Bible is aimed against our national 
 morality, against the vital forces of our nation- 
 al existence and prosperity. A foreign enemy 
 bombarding our cities, and landing their forces 
 upon our shores, could not injure us so much as 
 those who are making war upon the Bible, and 
 laboring to prevent the religious culture of the 
 rising generation. For we could lose a few 
 cities, and even many thousand citizens, and yet 
 maintain ovu* national existence. We could be 
 crippled, and yet maintain life and, vigor in the 
 heart of the republic. The fallen cities would 
 soon rise again. The tide of business and 
 prosperity, disturbed for the moment, would 
 soon resume its wonted channel. But the Ro- 
 23 
 
266 
 
 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 manist, in striking at the Bible, strikes at the 
 very seat of our national life. The wounds he 
 inflicts are mortal wounds. If the nation falls 
 under the blows, it falls not soon to rise again. 
 Its limbs are palsied ; its heart ceases to beat. 
 
 The allusion in the extract from Washing- 
 ton's Address to the importance of preserving 
 the sanctity of oaths in our courts of justice, 
 is deserving of special attention. The attain- 
 ment of the ends of justice obviously depends 
 upon the truth of witnesses, and those who 
 testify in our courts. If the sanctity of oaths 
 is violated, and men are ready to commit per- 
 jury, it is obvious that the rights of men and 
 the interests of society cannot be protected. 
 And as the state provides for the taking of 
 oaths, it ought also to make provision for the 
 study of the Holy Scriptures, that its truths 
 may be understood, and that the nature and 
 solemnity of an oath may be appreciated. 
 
 Persons who are ignorant of the Bible, and 
 entertain little or no reverence for the sacred 
 volume, naturally regard an oath with very dif- 
 ferent views and feelings from those who be- 
 lieve in its principles, obey its precepts, and 
 regard with holy awe its divine Author. While 
 the latter would shrink with horror from the 
 guilt of perjury, the former would be willing to 
 swear falsely under the influence of a very 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 267 
 
 slight temptation. To escape a small fine, or 
 to protect a friend, or to gratify their prejudices, 
 they would perjure themselves before God and 
 man. And the officers of our city government 
 have informed me that no reliance can be placed 
 upon the oaths, in our courts of justice, of those 
 who are not allowed to possess and read the 
 word of God. In instances where they have 
 been arrested in the very act of unlawfully 
 purchasing and drinking intoxicating liquors, 
 they have stood before the judge with their 
 hands upon the Bible, and sworn in direct op- 
 position to the facts in the case. And what 
 reverence can they be expected to entertain for 
 the Bible, when they see their priests, their 
 spiritual guides, laboring to destroy it, and 
 making it a crime to possess the sacred vol- 
 ume? If they are taught to believe that their 
 piety and hopes of heaven increase with the 
 increase of their contempt of the Scriptures, 
 that it is a greater virtue to burn the Bible than 
 to obey its commands, and that what Almighty 
 God enjoins as a duty is a crime punishable, 
 where the priests have the power, with imprison- 
 ment and even death, how can you expect that 
 they will have the least regard for the sanctity 
 of an oath ? 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that if the authority of 
 the Bible is destroyed, the ends of justice can- 
 
268 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 not be secured. And in the Roman States, and 
 other countries where the Bible is proscribed, 
 the proceedings'of the courts are a mere mock- 
 ery. The attainment of justice is the very last 
 thing to be looked for. 
 
 We are however told that, even if the Bible 
 is banished from the public schools, the chil- 
 dren can be religiously instructed in the family, 
 the Sabbath school, and the church. But every 
 one knows that there are multitudes of children, 
 even in our most highly-favored towns and 
 cities, who never receive any religious instruc- 
 tion at home, and who are not brought under 
 the influence 'of our churches and Sabbath 
 schools. At the lowest estimate, more than 
 one half of our people are growing up with- 
 out any religious restraints from the family, 
 or the services of the sanctuary. The only 
 knowledge that multitudes obtain of the exist- 
 ence of a Bible is obtained in the public school. 
 While connected, some years ago, with a Sab- 
 bath school in New York city, I found, in visit- 
 ing the neighborhood for scholars, some boys 
 twelve and fourteen years of age, of Catholic 
 parents, who were as ignorant of the Bible, of 
 the Savior, and of the doctrines of repentance 
 and faith, as the heathen. Some had never 
 heard of the Bible. They were growing up in 
 ignorance, filth, and vice in its most degrading 
 forms. 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 269 
 
 Nov/, how can this large class of ignorant 
 children be reached with moral and religious 
 instruction except through the public schools ? 
 In what other way can they obtain knowledge 
 enough of Christianity to become the citizens 
 of a free republic? We contend that, as a 
 matter of protection and self-preservation, the 
 government is bound to provide for the religious 
 culture of the people. 
 
 Not only the teachers of religion, but our 
 most eminent jurists, statesmen, and patriots, 
 all concur in the opinion, that such a nation as 
 ours cannot exist without a moral and religious 
 basis. Judge Story, in his work on the consti- 
 tution, says, " The right of a society or govern- 
 ment to interfere in matters of religion will hardly 
 be contested by any persons who believe that 
 piety, religion, and morality are intimately con- 
 nected Avith the well-being of the state, and indis- 
 pensable to the administration of civil justice. 
 The promulgation of the great doctrines of re- 
 ligion, the being, and attributes, and providence 
 of one Almighty God ; the responsibility to him 
 founded upon moral accountability ; a future 
 state of rewards and piinishments ; the cultiva- 
 tion of all the personal, social, and benevolent 
 virtues, — these can never be a matter of indif- 
 ference in any well-ordered community. It is, 
 indeed, difficult to conceive how any civilized 
 23* 
 
270 ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 
 
 society can well exist without them. And, at 
 all events, it is impossible for those who believe 
 in the truth of Christianity as a divine revela- 
 tion, to doubt that it is the special duty of gov- 
 ernment to foster and encourage it among all 
 the citizens and subjects. This is a point 
 wholly distinct from that of the right of private 
 judgment in matters of religion, and of the free- 
 dom of public worship, according to the dic- 
 tates of one's conscience." 
 
 The Hon. Horace Mann says, " As educators, 
 as friends and sustainers of the common school 
 system, our great duty is to prepare these living 
 and intelligent souls ; to awaken the faculty of 
 thought in all the children of the common- 
 wealth ; to impart to them the greatest prac- 
 ticable amount of useful knowledge ; to culti- 
 vate in them a sacred regard to truth • * * * 
 to train them up to the love of God and the 
 love of man ; to make the perfect example of 
 Jesus Christ lovely in their eyes, and to give 
 to all so trmch religious instruction as is com- 
 patible with the rights of others : and when the 
 children arrive at years of maturity, to com- 
 mend them to that inviolable prerogative of 
 private judgment and of self-direction, which, in 
 a Protestant and republican country, is the ac- 
 knowledged birthright of every human being." 
 
 Mr. Choate, in one of his orations, exclaimed. 
 
BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CONTINUED. 271 
 
 " Banish the Bible from our public schools ? 
 Never ! so long as a piece of Plymouth Rock 
 remains big enough to make a gun flint out 
 of." 
 
 We might quote the testimony of many 
 others in favor of these same sentiments. In- 
 deed, it is the universal opinion of all who are 
 distinguished for their learning, wisdom, and 
 patriotism, that the perpetuity of our institu- 
 tions depends upon the moral and religious 
 culture of the people. 
 
 And, should the day ever arrive when the 
 Bible is banished from our schools, no adequate 
 expression could be made of the sadness of the 
 hour. The tolling of all the bells in the nation, 
 the clothing of all the school houses in black 
 draper)^ the streets filled with processions of 
 mourners, would not express the calamity. The 
 moral sun would be struck from our heavens, 
 and the nation left in darkness. The stars of 
 hope would one after another fade away. 
 Without chart or compass, the great republic 
 would launch forth upon an ocean of storms, 
 where, amid the raging billows, shipwreck 
 'V(iuld be inevitable.