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THE 
 
 INTOLERANCE 
 
 CHURCH OF ROME. 
 
 BY H. A. BOARDMAN, D.D. 
 
 Pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 PAUL T. JONES, PUBLISHING AGENT. 
 
 1844. 
 

 Entered according lo the Act of Congress, in the year 
 1844, by A. W. Mitchell, M. D., in the office of the 
 Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern District of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 ft 
 
 m 
 
 LC Control Number 
 
 Printed by 
 
 WILLIAM S. MART1EN. 
 
 tmp96 028020 
 
EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF 
 AMERICA. 
 
 Louisville, Ky., May 27, 1844. 
 On motion, it was unanimously Resolted, That the 
 thanks of the Assembly be returned to the Rev. Henry A. 
 Boardman for his Sermon on the " Intolerance of the 
 Church of Rome," and that he be requested to furnish a 
 copy of it to the Board of Publication. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The Author was appointed by the General 
 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, of 
 1842, and, having been prevented by sick- 
 ness from fulfilling the duty, re-appointed 
 by the Assembly of 1843, to preach the year 
 following, the Annual Sermon on Popery. 
 " The Intolerance of the Church of Rome," 
 was assigned as the specific v subject of the 
 discourse. The sermon was accordingly 
 preached before the General Assembly of 
 1844, at Louisville, Ky., and the substance 
 of it is contained in the present volume. 
 
THE INTOLERANCE 
 
 CHURCH OF ROME 
 
 Ir was a remark of the late Mr. Cecil's, that 
 " the system of Popery was Satan's master- 
 piece" The observation will commend itself 
 to the judgment of every enlightened and can- 
 did man, who sits down to examine the great 
 apostasy. The further a man of this charac- 
 ter pursues his inquiries, the more will he 
 wonder that such a system should have suc- 
 ceeded in palming itself upon the world for 
 Christianity. Nor will any hypothesis solve 
 this mystery, but that which assumes the in- 
 sidious and potent agency of the arch-apos- 
 tate, both in fabricating the mighty cheat, and 
 in giving it currency. 
 
 This view of the origin of Popery, is not 
 a mere speculation; for the apostle Paul de- 
 
6 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 clares that the coming of the " Man of Sin" 
 should be " after the working of Satan." 
 
 Satan was foiled in his assaults upon the 
 Son of God. The temptations with which 
 he approached him at the commencement of 
 his public ministry, resulted in his own signal 
 discomfiture. Three years later he succeed- 
 ed in inducing Judas to betray him; but he 
 found that in plotting the death of Christ, he 
 had taken the surest method to subvert his 
 own usurped dominion. Nothing disheart- 
 ened, however, by the resurrection of the 
 Redeemer, the effusion of the Spirit, and the 
 other great events which betokened the rapid 
 spread of the gospel, he seems to have re- 
 solved upon revenging himself in a manner, 
 and upon a scale, worthy of his exalted rank 
 and unmitigated malignity. Peradventure 
 Christianity may be overthrown. He will 
 first try, therefore, the efficacy of persecution. 
 If he fails in this, he has a surer alternative 
 remaining, corruption. In both schemes, the 
 kings of the earth shall be his instruments. 
 He will incite them to extirpate the church. 
 If they are repulsed, he will stir them up to 
 embrace and caress it. His chief hope is 
 from the latter of these expedients. He relies 
 more upon subtlety than force. With the 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 7 
 
 civil power, therefore, he joins the ecclesias- 
 tic. The ministers of religion must unite 
 with crowned heads in despoiling religion of 
 its chief glory — in secretly transubstantiating 
 Christianity into a baptized paganism. This 
 was the end he aimed at, and these were his 
 chosen agents for effecting it. How early he 
 commenced his work, is manifest from seve- 
 ral of the Epistles. Before the apostles had 
 finished their course, the evidence was befpre 
 their eyes that some master hand was coun- 
 tervailing their labours. Nay, they foresaw 
 with sadness of heart, that the infant churches 
 were soon to be overrun with false teachers, 
 and that a grievous " falling away" from the 
 true faith would take place at an early day. 
 Thus the apostle Peter, in his Second Epistle, 
 says, " There were false prophets also among 
 the people, even as there shall be false teach- 
 ers among you, who privily shall bring in 
 damnable heresies, even denying the Lord 
 that bought them." Paul uses similar lan- 
 guage in a number of instances: and in two 
 memorable passages, he predicts and deline- 
 ates the approaching apostasy, with singular 
 minuteness. These passages are 1 Tim. iv. 
 1 — 3, and 2 Thess. ii. 1 — 10. Even while 
 he wrote, the seeds of error were sowing. 
 
8 THE INTOLERANCE OP 
 
 " The mystery of iniquity doth already work." 
 That same mystery has been "working" 
 ever since. The embryo monster developed 
 itself by degrees after the apostles were gone, 
 until at length it stood before the world, its 
 gigantic proportions so complete, its form so 
 symmetrical, its aspect so bland, that the na- 
 tions flocked around it, believing it to be in 
 truth what it claimed to be, the very "body 
 of .Christ," the Church which he came to 
 ransom with his blood. With a craft and 
 energy peculiar to himself, Satan displaced 
 one by one the pure doctrines of the gospel, 
 and substituted figments of his own in their 
 stead. Transforming himself into an angel 
 of light, he transformed the church, or a large 
 division of it, into an engine of wickedness ; 
 abstracting, modifying, augmenting, accord- 
 ing as its several parts required, in carry- 
 ing out his plan. He left nothing as it came 
 from the hands of Christ and the apostles. 
 He remodelled its external form and organi- 
 zation — changed the nature and functions of 
 the ministry — created ecclesiastical orders un- 
 known to the word of God — and multiplied 
 rites and ordinances without limit. He robbed 
 Christ of his three mediatorial offices, and 
 gave them to the Pope — leaving to Christ, 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 9 
 
 indeed, the names Prophet, Priest, and King, 
 but transferring the functions and powers 
 denoted by these titles, to the bishop of Rome. 
 He left in the theology of the church, the 
 words atonement, justification, regeneration, 
 sanctification, faith, repentance, prayer, and 
 the like ; but took away the things themselves. 
 He next applied his subtle alchemy to the 
 spirit of the church, which, from being a 
 spirit of love, and gentleness, and humility, 
 was transmuted into a spirit of arrogance, 
 ambition, and cruelty. In fine, the change 
 he wrought in the western church, resembled 
 more than any thing else the ossification of 
 some vital organ of the body — so thorough 
 was the transformation and so tranquilly was 
 it accomplished. 
 
 All this will the more fully appear on a 
 closer inspection of that particular feature 
 of the Papal system, to an examination of 
 which these pages are to be devoted, viz. its 
 Intolerance. 
 
 In that prophetic portraiture of the great 
 antichrist, which the Protestant world are 
 agreed in appropriating to the Church ot 
 Rome, this feature occupies a conspicuous 
 place. Thus Daniel (chap. vii. 25,) says, 
 
 " x\nd he shall speak great words against the 
 
 2 
 
10 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 Most High, and shall wear out the saints of 
 the Most High." And the apostle John, 
 writing more than six hundred years later, 
 says of the same power, " I saw the woman 
 drunken with the blood of the saints, and 
 with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." 
 
 The charge of intolerance might be estab- 
 lished against the Church of Rome, by simply 
 recapitulating the barbarities practised by her 
 against the Waldenses, the Huguenots, and 
 the Protestants of various countries. But her 
 apologists would still plead that those perse- 
 cutions belonged rather to the age or the in- 
 dividuals than to the church, and that she 
 ought not to be held responsible for them. 
 This plea must be met. And it will be met 
 if it can be shown that intolerance enters 
 
 RADICALLY INTO THE VERY ELEMENTS OF 
 
 the papal system — that it is thoroughly and 
 essentially intolerant in its principles — so that 
 persecution, instead of being a mere accident 
 of it, flows from it as naturally as light from 
 the sun. This position I shall endeavour to 
 establish. 
 
 According to the theory of Romanism, the 
 spiritual interests of mankind are committed 
 to the guardianship and control of the Church 
 of Rome, whose bishop for the time being, is 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 11 
 
 the vicar of Jesus Christ. That church is 
 the depositary of the Scriptures; the only 
 medium of acceptable worship; and the only 
 channel of salvation. The plenitude of the 
 Holy Spirit abides with her. Her decisions 
 on all questions of faith and morals are in- 
 fallible. All men are bound to submit to her 
 authority, on pain of eternal banishment from 
 God's presence. She is at liberty to adopt 
 any measures ivhich in her judgment may 
 be expedient for vindicating the truth (the 
 sacred deposit confided to her,) or pro- 
 moting the salvation of men's souls. And 
 she is clothed with jurisdiction even over the 
 temporal affairs of men, to the full extent 
 that she may deem it wise to exercise it in 
 enforcing her spiritual claims. These pro- 
 positions have their elucidation in the rivers 
 of blood which papal Rome has made to flow 
 in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. If we 
 sanction her pretensions, we cannot consist- 
 ently rebuke her cruelties: we must at least 
 acknowledge that her theory and practice are 
 accordant, the one with the other. For (as 
 a very able modern writer has observed) 
 "the papal authority is distinguished from 
 all others on earth, by being a supernatural 
 authority; and therefore it may boldly pur- 
 
12 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 sue its ends and fulfil its duty, as guardian of 
 truth, without scruple, hesitation, or any weak 
 and wavering regard to considerations of 
 mercy. Upon all those occasions when the 
 frailty of the human heart might make the 
 chastising hand of authority to tremble, re- 
 currence is to be had to that prime principle 
 — the supreme and infinite importance of 
 religion: but religion cannot exist apart from 
 the truth, which is its basis. Truth, then, 
 must be preserved and defended, at whatever 
 cost. Better, if necessary, or if no milder 
 remedy can avail, better that some hundred 
 thousand heretics should perish in the flames, 
 than that heresy itself — immortal poison as 
 it is-r-should be permitted to infect the souls 
 of men at large. Better that an heretical 
 prince should be deposed, his kingdom placed 
 under an interdict, and wasted, year after 
 year, by bands of faithful crusaders, than 
 that Christendom should be exposed to a 
 fast-spreading contagion which carries eter- 
 nal death in its train. 
 
 " Not only may the Church resort to these 
 or to any other extreme means for preserving 
 the truth; but she is bound to do so; she has 
 no choice; to profess principles of toleration, 
 in subserviency to the lax notions of modern 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 13 
 
 times, would be, on her part, to forfeit con- 
 sistency, and in the most fatal and traitorous 
 manner to abandon the high ground on which 
 her authority is reared. 
 
 "The duty of using the most extreme means 
 for the preservation of the truth, or in com- 
 mon Protestant parlance, the practice of per- 
 secution, is a necessary element of this church 
 theory. Without it, there is no longer har- 
 mony in the scheme, consistency in the pro- 
 fessions of its supporters, safety to the insti- 
 tution, nor any probability of its extension."* 
 
 That this reasoning proceeds upon a fair 
 interpretation of the principles of Popery, 
 will be evident, if we take a somewhat near- 
 er view of the system. 
 
 In the first place — and we urge it as a 
 prime argument in proof of the intolerance 
 of the system — the Church of Rome denies 
 the right of private judgment in matters of 
 faith and morals. 
 
 "The Catholic Church (says Dr. Milner, 
 in his 'End of Controversy/) is the divinely 
 commissioned guardian and interpreter of the 
 word of God; and therefore the method ap- 
 pointed by Christ, for learning what he has 
 
 * Spiritual Despotism, pp. 237, 8. 
 
14 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 taught on the various articles of his religion, 
 is to hear the Church propounding them." 
 " Thus you have only to hear," he proceeds, 
 " what the Church teaches upon the several 
 articles of her faith, in order to know with 
 certainty what God has revealed concerning 
 them." The Council of Trent, having an- 
 athematized all who reject the apocrypha and 
 unwritten traditions as destitute of canonical 
 authority, decrees that no one, "confiding in 
 his own judgment, shall" under penalty of 
 anathema, < ; dare to wrest the sacred Scrip- 
 tures to his own sense of them, contrary to 
 that which hath been held and still is held by 
 holy mother Church, whose right it is to judge 
 of the true meaning and interpretation of Sa- 
 cred Writ; or contrary to the unanimous con- 
 sent of the fathers — even though such inter- 
 pretations should never be published." 
 
 Even these provisions, however, were 
 deemed inadequate to guard the Scriptures 
 from perversion. Nothing will answer but 
 the Bible must be taken out of the hands of 
 the people. The Congregation of the Index, 
 therefore, having affirmed that the "indis- 
 criminate use" of the Scriptures will produce 
 " more evil than good," direct that no indi- 
 vidual shall publish, circulate, own, or read, 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 15 
 
 the Bible, without permission obtained "in 
 writing" from his bishop or inquisitor. 
 
 Still Rome is not satisfied. If men are cut 
 off from the Bible, they may read something 
 else. Not only the sun must be put out, but 
 the stars. The Church stretches her iron rod 
 over the whole field of literature. She col- 
 lects together the noblest works in every lan- 
 guage, published since the revival of letters, 
 and locks them up in a Prohibitory Index, 
 sealed with her own terrible anathema. 
 While another very large class of works, 
 including the Christian Fathers, which she 
 cannot afford to dispense with entirely, are 
 enrolled in an Index Expurgatorius — i. e. an 
 index that prescribes the passages which are 
 to be expunged or modified, before the books 
 can be safely circulated. 
 
 In this way Rome claims the right to con- 
 trol the reading of the ivorld. No man, 
 such is her theory, may lawfully peruse any 
 book which she has put under ban, without 
 a dispensation. All works on the contro- 
 versy between Romanists and Protestants, 
 by whomsoever written, are prohibited. So 
 also the writings of Romanists in controversy 
 with one another, whenever they may be 
 adapted to open the eyes of the people to the 
 
16 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 true character of the system. In illustration 
 of this, and as a proof that this country is not 
 exempted from the operation of these rules, 
 it may be mentioned, that one of the last edi- 
 tions of the Roman Index, under date of Sep- 
 tember 6, 1822, includes the various pamph- 
 lets published in the course of the famous 
 feud in St. Mary's church, in the city of 
 Philadelphia, some twenty or twenty-five 
 years ago.* No Roman Catholic, even in 
 this free country, is at liberty to read one of 
 those pamphlets, without permission of his 
 bishop. The same may be said respecting 
 Prof. Ranke's History of the Popes, published 
 three or four years ago in Berlin, and since 
 republished in England and the United States. 
 That work was scarcely through the press, 
 before it was enrolled in the Prohibitory In- 
 dex. Even the British Classics have not es- 
 caped. Milton, Cowper, Addison, and their 
 compeers, have the honour to be registered 
 in the same catalogue with the illustrious 
 Reformers of Britain and the continent. 
 
 We have not yet reached the limits of 
 Papal despotism. Other tyrants are satisfied 
 with incarcerating the bodies of their victims. 
 
 * Mendham's Literary Policy of the Church of Rome, 
 second edition, p. 265. 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 17 
 
 Rome binds her fetters upon the intellect, and 
 strikes her iron into the soul. She not only 
 removes as far as possible from the people 
 the means of knowledge, and discourages 
 investigation, but establishes an inquisition 
 in every marts breast, and challenges juris- 
 diction over his thoughts. A Romanist, if he 
 is so fortunate as to obtain leave to read the 
 Bible, cannot interpret it for himself. He 
 must receive every sentence as the Church 
 expounds it, and agreeably to that theologi- 
 cal nonentity, the " consent of all the fathers." 
 " The whole right to the Scriptures (says Mil- 
 ner) belongs to the Church. She has pre- 
 served them; she vouches for them; and she 
 alone, by comparing the several passages 
 with each other, and with tradition, authori- 
 tatively explains them. Hence it is impossi- 
 ble that the real sense of Scripture should 
 ever be against her and her doctrines; and 
 hence, of course, I might quash every objec- 
 tion which you can draw from every passage 
 in it, by this short reply: ' The Church under- 
 stands the passage differently from you; there- 
 fore you mistake its meaning/ " This is the 
 liberty of thought allowed by the Papal 
 Hierarchy. A Popish priest may quash 
 every objection which you can draw from 
 
IS THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 the word of God, not by dint of argument, 
 not by pointing out the unsoundness of your 
 principles of interpretation, not by exposing 
 the errors of your exegesis, but by simply tell- 
 ing you, "The Church understands the pas- 
 sage differently; therefore you are wrong." I 
 stop not now to comment on the absurdity of 
 any Romish ecclesiastic's undertaking to pro- 
 nounce, ex cathedra, how "the Church" (all 
 the fathers included) understands every pas- 
 sage of Scripture; but I would call the atten- 
 tion of the reader to the intolerance involved 
 in the principle here asserted. Men have no 
 right to think, in studying the Scriptures, ex- 
 cept in the line of the Church. And if they hap- 
 pen, in the exercise of their rational powers, to 
 diverge from this line, they are to be brought 
 back, not by argument, but by authority; not 
 by being instructed and reasoned with, but 
 by being told, "The Church has decided 
 otherwise: bow to her decision, or take the 
 consequences." What these consequences 
 are, we shall see by and by. The point to 
 be noted here, is, that " the Church" thrusts 
 herself in between man and his Cod, and 
 claims to exercise the authority of God over 
 him. The Pope "opposeth and exalteth him- 
 self above all that is called God, or that is 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 19 
 
 worshipped; so that he, as God,sitteth in the 
 temple of God, showing himself that he is 
 God." It is not God who speaks to the Ro- 
 manist, in the Bible; but the Church. We 
 have no right to hear God speak, except 
 through the Church. We sin if we even 
 think that he says any thing else to us, than 
 what the Church tells us he says. We must 
 believe that when we " hear the Church," we 
 hear God, although the Church may utter 
 what insults our reason and belies every one 
 of our senses. 
 
 This, it will be admitted, is a tolerably 
 refined tyranny. But there is one link want- 
 ing to make the chain complete. " You have 
 proved," it may be said, " that the Church of 
 Rome allows no liberty of thought: but are 
 not a man's thoughts his own? may I not 
 cherish what opinions I choose, by keeping 
 them to myself?" I might answer, that opin- 
 ions, and especially opinions in religion, are 
 of little value, unless we are left, free to act 
 upon them. But it is more to my purpose, 
 in delineating the intolerance of this system, 
 to state, that the Romish Church does not 
 permit men to "keep their opinions to them- 
 selves." As if to silence all doubt of her iden- 
 tity with the " man of sin," self-enthroned in 
 
20 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 God's temple, she claims the prerogative of 
 searching the heart. Men are dragged to the 
 confessional, and there compelled, under pain 
 of anathema, to disclose the secrets of their 
 hearts to a priest. This priest may at the 
 time " be living in mortal sin," and yet he is 
 competent (so the Council of Trent declares) 
 " to exercise the function of forgiving sins, 
 as the Minister of Christ:" nay, in him (adds 
 the catechism of the Council of Trent,) " the 
 penitent venerates the power and person of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ; for in the administra- 
 tion of this, as well as of other sacraments, 
 the priest represents the character and per- 
 forms the functions of Jesus Christ." It is 
 only necessary to examine some standard 
 Popish author, like Peter Dens, or even a 
 Popish Missal or Prayer Book, to see how 
 inquisitorial is the scrutiny to which the 
 bosoms of men are subjected at the confes- 
 sional. Not merely their actions and words, 
 their formal plans and habitual purposes are 
 made to pass in review before the priest; but 
 his eye is permitted to explore the deepest 
 recesses of the heart, and its transient impres- 
 sions and emotions are poured into his ear ; 
 and that, although the priest may be a de- 
 bauchee, and the penitent a youthful and 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 21 
 
 modest female ! It is a fundamental principle 
 with Rome, that men shall not only acknow- 
 ledge her authority, and conform to her rites, 
 but think as she thinks. Her empire is co- 
 extensive with the workings of the human 
 mind. Her censorship of the press, is but a 
 type of her censorship of men's lips and 
 hearts. And the tribunal we have just been 
 contemplating, is the mighty engine by which 
 she promptly detects incipient treason in any 
 part of her vast realm. Incompetent to di- 
 vine the secret thoughts and opinions of men, 
 and equally unable to ascertain them by tes- 
 timony, she hangs up before her poor, trem- 
 bling subjects, the terrors of an endless retri- 
 bution, and compels them to unveil their 
 bosoms to her eye. The world cannot fur- 
 nish a second example of so thorough and 
 inexorable a despotism. 
 
 The practical operation of this principle 
 might be illustrated by appealing to the 
 condition of every country in which it has 
 an undisputed predominance. The mass of 
 the people in those countries are little else 
 than mere machines in the hands of an un- 
 principled priesthood. Sunk in ignorance 
 and superstition, they have no just ideas of 
 their civil rights, of religion, or of the Supreme 
 
22 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 Being. Indeed, their religion differs from 
 that of the heathen mainly in bearing the 
 name of Christianity; and their altars, like 
 that which the apostle saw at Athens, might 
 fitly bear the inscription, " To the Unknown 
 God." 
 
 I leave these details, however, to advance 
 another step in depicting the intolerance of 
 the system. It has been shown that the 
 Church of Rome not only forbids men to 
 read the Scriptures or other books, without 
 her permission, but denies their right to hold 
 any opinions not accordant with her own; 
 and that she claims the right to look into their 
 breasts as often as she may see fit, and know 
 precisely what they do believe. This would 
 be a monstrous tyranny, even if that faith 
 and discipline to which she exacts so rigid a 
 conformity, were sanctioned by the word of 
 God. But what words can express its enor- 
 mity, when it is considered that darkness and 
 light are scarcely more at variance than the 
 system she seeks to impose upon men's con- 
 sciences, and the sacred Scriptures. It were 
 some mitigation of her impiety, if her intol- 
 erance were directed against error and vice: 
 but the thing she mainly abhors, and for the 
 destruction of which she puts forth her craft 
 
THE CHURCH OP ROME. 23 
 
 and power, is God's own holy and precious 
 truth. It is her hatred and intolerance of 
 the truth, that shapes and directs every 
 part of the policy we have been considering. 
 She has never manifested a tithe of the indig- 
 nation against the shameless vices of her own 
 ecclesiastics, that she has against the " truth 
 as it is in Jesus." The fact is notorious, that 
 she traffics in crimes as men traffic in mer- 
 chandize. In the famous " tax books of the 
 Roman Chancery," published before the light 
 of the Reformation was diffused over Europe, 
 and of which, according to Dr. Merle,* "more 
 than forty editions are extant," crimes were 
 arranged upon a graduated scale, with the 
 price of absolution affixed to each, so that 
 an individual could know just what the per- 
 petration of any particular crime would cost 
 him. This spiritual tariff varied in different 
 countries, and in different editions of the 
 work. In the Paris edition of 1520, these 
 duties are imposed : — " For perjury, six gross : 
 for killing a layman, five gross: ditto an ec- 
 clesiastic, from seven to nine: for him who 
 kills his father, mother, or other relative, five 
 to seven: for bigamy, ten: incest, five." In a 
 
 * Vide History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 38. 
 
24 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 manuscript copy in the British Museum, 
 "approved by Leo X." A. D. 1520, the scale 
 of duties is much higher; e. g. simony, one 
 hundred and two gross; perjury, two hundred 
 and two; incest, one hundred and two; adul- 
 tery by a priest, one hundred and two. It 
 was this wholesale traffic in sins by the 
 Church, that had so powerful an influence 
 upon Luther's mind, and led on ultimately 
 to the Reformation. The same traffic she 
 carries on still: for the indulgence-mongers 
 of our day, differ from Tetzel and his asso- 
 ciates, only in transacting the business in a 
 less revolting form. 
 
 No such lenity, however, is displayed to- 
 ward the truth. The Church of Rome, claim- 
 ing a supreme legislative as well as executive 
 authority, has, in the first place, substituted 
 dogmas of her own, for most of the doctrines 
 of the Bible, and then superadded a great 
 mass of laws and ordinances, unknown to 
 the Scriptures. This system, which bears 
 upon its front the impress of the father of 
 lies, she requires every human being to em- 
 brace, under penalty of anathema. To reject 
 it, or any part of it, is heresy : and heresy is, 
 in her code, the unpardonable sin. She will 
 compound with thieves, perjurers, murder- 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 25 
 
 ers, and adulterers; but she has no mercy 
 for the man who rejects baptismal regenera- 
 tion, or denies that a priest can transubstan- 
 tiate a bit of bread into the " blood, the soul, 
 and the divinity — in short, the whole person 
 of Jesus Christ." For such a man there is 
 no salvation. The creed of Pius IV., which 
 is received by all Romanists as an accurate 
 summary of their faith, enumerates (inter 
 alia) " the seven sacraments, transubstantia- 
 tion, purgatory, indulgences, veneration of 
 images, apostolical and ecclesiastical tradi- 
 tions, and all other things delivered, defined, 
 and declared by the sacred canons and gene- 
 ral councils,'' with an anathema of "all things 
 contrary thereto ;" and concludes thus: "This 
 true Catholic faith, out ofivhich none can be 
 saved, which I now freely profess and truly 
 hold, I promise, vow, and swear, most con- 
 stantly to hold." The same doctrine is laid 
 down in the Doway Catechism, as follows: 
 " Q. What is mortal sin ? A. It is a wilful 
 transgression in matter of weight against any 
 known commandment of God, or the church, 
 or of some laivful superior. Q. Whither go 
 such as die in mortal sin ? A. To hell for all 
 eternity." There is an honesty and plump- 
 ness about this answer, which one cannot 
 3 
 
26 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 but admire. The preceding answer con- 
 victs the whole Protestant world of mortal 
 sin; and this one, without the least com- 
 punction or evasion, consigns them, not to 
 purgatory, from which masses, well paid for, 
 might release them, but " to hell for all eter- 
 nity." 
 
 But let it not be supposed that these are 
 isolated proofs. The decrees of the Council 
 of Trent, and other authentic Popish docu- 
 ments of similar authority, abound with an- 
 athemas against some of the fundamental 
 truths of the Bible, and all who embrace 
 them. And in the same spirit that Church 
 demands of every man an unquestioning re- 
 ception of the fables and superstitious prac- 
 tices she has sought to graft upon Christian- 
 ity. 
 
 " She declares, that whosoever does not 
 believe that God is the author of the books of 
 Tobit, Judith, and Maccabees, with all their 
 falsehood and absurdity, is accursed. She de- 
 clares that whosoever does not believe ex- 
 treme unction, orders, and matrimony, to be 
 sacraments, is accursed. She declares, that 
 any one who shall deny that the eucharist 
 contains really and substantially, the body 
 and blood, soul and divinity of Christ, is ac- 
 
THE CHURCH OP ROME. 27 
 
 cursed. She declares, that any one who shall 
 say, that the anointing of the sick does not 
 confer grace, or remit sin, is accursed. She 
 declares, that any one who shall say that 
 Christ's faithful people ought to receive both 
 species in the sacrament of the Eucharist, is 
 accursed. She declares, that any one who 
 shall say, that in the mass there is not offered 
 to God a true and proper sacrifice, is accursed. 
 She declares, that any one who shall say, that 
 mass ought to be celebrated in the vulgar 
 tongue, is accursed. She declares, that any 
 one who shall say, that the clergy can law- 
 fully contract marriage, is accursed. 
 
 " These, and a multitude of other matters of 
 greater or less importance, has the Church of 
 Rome chosen to add to its list of essential 
 truths, and so absolutely to insist on implicit 
 belief, as to s&id men to the stake in this 
 world, and to threaten them with eternal fire 
 in the next, for the slightest failure in the re- 
 quired faith."* 
 
 She even goes further than this — as, in- 
 deed, in consistency she must do. She not 
 only compels men to receive her additions to 
 the gospel, but requires them to reject many 
 of the doctrines, and disobey many of the 
 
 * Essays on Romanism, p. 386. 
 
28 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 precepts clearly laid down in the Scriptures. 
 The famous Bull Unigenitus which was is- 
 sued by Clement XI. against the Jansenists, 
 A. D. 1713, is the last great doctrinal mani- 
 festo of the Hierarchy. In this document, 
 one hundred and one propositions drawn 
 from father QuesnePs "Moral Reflections 
 on the New Testament," are condemned as 
 "false, captious, ill-sounding, offensive to 
 pious ears, scandalous, pernicious, rash, in- 
 jurious to the church and its practice, neither 
 against the phurch alone, but also against 
 the secular power, contumacious, seditious, 
 impious, and blasphemous." In a subse- 
 quent paragraph, " Patriarchs, Archbishops, 
 Bishops, and Inquisitors of heretical pravity" 
 are directed " by all means to coerce and com- 
 pel gainsayers and rebels, by censures and 
 punishments," "the aid of tfte secular arm 
 being called in for this purpose, if necessary." 
 The following is a sample of the propositions 
 against which the Pope discharges this volley 
 of abuse, and whose advocates he threatens 
 with the civil sword.* 
 
 Prop. 2. " The grace of Jesus Christ, the 
 efficacious principle of good, of whatever kind 
 
 * Vide Text-book of Popery, p. 61, and McGhee's Laws 
 of the Papacy, p. 215. 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 29 
 
 it be, is necessary to every good work, and 
 without it not only nothing is done, but no- 
 thing can be done." 
 
 Prop. 14. " How far remote soever an 
 obstinate sinner may be from safety, when 
 Jesus exhibits himself to his view in the salu- 
 tary light of his grace, it is fit that he should 
 devote himself, run to him, humble himself, 
 and adore his Saviour." 
 
 30. "All whom God wills to save through 
 Christ, are infallibly saved." 
 
 32. " Jesus Christ delivered himself to 
 death, to deliver forever the first born of his 
 own blood, that is, the elect, from the hand 
 of the exterminating angel." 
 
 80. " The reading of the sacred Scripture 
 is for all." 
 
 81. "The obscurity of the sacred word of 
 God, is no reason for laymen to dispense 
 themselves from reading it." 
 
 S2. " The Lord's day ought to be sancti- 
 fied by Christians for reading works of piety, 
 and above all of the sacred Scriptures. It is 
 damnable to wish to withdraw a Christian 
 from this reading." 
 
 84. " To take away the New Testament 
 from the hands of Christians, or to shut it up 
 from them, by taking from them the means 
 
30 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 of understanding it, is to close the mouth of 
 Christ to them." 
 
 These, and such as these, are the proposi- 
 tions which Rome pronounces to be " false, 
 scandalous, seditious, and blasphemous." 
 Not satisfied with burying " the faith deliv- 
 ered to the saints," beneath a mass of her 
 own inventions and fables, she presumes to 
 open the word of God and put the burning 
 brand of "falsehood" and " blasphemy" 
 upon truths inscribed there by the finger of 
 God. To be consistent, she should tolerate 
 no one in her communion, who holds these 
 sentiments. She should permit no one to 
 worship at her shrine, who is not prepared 
 to deny that the grace of Jesus Christ is essen- 
 tial to the performance of every good work — 
 to deny that every sinner, when Christ reveals 
 himself to him, should hasten to receive him 
 as a Saviour — to deny that all are saved 
 whom God wills to save through Jesus Christ 
 — to deny that Christ died for his own peo- 
 ple — to deny that all men have a right to the 
 Scriptures — to deny that the Sabbath ought 
 to be sanctified by Christians, in reading the 
 Bible and other books of piety ! In a word, 
 the alternative she presents to men, is, to 
 reject the glorious doctrines of the' Gospel 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 31 
 
 as " impious," or to suffer the pains and pen- 
 alties of heresy. An apostle tells us, " though 
 we, or an angel from heaven, preach any- 
 other gospel unto you, than that which we 
 have preached unto you, let him be accursed." 
 The Church of Rome tells us, in effect — 
 " Though we or an angel from heaven preach 
 unto you the gospel of Christ, let him be ac- 
 cursed." Even Balaam exclaimed, when 
 asked to curse Israel, "How shall I curse 
 whom God hath not cursed?" The holy, 
 apostolic Church, " out of which there is no' 
 salvation," knows no such scruples. She 
 curses, not where God curses, but where he 
 blesses; and where he curses, she blesses. 
 The principles asserted in the document that 
 has been quoted, would have made her curse 
 the Bereans for searching the Scriptures, and 
 they involve an anathema even against the 
 Redeemer himself, for commanding men to 
 " search the Scriptures." The more cordially 
 and thoroughly we embrace the doctrines of 
 the Bible, the more certain are we to incur 
 her malediction. 
 
 I have shown that the Church of Rome is, 
 in her essential principles, intolerant even of 
 mental freedom — that she requires every man 
 to think as she thinks — and that there is no- 
 
32 THE INTOLERANCE OP 
 
 thing she hates so much and anathematizes 
 so heartily, as God's own precious truth. 
 The question now arises, to what extent does 
 she carry her intolerance ? Is her practice 
 conformed to her principles ? The answer 
 to this question has been anticipated, but it is 
 too important to be passed over in a merely 
 incidental way. 
 
 The Papal Hierarchy challenges to itself 
 the entire and exclusive spiritual jurisdiction 
 of the world. It is moreover a State as 
 'well as a Church, and claims, by some of its 
 Popes and Councils, a direct, by others, an 
 indirect, sovereignty over the temporal affairs 
 of men. The temporal authority is, it is dis- 
 tinctly asserted, secondary to the spiritual; 
 and its resources are to be placed at its dis- 
 posal, whenever the Church may see fit to 
 avail herself of them. Thus "Bellarmine, 
 Silvius, and others, say that the Pope has not 
 by divine right direct power over the tem- 
 poral kingdoms, but indirect; i. e. when the 
 spiritual power cannot be freely exercised, 
 nor his object be attained by spiritual, then 
 he may have recourse to temporal means, 
 according to St. Thomas, who teaches that 
 princes may sometimes be deprived of their 
 rule, and their subjects be liberated from their 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 33 
 
 oath of fidelity; and thus it has been done 
 by Pontiffs more than once."* 
 
 Many of the Popes claim a direct temporal 
 power of unlimited extent. Thus Pius V., 
 in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth: "This 
 one man (the Roman Pontiff) hath God 
 appointed prince over all nations and all 
 kingdoms, that he may pluck up, destroy, 
 scatter, ruin, plant, build." So also Innocent 
 III. : " The Church hath given me the pleni- 
 tude of spiritual things and the full extent of 
 
 temporal things I enjoy alone the 
 
 plenitude of power, that others may say of 
 me, next to God, and 'out of his fulness we 
 have received!'" Gregory VII. : "If the 
 Pope has power to bind and loose in heaven, 
 how much more to loose empires, kingdoms, 
 dukedoms, and whatever else mortal man 
 may have, and to give them where he will."t 
 
 It is practically the same thing whether a 
 direct or an indirect power in temporal things? 
 be conceded to the Pope. For what is meant 
 by the phrase "indirect power," in this con- 
 nexion, as used by Popish writers ? A sen- 
 tence or two from Bellarmine, in his chapter 
 
 * Dens, p. 239. 
 
 t Vide Breckinridge and Hughes' Controversy, pp. 242 
 and 244. Illustrations of Popery, p. 204. 
 
34 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 on this subject, will furnish the answer. "It 
 is not lawful (he says) to tolerate an infidel 
 or heretical king, provided he endeavours to 
 seduce his subjects to his heresy or infidelity. 
 But to judge whether or not he does seduce 
 them to heresy, pertains to the Pope, to whom 
 is committed the care of religion: therefore, 
 the Pope is to judge whether or not a king is 
 to be deposed." 
 
 Every one must see that this is tantamount 
 to saying, that kings hold their crowns at the 
 will of the Pope. Indeed, his pretended spi- 
 ritual sovereignty can easily be made to em- 
 brace whatever he chooses to include in it. 
 Take the subject of marriage, for example. 
 The Church of Rome makes matrimony a 
 sacrament. No one can officiate in a sacra- 
 ment except an ecclesiastic duly qualified. 
 But there is no ministry out of her commu- 
 nion. Of course, she alone has the right to 
 solemnize marriage. No one can be married, 
 no one is truly married, except by a Popish 
 priest or bishop — nor, indeed, even then, un- 
 less the priest u intend," in his soul and con- 
 science, " to convey the grace of matrimony," 
 and "intend"'to make the man and woman 
 a wedded pair. This single dogma, it will be 
 seen, stretches the empire of Rome at once 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 35 
 
 over the whole extent of the domestic and 
 social relations of the race. Her agency is 
 as essential to the consummation of a mar- 
 riage, as it is to the celebration of the mass. 
 The State can no more marry a couple, than 
 it can oifer the sacrifice of the mass. And as 
 it cannot unite, so it cannot divorce. To 
 admit the power of the State to divorce, 
 would be to recognize its authority to nullify 
 a sacrament : and all sacraments pertain to 
 the exclusive jurisdiction of the Church. A 
 divorce, therefore, is impossible. The Coun- 
 cil of Trent pronounces any one "accursed" 
 who shall maintain that a married pair may 
 be divorced for any cause whatever. In this 
 way is it, that under the guise of a merely 
 spiritual supremacy, the Roman Church ar- 
 rogates to herself the legislative and judicial 
 functions of the State; and sets up a pretend- 
 ed right to control every human being in his 
 most interesting and important relations.* 
 
 * It was no doubt in virtue of this same spiritual juris- 
 diction of the Church, that Bishop Hughes of New York, 
 in his pastoral letter a year or two ago. enjoined it upon 
 every Roman Catholic congregation in his diocese, to 
 place its corporate property in his hands — a requisition 
 akin, in principle, to a certain Popish bull issued during 
 the wars between the Papists and Huguenots of France, 
 
36 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 These remarks respecting the extent of the 
 power claimed by the Church of Rome, 
 seemed essential to a just understanding of 
 the question, " Is the practice of that Church 
 conformed to the intolerance of her princi- 
 ples ?" The autocratic sovereignty over 
 human affairs, which she professes to have 
 derived immediately from God, is employed 
 for the purpose of enforcing that terrible 
 spiritual despotism delineated in the former 
 part of this work. Bearing in mind that in 
 the pontifical schedule of sins, heresy is a 
 worse crime than perjury or murder, and that 
 heresy consists in not believing precisely as 
 Rome believes, even to the extent of pro- 
 nouncing many of the essential doctrines of 
 the Gospel, "false" and "blasphemous," let 
 these facts and documents prove her fidelity 
 to her principles. 
 
 In the first place, it was formerly her cus- 
 tom, (and may be still,) to excommunicate 
 and curse the whole Protestant world every 
 year. The celebrated bull, In Coena Domini, 
 is ordered to be " diligently studied by the 
 clergy," and " to be solemnly published in 
 
 which " prohibited (says Dr. McCrie in his Reformation 
 in Spain, p. 246,) orthodox horses from being exported out 
 of Spain. 1 ' 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 37 
 
 the churches once a year, or oftener, and 
 carefully taught the people. -' This bull waS 
 for a long while annually published with 
 great pomp by the Pope at Rome, on the 
 Thursday before Easter, and repeated on the 
 same day in every Popish chapel and church 
 throughout the world, where the civil authori- 
 ties would permit it. I shall quote but a sin- 
 gle paragraph: — "We excommunicate and 
 anathematize on the part of God Almighty, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by the authori- 
 ty also of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, 
 and by our own, all Hussites, Wicklephists, 
 Lutherans, Zuinglians, Calvinists, Hugo- 
 nots, Anabaptists, Trinitarians, and Apostates 
 whatsoever from the Christian faith, and all 
 and singular other heretics, under whatsoever 
 name they may be classed, and of whatso- 
 ever sect they may be, and those who be- 
 lieve, receive, or favour them, and all those 
 who defend them in general, whosoever they 
 be, and all those who without our authority 
 and that of the Apostolic See, knowingly 
 read or keep, print, or in any way whatso- 
 ever, from any cause, publicly or privately, 
 upon any pretence or colour whatsoever, 
 defend their books which contain heresy, or 
 treat of religion; also, schismatics, and those 
 
38 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 who pertinaciously withdraw themselves or 
 secede from obedience to us, and to the Ro- 
 man Pontiff for the time being."* 
 
 The preamble to this bull assigns "chari- 
 ty" as the motive for its annual republica- 
 tion: the design of it is, to "preserve the 
 unity and integrity of the Catholic faith," 
 and to " procure the utmost peace and tran- 
 quillity of the Christian world." Whereupon 
 a late British writer forcibly remarks : " What 
 a mockery is it to talk of laws making a na- 
 tion tranquil when a set of Popish bishops 
 and priests are breathing secretly into the 
 ears of one mass of the population, curses and 
 execrations against the other, and making it 
 religion to do so — cursing them on behalf of 
 God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost 
 — that blessed name under which the Lord 
 Jesus commanded his apostles to proclaim 
 mercy and to baptize all who received it. 
 What mockery is it to talk of loyalty to an 
 excommunicated and accursed sovereign ! — 
 of subjection to excommunicated and ac- 
 cursed governors ! — of submission to laws 
 administered by excommunicated and ac- 
 cursed judges ! — of peace and charity with 
 excommunicated and accursed neighbours !"t 
 
 * Laws of the Papacy, p. 52. f lb. 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 39 
 
 Who can wonder at the hatred, the bitter 
 hatred, not merely of Protestantism but of 
 Protestants, which pervades the mass of the 
 people in all Popish countries, when the min- 
 istrations of the priesthood and the ordinances 
 of the church, are thus employed to feed 
 their malevolence, and teach them to regard 
 Protestants as the foes alike of God and 
 man. 
 
 Another thought may be thrown out be- 
 fore leaving this document. Protestant minis- 
 ters are sometimes censured for their unchari- 
 tableness in speaking harshly of the papal 
 system. But what would be thought of a 
 Protestant minister who should summarily 
 pronounce from his pulpit, all Roman Catho- 
 lics, and all who believe, receive, or favour 
 them, and all who read their books, "ac- 
 cursed" "in the name of God Almighty, Fa- 
 ther, Son, and Holy Ghost!" 
 - The excommunication and malediction of 
 Protestants is the first step with Rome, in 
 carrying out her principles. To deny their 
 right to toleration is the second. A very 
 few authorities will suffice on this point. 
 
 Peter Dens thus lays down the law:* 
 "The rites of other infidels [Jews having 
 
 * Pp. 107, 108, 114, 117. 
 
40 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 been previously named,] viz. pagans and 
 heretics, in themselves (considered), are not 
 to be tolerated; because they are so bad, that 
 no truth or advantage for the good of the 
 church can be thence derived: except, how- 
 ever, unless greater evils would follow, or 
 greater benefits be hindered." 
 
 Again, he says, (same page,) that heresy 
 " is not to be tried or proved, but extirpated ; 
 unless there may be reasons which may ren- 
 der it advisable that it should be tolerated." 
 
 Hear, on the same subject, the Popish pre- 
 lates of Belgium. No sooner had the king 
 of the Netherlands taken possession of his 
 dominions, than they addressed to him a 
 strong remonstrance against the toleration of 
 all denominations. " Sire," they say, " we 
 do not hesitate to declare to your majesty, 
 that the canonical laws which are sanctioned 
 by the ancient constitutions of the country, 
 are incompatible with the projected constitu- 
 tion which would give in Belgium equal fa- 
 vour and protection to all religions." In other 
 words, the canonical laws, which are recog- 
 nized by the whole Roman church, are in- 
 compatible with religious toleration. They 
 afterwards go so far in this document, as dis- 
 tinctly to intimate to the king, that if any 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 41 
 
 religion but their own is tolerated, they and 
 their adherents will be found opposed to the 
 laws and the government;* an avowal of 
 which it is difficult to decide whether its 
 frankness or its effrontery be the greater. 
 
 Not less explicit is the testimony of Pius 
 VII. Writing to his nuncio at Venice in 1805, 
 he reminds him, that, according to the laws 
 of the church, heretics cannot hold any pro- 
 perty whatever, since the crime of heresy 
 ought to be punished by confiscation of goods. 
 He also tells him, that the subjects of an 
 heretical prince, should be released from 
 every duty to him — freed from all obligation 
 and all homage. But he adds, very consist- 
 ently, this lamentation: "In truth we have 
 fallen on times so calamitous, and so humili- 
 ating to the spouse of Jesus Christ, that it is 
 not possible for her to practice, nor expedient 
 to recall, so holy maxims ; and she is forced 
 to interrupt the course of her just severities 
 against the enemies of her faith ." In other 
 words; she ceases to persecute them, only 
 because she lacks the power. Again, in his 
 his letter to the cardinals, of Feb. 5, 1808, he 
 says, alluding to Bonaparte's proposal to ex- 
 
 * Breckinridge and Hughes, p. 103. 
 4 
 
42 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 tend toleration to all sects : " It is proposed 
 that all religious persuasions should be free, 
 and their worship publicly exercised; but we 
 have rejected this article as contrary to the 
 canons, and to the councils, to the Catholic 
 religion, and to the welfare of the State, on 
 account of the deplorable consequences which 
 ensue from it." Here we have the deliberate 
 declaration of a Roman Pontiff within the 
 present century, that religious toleration is 
 contrary to the canons, the councils, yea, and 
 to the Catholic religion itself. So they teach, 
 and so they act. Toleration is unknown to 
 this day in all thoroughly Popish countries. 
 Fond as the papal ecclesiastics in this country 
 are of talking about religious freedom and 
 the mild genius of their religion, they know 
 perfectly well that any Protestant minister 
 who should go to Rome and undertake to 
 preach the gospel or distribute bibles in that 
 city, would be instantly seized by the Pope's 
 officers and cast into prison. This is the kind 
 of toleration enjoyed within the Pope's tem- 
 poral dominions. 
 
 But Rome is not satisfied with anathema- 
 tizing heretics and denying their right to toler- 
 ation; she insists upon her right to persecute 
 them. This right has been asserted by her 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 43 
 
 standard authors, by her popes, by her coun- 
 cils, and, in fine, in every way in which it 
 was possible for her to proclaim it. 
 
 Peter Dens teaches that " baptized infidels, 
 such as heretics and apostates usually are, 
 also baptized schismatics, may be compelled 
 even by corporal punishments to return to the 
 Catholic faith and the unity of the church." 
 P. 107. 
 
 Again, he asks, (p. 117,) "Are heretics 
 rightly punished with deathV J The an- 
 swer is as gentle and Christian-like as could 
 be expected from an accredited expounder of 
 the papal creed. It runs thus : " St. Thomas 
 answers, Yes; because forgers of money, or 
 other disturbers of the State, are justly pun- 
 ished with death, therefore also heretics y 
 who are forgers of the faith, and, experience 
 'being the witness, grievously disturb the 
 State." 
 
 The sentiments of Leo X. on this subject 
 must be known to all who have read Dr. 
 Merle's admirable History of the Reforma- 
 tion; every page of which exhibits the in- 
 tolerance of Popery. It will be sufficient to 
 quote here the fact, that among the forty-one 
 prepositions of Luther, condemned by the 
 Pontiff in 1520, (see vol. ii. p. 102,) was this 
 
44 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 one, to wit: "To burn heretics is contrary 
 to the will of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 The proposition here condemned by the 
 Pope, was subsequently controverted by 
 Cardinal Bellarmine, the great Roman theo- 
 logian, whose argument will put us in pos- 
 session of the true Popish doctrine respecting 
 persecution. 
 
 "We will briefly show (says Bellarmine) 
 that the Church has the power, and it is her 
 duty to cast off incorrigible heretics, espe- 
 cially those who have relapsed, and that the 
 secular power ought to inflict on such, tem- 
 poral punishment, and even death itself. 
 
 1. This may be proved from the Scriptures. 
 
 2. It is proved from the opinions and laws 
 of the emperors, which the Church has al- 
 ways approved. 3. It is proved by the 
 laws of the Church. 4. It is proved by the 
 testimony of the fathers. Lastly, It is 
 proved from natural reason. For, (1) it is 
 owned by all that heretics may of right be 
 excommunicated; of course they may be 
 put to death. This consequence is proved, 
 because excommunication is a greater pun- 
 ishment than temporal death. (2) Expe- 
 rience proves that there is no other remefiy; 
 for the Church has, step by step, tried ail 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 45 
 
 remedies ; — first, excommunication alone, 
 then, pecuniary penalties ; afterwards, ban- 
 ishment; and lastly, has been forced to put 
 them to death to send them to their own 
 place. (3) All allow that forgery deserves 
 death, but heretics are guilty of forgery of 
 the word of God. (4) A breach of faith by 
 man towards God, is a greater sin than of a 
 wife with her husband. But a woman's 
 unfaithfulness is punished with death ; why 
 not a heretic's ? (5) There are three grounds 
 on which reason shows that heretics should 
 be put to death. The first is, lest the wicked 
 should injure the righteous. The second, 
 that by the punishment of a few, many may 
 be reformed. For many who were made 
 torpid by impunity, are roused by the fear 
 of punishment; and this we daily see is the 
 result where the inquisition flourishes. Fi- 
 nally, it is a benefit to obstinate heretics to 
 remove them from this life, for the longer 
 they live the more errors they invent, the 
 more persons they mislead, and the greater 
 damnation do they treasure up to themselves. 
 " It remains (he proceeds) to answer the 
 objections of Luther and other heretics. Ar- 
 gument 1, From the history of the Church 
 at large. < The Church,' says Luther, ( from 
 
46 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 the beginning even to this time, has never 
 burned a heretic. Therefore it does not 
 seem to be the mind of the Holy Spirit that 
 they should be burned/ I reply, this argu- 
 ment admirably proves, not the sentiment, 
 but the ignorance or impudence of Luther. 
 For as almost an infinite number were 
 either burned or otherwise put to death, 
 Luther either did not know it, and was there- 
 fore ignorant ; of if he knew it, he is con- 
 victed of impudence and falsehood ; for that 
 heretics were often burned by the Church, 
 may be proved by adducing a few from 
 many examples." [He instances Donatists, 
 Manicheans, and Albigenses.] 
 
 " Argument 2. ' Experience shows that 
 terror is not useful in such cases.' I reply, 
 Experience proves the contrary; for the Do- 
 natists, Manicheans, and Albigenses, were 
 routed and annihilated by arms. 
 
 "Argument 13. 'The Lord attributes (says 
 the Protestant) to the Church, the sword of 
 the Spirit, which is the word of God; but 
 not the material sword. Nay, he said to 
 Peter, who wished to defend him with a ma- 
 terial sword, Put up thy sword into the 
 scabbard/ I answer: As the Church has 
 ecclesiastical and secular princes, who are 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 47 
 
 her two arms, so she has two swords, the spi- 
 ritual and the material; and therefore, when 
 her right hand is unable to convert a heretic 
 with the sword of the Spirit, she invokes the 
 aid of the left hand, and coerces heretics 
 with the material sword. 
 
 "Argument 18. 'The apostles (say the 
 Protestants) never invoked the secular arm 
 against heretics.' Answer: The apostles 
 did it not because there was no Christian 
 prince on whom they could call for aid. But 
 afterwards, in Constantine's time, the Church 
 called in the aid of the secular arm." (Bel- 
 larmine, ch. xxi. lib. 3.) 
 
 The atrocious doctrine so elaborately de- 
 fended in this passage from the pen of Rome's 
 ablest champion, has been sanctioned times 
 without number by her Popes and Councils. 
 
 In the fifth Council of Toledo, Can. 3, the 
 holy fathers say : — " We the holy council pro- 
 mulge this sentence or decree pleasing to God, 
 that whosoever hereafter shall succeed to the 
 kingdom, shall not mount the throne till he 
 has sworn among other oaths, to permit no 
 man to live in his kingdom who is not a 
 Catholic. And if after he has taken the reins 
 of government, he shall violate this promise, 
 let him be anathema maranatha in the sight 
 
48 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 of the eternal God, and become fuel of the 
 eternal fire." (Caranza Sum. Cone. p. 404.) 
 
 In the fourth general Council of Lateran, 
 held under Innocent HI., A. D. 1215, they 
 say : — " We excommunicate and anathema- 
 tize every heresy extolling itself against this 
 holy, orthodox, catholic faith, and condemn 
 all heretics." Heretics are left to the secular 
 powers to be duly punished. The secular 
 powers are required to take an oath, that 
 they will exterminate to their utmost power, 
 all heretics within their dominions devoted 
 by the Church. And if any temporal lord 
 neglect to " purge his territory of this hereti- 
 cal filth," he is, in the first instance, to be 
 excommunicated : then, on another year's 
 delay, his vassals are to be absolved from their 
 allegiance, and his country turned over to 
 any Catholics who may be able to possess 
 themselves of it. As an inducement to the 
 execution of this sanguinary edict, it is fur- 
 ther provided, that Catholics who "gird them- 
 selves for the extermination of heretics, shall 
 enjoy that indulgence and be fortified with 
 that holy privilege, which is granted to them 
 that go to the help of the Holy Land." 
 
 It is in vain alleged by the modern de- 
 fenders of Popery, that the Albigenses, against 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 49 
 
 whom the famous decree just cited was lev- 
 elled, held various pernicious opinions in 
 morals, and were a lawless and seditious 
 people. Their character for substantial or- 
 thodoxy in doctrine, and general purity of 
 conduct, has been amply vindicated by nu- 
 merous writers. It is an expedient worthy 
 of Rome, to try to palliate her atrocities by 
 blackening the characters of her victims. But 
 even allowing that the Albigenses were all 
 that she affirms them to have been, what jus- 
 tification does this furnish of her conduct? 
 Who gave her the cognizance of civil crimes 
 in foreign states? What business has she to 
 call upon princes and magistrates to perse- 
 cute and murder a class of their subjects 
 whom she deems worthy of death ? Whence 
 came her right to depose these princes and 
 appropriate their territories to whoever might 
 be strong enough to seize them, in case they 
 should refuse to hunt and destroy these un- 
 happy " heretics?" And conceding that she 
 had all this power — that she did not trans- 
 cend her prerogative in issuing this decree — 
 is it such a document as ought to emanate 
 from the rulers of the Christian Church? 
 Does it breathe the spirit of the gospel ? 
 Would Christ and his apostles have publicly 
 5 
 
50 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 anathematized a whole people, and doomed 
 them to hell, and then called upon kings and 
 princes to march their armies against them 
 and slay them without mercy, under pain of 
 being dethroned and cursed themselves? Let 
 such an edict as the one under consideration, 
 be inserted in the New Testament — after 
 the sermon on the mount, for example, or 
 after that memorable rebuke which our Sa- 
 viour gave to James and John for wishing to 
 command fire to come down from heaven 
 and consume the Samaritan village — and see 
 how it will read there. How consistent would 
 it appear with the Redeemer's character, 
 how much in keeping with his usual spirit, 
 for him, after he had said, " The Son of man 
 is not come to destroy men's lives but to save 
 them," to promulgate an edict enjoining it 
 upon princes and potentates to exterminate 
 all unbelievers in their dominions with fire 
 and sword, and promising the rewards of 
 heaven to those who were the most vigilant 
 in butchering heretics ! Such is precisely the 
 harmony between the Church of Rome and 
 the Christianity of the Bible. 
 
 The authorities which have been cited, 
 may suffice to show that intolerance per- 
 vades the whole theory of the Romish 
 
THE CHURCH OP ROME. 51 
 
 Church ; and that the right and duty of the 
 Church to persecute heretics, have been 
 avowed by her popes and councils, in the 
 most explicit manner. Her practice has 
 been in revolting harmony with her princi- 
 ples. The bloody edict last cited, was fol- 
 lowed by the slaughter of two hundred thou- 
 sand Albigenses. And in the course of the 
 persecutions against that people and the 
 Waldenses, which continued for several cen- 
 turies, not less than one million of victims 
 are supposed to have been offered up on the 
 altar of the Roman Moloch. One scene, in 
 the progress of these cruelties, is thus depict- 
 ed : — " The population of the city of Beziers, 
 amounting to fifteen thousand persons, to- 
 gether with many thousands more, who had 
 fled to the city from the surrounding vil- 
 lages, were massacred without mercy. i This 
 whole multitude/ says Sismondi, 'at the mo- 
 ment when the crusaders became masters of 
 the gates, took refuge in the churches: the 
 great cathedral of St. Nicaise contained the 
 greater number. The canons, clothed with 
 their choral habits, surrounded the altar and 
 sounded the bells, as if to express their pray- 
 ers to the furious assailants; but these sup- 
 plications of brass were as little heard as 
 
52 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 those of the human voice.' It will be per- 
 ceived from this description that the popula- 
 tion of Beziers consisted partly of Roman 
 Catholics; but they were involved in the 
 common destruction ; for when the knights 
 of the army inquired of the Papal legate, 
 Arnold Amalric, abbot of Citeaux, how they 
 could distinguish the Roman Catholics from 
 the heretics, he replied, < Kill them all; the 
 Lord will know well who are His/ The 
 historian proceeds: 'The bells ceased not to 
 sound, till of that immense multitude which 
 had taken refuge in the church, the last had 
 been massacred. Neither were those spared 
 that had taken refuge in the other churches; 
 seven thousand dead bodies were counted in 
 that of the Magdalen alone. When the cru- 
 saders had massacred the last living creature 
 in Beziers, and had pillaged the houses of all 
 that they thought worth carrying off, they 
 set fire to the city in every part at once, and 
 reduced it to a vast funeral pile. Not a 
 house remained standing, not a human being 
 alive.'" This occurred A.D. 1297. Three 
 or four hundred years afterwards, these 
 scenes were renewed in the valleys of Pied- 
 mont. In one place they mercilessly tor- 
 tured not less than an hundred and fifty 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 53 
 
 women and their children, chopping off the 
 the heads of some, and dashing out the brains 
 of others against the rocks. And in regard 
 to those whom they took prisoners, from 
 fifteen years old and upwards, who refused 
 to go to mass, they hanged some, and nailed 
 others to the trees by their feet, with their 
 heads downwards.* It was on this occasion 
 that Milton wrote the following sonnet: 
 
 u Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold : 
 E'en them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
 
 When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 
 
 Forget not ; in thy book record their groans, 
 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled 
 
 Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
 The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
 
 To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 
 O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 
 
 The triple tyrant ; that from these may grow 
 A hundred fold, who, having learned thy way, 
 
 Early may fly the Babylonian wo." 
 
 Perhaps no country has furnished so many 
 Protestant martyrs as France. The massa- 
 cre of St. Bartholomew's day, August 24, 
 
 * Vide Tract I., of the Presbyterian Board of Publica- 
 tion, Series on Popery, pp. 41, 42. 
 
54 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 1572, was the result of a design deliberately 
 formed for the utter extinction of Protestant- 
 ism in that country. " At midnight the toc- 
 sin tolled the signal of destruction, and the 
 carnage which was then begun, lasted seven 
 days. The king, Charles IX., encouraged 
 the murderers in their work, shouting to 
 them with all his might, ' Kill/ < kill !' The 
 queen gazed with delight on thousands of 
 naked bodies, covered with wounds and wel- 
 tering in their gore. Five hundred noble- 
 men, and five thousand other Protestants, 
 were murdered in Paris, and at least twenty 
 thousand, some say as many as seventy 
 thousand, in the kingdom at large." And 
 how were the tidings of this event received 
 at Rome? How did the pretended vicar of 
 the meek and lowly Jesus of Nazareth, de- 
 port himself on the occasion? "He went in 
 public procession to one of the churches, to 
 praise God for it. He congratulated the 
 king on the accomplishment of an exploit 
 i so long meditated, and so happily executed, 
 for the good of religion/ He caused a me- 
 dal to be struck in perpetual remembrance 
 of so godly an action, bearing on one side 
 his own effigies, and on the other, a repre- 
 sentation of the slaughter of the Huguenots; 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 55 
 
 and he ordered an eminent artist to execute 
 three paintings, representing the bloody deed, 
 as ornaments for his own palace, where they 
 are still to be seen. These are the tender 
 mercies of Rome !"* 
 
 A still more dreadful massacre of the 
 Huguenots took place on the occasion of the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantes. This 
 edict, by which toleration was secured to 
 Protestants, had been in force since 1598. 
 But in 1685, the Popish prelates and the 
 Jesuits prevailed upon Louis XIV. to rescind 
 it, and to attempt the extermination of his 
 Protestant subjects. The time will not per- 
 mit me even to present an outline of the bar- 
 barities which ensued in every part of France. 
 Great numbers of the Huguenots were slain, 
 and upwards of half a million of them es- 
 caped to foreign lands; many of them to 
 this country, where their descendants still 
 reside, and constitute (it may be added) one 
 of the most enlightened and valuable por- 
 tions of our population. 
 
 Another memorable tragedy in the annals 
 of Popery, is the Irish Massacre of 1641, 
 
 * Vide Tract L, of the Presbyterian Board of Publica- 
 tion, Series on Popery, p. 44 ; and Hist. Popery, p. 332. 
 
56 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 This was the result of an extended and well 
 organized conspiracy for exterminating the 
 Protestants in Ireland. Archbishop Usher 
 and other authors state, that prior to the 
 massacre, the Roman priests were assiduous 
 in persuading the people not to spare a man, 
 woman, or child, of the Protestants; assuring 
 them, that " it would do them much good to 
 wash their hands in the hearts' blood of the 
 heretics." The common, ignorant people 
 taught by their Jesuit priests, that the " Pro- 
 testants were worse than dogs, for they were 
 devils; and therefore the killing of them was 
 a meritorious act, and a rare preservative 
 against the pains of purgatory; for, (said 
 they) the bodies of those who fall in the holy 
 cause shall not be cold, before their souls 
 shall ascend up into heaven." These instruc- 
 tions were not lost. The massacre commenced 
 most fitly on the 23d of October, the feast of 
 Ignatius Loyola: and the Jesuits had the 
 satisfaction of knowing that the festival of 
 their founder, was worthily commemorated 
 by the ferocious slaughter of many thousand 
 Protestants. Hume, the historian, says that 
 the cruelty which characterized this transac- 
 tion, was " the most barbarous that ever, in 
 any nation, was known or heard of. No age> 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 57 
 
 no sex, no condition, was spared. The wife 
 weeping for her butchered husband, and em- 
 bracing her helpless children, was pierced 
 with them, and perished with the same stroke ; 
 the old, the young, the vigorous, the infirm, 
 underwent the like fate, and were confound- 
 ed in one common ruin. In vain was recourse 
 had to relations, to companions, to friends; 
 all connexions were dissolved, and death was 
 dealt by that hand from which protection 
 was implored and expected. Without .pro- 
 vocation, without opposition, the astonished 
 English (Protestants) being in profound peace 
 and full security, were massacred by their 
 nearest neighbours with whom they had long 
 upheld a continued intercourse of kindness 
 and good offices. But death was the lightest 
 punishment inflicted by those enraged rebels; 
 all the tortures which wanton cruelty could 
 devise, all the lingering pains of body and 
 anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, 
 could not satiate revenge excited without in- 
 jury, and cruelty derived from no cause. . . . 
 The weaker sex themselves, naturally ten- 
 der and compassionate, here emulated their 
 more robust companions in the practice of 
 every cruelty. Even children, taught by the 
 example, and encouraged by the exhortations 
 
58 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 of their parents, essayed their feeble blows 
 on the dead carcasses or defenceless children 
 of the English. If any where a number 
 assembled together, and, assuming courage 
 from despair, were resolved to sweeten death 
 by revenge upon their assassins, they were 
 disarmed by capitulations and promises of 
 safety, confirmed by the most solemn oaths ; 
 then the rebels (in the immutable spirit of 
 Popery) with perfidy equal to their cruelty, 
 made them share the fate of their unhappy 
 countrymen. Others, more ingenious still in 
 their barbarity, tempted their prisoners with 
 the fond hope of life, to imbrue their hands 
 in the blood of their friends, brothers, and 
 parents ; and having thus rendered them ac- 
 complices in guilt, gave them that death 
 which they sought to shun by deserving it. 
 
 "Amidst all these enormities the sacred 
 name of religion sounded on every side, not 
 to stop the hands of these murderers, but to 
 enforce their blows, and to steel their hearts 
 against every movement of human or social 
 sympathy. The English, as heretics abhor- 
 red of God and detestable to all holy men, 
 were marked out by the priests for slaughter ; 
 and of all actions, to rid the world of these 
 declared enemies to Catholic faith and piety, 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 59 
 
 was represented as the most meritorious in 
 its nature ; which, in that rude people — suf- 
 ficiently inclined to atrocious deeds — was fur- 
 ther stimulated by precepts and national pre- 
 judices, empoisoned by those aversions, more 
 deadly and incurable, which arose from an 
 enraged superstition. While death finished 
 the sufferings of each victim, the bigotted as- 
 sassins, with joy and exultation, still echoed 
 in his expiring ears, that these agonies were 
 but the commencement of torments infinite 
 and eternal." 
 
 Such is the account given by an infidel 
 historian, of the Irish Massacre. The prime 
 agency of the Church of Rome in planning 
 and executing it, is so indisputable, that it 
 may with justice be appealed to as an illus- 
 tration of the ferocious spirit of Popery. 
 
 There is one other chapter in the records 
 of Popish intolerance and blood-thirstiness, 
 which ought not to be passed over in silence 
 here; I mean, that which pertains to the In- 
 quisition. The popular histories of this in- 
 fernal institution, (one of the best of which, 
 let me add, has been published by the Pres- 
 byterian Board of Publication,) are too well 
 known to make it necessary for me to enter 
 into a detailed account of it, even if my limits 
 
60 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 would permit. It is difficult to believe that 
 such an institution as this is proved to have 
 been, could have existed any where out of 
 hell; or that any beings except devils could 
 have been guilty of the atrocities which were 
 constantly practised by the inquisitors and 
 priests in the name of the Christian religion. 
 " In Spain (says the author of the < Book of 
 Popery/*) there were at one time no less 
 than eighteen different inquisitorial courts: 
 and besides the vast numbers who were im- 
 mediately connected with them as officers, 
 there were twenty-thousand familiars, or 
 spies, scattered throughout the country, whose 
 business it was to mingle in all companies 
 and drag all suspected persons to the cell of 
 the Inquisition. ... No family could separate 
 for the night, but the appalling conviction 
 must have forced itself upon them, that they 
 were, not improbably, taking of each other a 
 final leave. Fancy the horror of the scene, 
 when the prison-carriage was heard at the 
 dead of the night, to stop before the door, and 
 immediately a loud knock was accompanied 
 by the stern command, "Open to the Holy 
 Inquisition" Every inmate in the dwel- 
 ling felt his blood curdle at the sound: the 
 
 * Published by the Board of Publication. 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 61 
 
 head of the family was called to give up the 
 mother of his beloved and helpless children; 
 he dared not even to whisper an objection or 
 let fall a tear; but hastening back to her 
 chamber, led her out, and placed her in the 
 custody of an incarnate demon; — and then 
 as the prison-carriage rolled away to the dun- 
 geons, how was that husband convulsed with 
 agony, as he contemplated her as the inno- 
 cent victim of a long and living death ! ... So 
 secret were the movements of these familiars, 
 that it was not uncommon for members of 
 the same family to be ignorant of each oth- 
 er's apprehension. One instance is recorded 
 by Limborch, in which a father, three sons, 
 and three daughters, all of whom occupied 
 the same house, were separately seized, and 
 thrown into the dungeons of the Inquisition, 
 and knew nothing of each other's fate till 
 after seven years of torture, when those of 
 them who survived, met to mingle their death 
 groans at an auto-da-fe" The accused were 
 not informed of the charges alleged against 
 them; nor of the names of the witnesses. No 
 opportunity was afforded them of examining 
 witnesses or introducing countervailing testi- 
 mony. Every species of cunning and sub- 
 tlety was employed to induce them to impli- 
 
62 THE INTOLERANCE OP 
 
 cate themselves by confessing some real or 
 constructive offence against the Church. If 
 these arts failed, torture was applied. The 
 modes of torture were various; the three 
 principal were the torture by the pulley, the 
 torture by fire, and the torture by the rack. 
 The last of these, which was the one most 
 commonly used, was inflicted by stretching 
 the victim (divested of all his outer clothing) 
 on his back, along a wooden horse or hollow 
 bench, with sticks across like a ladder, and 
 prepared for the purpose. To this his feet, 
 hands, and head were strongly bound in such 
 manner as to leave him no room to move. 
 In this attitude he experienced eight strong 
 contortions in his limbs, viz. two on the fleshy 
 parts of the arm above the elbow, and two 
 below, one on each thigh, and also on the 
 legs. He was besides obliged to swallow 
 seven pints of water slowly dropped into his 
 mouth on a piece of silk or ribbon, which, by 
 the pressure of the water, glided down his 
 throat, so as to produce all the horrid sensa- 
 tions of a person who is drowning. At other 
 times, his face was covered with a thin piece 
 of linen, through which the water ran into 
 his mouth and nostrils, and prevented him 
 from breathing. 
 
THE CHURCH OP ROME. 63 
 
 For the torture by fire, the prisoner was 
 placed with his legs naked in the stocks ; the 
 soles of his feet were then well greased with 
 lard, and a blazing chafing-dish applied to 
 them, by the heat of which they became per- 
 fectly fried. When his complaints of the 
 pain were loudest, a board was placed be- 
 tween his feet and the fire, and he was again 
 commanded to confess; but this was taken 
 away if he persisted in his obstinacy. 
 
 But I have no disposition to dwell on these 
 revolting details. It is more to my purpose 
 to state that Llorente, in his History of the 
 Inquisition, estimates the number of ite vic- 
 tims in Spain alone, from 1481 to 1812 (three 
 hundred and thirty-one years) at three hun- 
 dred and forty-one thousand and twenty- 
 one, of whom thirty-one thousand nine hun- 
 dred and twelve were burnt to death ! The 
 sufferings of these last were usually aggra- 
 vated by every kind of indignity. The bru- 
 talizing influence of the system upon the 
 popular mind, is strongly evinced by the fact, 
 that even a bull-fight or a farce was, with the 
 Spaniards, as Dr. Geddes remarks, "a dull 
 entertainment compared with an auto-da-fe" 
 Not only immense crowds of the common 
 people, but the nobility, and in some cases 
 
64 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 the royal family also, came together to enjoy 
 the spectacle. That they did " enjoy" it, is 
 apparent from the manner in which it was 
 conducted. No sooner had the executioner 
 completed his arrangements, and the Jesuits 
 in attendance, announced to the prisoners that 
 they "left them to the devil who was stand- 
 ing at their elbow to receive their souls," 
 than "a great shout was raised, and the 
 multitude united in crying, 'Let the dogs' 
 beards be trimmed/ 'Let the dogs' beards 
 be trimmed/ This was done by thrusting 
 flaming furze, tied to the end of a long pole 
 agailf st their faces ; and the process was often 
 continued till the features of the prisoners 
 were all wasted away, and they could be no 
 longer known by their looks. The furze at 
 the bottom of the stakes was then set on 
 fire; but as the sufferers were raised to the 
 height of ten feet above the ground, the 
 flames seldom reached beyond their knees, 
 so that they were really roasted and not 
 burned to death." — Is it going too far, to 
 say that the main actors in these horrible 
 barbarities, were more like fiends than men? 
 And yet, they were the ministers of religion, 
 the accredited servants and representatives of 
 the Holy Apostolic Church of Rome. That 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 65 
 
 Church, it is true, staggering under the in- 
 tolerable odium she has incurred by these 
 unparalleled cruelties, is now trying to make 
 the world believe that the Inquisition was 
 not in any sense an Institution of the 
 Church, but a tribunal of the civil govern- 
 ment ! This pretence is worthy of its paren- 
 tage. That some of the Catholic govern- 
 ments availed themselves of the Inquisition 
 as an effective engine for extorting money 
 from their subjects and putting obnoxious 
 individuals out of the way, is not denied. 
 But no candid man can read Llorente, or 
 any other authentic history of the "Holy 
 Office/' without being convinced that the 
 Inquisition was altogether a creature of the 
 Hierarchy. It emanated from Rome. The 
 Inquisitors were appointed at Rome. All 
 their rules of procedure were either framed 
 at Rome, or subject to revision, modification, 
 and approval there. To Rome they were 
 responsible. From Rome they received their 
 rewards. The plea now set up that "the 
 Inquisition was entirely and avowedly a 
 political and not an ecclesiastical institution," 
 is a wicked and Jesuitical device for hood- 
 winking Protestants to the abominations of 
 Popery, and it is refuted by their own 
 6 
 
66 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 standard writers. Johannes Devoti, e. g. 
 uses this decisive language on the subject, 
 as quoted by that late eloquent and able de- 
 fender of Protestantism, Dr. John Breckin- 
 ridge, in his controversy with the present 
 popish Bishop of New York. " The con- 
 gregation of Cardinals at Rome, instituted by 
 the Pope, in which the Pope presides, is the 
 head of all Inquisitors over the whole world; 
 to it they all refer their more difficult matters; 
 and its authority is final. It is rightly and 
 wisely ordered, that the Pope's power and 
 office sustain this institution. For he is the 
 centre of unity and head of the Church; and 
 to him Christ has committed plenary power, to 
 feed, teach, rule, and govern all Christians." 
 (p. 486.) 
 
 If it is still alleged that the victims of the 
 Inquisition were executed not by the ecclesi- 
 astics but by the secular authority, this also 
 may be conceded: but the concession can 
 avail as little to the Church of Rome, as it 
 would to the priests and rulers of the Jews, 
 to admit that it was not they, but Pilate who 
 crucified the Son of God. For what was the 
 precise part performed by the ecclesiastics in 
 the management of the Inquisition ? In the 
 first place, as we have seen, they derived their 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 67 
 
 appointments directly or indirectly from the 
 Papal See. The code under which they 
 acted, was from the same source. They de- 
 termined what should be regarded as heresy. 
 They arrested whomsoever they chose. They 
 superintended and applied all the tortures 
 preliminary to final condemnation or acquit- 
 tal. They decided who should be put to 
 death. All the arrangements for the burning 
 of the condemned, were made under their 
 supervision. They required the civil magis- 
 trates, by authority of various Bulls of the 
 Popes, to commit heretics to the flames with- 
 in six days after they, the Inquisitors had 
 pronounced sentence upon them, under pain 
 of excommunication and other censures. 
 And yet Romanists would have us believe 
 that the Inquisition was not an institution of 
 their Church, because after the Inquisitors had 
 condemned a man as an apostate and heretic, 
 and handed him over to the magistrates to 
 be put to death, the hypocritical wretches 
 were accustomed to add: " Nevertheless we 
 earnestly beseech and enjoin the said secular 
 arm, to deal so tenderly and compassionate- 
 ly with him, as to prevent the effusion of 
 blood, or danger of death!" This is the 
 argument to prove that Rome is guiltless of 
 
68 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 the atrocities of the Inquisition! Let her 
 have the full benefit of it. The Inquisition 
 itself does not more incontestably identify her 
 with the prophetic Antichrist, by demon- 
 strating her hatred of the saints and her 
 eagerness to shed their blood, than this sup- 
 posed vindication does, by showing the 
 effrontery with which she can " speak lies in 
 hypocrisy.'' 
 
 I have thus endeavoured to exhibit the 
 " Intolerance of the Church of Rome." 
 I have shown that she is essentially and in- 
 curably intolerant in her very frame-work, 
 and her fundamental principles; that she is 
 intolerant even of mental freedom; that she is 
 intolerant of God's holy and blessed truth, 
 above every thing else; that she insists upon 
 the right to persecute those whom she re- 
 gards as heretics, and upon the obligation of 
 all princes and magistrates to aid at her bid- 
 ding in their subjugation or destruction; and 
 that she has carried out these principles in 
 the actual slaughter of immense multitudes 
 of men, for opinion's sake merely, both in 
 religious wars and massacres instigated by 
 her, and by the more refined and cruel tor- 
 tures of the Inquisition. Every count in 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 69 
 
 this indictment has been substantiated by 
 authentic proofs. And here the discussion 
 might with propriety be arrested. There is, 
 however, a sentiment widely diffused among 
 Protestants, which goes far to neutralize such 
 testimonies as have now been presented, in 
 relation to the intolerance of Popery. This 
 sentiment is, that the Church of Rome has 
 undergone a change — that her cruelties be- 
 long to another age — and that she is now as 
 humane and benevolent in her spirit as any 
 of the Protestant churches. This sentiment 
 must be briefly examined before we close. 
 Its fallacy must, indeed, be manifest to all 
 who have followed the train of argument 
 by which we have reached our general con- 
 clusion. 
 
 For what is it we have charged upon 
 Rome, and proved against her? Not simply 
 that she has in some specified instances per- 
 secuted the people of God, and made Protest- 
 ant blood flow like water; but that she has 
 persecuted on principle — that intolerance is 
 blended with the very elements of her organi- 
 zation—that wherever she has the power 
 and opportunity, she cannot but persecute, 
 without compromising her principles and be- 
 traying the trust which, she asserts, has been 
 
70 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 confided to her. And here it is that her 
 persecutions differ so widely from those of 
 Protestants. It is not denied that Protestants 
 have been guilty of persecution. But their 
 persecutions took place, for the most part, 
 just after they threw off the Papal yoke, and 
 when they were still tainted with the spirit 
 in which they had been reared. Their per- 
 secutions also have been local and temporary. 
 And, again, the persecuting tenets have long 
 ago been expunged from the Protestant 
 Creeds and Confessions: and true Protestants 
 with one accord reprobate as unchristian and 
 wicked, the persecutions practised by their 
 ancestors. 
 
 The Roman Church, however, can vindi- 
 cate her persecutions on none of these grounds. 
 It has been shown, by her own witnesses, 
 that the right and even the duty of persecu- 
 ting for opinion's sake, enters fundamentally 
 into her constitution. This right, let it be 
 remembered, she has never repudiated: as 
 indeed, how could she? An " infallible" 
 church must be unchangeable. What she 
 has claimed once, she must always claim. 
 What she has been, she must be. She 
 may embrace many amiable and benevo- 
 lent people among her members; but we do 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 71 
 
 not look to the laity .in a church where the 
 people are nothing and the priesthood every- 
 thing, to ascertain the dogmas and the spirit 
 of the system. We demand that the same 
 authority which emitted the bloody edicts of 
 former days, shall revoke them, and renounce 
 the pretended right to persecute heretics. Is 
 this an unreasonable requisition? Are we to 
 judge that Church by the opinions of its pri- 
 vate members, and not by its public acts and 
 monuments? Are we to withdraw the charge 
 of persecution against her while her creed 
 remains unaltered, and her exterminating 
 bulls against heretics uncancelled, merely be- 
 cause we may happen to know some very 
 exemplary Roman Catholics, or because the 
 hierarchy has, from its crippled state, ceased 
 to persecute for a season ? 
 
 But this is not all. Whatever may be 
 thought by Roman Catholic laymen, the 
 priesthood are never heard condemning the 
 persecutions in which their church has been 
 engaged. With all the outcry they make, 
 because the atrocities she perpetrated a few 
 centuries ago, are laid to her charge in this 
 age of intelligence and refinement, they are 
 very careful not to censure those atrocities. 
 If they believe they were wrong, why do 
 
12 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 they not say so? The t fair inference from 
 their silence is, that they approve of them; 
 that they are prepared to set their hands 
 to every sanguinary bull that has gone forth 
 from the Vatican, and to justify every scene 
 of carnage which Popish intolerance has 
 created. 
 
 This, I have said, is a fair inference from 
 the fact just stated 5 but we are not left to in- 
 fer it merely. The creed of Pius IV. has 
 already been mentioned. That creed, which 
 is universally received by the Roman Catho- 
 lics of the present day, re-affirms all the 
 persecuting canons of former days. It runs 
 thus: "I likewise undoubtedly receive and 
 profess all other things delivered, defined, 
 and declared, by the sacred canons of general 
 councils, and particularly the Holy Council of 
 Trent. And I condemn, reject, and anathe- 
 matize all things contrary thereto, and all 
 heresies which the church has condemned, 
 rejected, and anathematized." Every Ro- 
 manist, then, in adopting this creed, sanctions 
 as well the intolerant principles of the system, 
 as the persecutions to which they have led. 
 
 Then, again, there is the Bishop 1 s oath, 
 with the famous clause, " Haereticos, schis- 
 maticos, et rebelles eidem Domino nostro, pro 
 
TIIE CHURCH OP ROME. 73 
 
 posse persequar et impugnabo." " Heretics 
 schismatics, and rebels to our said Lord, 
 (the Pope,) with all my power I will perse- 
 cute and impugn" Does this import a 
 change in the spirit and pretensions of Rome? 
 Let me quote, as this subject has been men- 
 tioned, a curious piece of history respecting 
 it, which is given by Mr. Southey in one of 
 his able Essays on the Catholic Question :■■ — 
 " It appears that a Russian Roman Catholic, 
 when taking the oath at his consecration as 
 archbishop of Mohilow in 1785, stopped at 
 this clause, and refused to proceed. He was 
 supported by the empress Catharine, and the 
 court of Rome found it expedient to allow 
 him to take the oath without the obnoxious 
 clause. But though the scarlet-coloured beast 
 drew in its horns when Catharine would else 
 have aimed a blow at them, the concession 
 was so made as to show that no change had 
 taken place in the disposition of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. The principle that heretics 
 were to be impugned and persecuted, was not 
 renounced; though its avowal was suspend- 
 ed by indulgence, in an heretical kingdom 
 where the sovereign, most properly, would 
 not suffer it ta be made. Every where else 
 the Roman Catholic prelates continued, at 
 7 
 
74 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 their consecration, to swear that they, to the 
 utmost of their power, would impugn and 
 persecute heretics, schismatics, and rebels to 
 their Lord, the Pope. Some six years after- 
 wards, the Irish prelates considered that the 
 clause might perhaps stand in the way of 
 the hopes which they were then entertaining; 
 for that a British king, a British minister, a 
 British House of Lords, and a British House 
 of Commons, consisting entirely of heretics, 
 schismatics, and rebels to the Pope, might 
 think it no very rational or politic act to 
 remove restrictions from persons who were 
 bound by oath to impugn and persecute them, 
 if ever they had the power. They represent- 
 ed this at Rome: and their Lord the Pope 
 then conceded to them the same indulgence, 
 which he had granted in the case of Russia, 
 but not without observing in the preamble to 
 the castrated oath, that i through the ignor- 
 ance or dishonesty of some persons, certain 
 words (to wit, the clause complained of) had 
 been perverted into a strange sense/ — Per- 
 verted by ignorance or dishonesty! Was 
 dishonesty ever more apparent than in this 
 preamble, and can any ignorance be so great 
 as not to perceive it? . . . as not to know in 
 what sense these words were intended by 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 75 
 
 Pope Hildebrand when he framed the oath 
 — in what sense the clause has always been 
 understood — and in what sense it has been 
 acted upon,/?ro posse, every where ? Do we 
 not know how Bonner and Gardiner under- 
 stood it? Can we be mistaken in what the 
 persecution of heretics means, in the oath of 
 a Roman Catholic bishop ? Bellarmine may 
 tell us what he, as well as the heretics in his 
 days, who were unreasonable enough to com- 
 plain of it, understood by it. — i Dicunt qui- 
 dem haeretici se magnam persequutionem 
 ab antichristo pati, quia interdum comburun- 
 tur aliqui de eorum numero.' Perverted 
 by ignorance or dishonesty to a strange sense ! 
 Why the words contain in them flint and 
 steel, fire and faggot, the weapons of St. Bar- 
 tholomew's day, the swords and halters of 
 Alva and Cardinal Granville's executioners, 
 the racks and engines of the Inquisition."* 
 
 I have quoted this passage because this 
 identical oath, persecuting clause and ally 
 has actually been taken by every Roman 
 Catholic prelate in the United States. This 
 was explicitly acknowledged by Bishop Pur- 
 cell of Ohio, in his discussion with Mr. Alex- 
 ander Campbell, as may be found by refer- 
 
 * Southey's Essays, Vol. ii. pp. 416—418. 
 
76 THE INTOLERANCE OP 
 
 ring to pp. 317, 31S, 346, 350, of the printed 
 volume containing the report of the debate. 
 Nothing can be more palpable than the in- 
 compatibility between this oath, and the oath 
 of naturalization prescribed by our Constitu- 
 tion, in which the individual swears that he 
 " doth absolutely and entirely renounce and 
 abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every 
 foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty 
 whatever." But I cite the oath now, only 
 to refute the common opinion that Popery 
 has changed — to show that the Popish pre- 
 lates in our own country have sworn to im- 
 pugn and persecute all heretics, pro posse, to 
 the utmost of their power. Happily their 
 " power" is as yet too restricted to render 
 them very formidable. Nor will it be likely 
 to increase much, except through the apathy 
 or spurious liberality of nominal Protestants. 
 Another evidence that the Roman Church 
 is unchanged, is found in the fact that she 
 still seeks to enforce that intellectual tyran- 
 ny over her subjects, which has already been 
 described as one of the most revolting forms 
 of her intolerance. If she had changed in 
 any thing for the better, it would have been, 
 in an age of light like the present, in this: 
 she would have emancipated the minds of 
 
THE CHURCH OP ROME. 77 
 
 her members from the servile bondage under 
 which they have groaned for centuries, and 
 given them access, if not to the tree of life, at 
 least to the tree of knowledge. But in this 
 particular, as in all others, she has proved 
 true to her principles. Even so recently as 
 the year 1819, an edition of the Index Libro- 
 rum Prohibitorum was printed at Rome by 
 authority. This Index prohibits, under the 
 penalties of the Inquisition, such works as 
 Bacon De Augmentis Scientiarum, Locke 
 on the Human Understanding, Cudworth's 
 Intellectual System, and Milton's Paradise 
 Lost. Nay, will it be believed, the celebrated 
 sentence against Galileo, in 1633, which con- 
 signed him to the dungeons of the Inquisition, 
 for maintaining that the sun was the centre 
 of the planetary system, and that the earth 
 revolved around it, is republished, and there- 
 fore re-affirmed, in this very volume. "The 
 work of Algarotti, (adds Sir Robert Inglis, 
 from whom I quote,) on the Newtonian sys- 
 tem, shares the same fate: so that every 
 modification of science, in other words, every 
 effort of free inquiry, every attempt to disen- 
 gage the mind from the trammels of authori- 
 ty, is alike and universally consigned to the 
 Inquisition. Am I not justified in saying 
 
78 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 that the Church of Rome remains unchanged, 
 the unchangeable enemy to the progress of 
 the human mind?" 
 
 To these facts may be added an official 
 paper, the authenticity of which is undis- 
 puted, and which bears date as recently as 
 the 24th of April, 1843. It is a " Pastoral 
 Address of the Bishop of Quito, in South 
 America. It was written for the purpose of 
 informing his Diocese that the National Con- 
 vention had, under his auspices and at his 
 request, adopted an explanatory resolution, 
 precluding the idea, that under the new Con- 
 stitution of the Republic of the Equator, reli- 
 gious toleration would be allowed to all de- 
 nominations of Christians. I shall quote the 
 first part of the letter, and append to it the 
 very pertinent comments of two of the secu- 
 lar papers. 
 
 PASTORAL ADDRESS OF THE BISHOP OF QUITO. 
 
 "We, Dr. Nicholas de Arteta, by the 
 grace of God and of the Holy Apostolic See, 
 Bishop of Quito — to all the faithful Chris- 
 tians of our Diocese; health and grace in the 
 Lord. 
 
 " Repletus sum consolatione, superabundo 
 gaudio in omni tribulatione nostra. 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 79 
 
 "My beloved children, our heart was full 
 of joy at the zeal which you have shown to 
 preserve intact the Holy Catholic religion 
 which we profess, and has warmly partici- 
 pated in the tribulation which you felt at the 
 apprehension that the sixth article of the new 
 constitution would open the way for the in- 
 troduction of worship and the corruption of 
 Christian morals. This was the opinion of 
 the theologians and canonists of the secular 
 and regular clergy, whom I convoked on 
 Holy Friday on account of the pressure of 
 time, because the right of petition to the Con- 
 stituent Convention could have been used 
 only the day following. * * * 
 
 "In consequence, the Convention adopted 
 a prudent and wise resolution, to tranquillize 
 our consciences. Yes, beloved diocesans, 
 they are pleased to explain the aforesaid 
 article, by giving us to know, that, far from 
 protecting toleration, which we justly feared, 
 it confirms and strengthens the law which 
 authorizes the prelates to have cognizance 
 of causes of faith, as did the extinguished 
 tribunal of the Inquisition, with this restric- 
 tion only, that they shall not, in this respect, 
 molest foreigners in their private belief, while 
 
80 THE INTOLERANCE OP 
 
 they do not propagate their errors, to pre- 
 vent scandal and seduction." 
 
 It is gratifying to see that the secular pa- 
 pers of our country are not all blind to the 
 natural tendency of such an occurrence or 
 incapable of deducing from it a just conclu- 
 sion. The New York Express remarks, in 
 relation to it, as follows : 
 
 " As it is alleged by Roman Catholics that 
 their system has become less tyrannical and 
 sanguinary, than it was some hundred years 
 ago, the above article from one of the South 
 American Republics, may enable our readers 
 to judge for themselves what foundation 
 there is for it. Here is a public declaration, 
 in an official document from the Bishop of 
 Quito, who, having convoked the theolo- 
 gians and canonists, obtained their senti- 
 ments respecting a provision of the Consti- 
 tution which had just been formed, which 
 opinion was, that c instead of protecting tole- 
 ration? which his reverence says he justly 
 feared, 'it confirms and strengthens the 
 law which authorizes the prelates to have 
 cognizance of causes of faith, as did the 
 extinguished tribunal of the Inquisition? 
 That is, a man accused of heresy, or in other 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 81 
 
 words, of being a Protestant, may be tried by 
 a blood-thirsty tribunal, composed of charac- 
 ters similar to those who belonged to the 
 Spanish Inquisition, and be burned at the 
 stake at the will and pleasure of these 
 butchers." 
 
 The Philadelphia North American, a pa- 
 per which deserves well of Protestants, for 
 the ability and fearlessness with which it 
 resists the political aggressions of Popery, is 
 equally explicit : 
 
 "Now and then it happens that we en 
 counter a good Protestant, who wonders at 
 the apprehension entertained by us of the 
 extension of the Roman Catholic faith in the 
 United States. Admitting, as no one can 
 deny, that in times past the practice of that 
 Church was merciless to all without her pale, 
 our easy friends answer the argument against 
 her spirit drawn from history, by asserting 
 that she is now changed, reformed, human- 
 ized, christianized with the age. They 
 cannot believe that in this nineteenth cen- 
 tury it is possible for the Church of Rome to 
 assert her supremacy by sword, fire, and 
 rack, as she was wont to do. They think 
 that she is in the first place too feeble, and 
 
82 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 in the second, too wise to apply brute force 
 to change men's consciences. 
 
 " We heartily wish that existing circum- 
 stances could sustain this opinion. If we 
 thought there was no danger to the State, or 
 to the life, liberty and property of the citizen 
 from the possible domination of the Roman 
 Catholic Church in this republic, we should 
 conceive it no part of our duty as daily jour- 
 nalists, to take note of her creed, discipline, 
 or practice. But it is a fact, beyond the 
 doubt of any unprejudiced man, that her pre- 
 lates and bigoted members are not to be 
 trusted with power in any State which de- 
 sires civil or religious liberty. A proof in 
 point is brought before us, which suggests 
 these remarks, and we would earnestly call 
 the attention of lukewarm Protestants to it." 
 
 A still more recent exemplification of the 
 unchanged intolerance and cruelty of the 
 Church of Rome, is furnished in the case of 
 Dr. Kalley, an excellent Scotch physician 
 and minister, residing in the island of Ma- 
 deira, who has recently undergone a long 
 imprisonment for no other crime than that of 
 preaching the gospel to the natives, and that 
 in his own house ; an imprisonment which 
 
THE CHURCH OP ROME. 83 
 
 would probably have terminated in his exe- 
 cution, had not the British government in- 
 terposed and obtained his release. 
 
 But testimonies need not be multiplied. 
 An enlightened and candid inquirer has but 
 to look abroad upon the Roman Catholic 
 world to see that Popery is unchanged. 
 Now, as of old, it is the inflexible enemy of 
 human improvement. Ignorance, degra- 
 dation, falsehood, Sabbath-profanation, the 
 decay of public virtue, the general corruption 
 of morals, hatred of pure Christianity, and 
 the extinction of religious freedom, follow in 
 its train, as naturally as the corresponding 
 blessings attend the untrammelled dissemi- 
 nation of the pure gospel of Christ. 
 
 To attempt to neutralize such proofs as 
 these, of the unchanged character of Popery, 
 by alleging that the Church of Rome is not 
 actually persecuting Protestants now, is 
 chimerical in the extreme. For, as we have 
 seen, this is true only in a partial sense, and 
 there is a very good reason why she is not 
 persecuting as formerly, on a larger scale. 
 Bunyan has interwoven it in his wonderful 
 allegory. "I espied," he says, describing 
 the Valley of the shadow of Death, " a little 
 
84 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 before me a cave, where two giants, Pope 
 and Pagan, dwelt in old times, by whose 
 power and tyranny, the men whose bones, 
 blood, and ashes, lay there, were cruelly put 
 to death. But by this place Christian went 
 without much danger, whereat I somewhat 
 wondered; but I have learned since, that 
 Pagan has been dead for many a day ; and 
 as for the other, though he be yet alive, he 
 is, by reason of age, and also of the many 
 shrewd brushes that he met with in his 
 younger days, grown so crazy and stiff in his 
 joints, that he can now do little more than 
 sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims 
 as they go by, and biting his nails because 
 he cannot come at them." Had Bunyan 
 written in our day, he would probably have 
 represented the decrepit old giant as renew- 
 ing his youth, and secretly preparing to sally 
 forth after pilgrims, panoplied in the blood- 
 stained armour that he wore of old. 
 
 The Church of Rome, then, is unchanged 
 and unchangeable. Her vital principles in- 
 volve this; facts confirm it; and the testi- 
 mony of God himself substantiates it, with 
 an explicitness which leaves nothing further 
 to be desired in the way of evidence. For 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 85 
 
 he distinctly teaches in 2 Thess. ii. 8, and 
 in Rev. xviii., that that Church instead of 
 being reformed, is to be thoroughly and 
 awfully destroyed, and that until that pe- 
 riod arrives, she will remain what she has 
 always been, "the woman drunken with 
 
 THE BLOOD OP THE SAINTS, AND WITH THE 
 BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JESUS." All the 
 
 intolerance we have charged and proved 
 upon her informer days, is proved to belong 
 to her still. And if any man shall succeed, 
 as many charitable persons suppose they 
 can do, in demonstrating the contrary, i. e., 
 in showing that she is not as intolerant as 
 she once was, he will, by the same process, 
 demonstrate her fallibility, and subvert her 
 claim to be considered as the Church of 
 Christ. We have, therefore, not merely the 
 testimony of Scripture, of history, of obser- 
 vation, and of innumerable Protestant wit- 
 nesses of unimpeachable character, but the 
 testimony of the Church of Rome herself, to 
 the point, that she is now, and will be as 
 long as God suffers her to live, the same per- 
 secuting, cruel, blood-thirsty power that she 
 was three centuries ago. 
 And now, in conclusion, there is one senti- 
 
S6 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 ment which must commend itself to every 
 individual who has carefully considered the 
 testimonies adduced in these pages. It is 
 this; viz., that it is the imperative duty of 
 every man who desires the welfare of reli- 
 gion, or the prosperity of his country, to 
 oppose, by all moral means, the efforts 
 making to propagate Romanism in the 
 United States. 
 
 The Church of Rome is, as we have 
 shown, radically and thoroughly hostile to 
 human improvement and happiness. Its 
 principles are subversive both of civil and 
 religious liberty. No country can be free, 
 no people can enjoy an enlightened prosperi- 
 ty, no man's rights can be safe, where its 
 principles are carried out. Meek and gen- 
 tle as it appears now, it is only the quietude 
 and the verdure which grace the slumbering 
 volcano. The fires are there still; and when 
 the occasion offers, they will burst forth and 
 renew the scenes of devastation and death of 
 former years. Let American Christians pon- 
 der this. Let our statesmen, our professional 
 men, the editors of our periodical press, and 
 all others gifted with the means of influen- 
 cing their countrymen, inquire if the fact be 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 87 
 
 not as has been stated. Above all, let our 
 intelligent youth acquaint themselves with 
 this colossal system of falsehood and cruelty, 
 and prepare to repel its growing aggressions 
 upon our liberties. 
 
 One argument which has, until lately, de- 
 terred many Protestants from taking a decid- 
 ed stand upon this question, has already been 
 examined, and I think I may be allowed to 
 say, refuted; viz., the plea that Popery has 
 changed. This plea has found great favour 
 among our citizens. One reason of this is, 
 that the great mass of them have never seen 
 Popery as it exists in Roman Catholic coun- 
 tries. Another is, that they have not gene- 
 rally studied the polity and history of that 
 Church. And a third is, that Popery has 
 usually carried itself so meekly in this Pro- 
 testant land, that mere superficial observers 
 have been deceived as to its true character. 
 Within the last few years, however, the sys- 
 tem has developed itself more fully. In the 
 efforts made to exclude the Bible from our 
 common schools; in the public burning of 
 the Scriptures; in the open pandering to po- 
 litical parties for sectarian purposes; and in 
 various other measures of the Papal priest- 
 
S8 THE INTOLERANCE OP 
 
 hood, people are beginning to see indications 
 that the Popery of our day is identical with 
 the Popery of the dark ages. The plea that 
 the Roman Catholic Church is changed, 
 therefore, is fast losing its weight with intel- 
 ligent Protestants. 
 
 Others have remained inactive from a 
 feeling that the Roman Catholic Church was 
 a branch of the true Church, and that, not- 
 withstanding its errors, Christian charity was 
 violated by waging a controversy with it. 
 
 The craft of Satan in constructing the sys- 
 tem has already been adverted to. If the 
 system was all heresy, its history all blood, 
 or its adherents all vicious and cruel, there 
 would be no difficulty in convincing Protest- 
 ants of every sort that it was their duty to 
 oppose it. But there is enough of truth in 
 its theoretic theology, enough of patriotism 
 and beneficence in its annals, and enough of 
 personal worth and purity among its support- 
 ers, to blind the eyes of those who, from 
 whatever cause, are not accustomed to pene- 
 trate beyond the surface of things. We need 
 not, we ought not to identify Roman Catho- 
 lics with all the abominations of their church. 
 We cheerfully concede all that may be claim- 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 89 
 
 ed for individuals among them on the score 
 of intelligence, refinement, and virtue. But 
 beyond this we cannot go. If the positions 
 laid down in this discussion have been estab- 
 lished, the papal system, as a system, is hos- 
 tile alike to God and man. It is antichrist : 
 i. e. it is the great enemy of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. It has from the begin- 
 ning persecuted his truth and persecuted his 
 saints. We should have no more scruple 
 about opposing it, than we should about op- 
 posing Mohammedanism or Buddhism, if an 
 attempt were made, and persevered in from 
 year to year, to introduce either of those sys- 
 tems into this country. Romanists, as indi- 
 viduals, are to be treated with all possible 
 kindness, and their rights of every kind re- 
 spected: but it is as much our duty to resist 
 by all moral means the spread of their system, 
 as it is to repel any other scheme which 
 makes war upon human liberty and happi- 
 ness, and tends to subvert the gospel of Christ. 
 This inference appears to me not merely 
 logical but unavoidable, from our premises. 
 If the Church of Rome is the intolerant, 
 blood-thirsty organization which we have 
 8 
 
90 THE INTOLERANCE OF 
 
 proved her to be — if she is, in truth, the 
 scriptural antichrist — it is self-evident that to 
 abet her is to oppose Christ, and that to re- 
 fuse to resist her aggressions, is to refuse 
 obedience to Christ. 
 
 If it be asked, How is she to be opposed? 
 I answer, by light and love — by dissemina- 
 ting truth in a Christian spirit. Or, to be 
 more specific, by withholding aid from Ro- 
 mish churches, schools, colleges, orphan asy- 
 lums, and other institutions — by circulating 
 the Bible throughout the land, and especially 
 by placing it in the hands of as many of our 
 Roman Catholic citizens as can be reached, 
 and using other kindred means to instruct 
 them in the truth — by resisting all efforts for 
 driving the Scriptures from our common 
 schools — by carefully teaching our children 
 and the youth in our Sunday schools, the 
 character of Popery, and fortifying them 
 against its devices — by enlightening the pub- 
 lic mind on the subject of Romanism through 
 the pulpit, the press, and the channels of so- 
 cial intercourse — by sustaining judicious or- 
 ganizations for the promotion of the ends 
 here contemplated — and by fervent and uni- 
 
THE CHURCH OF ROME. 91 
 
 ted prayer for the deliverance of those who 
 are led captive by the " man of sin/' and 
 for the prosperity and universal triumph of 
 the kingdom of Christ. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE ADDRESS OF THE AMERICAN PROTESTANT 
 ASSOCIATION, 1843. 
 
 But we must be allowed to remind you, that notwith- 
 standing the modest guise which that church puts on, 
 in this and other Protestant countries, no evidence 
 whatever has been produced, emanating/rom the Pa- 
 pal See, that it has abated its pretensions or laid aside 
 its persecuting tenets. We are not satisfied with 
 the disclaimers of Roman Catholic laymen or the 
 denials of Romish priests. We insist upon a renun- 
 ciation from the only authority in the church which 
 has the right to make one. We demand that the same 
 power which enjoined the persecutions of former days, 
 shall express its disapproval of them, and repudiate 
 the pretended right to persecute for opinion's sake. 
 When proof of this sort is produced, we may listen 
 to the suggestion that Popery has put off its intoler- 
 ance. — We do not, however, rest here. We have a 
 witness at hand who will be deemed both competent 
 and credible as to the point under consideration. This 
 witness is Gregory XVI. the reigning Pope; and the 
 document from which we quote is his famous Encyc- 
 lical Letter of August 15th, 1832.* 
 
 * This Letter was published at the time in the Roman 
 Catholic papers in this country. 
 
APPENDIX. 93 
 
 14 From that polluted fountain of indifference flows 
 that absurd and erroneous doctrine, or raiher raving, 
 in favour and in defence of * liberty of conscience, 1 
 for which most 'pestilential error, the course is opened 
 hy that entire and wild liberty of opinion which is 
 every where attempting the overthrow of civil and 
 religious institutions; and which the unblushing im- 
 pudence of some, has held forth as an advantage of 
 religion. * * * From hence arise these 
 revolutions in the minds of men, hence this aggrava- 
 ted corruption of youth, hence this contempt among 
 the people of sacred things, and of the most holy in- 
 stitutions and laws; hence, in one word, that pest of 
 all others most to be dreaded in a State, unbridled 
 liberty of opinion." 
 
 x\gain : " Hither tends that worst and never suffi- 
 ciently to be execrated and detested liberty of the press, 
 for the diffusion of all manner of writings which some 
 so loudly contend for and so actively promote." 
 
 And again: "Nor can we augur more consoling 
 consequences to religion and to government, from the 
 zeal of some to separate the Church from the State, 
 and to burst the bond which unites the priesthood to 
 the empire. For it is clear that this union is dreaded 
 by the profane lovers of liberty, only because it has 
 never failed to confer prosperity on both.'' 
 
 Here is documentary evidence of the highest kind 
 to show that Popery is unchanged, to prove that the 
 Popery of the nineteenth century and the Popery of 
 the sixteenth are the same. We have it officially 
 promulgated by the present Pope, that Liberty of 
 Conscience, Liberty of Opinion, the Liberty of the 
 Press, and the Separation of Church and State, 
 are four of the sorest evils with which a nation can 
 be cursed! Both as Protestants and as American 
 citizens, we count the rights which are here assailed 
 as among our dearest franchises : and we cannot look 
 on in silence and see the craft and power of Rome 
 systematically and insidiously employed to subvert 
 them. We deplore the necessity which calls for the 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 measure; but believing as we do that patriotism and 
 Christianity demand it, we have united, and we invite 
 all who love our institutions to unite with us in repel- 
 ling the aggressions of the Papal Hierarchy. 
 
 Our contest is not with the Roman Catholics as 
 individuals. We would not, if we could, abridge 
 their rights and privileges in the slightest degree. 
 We abhor persecution for opinion's sake under every 
 form, and we recognize their right to the same free- 
 dom of thought and action that we claim for ourselves. 
 We leave it lo the Pope to denounce ■ liberty of 
 opinion,' * liberty of conscience,' and the 4 liberty of 
 the press,' as hostile to human happiness and danger- 
 ous to the welfare of States. It is because the system 
 is thus, by the accredited exposition of its * infallible' 
 Head, at war with our most sacred rights and inter- 
 ests, that we feel bound to oppose it. Whatever vir- 
 tues may adorn the characters of individuals in that 
 Sect, we appeal to the whole history of the Romish 
 Church, in proof of the position, that the principles 
 assumed in the recent Encyclical Letter have been 
 actually carried out wherever Rome has had the power 
 to enforce them. So that in resisting the efforts now 
 making to establish this system among us, we are in- 
 fluenced by no love of controversy, by no personal 
 antipathies, by no sectarian or party ends, but by a 
 grave and imperative sense of duty to our country, to 
 posterity, and to God. 
 
 Reiterating the sentiment that persecution is as 
 much at variance with all our Protestant and Ameri- 
 can feelings as it is coincident with the genius and 
 spirit of Popery, we respectfully remind our country- 
 men that it is opposition to Popery, which has secured 
 to them an open Bible and the privilege of confessing 
 their sins to God instead of a priest. We remind 
 them that opposition to Popery has created the differ- 
 ence between our free, happy, and prosperous Repub- 
 lic, and the States of South America, which seem 
 doomed to perpetual anarchy and depression. We 
 remind them that opposition to Popery has given to 
 
APPENDIX. 95 
 
 Europe all that she enjoys of civil and religious liber- 
 ty: that the progress of the arts and sciences, the 
 mitigation of social evils, the diffusion of knowledge, 
 the right understanding and observance of the recip- 
 rocal duties of princes and subjects, magistrates and 
 people, and the improvement of mankind in rational 
 and social happiness, have for the last three centuries, 
 gone hand in hand with opposition to Popery : and 
 that just in proportion as the opposition to Popery has 
 been relaxed in any Protestant country, superstition 
 and infidelity have increased, vice has abounded, ig- 
 norance and discontent have prevailed among the 
 people, and every great national interest has dete- 
 riorated. 
 
 If confirmation of these statements be required, 
 we have it in the present relative condition of the 
 principal Protestant and Roman Catholic countries. 
 Compare Italy with Prussia: compare Spain with 
 England : compare Mexico and the South American 
 Republics with the United States. The superiority 
 of the Protestant countries is known and read of all 
 men. To what is it owing? Not to physical causes 
 certainly: for in these the Roman Catholic countries 
 have the advantage. Look at Spain, for example — 
 luxuriant, beautiful Spain, with her vine-clad hills 
 and her genial climate, the very garden of Europe. 
 There was a time (under the Moorish dynasty, and 
 immediately after its downfall) when her name was 
 a tower of strength among the nations ; now, the 
 decrepitude of a premiture dotage is upon her, and 
 . with the little strength that remains to her, she is 
 tearing out her own vitals. What has turned this 
 Eden into an Aceldama] What has made that once 
 noble race, to such an extent, a nation of sensualists 
 and gladiators? What has spread the pail of death over 
 all that was lovely, and generous, and refined, in that 
 land of song ] The answer may be given in one word, 
 Popery. Popery persecuted the Reformation out of 
 Spain, as it did out of Italy. It summoned to its aid 
 the chains and dungeons, the racks and faggots of the 
 
96 APPENDIX. 
 
 Inquisition, and, with fiendish fury, drove it from her 
 soil. The martyr-blood which was then shed, has 
 not yet ceased to cry to heaven for vengeance. Spain 
 permitted Popery to rob her of the pure Christianity 
 which was offered her ; and God gave her up to serve 
 the master she had chosen. There, for three hundred 
 years he has swayed an undisputed 6ceptre. And 
 the result is before us. In climate and soil, Spain is 
 unchanged ; for these it was beyond the spoiler's 
 power to blast. Every thing else he has blighted and 
 cursed, — every thing in her morals, every thing in 
 her thrift and industry, every thing in her literature, 
 every thing in her laws, — his curse is in her cities 
 and in her hamlets, in her cottages and in her palaces, 
 — indeed, it might be supposed by one ignorant of 
 her history, that Spain, instead of being the most loyal 
 of all lands to the Papal See, was peopled with arch- 
 heretics, for whose impieties all the curses of the 
 " greater excommunication" had been descending 
 upon her for three centuries. And the history of 
 Spain is the history of all other Papal lands. Ignor- 
 ance and superstition, social degradation and political 
 oppression, follow in the train of Popery as naturally 
 as death follows the plague. The nation which sur- 
 renders itself to its control, is a doomed nation. Its 
 embrace is like the embrace of that celebrated image 
 of the Virgin, in the Inquisition, which clasped the 
 wretched victim in its arms, and, folding him to its 
 breast, transfixed him with a thousand nails at once. 
 
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