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ROMANISM AND THE REPUBLIC.

A DISCUSSION OF THE PURPOSES, ASSUMPTIONS,

PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF THE

ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY.

BY

REV. ISAAC J. LANSING, M.A.,

of Worcester, Mass.

WITH AN

INTRODUCTION

REV. LEROY M. VERNON, D.D.,

Late Superintendent or Missions op the Methodist Episcopal Church in Italy.

oXKc

BOSTON:

ARNOLD PUBLISHING COMPANY,

Congregational Building.

1890.

COPYRIGHT

ISAAC J. LANSINC

1889.

Prksswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

This volume contains fourteen discourses on Romanism and the Republic, delivered in the Salem Square Con- gregational Church, Woroester, Mass., during the Sum- mer and Autumn of 1888.

From the first until the last of eighteen sermons, which were delivered on consecutive Sabbath evenings, public interest was general and intense. Throngs of serious and thoughtful people crowded the Church, while great numbers sought for even standing-room in vain. Calls for the publication of the addresses as delivered were immediate, and from many quarters. As reported steno- graphically, they were printed from week to week in the New England Home Journal, which, with one other notable exception, was the only paper that gave them currency.

Repeated requests, at that time and since, that they might be preserved in a more permanent form, have resulted in the compilation of the present volume. This design was not in view originally in their preparation. Delivered extemporaneously, and reported as spoken, the preacher used no notes except memoranda, which related to the numerous books of reference which were taken to the pulpit, and from which quotations were read in the presence of the congregation. Therefore their style is that of popular address, rather than the more finished form of deliberate, literary execution. Even the rugged exclamatory passages, — which perhaps, could only be excused or justified by the impassioned earnestness of the

iv Author's Preface.

moment of their utterance, the author has thought best to retain, that the people who heard, when they come to read, may not miss remembered and often applauded passages. For in each sermon of the entire course, a sympathetic audience encouraged and sanctioned the speaker's utterances by outbursts of assent and commenda- tion ; which, it may be, should have been recorded in the text, as the valued expression of their sentiments.

Two discourses to men only, " On the Romish Confes- sional," are, of necessity, omitted from this volume, because the citations which they contained from Roman Catholic books should not be printed for general reading. With this exception the discourses are printed as de- livered.

For the Title, " Romanism and the Republic," the author is indebted to an impressive article from the pen of M. Leon Bouland, the distinguished ex-priest, in The Forum of July, 1888.

Among authorities, I have depended mostly on Roman Catholic text-books and histories, as directly consulted by myself, and as cited by reliable authors. Such are Fredet's " Modern History," Jenkins' " Judges of Faith," Bouvier's " Dissertatio in Sextum Decalogi Praeceptum," Dens' "Theology," J. P. Gury's " Moral Theology," and the " Index Expurgatorius," among Roman Catholic text- books.

H. C. Lea's " Sacerdotal Celibacy" and Lea's " History of the InquisitioD," Thompson's " The Papacy and the Civil Power," Gladstone's "Vaticanism and the Vatican Decrees," Mendham's " Literary Policy of the Romish Church," Edgar's " Variations of Popery," — all of which are especially rich in quotations from Romish authorities, — I have freely quoted.

I have found help also in the works of distinguished ex-

Author's Preface. V

priests and converts from Rome ; including DeSanctis, on "The Confessional," Lord Richard Montagu, "The Sower and the Virgin," Rev. Charles Chiniquy, "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome," and " The Priest, the Woman and the Confessional," Rev. James A. O'Connor, Editor of that very valuable and reliable monthly, The Converted Catholic, Father McGlynn's " Sermons and Addresses," Wm. Hogan, on " Popery," and others.

While of books of a more general character, I have consulted, among others : " The History of the Public School Society of New York," "Our Country " by Dr. Josiah Strong, Barnum's "Romanism As It Is," Beaudry's " Spiritual Struggles of a Roman Catholic," Van Dyke's " Popery ;" the Documents of the American Evangelical Alliance, and the Papers of Dexter A. Hawkins ; together with several lives of Loyola, and histories of the Jesuits, from both Romish and Protestant sources.

To have filled the margins or appendix with hundreds of references to these volumes, would have been easy, but this seemed superfluous.

It is believed that the facts are as alleged ; and while errors of statement may be discovered, there are no alleg- ations submitted without ample testimony in their favor. My thanks are due to many friends who have kindly aided me with books and facts.

For the striking and comprehensive Introduction, the Author is indebted to a master of all the facts concerning Romanism, Rev. Leroy M. Vernon, D.D., founder, and for nearly eighteen years, until 1888, superintendent of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Italy. For most of these years, Dr. Vernon has resided in Rome, under the very shadow of the Vatican. There and throughout Italy he has given profound study to Roman- ism in all its phases, gathering about him into the Church

vi Author's Preface.

of God, some of the most extraordinary and able men of young Italy, who, under his guidance, forsook, for con- science sake, the Papacy which had honored them. For weight and trustworthiness, his statements are absolutely authoritative.

With diffidence as to form and style, but with confi- dence as to facts and inferences, I submit to a larger public this incomplete discussion, as a contribution to the demands of a great conflict, in which I confidently hope to see Romanism destroyed, the Roman Catholic people saved, the American Republic more firmly established, and the Kingdom of God triumphantly exalted.

I. J. LANSING.

Worcester, May 15, 1889.

PEEFACE TO LATEST EDITION.

The unexpected favor with which this effort to meet a living question has been met, and the fact that the ninth thousand of the volume is in press, though less than a year has elapsed since its publication, is a cause of pro- found gratitude to the author.

An Index has been added to the present edition, which will greatly enhance its value to all readers.

The recent Centennial Anniversary of the Roman Catho- lic Church at Baltimore has given occasion for an expres- sion of the latest word that Romnuism has to utter on the themes that most concern us as Americans. A few quota- tions have been given in an Appendix which show the spirit and animus of this gathering, and that the Church of Rome is, as she herself boasts, semper eadem, — always the same.

I. J. LANSING.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGB

Preface, 3

Author's Preface, 11

CHAPTER I. Reasons for Considering this Question 17

CHAPTER II. The Jesuits and their Purpose .". • . • • 39

CHAPTER III. The Pope the Enemy of Civil and Religious Liberty 61

CHAPTER IV.

Romanism Antagonistic to the Constitution and the Laws. 87

CHAPTER V. Romanism Antagonistic to the Constitution and the Laws

No. II 120

CHAPTER VI.

The Purpose Of Romanism to Destroy our Public Schools . . 147

CHAPTER VII. The Purpose of Romanism to Destroy our Public Schools :

Their Alleged and Actual Reasons, No. II 181

CHAPTER VIII. The Purpose of Romanism to Destroy our Public Schools,

No. Ill 219

viii Table of Contents.

FAO*

CHAPTER IX.

The Morality which Romanism would Teach American

Youth 253

CHAPTER X.

Shall Romanism Teach a Pagan Morality to American

Youth? 286

CHAPTER XL Shall Romanism Teach a Pagan Morality to American

Youth? No. II 317

CHAPTER XII. Further Aspects of Parochial Schools „.= .... 345

CHAPTER XIII. The Romish Confessional : What it Is, and What it Does. . . 374

CHAPTER XIV. The Romish Confessional : What it Is, and What it Does,

No. II 407

Concluding Note 435

INTEODUOTIOK

A great theme here invites the reader's attention. Macaulay says : "The polity of the Church of Rome is the very masterpiece of human wisdom. . . . The expe- rience of twelve hundred eventful years, the ingenuity and patient care of forty generations of statesmen, have improved that polity to such perfection, that, among the contrivances which have been devised for deceiving and controlling mankind, it occupies the highest place." The animating soul of that polity is the Pope, who from Rome enforces it throughout the world, with a refined astuteness, hereditary and cumulative, unequalled in human history. The many-tongued Catholic masses, imbued with Romanist doctrines, and invested by that polity as by the shirt of Nessus, with the Pope at their head, constitute living Romanism, aggressive, imperious, and relentless as ever.

This vast power, besides assuming and exercising the most blasphemous religious prerogatives, for more than a thousand years, has dispensed crowns and dethroned kings, absolved peoples from allegiance to their rightful sovereigns, or sanctioned their bondage under tyrants, according to its own pleasure or caprice ; nor has it ever formally or impliedly abandoned any of its enormous pretensions. There is not a people in the Old World whose peace it has not disturbed, whose rulers it has not embroiled, the administration of whose government it has not embarrassed, whose rights it has not usurped, and whose soil it has not drenched with blood. Its arrogant and hoary hierarchy early began from the Vatican to project its all- pervading system over our country, now by gigantic institutions commands centres of power through- out the land, has a large and rapidly increasing consti- tuency among our people, and daily becomes more pronounced and menacing, faithful to its own tradi- tions.

x Introduction.

The relations of Romanism to the Republic, therefore, form a subject of supreme importance and of burning actuality, most urgently commending itself to the prompt attention of every citizen, to the dispassionate considera- tion especially of the patriot, the journalist, the teacher, the moralist, the divine, and the statesman, as the makers of public opinion. Wherefore nothing could be more opportune than Mr. Lansing's vigorous volume ; than the weighty and fearless terms with which he eloquently invokes the public attention and developes his absorbing argument. This book is secured a very high practical value by the judicious limitation and selection of the points to be treated, and by their ample and triumphantly conclusive elaboration within modest limits.

The vastness of Romanism, with its debatable features and history, has often proven a snare to authors, espe- cially the more ambitious. Any portrayal of Romanism always encounters two serious preliminary embarrass- ments: (1) it requires a statement and discussion so extended, that the public has neither the time nor the patience to follow them to the end ; (2) it involves saying much that is harsh and harrowing to urbane natures, and much more quite unpresentable to decent ears or pure eyes. Hence there always remains of it, as of "the dark continent," a vast breadth and bulkiness unexplored and unknown, and an abysmal nastiness never fully uncovered or duly understood. By a skill of his own, our author has partially obviated these difficulties, and within the lids of a current volume has compressed a bold character- ization and a perfectly convincing argument. Such is the nervous style, the cogent reasoning, the bow-like force of the cumulative evidence, that, though the points discussed be relatively few, and the argument comparatively brief, the irrevocable conclusion smites like a Trojan arrow, and unerringly pierces the Achilles' heel of the Papal Colossus.

The core of this work may be expressed in a single sentence: Rome's domineering imperialism, with Jesuit- ism its power behind the throne, together striving to centralize " all the powers on earth in the bosom of one master of souls " : its essential incompatibility and inevit-

Introduction.

XI

able unending antagonism with the Constitution and laws of our country, its relentless crusade against our public schools, its stealthy undoing of morality, and finally, its absolute irreconcilability with Protestantism — thus Romanism is irremediably hostile, politically and relig- iously, to our Republican Commonwealth.

Our author has an ideal temper and method for contro- versy ; with indisputable facts, keen analysis, unimpeach- able authorities, and irrefragable proofs, he advances exhaustively, never losing his rational balance, never stooping to invective nor tarrying to amuse : with sus- tained acumen and intensifying logical force, he bears down on the false and foreign system, and, like the mills of the gods, grinds to powder. Nor is the work impaired by any extravagance in statement or illustration, in form or coloring, in matters of fact, or in cases of opinion.

What is to-day observable and appreciable of Popery in its oldest realms and highest seats, even in its sanctum sanctorum, fully justifies the solemn indictment. After nearly eighteen years' residence in Rome, and familiar contact with Romanism throughout Italy, the writer bears witness that our author's testimony on all points is undeniably true. Perfectly true, indeed ; but not yet the whole of the truth. The portraiture of Popery, found in her own records, and colored by her own hand, is darker, gloomier still.

The Canon Law, the undisputed, fundamental code of Romanism, is utterly incompatible with the Constitution and laws of our Republic, as witness the following leading provisions, gleaned therefrom by Dr. G. F. Von Schulte, Professor of Canonical Law at Prague, viz. : —

"I. All human power is from evil, and must therefore be standing under the Pope.

"II. The temporal powers must act unconditionally, in ac- cordance with the orders of the spiritual.

"III. The Church is empowered to grant, or to take away, any temporal possession.

"IV. The Pope has the right to give countries and nations which are non-Catholic to Catholic regents, who can reduce them to slavery.

"V. The Pope can makes slaves of those Christian subjects whose prince or ruling power is interdicted by the Pope.

xii Introduction.

" VI. The laws of the Church, concerning the liberty of the Church and the Papal power, are based upon divine inspira- tion.

"VII. The Church has the right to practice the uncondi- tional censure of books.

" VIII. The Pope has the right to annul State laws, treaties, constitutions, etc. ; to absolve from obedience thereto, as soon as they seem detrimental to the rights of the Church, or those of the clergy.

" IX. The Pope possesses the right of admonishing, and, if needs be, of punishing the temporal rulers, emperors, and kings, as well as of drawing before the spiritual forum any case in which a mortal sin occurs.

" X. Without the consent of the Pope no tax or rate of any kind can be levied upon a clergyman, or upon any church what- soever.

" XI. The Pope has the right to absolve from oaths, and obedience to the persons and the laws of the princes whom he excommunicates.

"XIII. The Pope can annul all legal relations of those in ban, especially their marriages.

"XIII. The Pope can release from every obligation, oath, vow, either before or after being made.

"XIV. The execution of Papal commands for the persecu- tion of heretics causes remission of sins.

" XV. He who kills one that is excommunicated is no mur- derer in a legal sense."

After the above, as well expect concord between light and darkness, as between Romanism and the Republic. Yet the foregoing utterances are but a tithe of the like assumptions to be found in twenty folio volumes.

Within the last week Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore has posed before the country as an advocate of religious toleration, and the press has made much of it far and wide. What swain-like simplicity ! Now one of two things : either the Cardinal is sincere, and therefore an- tagonistic to the principles, traditions, and usages of his Church, and doomed finally to recant and reform ; or he simply plays a part, winked at by the Pope, in order to ingratiate himself and his Church with the people, and to smooth the way for new encroachments. This dilemma is amply corroborated by the following paragraphs from the Syllabus of Pius IX., issued Dec. 8th, 1864, and subse- quently by the Decree of Infallibility confirmed as truths eternal and equal in authority with the Decalogue, viz. :

Introduction. xiii

"The State has not the right to leive every man free to pro- fess and embrace whatever religion he shall deem true.

"It has not the riuht to enact that the ecclesiastical power shall require the permission of the civil power in order to the exercise of its authority.

"It has not the right to treat as an excess of power, or as usurping the rights of princes, anything that the Roman Pon- tiffs or Ecumenical Councils have clone.

"It has not the right to adopt the conclusions of a National Church Council, unless confirmed by the Pope.

"It has not the right of establishing a National Church sep- arate from the Pope.

"It has not the right to the entire direction of public schools.

"It has not the right to assist subjects who wish to abandon monasteries or convents."

Then in the same Syllabus the rights and powers of the Church are affirmed thus, viz. :

"She has the right to require the State not to leave every man free to profess his own religion.

"She has the right to exercise her power without the per- mission or consent of the State.

"She has the right to prevent the foundation of any National Church not subject to the authority of the Roman Pontiff.

"She has the right to deprive the civil authority of the entire government of public schools.

"She has the right of perpetuating the union of Church and State.

"She has the right to require that the Catholic religion shall be the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all others.

"She has the right to prevent the State from granting the public exercise of their own worship to persons immigrating into it.

"She has the power of requiring the State not to permit free expression of opinion."

It is needless to say that the history of Romanism shows the oft-repeated application of all the foregoing claims and principles. The present Pontiff, Leo XIII., in a letter to the Bishop of Perigueux, July 27, 1884, ex- plicitly confirms the foregoing, thus : "The teaching given by this Apostolic See, whether contained in the Syllabus and other Acts of our illustrious predecessor, or in our own Encyclical Letters, has given clear guidance to the faithful as to what should be their thoughts and their con- duct in the midst of the difficulties of times and events. There they will find a rule for the direction of their minds

XIV

Introduction.

and their works." Again, in his Encyclical of 1885, he approves the Syllabus, repudiates the idea that "each man should be allowed freely to think on whatever subject he pleases," and condemns any government in which "every one will be allowed to follow the religion he prefers."

Some years ago, Leo XIII. addressed an elaborate let- ter to three distinguished Cardinals of his Court, announ- cing his purpose soon to open to literary men the Vatican Library, on conditions to be established. Under cover of this rare token of papal liberality the Pope also invited their Eminences to take into consideration the having the history of the world re-written, since, as he alleged, the histories extant deal incorrectly and prejudicially with the history of the Church. The work was to be facilitated, and accuracy promoted, by the treasures the new histo- rians would find in the manuscripts and tomes of the Vat- ican. The expulsion of Swinton's History from the Bos- ton schools may be a sequence from the Pope's new criteria : others will follow. The Papacy, professedly in vicegerent command of mankind for fifteen centuries, has ever been making its own and guiding the world's his- tory, filling the earth with protected fraternities of stu- dents, writers and copyists, making iniquisition into uni- versal literature, changing and correcting much, destroying more by her Index Expur gator ius, condemning books and damning their authors, adorning the good with her impe- rial imprimatur, and their authors with academic degrees and patents of knighthood, burning wayward thinkers and writers at the stake with fagots of their own volumes, for ages stimulating and fostering, like a divine Maecenas, the best genius of the Church, and magisterially dominat- ing the pen as the sword and the sceptre, and after all is still unhappy of her achievement and of the writing that is written. Alas, alike for fallible history and infallible Pope ! The new pontifical proposal is a mystery of cun- ning and courage. The opening of the library was a de- lusion ; the recast history will remain a project. Both are signs not to be forgotten. Leo XIII. sees Romanism con- demned by history ; more still is it by the gospel and civ- ilization.

The momentous, the perilous fact is the public indiffer-

Introduction. xv

""ence to the insidious advances and encroachments of this despotic and mighty medievalism. While it is quietly in- terweaving itself with the national life, and strategically preparing the basis for its future self assertion, contentious action and usurpations, almost no one takes heed or offers a serious obstruction. Were any one indeed openly and vigorously to controvert its character, its progress and grasping for power, among the Catholic population of our large cities, the result would be mob violence. There, and on this question, free speech is the ante-war free speech south of Mason and Dixon's line. The new thraldom, like the old bondage, requires to be let alone. The public peril is neglected for personal aims. Pride, pleasure and luxury, like a leash of hounds, bay on the heels of gratifi- cation. Vanity parades, ambition climbs, business hastes to be rich. The press panders, the politicians trim, the preachers doze : the priests sow tares. The country drifts, drifts, and drifts. Meanwhile duty commands every voice to cry aloud and spare not, the pen and the press to unite in impetuous sustained appeal, enforced by the priceless interests of our imperilled civil and religious liberties and institutions. When the Jesuit assassin stabbed Fra Paolo Sarpi of Venice, to end his too liberal and evangelical writing, and fled, leaving his weapon sticking in the wound, Sarpi himself plucked the bribed stiletto from his flesh, and holding it aloft, said : "The pen of the Papacy ! " Contrariwise the pen is the sword of Protestantism, civil and religious, for holy war against Popery. "Awake, 0 sword, against" the deceiver and the destroyer ; "put up thyself into thy scabbard " only when the people are delivered by knowledge ; recognizing that Romanism and the Republic are irreconcilable opposites; that the Tiara and our starry Banner are divorced as the poles, incongruous as the Roman wolf and the American eagle.

LEROY M. VERNON. Syracuse, N. ¥., April 30th, 1889.

ROMANISM AND THE REPUBLIC.

Sermon 3L

REASONS FOR CONSIDERING THE RELATION OF ROMANISM TO THE REPUBLIC.

" Agaiu the word of the Lord came unto me, saying: Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, aud say unto them, When I briug the sword upon a laud, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set lnm for their watchman; If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trum- pet and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come aud 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, aud blow not the trum- pet, 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." — Ezekiei, 33: 1-6.

The picture in this text is better understood in

Eastern lands than it can be in this country.

Many cities there are located on lofty heights,

from which a wide survey can be made of the

surrounding country. They are so located for

purposes of defence ; for where enemies are likely

to come in like a flood, and wandering hordes

to make sudden incursions, such situations are

highly favorable to safety. The watchman, placed

on the walls, scans the country far and wide,

and marks every sign which would suo-o-est the

18 Romanism and the Republic.

presence of a coming foe. A cloud of smoke in the distance, rolling up from burning villages, attracts his watchful eye. The dust which rises above the plain, marking the march of an advancing host, is to him an occasion for alarm. The glint of the sun- shine on distant, moving weapons, leads him to call the defenders to their posts, and the throng of terri- fied villagers, fleeing from their homes to find pro- tection under the walls of the town, alike attests the need of watchfulness, and confirms and justifies his warning.

He does not wait until the foemen are thundering at the gates, before he announces to the garrison the danger that threatens. Should he do so, he might justly be judged a traitor, in the pay of the enemy.

So, when God's watchman, guarding the dearest interests of church and state, sees rising from other lands the clouds of desolation which betoken the ruin wrought by tyranny ; when he marks the steady aggression of the enemies of truth and man ; hears

DO *

their threatenings and sees their weapons ; when he observes the fleeing millions who, running away from oppression, seek in our freer government a refuge from their tyrants, he cannot wait until the foot of the foeman is on the threshold of our gates, his band on our throats, and his decrees proclaimed in our market-places, before he sounds the alarm.

It is his duly to give the warning of approaching danger seen afar, and thus to protect the liberties over which he watches, rather than delay to sound his call to stand on guard, until these priceless

Romanism and the Republic. 19

treasures are forever lost. Such I conceive to be the duty of the Christian minister who observes the doings of the Romish church in other lands, the principles which have moved it, the methods which it has pursued, and the threats, already taking form, which it is making against the Protestant Christianity and the free government of the United States of America. Our responsibility is not merely to the present hour, but to coming ages and future times, — to those generations yet to be, who must now be protected in our persons, and defended by our fidelity. In warning you of the spirit and aggres- sions of Romanism, I naturally seek to justify my purpose by reasons which I submit to your calm con- sideration and enlightened judgment.

Why do I consider this subject ? and why do I deem it my duty to God and to man, to the present and to the future, to bring this matter to the attention of this congregation and community?

1. Among the negative reasons why I consider Romanism and the Republic the first is this : I do not do it to incite religious animosity. The various branches of the Christian Church should cultivate amity, peace and brotherhood. We cannot too earnestly deprecate the spirit which awakens needless religious contention against bodies which hold approx- imately the common faith.

But, on the other hand, shall religion be a cloak for confessed evils, forbidding us to take account of them because they assume a religious covering ? Under the pretence of religion, the

20 Romanism and the Republic

grossest crimes have been committed against the state, against society, and against the faith. It ought not to shelter the immoralities of Mormonism, that Mormonism is defined as a system of religious belief. Is polygamy any more moral because it affects to l)e a religious ordinance and duty? By no means. Romanism can claim for its policy no ex- emption from attention or censure because it is a religion, any more than can any other ism.

If it is true that under the guiso of the religion of Romanism a great conspiracy against liberty and truth is sheltered, it is simply fidelity to the highest obligations, and not religious animosity, that leads us to tear away the veil and show the designs which threaten our country's welfare and the progress of mankind.

2. Neither do I consider this subject in order to excite religious prejudice against any church or class of citizens. Fraternity, peace, goodwill, and a dis- position to abide by rules of fairness, should animate all our relations toward our fellow-men, either in the church or state. But prejudice is the offspring of thoughtlessness and ignorance. When truth de- mands that we should take a strongly antagonistic attitude toward any evil, that attitude cannot be spoken of as the result of prejudice. I purpose rather to diminish prejudice by increasing intelli- gence; I would throw light on the methods of the llomish church, on its history and its intentions; I would cause those who are now ignorantly preju- diced to become intelligently opposed ; and so would

Romanism and the Republic. 21

dissipate, rather than create, intolerant and ignorant antagonism.

3. Certainly, it is far from my intention, in this discussion, to arouse or increase religious bigotry — that spirit which assumes that none are Christians except ourselves, which regards all others as in the wrong, which cannot see or tolerate anything out- side of the narrow line of its own denomination. Of bigotry there is already too much, and I would that it miijht diminish till there were none remaining. But by this I do not mean to suggest that all creeds and opinions are equally true, nor to debar us from the definition and defence of our principles. Nor are dangerous ideas and practices in the province of religion to be exempt from examination, any more than dangerous ideas in morals or in politics. Big- otry may be increased by superstition, and often has been fostered by forbidding free discussion ; but the diffusion of information on matters of common con- cern, in a fair spirit and by the citation of undoubted authorities, cannot nurse bigotry.

4. Still less do I discuss the subject of Romanism and the Republic in order to awaken controversy for the sake of mere controversy. We are taught in the Holy Scriptures to " follow peace with all men ;" and yet are bidden to " contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to the saints." There are worse evils than controversy, much as acrimoni- ous disputation is to be deprecated. The nation that is not ready to contend for its liberties hardly de- serves them, and will surely lose them. The church

22 Romanism and the Republic.

which values truth so lightly that it will not in de- fence of the same put forth the utmost argument and persuasion, creating enlightenment by the champion- ship of truth and the challenging of error, will soon cease to be respected, and will presently cease to res- pect itself. While, therefore, I neither fear nor court controversy, and certainly do not desire to awaken it for its own sake, I would gladly welcome it in be- half of truth, if thereby the clouds might be dissipated and the dangers averted which hang over and threaten our beloved country. And I may add, that this was the spirit of early Christianity in the primitive church. The Epistles to the Galatiaus, to the Colos- sians and to the Corinthians, are controversial epis- tles, defending the Gospel, protecting the church, challenging false teachers, and assailing immoral and ungodly doctrine. The spirit of biblical controversy is the spirit which we would cultivate, and the endeavor we make is made with the same intent. Far be it from me to dispute the genuine piety and the deep devotion of many of the adher- ents of the church of Rome. I shall not assume that its members at large, and its priests in general, knowingly hold and propagate error. But because it demands universal and absolute allegiance, I am bound to examine the basis of its claims, before I accept or reject them. You and I are willing that Presbyterians shall be Presbyterians, that Method- ists shall be Methodists, that Episcopalians shall be Episcopalians, and so on of all Christians whose faith is a biblical faith. And they are equally willing that

Romanism, and the Republic. 23

we shall be Congregationalisms. But Rome recog- nizes only heresy in every form of religion but its own ; demands universal submission ; endeavors to incite the fiercest hatred against all other forms of belief, and strives to overpower and destroy, by all her vast and mighty machinery, and by the anathe- mas of the pope, the persecution of the civil power, and the horrors of the Inquisition, which they still justify, if they cannot practice.

Before proceeding further, I desire to answer a question that may arise in your minds, why I speak on Romanism and the Republic, instead of upon Catholicism and the Republic. The reason is very clear, and one that should ever be kept in mind. I say Romanism, instead of Catholicism, because the Romish church is not the Catholic church. What is the Catholic church? The meaning of the term determines. Catholic means general, universal, the one all-embracing church. It includes all who hold to our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth. Every Christian on the face of the earth belongs to the Catholic church ; but, thank God ! not to the Romish church. You are Catholics because you are Christians. The devoted worshipper of the Lord Jesus in any denomination is a Catholic, because a Christian. But Rome is not the universal church ; Romanism is the Latin church, a branch of the church of Christ, we may allow, but not the whole, as she falsely and impudently claims. To the arro- gance of that claim, it is extremely foolish and weak for us to bow.

24 Romanism and the Republic.

I shall never call them Catholic, only as I would say Methodist Catholic, Congregational Catholic, because they are not Catholics, and I advise you to more carefully define the true Catholic idea, and to call Romanism by its right name.

Secondly — I call them Romanists because they are the Roman church. Its headship is at Rome ; the ruler whom it regards as infallible, who presides over and directs it with absolute authority, is an Italian by residence, a Roman, and a foreigner. And not merely is its head a Roman, but, moreover, the church is essentially Italian, and has been for centuries, in the preponderance of governing ideas, in the policy which shapes its course, in the diplomac}^ of its management. Sometimes, and justly, it is called Ultra montane, which, centuries ago meant, as it now means, a church governed by priests who find their homes south of the Alps. We need only to appeal to the history of the Romish church, to demonstrate the entire suitability of defining it as Romanism in its relation to the Republic, and its relation to the world ; though the time is coming when to keep that name even, modern, regenerated Rome, will demand that it become a regenerated church.

Having thus cleared the way, and negatively defined my purpose, having also defined distinctly the Romish church as non-Catholic, I now desire to give you positive and direct reasons why I take up this discussion, and as a watchman who is responsible to God, to the church, to the Republic

Romanism and the Republic . 25

and to the world, ask your attention to the threaten- ing attitude and dangerous assumptions of Romanism in our country. l.Why do I not take up and con- sider the relation of other churches to the Republic ? That would be appropriate, if there were anything in their relation startling, threatening, or especially suggestive ; but no such fact in their history exists. The attitude of the Romish church toward the Republic is totally different from that of any other church. Suppose the inquiry were raised, What is the attitude of the Baptist church toward the Repub- lic? The instant and universal answer from all Christian denominations would be, The Baptist church is an essential and thoroughly loyal portion of the nation. If the question were raised, What is the attitude of Methodism toward the Republic? we should at once reply, that Methodism was a constitu- ent and vital part of the life of the Republic, loyal to the core to the principles of American liberty.

But we consider Romanism in its relation to the Republic, rather than any of the other churches, because its attitude is well known to be questionable, doubtful, and, as we shall show, hostile.

2. It acknowledges as its head a ruler who claims the right to dictate to all rulers ; who insists on his supremacy over and above all civil powers, execu- tive and legislative ; and who holds this theory of his own powers, not as a theory merely, but who for centuries has carried it out in practice, to the utmost limits of his ability. Every Roman Catholic digni- tary, from the Pope down to the Bishop, by creed

26 Romanism and the Republic.

and by oath, recognizes the Pope with an allegiance superior to that which he pays to any other power. And if the Romish power is not at present in avowed hostility, in open antagonism to the government of the United States, it is only because it chooses at present to be pacific; while really, as I shall show hereafter, holding an attitude of unqualified suprem- acy over us in its claims and in its purposes.

I have already said that Rome claims the right to control civil governments as no other church does. This claim of the Papacy I shall hereafter define in its own words. Recent and remarkable illustrations of this claim, in actual practice, are now before your minds. It is within the past year that, under the sanction of the Roman Catholic clergy, members of the English Parliament in this city have been hon- ored with processions and public meetings, while they expatiated to the people on the wrongs and woes of Ireland, and the desire of the people for Home Rule, and explained the plans by which they hoped to achieve it. Vast sums of money have been collected to further their designs, and the plans of campaign on which they were working, well-known throughout all the land, received general and enthu- siastic approval. But lo ! a few weeks since, under the manipulations of diplomatists at Rome, there has issued from the Vatican a rescript, as it is called, of Leo XIII, condemning the action of the clergy, the agitator, the statesman and members of parliament, and forbidding them to further the civil policy which they have heretofore pursued for the emancipation of

Romanism and the Republic. 27

Ireland from English rule. What is the result? A murmur of resistance and disapprobation from a few bishops and archbishops ; a fiery protest from a few leading agitators : and behold ! immediately follow- ing, almost absolute and universal submission ! Arch- bishops, bishops, and clergy, statesmen, orators, agi- tators, all, under the threat of Roman displeasure, quietly submit to the dictation of the Pope. Now the question is not whether their methods of civil procedure were right ; or whether the Pope, in cen- suring them, is on the right side of this political con- troversy. The real question is simply this : Has the Pope the right, has he the power to dictate to Roman Catholics in Ireland and America and throughout the world, what shall be their political methods, and how they shall plan and execute their political cam- paigns? I feel called upon at this juncture, in the name of liberty and manhood, to protest in favor of the protection of Romanists against the interference and domination of the Pope.

A farther illustration, in a more individual case and in the realm of personal opinion, of the practical interference of the Papacy in the civil allegiance of its subjects, is had in the case of Dr. McGlynn. Months ago, on the platform of a public meeting, I saw this distinguished priest of the Roman Catholic church. Modest and atfable in his bearing, eloquent in his words, and vigorous and free in his thoughts, he seemed to me at the time to be a representative of the best element in the Roman Catholic church. Subsequent to that time, acting

28 Romanism and the Republic.

within his undoubted rights as a citizen, guaranteed to him by the constitution and the laws, he chose to further certain political ideas which seemed to him in harmony with sound principle. Forthwith, this citi- zen of America is cited to appear in Rome to answer for his political opinions. He dreads to go, know- ing too well the means which the mother-church employs to secure the subordination of such of her sons as dare to think for themselves. Declining to go, and only affirming his rights as a free Ameri- can citizen, he is put under the ban of his superiors and deprived of the church for which he had labored and sacrificed so heroically, and to-day is an outcast priest, solely and only because he chose to adhere to his own private judgment in matters secular and political. If the Romish church, by rescript, can destroy the political plans of Irish leaders, if by cen- sure it can dictate political views to one of its dis- tinguished priests in America, obviously, it both claims and exercises the right to the same iurisdic- tion in every country and in every case.

3. The third reason why I consider the relations of Romanism and the Republic is, that Romanism hates and fiercely attacks institutions especially dear to us in this country, and which have been associ- ated with all its prosperity from the beginning of our history. Our fathers believed that public education was essential to sound political and social morality ; and alongside the church, and as its offspring, they planted the public school. This system of public education has made, of those who conje under its

Romanism and the Republic. 29

benign influence, the most enlightened citizens of the most enlightened state in the world ; and it may be truly said, that the results of public education in the United States furnish one of the most striking illustrations of the wisdom of the founders of our government. But Rome is the sworn foe of our public schools. The most violent language in oppo- sition to them is used, under the sanction of her pre- lates, by her writers, secular and clerical. Not only in America, but in Ireland, where the British gov- ernment has tried to diffuse the benefits of public education, they exhibit the same hostility.

The national schools of Ireland, carefully abstaining from giving religious instruction, but affording facili- ties for such instruction at designated hours, accord- ing to the preference of the parents, have been met by the fiercest antagonism on the part of the Roman power.

Great was my surprise, when a distinguished and highly educated Roman Catholic assured me that, in his opinion, it were better that the children of Ire- land should grow up in densest ignorance, rather than that they should attempt to get their education in the national schools. The determined efforts of Rome to undermine our public school system are already bearing apparent fruit. Undertaking to falsify history, in order to build up ecclesiasticism, but recently they have demanded and have secured the explusion of certain histories from the public schools of Boston, and the dismissal of a teacher who dared to teach something contrary to their supremacy and

30 Romanism and the Republic.

to their preferences. In a Connecticut city, not long since, one of the young lady teachers in the High School, having, in a historical exercise, stated that the Roman Catholic church just prior to the Reformation sold indulgences, which encouraged the people to commit sin, was only able to retain her place as teacher in the school l>y signing a retraction or apology prepared by a Roman Catholic priest !

Has it comes to this, that the Romish church shall dictate that only such books shall bo studied in our public schools as comport with her opinion of her- self, and her desire to establish a universal tyranny? And are we, the offspring of the English Reformers, to bend the knee and yield ? God forbid !

Remember, freemen, and Protestants of America, that where Rome has had the privilege of educating the people, more illiteracy prevails, in proportion to the population, than in any other European state. The Roman states, Italy and Spain, in their abject- ness and almost universal ignorance, bear witness to this fact. Liberty of conscience and freedom of the press, dear and precious privileges of American free- men, have been pronounced by the highest author- ity of the Romish church, a pest and a delirium, and the Romish church, when the Pope says that, is bound to believe it, as if it were the very word of God. Surely, if these priceless privileges of conscience and discussion are of right free, we cannot too soon start up in resistance to the power which denies that freedom, and would put us in bondage to the blas- phemous assumptions of mediaeval tyranny.

Romanism and the Republic. 31

4. My fourth reason for considering Romanism in its relation to the Republic is, that in the Romish Church is so large a portion of the criminal and dan- gerous classes. A distinguished ex-priest, Leon Bouland, in the July number of the Forum, calls our attention to the fact that, in the city of New York, probably seventy-five per cent, of the criminals are members and adherents to the Romish Catholic Church. And yet some of you, being kindly disposed, will say : Does not the Romish Church exercise a re- straining influence over these dangerous classes, and, is not that influence beneficial in helping the commu- nity to keep such people in subjection ? It may be true, we will not deny it, that the Romish Church has some power of restraint over these dangerous classes ; but will you not also bear in mind that the attitude of the Romish Church toward these people makes it almost impossible for Protestants to get near them, in iorder to teach them morality and improve their con- dition? She takes the whole responsibility for them. And mark this : these people who constitute our dan- gerous and criminal classes in America, are the offspring of those communities where Romanism for centuries has had an absolute sway. They come from countries where this church has dominated their ancestors for many generations with unresisted authority. They are, to that degree, the product of Romanism. Moreover, it ought not to lie forgotten that the church which makes and which controls so large a proportion of the desperate people of society, holds over them such an absolute sway from superstition,

32 Romanism and the Republic.

the dread of excommunication, and from prejudice, that she can handle them at her will, and by that means make them her agents and instruments for whatever work she chooses to set them about. I have not said that the Romish Church desires or will launch this terrific enginery against the life of the nation. The probability of that you shall determine later, when we have more carefully studied its prin- ciples. But I do say, that this army of the immoral, the dangerous and the criminal, is so abjectly under the power of Rome, and so sworn to obedience to the Pope, that if she shall choose to direct them in any course, they, on their part, are likely to obey. Will she so choose ?

5. In answer, in the fifth place, I beg you to remember, that already Rome acts in this country as a political unit. These dangerous elements, with all other elements of the Papal power, in their civil capacity, are wielded by the church as an adjunct of a single political party. You and I allow the right of every man to select his political party, and to vote as he pleases ; but is it not a singular fact, that the Romish Church alone, of all the churches, is politi- cally solid? The other great political party in this country has tried to secure the allegiance of a por- tion of the Roman Catholic voters, but has tried with indifferent and ill success. They who manipu- late the Romish vote do not intend to have it divided. They care nothing for the party with which it acts, nothing for the opposite party, nothing for America, save as it can be made the tool of the

Romanism and the Republic. 33

Papacy ; and in directing this vast body of voters, do not forget that they handle them solely and only in the interest of Jesuitism, and of the purpose of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The Romanists of America will obey the orders that come from Rome in every political action, precisely as the Romanists of Ireland and America have obeyed the Papal rescript recently issued. At least, precedent awakens our fear that such will be their course. This dangerous element, wielded as a political power, already has produced most startling conditions of municipal gov- ernment in most of the great cities. They either hold the balance of power, or already constitute the the majority, in many city governments ; and they work with an adroitness and statesmanship whose purpose is as dangerous as its patience is marvelous.

6. The sixth reason why I discuss this subject is, that already the dangers which I have alleged in the fourth and fifth reasons, are very obviously at hand.

The power of the Papacy as a political force is already seen in our cities, not merely in the govern- ment of the municipality, nor in the blows which they are dealing at the public schools ; but in those open violations of the constitution of the several states and of the United States, which they have extorted from time-serving legislators, and from trembling and sub- servient politicians. The constitutions of most of our states forbid the appropriation on the part of the state to any sect of public moneys for its emol- ument or use. No religious society can justly receive, under the constitution, the public funds for

34 Romanism and the Republic.

its up-building and the propagation of its ideas. But this wholesome and necessary law has been so evaded, that in the city of New York the Roman Catholic Church has grasped millions of the public money. Its vast cathedral property, now occupied by one of the most magnificent churches in America, was obtained for a mere song; and it had gained, as I shall hereafter show in detail, for specifically Roman- istic institutions, prior to 1870, millions of dollars from the public treasury. Already, wise and care- fid publicists have told us that we might look for the time when Roman Catholics will demand a division of the school fund, so that a part of it may be appro- priated for the support of their parochial schools, now rapidly being founded throughout the entire country under express orders from Rome. Do you smile at this fear? Do you say, It is impossible that the time should ever come when the constitution and the prin- ciples of the states of the American Union should ever be so violated? But already the attempt has been made in our own Commonwealth. And, mark my words ! the time is sure to come, and that ere long, when Romanism will have the public school moneys of our commonwealths divided, and a large share appropriated, contrary to the law and to the constitution, to their denominational institutions, unless freemen arouse and protect the treasuries on which they already have begun to make attacks.

I will give you two more reasons why I consider it necessary, as a conscientious watchman and defender of the liberties of the church and of the counU-y, to consider Romanism and the Republic.

Romanism and the Republic. 35

7. My seventh reason is, that the leaders of the church, a celibate priesthood and without family ties, acknowledge an allegiance to a foreign ruler supe- rior to the United States ; and are ready at his com- mand to abjure all other fealty. We cannot over- look the peculiarity of the Roman Catholic priest- hood. It tends, contrary to nature and the law of God, to debase social morality. When the iron hand of the Papacy struck down the home of the priest by forbidding the priests to marry, it was that she might secure their more absolute allegiance to the church. Without domestic ties or obligations, they look for their advancement and joys solely to the Papal power. Against the hardships of this unnatural edict there have been many protests, amounting almost to rebellion, within the Roman Catholic Church. Again and again, consequent A, upon observation of the damaging effects of enforced celibacy upon the morality of the church and of the priesthood, have its more enlightened members prayed and petitioned that this heavy burden might be taken from them , but up to this hour have pro- tested in vain. We cannot appeal to history with- out being most certain that a celibate priesthood, as a class, has never held to high morality. And / when we come to speak of the evils of this celibacy in its relation to the confessional — when we survey, from our standpoint of abundant though most pain- ful revelations, the relation which these wifeless and childless men bear to society — you will be forced to acknowledge that they are made, by their very po-

36 Romanism and the Republic.

sition and its demands, a constant menace to society in its highest and dearest interests; as also, to a remarkable degree, by their moral relations, the more subservient tools of the Papal power. 8. The final reason which I present as demanding this discussion, is that the wisest statesmen see in Romanism and its claim, a source of great national peril. I can quote at this time only two or three of them. That distinguished son of France, himself a member of the Gal Mean Catholic church, who gave more to our country during the Revolution than any other foreigner, who assisted in laying the foundation of our liberties, and who is honored wherever the American Republic is known, the Marquis de la Fayette, said, long ago: "If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, it will be by the hands of the Roman clergy." This saying, uttered when the Roman church was weak and small in America, and when it seemed to threaten no disaster, is all the more significant from the wide knowledge and careful observation of the statesman who uttered it. He had seen the power of Romanism as it had operated against the liberties of France; he knew the strength of the hand that controlled the priests and the people ; and observing the ruinous consequences of Papal absolutism, and the despotic way of the Roman Curia in other lands, he anticipated that a country so fair as this, and destined to so great development, would become the chosen nation for the assault of these hateful powers that had beaten back progress in the Old World. The most eminent

Romanism and the Republic. 37

English statesman of our time, who will rank with the greatest public men of any age and any land, Gladstone, says : " The Pope demands for himself the right to determine the province of his own rights, and has so denned it in formal documents as to warrant

any and every invasion of the civil sphere

Rome requires a convert who joins her, to forfeit his moral and mental freedom, and to place his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of another." Prince Bismarck, in a speech delivered April 16, 1875, said : " This Pope, this foreigner, this Italian, is more powerful in this country than any other person, not excepting even the king. And now please to con- sider what this foreigner has announced as the pro- gramme by which he rules Prussia and elsewhere. He begins by taking to himself the right to define how far his authority extends ; and this Pope, who would employ fire and sword against us if he had the power to do so, who would confiscate our property and not spare our lives, expects us to allow him full, uncontrolled sway." So speak the mightest states- men of our age, and shall we not hear these warning voices? and shall we not interpret the movements of the Romish prelates in America on the basis of their own vows, and according to the developments of their plans in other lands? Can we anticipate a brighter future for America, under the Papal tyranny, than could have been anticipated for Spain, for Italy, for France, for Portugal? No. The highest duty and obligation which we recognize as Christians — our duty to God who holds us responsible for the

38 Romanism and the Republic.

preservation of our glorious heritage received from our fathers — every consideration of private right and public weal, all demand, that at a time of such great peril, we should turn aside from our customary over- sanguine hopes and optimistic views of America's certain future, to consider how we can reproduce, in time to come, the unequaled glories of the past, and against the rule of the most to be dreaded of foreign foes, maintain in the future a church without a tyrannous Papal bishop, and a state without a king.

Sermon ft

THE JESUITS AND THEIR PURPOSE.

" Wiitch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." — 1 Cor. 16: 13.

" If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle?" The clarion voice of our text, in the vigor with which it calls upon us to be watchful, steadfast, manly and strong, stirs our souls. They misunderstand the Scriptures who sup- pose that words like these apply only to the smaller details of our personal life. On the contrary, these directions have the widest range and application, defining our duty and attitude toward the great move- ments in which we bear a part, and on which world- wide consequences depend. "Watch ye," be alert, vigilant, observant, " stand fast in the faith," " con- tend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints," be unyielding, adamantine in resistance, to error, " stand like a rock, and the storm and battle little shall harm you in doing their worst ;" quit you like men " in active work for God and his truth ; "be strong; " the result of watchfulness, steadfastness in the faith, manliness in action, is personal strength and individual power, which you should always culti- vate and display. Such, in brief, is the general doc- trine of the text,

40 Romanism and the Republic.

In its application to the hidden and open conspir- acy of Romanism against the doctrines of God and the liberty of American Christians — the position which we should hold for the protection of our dear- est rights — no words could be more significant. " Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," therefore " watch," lest, unexpectedly, some enemy shall take away the privileges which most you prize. " Stand fast in the faith," hold strongly, kindly, firmly, the princples of Scriptural truth and of political freedom, which, together, are the principles of Protestantism. Do not feebly consent to lose your liberties, but " quit you like men ;" and, while without the bigot's animosity, maintain the freeman's determined front. For the sake of yourselves, your country, the church, your children, " be strong," indomitable.

In the personal application of this great exhorta- tion for the government of our conduct, we cannot really perceive or understand the menace of Roman- ism, unless we review the history of the past as well as attentively survey the present. You all are some- what familiar with the facts of the great Reformation in the sixteenth century. In our blind optimism, we are inclined to believe that our liberties are secure, that our present advantages can never be for- feited, forgetful of the fact that God sometimes per- mits the hands of progress to be turned back upon the dial of history, as he permitted Rome in the century of which we speak, to weld again the fetters which the Reformation had broken, and fasten them for centuries more upon the prostrate nations.

Romanism and the Republic. 41

/ The beginning of the sixteenth century saw the Roman Catholic church predominant over all religi- ous, civil and social life throughout Europe. The Holy Roman Empire, with its emperor, was in sub- \ jection to the Pope of Rome. The civil rulers bowed at the footstools of the Papal power, trem- bled at its threats, and accepted its dictation. The leading ecclesiastic of Germany, Albert, Archbishop of Mentz, afterward cardinal, having boldly pur- chased his office at a great price, reimbursed him- self, and poured money into the Papal treasury by securing the monopoly of the sale of indulgences, of which Tetzel was the agent and auctioneer. The priests, largely corrupted in morals and careless of the welfare of the people, were willing that the flock should be plundered, provided the spoil went into the treasury of the church. Even the Jesuit Favre, at the Diet at Worms, testified that the priests were guilty of grievous crimes. The people, shrouded in dark superstition, ignorant of the Holy Scriptures, and enslaved by their ecclesiastical masters, were still deemed worth plundering, and were yielding up their wealth to enrich the Papal court south of the Alps. That court was more /;*'/«*< interested in the revival of polite and classical learn- ing and in gratifying its vices, than in spreading the > Gospel of God. Then, when the times were ripe, ** Luther arose, and nailed to the door of the old church >t^-y in Wittenberg those ninety-five immortal theses /aA which became the text and proclamation of the *—/-' great Reformation. The rino- of his hammer startled

14

e

42 liomanism and the Republic.

the Pope on his throne, and all the Roman ecclesi- astics throughout the world. Rapidly the Refor- mation spread throughout Germany and the north- ern nations, through England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Livonia, the Palatinate and part of Swit- zerland. France became also penetrated with the new doctrine; even Spain, Portugal, Italy, were moved thereby ; while it seemed that Bavaria, Hun- gary, Bohemia and Poland were likely to follow the example of others in denying the assumptions of the Pope, and accepting the word of God, rather than the traditions of men. " Within fifty years of the day when Luther publicly renounced communion with Rome," says Lord Maeaulay, " Protestantism attained its highest ascendancy, an ascendancy which it soon lost ; and which it never regained." ( This was written in 1840.) Then arose a counter move- ment in the south of Europe, a reformation of methods and of discipline in the church of Rome. In two generations, a powerful reaction had con- firmed the supremacy of the Papacy in all the uncer- tain territory, and France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Hungary and Bohemia became the servile dependents of Romanism, and so remained for nearly three hundred years.

/ This counter movement in the Romish church, by [which it held almost undisputed power over these nations for more than three centuries, is due, more

(than to any other agency, to Ignatius Loyola, and the Jesuit society of which he was the founder. The power of this organization within the Romish church,—

Romanism, and the Republic. 43

an organization which through many vicissitudes is still intact, and is to-day the very core of Romanism in its principles and its policy, — claims our attention, and must be studied in its purposes and its methods, in order that we may be informed of the intentions and claims of Romanism in the United States, and that we may properly guard and protect our country against the destruction plotted against us by a sleep- less and cruel foe. It is impossible to understand the Romish church of to-day or of the past three hundred years, without a knowledge of the Jesuits and their influence in the church ; and it is equally impossible to clearly apprehend the Jesuit doctrines and purposes, unless we know something of their founder. I therefore beg your attention for a little, to some facts which throw light upon the history of Ignatius Loyola, first general of the Jesuits, who created the organization, formulated its constitution, directed its beginnings, and infused into it his spirit. 1. Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491, in the north of Spain, of the family of Loyola, who were among the grandees of that country. He early became a page at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic, and was dis- tinguished as a gallant and a courtier. He had for his dulcinea, as he tells us, "not a duchess nor a countess, but one of higher rank," and was dis- tinguished in court at joust and tournament as one of the brave warriors and handsome courtiers of the day. At twenty-nine years of age, when the French troops of Francis I. poured over the border, Loyola was present in the little city of Pampeluna, to which

44 Romanism and the Republic.

they laid siege. The governor and commander of the city resolved to yield it up. Loyola protested with vigor, secured the assistance of a single soldier, and throwing himself into the citadel, desperately resolved to defend it to the last. A few more joined him, and in their desperate resistance, while bravely fighting on the wall, Loyola was struck down by missiles which broke one of his legs. He was carried to his ancestral home and laid upon a bed of suffering. The imperfect surgery of the time, after inflicting exquisite torture, which he bravely endured, at length left one of his legs shorter than the other, destroying his fitness for the court and military exercises. At this time, while heroically suffering, lying on a sick bed, and aware that he was maimed for life, there was put into his hands a book called the *' Lives of the Saints," and some simple pictorial life of Christ. Heading the " Lives of the Saints," this disappointed cavalier began to revolve in his mind visions of another knighthood in the service of the church. " Why cannot I do for the church what St. Dominic and St. Francis did?" he said. And then and there, his imagination picturing to him the glories of such a service, he devoted himself to the service of Our Lady and of the Church.

Romanist historians delight to tell how at this time St. Peter appeared and cured him of a fever ; and how, praying, he saw the Virgin Mother and the Child. They also tell of an earthquake rending the walls of his room, while the rest of the castle was not shaken. Loyola's resolution was now taken ;

Romanism and the Republic. 45

he would become a monk ; and having recovered a degree of health, he mounted his steed and started for the neighboring convent of Montserrat. It shows the tierce temper of the man, that while on his way to the convent, he overtook a Moor, with whom he disputed about the virginity of the blessed Mother. The Moor admitted that she was such before the birth of the Christ, but denied that she was afterward. The debate waxed warm, and the Moor parted from Loyola and galloped forward. Loyola following, resolved that if his mule, on whose neck he laid the reins, should follow the road which the Moor had taken, he would assail the infidel, and stab him to the heart. Fortunately the animal took the other road up the mountain, and Loyola was saved the guilt of fanatical and vengeful murder. Arriving at the convent, he gave his rich clothing to a beggar, taking the beggar's rags in exchange, retaining only his jewelled dagger and sword. These he hung up before the image of Our Lady, and through a long night, as did the ancient knights, in vigil, devoted himself to the service of his mistress. Next day he goes to the hospital, not far off, where, thirsting for humility and Buffering, he perforins the most menial and disgusting services for the sick. Ho service was too shocking for him. But being annoyed by those who recognized him as a noble, he departs from the hospital, and betakes himself to the horrible and lonely cave of Manresa, in which he spends two years. Here he has unspeakable agony of mind, starves himself almost to death, and sees

46 Romanism and the Republic.

visions, alternately threatening and consoling. Here, at this time, he composed the only writings, with the exception of a few letters, which he wrote during his life ; the first work, A Manual of Spiritual Exer- cises for the creation of that society of which he afterward became the founder ; the second work, The Constitution and Rules by which that society should be governed. Filled with a visionary purpose of converting Oriental nations, he starts, at the age of thirty-one, for Palestine, begging his way. Arriving there, he is forced to return by the authorities of the church, there being no place for him. Once more in Spain, and having seen the need of education for the work which he desired to do, at thirty-three years of age he goes to school, and sitting on the bench beside little boys, studies the Latin language. About this time he is said to have seen the Holy Trinity in a vision, to have witnessed also the very fact of transubstantiation by which the bread is changed to the body of Christ in the mass, to have beheld the soul of a friend who died taken visibly to the heavens, and, still more wonderful, he is said, in a vision, to have been taught more of natural science than falls to the lot of most men to know. The Romanist biographers seriously tell how he was raised bodily from the ground while at prayer, cured incurables by a touch, and much more of the same sort. Two years later, he goes to the Uni- versity of Alcala, later still to Salamanca, and at thirty-eight years of age, following an inward voice, to the University of Paris.

Romanism and the Republic.

47

He is hero distinguished for the intensity of his devotion, more than for any scholarly ability. At forty-four, he took his degree in philosophy, at the University of Paris. Bat meanwhile, steadily pur- suing his purpose to found a society, he gathers its nucleus in the person of Xavier, Laynez, Bobadilla and two or three others, who, with mutual vows, resolve that they will obey the constitutions which he has formulated. Leaving Paris they go to Rome together, he seeing more visions on the way, and in 1540, after earnest solicitations of the Pope, when Loyola is forty-nine years of age, the society of Jesuits is formed. Loyola forsook all his family connections when he entered Montserrat, and with them he held scarcely any communication afterward. He left his native country, for which he never seems to have cherished further regard ; abandoned, in fact, all human friends. For, though he inspired wonder- ful devotedness in men to his ideas, he seems never to have had a friend ; unless in the person of one or two women, who followed him with almost supersti- tious devotion, — one of whom formed a religious house near that of the Jesuits in Rome.

I note these particulars, that you may see the character of the man, because it is reflected in his society. He is a typical Romish Ecclesiastic and Jesuit.

How different the typical Protestant, as seen in the character of Martin Luther. Born in 1483, Martin Luther at twelve attends school at Magdeburg; at fourteen goes to Eisenach, and is

48 Romanism and the Republic.

soon distinguished for skill in music, eloquence, and philosophy ; at eighteen he enters the University at Erfurt, and becomes bachelor and master of arts at twenty-two; at twenty-five is selected, on account of his great ability and scholarship, to be professor of philosophy in the University at Wittenburg ; at

(twenty-nine is doctor of theology, a Biblical Doctor, he says, pledged to teach the Hol}r Scriptures ; and before he has attained the years at which Loyola left the University of Paris, Luther has propounded his theses, debated with Dr. Eck, and vanquished both Cajetan and DeVio, the Papal legates ; has delied the Pope, the Church, and the Emperor, in the brave and dauntless stand which he took for the word of God, and the liberty of the church, at the diet of Worms ; has translated and given to the people in their native tongue the whole New Testament ; and has super- vised the translation of the Old, which glorious book became not only the foundation of the Reformation but of German Literature also ; and has come to be universally recognized as one of the most_profound scholars, one of the most eloquent preachers, as also one of the most distinguished university professors of Germany and Christendom.

This Luther, with his broad scholarship, his love of the people, his respect for his parents, and devo- tion to his friends, his warm social companionships, his fond and tender home-life, — Luther, with his little children about his knees, his little daughter dying in his arms, with all the hnmanities of a man, with all the tenderness of a woman, with all the bravery of a

Romanism and the Republic. 49

reformer, and the instincts of a statesman, is as truly a typical Protestant, as the concentrated, fanatical, half-educated Loyola is a typical son of the church. So much for the root, out of which grew the society of Jesuits.

2. The first, most manifest design of the Jesuits was to exterminate Protestantism ; the second, to build up the Roman church ; included in this latter, was their purpose to diminish the power of the bishops, in favor of the supremacy, the absolutism, the infallibility of the Pope, and then to gain control of that Pope, as embodying the church, ancF so advanc- ing their society. In order to the accomplishment of these purposes, the constitution of the society was formulated by Loyola ; a constitution which I cannot give you in detail only for lack of time, but some of whose salient points are as follows :

1. Every Jesuit is bound by the constitution of the society, and a solemn oath, or vow, to poverty, chastity and obedience. To these also is added, in the case of the so-called " professed," a fourth vow of absolute obedience to the Pope. Not all the Jesuits take these four vows, but only according to the grade to which they attain in the society.

Concerning the vow of poverty ', by which they deny themselves all worldly possessions — Loyola is said to have debated and prayed forty days and forty nights. The general of the society is made the trustee of their possessions. So extreme were Loyola's views on this point, that a Soman Catholic historian tells us, that if one of the brothers plucked

50 Romanism and the Republic.

a flower or picked up an apple in the garden of their house, Loyola visited the offence with severe pen- ance, as violating this rule of poverty, by possession. ■ And yet, notwithstanding the vow, when the society was suppressed in 1772 by the act of Pope Clement • XIV., they were found possessed of more than I $200,000,000. It was also the law of the society correlate to this, that no Jesuit should hold any office, save in the society. Nevertheless, at this time, they had twenty-four cardinals, six electors of the empire, nineteen princes, twenty-one archbishops, and one hundred and twenty-one titular bishops ; showing clearly how the lust of power gained supremacy over their vows.

The vow of chastity, similar to that which Romish priests now take, was to so separate them from the ordinary domestic duties of life, that their sole devotion should be given to the church. Perhaps, to a considerable extent, they have honored this vow ; but a purpose so contrary to nature and the word and will of God, has never in any age warranted the assertion that the celibates of Rome were chaste.

The vow of obedience, however, seemed to lie the strongest and most essential part of the constitution of the Jesuits. This obedience is absolute, and is to be paid to the superior. Says Loyola: "I ought to obey the superior as God, in whose plaee he stands." Every Jesuit's oath includes these words ; "To you, the Father-General, and to your successors, whom I regard as holding the place of God, perpetual pov- erty, chastity and obedience, etc." Loyola's under-

Romanism and the Republic. 51

standing of this vow is declared in his famous letter on obedience, when lie writes that this obedience should be so absolutely passive that one should be like a dead body moved only by the will of another, or like a staff in the hands of an old man, or like a crucifix in the hands of a worshipper. The virtue of this obedience is in proportion to its absoluteness. When the intellect does not even raise an inquiry about the thing commanded, when the Jesuit yields without the shadow of a will or purpose of his own, then obedience attains perfection. Among the first things which happen to a novice, who is to become a Jesuit, is the entire breaking down of his will. This is systematically sought and secured. In some cases, the novice passing the first night in a Jesuit house, has been tested as follows : When he has fallen asleep, he has been awakened, commanded to rise, take up his mattress, and go to another room, and this again and again through the night. If he asks

© © © ©

why, or raises the slightest query or objection, he is considered unfit for the society.

This rule of absolute obedience, to go anywhere and perform any service at the command of the superior, is now fully enforced. A friend of mine received the following admissions and explanation from a company of Jesuits with whom he sailed on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea a few years since. They were missionaries, going under orders. They said : " Wherever we are, in the garden, in the street, if the command comes to us to go to any part of the earth, to Asia, Africa, America, on any service, we

52 Romanism and the Republic.

do not wait to enter the house for money, for cloth- ing, or for farewells, but simply and at once start from where we are and go."

Loyola insisted on this rule of obedience with the utmost rigor. An old monk, who preferred wearing his night-cap in the house to the beretta prescribed by the rule, was dismissed. The professor of the- ology was sometimes commanded by Loyola to take the place of the cook, and the cook the place of the professor of theology ; or a priest, in the midst of the mass, was commanded to go into the street; and all this must be done without question^however absurd. A modest monk, coming into Loyola's presence and told to be seated, who did not instantly comply, was commanded to take the chair on his head, and hold it there as long as he remained. And these are but a few of the illustrations taken from Romish authors, which show how completely Loyola insisted on the fulfillment of this vow. The rigors of military discipline to which he was accustomed in early life, appear in all the constitutions and practice of the society, and their head is called the general.

The vow of obedience to the Pope, the fourth and last of these vows, taken by the highest members of the profession,/ has been kept only when the Pope was obedient to the will of the Jesuits* Loyola him- self, by diplomacy and evasion, contended with the Pope, and won his point too. Again and again, in the history of the society, the clashing of the Papal will with the will of the general of the Jesuits, has resulted in the submission or the ruin of the Pope.

Romanism and the Republic. 53

Several popes have died, apparently by poison, at the hand of this Order, who vowed obedience to them as Sixtus V., Urban VII., Clement VIII., and Clement XIV.

Turning from these Constitutions, in the next place, we call your attention to some of the methods and principles of this society. Among the first duties of a Jesuit, to which he devotes his life, is the teaching of the young. This apparently laud-

able purpose, made the Jesuits the school-masters of Europe. Far and wide they founded their houses of learning : as Luther before had founded them in Germany. " They possessed themselves of the pul- pit, press, confesssional and the school," as says Macaulay. But never forget that the first and sole purpose of the society as a teacher, is to make sub- missive Roman Catholics. This determines the kind and quantity of their teaching, and this must account for the fact that, in those countries where the Papacy and the Jesuit have had completest sway, there is found to-day the most extraordinary percentage of illiteracy: as witness, Italy, where 73 per cent, of the people are illiterate, or Spain with 80 per cent., and Mexico with 93 per cent. Could this have been true if the Jesuits, fulfilling their vow to teach, had really I opened the avenues of knowledge to their scholars ? . Rome educates only where she must, where Protest- antism compels her to do so. From Roman Cath- olics have come some of the severest criticisms on the narrowness of their methods of instruction.

54 liomanism and the Republic.

Secondly. The Jesuit vowed to devote himself to missions. Out of this vow, sprang the heroic devo- tion of Xavier and his associates, in India, of the Jesuit missions to China, to Japan, to North and South America, and Mexico. Of this mission work in China, in Japan, and in North America, there is hardly a trace remaining. In India, they prepared the way for the English power, without intending to do so. It is true that they degraded the gospel with pagan rites, so that nine popes vehemently con- demned their methods and tried in vain to reform them.

In the third place, their method and principle includes the assertion and upholding of the infallibil- ity of the pope. The statement of this doctrine in full must be reserved to a later time with all its absurd and hurtful consequences ; but the Avord infallibility conveys its plain meaning. The pope, according to the Jesuit idea, is the church, His decisions, speak- ing in bulls, encyclicals and the like, are as binding as the word of God. Notwithstanding; the alleged infallibility of the pope and his absolute supremacy, they have repeatedly evaded and violated his com- mands. They are responsible for that recent decree of the Vatican council, which makes Papal, infallibil- ity as much a doctrine of the Romish Church as the doctrine of the existence of God ; and it is a common i jest in Rome, that the Jesuit general, who is known' as the " Black Pope," is superior to the creature of the cardinals, who is known as the "White Pope."

Romanism and the Republic. 55

Fourth, The Jesuits, among their leading principles, insist on the secular power of the pope, his right to rule as a temporal prince and monarch over all civil governors, princes, kings, rulers and legislators. They have urged on and defended him in deposing monarchs, absolving Romanists from obedience to laws, and other treasonable acts, and that within twenty-five years. The supremacy of the Papal dictum in all matters that relate to faith and morals, includes also, in their theory, all that relates remotely to the discipline of the church. And yet, notwith- standing their devotion to the secular power of the pope, they, perhaps more than »any other society, have contributed to the loss of Papal influence, not only in the Roman States, but also in other countries of the world. And to show the blight of their rule and government, where pope and Jesuit were supreme in the Roman States, the morality of the people degenerated to the lowest ebb of virtue, the deepest infamy of vice.

As the last of the principles on which the society works, which I may now mention — they hold that the end justifies the means ; that if the end is good, whatever means are used thereto are good. Prob- ably it was this conception that made Loyola join with Cardinal Paul and Cardinal Caraffa, in establish- ing the Inquisition in Portugal. Although some of the Jesuits deny this as a principle of their conduct, the proofs are too abundant. Gury and Busenbaum, Layman and Wagemann, in Jesuit treatises on theo- logy and morals, distinctly avow the doctrine, and

56 Romanism and the Republic.

I

thus justify any wickedness in pursuit of the purpose

of upbuilding the Church of Rome. (See Dr. Littledale in Encyc. Brit., Art. Jesuits.) And their practice, in the judgment of the ablest historians, proves how fully they apply their theory. Macaulay, Rankc, and Hallam, lay at their door crimes against the state, against society, and against the person, which can only be excused on the ground that blind devotion to the church had made the instigators of these crimes reckless of the means which they pur- sued to obtain their ends. The assassination of William of Orange, of Henry IV. of France, attempts on the life of Elizabeth of England, the Gunpowder Plot, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the Revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes, are illustrations of the wicked deeds with which history too closely connects them.

Loyola's military experience, and rigid military ideas, appear everywhere in the modes of the society and its administration. Under their general are provincials, who have charge of certain territory, and a still lower grade of officers are called rectors ; and a complete system of espionage is kept up ; not only on all members of the society, but on all the events of the community where they dwell, a minute report of which is regularly and carefully sent to Rome. This has been their method for centuries, and is their method to-day.

If the purpose of this society was religious, solely or mostly ; if by their poverty they simply meant to separate themselves from the world ; if by

Romanism and the Republic. 57

their chastity, they would encourage a certain ideal of purity, and if obedience only meant ready sub- ordination to the command of a good leader, in the pursuit of a good work, how does it happen that the Society of Jesuits has incurred the suspicion, the dislike, the antagonism, the fear and the hatred of almost every ruler and every government of Europe, and of the world ?

Let us speak briefly, in closing, of their work, as far as that work can be epitomized in a few words. In pursuance of their designs, scattering to all countries of Europe and of the world, the Jesuits would be supposed to have been the allies of Roman Catholic princes, and to have assisted in the diffusion of those doctrines and principles held by Roman Catholics, to the satisfaction of all faithful sons of the church. Such, however, is not the case.

For conspiracy, machinations and evil designing, the Jesuits have been banished necessarily from almost every state of Europe. Roman Catholic Portugal, in 1759, led the way; and under the leadership of one of the most enlightened statesmen that Portugal ever had, banished them from the. realm. Spain followed shortly after, sending, in a single day, six thousand Jesuits from her borders to Italy; and as late as 1868, the Cortez of Spain reaffirmed its legislation against the society of Jesuits. Parma and Naples banished them ; also Switzerland, Prussia and Russia; until it may be said in truth, that, saving the insignificant kingdom of Belgium, every nation of Europe has legislated against them.

58 Romanism and the Republic.

But more than this : at about the time of our Revolution, the attention of Pope Clement XIV. hav- ing been called to the abuses created by the Jesuit society, after extended deliberation, in the most solemn terms, rehearsing the evils that they had done in and out of the church, in the year 1772, this Pope pronounced upon them the ban and anathema of the Roman curia, and forbade that they should reorganize or exist < ' to all eternity." Another pope, Pius VI., confirmed his predecessors decree. The Jesuits fled to Protestant Prussia and to Russia also, whence they were banished again. From 1772 to 1814, still secretly cherishing their society in defiance of the Pope, and working ruin wherever they went, the Jesuits existed under the Papal ban. Then another infallible pope, Pius VII., regardless of the decree of his predecessors, reinstated and rehabili- tated the society of Jesuits. The decree of Clement XIV. cost him his life. Bellarmine, a leading Jesuit of the society, prophesied that he would die within a year. That prophecy was regarded as a threat, and the pope died, with every indication of having been poisoned. The unscrupulous methods of the society, which have caused prince and pope and legislature to lay upon them their heavy hand, have never been condemned by the Jesuits, nor have they ever ceased to praetice them. But where did the banished Jesuit go ? Whither, when under the suspic- ion, and flying from the hatred of the rising spirit of freedom in Europe, does he betake himself, and where is he now? I answer, In America, in the United States.

Romanism and the Republic. 59

Our country is the paradise of Jesuits. Unwarned by the experience of other lands, regardless of the bonds they weave about the limbs of liberty, we have permitted their presence in this country, until almost ready to throw off the disguise, they now threaten our institutions with ruin. It is the Jesuit who animates the attack on our public schools ; the Jesuit who thrusts his hand into the public treasur- ies. It is the Jesuit who is endeavoring to divide the school fund, who is dictating the policy by which Romish schools shall take the place of the national schools. It is the Jesuit who is decrying free speech and liberty of conscience and a free press ; who is doing his utmost in conformity with the con- stitutions of the society of which he is a sworn adherent, and of the Papacy of which he is at once the dictator and the slave, to reduce free America to the subjection of an absolute monarch.

What will be the result ? Strange and wonderful to say, misfortune and disaster to themselves seems to follow their designs against government. In 1870, it was their influence which assembled and directed the Vatican Council, which should exalt still higher the dogmas of the church, and overthrow the grow- ing spirit of freedom. It was their plan, at the same time, to declare the Pope infallible, and to subjugate Italy and Europe to his power. Napoleon III. of France, the favorite son of the church, whose bayonets were the guard and support of the Papal throne, was led, through Jesuit influence, to declare war upon Protestant Prussia. But behold ! while

60 Romanism and the Republic.

they debated the infallibility of the Pope, the mon- arch on whom Pius IX. had shed the blight of his bles- sing surrendered himself, his army and his empire at Sedan, and free Italy began to march on Kome. Many prelates fled the Imperial City, and the thunder of the guns of Prussia at Sedan was answered by the cannon of free Italy, turned against the gates of Rome. Into their long degraded capi- tal swept the hosts of freedom ; the Quirinal became the palace of the King of United Italy, Victor Emanuel, and when the few hundred ecclesiastics of the Papacy, only a fraction of the Council, passed the decree which made the Pope an infallible prince, it was answered by the huzzahs of liberty throughout France and Italy. Since then, the Infallible has whined and protested, begged and threatened, but he is an Italian subject against his will, and must be, while he stays in Rome. God grant that the machin- ations of the Roman hierarchy may result in the emancipation of their followers from Papal tyranny in America, as in France and Italy ! Let Jesuitism, which has fled to America, to found an Empire on the ruins of the Republic, having been swept by edict from the Old World, here find a grave ; while American Catholic Christians, Romanist and Protestant, open the Word of God, and by it the gates of progress, here, in the free Republic of the West.

Sermon EH-

THE POPE AND THE PAPAL POWER THE FOES OP FREEDOM.

"That man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sittetb in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." — 2 Thess. 2: 3,4.

Many very able commentators believe that this text prophesies and describes the Pope of Rome. I do not affirm that the sacred writer foretells the Papacy in these prophetic words ; but we risk nothing in claiming that the description actually outlines the pretensions and assumptions of the Pope, and that Romanism allows to him nearly all, if not all, of the presumptuous claims that are here indicated. The lives of many of the Popes certainly correspond to the definition "the man of sin," in their scandalous wickedness and immorality. Their pride and pre- tensions are not unfittingly delineated in the words, 1 * who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ;" since, as I shall show, the Pope opposes all other forms of religion excepting the Roman Catholic, and exalts his claims, so that his declarations demand of Roman Catholics as absolute respect and obedience as though they were the very words of God. He certainly

62 Romanism and the Republic.

" sitteth in the temple of God ; " and if he does not say " I am God," he presumptuously asserts, in his claims to infallibility, the possession of attributes belonging to God alone. There is no other person- age in history to whom these words seem to so exactly apply ; and whether they are fit to describe him you shall judge, when we have examined his demands and his government.

You will remember, that in the former discourse we enlarged upon the principles, methods, and con- \s . stitution of the Jesuits, and, having seen that their I policy was one of absolute imperialism, directly I opposed to freedom, religious and civil, we affirmed that they now dictate, as for centuries they have controlled, the Papal policy. In further proof of this, Mr. Gladstone says ("Vatican Decrees," page 188) : " The Jesuits are the men who cherish, meth- odize, transmit and exasperate all the dangerous traditions of the Curia. In them it lives. The ambition and self-seeking of the court of Rome have here their root. They supply that Roman malaria which Dr. Newman tells us encircles the base of the rock of St. Peter." E. W. Thompson, in his extended and admirable work on "The Papacy and the Civil Power," p. 113, says of the Jesuits : " They are simply a band of ecclesiastical office-holders, held together by the cohesive power of common ambition as compactly as an army of soldiers, and are gov- erned by a commander-in-chief, whose brow they would adorn forever with a kingly crown, and who wields the Papal lash over them with imperial threat-

Romanism and the Republic. 63

enings. All these, with exceptions, if any, too few to be observed, are laboring with wonderful assiduity to educate the whole membership of their church up to the point of accepting, without hesitation or inquiry, all the Jesuit teaching in reference to the Papacy as a necessary and indispensable part of their religious faith ; so that, whensoever the Papal order shall be issued, they may march their columns unbroken into the Papal army. With blasphemous and fulsome adulation of the Pope, applying to him terms which are due only to God, they are all devoted to the object of exterminating Protestant- ism, civil and religious, and extending the sceptre of the Papacy over the world." And yet again, Dr. L. DeSantis, an ex-priest, a Roman by birth, who was once curate of the Magdalene parish in Rome, professor of theology in the Roman University, and qualificator of the Inquisition, thus expressed him- self: "From the period of the Council of Trent, Roman Catholicism has identified itself with Jesuit- ism. That unscrupulous order has been known to clothe itself, when occasion required, with new forms, and to give a convenient elasticity to its favorite maxim that the end is everything, and all the means to attain it are good ; but, by depending on the skilful tactics of the society of Jesus, the court of Rome has been constrained to yield to it ascend- ancy, confide her destiny to its hands, and permit it to direct her interest ; and of its control Jesuitism has availed itself in the most absolute way. It has constituted the powerful mainspring, more or less

64 Romanism and the Republic.

concealed, of the whole Papal machinery." (" Rome, Christian and Papal." )

These are representative and adequate illustrations of the opinion of the best informed men of our own generation, that the Jesuits are the power behind the Papal throne. Their policy, as we know from the constitutions, is one of absolute imperialism, the subjugation of all government, all thought, all faith, and all conscience to the commands of the Pope.

1. The Pope claims to be, by divine right, absolute ruler over all men and all nations, in all things. The decree of the Vatican Council of 1870 concerning the infallibility of the Pope, now a dogma of the Romanist faith, is in the following words ("The Decrees," p. 48) : " We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed, that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in dis- charge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith and morals to be held by the universal church, by the definite assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that his church should be endowed, for defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent of the church. But if any one, which may God avert, presume to contradict this our definition, let him be anathema." Still further, to cite the con- densed form of expression used by Mr. Gladstone

Romanism and the Republic. 65

(" Vaticanism," p. 141) : " The council of the Vati- can decreed that the Pope had from Christ immediate power over the universal church ; that all were bound to obey him, of whatever right and dignity, collectively as well as individually ; that this duty of obedience extends to all matters of faith and morals, and of the discipline and government of the church ; that in all ecclesiastical causes he is a judge without appeal or possibility of reversal ; that the definitions, both in faith and morals, delivered ex cathedra, are irreformable in themselves, and not from the consent of the church, and are invested with the infallibility granted by Christ in the said subject-matter to the church." Surely, it is not too much to say that a convert now joining the Papal church, yielding to the claims now made upon him by the authority which he solemnly and with the highest responsi- bilility acknowledges, is required to surrender his mental and moral freedom, and to place his loyalty and civil duty at the hand of another. Now, the expression " faith and morals," includes far more then mere ecclesiastical legislation. Let a high Roman Catholic authority tell us how much more, by implication, is included in this right of the Pope : "All, both pastors and faithful, are bound to sub- mit, not only in matters belonging to faith and morals, but also in those pertaining to the discipline and government of the church throughout the world. This is the teaching of the Catholic faith, from which none can depart without detriment to faith and salvation. We further teach and declare, that the

66 Romanism and the Republic.

Pope is the supreme judge of the faithful, and that, in all causes pertaining to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, recourse may be had to his judgment ; and that none may rebate the judgment of the apostolic See, than whose there is no greater authority ; and that it is not lawful for any one to sit in judgment on its judgment."

Commenting on this, Mr. Gladstone says : " Abso- lute obedience is due to the Pope at the peril of salvation, not alone in faith, in morals, but in all things which concern the discipline and government of the church. Even in the United States, where the severance between church and state is supposed to be complete, a long catalogue may be drawn of subjects belonging to the domain and competency of the state, but also undeniably affecting the govern- ment of the church ; such as, by way of example, marriage, burial, education, prison-discipline, blas- phemy, poor relief, incorporation, mortmain, religi- ous endowment, vows of celibacy and obedience. But on all matters respecting which any Pope may think proper to declare that they concern either faith or morals, or the government or discipline of the church, he claims, with the approval of a council, undoubtedly ecumenical in the Roman sense, the absolute obedience, at the peril of salvation, of every member of his communion." (*' Vaticanism, " p. 55.) More startling still, the Pope claims the right to define his own rights and the limits of his power; the sole unlimited power to interpret his own claims, in such a manner and by such words as he may

Romanism and the Republic. 67

from time to time think fit. " Against such defini- tion of his own power there is no appeal to reason, that is rationalism ; nor to Scripture, that is heresy ; nor to history, that is private judgment. Over all these things he claims to be absolute judge." ("Vati- canism," p. 186.)

The Catholic World for August, 1871, one of the most influential periodicals of the Romish Church in America, thus states it: "Each individual must receive his faith and law from the church of which he is a member by baptism, with unquestioning sub- mission and obedience of the intellect and will. Authority and obligation are correlative in end and extent. We have no right to ask reasons of the church [the Pope] any more than of Almighty God, as a preliminary to our submission. We are to take with unquestionable docility whatever instruc- tions the church [that is the Pope] gives us." How this monstrous doctrine is understood by the Pope himself, whose understanding and words are the absolute law of the church, let us see from his own words. Has he temporal and civil power For is he, as a man and an ecclesiastic, amenable to the laws of the country in which he sojourns ? He himself says, in a Papal bull, issued by him in 1860, that his temporal power is derived from God alone, and is absolutely necessary to the church, inasmuch as it is indispensable to him that he shall possess such an amount of freedom as to be subject to no civil power ; that is, that he must be above all government and independent of them all, and have that amount of

68 Romanism and the Republic.

freedom and irresponsibilty to constitutions and laws which shall enable him to do as he pleases. ("The Papacy and the Civil Power," p. 137.)

In quoting, as I am about to do, another Roman Catholic authority, do not fail to bear in mind that every book published by Roman Catholics, issued by their publishing houses, and sanctioned by their prelates, has passed through the careful censorship of their ecclesiastics, and speaks therefore with authority. I now quote from a tract printed for The Catholic Publication Society, Number 46, on "The Pope's Temporal Power." After having declared that the authority of the Pope exercised at Rome is equally necessary throughout the whole world, it proceeds in form of question and answer as follows : " How can this independence of Civil authority be secured? Only in one way. The Pope must be a sovereign himself: No ■ temporal prince, whether Emperor, or King, or President, or any legislative body, can have any lawful jurisdiction over the Pope. What right has the Pope to be independent of every civil ruler? He has it in virtue of his dignity as the Vicar of Christ. Christ himself is King of kings ; but the Pope governs the church in the name of Christ and as his representative. His divine office, therefore, makes him superior to every political, tem- poral and human government." But that this usurper of universal dominion may give color to these arro- gant pretensions and claims, he endeavors to make it appear that he is not a foreign prince, attempting to exercise jurisdiction out of his proper realm. In

liomanism and the Republic. 69

the Encyclical of Pius IX., dated Jan. 5, 1873, addressed to the Armenian church, who had objected to his attempt to control the appointment of their bishops, ( found in The New Freeman's Journal and Catholic Register April 19, 1873), the Pope declares, that " it is false that the Roman Pontiffs have ever exceeded the limits of their power, and interfered in the civil administration of states ; and that they have usurped the rights of princes. He can- not be called a " foreigner" to any Christians or any particular churches of Christians. Moreover, those who hesitate not to call the Apostolic See a foreign power, fail in the faith due to the Catholic Church, if they are of the number of her sons ; or they assail the liberty that is her due, if they do not belong to her." By this subterfuge, he would have all Romanists, under pain and penalty, admit and affirm that he is as much a domestic imperial ruler in the United States of America, as he formerly was in the Roman States of Italy. Nor has he hesitated, nor have popes for a thousand years hesitated, to interfere with the Civil governments of various countries, endeavoring to stir up seditions, absolving subjects from their allegiance, deposing princes, and affirming absolute supremacy. Although Roman Catholic authorities, either ignorant of the facts, or wilfully, perverting them, deny that the Pope assails and attempts to overturn civil government, Pius IX, pro- fessedly speaking in the name of Jesus Christ, to and concerning the governments of Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Brazil, (which governments

70 Romanism and the Republic.

have deemed it expedient for their own domestic peace and protection to adopt certain measures which are designed to increase the liberties of the citizen Avho obeys the laws of the state,) compliments the faithful of the church on their hostility to these laws, and commends them for refusing to obey the laws and orders of the civil empire, rather than the most holy laws of their God and of the church. It was Pius IX. who, in 1855, declared absolutely null and void all the acts of the government of Piedmont which he held prejudicial to the rights of religion. In the same year, because Spain had passed a law which permitted the toleration of non-Roman wor- ship and the secularization of ecclesiastical property, he declared, by his own apostolic authority, those laws to be abrogated, totally null and of no effect. So also on the 22nd of June, 1862, in another allocution, Pope Pius IX. recited the provisions of an Austrian law of the previous December, which established freedom of opinion, of the press, of belief, of con- science, of education, and of religious profession, which regulated matrimonial jurisdiction and other matters ; and these he declared " abominable " laws, which " have been and shall be totally void and with- out all force whatever." In almost identical phrase- ology he attempts to annul the laws of Sardinia, and excommunicates all those who had a hand in them ; the laws of Mexico, which he judges to interfere with his rights, and declares them absolutely null and void. While on the 17th of September, 1863, in an encyclical letter enumerating proceedings on the part

Romanism and the Republic. 71

of the government of New Granada, which had, among other things, established freedom of worship, he declares these acts utterly unjust and impious, and by apostolic authority declares the whole null and void in the future and in the past." (Gladstone, "Vaticanism," p. 176.) Here then, is the indictment which we frame against this most arrogant and tyrannical of rulers. A pontiff claiming infallibility, who has condemned free speech, free writing, a free press, toleration of nonconformity, liberty of con- science, the study of civil and philosophical matters in independence of ecclesiastical authority, marriage unless contracted in the Romish church, the definition by the state of the civil rights of the church, — who has demanded for the church therefore the title to define its own civil rights, together with a divine right to civil immunities, and a right to use physical force ; and who has also proudly asserted that the popes of the middle ages, with their councils, did not invade the rights of princes ; as, for example, Gregory VII. of the Emperor Henry IV. , Innocent III. , of Raymond of Toulouse; Paul III., in deposing Henry VIII; Pius V., in performing the like paternal office for Elizabeth of England, (" Vaticanism," page 56, ) — this intruder into governments, this scourge of nations, this enemy of independence therefore, claims, and claims from the month of July 1870 onwards, such plenary authority over every convert and member of his church, that he shall place his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of another, that other being him- self. It is needless to say to you who have been

72 Romanism, and the Republic .

instructed in the principles of Bible Christianity and of civil freedom, that this is an assumption and exercise of the most intolerable tyranny.

2. In the Encyclical and the Syllabus of 1864, the Pope denounces some of the dearest rights of man, because they are opposed to Romish absolutism. To you who are not familiar with these terms, I may say, that the word Encyclical is applied to a letter or communication written to the general public, the world at large, the church as a whole ; while the Syllabus is a similar document, containing those pro- positions, or heads of discourse, which sum up the leading ideas which the Pope Avishes to communicate. Do not forget that these declarations of the Pope, by his own definition, and the definition of Romish councils, by the consent of Romish prelates, and undisputed and submitted to by the Roman Catholic church, have all the force of infallible authority and dogma. To dispute them, or refuse obedience to them, is to make a Roman Catholic a heretic, to put him under the ban of excommunication, and outside the pale of salvation. There is no dogma of faith or morals, no doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, that is more binding upon the conscience and obe- dience of the Roman Catholic, than are these Papal deliverances. There is no escape from yield- ing to them absolutely, except to break with the Roman Catholic church as a whole. With fearful epithets the Pope denounces those who insist that governments should not inflict penalties upon such as violate the Catholic religion. The withholding of

Romanism and the Republic. 73

this power of punishment to protect the Catholic and no other, he calls a totally false notion of social government, because it leads to very erroneous opinions, most pernicfous to the Catholic religion and to the salvation of souls. These opinions he calls insanity, and then proceeds to visit with his fiercest malediction, first, those who maintain the lib- erty of the press ; second, or the liberty of conscience and of worship ; third, or the liberty of speech ; fourth, those who contend that Papal judgments and decrees may without sin be disputed or differed from unless they treat of the rules of faith or morals ; fifth, those who assign to the state the power to define the civil rights and province of the church ; sixth, he denounces those who hold that Roman Catholic Pontiff's and ecumenical councils have trans- gressed the limits of their power and usurped the rights of princes ; seventh, those who declare that the church -may not employ force ; eighth, or that power not inherit in the office of the episcopate, but granted to it by the civil authority, may be with- drawn from it at the discretion of that authority ; ninth, he anathematizes those who affirm that the civil immunity of the church and its minister depends upon civil right ; tenth, or that in the conflict of laws, civil and ecclesiastical, the civil laws should prevail ; eleventh, or that any method of instruc- tion, solely secular, may be approved ; twelfth, or that knowledge of things philosophical and civil, should decline to be guided by divine and ecclesias- tical authority ; thirteenth, or that marriage is not,

74 liomanism and the liejpublic.

in its essence, a sacrament, that is, in the sense that the Romish Church understands a sacrament ; four- teenth, or that marriage, not sacramentally con- tracted, is of binding force, [the Pope's own expla- nation of this is, that all marriage, so called, outside the Roman Catholic church, is filthy concubinage,1* These are his own words, and this declaration, if generally received, as he insists it shall be, under penalty of eternal damnation, is a doctrine " horrible and revolting in itself, and dangerous to the morals of society, the structure of the family and the peace of life."] ; fifteenth, he anathematizes those who say that the abolition of the temporal power of the Pope- dom would be highly advantageous to the church ; sixteenth, or that any other religion than the Roman religion may be established by the state ; seven- teenth, or that in countries called Catholic, the free exercise of other religions may be laudably allowed ; eighteenth, or that the Roman Pontiff ought to come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization. (Gladstone, "Vaticanism," p. 31-2) I count it impossible that any American, on hearing these declarations first read, should realize it as con- ceivable that, in this generation, any ruler, espec- ially one who pretends to stand in place of God, should have the hardihood, the insolence, the audac- ity to pronounce curses and anathemas on those who maintain these principles of society and government. Do you not see, that almost everything we hold dear is here assailed? You are accursed of Rome "who maintain liberty of conscience and free worship, as do

Romanism and the Republic. 75

all Protestants of whom I have knowledge ; or that freedom of speech which in every age has made possible the advance of nations, the redress of wrongs, and the progress of humanity.

In these documents and orders of the Pope, we have him indorsing and affirming in express terms, that the Church of Rome has the absolute authority, which no civil power should transgress, to forbid freedom of worship, and exercise force to compel men to conform to that worship. He denonnces Bible societies as a pest, and would stop all their presses and burn all their books, if he had the power. Here-affirms the decree of his predecessor, Clement XII., that all his subjects be prohibited from becom- ing affiliated with any assembly of free-masons or rendering aid, succor, counsel or retreat to any members of that society under penalty of death, and pronounces a like penalty upon those who fail to denounce and reveal all that they know concerning that association. And here, contrary to every prin- ciple of just government, and in harmony with the most dreadful abuses and persecutions of the middle ages, the Pope affirms that Romish ecclesiastics shall not be amenable to the civil law — a direful doctrine ; and would evoke again the arm of the Inquisition, a power never repudiated by the Romish Church, and claimed and used hy it wherever it is all-powerful, to blot out all other than Roman Catholic worship from the face of the earth. I confess that lan^ua^e is too weak to condemn these claims to power on the part of any body of men. But these are the official

76 Romanism and the Republic.

expositions of the constitution of Romanism, these are the dogmas of this church, this is the authority which all Romanists are bound to obey under penalty of being denounced as heretics ; to this the Romish priesthood have lent themselves ; and this power, as incapable of being reconciled to the freedom of this nation as a rattlesnake within the folds of your dress of being reconciled to the safety and health of yonr body, is the power whose advance we attempt to stay, whose pretensions we disclose, and on whose machinations we endeavor to throw the light.

3. Perhaps you now inquire, Do Roman Catholic hierarchs and prelates realize that these are the principles of the Papacy to which they are sworn ? Is it possible that men live under the Constitution and laws of this country who are believers in such tyranny, and waiting under oath to spread it? It is to be hoped that they do not all realize it ; and yet we have most adequate proof that the chief among them do. Bishop Gilmour, in his Lenten letter of March 1873, said : •' Nationalities must be subordi- nate to religion, and we must learn that we are Catholics first and citizens next. God is above man, and the church above the state." Cardinal McClos- key, who as Cardinal of Rome is a foreign prince exercising authority in the United States, contrary to the Constitution and the lawrs, says : " The Catho- lics of the United States are as strongly devoted to the sustenance and maintenance of the temporal power of the Holy Father as Catholics in any part of the world, and if it should be necessary to prove

Romanism and the Republic. 77

it by acts, they are ready to do so." What does he mean by this ? In a sermon preached when he was archbishop, Cardinal Manning put the following sentences in the mouth of the Pope : "I acknowledge no civil 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 conscience of men, of the peasant that tills the fields, and of the prince that sits upon the throne, of the household that lives in the shade of privacy, and the legislator that makes laws for kingdoms ; I am the sole, last, supreme judge of what is right and wrong." He also says : "Moreover, I declare, affirm, define and pronounce it to be necessary to salvation for every human creation to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." What this subjection means we may learn from Cardinal Bellarmine. He says : " If the Pope should err by enjoining vices or forbidding virtues, the Church would be obliged to believe vices to be good and virtues bad, unless it would sin against conscience. f Horrible and monstrous ! Every bishop of thje Roman Catholic Church in America and through- out the world, and every archbishop, has taken an oath of devotion to the Papacy, in which occur the following words : " I will from henceforward be faithful and obedient to St. Peter, the apostle, to the Holy Roman Church, and to our Lord the Pope, and to his successors canonically entering. That counsel with which they shall entrust by themselves, their messengers or letters, I will not, knowingly, reveal to any, to their prejudice : I will help them to

78 Romanism and the Republic.

define and keep the Roman Papacy and the royalties of St. Peter, saving my Lord, against all men, The rights, honors, privileges and authority of the holy Romish church, of our Lord the Pope and his afore- said successors, I will endeavor to preserve, defend, increase and advance. I will not be in any council, action or authority, in which shall be applied, against our said Lord and the said Roman Church, anything to the hurt or prejudice of their persons, right, honor, state or power ; and if I shall know any such thing to be tried or agitated by any whatsoever, I will hinder it to my utmost, and, as soon as I can, will signify it to our said Lord, or to some other by whom it may come to his knowledge. The rules of the Holy Fathers, the apostolic decrees, ordinances or disposals, reservations, provisions and mandates, I will observe with all my might ; and cause to be observed by others. Heretics, schismatics and rebels to our said Lord, or his aforesaid successors, I will, to my utmost, persecute and oppose," etc. (Dowling's

History of Romanism," pages 615-10).

Here, then, is the oath of allegiance by which these dignitaries of the Romish church are absolutely pledged to enforce the doctrines of the encyclical and syllabus ; to oppose and persecute all who, like you and me, reject those doctrines, and to observe the profoundest secrecy in all things where they think the interests of the Pope will be subserved.

And more than this, if it were possible for conspir- acy, hatred of free institutions and of Protestantism, and antagonism to the word of God and the spirit of

Romanism and the Republic. 79

progress, to go further than these have already gone in their allegiance to this hateful and tyrannous power, they have done so in yielding themselves up to believe, that not only the past declarations of the Pope shall absolutely control their actions, but, if perchance at any time in the future he could exceed these limits of oppression, tyranny and hatred of human rights, by any mandate whatsoever, they would also obey that. The Catholic World of Aug. 1871, in an article upon Infallibility, sets this doctrine forth thus: " A Catholic must not only believe what the church now proposes to his belief, but be ready to believe whatever she may hereafter propose : he must therefore be ready to give up any or all of his pre- vious opinions so soon as they are condemned and prescribed by competent authority."

It is some comfort to find that an Irish Catholic ex- Congressman of Chicago, with a manliness which we trust exists in the breasts of thousands of others of our fellow-citizens, has dared to say : " The Pope of Rome [ speaking of his interference with Irish affairs of late,] has no power to damn me, or any other Cath- olic. His latest utterance is an outrage on Irish- Catholic manhood and womanhood. The Pope of Rome, an Italian prince, with an Italian polic}^ to carry out, at no matter what expense to the other Catholic people, is a fair subject for Irish criticism, and it is from this standpoint I criticize him. I am a Catholic, I am a believer in the Catholic church ; but I am an Irishman and not an Italian, and I am not to be sacrificed for the needs of Italian diplom-

80 Romanism and the Republic.

acy." Such statements would multiply, and even stronger than this, if those Romanists who have imbibed, to some extent, the free spirit of Protestant America, would intelligently consider what the demands of the Papal power are upon them, and to what they would be reduced if they submitted to the prin- ciples on which it rules.

4. I cannot leave this subject without calling your attention to the utter absurdity and blasphemy of the Papal claim. This might be done and proofs fur- nished at great length ; but I am compelled to be brief, only for lack of time. The proofs are most ample and adequate. You have only to read the history of the Popes, as written by Hallam, Ranke, or any of the greatest historians of the world, to readily see that no class of men in the annals of time could more inappropriately assume to be infallible, much less divine, than these very Popes of Rome. Many of these infallible Popes have been as infamous for the laxity of their morals and the enormity of their crimes, as they have been for the wickedness of their pretensions. As an example of folly, Pope Urban VIII. infallibly denied the Copcrnican theory propounded by Galileo, that the sun is th/a centre of the solar system, and that the earth moves around it. The ridiculousness of this is not so great as of the Popes who have antagonized one another even to the extent of murder, all being infallible ; of the Popes who have blessed what their predecessors have anath- ematized, and have cursed that on which their pre- decessors pronounced their benediction ; of the Popes

Romanism and the Republic. 81

who have contended and protested against each other at Rome and Avignon, when two Papal courts were being carried on at once by rival Popes. Think of Pope John XXIII., who at the Council of Constance was dethroned from the Papal chair because of the universal detestation felt for his crimes, — crimes no greater than those of Benedict VIII., or a score of others who might be named.

Yet all these, according to the law of the Roman Catholic church, however infamous their lives, are equally infallible, and are permitted to exercise their official powers over cardinals, archbishops, bishops or priests, whatever the impurity of their behavior or the wickedness of thier conduct, and after death are canonized as " saints." And as if it were not enough that the characters of so many of these Popes have been as vile as their pretensions have been absurd, it is only too true that the Papal court which has surrounded them, the advisers who have largely controlled them until the present time, have in many instances been guilty of like infamies with the worst of the Popes.

Of Cardinal Antonelli, who was prime minister of Pius IX., a French Catholic writer thus speaks: " He was born in a den of thieves ; he seems a min- ister engrafted on a savage. All classes of society hated him equally." And of the Papacy, under his influence and direction, Gattina says, after speak- ing of " the thefts, the villanies, the rudeness of this cardinal": "Under Antonelli's guidance it is like the subterranean sewers of large cities ; it carries all

82 Romanism and the Republic.

the filth. When it is stopped and filtered, it spreads infection and death." No wonder that the Roman Catholic hierarchy would forbid the study of history in the public schools, unless that history has passed through their sifting ; for it must largely, if true, be a history of the infamy of the court of Rome, of the scandalous wickedness of the Popes, and of the high- handed political measures which have been suggested and advanced by the Roman Catholic Church. I close with a few reflections on the predictions of Roman Catholics as to the Romish Church in the United States, and on the growth of Romanism among us, which, considering the policy which has been out- lined, may well startle and alarm all thoughtful \ hearers. Father Hecker says, that " ere long there \ is to be a state religion in this country, and that state religion is to be Roman Catholic." The Boston Pilot says: "The man to-day is living who will see the

ity of the people of the American continent j ►man CatholicsJL_ — •""*"

•mer Bishop of Cincinnati declares, that " effect- ual plans are in operation to give us a complete vic- tory over Protestantism." The Bishop of Charlestown affirms, that " within thirty years the Protestant heresy will come to an end." While Pope Gregory XVI., a half a century ago, declared : " Out of the Roman States, there is no country where I am Pope, except in the United States. ( Strong's " Our Country," page 55.)

The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is growing with great rapidity. In 1800, the Roman-

Romanism and the Republic. 83

ist population was 100,000 ; in 1884, it was over six and one-half millions, — ■ had increased sixty-fold ; at the beginning of the century there was one Romanist to every fifty-three of the population ; in 1850, one to fourteen ; in 1870, one to eight and one-half; in 1880, one to seven and seven-tenths. Wonderful as has been the growth of the country, the Romanist church has grown more rapidly. From 1800 to 1880, the population has increased nine-fold ; the member- ship of all evangelical churches, twenty-seven fold ; and the Romanist population, sixty-three fold. In 1850, the Romanist church was nearly one-half as large as all the Evangelical Protestant churches ; let us look at their relative progress since that time. From 1830 to 1880, the population increased 116 per cent. ; the communicants of evangelical churches, one and a half times as fast, or 185 per cent. ; the Roman- ist population, 294 per cent., nearly two and a half times as rapidly as the population. From 1850 to 1880, the number of Evangelical churches increased 125 per cent. ; during the same period, Romanist churches increased 447 per cent., nearly four times as fast. From 1870 to 1880, a period of ten years, the churches of all Evangelical denominations increased 49 per cent., while Romanist churches mul- tiplied 74 per cent., one and a half times as fast. During the same period the ministers of evangelical churches increased in number 46 per cent. Roniish priests, 61 per cent. From 1850 to 1870, evangeli- cal ministers increased 86 per cent. ; priests, 204 per cent., or as 2 J to 1. From 1850 to 1880, minis-

84 Romanism and the Republic.

ters increased 173 per cent., and priests 391 per cent., more than double. Rome, with characteristic foresight, is concentrating her strength in the Western territories. As the West is to dominate the nation, she intends to dominate the West. In the United States, a little less than one-eighth of the population is Romanist, in the territories, taken together, more than one-third. (Dr. Strong's " Our Country.")

In the whole country there are not quite two-thirds as many Romanists as there are members of the Evan- gelical churches. Not including Arizona and New Mexico, which have a large native Romanist popula- tion, the six remaining territories had, in 1880, four times as many Romanists as there were members of Protestant denominations collectively. And includ- ing Arizona and New Mexico, Rome had eighteen times as many as all Protestant bodies. When the Jesuits were driven out of Berlin, they declared that they would plant themselves in the Eastern territories of America ; this they have done, and under the absolute dictation of the Pope, they are endeavoring to spread the intolerant, persecuting monarchy which we have reviewed. Whoever fails to note their purpose, and whoever is indifferent to their designs, must be willing to be a slave to a foreign potentate and to see the hopes of the world uprooted in the subjugation of America to the merciless tyranny of the Inquisition.

I have stated the actual truth so mildly that I almost ought to apologize. For every fact and cita- tion that I have brought, for every audacious Papal

Romanism and the Republic. 85

claim, every authorized Romanistic principle contrary to our liberties, for every historic proof of the wicked- ness and immorality of Popes, I can cite, from equally unimpeachable sources, five times as many more.

Thus, before the American Christian public, as the high court of jurisdiction, I indict the Pope of Rome as the representative of the Papal policy, the repre- sentative whom they put forward to stand for the whole church in its antagonism to civil and religious freedom, against which he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

I impeach him in the name of liberty of conscience, whose rights he has denied ; I impeach him in the name of freedom of worship, whose temples he would close ; I impeach him. in the name of a free press and free speech, whose voice he would smother in the smoke of fire and faggot ; I impeach him in the name of civil liberty, over whose just laws he has pro- claimed the sovereignty of Romish councils ; Iimpeach him in the name of the marriage-bond of the major- ity of the happy households of the Christian world, which he has stigmatized as "filthy concubinage," because not contracted in the Romish church ; I impeach him in the name of Protestantism, which he calls " heresy" and against which he invokes the persecution of the civil government and the tortures of the Inquisition. In the name of progress, which he has tried in vain to stay; of modern civilization, with which he cannot be reconciled ; in the name of the free and enlightened governments of the world, against whose most beneficient laws he has hurled

86 Romanism and the Republic.

his anathemas ; in the name of the Holy Bible, whose free circulation he has pronounced a pest ; in the name of free America, whose overthrow he has plotted ; in the name of Almighty God, whose pre- rogatives he has blaphemously usurped : in the name of all these, I impeach the Pope and the hierarchy which dominate the Roman Catholic Church, and summon them to the bar of oppressed humanity and of Divine Justice.

Sermon W.

ROMANISM ANTAGONISTIC TO THE CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS.

" Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye shall do so in the land whither you go to possess it. Keep, therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for ? " — Deut. 4: 5, 6.

All the earlier parts of the Christian Scriptures relate nearly as much to national as to personal life. The origin, consolidation, liberation and nationalization of the people of Israel shows the interest of Almighty God in the forms of govern- ment of great peoples. Our text exalts the char- acter of those laws and political principles which became the basis of the Jewish state. Every- where through both the Old and the New Testa- ment, we find patriotic devotion to the nation mingled with profoundest reverence for God. The patriarchs who laid the foundations of the Jewish state, the law-givers, judges and prophets who came after them, all are animated with ardent devotion to their country. This is particularly noticeable in the

88 Romanism and the Republic.

words of the prophets, especially in the greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel ; who, like Moses, the law-giver, were as truly statesmen as they were teachers of religious truth. And it might truth- fully be said, that the Bible is a book of patriotism. While the Jewish people were called the chosen of God, it is scarcely less evident that our own country, owing to the peculiar circumstances of its birth and the origin of its laws, is in some sense a chosen people. When or where was ever a nation founded, or what nation has ever been so looked to by all the world as holding a providential place for the exalta- tion of all peoples and the advancement of liberty throughout the earth? It may be that, like the Hebrew nation, we shall not wholly fulfill our mis- sion ; but certainly, it behooves us to put forth every endeavor so to do. If this nation shall do as the Israelites were counselled to do ; if we shall obey the statutes and judgments which God has given us ; if it shall be our wisdom and understanding to make these laws and this constitution, which are praised throughout the world, the corner-stone of our future, then it can be said of us, that there is no nation so great that hath judgments and statutes so righteous as all this law which has been left us by our fathers, under which we have hitherto lived.

The Constitution of the United States is not only extraordinary in its quality, but equally so in its history. As a basis of national life, it has received the encomiums of the most advanced and liberal statesmen throughout the world. It could not be

Romanism and the Republic. ' 89

called, in its origin, a theory of government merely ; although no nation before had a constitution like it. But it was based on the wisest maxims of political philosophy, on the profoundest views of human rights, on the highest law of obligation to God in the relations of men, and was deduced from the his- tory of other nations and other peoples in their failure to meet the public want, and to create a happy and free people.

Although the document which we call the Consti- tution of the United States is not perfect in all its parts, and has been amended from time to time by the wisdom of the whole body politic, yet, through the mercy of God and his overruling providence, great good has come out of it. As a basis of laws, it may be said that those of no other country furnish so broad a foundation for universal happiness and pros- perity. If we contrast this fundamental law with that of Russia under an absolute monarch, or of Germany under a monarchy scarcely less abso- lute — if we compare it with the government of Eng- land, whose constitution is a cumbrous mass of pre- cedents, giving privileges to a state church and a hereditary nobility — indeed, if we compare it with the constitution of any land, we may justly affirm in words, what is emphatically declared by the immense immigration which has come into this country, that our Constitution is recognized as the best, and its practical fruitage is the richest. The noblest com- ment that can be made upon our system of govern- ment in the United States, upon its authority and its

90 Romanism and the Republic.

laws, is seen in the extraordinary growth and pros- perity not only of the nation as a whole, but of the states and families of the nation. Surely, such a country, created out of such laws, is worth our care. The subversion of this government, by internal foes or by external assailants, could but entail calamity upon the whole human race, and we are sure that the government can never be subverted, nor its adminis- tration overthrown, unless the principles of the Con- stitution are abandoned to the assaults of open enemies, or the treachery of hidden foes. Such abandonment, either through our indifference or our feebleness, must inevitably be followed by the over- throw of our privileges and the ruin of all our pros- perity.

Over a single word or clause in our Constitution we fought a terrific civil war. That word was "Union." To prove ourselves a Nation, to vindi- cate that one idea of the constitution, we spent our thousands of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives ; and yet no intelligent son of America to-day hesitates to affirm that all this expenditure was not too much to preserve and vin- dicate the unity of the United States, Can we doubt that other portions of our Constitution which relate to the rights of citizens and their protection, are equally worthy of defence ? But no words of praise from us are needed to vindicate this all-important document, since scarcely a statesman of our country, or of any liberal government lives, but has assisted in voicino- the universal judgment of freemen in praise of our Constitution.

Romanism and the Republic. 91

Against this, the most open, pronounced enemy of every principle of the United States, is the Roman Catholic Church. Whether we speak of the source of political power as defined in our Constitution, of the supremacy of that law or of its several parts with their theory of human rights, or even when we speak of the formation of the executive and legislative bodies of the government as embodied in its provisions, or the administration of justice — every one of these par- ticulars is denounced, assailed and anathematized by the Roman Catholic Church. And, since that church has come to claim supremacy over at least one-tenth, perhaps one-eighth, of our population, and to exer- cise political power through the manipulation of resident prelates in the interests of a foreign poten- tate, it is high time that we proceed to show its real hostility, and to protect, while we may, the Palladium of our liberties,

1. "We, the people of the United States," says the Preamble to the Constitution, " in order to pro- mote a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common de- fence, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Here is a plain declaration that the people, under God, are supreme, that they are the source of political power ; that they, by their repre- sentatives and in their capacity as citizens, have the right given of God, of self-government. To this agrees the form of many of the state constitutions ;

92 Romanism and the Republic.

as for instance, that of the State of New York, which announces the same doctrine in these words : " We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, do establish this constitution."

Against this first principle of our national govern- ment, the Papacy announces the Pope as the origin of the rights of states, as the supreme judge in all matters of law, and affirms, as we showed in the pre- vious discourse, everywhere the supremacy of the church and its ecclesiastics over the state and its peo- ple. Pope Leo XIII., the present pope, says, in his encyclical ; " It is not lawful to follow one rule in private conduct and another in the government of the state : to wit, that the authority of the church should be observed in private life, but rejected in state mat- ters." Says Pius IX. , in his Syllabus : "It is an error/ to believe that the Roman Pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberal-l ism and civilization, as lately introduced." This[ demand was sufficiently exposed when previously considered. Note now another particular in which the Romish church is in direct antagonism to the Constitution of the United States.

2. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, the final test of civil duty. In substantiation of this fact, we observe that the final court of appeal in America is the Supreme Court of the United States, whose chief function is, to decide whether a law is constitutional or not. If any law made by the several states, or by any one of them, is found to

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be inharmonious with the Constitution, it is pro- nounced null and void. And so the most dignified court in the world recognizes as its law our Consti- tution.

But Romanism confesses no such supremacy in any civil law or in any legislation. The only law which shall govern the Pope is his own will, and the will of the Pope is the law of church and state.

He can abrogate constitutions, pronounce legisla- tive enactments null and void, call upon all Roman- ists to break and violate such laws, and has repeat- edly commended his followers for setting the laws of states at defiance. In an encyclical, the Pope says: "The Romish church has a right to exercise its au- thority without any limits set to it by the civil power : the Pope and the priests ought to have dominion over temporal affairs : the Romish church and her ecclesi- astics have a right to immunity from civil law : in case of conflict between ecclesiastical and civil powers the ecclesiastical powers ought to prevail." (Strong's " Our Country," page 50.) "The Romish church alone arrogates to herself the right to speak to the state not as a subject but as a superior ; not as plead- ing the right of a conscience staggered by the fear of sin, but as a vast Incorporation, setting up a rival law against the state in the state's own domain, and claiming for it, with a higher sanction, the title to similar coercive means of enforcement. The Pope himself is foreign and not responsible to the law. The large part of his power is derived from foreign sources. He claims to act, and acts, not by individ-

94 Romanism and the Republic.

uals but on masses. He claims to teach them, so often as he chooses, what to do at each point of their contact with the laws of their country. The Pope takes into his own hand the power which he thinks the state to have misused. Not merely does he aid or direct the consciences of those who object, but he even overrules the consciences of those who approve. Above all, he pretends to annul the law itself. The right to override all the states of the world, and to cancel their acts, within limits assignable from time to time to, but not by those states, and the title to do battle with them, as soon as it may be practicable and expedient, with their own proper weapon and last sanction of exterior force, has been sedulously brought more and more into view of late years. The centre of the operation has lain in the Society of Jesuits. The infallible, that is virtually divine, title of command, and the absolute, that is the uncondi- tional duty to obey, in 1870, were promulgated to an astonished world." (Gladstone, ii Vaticanism," pages 172-74.)

The American prelates of the Romish church, assembled in the Baltimore council, commenting on the authority of the Papal Syllabus, affirm that it does not appertain to the civil power to define what are the rights and limits within which the church may exercise authority: that its authority must be decided upon by itself, that is, by the Pope, and exercised without the permission and assent of the civil government : and that, in the case of conflicting laws, between the two powers, the laws of the church

Romanism and the Republic. 95

must prevail over those of the state. They insist that the state is bound to recognize the Roman Cath- olic Church as the sole depository of the delegated power to decide what laws shall be obeyed and what disobeyed. To permit a church, any church, to decide upon the validity or invalidity of our laws after enactment, or to dictate beforehand what laws should or should not be passed, would be to deprive the people of all the authority they have retained in their own hands, and to make such church the gov- erning power, instead of them. Yet, understanding this perfectly well, and evidently contemplating the time when they might possibly be able to bring about this condition of affairs, these Papal represen- tatives directly assail a principle which has been uni- versal in all our state governments, from their foun- dation : that which regulates by law the holding of real estate by churches and other corporations, and requires them to conform, in this temporal matter, to the statute laws of the states. ( Thompson's " Papacy and Civil Power," pages 42 and 45.)

The Second National Council of the Roman Cath- olic hierarchy, was held at Baltimore in October, 1866. This plenary council, — the highest Roman Catholic authority in this country, but of course absolutely subordinate to the Pope, who dictated its policy before its session, protested against the con- trol of ecclesiastical property by the civil laws of the several commonwealths ; and a Romanist authority remarks on one of its utterances, "The desire of gradually introducing in this country, as far as

96 Romanism and the Republic.

practicable, the ecclesiastical discipline prevalent throughout almost the entire church, was strongly and repeatedly expressed by the fathers of the late National Council of Baltimore. Its decrees tend both avowedly and implicitly to promote the accom- plishment of this object." Here is the express declar- ation of principles of hostility and irreconcilable var- iance of the Romish church against the Constitution of the United States.

Now, while every American citizen is sworn to support the Constitution, and every Roman Catholic holding office in the United States is so obligated, the question occurs whether, as between the obligation to the Constitution of the United States and the con- trary demand of the Church, they will as patriots support the State, or as Romanists support the Church.

Peter Dens, the great authority and commentator on ecclesiastical law in the Romish church, who has been a standard with them for a hundred years, defines the principles of the common law of that church, among which are the following : " The Pope can dispense with any law. The Constitutions and decrees of the Pope are explanations of the divine law, and are therefore binding as soon as known. The church does not recognize the right in any govern- ment to say whether or not the pontifical decrees shall be enforced. She is supreme and independent, and therefore can admit of no intermeddling with her authority. The Pope's temporal power is necessary to the free exercise of his spiritual authority. He

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derives his jurisdiction immediately from God, and imparts a share of the plenitude of his power to his bishops. Ecclesiastical property must be governed by the laws of the church. The state ought to recognize and carry into effect the laws of the church. J5y these, laymen have no right to property in the church, and it is against the law of God for them to dispose of its revenue.

" The coercive power of the church includes the power to punish the insubordinate, and repress the lawless, which extends to any punishment short of the shedding of blood, such as imprisonment in mon- asteries and other chastisements." ( Thompson's "Papacy and the Civil Power," pages 608-10.) The Pope, then, can grant a dispensation as it is called, excusing any Romanist, whatever his oaths to the Constitution of the United States, from keeping those oaths, and justifying him in breaking any law, whatever that law, that the Pope shall denounce. The exercise of authority over political opinion, as we said in our first discourse, is the theory, as it is the practice, of the Roman Catholic Church. You may find in Roman Catholic bookstores a little book written by Monseigneur Segur, a Frenchman, entitled, " Plain Talk about the Protestantism of To-day." This book, which we shall have occasion to refer to several times hereafter, is highly com- mended by the ecclesiastics of the church, and its author has received the thanks of the Pope himself. I wish you all might read it. As concerning the point we are now making, that the Pope has abso-

DT

98 Romanism and the Republic.

lute power to abrogate all constitutions and to com- mand all his subjects to disobey the laws of any country in which they live, if he chooses so to do, Mons. Segur says : " The authority of the church is a guard over human understanding in whatever, directly or indirectly, affects religion ; which means, in every kind of doctrines, religious, philosophical, scientific, political, etc." Please emphasize in your minds this word political. In connection with all else that we have secured from Romanistic sources, Archbishop Manning says: "The principles of ethics, and therefore of politics as a branch of ethics, all lie in the theological order." This is sufficient to establish every claim to political obedience. Hence, if the Pope shall declare that any political opinions are wrong, unjust, or immoral, the declaration must be held by all obedient children of the Church to be unerringly and indisputably true ; and to save them- selves from excommunication for heresy, they must make exterminating war upon all such opinions. Hence, also, if he shall declare that any existing government is opposed to the welfare of the church, and, therefore, to the law of God, the same result must follow. And hence again, if he shall declare that the government of the United States is unjust, and an act of usurpation, because it gives license to the heresy of Protestantism ; because it repudiates the doctrine of the "divine right" of kings; because it allows the people to make their own laws ; because it requires the Roman Catholic hierarchy to obey the laws thus made ; because it does not recognize the

Romanism and the Republic. 99

Eoraan Catholic religion as the only true religion ; because it recognizes the ri«;ht of each individual to interpret the Scriptures for himself, and to enter- tain whatsoever religious belief his own conscience and reason shall approve, or none at all, if he shall think fit ; because it has separated Church and State, and denies the right of the Church to subordinate the State to any of its laws ; because it not only tol- erates, but fosters and protects, free thought, free speech, and a free press ; and because it is, on account of any and all of these things, in open viola- tion of the Romish law, and therefore heretical, — does not every man of common sense see that the Papal followers must select between conformity to his opin- ions and excommunication? between obedience to him, and the forfeiture of eternal salvation? between resistance to the government and his pontifical curse? between treason and hierarchical denunciation? (" The Papacy and the Civil Power," page 153.)

Against the origin of our Constitution, against the principles which it sets forth, against the freedom which it provides, Rome stands, the champion of abso- lutism, hating republics in the principles of their government, and standing for the divine right of kings to exercise unrestricted authority over their subjects, or authority restricted only by the law of the Pope. This hostility has been shown toward the Republic of France. The descendant of the Bour- I bons, the Count de Chambord, was the favorite of the Papacy, and Pope Pius IX. used all his influence to elevate him to the throne which the French

100 Romanism and the Republic.

Republic had thrown down ; because, as Segur says : " This descendant of kings had given solemn prom- ise that, once on the throne of France, he will take up the cause of the Pope ; and then the sword of Charlemagne shall spring from its scabbard and con- voke, as of old, the Catholic peoples to the rescue of Rome from the miserable and despicable Italian apostates."

These apostates are Victor Emanuel, and Cavour and Garibaldi, with all who have helped to create modern Italy, and rescue it from Papal tyranny. And it is to the book containing these sentiments of hostility to republics that Pius IX. has given his approbation and his benediction, in an affectionate letter addressed to M. Segur as his "beloved son." What should we say if the Pope should formally declare the laws of the Constitution of our country null and void, as he practically has already the First Amendment, and other material portions of that Con- stitution? What should we say, were he to send his Allocutions to North America, as he has to South America within the last forty years, pronouncing null and void our laws? For I would not permit you to forget, that since 1855 the Pope, inciting sedition in the several states, has taken upon him to declare null and void the laws of New Granada (this | was in 1863) ; the laws of Mexico in 1856 ; the laws of Sardinia in 1855 ; the laws of Austria in 1862 ; those of Spain in 1855 ; and of Piedmont in the same year. And in every case, the laws which he pronounced null are essential parts of the American

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Constitution and of our common law. An irrepressi- ble conflict will exist between the Papacy and the Constitution of the United States, until one or the other is destroyed. Which shall it be? I answer, Not the constitution of the United States !

3. But Rome's antagonism to the Constitution as a whole, will be more manifest when we note how utterly irreconcilable it is with the several parts of the great document.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: " Article 1. Con- gress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of griev- ances." The Constitution of the State of New York, Article First, section third, reads : " The free exer- cise and enjoyment of religious profession and wor- ship without discrimination or preference shall forever be allowed in this State to all mankind." The Con- stitution of Massachusetts contains the same senti- ment. The meaning and cause of these enactments is obvious to every one, not only in the essential justice and righteousness of such laws, but in the dreadful history of many European states, which, in their endevor to force upon their subjects a religion or form of worship which did not commend itself to the conscience of the people, have devastated their fairest provinces, destroyed the lives of thousands of their loyal subjects, and interfered with the gen-

102 Romanism and the Republic.

eral prosperity of society and of the state. Mind- ful of these horrors, our fathers, who themselves were exiled for conscience sake, wisely decided that only that religion could control a man's life and ennoble his character which he had voluntarily received in good conscience from God ; and that with this understanding they made a good law, founded on a righteous decision, the prosperity of the Church and of the State in the United States equally attests.

Hear now the contrary doctrine of the Pope. January 1, 1870, Cardinal Antonelli, in behalf of Pope Pius IX., wrote to the Bishop of Nicaraugua : " We have lately been informed here that an attempt has been made to change the order of things in that Republic by publishing programmes in which are enunciated freedom of education and worship. Both of these principles are contrary to the laws of God and of the Church." Or listen to the Papal law in the letter of Pope Pius IX. to the unfortunate Maximillian in Mexico. This you may read in "Appleton's Annual Encyclopedia for 1865," p. 749 : "To repair the evils occasioned by the revolution, and to bring back as soon as possible happy da}rs for the Church, the Roman Catholic religion must above all things continue to be the glory and mainstay of the Mexican nation, to the exclusion of ever;/ other dissenting worship. That no person may obtain the faculty of teaching and publishing false tenets ; that instruction, whether public or private, should be directed and watched over by the ecelesiastical author-

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ity ; and that, in short, the chains may be broken which, up to the present time, have held down the church in a state of dependence and subject to the arbitrary rule of a civil government." Can you find any correspondence, any harmony, any possi- bility of reconciliation between the Constitution of the United States and these declarations of the high- est Papal authority? It is impossible. They are exactly contradictory.

Proposition 78 of the Papal Syllabus condemns the principle of toleration which allows the recog% nition of other religions beside the Roman Catholic. Therein the Pope anathematizes the proposition that, " It has been wisely provided by law in some countries called Catholic, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own relig- ion." Thus all religious toleration is stigmatized as an error. Which shall we have in America? Which will Roman Catholics support? Which will you admit, the principle of the Constitution, that Con- gress shall not legislate concerning the establishment of religion ; or the principle of the Papacy, that the State shall legislate in favor solely of the Romish Church ?

The prohibition of the free exercise of religion, concerning which the Constitution declares Congress shall make no law, is antagonized by the express declaration of the Pope, that no other religion than the Roman Catholic may be established or tolerated by the state. We grow sick of the iteration and reiteration of this bigoted but central principle of Romanism.

104 Romanism, and the Republic.

In the prohibition of the free exercise of religion, the Roman Catholic Church appeals not only to law and anathema but to physical punishment, affirming the absolute duty of the civil power to use force, and the right of the Church to coerce those who choose to worship after another manner and form. Little does it matter whether the Church exercise this power immediately through inquisitors, or indirectly through a subservient state. Dr. Newman, descant- ing on the title of the Church to employ force, says, though he inclines to the milder side and limits the kind of force : " The lighter punishments, those tem- poral and corporal, such as shutting up in monaster- ies and prisons, flogging, and others of the same kind, short of the effusion of blood, the Church, by her own right, can inflict." The brief or letter of Inno- cent III. says: "We are able also, and bound to coerce." The Jesuit Shrader, with a Papal appro- bation, gives us the following affirmative proposi- tion, answering to the negative condemnation of the Syllabus : ' • The church has the power to apply external coercion ; she has also a temporal authority, direct and indirect ;" and appends the remark : " Not souls alone are subject to her authority." — Gladstone, " Vaticanism," p. 162-4.

" Undoubtedly," says Cardinal Manning, quoting with approbation from the doctrines maintained by Belle rini, " unity with the Roman faith is absolutely necessary, and therefore the prerogative of absolute infallibility is to be ascribed to it, and a coercive power to constrain to unity of faith, in like manner,

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absolute : as also the infallibility and coercive power of the Catholic Church itself, which is bound to adhere to the faith, are absolute." And in order to most fully prove the doctrine of infallibility, and delegate to the Pope the entire authority over the Church, Archbishop Manning declares, "This infallibility and coercive power are to be ascribed to the Pope and are personal."

Here, then, as against the doctrine of the Consti- tution of the United States, that Congress shall not even make a law prohibiting the free exercise of religion, the Komish Church makes the law, applies it in every country, — in the United States as well as in Italy or Spain3— and affirms in addition, the right to compel by force, over the bodies as well as the souls of men, obedience to the Roman Catholic worship. And every Roman Catholic is sworn to give his obedience to the Pope as against the Constitution of the United States, under penalty of excommunication and peril of temporal and eternal damnation. When I have told you, as I shall later on, in his own words, the horrible curses which fall from the mouth of the Pope in excommunicating those who break his com- mands— curses that may well from their very boldness and blasphemy cause trembling in a superstitious mind — you will see in his words the black flag of that detachment of religionists calling themselves Chris- tians, who march to the overthrow of all religious freedom.

To what extent may the Roman Catholic Church coerce? How does the Pope, how do the Cardinals

106 Romanism and the Republic.

and Archbishops of to-day, understand this term as they use it? We know what they meant by coercion in the past. Wq know, in their relation to the Huguenots, the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and the Lollards, what coercion, has meant with the Romish Church. We know what the Inquisition meant by coercion — death by torture, by fire, by sword and ax, by starvation, by burying alive ; and these have been the sanctioned methods of the Romish Church, never repudiated. Do they mean the same to-day? I answer, There is no restriction on the degree or kind of force that they will employ except their own cruelty. Segur, whom I quoted sometime since, and whose book you can purchase for a very small sum at the Roman Catholic bookstores, justifies the Inquisition, and in justifying it has the approval and blessing of the Pope. After stating that the Spanish Inquisition was established by Roman Catholic governments as an ecclesiastical institution, and thus agreeing that it had the sanction and approbation of the Church, he proceeds: " That institution you may value as you choose : you are at liberty to condemn the abuses and cruelties of which it has been guilty through the violence of political passions and the character of the Spaniard ; yet one cannot but acknowledge in the terrible part taken by the clergy in its trials, the most legitimate and most natural exercise of ecclesiastical authority." This book was not designed for Protest- ant readers. It was avowedly and expressly addressed to those who wrerc supposed to be ready and willing listeners to the words of authority ; to

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such as tamely and submissively put their manhood into the keeping of ecclesiastical superiors.

Is there any reader so ignorant that he needs to be told what the Spanish Inquisition was, which is here declared to be the most legitimate and most natural exercise of ecclesiastical authority ? Of all the institutions ever known to the world, or ever invented by human ingenuity, it was the most cruel, oppressive and bloodthirsty. Its thousands of vic- tims, whose bones were crushed with its accursed instruments of torture, and whose groans made its priestly officials laugh with a joy akin to that of the fiends of hell, still cry out of their tombs against it. Yet in the nineteenth century, while humanity has not ceased to shudder at the thought of its possible sur- vival, the press of an American publishing house sends forth among the adherents of Roman Catholi- cism in the United States, with the sanction and approval of the Pope of Rome and of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Boston, the startling avowal, that this horrible instrument is " the most legitimate and most natural exercise of ecclesiastical authority" And more than one of the Roman Catholic journals in the United States have taken extraordinary pains to commend this book in which this avowal is made to their readers, as does the Boston Pilot in its issue of February 20, 1870. ("Papacy and the Civil Power," pp. 81-83.)

The Spanish Inquisition ! Jean Antoine Llorente was secretary of the Inquisition of Spain, and when that institution was suppressed,in 1809, '10, '11, all

108 Romanism and the Republic.

the archives were placed at his disposal. These con- sisted of unpublished manuscripts and papers men- tioned in the inventories of deceased inquisitors. They were carefully examined, and furnished him much of the valuable information communicated in his published " History of the Inquisition." He says, that the " horrid conduct of this holy office weakened the power and diminished the population of Spain, by arresting the progress of arts, sciences, industry and commerce, and by compelling multitudes of families to abandon the kingdom ; by instigating the expul- sion of the Jews and the Moors, and by immolating on its flaming shambles more than three hundred thousand victims.'" He traces its history with great minuteness of detail, showing its introduction into Aragon during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella : the punishment of the Albigenses and the Jews by its cruelties ; its approval by Popes Sextus IV. , Inno- cent VIII., and others, as the means of augmenting their power ; and gives the harsh and unprecedented rules of procedure by which it was governed. One of those rules shows how necessary it was considered to the Papacy, and that it was employed by the reverend Inquisitors both as a religious and political institution. It required all witnesses to be asked, in general terms, "If they had ever seen or heard anything which was, or appeared, contrary to the Catholic faith, or the rights of the Inquisition." (Llorente's " History of the Inquisition.")

La Maistre, in his "Letters on the Spanish Inquisi- tion," defending the institution, says, in 1815 : " The

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/ Inquisition is, in its very nature, good, mild and pre- servative. It has the universal, indelible character of every ecclesiastical institution ; you see it in Rome, and you can see it wherever the true Church has power." Quite true ! This writer seems to be recommending the Inquisition to Americans. He admits that it existed in Spain by virtue of the bull [ of the Sovereign Pontiff. He says that the grand / inquisitor is always either an archbishop or a bishop. ' He justifies the infliction of capital punishment upon those who attempt to subvert the established religion of a nation ; which means, that the Pope would require a resort to this remedy as the only means of obey- ing the divine law, wherever the Roman Catholic religion is the religion of the State, as he is now striving to make it in the United States. He says ; . " A sense of duty obliges me to say, that a heresiarch, an obstinate heretic, and a propagator of heresy, ;' should indisputably be ranked among the greatest ' criminals." That means, everyone who cannot be forced into silence and submission by Romish coercion. Again: "I by no means doubt that a tribunal of this description, adapted to the times, place and character of nations, would be highly use- ful in every country." He speaks of the " demoniac spirit of Puritanism," and of Protestantism as " nick- named piety, zeal, faith, reformation and ortho- doxy."

Now these letters of La Maistre were published by Patrick Donahoe, Catholic bookseller of Boston, in 1843. How do you like them? What do you think

110 Romanism and the Republic.

of substituting the mild Inquisition for the Constitu- tion of the United States? And you would have to substitute it, since the Inquisition and the Constitu- tion cannot live together in the same country.

And this Inquisition, somewhat modified, was made use of in the city of Rome until 1870. There religi- ous toleration was unknown. No Protestants what- ever were allowed to hold any service within the walls of Rome, as long as the Pope had power. Pun- ishment, imprisonment and death were inflicted by the Pope, and under his express sanction and author- ity. I need not say, that one hour of life under the Constitution of the United States were worth an age of slavery under this revolting tyranny. And yet by every law of the Encyclical and Syllabus, by defence of past persecutions which it originated and carried forward, by the principles at present insisted on which it further advises shall speedily be made controlling, by the open and threatening declara- tions of its ecclesiastics, by its uncompromising hatred of all other forms of religion than its own, the Roman Catholic Church to-day would blot out the benignant Constitution of our Republic, and replace it by these accursed, blasphemous and vindictive statutes and theories, which would destroy every vestige of free- dom and Protestantism from the face of the earth. I shall prove this still more fully as I proceed, out of the mouths of their own lawgivers and rulers,

4. And now I beg your attention to the specific declarations of the Constitution in favor of freedom of conscience, and the counter declarations of the

Homanism and the Republic. Ill

Roman Catholic law. The Constitution says, as already quoted: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibit- ing the free exercise thereof, or abridging the free- dom of speech or of the press." It may be possible that men shall speak so recklessly, whether by word or by printed page, that a limit must be set upon their expressions. To meet such cases, we already have laws in harmony with the Constitution, against slander, against vile and indecent language spoken or written, against those utterances in time of war that shall incite to treason or <nve aid and comfort to the enemy. But Congress has not, and never will violate this fundamental principle of our government, that the place and manner of worship, of speech, and of writing, shall be only limited by the laws of moral- ity and by the safety of the State. Shall we contrast this attitude of our Constitution with that foreign power that is trying to overthrow it ? You remem- ber that we quoted Father Hecker as saying : "There is, ere long, to be a state religion in this country, and that state religion is to be Roman Cath- olic." While the Catholic World says: "Do you believe that this country will ever become Catholic?' is changing to the question ' How soon do you think it will come to pass?' Soon, very soon, we reply, if statistics be correct." Bishop O'Connor says : "Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world." " Liberty of conscience," says Pope Pius IX., endorsing the bull of Gregory

112 Romanism and the Republic.

XVI., is a most pestiferous error. From it spring revolutions, corruption, contempt of sacred things, holy institutions and laws, and, in one word, that pest of others most to be dreaded in a state, unbri- dled liberty of opinion."

Religious liberty he denounces, because it makes the people disobedient to their princes ; and because, if it should be conceded to the Italians of the Papal States, they will soon naturally acquire political lib- erty, like the people of the United States.

Concerning freedom of the press, he says : " We have been truly shocked at this most crafty device [Bible Societies] , by which the very foundations of religion are undermined. We have deliberated upon the measures proper to be adopted by our pontifical authority, in order to remedy and abolish this pesti- lence, as far as possible, this defilement of the faith, so imminently dangerous to souls. It is evident from experience that the Holy Scriptures, when cir- culated in the vulgar tongue, have, through the tem- erity of men, produced more harm than benefit. Warn the people entrusted to your care, that they fall not into the snares prepared for their everlasting ruin. Several of our predecessors have made laws to turn aside this scourge." (" Papacy and the Civil Power," pages 208-9.)

But suppose the Pope had the power in this country that he claims ; and suppose, in violation of the Constitution, he forbade here liberty of worship, free speech, and a free press ; and suppose again, which is very likely, that you should disobey this

Romanism and the Republic. 113

imperial pontifical statute, what would be the result? It may seem like repetition, and yet we think it can- not be too often or too fully impressed upon your minds, that death w~ould be the penalty of your disobedience. For Dens, their great authority, says : " Infidels are not to be tolerated. Infidelity is not to be tried or proved, but extirpated." Baptized heretics, (for they allow the legitimacy of your bap- tism while they affirm your heresy,) are to be visited with excommunication, as in the case of the bull of Pius IX., a few years ago, excommunicating all Protestants. They are to be considered as infamous ; their temporal goods are to be confiscated ; they are to be subjected to corporal punishment, to exile and impisonment. In case they remain obstinate, they are to be dealt with as John Huss and Jerome were, under a decree of the Council of Constance ; that is, they shall suffer death.

Hear the emphatic and plain language of this standard Romish authority :

"Are heretics rightly punished with death? Saint Thomas answers. ' Yes ; because forgers of money, or other disturbers of the state, are justly punished with death : therefore also heretics, who are forgers of the faith, and, experience being witness, grievously disturb the state.'" ( Dens, Volume 2, Number 56, Page 89.)

But how will these terrific penalties be executed when the Pope has the power? The Constitution gives every man the right of speedy trial by jury in open court, before an impartial jury : he is to be

114 Romanism and the Republic,

informed of the nature of the accusation, to be con- fronted with witnesses, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, to have the assist- ance of a counsel for his defense : excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor cruel and unusual punish- ments inflicted. ( Amendments to the Constitution, Articles VI. and VIII.) This is the mercy of a free government, which assumes the innocence of men until they are proven guilty by fair trial.

But what is the order of the Inquisition, which is the judicial enginery of the Papacy ? All along they Jiave denied that ecclesiastics shall be tried by civil court. They curse and denounce those who would subject the priests to the civil power. This curse and declaration was contrary to the declaration of Independence, which is almost as much a part of the foundation of our government as is the Constitution itself; which great instrument declares that all men are created free and equal, a doctrine against which the Pope fulminates at almost every turn. Ecclesias- tics then shall not be held responsible to civil courts and constitutional laws. And by ecclesiastical courts, by secret tribunal, by inquisitor, on private informa- tion, without witnesses in one's favor, without an im- partial jury, counsel being denied, the traps of fierce ecclesiastical, I had almost said devilish, law being set : by these means are heretics to be tried, and by these means condemned. This is the historic method of Romanism ; its avowed policy, declared by its Popes, and by its authoritative writers, under Papal sanctions : this is actually the method pursued in the

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Papal States until 1870, when the Pope lost his temporal power ; and this is the condition to which they avow their purpose to subjugate us.

Do you question whether these quiet and diplo- matic prelates would really execute such Papal mandates ? whether kindly neighbors would become, at the Pope's command, persecutors, informers and destroyers? Hard as it is to conceive, this is exactly what has happened. So it was at the massacre of St. Bartholomew in France, where at least 70,000 Protestants were foully murdered by Papists ; for which the Pope, Gregory XIII., commanded Te Deums to be sung in the churches of Rome, and in honor of which he ordered a medal struck with his own face on one side, and a scene of slaughter on the obverse. Though a tiger may create admiration by the symmetry of his form, and the smoothness and beauty of his skin, I prefer not to be so fascinated but that I remember that he has a tiger's nature within. I can admire the diplomatic skill, the intense devotion, and persistent patience of Romish Jesuits, but I dare not trust their heart ; and therefore I arm myself and you with the truth which shall defend us from their assaults.

In your hearing, I have cited the laws and princi- ples which claim absolute sway over Roman Catho- lics, and have cited also the Constitution of the United States, to which they are diametrically opposed. And now, that you may know what spirit is in those laws, whether there is a fierce and cruel heart behind them all, I shall quote to you the excommunication

116 Romanism and the Republic.

bestowed on Victor Emanuel, King of United Italy, by the Pope of Rome. This shocking curse was dealt out to him, not because he was immoral, or ambitious, or a fierce soldier. All these may have been his characteristics, but they call forth no Papal hate. Only when he appears amid the acclamations of emancipated Italians, the King of United Italy, does the hatred of the Pontiff burst forth against him. In the person of Victor Emanuel then, the church thus anathematizes freedom in Italy.

And remember, while I read this furious curse, that it is spoken by one whom Roman Catholics call the " Vicar of Christ," who assumes by their con- \ sent, among other titles, that of "Prince of God," "The Oracle of Religion," " Our Lord God the Pope," "The Most Holy Father," "Priest of the World," " The Divine Majesty," with other names of blasphemy. Without prejudice, make up your minds what spirit dwells in a man, or a church, that can employ the following curse :

" By authority of the Almighty God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; and of the Holy Canons, and of the undefiled Virgin Mary, mother and nurse of our Saviour; and of the celestial virtues, angels, arch- angels, thrones, dominions, powers, cherubims, and seraphims ; and of all the holy patriarchs and pro- phets ; and of the apostles and evangelists ; and of the holy innocents, who, in the sight of the Holy Lamb, are found worthy to sing the new song ; and of the holy martyrs and holy confessors, and of the holy virgins, and of the saints, together with all the

liomanism and the Republic . 117

holy and elect of God : we excommunicate and ana- thematize him, and from the threshold of the holy church of God Almighty we sequester him, that he may be tormented in eternal excruciating sufferings, together with Da than and Abiram, and those who say to the Lord God, ' Depart from us ; we desire none of thy ways.' And as fire is quenched by water, so let the light of him be put out forever more. May the Son who suffered for us, curse him. May the Father who created man, curse him. May the Holy Ghost which was given to us in our baptism, curse him. May the Holy Cross which Christ, for our salvation, triumphing over his enemies, ascended, curse him. May the Holy and eternal Virgin Mary, mother of God, curse him. May St. Michael the advocate of holy souls, curse him. May all the angels and archangels, principalities and powers, and all the heavenly armies, curse him. May St. John the precursor, and St. Peter, and St Paul, and St. John the Baptist, and St. Andrew, and all other Christ's apostles, together curse him, and may the rest of his disciples and four Evangelists, who by their preaching converted the universal world, — and may the holy and wonderful company of martyrs and confessors, who by their holy work are found plead- ing to God Almighty, — curse him. May the Choir of the Holy Virgins, who for the honor of Christ have despised the things of this world, damn him. May all the saints who from the beginning of the world, and everlasting ages are found to be beloved of God, damn him. May the heavens and the earth, and all things remaining therein, damn him.

118 Romanism and the Republic.

** May he be damned wherever he may be ; whether in the house or in the field, whether in the highway or in the byway, whether in the wood or water, or whether in the church. May he be cursed in living and dying, in eating and drinking, in fasting and thirsting, in slumbering and sleeping, in watching or walking, in standing or sitting, in lying down or walking mingendo cancando, and in all blood-letting. May he be cursed in all the faculties of his body. May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly. May he be cursed in his hair. May he be cursed in his brain. May he be cursed in the crown of his head and in his temples. In his forehead and in his ears. In his eyebrows and in his cheeks. In his jaw-bones and his nostrils. In his foreteeth and in his grinders. In his lips and in his throat. In his shoulders and in his wrists. In his arms, his hands, and in his fingers. May he be damned in his mouth, in his breast, in his heart, and in all the viscera of his body. May he be damned in his veins and in his groin ; in his thighs ; in his hips and in his knees ; in his legs, feet, and toe-nails.

" May he be cursed in all the joints and articulations of his body. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot may there be no soundness in him. May the Son of the living God, with all the glory of his Majesty, curse him; and may heaven, with all the powers that move therein, rise up against him — curse him and damn him ! Amen. So let it be ! Amen."

Hell is not more remote from heaven than this from the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ 1

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And I call upon all men who are witnesses to the spirit and words of Papal tyranny, on Protestants and Iioman Catholics who love God and manhood, liberty and country, to register a solemn vow with God, like that in which you yielded your hearts to his service, that never, by your indifference, consent or connivance, shall the Papal power make a sepul- chre beneath its curses for the Constitution and the Laws which are the glory and protection of free America.

Note. The form of the Excommunication of Victor Em- manuel quoted above is vouched for by A. P. Grover, Esq., in his book entitled "Romanism the Danger Ahead," from which it is cited by the author.

.Sermon #♦

ROMANISM ANTAGONISTIC TO THE CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS.

My sermon is really a continuation of that of last Sunday evening, and my text is the same as then. In the book of Deuteronomy, the fourth chapter, begin- ning with the fifth verse : "Behold I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye shall do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them ; for this is your wisdom and your understand- ing in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, who hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?"

You will remember, if you were here, that I showed how this might apply to the Constitution of this great country, and I also showed, in the intro- duction of last Sunday evening, the relation of the Constitution to the welfare and liberty of the State.

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I then proceeded to point out the utter antagonism of Romanism to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and in the following particulars : First, That while the Constitution recognizes the people, under God, as the source of all authority ; the Roman Catholic Church recognizes the Pope, under God, as the source of all authority. Second, — I brought to your attention the fact that, while the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, the Roman Catholic Church insists that the will of the Pope is the supreme law of all lands. I then took up the First Amendment of the Constitution, showing that it is according to the Constitution of the United States that no religion shall be established by law ; and I then showed that the Roman Catholic Church is always clamoring to have Romanism established by law. I further proved that it Avas contrary to the Constitution of the United States to forbid any relig- ion in this country ; and I then showed that it is according to the principles of the Roman Catholic Church to forbid every religion excepting its own.

Then I read from the Constitution of the United States, that liberty of conscience should never be abridged in our nation, and quoted from the Pope of Rome and the hierarchs to show that liberty of con- science was considered by them a pest and a delirium. I also quoted the Constitution as against abridging freedom of speech and of the press. Afterwards I quoted Roman Catholic authorities as considering liberty of speech and of the press a pestilence, as they declared in encyclicals and acts of councils. I

122 Romanism and the Republic.

then proceeded to show that it was contrary to the Constitution of the United States to inflict severe penalties without fair trial by jury ; and afterwards, that Roman Catholicism declares her ecclesiastical laws to be superior to all civil law, and claims the right to inflict all sorts of penalties ; and having proved all these things, I closed by reading the dia- bolical excommunication which was visited upon Victor Emanuel, by Pope Pius IX., to show the fierceness of the Papal spirit.

When we closed the last discourse, we had shown that Romanism, in its letter and spirit alike, was hos- tile to the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the country. Now we will resume where then we paused, the line of irrefutable proof that this is the fact.

In further demonstration of this, I call your atten- tion to a remark of the most distinguished statesman of Spain, Castelar, who, in 18(39, said to the Spanish Cortes : " There is not a single progressive principle which has not been cursed by the Catholic Church. This is true of England and Germany, as well as of Catholic countries. The Church cursed the French Revolution, the Belgium Constitution and the Ital- ian Independence. Nevertheless all these princi- ples have unrolled themselves in spite of it. Not a Constitution has been born, not a single progress made, not a solitary reform effected which has not been under the terrible anathemas of the Church."

As though to add emphasis to the very words that I have spoken, the present Pope has just issued

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another encyclical against liberty, of which you will find an abstract in the New York Independent for August 2, 1888, in which all the assaults of which we have taken note heretofore are renewed. Liberty of conscience, freedom of worship and the suprem- acy of the Constitution are all disallowed, and the Pope protests that the State ought to suppress any other than the Roman Catholic religion. This doc- ument is later than the infamous rescript concerning Irish affairs, which has so effectually shut the mouths of all those enthusiastic patriots who hitherto have been doing their utmost for what they call the liber- ation of Ireland.

Perhaps the most capable theologian and essayist of the Roman Catholic Church in America was Orestes A. Brownson, a pervert from Protestant- ism. That he fully shared ~t'he sentiments of the Pope you may learn from his writings ; among which occurs the following significant assertion : " 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 relio-- ion, no rights under the law of nature or the law of God, they are neither wronged nor deprived of lib- erty if the State refuses to grant any rights at all." The New York Tablet says: " They have, as Pro- testants, no authority in religion, and count for noth- ing in the Church of God. They have from God no right forpropagandism, and religious liberty is in no sense violated when the national authority, whether Catholic or pagan, closes their mouths and their places of holding forth."

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But now I call you to notice, that Romanism in America has violated the Constitution of the United States by overt acts.

1. Note the following violation of the Constitu- tion by Romanism, in the matter of appropriating public monies. The Constitution and the laws of the United States, and of the several States, do not war- rant, but rather forbid, the appropriation of money by the States to sects, for their own specific purposes. This is a natural and necessary interpretation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, and the reason for it is obvious to all. But by threats and political influences, the Roman Catholic Church has violated this law in many cases.

Among the most conspicuous, are those in New York State and New York City. The chief author- ity on this matter is the late Dexter A. Hawkins of New York, who, in 'the New York Christian Advo- cate of January, 1880, tells us in detail how the Roman Catholics possessed themselves of several blocks in the best part of New York City, where now the Cathedral stands. Five and a-half whole blocks were stolen from the city, worth at least three millions and a-half of dollars, and no consider- ation was given in retnrn. Not only this, but speci- fically Roman Catholic institutions, schools, churches, and so-called benevolent institutions, have been sup- ported largely by public funds: 127 of these Rom- ish institutions, in eleven years prior to 1879, had received six million dollars. The Tweed ring- in 1869, exchanged, for the political influence of Roman-

Romanism and the Republic. 125

ists, $800,000 in appropriations that year. So far from these sectarian institutions being benevolent, it is a notorious fact that some of them have been made prisons for those who have thrown off the yoke of Rome and espoused the Christian faith. Spirited away from their homes and placed in durance vile, some of them have never been heard from again since they entered the walls of these institutions, the sole purpose of which is to make, out of the young and rising generation, converts to Rome.

But not only in the States has this flagrant violation of the Constitution occurred. By stealth, the Roman Catholics have secured from the national government, appropriations to specifically Romish schools. You may perhaps know that the Government supports, in part, schools for the Indians, in which the various denominations also bear a part. The Roman Cath- olics have a Bureau of observation and effort at Washington, from which they bring to bear influ- ences upon Congress to secure the lion's share of these appropriations. Last year, of the entire appropriations for Indian education, the Roman Catholics, who number only one-sixth to one-tenth of our population, received fifty-five and a-half per cent., while all the Protestant Churches, in their work, though they number five-sixths to nine-tenths of the population, received only forty-four and a- half per cent. This indicates the alarming extent to which Rome influences even national legislatures in the line of building up her own power.

In addition to these appropriations, thus forced

126 Romanism and the Republic.

from the public treasury, Rome, with her usual greed of grain, has secured and holds vast proper- ties in our cities and country on which she pays no taxes.

Among the principles of the Romish Church is this, that it has the legitimate right to secure, hold and use property without limit. In our countiy, churches and religious corporations, as well as all other corporations, can hold property only when authorized so to do by statute, and for the uses speci- fied by statute, and then only to the amount fixed by statute. The Romish Church opposes all this, as by it they are prevented from swallowing up the prop- erty of the country.

In England, before the statute of mortmain, the Church had got possession of one-third of the property of the kingdom, and so astute were the priests in evading the laws of the realm, that it took four hun- dred years to so perfect them as to protect the public against the rapacity of this Church. Blackstone says, that but for these statutes, ecclesiastical corpor- ations would soon have emmlfed the whole real estate of England. After all these precautions, the civil power had finally to resort to confiscation, to restore enough of the land to the people to ensure the prosperity of the realm.

In Italy, Spain and Mexico, the civil government, for like reasons, though it was Roman Catholic, has been compelled to resort to confiscation. As a sample of Romish greed, in the year 1848, through unmitigated chicanery, the Romish ecclesiastics

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obtained from a feeble old man in Brooklyn, New York, a vast landed property. They secured an act of incorporation for a nominal society, The Brooklyn Benevolent Society, which simply pours its revenues into the pockets of the priests and prelates, and in the one year 1880, this property should have paid into the treasury of the city not less than one hundred thousand dollars annual taxes. They have held it without a penny of tax, and do to this day.

This is but a sample. The rapacity of the Roman Catholic Church for money is simply without bound. The Pope lives in the utmost splendor and luxury. His palace is the grandest of any sovereign in Europe. His state carriages, covered with gold, are inferior / to those of no other monarch. Cardinals, arch- bishops and bishops, alike live in luxury, and many in gross dissipation ; while the Roman Catholic people throughout the world are notoriously poor. The Romish Church is a vast system of plunder. Almost everything obtained in the way of religious consolation by her poor and superstitious people must be paid for with money. The confessional is little less than a means of extorting gold from the people. Purgatory and masses for the dead, is only another measure for the same purpose.

All Roman Catholic countries are miserably poor as compared with Protestant countries, as Romanists themselves declare. Spain, once the richest of empires, has been almost bankrupt for many years, and while Protestant countries have grown enor- mously in wealth, even under unfavorable circum-

128 Romanism and the Republic.

stances, as steadily Roman Catholic nations have grown poorer. For this the church is responsible. The real trouble in Ireland is indicated by the recent interference of the Pope. The trouble is Popery. In vain the Papal power leads the Irish people to think that England is the cause of all their woes. But if Ireland was totally detached from the . British Empire, that part of it that is under the domination of priests would be as Spain and Italy, it would become poorer and poorer. In Canada, in the United States, in Mexico and the South American Republics, as well as in European States, Rome must answer for the fact that her people, with all their nat- ural gifts and advantages, which do not seem to be in any wise inferior to the providential opportunities of Protestants, are crushed to death by the extortions, the avarice, the rapacity of priestly rulers. And both by their laws and their practices, it is evident that Rome purposes nothing less in this country than to possess itself of vast wealth, at the expense of the people, for the destruction of the nation.

2. But I pass from this violation of the Consti- tution and the rights of man, to some further proofs that the Romanists propose to make the Pope supreme in America.

First of all, this is their creed, their religion; this is the doctrine of their councils, the doctrine of their Encyclicals, the spirit of all their work. Their ablest theologians, whom we have cited, so expound their laws. And they are not more attached to any

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principles of their religion than to this purpose to make the Pope supreme and absolute ruler. Hear the arrogant words in which their oracle, Brownson, asserts this purpose : " The people need governing, and must be governed. They must have a master. The religion which is to answer our purpose must be above the people, and able to command them. The first lesson of the child is to obey ; the first and last lesson to the people, individually and collectively, is obey. There is no obedience where there is no authority to enjoin it. The Roman Catholic religion, then, is necessary to sustain popular liberty, because popular liberty can be sustained only by a religion free from popular control, above the people, speak- ing from above and able to command them, and such a religion is the Roman Catholic. In this sense we wish this country to come under the power of Rome. As the visible head of the Church, the spiritual authority which Almighty God has instituted to teach and govern the nation, we assert his supremacy, and tell our countrymen that we would have them submit to him. They may flare up as much as they please, and write as many alarming and abusive edit- orials as they choose, or can find time and space to do. They will not move us, or relieve themselves from the obligation Almighty God has placed them under, of obeying the authority of the Catholic Church, Pope and all." Could anything be more definite than this, or more insolent? Nothing; unless it is the laws and practices of the Papal power.

130 Romanism and the Republic.

To secure this end, the present Pope, Leo XIII., expressly commands American Roman Catholics to political activity. Here are his words of November 1, 1885, an extract from his Encyclical: "Every Catholic should rigidly adhere to the teachings of the Roman Pontiffs, especially in the matter of modern liberty, which already, under the semblance of honesty of purpose, leads to harm and destruction. We exhort all Catholics who would devote careful attention to public matters, to take an active part in all municipal affairs and elections, and to favor the principles of the Church in all pub- lic services, meetings and gatherings. All Cath- olics must make themselves felt as active elements in daily political life in the countries where they live. They must penetrate, wherever possible, in the admin- istration of civil affairs : must constantly exert the utmost vigilance and energy to prevent the usages of liberty from going beyond the limits fixed by God's law. All Catholics should do all in their power to cause the Constitutions of States and legislation to be modeled in the principles of the true Church. All Catholic writers and journalists should never lose for an instant from view the above prescriptions." By this time, you know what the purpose of such advice and counsel is, — the suppression of liberty, the downfall of the Constitution, the ruin of the State. Do Rom- anists obey this Papal command? Exactly, as they obey all other Papal commands. You would hardly suppose that Roman Catholics in this or other American cities needed to be exhorted to greater political activity.

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And yet under the Papal command, they are evi- dently aiming at supreme power over the State. For, not only have they heard the word of the Pope, and avowed as part of their creed their purpose to make him supreme, but American Romanists, in great public meetings, have promised to assist in restoring and maintaining the Pope's temporal power.

After Victor Emanuel occupied Rome, numerous great public indignation meetings were held by the Roman Catholics throughout the United States, in many of which, together with their protests against Italian interference with the Pope's temporal govern- ment, they pledged themselves to restore the Pontiff to his rightful throne ; and in denouncing the course of Italy, its Constitution and its purposes, they denounce almost every principle of the American Constitution. This was particularly the case in a great Roman Catholic meeting in Philadelphia, on the 25th of March, 1873, in which, among the terrible persecutions which they recounted as having been visi- ted upon their fellow Catholics in Germany, they stated the following : First, the expulsion of the Jesuits; second, the encroachment upon the Constitutional rights of the German Catholic hierarchy, by retaining in their positions and dignities the Old Catholics ; third, the encroachments upon the rights of conscience, by keeping others than Romanists in charge of the pub- lic schools ; fourth, the unchristianizing of the schools. These they call arbitrary and tyrannical measures, and yet these are the common law of the United States, to which they are equally antagonistic. In pursu-

132 Romanism and the Republic.

ance of this determination, Roman Catholic periodi- cals, from time to time, have threatened " political damnation," to use their own phraseology, to legis- lators who opposed their behests. This unseemly menace is particularly conspicuous in the Roman Catholic Review for November, 1885, a periodical commended by the Bishop of Brooklyn, Cardinal McClosky, Bishop of New York, Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, and many other prelates. Commenting on the refusal of the Legislature of New York to grant the Roman church certain favors, they boast that those legislators had been retired from political life, and affirm that they have a list of others who shall follow them, unless they yield to do the bid- ding of Rome. In Canada, the interference of Rom- ish prelates in elections, their boast that the Jesuits controlled the political force of the province, have already become a matter of history, as they have of alarm. If, in the face of these threats of political overthrow, and the establishment, on the ruins of our liberties, of the Papal power, you shall reply that these Roman Catholics are American citizens, and have sworn to support the Constitution and the laws, and that you do not think that they will violate their oath, I must call upon you to remember, first of all, as the most binding of their oaths, they are sworn to obey the Pope, and that as long as they are Romanists.

3. The oaths of Roman Catholics are no guaran- tee of their loyalty to the Constitution. They are specifically sworn to obey the Pope in preference to

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any other ruler, his law above every other law. The bishop's oath, which I have already given you in detail, unhesitatingly affirms this. The Jesuit's oath is even stronger in its utter renunciation of all other rule or government than the Papal ; while the priests and laymen are bound to the same control. As a matter of fact, they profess first a supreme allegiance to the Pope.

Shortly after the decree of infallibility was announced, and this profession of primary fidelity to the Pope was made in New York, the New York Herald, which has always been controlled by a mod- erate Roman Catholic said : " There are thousands of Roman Catholics in this land who do not place Rome above the United States, and whose patriotism cannot be subverted by fealty to religious dogmas and creeds." To this patriotic utterance, which we would fain believe to be true, the New York Tablet, Roman Catholic, of November 1872, replied: "The Herald is behind the times, and appears not yet to have learned that the thousands of Catholics it speaks of are simply no Catholics at all, if it does not misrepresent them. Gallicanism, which denies the temporal power of the Pope, is a heresy ; and he who denies the Papal supremacy in the government of the universal church, is as far from being Catholic as he who denies the Incarnation, or the Real Presence. The church is more than country, and fealty to the creed God teaches and enjoins through her, is more than patriotism. We must obey God rather than man." And further it says : " Our church is God's

134 Romanism and the Republic.

church, and not accountable either to State or to country." Thus you see how the organ of the hierar- chy denounces the doctrine of moderate Romanism, which had only insisted on loyalty to the country.

But you reply, that all Roman Catholics in office, as those who have become naturalized in this coun- try, have taken an oath of fealty to the Constitution and the Republic, — will they not be debarred there- fore from treason, even at the Pope's command, by their oath? We answer: The Roman Catholic theory of oaths permits those who have taken them, without blame, to violate any oath or obligation when the Pope commands. One of the greatest Popes, Inno- cent III., asserted for himself such plentitude of power as gave him right to dispense with any law. The Fourth General LateranCouncil, with the approval of Alexander III., decreed, that an oath in opposi- tion to the welfare of the Church and the enactments of the holy fathers is not to be called an oath, but rather perjury. Peter Dens, the great commentator on the laws and morality and theology of the Church, lays it down as the law of the Church, that the right ofthePope,as the ultimate superior and sovereign, is reserved in every oath ; which, of course, includes the oath of allegiance. He also instructs the faithful, that the Pope has the power of withdrawing or pro- hibiting what is included in an oath ; and that when he does so, it is no longer included. 1 can give you the most abundant proof, from the Roman Catholic theologians, that by the law of mental reservation, as they call it, any Roman Catholic is justified in taking

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a false oath ; in swearing that he is ignorant of what he knows to be true ; in swearing that he knows to be true that of which he is ignorant, or any other use of language which sets truth at defiance. What, then, is the oath of a Roman Catholic worth, provided his personal honor and sense of right is not greater than that of the law of his church? I do not say that Roman Catholics are not numerous whose word and whose oath are honestly made, and will be hon- estly kept ; but I do say, that this is no part of their religion, and that the Pope may, under penalty of