rr LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. -- iop^ri^ ;|n, UNITED ^FATES OF AMERICA. if LECTURES THE Risf OF THE mm cHuecti ITS RESULTS IN EUROPE, AND ITS DESIGNS UPON aPHE INSTITUTIONS OF AMERICA. BY THE 7 Rev. J B. HELW^IG, A. M., President of Wittenberg College. Springfield, 0. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE HON. W^M, LAWRENCE, LL. D., OF OHIO. DAYTON, OHIO : UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE, 1876. The Library OF Congress WASHINGTON Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, BY REV. W. J. SHUEY, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. PREFACE. The author of this "book cherishes no ill-will to any individual member of the Eoman Catholic Church, but a spirit of steady opposition, from a sense of duty, to the system of Eomanism. Let the reader keep this distinction in his mind. The old and the young, but especially the latter, as they will take part in the coming conflict with the papacy in this land of Protestantism and civil and religious freedom, need to be in- formed of the past history and of the present designs of the Eoman Catholic Church. In the preparation of the lectures which com- prise the subject-matter of this book, I have derived valuable aid from Dr. Mosheim's Eccle- siastical History, Lectures on Eomanism, by Dr. Cumming, debate on Eomanism between Alexan- IV PREFACE. der Campbell and Bishop Piircell, Kirwan's let ters to Archbishop Hughes, and the comprehen- sive and valuable work entitled, " Eomanism as it is," by the Eev. Dr. Barnum of Connecticut. Upon this work, believed to be a necessity of the times, I "invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." J. B. H. CONTENTS PAGE. PBEFACB ^ 3 Introduction 9 CHAPTER I. Christ the divine and onlj true head of the church upon the earth— Early corruption of the church— Foundation for Ro- manism — Claims of Romanism to apostolic succession — Not an apostolical, but an apostate church — Constantine the Great— Union of church and state 51 CHAPTER II. Paganism and Romanism compared — Apocryphal New Testa- ment received by Romanists— Why rejected by Protestants... 70 CHAPTER III. 4 When false doctrines were incorporated into the church of Rome— The first attempt at the reformation of the church — Decrees of Pope Gregory VII.— The allegiance of the Ro- manist to civil government— The apostolical tree 82 CHAPTER IV. Diversity of opinion in regard to the location of the papal in- fallibility—Conflicts of popes and councils on the subject- No infallibility of moral character on the part of many of those who have set up the claim to it— Blasphemous decla- ration of a Romish layman in regard to it— Pope Pius IX.— No respect for him where he has been the longest and best known— Dr. Doellinger*s charge in regard to the corruption of text-books on the doctrine of infallibility— Logic applied to the doctrine... ....^ 07 Vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE. Growing corruption of the Romisb church, with continued conflicts between those in authority— The reformers of the sixteenth century: Luther, Melancthon, and Zwingli— Why the efforts of these reformers were successful where others had failed— Not the vices alone of the church, but the doc- trines also assailed by the reformers— All true reformation must reach and change the heart— The indulgences— The theses-* 'All-saints' day''— *' All-souls' day." 109 CHAPTER VI. As the resultant of error, there must eventually come either revolution, reformation, or ruin — Truth alone gives an en- during peace— Every plant which God hath not planted shall be plucked up— Reformers must come 129 CHAPTER VII. Duty of watchfulness enjoined— Romanism and civil freedom — ^An aspect in which this government is favorable to Ro- manism^ The Chinaman— The Mormon— Nations become enlightened and free only as they sever themselves from the church of Rome— Bishop's oath to persecute and wage war upon Protestants 150 CHAPTER VIII. Romanism repudiated where it is best known— The greater danger to the civil and religious institutions from the de- cline of the Romish church in Europe — Means employed for its establishment in this country — Progress of the church in this country— How soon will this country become Roman Catholic ?— Map of our great West in Rome— Balance of power—No religious liberty when Romanists once obtain the rule— A political church— New York City government— Dr. Cumming and the pope 175 CHAPTER IX. Folly of encouraging Romanism in this country— The pope, where he is better known than he is here, expelled from Ita- ly in 184S- Napoleon's soldiers, and Graribaldi's march upon Rome— Victor Emanuel's election, and the pope's over- whelming defeat— The pope's titles— * 'Distance lends en- ohaatiaent to the yiew"—Sentiiaents hostile to public free* OOJJJTENTS. Vll PAGE. dom — Gladstone on the papal decrees — Dr. Manning speaMng for the pope— The Roman Catholic system in a etate of dissolution ; but it will die hard— The mystery, Babylon is falling— The blood of the saints will be avenged ^**The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.*' 204 CHAPTER X. Brownson's admission of the necessity for the reformation of the Roman Catholic Church — Indulgences and indulgence auctioneers— Price of indulgences— Robbery of John Tetzel — What is meant by an indulgence — Purgatory — Missionary meeting in one of the towns of Ohio— Ignorance and thrift- lessness of Roman Catholic countries in comparison to those which are Protestant 223 CHAPTER XI. Our free-school system— Hostility of Romanism to it— Objec- tion to the reading of the Bible in the schools only a pre- tense on the part of Romanists— Our free schools declared atheistic and godless— Moral and religious subjects in our school-readers— Extreme folly and inexcusable guilt of ^Protestant parents who patronize Romish schools— Such become the destroyers of their own children— What a priest says concerning Protestants 260 CHAPTER XII. There has always been a true church in the earth— Where was it in the centuries of corruption, preceding the Reforma- tion?— Doctrines held by tho&e who never bowed the knee to the Romish Baal— The plea of majorities by the Roman- ist—Progress of true Christianity since the Reformation— What entitles a church to the name of "the true church?*'.. 316 Concluding Reflections— The duties of citizens and of the state 349 " If the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman : if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall ^be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned ; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." Ezekiel xxxiii. 2-6. INTRODUCTION. The following lectures have been preparea by the author thereof in the hope that they may be found useful to the public. He has given to the subjects therein discussed profound study, and patient, thorough, and careful investigation. His lectures are replete with erudition, and are alike able and eloquent. The recent discussions in Prussia, Great Britain, the United States of America, and other nations, on the relations of the Eoman Catholic Church to the respective governments and people of these countries, seem to render the publication of this volume appropriate. In all past time among enlightened men the three great inquiries constantly claiming atten- tion have been : What is truth? What is duty? What is interest? And as circumstances are continually changing, these inquiries must for- ever continue to engage the attention of all in- quiring minds. They are so comprehensive in their character as to include all subjects — materi- ^ INTRODUCTION al, scientiiic, moral, anMturcs on Romanism.'' Lecture II., entitled : "Cardinal Wiseman,— His Oath and its Obligations." That the fact that Rome has reiterated, and now fully retains the spirit of perse- cution, as exemplified in the middle ages, it is suflBcient for us EISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 171 ^'heretics," under official oath? The re- ply is, such men as Luther, Melancthon, Zwingli, Jerome of Prague, Huss, Lati- mer ; those whose bodies were consumed at the fires kindled by the Romish torch at Smithfield ; the hundred thousand Huguenots, or Protestants, put to death in papal France; Wycliffe, the morning- star of the Reformation, whose books were burned, and whose grave was opened forty years after his death, that bigotry and hatred might cast his ashes into the river Avon. Men, thousands like these, devoted to truth and the wel- fare of humanity, constitute the "here- tics.'' Men whose Christian faith was identical with that which is now held by the great body of the Protestant church throughout the world ; these were beheaded, tortured, and burned as heretics; and if there is any meaning to quote a single extract from the papal syllabus of errors. One of the errors condemned, reads: 'The ( hurch has not the power of availing herself of force, or any direct or indirect temporal power " Again: " In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion shall be held as the only religion of the state, to the exclusion of all other modes of worship." 172 LECTURES ON THE in language, the hierarchs of the Romish church are this day solemnly sworn ^' to persecute and make war" upon all such, wherever found. Those who have taken this oath must — provided the opportu- nity has arrived — prove themselves false to it and to their allegiance, unless they thus ''persecute and wage w^ar" upon all whom they are pleased to call "her- etics." Hence it is, that wherever they have had the controlling power, which enabled them to do so, they have ful- filled this portion of the oath as faithfully and persistently as any other part of it. In palliation, it may be said that every citizen's oath of allegiance to a free form of government would prevent the obli- gation and fulfillment of such an oath ; but while this should be the case, it must be remembered that the papists hold the sententious and pregnant say- ing: ''Roman Catholics first; citizens next," We must not forget that the Romanist regards his allegiance to the RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 173 pv^pe, whom he calls ^'his lord," superior to that of any other ; and that this pon- tiff claims to be the head of the state, as well as the head of the church, inasmuch as his authority shall be supreme over all other, whether in state or church. Archbishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, ad- mitted in a controversy held in 1837, with Alexander Campbell, that he had taken the bishop's oath of allegiance to the pope, after he had taken the one of allegiance to this government. jNTow, with all the facts before us, and with the unreserved surrender of person that the papacy demands, is it unreasonable for us to believe and hold, that if the pope and his church should ever be brought into conflict with the United States government, that Archbishop Purcell, and all other bishops, would, so far as lay in their power, fulfill the conditions imposed by their oath of al- legiance to the pope in preference to the claims required under oath by our 174 LECTUBES ON THE government? Let no Protestant enter- tain the thought, — no, not for a moment, — ^that if the Romish church should ever gain the ascendency, a large majority sufficiently controlling, that then its policy and course of action in relation to himself and his religion would be the same that it is now,, while laboring under a minority. It is folly to expect this, when all history attests to the ut- ter impossibility of that church, in its officials and prominent membership, yielding its first allegiance to a govern- ment which is in direct conflict with its most cherished principles, and with its numerous antecedents of faith and prac- tice, as exhibited from its earliest dawn- ing down to the present day. BI8E OF THE KOMISH CHURCH. 175 CHAPTER VIII. Romanism repudiated where it is best known — The greater danger to the civil and religious institutions, from the decline of the Eomish church in Europe — Means employed for its establishment in this country — Progress of the church in this country — How soon will this country become Eoman Catholic? — Map of our great west in Eome — Balance of power — No religious liberty when Romanists once obtain the rule — A political church — New York City government — Dr. Cumming and the pope. While there is not the least desire on the part of the writer to pen a single sentiment of ill-will against any indi- vidual, as such, no matter to what religious creed he may hold, or, as the case may be, pertaining to no creed, yet there are systems so productive of error and injury, concerning which, in the 176 LECTURES ON THE light of our whole duty toward our fellow-men, we can not properly remain silent. We must warn others against every agency which is calculated, eithei directly or indirectly, to be injurious to the cause of Christ, or detrimental to the best interests of a good government, which is also the gift of God. Whatever the Christian watchman may discern of this character, the word of God clearlv authorizes and commands him to cry aloud against it, and to lift up his voice in admonition to the people If he does not do this, and destruction cometh upon the people,, then the sin lieth at the watchman's door; but if he warns the people, a^nd they heed not the warning, and evil befalls the church or the gov- ernment, then the watchman is clear; God remains just, and the people must pay the penalty of their neglect. Such a scriptural view of obligation forms an ample apology for the introduction of the subject matter of this work; sug RISE OF THE HOMISH CHURCH. 177 gested and enforced as it is, by a sense of responsibility. Romanism, in its relation to free government, is a subject upon which the people of this land need to be in- structed, cautioned, and, if possible, aroused; for if the same measure of indifference prevails respecting it for another score of years, as has been wit- nessed in the past, we are apprehensive that those of the next generation — our own children — will reproach us, the present generation, for not restraining the power of Romanism while it yet was within the power of the people to curb its claims of supremacy. Looking at the condition of the Romish church as it presents itself to-day in Europe, some may be disposed to indulge the hope that we have nothing to fear from an organization that has met with such repeated disasters ; that has been so largely shorn of its temporal powers, and that has had its influence waning 12 178 LECTURES ON THE in long-cherished localities. But while the church there may be seized with decay, and may be compared to a tot- tering and falling structure, so long as the elements of that church are not dissolved and absorbed by some other body or bodies of Christians, — so long as the membership retain a vital head to which they continue firmly bound, and which issues its edicts with ancient spirit, — just so long will danger remain. And the more so, because if European nations for their own safety repress the advances of popery, it will seek to make amends in those countries that afford the greatest toleration for its growth. The unabsorbed, non-incorporated ele- ments must have a place to develop and spread, and if not found where originally established and prospered, then they will lodge themselves in the most favorable localities, still guided and controlled by the old, unchanged, and now infallible head. What country KISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 179 — excepting ours — presents the greatest facilities for the cohesion and extension of these European rejected elements? This seems to be the status of the Rom- ish church. Repudiated and tottering at home, it is transferring its forces and strength abroad. Like destructive birds driven from one field, or like lo- custs or grasshoppers shaken from one tree, they but fly to another, seeking the one, too, that promises the most nourishment. The morally volcanic condition of things in Europe, and which has proved so unfavorable to papal claims, may lead a superficial thinker to suppose that the same weakened aspect is to be found everywhere. Far from it, how- ever, as facts plainly show. The papacy in Europe still retains its millions upon millions of faithful, devoted adherents. Defeated upon some of its battle-fields, it is concentrating its forces upon others, determined to continue the conflict for 180 LECTURES ON THE temporal and spiritual supremacy. It is a well-known fact, constantly reiter- ated by the leading newspapers of the day, that the ultramontane party is en- deavoring to bring about a coalition of Catholic powers for the purpose of crush- ing Protestant nations and the kingdom of Italy, and re-instating the pope in possession of his papal states. We can only, in this connection, quote the pro- phetic language of Archbishop — now cardinal — Manning, uttered at the meet- ing of the League of St. Sebastian, on the 20th of January, 1874, (quoted by Gladstone, in preface to the Vatican de- crees): ''IN'ow, when the nations of the earth have revolted, and when thev have dethroned, as far as men can de- throne, the vicar of Jesus Christ, and when they have made the usurpation of the holy city a part of international law; when all this has been done, there is only one solution of the difficult}^, a solution, I fear, impending, and that is RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 181 the terrible scourge of continental war, a war which will exceed the horrors of any of the w^ars of the first empire. I do not see how this can be averted. And it is my firm conviction that, in spite of all obstacles, the vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his own rightful place." Such is the sanguinary strain, the bloody words that fall from the lips of an honored leader of Romish aggression ; and such testimony, if requi- site, could be multiplied. But while the forces are carefully marshaling in Europe, to renew the strife when favor- able combinations promise success, the same is true of otlier countries, and pre- eminently of our own. The advantages accorded by our form of government in advancing Romanist interests, are not overlooked; the rule of the majority, so fundamental a principle in the choice of our rulers, conveys the hope that by increase, in the way of emigration and propagation, such a majority may be- 182 LECTURES ON THE come available for their own ascendency. Indeed, some of their writers, with more indiscretion than policy, boastingly tell us that such a desired position is only a question of time. Yes, time with its revelations and fulfillments will tell, and if their threat of eventually ruling the country and bringing Protestantism to complete submission, fails, as we believe it must and will^ it will not be because there is the lack of the most energetic, determined perseverance and effort upon the part of that church to have it real- ized, and, on the other hand, of a correspondent firm, united resistance of Protestantismj and good citizenship against its encroachments, thus neutral- izing the hostile plans and purposes of an enemy awaiting his opportunity of attack. The shortest time in which we may hope to see papal Rome renounced by her own people in this country, — as she is now repudiated in portions of Europe, — will be a period sufficiently RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 183 long to test endurance and arduous la- bor, although the defenders of civil free- dom, of an open Bible, of Protestant Christianity, and of a public-school system, unite in putting forth a faith- ful and determined opposition. The Hyacinthes and others may even come out of the more hierarchical pales of that church, standing forth as modern reformers of it, but so long as it can keep its masses in subjection and ig- norance, so long will it exert a vast influence in the world against free government, liberal education, and Chris- tianity of the Bible. We must not close our eyes to the fact that in proportion to its decline of power as a leading, controlling factor in European states, so does it put forth all its craft, wisdom, and energy to retrieve its lost prestige among the nations, and its loss of polit- ical power and religious influence over the people. It has been a question^ for many 184 LECTURES ON THE years in the Romish church, where its boasted infallibility was located. One party — chiefly composed of Jesuits and their followers — claimed that it per- tained alone to the pope, as the con- stituted head of the church. Another party — principally of those who en- deavored to protect the rights of king- doms against papal encroachments — insisted that it belonged to a general council of those holding the highest official stations and authority in the church. Others again, striving to effect a compromise between these two, as- serted that infallibility only adhered to the pontiff when his decrees were sanc- tioned by a general council, of which he was the head in virtue of his position. A multitude of tracts and books present and advocate these respective views. The second and third prevailed to a great extent, and greatly fettered the papal utterances, making popish dicta- tions measurably powerless when com- RISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 185 ing into conflict with the rights of kingdoms and of humanity. This was clearly seen and felt by the pope and the party upholding the highest hier- archical tendencies, and they success- fully labored to increase the number of the first-named party, and with such success that the pope convened a general council for the express purpose of having the doctrine of infallibility irrevocably established in his favor. With this as a leverage, the pope hopes to wield again the power at which formerly Ro- man Catholic countries trembled, and to secure a salutary fear and obedience such as was wont to be given during the middle ages, those halcyon days of popish aggression and dominion. The question of infallibility is now settled ; the decree is issued and accepted by the church ; the dissent of eminent prel- ates is crushed, and their concurrence expressed in submissive terms; reason, history, and faith, are yielded to the 186 LECTURES ON THE pope's demands, and the question is no longer an open one, suLject to dispute or investigation. The pope speaks ex cathe- dra^ and every good Catholic is expected to submit without daring to question the legitimacy of the infallible utterance. Romish prelates endowed with the pope's blessing, and guided by his instruction, return from that council ready to carry out whatever infallible counsels may hereafter issue from that head so un- friendly to civil and religious freedom; yea more, their own action and acquies- cence pledges then to such a course of conduct. They come back to this coun- try inspired with a renewed, though blind zeal, determined to eclipse, if possi- ble, the greatest triumphs of the past b} the brilliancy of future achievements. Romanism is now endeavoring to es- tablish itself in those countries where it is not so well known as it is by the people — through painful experience — of Italy, Spain, Austria, and other coun- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 187 tries. In the old countries it has con- stantly come in conflict with states, resulting mainly from its being recog- nized as the state church. Defeated in its aspirations of being the exclusive state church, and holding the state un- der its alleged supremacy, it is carefully preparing to renew the struggle, and secure a coming victory. While it is thus working to-day in Spain and other kingdoms, it does not overlook the fair prospect afforded by the peculiar form of our government. While insiduously carrying on its European projects on a broad and comprehensive scale, — while dreaming of a Roman Catholic coalition of kingdoms sufficient to meet and over- whelm a combination of Protestant na- tions, — it is not negligent of its interests in the United States, but led on by in- telligent guidance and a thorough knowl- edge of the points of attack, it seeks to re-enforce itself by recruits from the old country, by the influx of missionaries 188 LECTURES ON THE and priests, by the reception of funds to be expended in works of extension, and by the employment of all means that may contribute to secure for itself con- solidation, popularity, and influence. It does not require much attention to see that Romanism is closely observant of its own interests, of the weakness of its enemies, and of the means of aggression ; and if Protestantism preserves its vantage- ground, it can only do so by a propor- tionate activity and vigilance. This en- emy of ours is a foe that we dare not — without being guilty of the greatest imprudence and folly — despise. Societies of propagandists in foreign states and countries make annual con- tributions for the spread of Romanism in this country, and these distribute large amounts of money to localities where most needed and effectual. The emi- gration societies form a powerful agency in its behalf, largely increasing and multiplying the membership toward the RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 189 longed for majority vote. Thus, for ex- ample, an Irish emigration society was formed a few years ago in this country, which is but another name for a Roman Catholic organization, which has for its object the introduction of a vast and constantly increasing Romish population. This society has a large capital and agen- cies in every state in the Union, from New York westward and southward. Let the reader consider how these and other co-operative measures have ad- vanced Romanism in this country, and he must acknowledge that they are startling and full of warning. In the year 1800 there were in the United States but one bishop, 100 priests, and about 50,000 laymen. To- day the Romanists can lay claim — ac- cording to the ecclesiastical summary, contained in Sadlier's Catholic Directory for 1875 — to seven archbishops, 53 bish- ops,. 4,873 priests, 4,731 churches, 1,902 chapel stations, 18 theological seminaries, 190 LECTUEES ON THE 1,375 ecclesiastical students, 68 colleges, 511 academies and select schools, 1,444 parish schools, 215 asylums, 87 hospitals, and a population or membership of 5,761,242. To these statistics, we may add the recent addition of one cardinal prince/^^ A writer in the Catholic World says: ''The question put to us a few years since, with a smile of mixed incredulity and pity, ' Do you believe that this coun- try will ever become (Roman) Catholic? ' is now changed to, 'How soon do you think this country will become Catho- lic ?' " He continues : '' Soon ; very soon, if statistics are true; for it ap- pears, from the calculations of a late Protestant writer, that the growth of the Roman Catholic relioion in this (1) To indicate the rapidity of increase, we append the follow- ing table, taken from Dr. Van Dyke's "Popery the Foe of America." In 1840 there were 13 dioceses, 12 bishops, 373 priests, 300 churches and stations, and a population of about 500,000; in 1870 there were 53 dioceses, 62 bishops, 3,482 priests, 5,219 churches and stations, and a population of about 5,000,000. Hon. Mr. Gladstone, in his remarks on Romanism, makes the es- timate that in 1790 there was one Romanist to 131 of our popu- lation, and now in 1875 there is one to every six I Such estimates need no comment ; they speak for themselves. RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 191 country has been seventy-five per cent greater than the ratio of increase of population, while the rate of increase of Protestantism is eleven per cent less." Whatever reliance can be put in such statements, it remains true that the of- ficial statistics of the Romish church, in their own published statements, indicate a most wonderful and alarming increase. Stubborn and palpable facts, evidenced all around us, fully sustain those statis- tics. A professor in one of our western colleges saw, two years ago at Rome^ a better map of that portion of this country, west of the Mississippi, than he had ever beheld at home, upon which the line of the Pacific Railroad was traced, and every spot was dotted, not only where settle- ments now are, but where they would probably be made in the future, and a conjecture recorded as to their antici- pated importance. This is sufficiently indicative of the watchful policy of the church. These western places, where the 192 LECTURES ON THE prairie winds now sweep without obstruc- tion, are already^ — even at present unoc- cupied, — by the Romish priest claimed as his own; saying to the observer that at this and that point, here and theroj he will yet obtain a permanent foothold. These dots upon the map^ marked in the present generation, are the future towns and cities of the next generation; the controlling, political, and commercial centers, where the priest proposes to concentrate timely resources and develop his energies and means. Some, however, against all these facts, may say that there is nothing foreboding in all this to a free government. The idea that the Romish church should ever control the legislation of this coun- try, and through such legislation mani- fest its real spirit against, and hostility to. Protestantism, is to them preposter- ous and unworthy of serious considera- tion; a subject upon which fears are groundless and alarm unnecessarv. Let KISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 193 US therefore continue to show how this increase, to which attention has been directed, can be used to secure, when desired, political control. The follow- ing facts will place the matter in a clear light: When we refer to the presidential election of 1840, as the starting-point, it will be found that a majority of 46,081 elected the president of the United States at that time; 38,801 elected the next president; 139,605 was the majority in 1848; 211,901 in 1852, and 460,865, 491,295, 411,231, 300,000, the respective majorities of suc- ceeding elections. From the entire vote cast at these elections, we learn that, at a low estimate, about every eighth person is a voter. The population of the Romish membership now is nearly six millions, and this would make the vote of that church already over seven hundred thousand, or two hundred thousand more than the highest ma- jority thus far cast, and twice and 13 194 LECTURES ON THE three times the number of the major- ity vote in some instances. Let the majorities become still smaller, as in all probability they will, since the disposal of the question of slavery, and we discover that the Roman Catholic Church, which is a political church, — that is, controls the vote of its mem- bership, — has a sufficient number of votes to hold the balance of power in our state and national legislation. There- fore it can, — as it has already to some extent in the past, — when the propitious time comes in the future, say to the great political parties, ''We control over seven hundred thousand votes ; what will you give for them, — what appointments and influences in your administration will you advance in our favor?" Is not this already the language in the vocabulary of the politics of the country? Is it uncharitable to say that there will be candidates and parties who will con- sider such propositions favorably, and RISE OF THE ROMISH CHUCRH. 195 who, instead of rejecting them, will meet them with counter-proposals or bids? — especially so when the parties are nearly equally divided, and such a vote secured would inevitably obtain the desired victory. A much smaller minority than the Romanists control, has, in multiplied cases, determined the legislation of the government. Does any one doubt, judging from the past his- tory of that church, that if the oppor- tune time comes it will not fail to make a vigorous eifort to secure the legislation of this government in its in- terests. Did it not some years ago af- ford us a most striking illustration of this fact in the case of the largest city of this country? Examine the tabular statement of the of&ce-holders in Kew York City for 1868, and you will find that the following public officials were all Roman Catholics: The sheriff; the register or recorder; the comptroller, — whose duty it is to examine and cer- 196 LECTURES ON THE tify accounts , the chamberlain or treas- urer; the corporation counsel; the police commissioner; the president of the Cro- ton board ; the acting mayor of the city, and president of the board of aldermen ; the president and clerk of the board of councilmen ; the clerk of the common council, and fourteen out of its nineteen members ; the president of the board of supervisors, and eight out of ten of its members; five justices of the court of record, and every justice of the peace in the entire city; all the police-court clerks ; three out of four coroners ; two members of congress; three out of five of the state senators, and eighteen out of the twenty-one members of the state assembly. Such was the religious and political cast of that municipal govern- ment; and it was admitted to have been the most corrupt city government that ever afflicted this country. Such admissions were made by all good cit- izens within and without its limits, ar- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 197 resting the attention of the whole country by its flagrant rule. Indeed, it is within propriety to observe that so far as the city government was concerned, and the elements that controlled it, Sodom and Gromorrah might almost stand up in the last judgment day and condemn it as being a greater sinner. And with that array of office-holders, what was the influence upon the legislation of the whole state, in the direction in which the church desired legislation favorable to its interests? Let us take, for ex- ample, the important school interest, which, in the city, was controlled by the Romish church, and we find that, through exerted influence, the state legislature made appropriations for re- ligious purposes to the amount of hun- dreds of thousands of dollars. These appropriations ran from small amounts given to charity schools, hospitals, &c., up to seventy-eight thousand, which lat- ter was the appropriation in a single 198 LECTURES ON THE case. This was repeated for a number of years, and the principle was craftily shielded by appropriating a moiety to some Protestant interests, but carefully reserving the lion's share. Again^ the real estate of the city was largely af- fected by legislation in its behalf. Ex- tensive and valuable tracts of ground were leased to the church for religious and so-called charitable purposes, at one dollar per year. This is true of a num- ber of institutions, which pay a merely nominal sum for property that would command large rents. Reference is made to such facts to show what that church has done and is doing wherever it has control of city or state legisla- tion; thus practically illustrating what it intends to do, and what it inevitably will do in every town, city, and state, just so soon as it obtains sufficient infliience to insure success. The spirit exhibited in the past and the present teaches us plainly what, under such EISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 199 circumstances, we are to anticipate ; and the Romanist, under the hope of the prospect before him, is already de- fiantly asking the Protestant, " What are you going to do about it ? " The Romanist votes to advance the interests of his own church, which is well understood, from the evidence af- forded by the past, to be in direct an- tagonism to Protestantism, to an open Bible, and to a free government. The lover of the latter must accordingly act, if desirous to retain those blessings. Safety requires the exercise of wisdom and prudence. The Romish church is also, in the sense specified, a political church; employing politics as a means of self-aggrandizement; and to insure its defeat, it must also be met politically. By its votes it seeks to obtam power, and by our votes this design must be repressed. Some may say that this is proscription and persecution for opinion's sake. But it is not such; for when a 200 LECTURES ON THE church or any other organization arrays itself against our free institutions, aims a deadly blow at our civil and religious rights, and makes its boast that it will be a day of rejoicing wnen it can accomplish its purposes in their de- struction, such danger precipitates coun- teraction upon our part. Every Prot- estant and every lover of civil and religious freedom would be recreant to duty, who would deliberately cast his vote to elevate that man to political power, whose church is a sworn enemy to that religion and form of government which make us free men, and which impart inestimable privileges and bless- ings. No man should be driven from the simple discharge of duty by the cry of persecution for opinion's sake on the part of him who, when he has secured the requisite power, invariably lays vio- lent hands upon all that is most precious in the preservation of inalienable rights, such as our government graciously af- RISE OP THE ROMISH CHURCH. 201 fords. As well might the highwayman, who would destroy human life, cry out persecution when arrested in his deeds of violence and death, as that man who, when he has the influence, imperils the institutions of a free government. The latter will be the result here, just as it has been in other countries, just as it has developed the tendency on a small scale even in this, when the heads of the Romish church feel them- selves fully warranted, by a numerical majority or by political combinations, to enter upon a vigorous attack. A leading Roman Catholic paper of St. Louis — ^^TJie Shepherd of the Valley^^ — makes the following declaration upon this feature of the subject: *'In the future, when we shall have gained the ascendency in this country, — as we surely shall, — then will it be true, even as our enemies now say, there will be no more religious liberty, as there ought not to be." We can not thus 202 LECTURES ON THE speaK concerning any other church, Christian or Jewish, because all others are lovers of civil and religious free- dom ; they do not occupy the relation of enemies, or conspire against that which is so dear to the heart of every one who is a true American citizen. And w^e must remember that there is no common ground upon which we can fraternize with the Romanist. The fundamental principles which bind him to a foreign prince, and which place him in abject submission to the infalli- ble utterance of such a one, forbid a union. Come to him on the basis of the Christian religion and his pontiif, whose word is law, denominates you a "heretic" and a "schismatic," and you are the person against whom the prel- ates, by their consecration oath, are sworn "to wage w^ar." Come to him again as a citizen of this free republic, and he tells you that your free gov- ernment, your free schools, your free EISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 203 press, speech, and thought, are delu sions of the devil, atheistic, and god less, only calculated to destroy men's souls, and hence must be crushed. There is no ground as a common basis upon which you can meet and co-operate with the authorities of the Romish church. Religiously and politically, their flag is black; their oath is iron-clad, their arms are destructive ; and all this is now fortified and defended under an immutable infallibility, which the head of that church arrogates to himself. However Protestants and men of the world may regard infallibility, and may even smile at its evident absurdity, it nevertheless remains a most powerful engine in the hands of designing men, by which the minds of millions are controlled, either for good or evil. When Dr. Gumming, of London, England, re- quested of the pope of Rome, in an- swer to a general invitation, the privi- lege of attending the meeting of the 20i LECTURES ON THE ecumenical council, for the purpo« A reasoning with its members upon the questions which separate Romanists and Protestants, the pope replied, that the errors which have been condemned by the Romish church in the past would not be proper subjects for discussion; as if to say to Protestantism, through Dr. Gumming, that infallibility had set- tled these questions, and also so per- manently that they were not again to be re-opened. Upon matters involving the perpetuity of civil and religious freedom of a people, a word of warning, sustained as it is by such an abundance and variety of proof, ought to be suf- ficient. RISE OF THE KOMISH CHURCH, 205 CHAPTER IX. Polly of encouraging Homanism in this coun- try — The pope, where he is better known than he is here, expelled from Italy in 1848 — Napoleon's soldiers, and Garibaldi's march uponEome — Victor Emmanuel's election, and the pope's overwhelming defeat — The pope's titles — " Distance lends enchantment to the view" — Sentiments hostile to public freedom — Gladstone on the papal decrees — Dr. Man- ning speaking for the pope — The Eoman Catholic system in a state of dissolution ; but it will die hard — The mystery, Babylon is falling — The blood of the saints will be avenged — " The Lord God omnipotent reign- eth." In view of the effort now made by the Roman Catholic Church to plant herself, by immigration and otherwise, as a controlling power in this country, it is but folly on the part of any who 206 LECTURES ON THE encourage her purpose. This appears evident from what has already been said respecting her policy and her com- plete subjection to the behests of a foreign potentate. This is corroborated by her acts and declarations, as pre- sented in the preceding chapters, show- ing that she is engaged in sapping and subverting the institutions of both church and state, in the manner indicated ; that is, in the direction of civil and religious freedom. But this folly be- comes still more evident if we but con- sider that when nations in Europe, down- trodden for centuries, endeavor to release themselves from the popish yoke, and are to-day engaged in a bitter, unrelent- ing contest to beat back and keep down the exorbitant hierarchical claims, we, a free nation, and blessed with precious immunities, are encouraging the ad- vances of the same church that has so long enslaved Europe, and is now striv- ing to crush the rising civil and re- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 207 ligious liberty in those old countries. The struggle going on across the ocean, should teach us wisdom and prudence. May we not legitimately inquire, What possible advantage can be derived by our nation, or humanity at large, if the Romish church obtains — even temporary — control of this country? Will the spirit of the past actuate her when tri- umphant ? Why should we encourage the planting of the sprouts of the evil tree of Romanism in this country, when the old, decaying, rotten trunk is beaten to pieces and cast aside by its former supporters in the old country, and by other nations? If her fruits are so pleasant and conducive to the prosper- ity and happiness of nations, how comes it that the very people who for many centuries have gathered the same now so persistently refuse to continue to par- take of them? On what portion of either hemisphere may that church be favorably known by its fruitage ? Alas ! 208 LECTUEES ON THE such has been the resultant of popish ambition and work, that to-day the ad- vocate of Romanism can not point to a single influential nation of the earth and say, as once proudly was said, ''You are still, as of old, the staunch defender of the faith." It is reasonable to suppose that if the Romish church is the divinely appointed dispenser of blessings, as claimed, the people most directly in contact with it at the fountain-head ought to enjoy the richest of privileges, and ought to be the most obedient of subjects. A glance, however, at the prevailing senti- ment, as it has existed and now exists in the immediate vicinity of the Vatican itself, indicates the exact reverse. The regard induced by a long-continued re- ligious and temporal rule was specially manifested when in 1848 Italy expelled the pope from Rome, and a foreign prince, the French emperor, JSTapoleon, was required to restore the pontiff to RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 209 the pontifical city; and for more than a score of years the pope's authority was only maintained by the presence of a French soldiery. When the support of these foreign bayonets was withdrawn, the throne of the pope over the papal states tottered and fell. But a few years ago G-aribaldi, in his march upon Rome and through the states of the church, the pope's own dominion, en- listed an army with which he compelled Pius IX. to seek refuge in the same castle from which Gregory XIII. rang the bells in triumph upon receiving the intelligence of the eight days' mas- sacre of the Protestants in Paris, 1572/ For additional evidences of loyalty to the church and pope of Rome, and for additional indications arising from hatred to the former rule of ignorance and des- potism, and which the Italian people are measuring out to the pope without stint, it is only necessary to observe the enthusiastic welcome accorded to 14 210 LECTUKES ON THE the Italian liberators. And again, but a few years ago, under the very walls of the pope's apartment in the papal city, the commander of the Italian troops was greeted by a people perfectly fran- tic with joy; shouting to him as he came, "Long live Victor Emmanuel! Long live our liberators!" Aged men and women embraced the soldiers with the significant petition: '^Do not leave us again in the hands of the pope, his priests, and his brigands." The doors of the inquisition were opened, and numerous church prisoners, as they were called, were liberated and restored to their friends and liberty. Let the reader notice these prisoners ; men and women guilty of no crime but the alleged one of not adhering to the faith and the practice of the Romish church; the kind of criminals that all Protestants are in the estimation of that church, and the kind of criminals, too, which that church has found and RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 211 imprisoned in every nation where she obtained the power, under the specious plea that it was better to put one her- etic to death than -to allow him to live and persuade others to become heretics ; a plea which the infallibility and un- changeableness of that church has never forsworn, and which from her stand- point is regarded as strictly logical and consistent. But to return to the Italian sentiment. What was the result of the election in Italy, when that long op- pressed and in various ways abused people had an opportunity given to them to decide by ballot who should be their ruler in the states of the church? The question before the people was this : whether they would have for their king Victor Emmanuel, or the pope. And when the vote was cast it was found to be most overwhelmingly decided; for the pope scarcely received one vote for ev- ery thousand given to Victor Emanuel. How natural it was for the holy father 212 LECTURES ON THE —so-called — to contemplate, owing to the ingratitude of his children, a resi- dence in Sicily or in the United States at that time. This election, which alone is so decisive an index of the popular mind, was held under the very shadow of the dome of St. Peter, and within the states of the church, — in the place and kingdom where Pius IX. had ex- ercised unlimited temporal and spir- itual control, with but a short interrup- tion of two years since his inauguration, the 27th of June, 1846. Other facts, in the light of this great one, are unneces- sary. In relation to the pope of Rome, i1 is also true that ^'distance lends enchant- ment to the view." Pontifex Maximus, The Holy Father, The Vicar of Christ, The Vicegerent of God, and. Our Lord the Pope, — titles given to the pontiff in this country indicative of his honor, — are spurned with contempt and anger by many of his own people in the country EISE OF THE KOMISH CHURCH. 213 where he is better known than here. There are reasons for such feelings on the part of his former subjects ; feelings not merely confined to Protestants, but embraced by many who are still at heart attached to the Romish church, and anxious that in purely religious matters the pope should enjoy a kind of supremacy. The reasons as given by themselves are, that the pope has been and is still the defender of tyranny, when the people desire and love liberty ; that he is the protector of priestcraft, where the people dematid freedom of conscience in the reading and interpre- tation of the word of God. The incubus of the middle ages by which the first bishop of the church is weighted, makes him an unwelcome successor in the old dominion and among the nations of Europe. The ultramontane policy makes him a just object of suspicion to all en- lightened statesmen. Wot only Italians, but such meiii as Bismarck, Gladstone, 214 LECTURES ON THE Castelar, and others, warn the nations against a contemplated mediaeval reac- tion. We are not advancing gratuitious or unjust charges, when the following opinions are repeatedly advanced and promulgated in their public journals- First, that the principles of religious freedom, now prevalent in the nineteenth century, are not to be tolerated. Second, that it is the right and duty of the Romish church to govern kingdoms and states within its interests and in sub- jection to itself, and that this extends both to the old world and the new. Third, that the Roman Catholic Church should be the only state church, superior to the state, and that no other church shall be allowed to exist. Fourth, that to insure the triumph of the papacy and the supremacy of the pontiff, it is right to overthrow existing institutions in so far as they may conflict with the claims of the papal see. The assertions just made are fully RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 215 sustained by Romanists themselves. The ultramontanes plainly declare the su- premacy of the pope over all, while others, desiring to admit a religious supremacy of the pontiff, are opposed to his civil claims and interference with kingdoms, at the same time maintaining their loyalty as citizens to their re- spective states. Both of these classes, the one by supporting the hierarchical tendency to the utmost and the other by attempting to throw around it cer- tain restrictions favorable to allegiance to civil government, clearly and unmis- takably manifest the truthfulness of our statements. In this country the loyalty of many Romanists is undoubted, as exemplified in the recent war ; and this results from their occupying the position of the moderate party. But under the influ- ences now at work, and brought forth by the ultramontane movement in Europe, the Romish church in this land 216 LECTURES ON THE is becoming rapidly leavened with the old spirit, which is seen in the fact that the church, as such, is exerting its influence in the political arena. It does not require great sagacity to observe that the church is shaping its course preparative to using its whole power in behalf of that political party which will best promote its designs. In such a struggle, ambitious prelates, bound by oath to the pope, will secure the co- operation of the lower clergy and of the masses, whatever may be the protest made here and there among the more intelligent of the clergy and laity who perceive the dangerous tendency. The rallying cry will be, "Romanists first, citizens next ; " and this, under the pe- culiar organization of Romanism, which binds its followers to an infallible pon- tifi^, will secure the practical guidance of the masses, and, if requisite, the introduction of a coercive policy to se- cure the votes of the church in any RISE OF THE EOMISH CHUKCH. 217 direction indicated by its superiors. If we desire to see this policy exemplified we have only to look at Germany, and behold the conflict raging. The ques- tion with statesmen is : " Shall Ger- many be ruled by Rome, or by herself? or, Which shall be the stronger, the laws of the empire or the decrees of the pope?" The Right Hon. Gladstone, of England, who has carefully studied this subject, and from his position and experience is abundantly able to do jus- tice to it, explicitly says : "In the presence of these decrees, it is no longer possible for English Catholics to pay to their sovereign, the queen, a full and undivided allegiance." And again : "The Vatican decrees do, in the strictest sense, establish for the pope a supreme com- mand over loyalty and civil duty." "It is in my opinion an entire mistake to suppose that theories like those, of which Rome is the center, are not operative on the thoughts and actions of men. An 218 LECTUEES ON THE army of teachers, the largest and most compact in the world, is ever seduously at work to bring them into practice. Within our time they have most power- fully, as well as most injuriously, altered the spirit and feeling of the Roman church at large; and it will be strange indeed, if having done so much in the last half century, they shall effect noth- ing in the next." The same is true of this country, seeing that the papal de- crees — which so far as they relate to the civil power have, owing to a minority, remained a dead letter in this nation — are received by the popish prelates, and are becoming more and more dissemi- nated among and adopted by the Romish population. Dr. Manning, one of the most distinguished prelates of the church of Rome, in a sermon preached at the cathe- dral of Kensington, England, on the 9th of October, 1864, and speaking for the pope, puts into the mouth of the latter the following : "I acknowledge no civil RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 219 power. I am the subject of no prince. And I claim more than this ; I claim to be the supreme judge and director of the consciences of men, — of the peasant that tills the field, and of the prince that sits upon the throne, — of the household that lives in the shade of privacy, and of the legislator that makes laws for kingdoms. I am the sole, last, supreme judge of what is right and wrong." Such is the power against which other nations are contending, and it is the same which is now seeking to establish itself more and more firmly in our own land. The danger, too, increases in proportion as that church declines in other lands, and sends its European, popish popula- tion to swell the millions already drilling for the conflict on the political arena. If such facts and warnings are not properly regarded and acted upon by the civil, educational, and moral influences of the citizens and Protestants of this generation, the citizens and Protestants 220 LECTURES ON THE of the next generation of this country will regret with profound sorrow that they were not heeded. We do not be- lieve that the Roman Catholic Church will secure a final and permanent tri- umph in this country, — for we believe that the spirit evinced by England and Grermany would be repeated, — but it may, if we resist not, triumph temporarily and bring upon us, as a nation and individu- als, incalculable misery. The question is. Shall it even triumph temporarily and bring us into subjection to the will and caprice of a foreign potentate ? Shall it entail upon us, even for a brief period of time, the bitter experience with which that church has afflicted so many nations in the past? The Romish church, how- ever it may numerically increase here and there, is, so far as its temporal power and its arrogant claims over nations is concerned, dying; but even in this direc- tion it will die hard. Like the headless hornet, it will sting, and like the mortally RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 221 wounded beast, it will still fiercely gnash its teeth and bite. The remaining years of this century will be those in which it will desperately endeavor to ob- tain its ancient dominion. It will con- tinue to curse the light, which causes nations to refuse its highest claims ; but the light will not heed nor fear its contin- uous anathemas while persistently ex- posing and dispelling its encroaching darkness. The pope of Rome has blas- phemed the Grod of heaven by the declaration of his own infallibility, and his kingdom, in consequence, is num- bered. The handwriting of God is already traced upon the walls of the Vatican. The thoughts of the king of the modern Babylon are troubling him; the joints of his loins are loosed and his knees smite one against the other with fear for his dominion. Men and angels are preparing to join in the proc- lamation, ^'The mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of the abominations of 222 LECTUEES ON THE earth, is falling, is falling. Salvation and glory and honor and power be unto the Lord;" for he is avenging the ashes of Wycliffe, the blood of Hadrian, Huss, Latimer, Cranmer, the hundred thousand Huguenots, the Vadois and the Wal denses, the dwellers in the Netherlands and inquisitorial Spain, Italy, Mexico, with hundreds and thousands of others who nobly met death for the truth's sake, — who were burned and beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, — who did not worship the beast, or the false prophet, or his image, neither had received his mark upon their fore- heads, nor in their hands. God will avenge the blood of all these upon papal Rome; ''for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth," and rewardeth both the just and the unjust forever and ever. May the Lord keep the people of this entire land to be watchful of the important and sacred trust committed to them. RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 'Jj.S CHAPTER X. Brownson's admission of the necessity for the reformation of the Eoman Catholic Church — Indulgences and indulgence auctioneers — Price of indulgences — Eobbery of John Tetzel — What is meant by an indulgence — Purgatory — Missionary meeting in one of the towns of Ohio — Ignorance and thriftlessness of Eoman Catholic countries in comparison to those which are Protestant. Orestes Augustus Brown son, the some- what celebrated Roman Catholic, and editor of one of the principal reviews of his church, admits that a reformation was necessary in the church of Rome prior to the time of the reformers. This is only corroboration of the fact ah'eady stated, that councils, diets, and pontiffs made such admission as even called for a reformation. Such statements, therefore, 224 LECTURES ON THE have no special merit, being only the re- iteration of a well known historical fact, unless we accept of them as a vindication of the labors of the reformers. Thus viewed, they ennoble the work of the re- formers, and the more so if we but con sider that persons in private stations, under God's blessing, performed that which emperors, kings, councils, diets, and a few well-disposed popes failed to accomplish. This was no affair suggested by mere worldly policy, or by a sense of personal emolument. The pope's majesty and power had to be confronted by those who belonged to his own communion; and we well know how long men, actu- ated bj^ the truth, hesitated, in view of taught respect and allegiance to the pope, to rise up in opposition. The Roman pontiff was not then, as now, a feebk tenant of the Vatican, but one at whose feet the kings of the earth trembled, and one whose command the nations obeyed. The leading nations were all bound by BISE OF THE KOMISH CHUCRH. 225 special ordinances to the see, and there were none sufficiently enlightened and powerful to take the initiative in reform- atory work, as evidenced in the councils extending from 1409 to 1443. The Gal- ilean or constitutional theory, the opposi- tion of emperors and kings, were almost exclusively based upon temporal matters, the protection of the rights of states against papal claims and encroachments* Statesmen were more concerned in up- holding monarchy against the Vatican than in considering the religious aspect of the papacy ; the latter being only pre- sented in so far as it afforded leverage by which the former might be sustained. While it is true then, as we have shown, that there was, owing to political strug- gles and the sharp attacks provoked by them, and declining prestige of the pope; while increasing intelligence and learn- ing, the schisms of the papacy, the in- trigues and wars of the popes, aided materially in preparing Europe for the IS 226 LECTUKES ON THE labors of a Luther, &c. ; yet it must not be overlooked that such was the author- ity of the pope that no one could attack the religious doctrines of the church with- out personal danger, the imminent risk of life. This arose from the simple fact that, however statesmen might combat the political or temporal power of the papacy, the Romish church was the only state church whose supremacy was not only allowed by the wisest and most politic of men, but guarantied by treaties and laws which pledged the state to allow no other to be established, and even to crush all that the church might desig- nate heresy- Whatever historical prep- arations, and whatever the pressure against the secular usurpations, still, the purely ecclesiastical authority was ample enough, without a special intervening Providence, to crush all reformatory ef- fort in the direction of the religious and doctrinal. It was no small matter to enter upon the pathway of a reformer; KISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 227 it demanded a moral courage, such as the consciousness of truth and love toward Grod and man alone can inspire. Hence, when Roman Catholics admit the necessity of reformation, the difficulties and danger connected with the same greatly enhances our indebtedness to the men who braved and endured them in order that they might break the yoke of ecclesiastical bondage, restore liberty of conscience, and sustain the rights of the individual and of the state. The Scriptures alone could influence men thus to arise, when the nations still be- lieved that the pope held in his hand the keys which could shut the door of life and open the gates of death for all those who rebelled against his authority, — a pretentious claim which to-day is still professed, and which exhibits itself in the pronunciation of anathemas against offenders. In consideration of the mag- nitude of the work, the fearful animosity that it excited, the personal experience 228 LECTURES ON THE elicited, the grand results flowing from it, we hesitate not in asserting that the reformers themselves were specially sup- ported and strengthened by God, and that they realized the truth of the prom- ise that God is a refuge and help to his people, and that they who wait upon the Lord shall have their strength re- newed. Deservedly did they become the brightest luminaries, powerful and con- stant, of their century, and their names are destined to glow with honor down the cycle of ages until time shall be lost in an incomprehensible eternity, in which they ever reap a great reward. Luther .was, as Fisher (History of the Reformation) observes, "the hero of the Reformation," and "without him and his powerful influence, other reformatory movements, even such as had an inde- pendent beginning, like that of Zwingli, might have failed of success." Arch- deacon Hare (Vindication of Luther) notices that while Melanchton, Calvin, RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 229 and others may be considered, as eminent divines, apart from the Reformation, it is impossible to contemplate Luther thus separated, being identified with his great work in such a manner that ''Luther apart from the Reformation would cease to be Luther." JSTumerous writers have shown, and have largely quoted Luther's own declarations and letters to the pope as indicative of the same, that at the be- ginning of the struggle Luther still, un- conscious of the inevitable result and the hopeless antagonism produced, professed the warmest attachment and submission to the supremacy of the pontiff. Causes, which evidence a heart-felt attachment for the truth and a pure desire to ad- vance the interests of those around him, impelled the reformer, at first reluctantly, directly to attack the pontiff, and finally to deny his supremacy. Let us again briefly consider the one which was the immediate cause of leading Luther to enter upon th^ dangerous course that 230 LECTURES ON THE resulted in constituting him, as Dorner says (History of Protestant Theology), ^^One of those great historical figures in which whole nations recognize their own type." Prominent among the errors and practices of the church, and which was perhaps the most pernicious at the time, was that of the doctrine of indulgences. This rendered the iniquity of prelacy so apparent, and fastened the guilt of sub- verting the truth for the sake of gain so completely upon the Roman see itself, that it afforded the proper leverage, owing to its influence upon the minds of the reflecting everywhere, for the com- mencement of a reformatory work. When Pope Leo X. ascended the papal chair in 1513, the magnificent church of St. Peters was in course of construction, and in order to provide means for its speedy building, indulgences were issued which insured the remission of sins to all who purchased them, and thus contributed to the erection of the edifice. These indul- RISE OF THE KOMISH CHURCH. 231 gences were sold first by the wholesale to those who expected to resell them again. The right of territory was granted, after the manner of a patent-right, or book- agency, and these were divided and sub- divided, and thus '' farmed out," Those who bought a large number of these in- dulgences proceeded, in order to make the most of their purchase, to employ the best criers or public salesmen as indul- gence auctioneers. The countries were thus parcelled out and active agents set at work, so that, Erasmus tells us, "everywhere the remission of purga- torial torment is sold ; nor is it sold only, but forced upon those who refuse it." In the history of indulgences it is found that the earlier relaxation of penance and commuting of temporal penalties by ac- cepting offerings of money, led to the system of plenary indulgences, ordained by the popes in connection with the jubi- lees and pilgrimages to Rome, thus open- ing a channel for a most lucrative traffic 232 LECTURES ON THE and bringing millions upon millions into the papal treasury. Such indulgences, by the aid of subservient theologians, were based on a convenient fiction, namely, that of supererogatory merits, a treasury supplied to the church, which could be dispensed, at the option of the hierarchy, to those who lacked. They gave the promise that, under the authority of the pope and by virtue of his being the dis- penser of this treasure of merit, the pur^ chaser should be absolved from all his sins, transgressions, and excesses what- soever, and, as proof thereof, it was guarantied that the purchaser should be restored to the innocency which he pos- sessed at his baptism. For a money consideration, and not through a love for suffering souls, it was bartered that at death the gates of punishment should be shut and the gates of paradise should be opened to the purchaser. ^^^ (1) We append one of these letters of absolution, that the reader may see how they were worded, when signed by **the brother, John Tetzel, Com " *'Our Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on the, N. N., and EISE OF THE KOMISH CHURCH. 233 Here was a commodity just suited to the avarice of the prelacy and admirably adapted to depraved humanity. To mul- titudes in the communion of the church it was highly attractive and commend a ble, seeing that at a small monetary cost the greatest of sins could be condoned, instead of treading the scriptural path of repentance and self-denial. It is not surprising therefore to learn that these in- dulgences sold at a rapid rate, finding a multitude of ignorant and superstitious purchasers. In a publication of the Romish church, entitled, ''The Tax of the Komish Chancery/' we learn that the absolve thee by the merit of his most holy sufiferings I And I, in virtue of the apostolic power committed to me, absolve thee from aril ecclesiastical censures, judgments, and penalties that thou mayest have merited ; and further from all excesses, sins, and crimes that thou mayest have committed, however great .and enormous they may be, and of whatever kind, — even though they should be reserved to our holy father, the pope, and to the apostolic see. I efface all the stains of weak- ness, and all traces of the shame that thou mayest have drawn upon thyself by such actions. I remit the pains thou wouldst have had to endure in purgatory. I receive thee again to the sacraments of the church. I hereby re-incorporate thee in the communion of saints, and restore thee to the innocence and purity of baptism ; so that, at the moment of death, the gate of this place of torment shall be shut against thee, and the gate of the paradise of joy shall be opened unto thee. And if thou shouldst live long, this grace continueth unchangeable till the time of thy end. In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen/' 234 LECTURES ON THE following were the prices at which they were sold, adapting them to the monetary condition of the masses. Thus, for ex- ample, for making a false oath in a crim- inal case, the cost was nine shillings ; for sacrilege, ten shillings and c^ix farthings ; for robbery, twelve shillings. This last charge suggests an incident that is said to have occurred at this time. John Tetzel, one of the principal indulgence auctioneers, was robbed of the chest con- taining the money obtained by the sale of indulgences, and when the thief was apprehended and brought before him, the robber cooly presented, as his de- fense, an indulgence for robbery, which Tetzel himself had sold to him. The tax-list continues: for burning a neigh- bor's house, twelve shillings; for laying v^iolent hands upon a clergyman, ten shillings ; for murdering a layman, seven shillings ; for simony, ten shillings ; and thus through a long catalogue of iniqui- ties, the prices for the perpetration of RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 235 which ranged from a few farthings up to shillings and pounds, suited to the means of the poor. But numerous writers as- sert and give the proof that a scale of prices was adopted in proportion to the rank and wealth of the person applying/^^ It is also in proof, substantiated by facts, that, whatever may have been the restrictive idea of the authorities at Rome, the vendors of such indulgences sold them, not merely to cover the sins of the past, but even contemplated, intended sins still future. This abuse of the doc- trine, which then deservedly aroused the indignation of the enlightened and the common sense of the unlettered, has been (1) Thus, for example, Merele D*Aubigne (History of the Refor- mation, Vol. I , p- 215) says: "Kings, queens, princesses, arch- bishops, bishops, &c., were to pay, according to the regulation, for an ordinary indulgence, twenty-five ducats ; abbots, counts, barons, &c , ten ; the other nobles, superiors, and all who had an annual income of 500 florins, were to pay six; those who had an income of 200 florins, one; the rest, half a florin. And further, if this scale could not in every instance be observed, full power was given to the apostolic commissary, and the whole might be arranged according to the dictates of sound reason and the gen- erosity of the giver- For parucular sins Tetzel had a private scale. Polygamy cost six ducats ; sacrilege and perjury, nine ducats; murder, eight; witchcraft, two,*' &c. The simple fact is, that whatever the scale of prices, the same was, more or less, accommodated to the wealth of the applying parties ; the poor and the rich respectively paid proportionally to their means. 236 LECTURES ON THE discarded by the papal cliair ; but what- ever modification now exists, it is still true, as then, that the pope professes to bestow indulgences which remit not mere- ly the punishments enforced by canonical law, but all temporal punishments, in- cluding those of purgatory after death. The indulgence does not grant the liberty of committing sin (although its tender and manner of securing it virtually en- courage sin), but it removes or remits the temporal punishment due to sin, by virtue of a complete pardon of its guilt through the assumptive bestowal of the merits of Christ and the saints, lodged in the church. However much the Romish church may, through prudence, discard the outrageous abuses fastened upon the doctrine by some of its eager and un- scrupulous indulgence vendors, it still re- tains the error and guilt against which Luther protested. The Roman Catholic catechism defines indulgence to be ''the remission of the temporal penalty due for RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 237 sin after the eternal penalty has been for- given." That is, Grod forgives the greater punishment, but not the lesser one until the pope pleases to dispense out of the existing treasury of merits. It is a cun- ningly-devised doctrine, adapted to exalt the power of a church over man, and which virtually places his destiny before and immediately after death in the hands of the priesthood. The church, over against the Bible teaching and that the greater blessing includes the lesser, teaches that when Grod has forgiven sin and remitted the eternal punishment thereof, — as the priest may officially pro- nounce, — there still remains a temporal punishment, which, if not endured here, must be suffered after death in purgatory. This deduction^ so unscriptural, is found- ed upon another which distinguishes be- tween the guilt of sin and the punish- ment of sin; or we are assured that the former can be pardoned, while the latter, so far as purgatorial punish- 238 LECTURES ON THE ment is concerned, still remains. If, in astonishment, we ask how this can be so, the Romanist informs us that it arises from a distinction made in sin; that there are two kinds, namely, mortal sins and venial sins, the former (that is, the greater,) God can forgive, but the latter (that is, the lesser,) he can not pass by without the infliction of punishment. If a man dies in mortal sin, he goes ''to hell for all eternity," but if he dies in venial sin, the mortal sins having been forgiven of Grod, he must endure ''the purgatorial fire, in which the souls of the pious, being tormented for a definite time, are expiat- ed." (See the catechism of the Council of Trent.) ^^^ JSTow, indulgences are sold (1) It is diflScult to reconcile the traflBc of indulgences with Romish statements of the distinction between mortal and venial sin, seeing that many so-pronounced mortal sins were included in the category whose punishment was professedly remitted. While explaining purgatory it does not indicate how popes could forgive the punishment due to certain sins. That the reader may judge for himself, we give an extract from the Romish "Abridge- ment of Christian Doctrine/' as quoted by Dr. Gumming, section on Romanism, page 395 : " Question. — Whither go such as die in mortal sin ? Answer.— To hell for all eternity, as you have heard in the creed. Q.— Whither go such as die in venial sin, or not having fully satisfied for the temporal punishments due to their mortal sins, which are forgiven them? A,— To purgatory till they have made full satisfaction for them, and then to heaven, Q*-^By what kind of sins are the commandments broken ? A,-^ KISE OF THE KOMISH CHURCH. 239 or bestowed out of the merits at the pope's disposal, in order that the pur- chaser or recipient may escape the pur- gatorial fires due to venial sin, and which even may, after the remission of eternal punishment due to mortal sin, still tem- porarily attach itself to mortal sin. Such is the strange, self-contradictory, and un- scriptural status of the Romish church. This was one of the doctrines that Luther attacked; a doctrine heightened by the extravagant abuses superadded by its overzealous auctioneers, and which we will suppose was done without the connivance of a pope desirous to fill his coffers with treasure or soul money. Taking for granted that Leo X. never authorized Tetzel and his compeers to enhance the value of indulgences by im- pious, indecent, and shocking language By mortal sins only ; for yenial sins are not, strictly speaking, contrary to ' the end of the commandments, which is charity. Q. — When is a theft a mortal sin ? ^.— When the thing stolen is of considerable value, or causes a considerable hurt to our neigh- bor. Q.— When is a lie a mortal sin ? J.,— When* it is any great dishonor to God or notable prejudice to our neighbor." Such are some of the vain distinctions made by man. 240 LECTUEES ON THE and descriptions, yet a sufficiency re- mains in the claims set up hy the pon- tiff, in the unauthorized and dangerous prerogatives of pardoning power con- tained in it, in the lessening and dis- honoring of Christ's special and incom- municable authority, that an enlightened believer in the word of Grod must turn from it as a deluding, superstitious, and destroying doctrine. Luther, with the knowledge then possessed, could not tol- erate the scandalous traffic going on around him, and in the theses, alluded to in a previous chapter, vigorously op- poses the same. It is well to recall his words. In thesis 5, he says: ^' The pope has no power or intention to remit any other penalty than that which he has imposed, according to his good pleasure, or conformably to the canons, that is to say, to the papal ordinances." Thesis 6: ''The pope can not remit any condemna- tion, but can only declare and confirm the remission that God himself has given, RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 241 except only in cases that belong to him. If he does otherwise, the condemnation continues the same." Thesis 36: ''Every Christian who feels true repentance for his sins has perfect remission from the punishment and from the sin, w^ithout the need of indulgence." Thesis 37: "Every true Christian, dead or living, is a par- taker of all the riches of Christ, or of the church, by the gift of God, and without any letter of indulgence." Thesis 52: ^' To hope to be saved by indulgences is to hope in lies and vanity, even although the commissioner of indulgences, nay, though even the pope himself should pledge his own soul in attestation of their efficacy." Thesis 66: ''But the treas- ures of the indulgence are nets, where- with now they fish for rich men's wealth." Thesis 81: "This shameless preaching, these imprudent praises of indulgences, make it difficult for the learned to defend the dignity and honor of the pope against the calumnies of preachers, and the subtle i6 242 LECTURES ON THE md artful questions of the common peo- ple." In this remarkable production, the product of Bible reading and religious ex- perience, Luther, unconsciously, struck a deeper blow at the foundation of the pa- pacy than he himself realized. The theses taken as a whole display such confidence in and such a lack of knowledge respect- ing the pope's intentions and claims, as, for example, in thesis 50: **We must teach Christians that if the pope knew the exactions of the preachers of indul- gences he would rather that the metro- politan church of St. Peter were burned to ashes, than to see it built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his flock;" such a mingling of regard for the pontifi^'s su- premacy and power of the keys with a denial of his ability to free souls from purgatory; such concessions with power- ful blows, that we may well receive the utterance made by him at a later period concerning these theses: '' I allow these propositions to stand, that by them it may RISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 243 appear how weak I was, and in how fluct- uating a state of mind I was when I be- gan this business. I was then a monk and a mad papist, ready to murder any person who denied obedience to the pope.'' The vitalizing germs of the Reformation were in these theses, and as the conflict begins and widens, the reformer, by anx- ious and careful study of the Scriptures, has the truth not only confirmed, but strengthened, and by contact with the crooked and cruel policy of the Romish authorities, has at length his eyes opened to the arrogant and unscriptural claims of the pope himself. The result is so well known that it need not be repeated, owing to the labors of other reformers and the continued effects flowing in rich blessings upon Protestant nations. Purgatory itself, which is so directly opposed to the cleansing efficacy (I. John i. 7) of Christ's blood, and which was ut- terly unknown to the primitive church, is conveniently adopted as a powerful in- 244 LECTURES ON THE strumentality to advance the claims of tlie priesthood. It is a place of punishment exclusively erected for the faithful and pious of the Romish communion, and is thus defined in the creed of Pope Pius IV. *' I constantly hold that there is a purga- tory, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the faith- ful." The Council of Trent adds in its decree on purgatary that the souls de- tained in it are specially aided '^most chiefly by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar." Some of the Roman Catholic saints, we are assured by Bellarmine and others, have been permitted to visit and see, actually and really, and not in mere poetical vision as Dante, the misery of purgatory, and they describe the torments to be inexpressibly dreadful, so that some mistook the place for hell itself — as for example, St. Christina. Souls too, under purgatorial fires, have been allowed — so prominent church officials inform us in printed works — to return to earth in or- KISE OF THE KOMISH CHUCRH. 245 der to notify the pious of their dreadful condition, and that their sufferings could be mitigated and their ultimate release be effected by the prayers, alms, and masses of the living. The deliverance of souls from purgatory forms the most lucrative business of the church ; it pays largely and forms a constant means for increasing the revenues of the priesthood and of the church. Luther was weak enough to suppose when he posted his theses, that the pope out of pure love for souls suffering so dreadfully, would cheer- fully dispense the accumulated treasury of merit without money or price; and Protestants to-day still think, in their simplicity, that with such a surplus of merit conveniently on hand, it is strange that the pope does not at once cause a general deliverance, or at least bestow pity and mercy without the constant de- mand for money. A little compassion is indeed vouchsafed: those who are not able to pay liberally, either in indulgences 246 LECTUKES ON THE or masses, for the removal of the souls of their friends from the flames of purgatory, may nevertheless have the satisfaction of knowing that on the second day of Novem- ber of each year, called by way of dis- tinction, '^ All-souls-day;" such souls in purgatory will be remembered in the prayers and masses of the church. This concession, meager as we may estimate it, is, after all, only one way to direct the attention of all to their duty to give liber- ally for the sake of those in torment. In this country we are not yet favored with the pictures and representations which, as in Europe, &c., obtrude the fires of purgatory upon the notice of the people to dispose them to give money. The boxes to receive the alms in behalf of purgatorial sufferers are not yet so osten- tatiously presented as among other na- tions; but the machinery of the system is set up here, and under its skillful ma- nipulation the ecclesiastical robbery is kept up by which here, as elsewhere, the EISE OF THE EOMISH CHUKCH. 247 poor and the ignorant adherents to the Romish faith are made, under the plea of saving loved ones, to give up their property. The orphan even, in order to save beloved parents, is robbed of the pittance that they have left. All classes and conditions bear the grievous burden imposed, and must, if consistently believ- ing and commisserate, pay for pretended mercy and deliverance. So injuriously has this churchly demand of pay for de- parted souls, shut up in purgatorial fires, been in the past, that nations have en- deavored to restrain some of its ruinous results by legal enactments. Thus, for example, some years since the Belgian government found it necessary to pass a state law against it, in declaring that money left by a dying bequest or will to a priest or confessor should not be a valid one in the estimate or ruling of the courts of law, bv reason of the fact that the property of the dying and the dead was found, owing to the appeal to superstitious 248 LECTURES 01^ THE fears, to be passing into the hands of an avaricious priesthood. History evidences that the riches of the church have been mainly accumulated through this source of revenue. A most sad and heart-rend- ering appeal is often made to the feelings of the living to interest them in the de- deplorable condition of their relatives, friends, and acquaintances writhing in the fearful torments of temporal punish- ment. At a missionary meeting, so-call- ed, held a few years ago in one of the towns of Ohio, one of the missionaries of the Romish church portrayed to the con- gregation assembled, how persons were tossed to and fro in the purgatorial fires, and how satanic angels would thrust them under the flames whenever any of them appeared with his head above them ! This horrible picture was presented to operate upon the sympathies of the peo- ple. Such a meeting sadly needed, for the sake of the truth, other missionaries to missionate among ''the missionaries" there RISK Ol"' THE ROMISH CHURCH. 249 assembled. Thankful are we to God that he raised up men like Luther and his contemporaries, who held up the forgive- ness of Grod in Christ Jesus, over against this miserable, degrading, popish doctrine of purgatory and indulgences, thus exalt- ing and honoring the expiatory blood shed upon Calvary. We can but enumerate a few more of the errors of the Romish church from which the Reformation delivered us ; er- rors too that are persistently held and inculcated as reqT:^isite to be practiced by every true believer in that communion. The placing of tradition upon an equal footing, as binding authority, with the Scriptures, — the incorporation of the apoc- rypha with the canonical books, — the re- strictive interpretation of the Bible ^'ac- cording to the unanimous consent of the fathers," or according to the sense adopted by church authorities ; these are all recog- nized as important auxiliaries in sustain- ing the distinctive claims of the church. 250 LECTURES ON THE They are a conveniently arranged armory from which to draw supports to sustain every alleged departure from Holy Writ. The Reformation position, ever maintain- ed, is, that for doctrine and religious practice the Holy Scriptures alone consti- tute the infallible guide and directory. Then again, the introduction of seven sacraments and many ceremonies, the pe- culiar doctrines of penance and justifica- tion largely connected with priestly abso- lution, the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass which gives the priesthood such vast power over superstitious minds, the invo- cation of saints, the special intercession and worship of Mary, the apostolical succession upon which so great pride is manifested, the power of performing mir- acles continued in the church, the 'im- maculate conception of the Virgin Mary, the honors paid to relics and power at- tributed to them, the injunction of nu- merous festivals, the obligations of tho confessionals, the institutions of nunnei RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 251 ies, orders, and notably of the Jesuits, the conveyance to the bishop of ownership of church property ; all these, in connec- tion with others mentioned, form a system most artfully adapted to secure control over the consciences, liberty, wealth, &c., of the people, and to elevate the priesthood and hierarchy into a special privileged ruling class. The intelligence of Prot- estants is amply sufficient, with the Bible in hand, to refute a system which presents so many glaring departures from the sim- plicity and grandeur of scripture teach- ing. In looking at the system as a whole, it is well to notice that, as it stands to-day with its newly official-added doc- trines of the immaculate conception and infallibility of the pope, it is the growth of many centuries, its maturity being reached when it was supported and up- held by the darkness and ignorance of the deplorable "middle ages.'' JN'o careful reader of history — much less a Bible stu- dent — can fail to see how the primitive 252 LECTtTRES ON THE church doctrines were gradually obscured, then perverted, and finally substituted by the ones now in vogue in the Romish church. The truth even retained, — for truth still in a measure pertains to it, — is practically neutralized by the wonderful human additions which hierarchical ten- dencies and claims have added. Leaving controversy on doctrinal points and practices aside, the labors of the re- formers can receive no higher eulogy than that which arises from the practical re- sults. Acknowledging the reception of the truth, the spiritual and eternal bene- fits as contained in an unfettered gospel of grace and realized in personal appro- priation, to be of incalculable value, — the greatest of all blessings conferred, — it is sufficient for us to contrast the condition of Protestant nations and kingdoms with that of Komanist. Christ himself has taught us : " Ye shall know them by their fruits.'' If Romanism is the divinely appointed instrumentality, aristocracy, or RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 253 monarchy, by which the nations are to be blessed, as claimed, it is reasonable to suppose that those nations specially under its fostering care should, above all others, be in a prosperous and happy condition. But what are the facts ? It is the more important to ascertain these since Prot- estantism is stated by Perrone, — one of the most eminent theologians of Rome, — in his cathecism on Protestantism, to be ''horrible in theory, immoral in practice; it is an outrage on God and man ; it is destructive to society and at war with good sense and decency." These are grave charges, and if true, can be readily veri- fied by a comparison of Romish and Protestant countries. Without institut- ing a comparison ourselves, and which every reader is competent to perform for himself, we are content to refer to those made by others. The testimony of the distinguished writer of English history, Macaulay, — himself partial to Roman Ca- tholicism, as his voting for the Maynooth 254 LECTUKES ON THE grant and for the so-called popish rights indicate, and himself not so favorable to Protestantism but that he could indulge in disparaging remarks, — is worthy of notice, as the weighty expression of a historian and scholar. In the History of England, vol. I., p. 37, 38 (Lippincot's edition), we read: ''From the time when the barbarians overran the western empire to the revival of letters, the influence of the church of Rome had been generally favorable to science, to civilization, and to good govern- ment. But, during the last three cen- turies, to stunt the growth of the human mind has been her chief object. Through- out Christendom, whatever advance has been made in knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in the arts of life, has been made in spite of her, and has everywhere been in inverse proportion to her power. The loveliest and most fertile provinces of Europe have under her power been sunk in poverty, in political servitude, RISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 255 and in intellectual torpor, while Protest- ant countries, everproverbial for sterility and barbarism, have been turned by skill and industry into gardens, and can boast of a long list of heroes and states- men, philosophers and poets. Whoever, knowing what Italy and Scotland natu- rally are, and what, four hundred years ago, they actually were, shall now com- pare the country round Rome with the country round Edinburg, will be able to form some judgment as to the tendency of papal domination. The descent of Spain, once the first among monarchies, to the lowest depths of degradation, the elevation of Holland, in spite of many natural disadvantages, to a position such as no commonwealth so small has ever reached, teach the same lesson. Who- ever passes, in Germany, from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant principality, in Switzerland from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton, in Ireland from a Ro- man Catholic to a Protestant county, finds 256 LECTURES ON THE that he has passed from a lower to a higher grade of civilization. On the other side of the Atlantic the same law prevails. The Protestants of the United States have left far behind them the Ro- man Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. The Roman Catholics of Lower Canada remain inert, while the whole continent around them is in a ferment with Protestant activity and enterprise. The French have doubtless shown an energy and intelligence which, even when misdirected, have justly entitled them to be called a great people. But this appar- ent exception, when examined, will be found to confirm the rule ; for in no coun- try that is called Roman Catholic has the Roman Catholic Church, during several generations, possessed so little authority as in France." These words, which ex- cited so greatly the wrath of popish advocates, are abundantly proved both by history and existing facts, while the exception intimated is confirmed by the RISE OP THE ROMISH CHURCH. 257 Y^fj\ known Galilean theory, which so olt<^^ led to conflicts between the papal see and France. The material for insti- tuting such comparisons are abundant, and the reader, if desirous to make them, has only to take the map of the world and mark the Roman Catholic and Prot- estant countries, and then notice their relative positions in the scale of states and nations. The papal states, which have more immediately enjoyed the paternal and fostering care of the holy father, ought, if the claims of the papacy are just and true, to be the most highly favored, moral, and prosperous places on the earth. But what are the facts after many centuries' realization of the special rule of the Roman see? Let Gladstone, Wylie, Seymour, Murray, De Sanctis, Gumming, and many others, present us with the statistics of crime, education, &c., indicative of the fact that no Prot- estant state, wherever located, can be compared, in point of vice, ignorance, 17 258 LECTURES ON THE oppression, &c., with the papal states themselves; and which statistics show have wonderfully improved under the care of the Italian government. While these facts are startling and convincing, we need no better proof than that afforded by the immigration from such states, and the resultant ignorance and crime mani- fested in this country arising from that entailed population. May we not therefore, in conclusion, say, that if such is the fruitage of Roman Catholicism in its own favored localities, should we not carefully guard that liber- ty, bestowed by Protestants, under whose benificent influence and tendency our prosperity and glory as a nation have been developed? Taking into consider- ation the lessons taught by the growth of nations, — the vigorous and the stunt- ed, — ought we not to resist the encroach- ments of that church, which has crippled the advancement of its own people by interfering with their civil and religions KISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 259 rights, and by binding them a down-trod- den race to its hierarchical claims ? Sure- ly, if history has any force, if experience possesses any value, if our liberties are precious, then it becomes us never to for- get the warning of the patriotic and noble Frenchman, Lafayette, himself a Catho- lic, but a Grallican Catholic, when he uttered the memorable sentence, ''If ever the liberty of the United States is de- stroyed, it wdll be by Romish priests." This warning has been given by many others (see, for example, that of the Duke of Richmond, governor of Canada, quoted in ''Romanism as it is," p. 701, &c.) ; and the time is rapidly approaching, yea, is at the door, when, if neglected, the fatal prophecy, through our own recreancy, may be bitterly realized. 260 LECTURES ON THE CHAPTER XI. Our free-school system — Hostility of Komanism to it — Objection to the reading of the Bible in the schools only a pretense on the part of Eomanists — Our free schools declared atheistic and godless — Moral and religious subjects in our school-readers — Extreme folly and inexcus- able guilt of Protestant parents who patronize Eomish schools — Such become the destroyers of their own children — What a priest says con- cerning Protestants. It is to the interest of the Romish church to keep her people in ignorance, for such a people will be more submissive and obedient to the dictations of a priest- hood than those more enlightened. The more the masses are kept in an unlettered condition, the more readily will they yield an unquestioned assent to the temporal and religious claims of the Roman see. The proof of this is found in the facts, that the Reformation was preceded, con- EISE OF THE KOMISH CHURCH. 261 nected with, and followed by a revival of learning ; that men of letters have always been, as seen even in Galilean or liberal Catholicism, the most hostile to the ex- treme claims of the papal chair ; that the education of the people in exclusively Roman Catholic countries, including the papal states, has been greatly neglected, and, that the intelligence of Protestant lands is far advanced beyond that of Romish. In the latter, education is re- served for the favored few, and even then conducted so that it may contribute to the interest of the church, while the masses have no facilities afforded to lift them up out of their mental degradation. But here we must not mistake : when Roman Catholicism finds itself in Protestant lands confronted by educational facilities ten- dered under the auspices of the govern- ment and of Protestantism, anxious to elevate the multitude, then, as a measure of self-defense and to protect itself against a loss dependent upon enlightenment, it 262 LECTUEES ON THE meets the school systems extant by a sys- tem of its own, that, under cover of a per- sistent religious training, may secure the continued allegiance of minds trammeled by distinction of popish doctrine/^^ The course of instruction is so guarded that it may keep the mind fettered to its eccle- siastical dogmas, and in ignorance of the objections that are urged against them. Even its higher education, reserved again for the few, is secured by safeguards, preventing a liberal and generous study of human composition, &c. As proof of the latter, it is well known that a mul- titude of books, embracing some of the (1) To indicate that Romanism is forced, as a protective meas- ure, to its system of parochial schools, &c., in this country — as an off-set to Protestant schools, — a few facts are worthy of notice. In exclusively Romish countries scarcely anything is done for the education of the masses. Thus, for example, in Spain, where there are nine Roman Catholic archbishops; 93 bishops ; 100,000 priests ; 14,000 monks, and 19,000 nuns ; out of a population of 15,000,000, less than a million can read or write." The statistics of Italy, Papal States, Naples, Sicily, Ireland, Mexico, South American states, &c., as given in Dr. Wylie's *' A i^akening of Italy ; " Barnum's *' Romanism as it is ; *' Dr. Cum ming's lectures on Romanism, &c , show that but a small proportion can either read or write; in fact, that the church, when it has the control, keeps the mass of the people in a degrad- ing ignorance. Facts speak for themselves ; and when the Catholic World of April, 1871, endeavors to palliate this by say- ing, that altgough notable to read or write, yet they had a better education than the great body of American people, in that they received a religious one, it enforces the old adage that "igno- rance is the mother of devotion." RISE OF THE ROMISH CHUCRH. 263 highest and noblest of works, are abso- lutely forbidden to all papists to read, without a special permit of the papal see. The aim and tendency of the Romish church is self-evident when it puts into its ^'^ Index Prohibitorius^'' such forbidden books as pertain to Hallam, Robertson, Hume, Bennett, Maimebourg, Mosheim Merele D' Aubigne, &c., as historians ; to Scaliger, Fleury, Lightfoot, Dupin, Boyle Budworth, &c., as scholars; to Bacon, Bentham, Malebranche, Leibnitz, Locke, Kant, Reid, &c., as philosophers; to Dante, Milton, Beranger, &c., as poets; and to various other classes, including such names as Addison, Grrotius, Newton, Prideaux, Michaelis, Tillotson, and a host of revered names in theology, science, &c. It is afraid of the truth; it is afraid to allow men and w^omen to examine the reasons underlying the truth for them- selves ; it is afraid of the light given in history, theology, science, art, and even poetry, and hence, to keep the people in 264 LECTURES ON THE ignorance, it enforces, under heavy spir- itual penalties, prohibition. The common sense of any reflecting person at once suggests that a system which must be thus protected arid restrictively inclosed, is conscious of having that incorporated which can not safely endure the scrutiny of unbiased reason. Protestantism needs no such restrictions and spurns them as unworthy of the truth. It is this dread of the light, this fear of discussion, this apprehension of per- sonal examination, this earnest desire to keep in subjection freedom and private judgment, this effort to make all opinions and beliefs to tally with those allowed by an infallible pope, that forms the real basis of the objections urged by the Romish church against our free-school system. These are the causes or motives influencing her hostility against and her war upon it. The cry against the Bible in the school is only a pretense, for if Protestants would, as a matter of concil- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 265 iation, offer to substitute the Douay Bi- ble (the Romish version translated from the Latin Vulgate) for the Protestant ver- sion to be read in the schools, the Roman- ists would decline it, just as they declined to accept of the offer made by the late Anson G. Phelps, jr., of J^ew York, to publish at his own expense any copy of the Holy Scriptures that Archbishop Hughes might designate, in the Italian language, for gratuitious distribution in Italy. It is not the reading of the Bible in the schools that suggests the objection, for that would continue if the Romish version were substituted, but it is that the word of God is read without the tradi- tions and the interpretation of the church added thereto to prejudice and control the reader. This reading of the Bible brings the mind directlv to God without the mediating priestly interference, with- out the guiding hand of papacy in inter- preting, and without fettering the right of private judgment, and this makes it so 266 LEOTORES ON THE distasteful and hateful to the prelacy. The key-note to all this is found in the fulminations of the poj)es against Bible societies distributing the Bible without note or comment, and in the discouraging as much as possible the reading of the Bible, even the Romish version, am^ong the laity, because the traditions and ''the sense of the holy mother church" has added so many things that there is great danger of readers becoming dissatisfied with the additions imposed. If the papa] states and the Roman Catholic population everywhere had the Douay Bible exten- sively circulated among them ; if the possession of such a Bible were a common matter, and not, as it now is, the rare ex- ception ; if it were read in their own pa- rochial schools in place of the church books in use; if the history of the past did not so clearly indicate why the policy of keeping the Bible in the background and of obtruding the doctrines of councils and popes has been adopted and carried RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 267 out, then indeed Romanists might, with some pertinency, excite opposition. Be- sides this, the opposition is arbitrary and self-contradictory. They tell us that the schools are given to infidelity, atheism, &c., and hence charge them as being so godless that they can not send their chil- dren to them without their becoming con- taminated with the same. Assuming their position and argument, they are willing to make those schools still more godless and unbelieving by expelling the Bible from them, which, even though a Protestant version, teaches a God and our personal responsibility to him. Admit- ting the differences existing between the Romish and Protestant versions, yet in the eyes of him who really desires the welfare and happiness of his fellow-men they are not so great, for they have much in common that he would desire either the one or the other to be wholly omit- ted ^^^ JNfo! the real objection is not so (1) This is admitted by the New York Tablet of November 20, 1869. When speaking of the vote of the School Board of Cincinnati 268 LECTURES ON THE mucli to the Bible or to the declared infi- delity in the schools as it is to the destruc- tive teaching which discards the Romish traditions and sense of "the mother church." It is the freedom of the free school, the disenthrallment from direct popish interference in interpretation^ that urges on the outcry against the sj^stem. If all our schools were under priestly manip- ulations, and the tradition and decrees of the church on doctrine and practice were taught therein, the Romanist, of course, would exalt the system as the best under heaven. But unfortunately for Roman- ism, which depends upon so much for her *'to exclude the Bible and religious instruction from the public schools of the city/* it says: **If this has been done with a view of reconciling Catholics to the common-school system, its pur- pose will not be realized. It does not meet nor in any degree lessen our objection to the public school system, and only proves the impracticability of that system in a mixed community of Catholics and Protestants; for it proves that the schools must, to be sustained, become thoroughly godless. But to us godless schools are still less acceptable than sectarian schools, and we object less to the reading of King James' Bible, even in the schools, than we do to the exclusion of religious instruction. American Protestantism of the orthodox stamp is a less evil than German infidelity," &c. Quoted page 592 in "Romanism as It Is." This admission shows the insincerity of the change made and what is really desired by them. As confirmation of our line of reasoning we quote the frank declaration of The Catholic World for April, 1870, saying: "The difference between Catholics and Protestants is not a diff'erence in details or particulars, but a dif- ference in principle. Catholicity must he taught as a whole, in its unity and its integrity, or it is not taught at all. It must every- where be all or nothing,** RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 269 vitality outside of the Scriptures, our free schools educate too well and too much to subserve the uses and interests of popery. This was the reason why the Romanists lejected the compromise tendered by the Protestants of JN'ew York, namely, that only such passages should be read in the schools as were translated alike in the Protestant and Romish versions, and that offensive phrases found in text-books should be stricken out or changed. This is the reason why Romanists made no ob- jection to free schools when, as in some places in Connecticut, &c., some of them became exclusively Roman Catholic (see report given in '^Educational Policy in ''Romanism as it Is"). Hence it is that the Romanist paper, The Freeman^ s Jour- nal of ISTovember 20, 1869, plainly says : " If the Catholic translation of the books of Holy Writ, which is to be found in the homes of all our better educated Catho- lics, were to be dissected by the ablest Catholic theologians in the land, and 270 LECTURES ON THE merely lessons to be taken from it, such as Catholic mothers read to their children, and with all the notes and comments in the popular edition, and others added, with the highest Catholic indorsement; and if these admirable Bible lessons, and these alone, were to be ruled as to be read in all the public schools this would noif diminish^ in any essential degree, the ob- jection we Catholics have to letting Cath- olic children attend the public schools.'' The trouble is that the fre^-school sys- tem, especially as it is exhibited in our larger towns and cities, quite unfits a pu- pil who has passed from the primary through the intermediate and high-school studies, for Romanism. The increased intelligence demands proofs, and has a tendency for examination, that is both un- welcome and troublesome. The mind of the pupil has been more freely developed under an untrammeled education, which naturally leads him to think for himself. This sense of mental independence and RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 271 of personal responsibility, leads him to read the Bible for himself, and the result may be — as it often has been — that he will not confess his sins to the priest ; he will not worship the saints of the church ; he will not exercise faith in relics, mira- cles, and purgatory; he will not believe that a mortal man can by a few words change bread and wine into the real body and blood of Jesus ; he will not feel inclined to dip his finger in the holy water or to count the beads of the rosary, or to be terrified at the anathemas of church au- thorities, — all of which is exceedingly unfortunate for, quite injurious to, and destructive of, the claims of the church. The free education does not fetter the mind with Romanist pretensions and in- fallible, traditional claims, and in this is found the real objection to the entire sys- tem. The objection will remain as long as the schools exist as they are, no matter what compromises or concessions are made. And therefore the friends of the 272 LECTURES ON THE free school should fully understand that the opposition of the Romanist to any feature of the system means hostility and destruction to the whole system. He may pretend to prune off something objection- able here and there, but the purpose of his heart is to root out the entire system. The editor of the Catholic Telegra^ph^ the organ of Archbishop Purcell, of Cincin- nati, declared boldly and defiantly a few years ago, during the local conflict re- specting the Bible in the schools, ^'that it would be a glorious day for Catholics in this country, when, under the blows of justice and morality, the free-school system would be shivered in pieces, and that until that time modern paganism would triumph." By "modern pagan- ism," it is presumed, Protestant Chris- tianity is meant. And, we doubt not, in connection with the above might have also been found in the secret recess of the writer's heart the thought — yet imprudent to express — that it would be a still more EISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 273 glorious day for Catholics in this country, when, by their ascendency to power, our free form of government, so incompatible with Vatican principles and decrees, would also be shivered to pieces. To him who maintains that the pope of Rome is the only infallible authoritative head of both church and state upon earth, such a thought would be the most natural and congenial. We make no gratuitous assertions ; the published statements of the Romish church fully sustain them. Let us pre- sent a few of the errors condemned in the ''Papal Syllabus of Errors," — the highest authority sanctioned and given by the present reigning pope, — and let the reader ponder their meaning. The forty-fifth error condemned, reads: ''The entire direction of public schools, in which the youth of Christian states are educated, except — to a certain extent — ^in the case of Episcopal seminaries, may and must appertain to the civil power, and belong i8 274 LECTUKES ON THE to it SO far that no other authority what- soever shall be recognized as having any right to interfere in the discipline of the schools, the arrangement of the studies, or the choice and approval of teachers. ^'47. The best theory of civil society re- quires that popular schools open to the children of all classes, and, generally, all public institutes intended for instruc- tion in letters and philosophy, and for conducting the education of the young, should be freed from all ecclesiastical au- thority, government, and interference, and should be fully subject to the civil and political power, in conformity with the will of rulers and the prevalent opinions of the age." "48. This system of in- structing youth, which consists in sep- arating it from the Catholic faith and from the power of the church, and in teaching exclusively, or at least primarily, the knowledge of natural things and the earthly ends of social life alone, may be approved by Catholics." The foundation EISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 275 of these propositions consists in the de- termination expressed, not to tolerate the principles of religious and civil liberty so prevalent in the nineteenth century, but to enforce the doctrine that it is the right and duty of the Romish church, through its appointed head, to govern all things. Hence the pope teaches that the children of this country must be taught in schools where the religious and popish ideas of the church may be freely and fully incul cated. The devotees of the papal see, enslaved by the behests of a foreign po- tentate, and only too eager to exhibit how personal liberty can be yielded up to ul- tramontanism^ repeat the pontiff's decla- rations, and insist upon implicit obedience. We select a few examples, out of a vast multitude, as illustrative of this abject, encroaching, and destructive spirit. The Catholic World for April, 1871, says: ^'As there is for us Catholics only one church, there is and can be no proper education for us not given by or under 276 LECTURES ON THE the direction and control of the Catholic Church." The New York Tablet of De- cember 25, 1869, declares: ^'We hold education to be a function of the church, not of the state ; and in our case we do not, and will not accept the state as educator." The Freeman's Journal^ of December 11, 1869, states: ^'The Catholic solution of this muddle about Bible or no Bible in schools, is, 'Hands oif!' No state taxation or do- nation for any schools. You look to your children, and we will look to ours. We do not want you to be taxed for Catholic schools. We no not want to be taxed for Protestant, or for godless schools. Let the public-school system go to, where it came from — the devil. We want Chris- tian schools, and the state can not tell us what Christianity is," &c. The Catholic Telegraphy referring to the errors that we have quoted, forcibly re- marks: ''The 47th and 48th articles of the Syllabus have authoritatively settled for all that the exclusion of religious in- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 277 struction from daily education is a dam- nable religious error, which Catholics can not approve without a denial of faith and commission of sin," and proceeds in an- other place to define itself: ^'The entire government of public schools in which Catholic youths are educated can not be given over to the civil power. We, the Catholics, can not approve of the system of education for youth, which is apart from instruction in the Catholic faith and the teaching of the church." Freeman's Journal of l^ovember 13, 1874, says: " Education is not the work of the state at all. It belongs to families, and should be left to families and to voluntary asso- ciations " (over against the papal assump- tion, reiterated by a multitude of writers, that it exclusively belongs to the church). To show the insincerity of the last, and that Komanists can blow hot or cold as may best suit, we place in contrast anoth- er extract manifesting the willingness of Romanism to accept of even the state as 278 LECTUKES ON THE a co-operative educator under certain con- ditions. Thus, for example, the New York Tablet of December 4, 1874, defines its position: ''We are not opposed to public schools supported by the state, if the state provides schools for us in which we can teach our own religion, but we are opposed to infidel, godless, or purely sectarian schools." That is, while con- demning "sectarian schools," it demands them in her behalf as a right ; it is will- ing to have denominational schools for which the state is to pay, provided only that such schools are entirely under c/ Romish teaching. It is strange that while denying that the state has any right to be an educator, and under the above quotation positively asserts that "education is a function of the church," (although it also makes it one of families or voluntary associations), it says : " We demand of the state, as our right, either such schools as our church will accept or exemption from the school tax." It RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 279 the state has no right, as so often claimed, to provide for the education of the people, why make such a demand. Does not the same unmistakably concede that the state has such a right? If not, then there is no force or propriety in the demand. But let us continue our extracts, which speak more forcibly than anything we can j)roduce. The ToUdo CatJioUc RevieWj with more zeal than discretion, informs us: ''The Catholic vote should be cast solidly for the democracy at the coming election. It is the only possible hope to break down the school system. "^"^ The Catholic Columbian^ edited ''under the im- mediate supervision of the Right Rev. Bishop," at Columbus, Ohio, plainly re- marks : " Our judgment of purely secular schools is. They are unfit for Catholic children, and that Catholic parents can not be allowed the sacraments who choose (a) The election to which this extract refers was held in the State of Ohio, October, 1875- The candidates were the Hon. Ruth- erford B Hayes, Republican, and the Hon. William Allen, Demo- crat, then governor of the state. The election resulted in the choice of Mr. Hayes for governor — the counsel and wishes of the Roman Catholic Review to the contrary nevertheless. 280 TECTURES ON THE to send their children to them, when they could make use of Catholic schools." The New York Tablet again tells us: "The pope's syllabus of December, 1864, declares 'education outside of the control of the Roman Catholic Church' a dam- nable heresy, and the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati said in a recent editorial, 'The secular school-system is a social cancer, presaging the death of national morality, devouring the little sense of religion that Protestantism instills into its believers. The sooner it is destroyed the better.'" Still quoting from the Telegraphy it adds : "The organization of the schools, their entire internal arrangement aud manage- ment the choice and regulation of studies, and the selection, appointment, and dis- missal of teachers, belong exclusively to the spiritual authority. The state usurps the functions of spiritual society (the Roman church) when it turns educator." One more extract will suffice. This same T^Z- e^ra^^A comments as follows: "Catholics EISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 281 who think they can approve the secular system of public education which has been adopted in this country, would do well to acquaint themselves with the dogmatic decisions of the holy see, contained in the 47th and 48th propositions of the syl- labus, ' Aut inundus err at Christus ' — either the world or Christ errs." In the syllabus, the church has explic- itly and absolutely condemned education from which religious instruction has been eliminated. If any Catholic approves of this relic of paganism, he must, as a con- sequence, hold that the church has erred, and he has, therefore, given his assent to heresy. There is no way in which he can evade this conclusion, ^o sophistry is strong enough to enable him to pass this deepest of spiritual pitfalls. On this point, as in all other matters of doctrine, he must either be with Christ or against him. He can not make a neutral position upon which the condemnation of the holy see does not rest." We confess ourselves 282 LECTURES ON THE obliged to these writers for telling us so frankly and plainly that their judgment of and conduct toward the free-school system is to be controlled by the expressed opinion of a foreign ruler, whom they place in Christ's authoritative position. We read the specific utterances of the syllabus, and we find its ample indorsement in our midst. The meaning is not uncertain; the intention is clear; the motives — now urging on opposition — are unmistakably revealed. Let no one be surprised at the policy of the church ; it is one that offers safety and continued belief in a system of doctrine and practice that found its culmination amid the ignorance and superstition of ''the dark ages." Look- ing at the church with its claims over the individual and state, — claims con- cocted by the ambition and pride of man, and claims, too, most fruitful in misery and blood during the past, — we need not wonder at this shrinking from gen- eral education. We repeat: the intelli- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 283 gence and knowledge given under our free-fechool system, utterly unfits the pupil for Romish purposes and Romish enslavement, and this causes the oppo- sition coming from head and members. The spirit manifested toward the school system — if we need additional illustra- tion — is exhibited in the resolutions of a convention of Roman Catholics in one of our large w^estern cities, which stigma- tizes the schools as a curse to the coun- try, the flood-gate of atheism, sensuality, and civil, social, and national corruption, making God, who should be "the first knowable, the last thing to be learned." One of the resolutions, however contra- dictory in one point to other declarations, stated that the design of the church was not to drive the Bible out of the schools, but by a renovation of the system to have the Douay Bible, the Catholic catechism, in brief, distinctive Roman Catholic instruction introduced. Taking- all these things into consideration, Prot- 284 LECTURES ON THE estants are forced to the inevitable con- clusion that the Romish church has fully entered upon the work of controlling the educational interests, of this country, with the avowed purpose, in obedience to the syllabus of the pope, of subjecting the state to the dominion of that church. The free- school system is virtually based upon the principle which Prop. 15 of the syllabus condemns, namely: ''Every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason;" for the Romanist is bound by his religious faith that man is not free but must perforce, embrace and confess the Romish religion. Hence, ev- erything which has a tendency toward freedom, and which is unsectarian, is, of necessity, opposed and condemned. Prot- estants are too dull of hearing, and too slow in appreciating the full meaning of these plain facts. It becomes them, how- ever, knowing the fruits of Romish rule in other lands, to visit with their stern RISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 285 and unyielding resistance all tampering with our public instruction by a foreign priestcraft, or by those influenced by the same, or by any one who through fear or favor betrays our public schools into the hands of their most bitter and unrelenting enemies. One of the resolutions of the conven- tion already referred to asserts and charges that ''Grod, who is the first know- able, is the last thing to be learned" in the instruction imparted in our free schools. This would be a grave charge, if true; and we return to it in order, briefly, to expose its untruthfulness. We are told by an assembly of Romanists that He whose being and attributes and government ought to be first known and acknowledged by the child, is the last thing taught in the course of instruction in our free schools. Upon this unfounded assertion is, perhaps, based the terms '^ atheistic," ''godless," &c. It is natu- ral to suppose, when inquiring into the 286 LECTURES ON THE foundation of such a charge, that the series of readers and text-books used in our schools must make no reference to Grod. To refute this charge, and to show that it has not the slightest foundation in fact, it is only requisite to examine our school-books. Take, for example, Mc- Guffey's readers, now used almost every- where in our free schools. Having known the older or former series by use, it oc- curred to us that it might be possible that in the later editions many of the former lessons which refer to Grod might have been omitted, and therefore we have carefully examined the whole series. In all we have found the most distinctive teaching respecting Grod, the Savior Jesus Christy moral obligation and duty, the observance of the Sabbath-day, injunc- tions to honesty, sobriety, and purity of life, the scripture ideas of death, of the value of the soul, of accountability to God, and of rewards and punishments, — presenting in a simple form the funda- KISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 287 mental doctrines and precepts of the Bible and of religion. While none of these are presented in a denominational aspect, they seem to be selected because they are doctrines and duties upon which all believers in Holy Writ can agree, and which form the basis of all Christianity. In the first reader, a small book for be- ginners, the 48th, 54th, 57th, and 60th les- sons lead the mind of the child directly to God, for reference is made to him as the Creator of all, and enjoining his praise and worship. In the second reader, eleven lessons, in addition to others, specifically hold forth God and the Savior, the book closing with the ten commandments, as given in the Old Testament, and with the Savior's summary of them as given in the New Testament. In the next book of the series there are ten lessons of the same kind, introducing the Lord's prayer, praise to God, proverbs of scripture, the immortality of the soul, &c. In the next two books of the series, the fourth 288 LECTURES ON THE and fifth, we find lessons on Christian light and hope, religion in the youth-time of life, the righteous never forsaken, re- spect for the Sabbath rewarded, the good- ness of God, the Scriptures and the Sav- ior, religion the true basis of society, th€ consolations of religion, nature and reve- lation, death and life, the immortality of the soul, &c. In the highest book of the series, the sixth, there are twenty-five lessons on similar subjects, among which are lengthy selections from the Old and JN'ew Testaments. Thus, in the one series of books so gen- erally used in the free schools, we have more than threescore lessons directly upon subjects pertaining to the Christian religion, besides scores of others inculcat- ing sound morality and a sense of obli- gation to our fellow-man and to God. The same can be said of Harper's series and others, and, therefore, the charge of atheism, godlessness, &c., is seen, from an examination of the book employed, to RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 289 be utterly unfounded, and that the per- sons making them are unacquainted with the series used. And in addition, when w^e refer to the moral character of the teachers generally, who have charge of our free schools, w^e believe that it is a safe declaratian to make, that three fourths, if not nine tenths, of them also endeavor to impress those lessons upon the minds of the pupils. Here and there may indeed be a teacher who, either through Romanism, skepticism, or lack of piety, will not teach these lessons as they ought to be taught ; but the cases are rare among Protestant teachers, and of those who themselves have been educated and prepared for teaching in our free schools. Thus, then, the charge that Grod who is the first knowable is the last thing taught, is both false and unjust, both as it concerns the teachers, who all pass through the series in course of in- struction, and the books themselves used in our scJiools. 19 ^ 200 LECTURES ON THE The simple truth is this: all such charges are simply brought to make the school system odious and prejudice the minds of others against it. The men who make them do not themselves believe in them, as is evident from the fact, which a multitude of quotations from Romanists might attest, that Romish papers distinctly declare that they are not opposed so much to the Bible read in schools and to the religious instruction imparted, — that, although Protestant, it is better than none, — but to the free- school system as a whole because it does not aiford the distinctive Romish teach- ing. The extracts that we have already presented sufficiently announce this ; but in this connection we give another as compressing the sentiment. The Boston Filot^ in a recent number, says: ''With or without Bible reading ; with or with- out Protestant catechisms ; with or with- out hymn singing, in which irreverence and false doctrine blend, public schools, RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 291 especially for primary instruction, from which Catholic control and influence are banished, are forbidden to every one who does not set himself up as a Protestant against the pope teaching the Catholic Church." The free-school system is op- posed in principle to the teaching of the syllabus of the pope, and it is this which causes the hostility against it, warred by prelates, Jesuit priests, and ultramontan- ists. The sooner American people com- prehend the exact attitude of the pope and the precise teaching of the infallibil- ity, the sooner will they be able to see and understand that no compromise, no concession will be of any avail in this struggle. It is one of perpetuation or destruction, of life or death. The free- school system is opposed to the spirit of the Romish church which endeavors to crush religious liberty, binding both rea- son and conscience to the dictates of the so-called "Lord, the pope." Let a few facts be given in addition to those already 292 LECTURES ON THE presented. Passing by the official utter- ances of past pontiffs, we direct attention to the encyclical letter of the present pope, Pius IX., dated December 8, 1864, in which he condemns neligious liberty, calling it, after Grregory XVI., ''a delir- ium," positively denouncing it as ''the liberty of perdition." The following he announces as such: ''Liberty of con- science and of worship is the right of every man — a right which ought to be proclaimed and established by law in every well-constituted state," &c. The syllabus of error repeats the same, and the Nicaragua Gazette of January 1, 1870, published a letter, signed by Cardinal Antonelli, to the bishop in that state, de- nouncing " freedom of education and wor- ship," saying: "Both these principles are not only contrary lo the laws of God and of the church, 'but are in contradiction with the concordat established between the holy see and that republic." Hence it is that Romish periodicals, thoroughly RISE OF THE ROMISH CHUCRH. 293 leavened with ultramontanism, cordially receive such doctrine and plainly declare , it. A few extracts will suffice : thus, for example, the Catholic World of January, 1870, advocating the ultra position — which is the church position — that the Romish church is infallible, right, and has power over all, pointedly says: ''The state is just as much bound to respect, protect, and defend the Catholic church in her faith, her constitution, her disci- pline, and her worship, as if she were the only religious body in the nation." In the issue of April, 1870, it declares: *' The church is instituted, as every Cath- olic who understands his religion believes, to guard and defend the rights of God Dn earth against any and every enemy, at all times and in all places. She, there- fore, does not and can not accept, or in any degree favor, liberty in the Protest- ant sense of liberty." Such extracts could be multiplied, as seen in many given by Barnum in his "Romanism as it Is," and 294 LECTURES ON THE in various recent publications, but they are not needed in the light of the official utterances of the holy see. We may, therefore, as illustrative of the result aimed at, present one or two which necessarily imply and include, by their spirit, the de- struction of the school system. Brown- sorts Quarterly Review for October, 1852, informs us: "All the rights the sects have, or can have, are derived from the state, and rest on expediency. As they have in their character of sects, hostile to the true religion, no rights under the law of nature or the law of God, they are niether wronged nor deprived of liberty if the state refuses to grant them any rights at all." That is, a state under Romish control ; for, as the Shepherd of the Valley said, November 23, 1851, perhaps imprudently, but at least honestly, ^' The church is of necessity intolerant. Heresy .she endures w^hen and where she must; but she hates it, and directs all her ener- gies to its destruction. If Catholics ever KISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 295 gain an immense numerical majority, re- ligious freedom in this country is at an end. So our enemies say. So we believe." Now, with such testimony before us, such plain declarations from both the head and the members, such a determi- nation expressed to suffer nothing to exist that will not acknowledge the su- premacy of the Romish church and accept of its unquestioned rule, can faithful cit- izens or Protestants doubt any longer the reasons and motives which actuate prel- ates, priests, and an enslaved laity to such determined hostility against our free- school system ? That man must be blind indeed who fails to see that it is caused by the dictation of a foreign potentate, because its freedom is antagonistic to the claims of the church itself — claims en- forced by a mass of traditions which, in the nature of the case, the school system can not teach. In connection w^ith this subject it is well to consider the Romish schools and 296 LECTURES ON THE teaching which it is proposed to substitute for the free-school system. This becomes the more important because Romanists claim their superiority over Protestant schools, and some Protestants extend their patronage to such schools. Patronage is solicited, too, on the ground of such su- periority, and, therefore, it may be well for us briefly to notice a claim illustrated in the purpose and eifort to root out all other schools. What foundation has this pretension, in the light of history and existing facts? If the Romish church Jias the superior schools and seminaries, as they maintain, and as some misguided Protestants think, certainly it would be manifest in the fruits, the superior re- sults. How does it happen, however, that where the intellectual and mora] training of whole nations and communities are under their exclusive control, there the greatest ignorance and immorality prevail? Should not those who are educated in their schools give some ETSE OF THE ROMISH CHUECH. 297 evidence of their superiority in intelli- gence ; and ought not the same to be ex- tended, noticeably, among the masses? A school, or college, or seminary, is known by its fruits, as a tree is known by its fruits. Judging simply by this rule, — a practical one, — no one regards Spain, or Italy, or Ireland, or Brazil, or Mexico, or any other Roman Catholic country, as particularly distinguished for either a high moral or intellectual citizenship. Indeed, the reverse is true; for while there may be here and there individual exceptions, the rule is that the more ex- clusively Romanist the nation or people are, and the more they are brought under the distinctive Romish educational proc- ess, the more illiterate the citizenship. Outside of China and Africa, among all the professedly civilized and enlightened nations of the earth, the population of the Romanist countries indicate the least moral and intellectual culture. We can not forget the past, how a Galileo, a 298 LECTURES ON THE Dante, a Petrarch, an Ariosto, a Tasso, with many others, suffered under the fos- tering care of the church; how in ''the dark ages " learning was crushed by the weight of its power ; how popes issued prohibitions against books translated from the Greek, Hebrew, or Arabic; how the Inquisition of Cologne obtained an im- perial edict to burn all Hebrew books; how the faculty of theology of the uni- versity of Paris declared that religion would be ruined if the study of Greek and Hebrew were permitted ; how the church has employed every means to keep the masses in ignorance, and how she now directs what books, written bv the most eminent men and scholars, even her edu- cated members are forbidden to read, without a special dispensation, under censure of mortal sin. Ten thousand facts, centuries covered with the pall of dark- ness, tell us that Romanism is not partial to the prevalence of intelligence and the diffusion of education among the masses. EISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 299 But it may be replied that the schools organized in this country, as a necessary protection against the encroachment of American schools, are more liberal in their education, and bring forth a higher grade of intelligence. We frankly admit that the privileges thus accorded to the children of Romanists are of a higher grade than those found in other Roman Catholic countries, — and this is forced upon them, in a measure, by the presence of the other schools, — but that thev are inferior to the non-Catholic schools is verv evident from the admission of t/ one of the champions of popery. Orestes A. Browning, LL. D., in the Quarterly Review for January, 1862, emphatically writes : '' They (that is, Roman Catholic schools and colleges,) practically fail to recognize human progress. ... As far as we are able to trace the effect of the most approved Catholic education of our day, whether at home or abroad, it tends to repress rather than quicken 300 LECTURES ON THE the life of the pupil, to unfit rather than prepare him for the active and zealous discharge either of his relig- ious or social duties. They who are educated in our schools seem misplaced and mistimed in the world, as if born for a world that has ceased to exist. . . . Comparatively few of them (that is. Cath- olic graduates) take their stand as schol- ars or as men, on a level with the gradu- ates of non-CathoUc colleges, and those who do take that stand do it by throwing aside nearly all they learned from their Alma Mater^ and adopting the ideas and principles, the modes of thought and ac- tion they find in the general civilization of the country in which they live. . . . The cause of the failure of what we call Catholic education is, in our judgment, in the fact that we educate not for the pres- ent or the future, but for the past. . . . We do not mean that the dogmas are not scrupulously taught in all our schools and colleges, nor that the words of the cate- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 301 ehism are not duly insisted upon. We concede this, and that gives to our so- called Catholic schools a merit which no others have or can have. . . . There can be no question that what passes for Catholic education in this or any other country has its ideal of perfection in the past, and that it resists as un-Catholic, irreligious, and opposed to God, the tend- encies of modern civilization. . . . The w^ork it gives its subjects, or prepares them to perform, is not the work of car- rying it forward, but that of resisting it, driving it back, anathematizing it as at war with the gospel, and either of neg- lecting it altogether or taking refuge in the cloister, in an exclusive or exagger- ated asceticism, always bordering on im- morality, or of restoring a former order of civilization, no longer a living order, and which humanity has evidently left behind and is resolved shall never be restored. . . ." (Quoted in ''Romanism a« it Is," p. 612-613). Precisely so! 302 LECTUEES ON THE These unpalatable words to Romanists, but manly and outspoken, give us the truth. They inform us that the charge made by Gladstone is true, that Roman- ism, including its educational efforts, is constantly falling back upon its middle-age position, ignoring and pressing against the advancino; civilization of the aire. And here is where the inferiority of Romanist education and the superiority of Protestant can be clearly distinguished. The former only allows an education which fetters the mind and heart, reason and faith, by the shackles wrought in the dark ages; the latter gives freedom of investigation, appeals to the moral and intellectual consciousness of man, and supports itself in the liberty of conscience and private judgment. The former en- slaves man to traditional dogma, making every acquisition bend and conform to the same; the latter, relying upon truth commending itself to the mental and mo al constitution of man, makes no re- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 303 strictions, aifording to every one the priv- ileges that are inalienable and God-given. Hence the results as exhibited, as, for example, in Italy, when contrasted with England; in Spain, when compared wdth Germany; in Mexico, when placed at the side of the United States. The pope always looks to the past, and nrges its restoration, for then his power would be heightened, — and education, in all its branches, is leavened and thoroughly permeated by this spirit of the head of the church. It is, as Brownson justly remarks, opposed to progress ; and, there- fore, it advances like the crab, backward. Why then should Protestants patronize Roman Catholic schools? The tendency, as we have show^n, is to repress progress, to bind intelligence by dogma, and to re- store, if possible, the condition of the past. Vast sums are expended by the Roman- ists in these educational efforts, and but few of their schools have failed, owing to the church coming to their help when 304 LECTURES ON THE pecuniarily pressed. The reason then why Romish schools and seminaries have so often succeeded and are so flourishing in this country, while Protestant ones in some cases have failed, is owing, not to the superiority of the former over the latter, but to support given to them and even by Protestants arising from a false and injurious opinion on the subject. Prot- estant parents have withheld their sup- port fronf Protestant schools, and have given it to Romish schools, under the impression that in the latter was to be found an education which afforded meu tal discipline. But in many of them^ if not all, devoted especially to female edu- cation, there is largely a mere finger- work, showy and fanciful, more orna- mental than useful, which might more properly pertain to a fancy store or mil- linery establishment than to the school- room. And yet for such tinsel, Protestant parents are willing to educate their daugh- ters at an expenditure of a thousand dol- EISE OF THE ROMISH CHUCRH. 305 lars per year in such seminaries, while Protestant seminaries all over the land, far superior in the facilities of acquiring a thorough education adapted to the age, and requiring far less expense, are obliged, for the lack of pupils, to drag along or to close. It is to be hoped that as the truth becomes more apj)arent that woman's mind is susceptible of the highest develop- ment, that she can make vast progress in all departments of knowledge, that she has the largest capabilities for the useful as well as for the ornamental, so also will there be an increased patronage of Prot- estant schools, colleges, and seminaries, w^hich for years have been struggling for favorable recognition, because their sys- tem of education is based on preparing the youth of both sexes for the duties as well as for the refinements of life. The patronage, of Romish schools has been one of the Protestant errors of this country, and the result is witnessed in several re- spects. The children have received a far 20 306 LECTUKES ON THE inferior education intellectually, and a worse one morally; and, as a rule, they are so bound to Romanism that they ei- ther embrace it or ever after regard it with special favor. No Protestant parent should for a moment imagine that a son or daughter will not attain a Roman- izing tendency and bias, after passing through a Romish course of instruction for four or five years, — after studying only such text-books and singing only such songs, inculcating popish doctrines, the lives of the saints and the histories, as may be approved by the prelates, — after being obliged, during this course, to attend the daily service and worship made attractive to eye and ear, — and after that special favor and kindness shown to Prot- estant children, which brings them home with hearts gushing full of friendship and affection for the dear and sweet Jesuitical sisters and brothers. Children, in their inexperience and trust, can not see that kindness may be self-interested and de- RISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 307 signed for proselyting; that it may be only the concealed adder in the basket of flowers. The parent is much more cred- ulous than wise w^hen he believes the Jesuit father, who tells him that the re- ligious principles of his children shall in no way be interfered with at their schools. We say Jesuits, because nearly all of their schools, colleges, and seminaries are un- der the control of the order of Jesuits, both in this and other countries. Other countries realized this to such an extent, that history directs us, that in view of the extreme ultramontanism taught in the schools, states, in self-defense, disbanded the order through the pope, and expelled them from their dominions. Have these Jesuitical instructors, restored again by the pontiff, given up their ultramontane principles and teaching? How can they, both in view of the professed unchange- ableness of them, and of the return of the holy father to the most extreme ultra- montanism ? A Jesuit to-day is the same 308 LECTURES ON THE in spirit and purpose that he was when expelled from the countries of Europe; with this addition, that the experience of the past has given him increased caution. The pledge of non-interference with relig- ious principles may be estimated in the light of the history of the order, and of the well-known results in England and this country. A converted Ron\an Cath- olic priest, writing on this subject, said, ^'that he himself admitted ninety Prot- estants into the Romish church, the most of whom were brought in by the influence of nuns and nunneries." While a priest at Rome, he says, he has seen Protestant parents bring their daughters to be edu- cated in nunneries. The parents would stipulate that their religion should not be interfered with, and then leave their chil- dren in confidence and in simplicity. But, he adds, they were uniformly laughed at for their credulity, and no effort was ever spared in some way or other to bring the pupil into the church of Rome. The low- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 309 est estimate made of conversions to Ro- manism is, that seven tenths of Protest- ants thus educated become Roman Cath- olics. "In one convent nearly twenty Protestant girls renounced Protestantism, and were baptized by the priest in three months. Of forty Protestant girls sent at one time to a nunnery at Montreal, it is said that thirtv-ei^ht became Roman Cath- olic." And let it be borne in mind that such baptisms and conversions may take place without informing the parents or consulting them. When educated clergy, intelligent men and women, are seduced by the specious pleas of Romanism, and pass over to ultramontanism, what can we expect from youth when thrown into daily and constant contact with a system- atic effort at proselyting. Nor, when con- sidering the views entertained by the Ro- manist, can we greatly censure them for their misguided zeal. From their stand- point, this is done consistently ; for they would be dishonest to their convictions of 310 LECTUKES ON THE duty if they did not engage in such work, seeing that they affirm and believe that their church is the only one in which sal- vation can be obtained, and that all others are merely congregations of heretics, in- fidels, and pagans. They would be treach- erous to their own cause and church, did they not employ the most energetic efforts to bring those under their influence and teaching into what they are pleased to designate the only true church upon the earth. Let Protestant parents and children view the Romish scliools from the proper stand - point, — the Protestant one, — and they will profit by it. Parents will see that they are necessarily permeated with pon- tifical restrictions and traditions, which fetter the mind and heart, and which de- stroy that freedom so essential to the highest intelligence. They will discover that there is the greatest folly manifested in their placing their children throughout the most important, because formative, RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 311 period of their lives into relations by which they must become more or less af- fected by the errors of Komanism, if not entirely persuaded into the advocacy and adoption ot them. Cases have come un- der my own observation in which the children of Protestants, comparatively but a short time under the influence of the sisters of the Romish seminary, re- turned to their homes, and would count the beads of the rosary with the assur- ance of the most devout Romanist that by such means they would again recover some property, as an article of clothing, a piece of jewelry, or some money, which they had lost. This only indicates how susceptible youth is of impressions, and how, in the confidence and simplicity peculiar to it, errors are imbibed, es- pecially when presented by those who find their way to their hearts by special kindness. Hence it is that Romanists boast of the fact that if children of Prot- estants, falling under their teaching, do 312 LECTUEES OK THE not fully enter into the communion of their church, they are at least spoiled for Protestantism. The simple truth is, that we can not tamper with, or concede to, or place ourselves under the direct in- fluence of Romanism without danger. Let us rest assured of this, that a church which can allow the stealing of children, as in the Mortara case, etc., to make con- verts ; a church which will advocate the baptism of children by way of deceit (see report of missions in China, in ^'Ro- manism as It Is "); a church which claims that all persons belong to it and that any method to secure allegiance is right and proper, — such a church will not miss the opportunity afforded by Protestant patronage of its schools. In conclusion: looking at the free- school system as it exists, dispensiDg the blessings of intelligence, general knowledge, and preparation for the duties of life and free government; be- holding the broad contrast afforded by RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 313 Romish and Protestant countries in the education and intelligence of the masses ; realizing the privileges extended under the Protestant system of instruction in he greater freedom, etc., experienced ; seeing the superiority of Protestant schools over those of Romanism, dem- onstrated by the results as witnessed in the relative positions of nations, we say that no Protestant, no patriot, no good citizen, can possibly oppose, by way of conciliating popery, our free-school sys- tem, or encourage, by way of patronage, Romish schools and svstem, without be- ing recreant to his greatest interests and the welfare of this nation. As we love the civil institutions of our land, which have cost us millions and millions of treasure ; as we love the liberty and in- telligence of our country, which have cost millions of lives in order that they might unimpaired go down the stream of time to generations unborn; as we love the Bible, the open Bible, the greatest 314 LECTURES ON THE boon to the soul next to a SavioT ; as we love freedom to worship God, freedom of access to a Redeemer without priestly interference, freedom of concience without an imposed traditionary restraint ; and as we love the children whom God has kindly given to us, desirous to secure and perpetuate their happiness, let such love influence us always to maintain the prin- ciples of an evangelical Protestantism for this great land — the principles adopted and incorporated, by our forefathers, in the free government of this country. After the experience we have had, oh, what a shame, disgrace, and crime it would be to let the dark and foul hand of Romanism cover this land and crush it down as it has blasted its own once fair Italy and other once favored lands. In the advance of civil freedom, combined with Protestantism, there is light, life, hope — freedom for the mind and the soul to think and act, with faith in the God over head, and with faith and peace and RISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 315 salvation in the divine advocate for us with God. But in Romanism, as history attests, and as living nations to-day testi- fy, there is intellectual and moral depres- sion and darkness, and civil and religious despotism, and peril and death to the soul. Let us, therefore, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled in the yoke of bondage. 316 LECTUEES ON THE CHAPTER XII. There has always been a true church in the earth^ — Where was it in the centuries of cor- ruption, preceding the Eeformation ? — Doc- trines held by those who never bowed the knee to the Eomish Baal — The plea of ma- jorities by the Romanist — Progress of true Christianity since the Eeformation — What en- titles a church to the name of "the true church?" The Roman Catholic Church, in view of its claimed apostolical succession and continuity, declares itself to be '' the only true church." It has, in apparent triumph, suggested the question, to perplex, if pos- sible, the mind of the honest inquirer after truth, namely : Where was the true church in the great apostasy before the Reformation, if it was not in the Roman Catholic Church? This question over- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 317 looks the departure from the primitive church in doctrine and practice, the vast incorporation of traditional and hierarch- ical dogmas and usages, the fact that the principles and doctrines of Christianity are constantly the same, being found in the Holy Scriptures, and to which a church can be recreant, the divine teach- ing that the true church, those vitally united to Christ, always, even amid the multitude of professing ones, form but a small flock known to Grod, and, finally, the experience taught by the past that the Protestants — those who protested against incoming and existing errors — were constantly persecuted and crushed under the power of ambitious and design- ing prelates and priests. The question thus asked opens before us history, and and reveals so much that is derogatory and condemnatory of the Romish church, that it seems to us wiser not to urge it from the popish stand-point ; for to answ^er it necessarily brings before us the perse- 318 LECTUKES ON THE cuting character of that church when en- deavoring to crush the reformatory labors of persons in its own communion. Let us, however, in answer to the ques- tion, refer to a few facts. Passing by what every known ecclesiastical history plainly shows, a departure from tke prim- itive church government and teaching, it is sufficient for our purpose to point to the dark ages when the Romish church was in the height of its glory, and assert that dark as these middle ages were, yet the lamp of truth and the light of true re- ligion was never suffered to be wholly extinguished. From the earliest corrup- tions of Christianity down to this most significant period, God did not leave him- self without a succession of witnesses. When the hierarchical encroachments under Constantino and his successors, when the primacy and supremacy of the bishop of Rome, when monasticism, celib- acy of the clergy, the worship of saints, relics, and images, etc., were introduced. EISE OF THE EOMISH CHUECH. 319 pious and devoted men protested against all these abuses as anti-scriptural and destructive; but they were overwhelmed in their protestations. Thus, for exam- ple, we know how Vigilantius was over- powered by a torrent of invective by Jerome and others, because he vehement- ly remonstrated against the worship of relics, the invocation of saints, miracle- mongering, lighted candles in the church- es during the day, vows of celibacy, pilgrimages, prayers for the dead, the prevailing externalism and other errors, which even at that early period, the sixth century, had already crept in and intrench- ed themselves in the church. We can, for example, recall the pious bishop of Turin, Claudius, called, by some, the first Protest- ant Reformer, who, in the ninth century, bore a noble testimony to the truth ; and also such names as Peter of Burges, Henry of Lausanne, Arnold of Bresica, and others who raised their voices amid the general corruption, and in various 320 LECTURES ON THE ways and with varied successes pleaded for reform. The Romish church never settled down into its pretentious claims, its doctrinal position, its darkness of the dark ages, without a long-continued and warning protest from its own membership, as well as from others without its com- munion. Passing down this long and honored list of Protestants we come, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, to the learned and fearless Greathead, Bish- op of Lincoln, the excellent Thomas Brad- wardine, ArchLishop of Canterbury, and the noble Fitzralph of Armaugh, whose light made visible the surrounding dark- ness. We may not pass by unnoticed a rev- ered band of confessors, martyrs, and wit- nesses for the truth, including such men as the indefatigable Peter Pruys, Henry the Italian, Marcilius of Padua, John of Garduno (who was condemned by the pope in 1330), and the learned and perse- cuted Barengarius, who, after having withstood the storm of papal wrath to a RISE OE' THE ROMISH CHURCH. 321 good old age, closed his testimony in 1088. These are some of the Protestant lights which shone amid the darkness of these past centuries, showing us that in the church of Rome, although persecuted by the church, a small minority still kept to the truth, a small body still testified against the wickedness and errors of the church, a small number were still kept by a watchful Prov^idence to preserve the au- thority of the Scriptures from being en- tirely rooted out by mere traditions. These were the casual, and yet in a man- ner unintermitted, outbreakings of the pent-up fires which were finally to burst out and burn with an unquenchable flame. These were efibrts, unsuccessful it is true excepting in individual cases, to break down the traditional barriers that popery had erected between God and man pre- paratory to the mighty ones which again restored Christ to man without interpos- ing human observances and ordinances. These were the precursors of the ap- 21 322 LECTURES ON THE preaching morning of the Reformation. History records the names of many, but God only knows how many living in ob- scurity thus protested, and, in opposition to the prevailing error and vice, sought for justification only in Christ and not in the imposed works of a corrupt teaching. Glimpses of confession, the accusation of enemies, the enmity of the hierarchy, indicate that others, of whom we know little or nothing, were impelled by the same spirit, trusting solely in the merits of Jesus for salvation. In connec- tion with these we have the more promi- nent names of Wycliife, Latimer, Huss, and others, who were raised up to be God's witnesses, and who all relied upon the Holy Scriptures as the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Such men should be justly ranked among the Re- formers, for they attempted reformation when it costs comfort, reputation, and in many cases life itself, to be a Reformer. Thus, in the Romish church itself, we can EISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 323 trace witnesses for the truth, who con- stantly protested against the gross papal errors and endeavored to reform the church, bringing it back to a scriptural basis. Divided and persecuted as this minority may have been, yet its existence and labor of love and faith answers the question proposed. But we are not confined to the Romish church; for while men in that church thus protested, they were not alone in their eflforts to maintain, in its purity, the gospel which had come from the Sav- ior and the apostles. Outside of the Rom- ish church there were Christian communi- ties w^ho defended the truth when almost the whole world had gone wandering after the Roman Catholic Baal. Although these were not fully competent, or the age was not ripe enough, for so great an under- taking as the Reformation of a powerful church protected by the state and its assumed claims, yet these saw and de- nounced the defects in the public religion, 324 LECTURES ON THE the vices of the clergy continually increas- ing, the crushing out of genuine piety by the substitution of meritorious ceremonies and works, and the adoption of corrupt measures by popes who were more intent in gratifying pride and ambitious designs than in diffusing purity and holiness. Honest men, though even unlearned, could easily see — for it required no fine discernment — that the true religion of the gospel was fearfully perverted, and in danger of being lost. These formed them- selves into communities, or so-called sects ; and in reference to the more ancient of these we are more or less dependent upon the record of enemies concerning them, — a testimony which is sadly de- faced by passion and malice. It is not necessary to discuss the character, acts, doctrines, etc., of these old Protestants, for amid the diversity of view respecting them, a sufficiency can be extracted, even from the accusation of embittered enemies, to ghow that faithful men and women for the EISE OF THE EOMISH CHUCEH. 325 sake of truth and in opposition to Romish error were willing to suffer persecution and death. Descending to later times we find the same disposition continued, as, for example, in the Henricians, the fol- lowers of Henry, an Italian monk, who denounced the corrupt morals of the clergy, and was apprehended by the pope, and committed to prison, where he died in 1148. Passing by the Petrobrusians, Arnoldists, and others, who also protested, we come to a sect famous for purity and uprightness, their enemies being the judges, namely, the Waldensians. Peter Waldus, a rich merchant of Lyons, in France, procured the translation of the four Grospels in the year 1160, and by reading these he readily learned that the religion then taught to the people by the Romish church was a very different re- ligion from that which Jesus and the apostles inculcated. Waldus, earnestly desiring salvation himself, and anxious that others should participate in the 326 LECTURES ON THE knowledge of the Scriptures, distributed his property among the poor, and in 1180, with other pious men associated with himself, he assumed the office of preacher. The archbishop of Lyons, and the other prelates, opposed this pro- ceeding, but the plain and holy Chris tianity that these good men professed and exemplified, the spotless innocency of their lives and their contempt for all riches and honors, so touched the mul- titude, who had some idea of what re- ligion ought to be, that they readily yielded to their instruction. Societies were organized first in France, then in Lombardy, and these multiplied and spread with amazing rapidity throughout all the countries of Europe. Although the Romish church excommunicated and anathematized them, they could not be exterminated entirely by the punishment of death or by the other forms of persecu- tion introduced. Peter Waldus and his associates did not aim so much to change RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 327 the system of religion, or to inculcate new articles of faith, as to restore the form of the church, the morals of the clergy, and the lives of Christians to that primitive and apostolic simplicity, which they thought they had learned particularly from the Avords of Christ. They, there- fore, taught that in the time of Constan- tino the Great, in the fourth century, the church already beo*an to deo'enerate from its original purity and sanctity. They denied fhe supremacy of the pope and the ingrafted abuses. The ancient peni- tential discipline, which had been almost subverted by the grants of indulgences, they wished to see restored, namely, the making satisfaction for sins by prayer, fasting, and liberality to the poor. These satisfactions, upon which they laid great stress, they believed any devout Chris-' tian could enjoin upon those that con- fessed; so that it was not necessary to conf ss their sins to priests, but only to lay open their transgressions to individual 328 LECTURES ON THE brethren, and to look to them for advice, as the Apostle James says, "to confess your faults one to another," which in- dicates that the priest confess to the people as well as the people to the priest. Whatever exception might be taken to some points, yet in the main it inculcated the only true and- scriptural method of confessing our faults one to another and then forgiving one another, mutually im- ploring God's forgiveness of them. They strove to return to the scriptural mode of confession, and hence they held that the power of forgiving sins and remitting the punishment due to sins belonged to God alone, and therefore claimed that the indulgences were the invention of base avarice. They regarded prayers and other rites performed in behalf of the dead to be useless ceremonies, because departed souls were not detained in and subjected to a purgation in some inter- mediate region, but were immediately after death either taken into a state of RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 329 bliss or a state of woe. These, besides others iu opposition to popish require- ments, were the doctrines they held and taught; and from these doctrines we rightfully infer, with the Scriptures as the standard of truth, that they had much more right to the title of "the true church" than those who so proudly arro- gated it without having scarcely a vestige of apostolical Christianity, either in doc- trine or practice. The same is true also of others, especially of the Bohemian re- formers before Huss, including Conrad of Waldhausen, John Milicz, Matthias of Janov, with their followers ; and the more anciently descended Unitas Fratrum^ or, United Brethren, who, from the ninth century down, perseveringly resisted the inflowing torrent of legalism, work-right- eousness, and externalism in religion. The true church, in so far as it can be traced by a membership devoted to the truth and to the authority of the word of God, is to be found in the Romish church, 330 LECTURES ON THE not m Its scarlet-clad pope and prelates, not in its bigoted priests and superstitious laymen, but in such men as John Pupper of Goch, John Ruchrath of Wesel, John Wessel of Groningen, Nicholas Russ, and others, — men at least of undoubted piety, and, whatever their errors, desirous to honor God and his Christ. Outside of the popish communion we also find those who, from the earliest period down to the Reformation, worshiped God more in ac- cordance with the spirit and practice en- joined by Holy Writ, than those who adopted the pompous ritual and the priestly offerings of the Romish church. Indeed, if the Scriptures themselves are authoritative in this matter, there can be no question so easily decided as the one proposed. The true church is found wherever there are faithful believers as- sociated together in the appointed means of grace, influenced by faith^ hope, and love, and bringing forth the rich fruitage of the Spirit. RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 331 The simple fact that the Romish church is an old church or a powerful church has nothing to do in deciding that it alone is the true church. Truth, thus far in the world, has not triumphed by numbers. After sixteen hundred and fifty-six years of the world's exist- ence, the true church was confined to but eight persons who were saved by the ark. At another time it consisted only of seventy persons, while around them were Egyptian idolaters worshiping pagan deities. Again we see the true church in captivity, small in number and insignifi- cant in power, while it was surrounded by heathen temples and images which had their millions of worshipers. Truth does not necessarily belong to the numerous and the powerful. How was it when the Savior came upon earth? He found a large and powerful Jewish church ; but it, instead of having alone the truth, cruci- fied the truth when it was given. This theory of majorities is a great thing with 332 LECTURES ON THE Romanists, with which to prop up and establish the precedence and infallibility of the Romish church. It embraces the root and the reason, the illustration and the proof of infallibility. When we talk with them on any controverted subject, they point us, as an extinguisher, to their great church, their old church, their de- voted church, just as if these things were sufficient in themselves to prove the truth. He who seeks truth by the tests of sin- cerity, majority, and antiquity will never find it on earth. This is true of the present and of all past ages. There are sincere Turks, Hottentots, Jews, pagans, infidels, and Patagonians ; there are very ancient errors, heresies, sects, and relig- ions. As to majorities, from Adam and Eve until now, they have generally, if not always, been opposed to true religion. Where was the majority when Noah was building the ark ; when Abraham forsook Urr of the Chaldees ; when Lot abandon- ed Sodom? On what side was the major- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 333 i*;y when Moses departed from Egypt; when Elijah witnessed against Ahab; when Daniel and his companions were captives in Babylon; when Malachi wrote^ John the Baptist preached, and Christ stood before Pilate? What ma- jorities will do is illustrated in the his- tory of the apostles and the first Chris- tians, who were persecuted by the Jews and Romans just as the Waldenses and martyrs and Reformers were oppressed by Romanists. If popery prides itself upon its millions of adherents and its rule over the nations in the middle ages, we may still ask: When compared with the millions of paganism, at what time had Roman Catholicism the majority? Strange in- deed, that, after the vrorld's majority has been against her, infallibility should be attributed to a majority, for if this is to be the proof, then the pagans possess it, and always had it. But if this question of majorities upon which Romish pretensions are so largely 334 LECTURES ON THE built, IS to be confined to professed Chris- tians, then even Romanism, if the era of Protestantism is properly considered, has no cause for boasting. The Romish church, as distinctively such, has existed about twelve hundred j^ears, dating its rise from Pope Boniface, who was appointed in the sixth century by the Roman Emperor Phocas, Universal Bishop. From the period of the established primacy and su- premacy it has, in its Romish claims, dis- seminated itself until now it numbers about two hundred millions. This in- crease was accomplished in twelve cen- turies. With this let us contrast Protest- antism. It has been but three hundred and fifty-eight years since Luther nailed his ninety-fifth theses of the Reformation to the door of Wittenberg's church, and now, as a result, there are at least one hundred millions of Protestants in the world — that is, one half as many as of Romanists, and obtained in one third of the time. And if we add to these the RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 335 Grreek Church, which is also Protestant in so far as it has always resisted the ex- clusive Romish pretensions, we have as many, — two hundred millions, — as the Romanists claim. So that even allowing force to the argument based upon major- ities among professed Christians, the Ro- man Catholics have not the majority, and hence from their own stand-point and line of reasoning, the truth and infallibil- ity, deduced from the same, must be found somewhere else than in that church. Be- sides this, it is also well to note the con- trast presented in the progress of nominal Christianity before and after the Reforma- tion. In the fifth century there were about fifteen millions of Christians in the world, and in the fifteenth century there were about one hundred millions, thus making a gain of eighty-five millions, or an average gain of eight and one half millions per century. When we compare this with the " progress of Christianity since the Reformation, we find that at 336 LECTURES ON THE the beginning of the nineteenth century there were nearly two hundred millions, being an increase of one hundred millions in three centuries, or at the rate of thirty three and one third per cent, or nearly as many in one century after the Refor- mation as in four centuries preceding it. And at the nite of progress thus far in the present century, there will be a gain of one hundred millions more to Protest- ant Christianity. The time is coming — and may heaven speed the day — when an evangelical Protestantism and its result- ant rule shall be given to the true saints of the Most High; and when all people and dominions, under the whole heavens, shall serve and obey the Son of God as the only true head of the church upon earth, and when Babylon and the beast and all anti-christian powers shall have an end, the angel with the trump of the everlasting good news shall sound the knell of their just judgment and announce the foretold triumph contained in the gos- RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 337 pel — a triumph not of vicegerents, of saints interceded, of Virgin Mary as Queen of heaven, etc., but of Christ the great theocratic king himself. Then, and not perhaps until then, will the majorities of the world be on the side of truth, and God and Christ, and heaven; judgment and mercy, the fulfillment of the great and gracious promise, being witnessed. Taking the word of Grod and the facts of history into consideration, what must be our conclusion respecting the claim of the Romish church to be '' the only true church ? " The reflecting impartial mind can be at no loss for an answer. Does a true church deliberately, for centuries, crush the civil and religious liberties of her people? Does a true church in its oflSicial utterances denounce the God-given right of direct and free investigation of the Bible and the right of private judg- ment? Does a true church place the traditions of man on an equality with Holy Writ, and cause such traditions to 22 ^ 338 LECTURES ON THE occupy the most prominent place in the administrations of the priesthood and in the religious training of the laity /^^ Can a true church set up such satanic ma- chinery as the Inquisition, and be so per- secuting in spirit as the vengeance-calling blood of the martyrs testifies ? 'No ! All this, with the overloaded ceremonial and sacramentarian devices, is utterly opposed to the teachings of the divine Master and of the apostles. History tells us how the Numerous facts corroborate the constant efforts made by the hierarchy to keep the Bible as much as possible from the laity. Merele D. Aubigne, in Introduction to History of Reformation, indicates even the ignoranc e of the priesthood respectingr the same,— multitudes never having even seen a copy, much less read one- We append some curious written advice given by three Romish bishops to Pope Julius III., at Bologna, 20th Oct., 1553, in answer to requested counsel as to the best means of strength- ening their church It is given by the London correspondent of the Newark (N. J.) Advertiser, October, 21, 1875, who states that it may be found in the Imperial Library at Paris, Folio B, No. 1,038, Vol. 2, p. 641-650, and in British Museum, T. C. Fasciculus Rerum, London, 1690, folio. It reads : ''Lastly: Of all the ad- vice we can give to your beatitude, we have reserved unto the most important, namely, that as little as possible of the gospel (especially in the vulgar tongue) be read in all countries subject to your jurisdiction. That little which isreadatmassissuflS^cient, and beyond that iio one must be permitted to read. While men were contented with that little, your interest prospered ; but when more was read, they began to decay. To sum up all, the book (Bible) is the one which more than any other has roused against us those whirlwinds and tempests when we were almost swept away ; and, in fact, if any one examines it diligently and then confronts these with the practices of our church, he will per- ceive the great discordance, and that our doctrine is utterly dif- ferent from and even contrary to it; which thing, if the people un- derstand it, they will not cease their clamor against us till all be divulged, and then we shall become an object of universal scorn and hatred. Wherefore even these few pages (in the mass-book) must be put away, but with considerable wariness and caution, lest so doing should raise greater uproar and clamor." RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 339 papacy corrupted these teachings by intro- ducing and enforcing others; and how, from the very beginning of this apostatiz- ino- from the truth, there were those who protested and denounced the encroaching errors and practices, and who were perse- cuted by popery because of their protesta- tions and denunciations. If history is unmistakably clear upon any point, it is upon this : that, from century to century, there wcrenien who, influenced by Holy Writ and the love of the truth, raised their voices against the corrupting flood of Romish error. These, too, are traced from one to another, in a continuous line, down even through the dark ages, much easier than the line of the popes is traced from Peter to Pius IX. These remon- strants to the church of Rome had their followers in every century; men and women, who often were compelled to worship in forests, caves, and mount- ains, and who were hunted and flayed like beasts by that desj^otic temporal 340 LECTURES ON THE and spiritual power which then ruled the world. When we examine the teachings of these remonstrants to hierarchical doc- trines and tendencies, we find that they held in almost every particular the same doctrines which are now held by the Prot- estant church. Thus they taught that the Scriptures were the only binding source of religious faith and practice, without reference to the authority of the fathers or tradition. Their scriptural simplicity and soundness of belief is amply confirmed by their confessions of faith. * To indicate the expression of faith, we append some articles, as given in a confession writ- ten in 1120, or four hundred years before the Reformation. Thus, for ex- ample: (1.) "That the scriptures teach that there is one God, almighty, all-wise, and all-good ; who made all things by his goodness ; for he formed Adam in his own image and likeness, but that by the envy of Satan, sin entered into the world, and EISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 341 that we are sinners in and by Adam. (2.) That Christ was promised to our fathers who received the law; that so, knowing by the law their unrighteousness and in- sufficiency, they might desire the coming of Christ to satisfy for their sins and ac- comj)lish the law by himself. (3.) That Christ was born in the time appointed by God, the Father, that is, in the time when all iniquity abounded, that he might show us grace and mercy as being faithful. (4.) That Christ is our life, truth, peace^ and righteousness; as also our pastor, advo- cate, and priest, who died for the salvation of all who believe, and is risen for our justification. (5.) That there is no me- diator and advocate with God, the Father, save Jesus Christ. (6.) That after this life there are only two places ; the one for the saved, and the other for the lost. (7.) That we ought to honor the secular power by subjection, ready obedience, and by paying tribute." Such was the Wal- densian confession of faith; and we may 342 LECTUKES ON THE well ask whether these doctrines do not sound very much like those of a true church? But they also rejected images, crosses, relics, traditions, auricular confes- sion, indulgences, absolutions, exorcism, clerical celibacy, orders, titles, tithes, vestments, monkery, masses, prayers for the dead, purgatory, invocation of saints and of the Virgin Mary, etc., things which the mass of Protestants now also reject as unscriptural. And in self-defense, against the popish claim of being "the only true church," these believers, so far back, inform us in what the true church consists, as follows : "That is the church of Christ which hears the pure doctrine of Christ and ob- serves the ordinances instituted by him, wherever it exists." In defining the sacraments they say, '^The sacra- ments of the church of Christ are two, Baptism and the Lord's-supper ; and in the latter Christ has instituted the receiv- ing of both kinds, that is, bread and RISE OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 343 wine, both for priest and people. We consider these sacraments as signs of holy things, or as the visible emblems of invis- ible blessings. "^^^ What better definition of these sacraments can now be given. And yet for bearing such noble Christian testimony these pious people were, for "" many centuries, the subjects of the most cruel persecution by the arrogance and pride of the church of Rome. Persecu- tion, fierce and unrelenting, could not, however, subdue their principles, which remained intact and were perpetuated so that at the Reformation they numbered about eight hundred thousand and were classed among the Protestants, with whom they were so congenial in doctrine and practice. If the church if Rome is indeed 'Hhe only true church^' dispensing the bless- ings of an infallible vicegerent, then we ought to find a test in the specific bless- ings given by the popes to individuals (1) Cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. 344 LECTURES ON THE and nations. Let history again inform us what the infallibility blessing of the pope is worth. Kings and princes receive the papal benediction and promises of divine aid, and they miserably perish; kings and princes are anathematized and disas- ters pronounced upon them and yet they are abundantly prospered. Popes them- selves, with all their infallibility and re- sources of heaven constantly at hand, are driven from their sees, are overcome by their enemies, are forced to humble them- selves under the power of others. Na- tions that are cursed by them flourish and command the respect of the world; na- tions blessed by them sink into second and third rate powers. History is full of facts which go to show that neither the blessing nor the anathema of the pope has any great influence in deciding the destiny of individuals or nations, except- ing only as bigotry and persecution ex- tends its power over them. Recent his- tory confirms our statement. The pope KISE OF THE ROMISH CHUECH. 345 blessed those who took part in the ill-fated Mexican expedition, a few years ago ; and it is a strange fact that all those who were prominent in it came to an evil end. The Emperor J^apoleon III., whom the pope styled ''the elder son of the church," and with whom the pope instigated the expedition, drained the cup of defeat and humiliation, and imprisonment, and then died. The Empress Eugenie is in exile; Marshal Prim was assassinated ; Marshal Bazaine is a fugitive from justice; the Emperor Maximillian was shot, and his empress, Carlotta, is hopelessly insane. In Spain, Queen Isabella, the recipient of the pope's blessing, is driven from her throne, and in Italy the king, Victor Emanuel, is cursed and excommunicated, and yet prosperity and the favor of the Italian nation attends him. Such remark- able discrepancies between promises and results are only valuable in the light of an assumed infallibility. It teaches us to place the claim of being "the only true 346 LECTURES ON THE church" in the same category with as- sured blessings and curses, that is to say, it, like many other things, springs only from a proud, haughty popish pretension, having no foundation in fact, and none in the Scriptures. In conclusion, we find from the time of the great apostasy that a visible, true church was to be found in the remon- strants in and outside of the Romish church down to the Reformation. This martyr church (for that is the name it is worthy of on account of persecution en. dured at the hands of the dominant party), which entered into that of the Ref- ormation, was the onlv true church — in the scriptural sense — upon earth during this period. It was true in faith ; it was true in practice ; it was true in Christian patience ; and it was true in the primitive worship of Christ. In all of these things the hierarchical party or real Romish order was lacking, having departed from the truth and become corrupt, and hence RISE OF THE EOMISH CHURCH. 347 has no claim to the title of "the true church." The true church is that one in which are found the truest Christians, — not. merely professors, but doers of the word, — giving this evidence in their lives by bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit. Such a church will make the individual better, causing him to be controlled by love supreme to God and love to man ; it will make the nation better, — more en- lightened, more industrious, more pros- perous, more influential for good in rela- tion to other nations. True Christianity makes both body and soul better. It en- lightens the mind, it softens the -heart, it elevates the affections, it ennobles the body under law, it blesses the whole man and sanctifies all. Compared with this, — • which is the true standard both in the estimation of professing and non-professing Christians, — the Protestant church, in new of the blessings conferred upon the individual, the family, society, and the nation, — ^upon the world intellectually, 348 LECTUKES ON THE morally, spiritually, and materially, — the Protestant church has the best claim to the name of "the true church." May God maintain her in this title ; make her more and more worthy of it; enable her to resist the encroachments of error and evil that would rob her of it ; and finally make her, as the result of her trueness, a triumphant and most glorious church CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS THE DUTIES OF CITIZENS AND OF THE STATE. The foregoing lectures present with great force and ability the views of the learned author thereof, with manv histor- ical facts and other considerations in sup- port of his positions and conclusions. In view of all these it is very pertinent to inquire, What are the duties of citizens and the state on the subjects so well pre- sented and discussed ? The people of the United States are essentially and sub- stantially Christian in character, habits, thoughts, and principles. The constitu- tions of the nation and the states indeed tolerate all ^ "pinions, though nothing there- in require^ the toleration of practices in- onsistent fith civil or political liberty, 350 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. nor do they require citizens to omit any duty essential to preserve the liberties or promote the '^general welfare" of the government and people. The preserva- tion of these are, in fact, among the rec- ognized objects of government. It follows from all this, that it is a duty which every citizen owes to himself, to the government, and to God, to exert his personal influence to proclaim the truth; to denounce in words of soberness and candor the religious errors inculcated by the Romish church, its claims to subordi- nate all opinions, all people, all govern- ment, all education to its dominion, con- trol, and authority. It is a duty to employ the pulpit, the press, the rostrum, every known means of persuasion, to op- pose all this. The chief obstacle in the way of enlisting all these agencies, is a a want of knowledge of the dangerous tend- encies and claims of the Romish church. The foregoing lectures supply the means of awakening the public attention to their CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 351 duties in this respect. They are the can- did words of an able man, who has devot- ed much time, thought, and patient inves- tigation to the subject, with the sole purpose to ascertain the truth, with no spirit of ill-will to any man, and in the hope of promoting the glory of God's kingdom and the good of mankind. But the duty of the citizen goes still further. The elective franchise should be so exercised as to maintain our civil and religious liberty, and all the agencies on which they rest, and without which they will perish. This, of course, implies that men should be elected to office who will so legislate and exercise power as to pre- serve these great rights, and all the advantages of our institutions and civili- zation. It does not imply that those who wield power shall represent any religious sect^ in the views peculiar to it, or even fraternize with any, if upon the funda- mental principles which underlie our government, and on which our civilization 352 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. is built, they may be found faithful. Witl this in view, in all else the largest latitude of opinion may be allowed. This feature of the political duties of citizens^ practically results in an inquiry as to the appropriate province or obligation of the state in view of the assumption of papal power. Some of these obligations as they are believed to exist will be point- ed out : I. It is well known that the Catholic Church has organized institutions of vari- ous- kinds, the object of which is to seek the custody, control, and education of children in the peculiar doctrines and purposes of this denomination, and doubt- less with a view to enlarge its power, not only as a religious, but also as a political body. These institutions have been uni formly protected by law, and in many respects have been productive of good. But they have asked and received support from public taxes in some of the states. So far as this aid may be expended in in- CONCLUDING KEFLECTIONS. 353 calcating those pretensions of the church which seek to destroy our common-school system^ and finally subordinate the govern- ment itself to papal control, it is absolute- ly vicious and may become dangerous. Revenues raised by taxation should be applied to no such purpose. They should "^e given to no control which would so ipply them. II. The national and state govern- ments have generally, and wisely, provid- ed chaplains for congress, for state legis- latures, chaplains and instructors for the benevolent, penal, and reformatory insti- tutions under their care, respectively^ for the old and the young. This is demand- ed alike by duty and the Christian civilization of our age and country. No suggestion has ever been made that any really religious denomination should be overlooked in the selection of chaplains and instructors. With equal wisdom, and just regard for the highest duty of government, provision has been made by 23 354 CONCLUDING EEFLECTIONS. treaty, and by other law, to civilize and educate the Indian tribes, and to maintain schools for the education of the children of this historic race of man. In all these forms it has been the purpose of congress and the states to furnish religious instruc- tion, advice, and consolation to all within the purpose of these provisions. With- out civilization and education the Indian race must continue indefinitely dangerous and expensive from savage warfare, and depredations scarcely less annoying. There can be no civilization without re- ligion. There never has been a civilized people with no religion at all. Our civil- ization surpasses all others only because of the higher and purer life, which results from the higher and purer precepts of re- ligion which are so universally taught among our people. These are inculcated not alone by those who adopt the peculiar doctrines of any one or more religious denominations, but by the common con- sent, action, influence, and understanding CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 355 of the great mass of the people. But so far as either the national or state govern- ments have authorized chaplains or in- structors, in any of the modes, or for any of the purposes indicated, neither is under obligation to permit the inculcation and teaching of doctrines and purposes sub- versive of civil and religious liberty; subversive of our common-school system ; subversive of the government ; really sub- versive of all religion in its broad, comprehensive, liberal sense. The gov- ernment punishes those who incite insur- rection carried into overt acts. It is not bound to employ and pay men to teach that which may result in the destruction of the government. The state is not bound to employ and pay men to advise the destruction of the common schools, while it maintains their necessity to the existence of republican government. It may select those who will inculcate and teach nothing destructive of government and civilization itself, just as it may em- 356 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. ploy only the id oral, and reject the im- moral, to teach in our common schools, to practice law, and perform similar duties, as to which the law in theory at least rejects those who do not furnish evidence of ''good moral character." This power of selection is one to be exercised with great care, toleration, forbearance, justice, and prudence. It does not necessarily exclude any really suitable person, of any religious denomination, but only implies that those who in positions created by wise laws, for good purposes, pervert them to destroy the foundations of society, of religion, and our form of civilization, are not to be tolerated in executing any such object. The power of selection exists ; it must be exercised, and duty and interest alike demand that this be done in a form to be productive of the greatest good. III. It results from the dangers which threaten our institutions, from the teach- ings and purposes of the Romish church, that it is the duty of the state to maintain CONCLUDING KEFLECTIONS. 357 common schools for the education of all children, based on religion in its broad and comprehensive sense. It has been shown in the introduction to the foregoing lectures, and in the lect- ures themselves, that the Romish church is opposed to all schools, except those in which its peculiar dogmas and doctrines are taught. It holds that education be- longs to the church, and not the state, unless it controls the state. If this prin- ciple were adopted in this country, chil- dren would largely go without any education, and all who might share its benefits would be subject to Catholic teachings. In either event republican government would perish. This can not endure without general if not universal education. It is the duty of the state, then, to resist this claim of the Romish church, and maintain common schools open and accessible to all the children within its jurisdiction. It is a duty to resist the teaching in the public common 358 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. schools of the peculiar sectarian doctrines of the Romish church, or mere sectarian doctrines in any form. The Romish church seeks to justify its position in relation to the schools by maintaining, as all should, the necessity of religious education. But it fails to dis- tinguish between religion and sectarianism — ^between religion in its general, broad sense, including precepts born of heaven, and its own peculiar sectarian views. No one has proposed to deny the right of citizens to entertain sectarian opinions. The government deals with conduct, and as a general rule not with opinions mere- ly, so far as prohibition or punishment is concerned. But the state (by which is understood the political authority which establishes schools everywhere in this country) has always maintained, what is undoubtedly true, the necessity of incul- cating ''religion, morality, and knowl- edge," so that the objection made by the CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 359 Romish church to our common schools is without foundation. Before the adoption of the JNTational Constitution, the congress of 1785 reserv- ed in the north-west territory section six- teen ''in every township, for the mainte- nance of public schools." The ordinance of July, 1787, declared as to the same territory, that "religion, morality , and knowledge being necessary to good gov- ernment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." The Constitution of Ohio and of other states make similar and equally emphat- ic declarations, and affirm the duty of the legislature to encourage schools and the means of instruction of this character. The public judgment very generally and justly demands that the Bible be read in all our common schools. The teaching of strictly denominational views is left to families, churches, Sabbath- schools, the religious press, and other 360 CONCLUDING KEFLECTIONS. similar agencies. The state protects these, but takes no part in teaching them. But it acknowledges the necessity of * 'relig- ion, morality, and education," all alike and combined, and through our schools wisely provides the means of inculcating them. The states have power to make this education compulsory for all the children within their respective jurisdictions. It is probable the national government may for the territories and District of Colum- bia exercise equal power, though possibly it may not have such unrestrained author- ity in this respect as the states. There may be, and undoubtedly are, persons to a limited extent in every state who op- pose the theory announced by the con- gress of 1787, and by the state constitu- tions. But the purpose and duty of the states remain notwithstanding. There are a few citizens who are opposed to our rejpublican form of government, — they CONCLUDING KEFLECTIONS. 361 are monarchists, — but the government re- mains republican notwithstanding. Our * 'common law" in many respects partakes of the Christian character of our people, and embodies many of the precepts or principles of the religion which generally prevails. It "derives its force and authority from the universal consent and immemorial practices of the people." It rests on universally-recog- nized principles. The Supreme Court of Ohio has declared it to be unlawful to exercise certain privileges, because ''op- posed to the common understanding^ habits^ and even necessities of the people of the state." (4 Ohio State Reports, 432.) In this sense many of the principles and precepts of Christianity have become ''common law," even though there have been conflicting determinations as to whether at all or how far Christianity as a system has been recognized as such. The states of the Union have very generally asserted the neces-sity of relig- 362 CONCLUDING KEFLECTIONS. . ion. Of the thirty-seven states there are thirty whose constitutions in the preamble formally acknowledge the existence of Almighty Grod. They have obeyed the injunction, ''acknowledge him in all thy ways." The power to make this acknowl- edgment is inherent in the states, is not restrained by the IN'ational Constitution; and the recognition reflects the general sentiment of the people, and so gives character to the governments respective- ly created under the state constitutions. Citizens will not all agree as to any feat- ure of any government, yet while all opinions are tolerated, they can not change the fact as to its real character. Where no such recognition formally exists, still religion is recognized, as it is in fact a necessity, without which states could not exist. It is recognized in the appoint- ment of chaplains, by oaths in court, by executive proclamations for thanksgiving, in the character of laws, the general prin- ciples of common law, and in other forms. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 363 The allegation then made hy the Eomish church against the character of our common schools^ and inferentially against the states which maintain them^ is unfounded in fact. This churcli practically demands the destruction of the schools. This would reduce the people to hopeless ignorance, involve the destruction of republican gov- ernment, and finally subject all to a des- potism controlled by papal authority. Its power is already manifest in our states. It is growing in the number of its advo- cates. It must be met, its purposes made known and understood, and when that shall be, all danger may be averted. The foregoing lectures invite attention to the subject with a candor, earnestness, and ability which deserve consideration. It has been the purpose of this brief chapter to point out some^ not all, the duties of citizens and the state, in view of the fore- going lectures. It has not been possible to enter at large upon a statement of 364 CONCLUDING KEFLECTIONS. views or reasons, but what has been said is submitted in the hope that some good may result. Wm. Lawkence. Bellefontaine, Ohio, November, 1875. llLT