Ifl!
s
*
THE
PAPAi' CONSPIRACY
m EXPOSED,
PROTESTANTISM DEFENDED,
TN THE LIGHT OF
REASON, HISTORY, AND SCRIPTURE.
BY
REV. EDWARD BEE CHER, D.D.
PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD,
COKNEK OF SPEUCE ST. AND CITY HALL SQUARE.
1855.
*
*
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
EDWARD BEECHER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
FRIENDLY CONSIDERATIONS FOR AMERICAN
PROTESTANTS AND FREEMEN.
GOD, my fellow-countrymen, has conferred on you the peculiar
honor and the eminent responsibility of being jurors in behalf of
the great commonwealth of humanity in a momentous case in
which he himself is Judge.
The great criminal arraigned for trial before his bar is that pecu-
liar corporation claiming the right to be called the church of Rome.
You are called on to decide whether this corporation, for treason
against God and hostility to the human race, deserves the execra-
tion of mankind and the righteous and avenging judgment of God.
In order to decide this question, you are to consider, not any
plausible professions which the corporation may put forth, but the
organic laws of the corporation, its avowed principles, the inevitable
tendency of such laws and principles, and finally the actual results
of these tendencies as imbodied in history. When you have in-
telligently considered these things, you will be able to decide wha
this corporation is and what ought to be its doom.
You are therefore called on also to decide whether this corpora-
tion has changed for the better or not since its principles were fully
developed during the era or dispensation of their notorious head,
Gregory VII., sometimes called Hildebrand; whether the lion's
claws that it then had have been extracted, or only concealed;
(3)
4 FRIENDLY CONSIDERATIONS
whether its teeth have been knocked out, or only hidden till it
can find another opportunity to bite and devour. On these points
some of the orators of the corporation have made most beautiful
and touching appeals, protesting that in these auspicious days of
liberality the lion has laid aside its ancient ferocity and repented
of its bloody deeds, and is ready to lie down with the lamb, and the
leopard with the kid, and that a little child can lead them. 5fou,
as good men and true, are called upon to say upon your oaths
whether you find that there is any evidence that this blessed trans-
formation has taken place.
Indeed, in coming to your ultimate results, you are called on to
decide a still more important question that is to say, What is the
character of this corporation for truth and fidelity to engagements ?
You are called on to decide whether it is ever safe to trust any af-
firmations or denials of this corporation, or of any of its agents, as
to any matters of fact touching their own interests or involved in
their own defence.
You are therefore called on to decide, first, What has been the
character of this corporation in these respects in ages past ? And
if you find that it has been infamous to the last degree, then you
are to decide whether it has ever repented and brought forth works
meet for repentance, so as at last to deserve to be admitted into
decent, civilized, and Christian society.
Not merely in ages past, but also at the present day, this corpora-
tion has promulgated certain bills of rights designed to define the
extent of their own claims and prerogatives. These may, by way of
distinction, be called the Papal bills of rights. On these you are
also called to sit in judgment. The amount of them in brief is
this : This Papal corporation have avowed a conscientious convic-
tion that God has empowered them to do all the thinking of all
mankind on all points of Christian faith and practice, and that he
has retired all the rest of mankind to think as this corporation
thinks, on pain of eternal damnation ; also that God has given them
FOR AMERICAN PROTESTANTS AND FREEMEN. 5
full power over kings and all rulers, to use them as instruments in
enforcing this right, by crusades, confiscations, proscriptions, and
boundless slaughters. Such are their avowed and conscientious
convictions on these important and interesting topics.
Their ideas of their own rights of conscience correspond ; that
is to say, they claim the right to act out these conscientious convic-
tions without let or impediment. This is in brief the bill of Papal
rights of conscience.
Their ideas of the rights of conscience in all others are no less
interesting and instructive. They liberally concede to all mankind
the right to obey such laws and decisions of all sorts as they shall
declare that God has promulgated through themselves, and none
others in contravention of these. In short, their theory of the rights
of man is in brief this : That all mankind have an inalienable right
to obey the laws of the Papal corporation, and that all who refuse to
obey these laws have no other rights whatever.
The doctrines of this corporation on the subject of persecution are
no less instructive. They are these :
Inasmuch as God has given to them the rights of conscience above
stated, it is not persecution in them to carry those rights into full
and perfect effect, by deposing rebellious kings and rulers, and by
using such rulers as are obedient to them, in the laudable and divine
work of torturing, and then butchering or burning, all rebels against
Papal authority, confiscating their goods, and rendering them and
their children infamous forever. For the Papal corporation to do
all this is not persecution, but the exercise of just authority.
On the other hand, if any man shall have the hardihood and
audacity even secretly to think that this is wrong, and much more to
say so, that man is a persecutor. Much more is he a persecutor if
he shall dare to endeavor to create a public sentiment that shall
throw infamy upon the corporation simply because they have exer-
cised their just rights of conscience in butchering a few millions of
heretics say, for example, about fifty millions, more or less.
1*
6 FRIENDLY CONSIDERATIONS
Still more, it would be inexcusable persecution for this nation to
pass any laws to prevent them from gaining, as soon as possible, the
ability to carry out their rights of conscience aforesaid in this country.
In particular, if the head of the corporation shall send to this
country pecuniary agents, whom, he sees fit to call bishops, and to
concentrate in them all the property of all the religious societies in
this land who own his sway, as one means of gaining the power at
which he aims, then to interpose by law to prohibit and prevent
such accumulation would be a still higher grade of persecution.
Above all, to expel by law from this land the sworn pecuniary
agents of the foreign head of this corporation, even although they
should be manifestly, and openly, and undeniably guilty of a treason-
able conspiracy with foreign Romish powers to subvert the consti-
tution and laws of these United States and of each particular state
in this confederacy, would be the summit of persecution. This is
self-evident ; because any government that refuses to submit to the
jurisdiction of this corporation has no right to exist, and therefore it
is a duty to conspire to overthrow it. Indeed it is the conscientious
conviction of the members of this corporation that they are called
on, AS SOON AS THEY CAN GET THE POWER, to rule all such govern-
ments with a rod of iron and to dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel.
That these are the present claims of this corporation, without col-
oring or exaggeration, I think you will be satisfied when you shall
have read the evidence adduced in this volume, which is but a
small part of what could be offered.
I will, however, in this place present one item more, which I re-
quest you to consider in connection with that in the body of this
work.
Pope Pius VII., whose papacy occupied nearly the first quarter
of the present century, gave to his nuncio at Vienna the following
instructions, in view of the claims of certain Protestant princes on
his ecclesiastical property in Germany for indemnity for certain
FOR AMERICAN PROTESTANTS AND FREEMEN. 7
injuries. He says, " Not only has the church succeeded to prevent
heretics from possessing themselves of ecclesiastical property, but
she has established the confiscation and the loss of goods as the
punishment of those guilty of the crime of heresy. This punish-
ment, as it respects the goods of individuals, is decreed by a bull
of Innocent III. ; and, in respect of principalities and fiefs, it is a
rule of the canon law (Chap. Absolutes xvi., De Hsereticis) that the
subjects of an heretical prince are enfranchised from every duty to-
wards him and dispensed from all fealty and homage. However
slightly one may be versed in history, he cannot but know that sen-
tences of deposition have been pronounced by pontiffs and by
councils against princes guilty of heresy. Indeed we have fallen
upon such calamitous times, times of such humiliation to the
spouse of Jesus Christ, (!) that it is not possible for her to practise
nor expedient to invoke HER MOST SACRED MAXIMS OF JUST RIGOR
against the enemies and rebels of the faith. But, if she cannot
exercise HER RIGHT of deposing heretics from their principalities
and of declaring their goods forfeited, can she ever positively per-
mit herself to be despoiled to add to them new principalities and new
goods ? What occasion of deriding the church would not be given
to the heretics and unbelievers themselves, who, insulting over her
grief, would say that means at length had been found out TO MAKE
HER TOLERANT ! " Such are the doctrines of this corporation in the
nineteenth century.
This interesting document was obtained by M. Daunou from the
archives of the Vatican when they were removed by Bonaparte to
Paris, and were by the government committed to him for custody.
The Italian original may be found in the second volume of his able
History of the Court of Rome. This invaluable work every Ameri-
can ought to study, though its author is a lay Romanist. Of him I
have said more in another part of my work.
In the light of this equitable document, we see clearly that the
Romish church, so called, is under no obligation to make any com-
8 FRIENDLY CONSIDERATIONS
pensation to Protestants for any injuries -whatever in the shape, for
example, of deposition, confiscation, plunder, murder, &c. ; for it is
HER RIGHT to do such things to heretics, and her MOST SACRED
MAXIMS OF JUST RIGOR require her to do them, whenever she can
But how is it with regard to Protestants ? Even thus : If a mob,
without violence to life, happens to burn a single convent, then THE
STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS is to be held up to eternal infamy by the
pope, and all his pecuniary agents called bishops, if she refuses to
make restitution to the Romish corporation to the uttermost farthing.
Accordingly the Papal corporation never has made any restitution,
and intends never to make any restitution, for cities sacked, churches
burned, families plundered of their all, husbands and wives, parents
and children, tortured and butchered by it with the most savage
ferocity. The MOST SACRED MAXIMS OF JUST RIGOR established
by that corporation authorize and demand all these things ; for it is
self-evident that rebels against this corporation have no rights. But,
if this state shall not make full restitution for property which they
did not destroy, human language cannot utter the infamy and the
deep damnation that this corporation will assign to all her Protestant
citizens for such atrocious persecution.
Moreover from this document it appears that this gentle spouse
of Christ is dissolved in grief in view of the present calamitous times,
which prevent her from fully exercising her just rights of confiscation
and murder, and regards the very supposition by the heretics that
any means can possibly be founfl out sufficiently powerful TO MAKE
HER TOLERANT an insult over her grief.
What heart can be so hard as not to be touched with sympathetic
sorrow in view of such deep grief of this most interesting and affec-
tionate corporation ?
That the present pope, Pius IX., fully sympathizes with these
views, is plain from his brief dated June 10, 1851, in condemnation
of Francis G. Vigil, of Lima, Peru, which I have not room to quote,
and from his allocution to the cardinals of the church, delivered
FOR AMERICAN PROTESTANTS AND FREEMEN. 9
September, 1851, in which, he says that "he hath taken this prin-
ciple for basis, that the Catholic religion, with all its rights, ought to be
exclusively dominant in such sort that every other worship shall be
banislied and interdicted." Well then may he, as he does, unite with
his bishops in this country in applauding 0. A. Brownson's maga-
zine. Moreover I shall show in my work that the doctrines which
I have just stated are an essential part of the constitutional law of
this corporation, and that they are at this day taught and defended by
Mr. Brownson and sanctioned by the Bishops of Rome at present
sojourning in these United States.
On these principles, then, you are called by the providence of
God to sit in judgment, and to decide whether the principles of our
government were designed to defend such rights of such consciences
and to protect and establish the claims and authority of such a cor-
poration.
You are also called to sit in judgment upon the influence of the
corporation putting forth such claims upon all the religious, civil,
and social interests of the community in ages past and at this day.
Especially are you called onto decide upon the influence of the celi-
bacy of the clergy in connection with the confessional, and also of the
whole system of monasteries and nunneries established in this land.
No other subject more deeply affects the interests of the future mil
lions of this continent, which God has given in trust to you.
You are also called upon to consider upon what grounds the mem
bers of this corporation base their claims to such prerogatives and
rights as they arrogate to themselves ; whether they have, indeed,
a divine warrant for them, or whether they are based upon a foun-
dation of forgeries and frauds as atrocious as their claims are all-
comprehending and exclusive.
My object in this volume is to furnish you with some authentic
evidence for your careful consideration in forming your judgment
on all these momentous questions.
God's great books of revelation and of history are open before this
10 CONSIDERATIONS FOE PROTESTANTS AND FREEMEN.
nation. The evidence which I adduce is derived from their pages.
The foundations of this corporation I have examined and the process
of its formation. I have given an historical view of the deeds of
three of its leading master builders one of them the patron saint
of the Romish bishops residing in these United States.
I have also considered its influence in the period of its greatest
power and most perfect development, and also from that day to this.
Its true character is developed in its history and in the word of
God.
To this course of historical investigation, as well as to all the
other evidence, I ask your careful attention. Remember that you
are judges with God in the greatest case of all ages a case radi-
cally affecting the glory and the reign of God and every interest of
the whole human family.
May the supreme Judge, in whose court you are jurors, so
instruct you that you shall pronounce a righteous judgment accord-
ing to the law and the facts of the case.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE
CHAP. I. The Romish Corporation against our Protestant Fathers, . 13
CHAP. II. Illustrations of the Spirit and Aims of Popery, ... 16
CHAP. III. The Central Power of Popery, 20
CHAP. IV. The Essence of Protestantism, 24
PART I.
ROMANISM A FRAUDULENT AND PERSECUTING CONSPIRACY.
CHAP. I. Romanism invades the Rights of Man as to Truth, Fidelity,
Property, and Life, 30
CHAP. II. Popish Principles of Veracity and Fidelity, .... 32
CHAP. III. Popish Professions in Great Britain and America, . . 36
CHAP. IV. What ought we to believe ? What is the supreme Tri-
bunal ? .- 42
CHAP. V. Positions to be proved, 47
CHAP. VI. Testimony adduced 50
CHAP. VII. Appeal for Judgment to all true Americans, ... 81
CHAP. VIII. The Gallican, or French, Doctrine, . . . . .88
CHAP. IX. Evasion of Charles Butler 92
CHAP. X. Evasion of Bishops Hughes and Kenrick, .... 96
CHAP." XL The Jesuits on Lying and Slander, 110
CHAP. XII. Cautions to Americans in View of modern Romish Exam-
ples of Lying and Perjury, 121
(11)
12 CONTENTS.
PART II.
ROMANISM THE ENEMY OF MANKIND.
CHAP I. The Case stated, and Principles of Judgment, . . . 131
CHAP. II. Popery a Religion, a trading Corporation, a Government, . 134
CHAP. III. Operation and pernicious Effects of the System, . . 138
CHAP. IV. The Celibacy of the Clergy, and the Confessional, . . 148
CHAP. V. Reasons for a thorough Consideration of this Subject, . . 155
CHAP. VI. The Voice of History and Experience, .... 161
CHAP. VII. Bishop Kenrick's audacious Defence, .... 172
CHAP. VIII. Testimony of Romish Priests, 191
CHAP. IX. The Result. Infamous "Character of the Romish Cor-
poration, 206
PAKT III.
ROMANISM AN IMPOSITION AND A FORGERY.
CHAP. I. Presumptive Evidence of the Fact, 212
CHAP. II. Argument from History 234
CHAP. III. History of the Formation of the Romish Corporation by
Fraud and Forgery, 239
CHAP. IV. Nicholas I. and the Forgeries and Frauds of the Dark
Ages, 274
CHAP. V. The Rock Peter and the Frauds of Leo the Great, . . 306
CHAP. VI. The Plots and Frauds of Gregory VII., the patron Saint
of the Bishops of the United States. The Bishops' Oath, . 331
CHAP. VII. Characteristics and Developments of Popery during the
Era of Gregory VIL, 342
PAKT IV.
THE JUDGMENT OF GOD AND THE BURNING OF BABYLON.
CHAI. I. Babylon on Fire, 365
CHAP. II. The Fire of God 371
CHAP. III. Protestantism defended, 391
CHAP. IV. The Treason of the Romish Bishops in America, . , 399
CHAP. V. Appeal for the Judgment of God, 408
CHAP. VI. What ought to be done ? 412
THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
THE CASE STATED AND THE ISSUE DEFINED.
THE Pilgrim Fathers of New England and the other
Protestant founders of this great nation came to this
continent, soon after the reformation had shaken the Eu-
ropean world, to lay the foundations of a new order of
things, by erecting a new social system upon the great
principles of civil and religious liberty.
As one illustration of the results of this colonization,
we now witness in New England a state of society which,
with all its defects, has never been exceeded, and rarely
equalled, on earth. Our state of society, too, is the result
of the principles and institutions of our fathers. It was
their glory, in their own esteem, that they had receded to
the uttermost point from the corruptions and pollutions
of Rome in doctrine, organization, and morals. Their
2 (is)
14 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
foundation was the Bible, and the Bible alone not the
Bible neutralized or rendered poisonous by the traditions
of man ; the Bible in the hands of the churches and of
the people, and not in the hands of a hierarchy falsely
calling herself the church. Under it have sprung up free
governments in church and -state, systems of education,
purity in the family state, regenerated ministers and
churches, benevolent enterprise, science, literature, and
the arts.
Results similar to these are also extensively witnessed
throughout our land ; and it is our fixed purpose, by the
aid of God, to make them universal. At this we aim;
because it is our firm conviction that we, as a Protestant
nation, have received our principles from God, and that
he has assigned to us the sublime mission and the glorious
destiny of making them universal.
But lo, whilst we are obediently moving on to attain
our destiny, an assault is made upon us by a system unique
and peculiar, and assuming the style and title of the
Church of Rome, the Mother and Mistress of all churches.
We turn to listen to her words. They are bold and
lofty. Laying aside all ceremony, she at once denounces
us and our fathers as in rebellion against her, our only
lawful and religious sovereign, and therefore against
Almighty God himself.
We stop to consider more particularly the system which
makes such charges and puts forth such pretensions.
We find it to be a system nominally Christian, yet not
friendly to other Christian bodies, but excluding and
anathematizing them all. It is confined to no nation or
government, but exists under all. Its parts in various
nations are not, like other religious bodies, independent of
each other, but are all organized as one compact system
around one head. That head is a temporal ruler in a
THE CASE STATED AND THE ISSUE DEFINED. 15
territory exclusively his own. He is also a spiritual
ruler, and to some extent a temporal ruler, over his sub-
jects in all lands. He claims supremacy oyer all earthly
governments ; and, so far as he has had at any time the
ability, has exercised this supremacy, and at all times
aims to secure the requisite power.
In our land the system has great and constantly in-
creasing numbers. Seven archbishops, thirty-two bishops,
one thousand five hundred and seventy-four priests, and a
population of three millions are subjected to its sway.
It has exerted great power in politics. Politicians
have courted the favor of those who sway this mass of
voters. It has also constantly aimed, through pecuniary
and political motives, to paralyze and control the Protes-
tant political and secular press.
It has under its control numerous and dangerous or-
ganized societies, composed of unmarried men and women
withdrawn from domestic life, and specially sworn to ex-
tend and defend the authority of the Pope of Rome, the
head of the great system.
It is organizing seductive and proselyting systems of
education, and aims by means of them to corrupt and en-
list in their vast schemes the children of Protestant par-
ents. It has at this time twenty colleges, with two thou-
sand two hundred and forty-seven students ; twenty-nine
theological seminaries, with upwards of four hundred
students ; and one hundred and twelve female academies.
It is accumulating property and aiming to concentrate
it in the hands of the bishops the sworn vassals of a for-
eign monarch. It meets us at every turn in this and in all
lands. It shows its true spirit as fast as it gains power ;
and it significantly threatens us with future retribution
whenever it shall gain universal sway.
CHAPTER II.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SPIRIT AND AIMS OF POPERY.
WE will illustrate these statements by a few impressive
facts. It has ever been the policy of the Papists to charge
on Protestants a tendency to all kinds of radical and dis-
organizing errors, and to assert that the only defence
against it is submission to the Papacy. "Whenever such ten-
dencies appear to exist in fact, the Papists are emboldened
to endeavor to produce a reaction towards their system.
Accordingly, when signs of such a state of things began to
appear in New England, they put forth new efforts to
make proselytes ; nor were those efforts entirely fruitless.
In particular, one well-known personage, of New Eng-
land parentage and education, Orestes A. Brownson, who
had himself neared the gulf of infidelity and atheism, un-
able to extricate himself from the mazes of scepticism, fled
for refuge to Rome, and now pronounces the experiment
of our fathers a failure, and calls on us to return from our
revolt. Thus, in this centre of New England, this bold
proposal is made by a descendant of the Puritans to the
American mind. Our system is pronounced a failure.
Romanism is offered to us in its place ; yea, urged upon
us as our only refuge from ruin.
Listen to the following words, in which he discloses
not only his own feelings, but also the purposes of the
Papal corporation:
(16)
SPIRIT AND AIMS OF POPERY. 17
" The church may be assailed, will be assailed : but we
know it is founded on a rock ; and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it. It is now firmly established in
this country ; and persecution will but cause it to thrive.
Our countrymen may be grieved that it is so ; but it is
useless for them to kick against the decrees of Almighty
God. They have had an open field and fair play for
Protestantism. Here Protestantism has had free scope,
has reigned without a rival, and proved what she could
do, and that her best is evil ; for the very good she boasts
is not hers. A new day is dawning on this chosen land ; a
new chapter is about to open in our history, and the church
to assume her rightful position and influence. Ours shall
yet become consecrated ground ; and here the kingdom
of God's dear Son shall be established. Our hills and
valleys shall yet echo to the convent bell. No matter
who writes, who declaims, who intrigues, who is alarmed,
or what leagues are formed ; this is to be a Catholic coun-
try ; and from Maine to Georgia, from the broad Atlantic
to the broader Pacific, the clean sacrifice is to be offered
daily for the quick and the dead."
But these words are not original with him ; they are
but an echo of the voice of the church. The society at
Lyons for the propagation of the faith, a Papal organiza-
tion of great power, to which I shall hereafter recur
again, says the same. Speaking of the discovery of
America by Columbus, and of the fact that France
and Spain took possession for the church, the society
says,
" At a late hour heresy made her appearance, and led
to the coasts of North America the most violent of her
disciples the restless Puritans. Soon other sects cast
their scum on the same shores, and Protestantism gained
18 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
sovereignty in the thirteen colonies -which were destined
to become the United States. Yet the Catholic church
could never abandon THE INVADED TERRITORY."
After unfolding her plans and her vigorous prosecution
of them, she says,
" In view of such beneficial results, we may well believe
that the creation of the American episcopate will rank
as one of the most important events in the ecclesiastical
history of the nineteenth century. Its efficacious activity
recalls to mind something of those labors of organi-
zation by which the illustrious bishops of primitive times,
among the depraved Romans, the Arians, and the bar-
barians, provided for the future welfare of modern
nations."
Nay, Mr. B. openly confesses that there is a system de-
signed to exterminate Protestantism: "Not by force," he
says, " but by argument and conviction. The church," he
says, " never uses force." Just as true as this has been, so
true will it be when they gain the power. We see the parts,
therefore, of a universal system ; and they agree with the
declaration of the Duke of Eichmond. He, as is well
known, declared that there was a combination of the
despots of the old world to destroy our institutions in
order to sustain their own. This and other statements
of a similar kind will be fully detailed in the succeeding
portions of this work. Let no man, then, call it illiberali-
ty or persecution if we subject this arrogant and in-
vading system to a thorough scrutiny. We are still the
majority. We have liberty and a free press; and God
has raised us up, given us the power, and calls us to the
work. Yet I desire to say, in passing, that my confidence
of success does not rest on man. There is no sufficient
power to prevent the spread of that system but God. Its
SPIRIT AND AIMS OF POPERY. 19
past sway is owing to its accordance with human depravi-
ty ; and the same cause will give it power in time to come
if God does not interpose. But his glory calls for its
ruin. He is strong enough to judge it ; and he will.
That the time of this judgment is near, gathering signs
foretell. The hosts are moving to the field of Arma-
geddon.
CHAPTER III.
THE CENTRAL POWER OF POPERY.
So long as men admit the being of a God and believe
in the immortality of the soul, their most powerful motives
will be derived from their hopes and fears as to eternal
life. It matters not whether these hopes or fears are
founded on truth or falsehood, genuine religion or super-
stition ; so long as they exist they will sway the masses
of mankind with resistless power. The sway of Popery
over the popular mind is derived from this source. It all
depends upon a false answer to the question, " What shall
I do to be saved ? "
The sublimity and importance of the ideas called up
before the mind by this brief question I suppose no one
will deny. It calls up God ; a spiritual world ; a moral
government ; a law and its penalty ; a revolt ; an atone-
ment ; reconciliation to God, resulting in heaven ; eternal
alienation, resulting in hell. But what has it to do with
the central error of Romanism and the main issue be-
tween Romanists and Protestants ? Much every way, as
I shall soon show.
The answer to this question given by the great re-
formers is plain and distinct. It unfolds God, the correla-
tion of the mind to him, the nature of his law, and of life
in him by love, and shows that this perfects the mind and
conducts it to its true end. It unfolds sin in its nature,
(20)
THE CENTRAL POWER OF POPERY. 21
forms, and effects upon the mind its guilt, and desert,
and eternal consequences. It unfolds the divinity and
incarnation of the Son of God and his atonement, and the
possibility of pardon on the ground of repentance, faith,
and a holy life. And then, with the apostles, it says,
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
This is the answer of the whole evangelical Protestant
world. In this they all agree. "With them the church
of Rome does not agree. Teaching a hell, she admits the
need of the question, but answers it falsely. Her answer
is, Believe in the church of Rome, and in Christ as the
church of Rome believes in him, and thou shalt be saved ;
believe not, and thou shalt be damned.
But you reply, I have had the Bible from childhood ; I
have studied it ; I have been aided in my study by the
instruction of holy men ; I think I know what sin is, and
that I have repented of it, and trusted in Christ, and am
striving to cultivate all the Christian graces and to lead
a holy life ; and through the mercy of God, through Christ,
I hope for heaven. Are not my hopes well founded ? But
do you believe in the church of Rome ? No ; I believe in
the Bible. But do you believe in the Bible in her sense
and according to her interpretation ? In some things I
do, and in some I do not. In a great multitude of things I
regard her as utterly misinterpreting and radically cor-
rupting the word of God ; and, on the whole, I regard that
church as the man of sin spoken of by Paul and the great
harlot spoken of by John. Then of course you cannot be
saved ; since you not only do not believe in the church of
Rome, but blaspheme her the bride, the spouse, of
Christ. But where has God told me to believe in the
church of Rome ? My Bible says nothing about it. It
says, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved." And Paul, in his letter to the church of Rome,
22 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
says, " Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved ; " but not a syllable about believing in the church
of Rome any where.
Now, what has the church of Home to say to" all this,
think you ? Why, as follows :
1. You cannot tell what the canon of the Bible is ex-
cept through the church of Rome.
2. After the canon is made out, you cannot so tell what
the Bible means, without the aid of the church of Rome,
that it is possible for you to exercise saving faith.
3. The Bible, without the traditions of the church of
Rome, is so defective and imperfect that it is not safe to
depend upon it.
4. There is only one thing upon which you can depend
safely; and that is the church of Rome. Through her you
can tell what the canon of the Bible is ; through her you
can tell what it means ; through her you can have all its
deficiencies supplied ; and thus through her you can trust
in Christ, be holy, and be saved.
But what is this church of Rome ? Does it mean the
whole body of believers under the pope ? No, indeed ;
we are not Congregationalists. It is not their duty to
judge or teach ; but to hear their superiors, believe and
obey. What, then, is the church ? If you would know
definitely, then hear. It is the body of bishops in .union
with the pope, their head ; and they are inspired, not as
individuals, but in their corporate capacity. This is the
church that we mean. It is the ecclesia docens the teach-
ing church. It is an inspired, infallible, indefectible body
of teachers. These, as a corporation, are, as it were, an
incarnation of God the body of Christ. Through them
God speaks and acts. Through them he interprets the
Bible and settles all questions of doctrine. Through
them he governs the church. Through no other body of
THE CENTRAL POWER OF POPERY. 23
men does he so act or speak. If you hear them, you hear
him ; if you reject them, you reject him. They occupy
precisely the same place relatively to the world that the
apostles did of old. Indeed, they are the successors of
the apostles, and inherit all their prerogatives and powers ;
and as a rejection of the apostles would have been fatal
then, so is a rejection of this inspired and infallible body
of their successors now. Therefore, if you do not believe
in the church of Rome, you cannot believe in Christ or be
saved. Believe, therefore, in the church of Rome, and
through her in Christ, and thou shalt be saved, is still the
reply.
We have thus arrived at what is, beyond all doubt, the
central power of the Romish system. This is the great
citadel of spiritual Babylon. On this point comes up the
main, the dividing, issue between Romanists and Prot-
estants. The demand of faith in the Romish corporation
as an infallible church, as essential to salvation, is the
vital power of the greai Romish apostasy ; its denial is the
fundamental position of Protestantism.
CHAPTER IY.
THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED.
THAT the rejection of the pope and the corporation of
bishops is the essence of Protestantism is exceedingly
manifest, as will appear from the following among other
reasons :
1. Though there are numerous other errors in the
system, as image worship, transubstantiation, the mass,
purgatory, &c., yet any one of them can be removed, yea,
many of them, and yet leave the mainspring of the system
in powerful operation ; but take this corporation away, and
the system dies. As an ox smitten on the side does not
die, nor if you cut off a leg or a horn does he die, but if
you smite him on his forehead, on his brain, his whole system
is dissolved, and he dies, so is it here. This is the forehead
beneath which lies the brain of the system ; smite it, and
it dies. God has seven hammers, any one of which can
smite it with omnipotent power ; how much more all ! In
the proper place I shall produce them. My object now is
simply to bring forward the system and show where to smite.
2. Till this is smitten down, it is a wall of defence
around all the interior absurdities of the system. In vain
do you object against them ; it is all set aside as mere pri-
vate judgment. You deem them false, say they ; but what
is the worth of your individual opinion? The church
deems them true ; and who is most likely to be right ?
(24)
THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. 25
Has she not God's promise "to be with her always and to
guide her into all truth ?
3. It effects a ruinous perversion of the principle of
faith one of the most important and powerful of the soul,
and the most injurious in its perversion. Any absurdity
however great, once taken into this enclosure, is exempted
from the scrutiny of reason, and belief is debased to re-
ceive it.
4. It makes the system essentially, logically, and of
necessity, intolerant and exterminating, regarding all
other systems as the gospel does idolatry i. e., as rebel-
lion against God. Many Protestants do not seem to be
aware of this, and think that Protestants ought to regard
Romanism as one of the many fraternal Christian sects.
But they mistake its necessary logical relation to all other
bodies. It does not acknowledge any of them as any part
of the church of Christ, nor as Christians. It does not
ask to be put on a level with them. It has no part or lot
with them. They are sons of Belial, all of them
enemies of God, children of perdition, on the road to hell ;
and its only duty and avowed end is to convert or extermi-
nate them.
Indeed, it denounces them all as pagans. The cele-
brated Brownson, speaking, as he declares, under the
sanction of the American Papal bishops, says, (Quarterly
Review, January, 1854, p. 96,) " Our American society is
pagan, not Christian." Hence he affirms that the Papists
are situated as were the first Christians under pagan Rome,
and that they are an insulated system in which are all the
hopes of society.
"Almost every where the faithful, as under the pagan
emperors of Rome, must constitute a society of their own,
independent of the pagan society in the midst of which
they live, complete in itself, and adequate to all social
3
26 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
wants and necessities. This Catholic society is in the old
world the remains of a once general Catholic society ; in
our country it is, as under the pagan Caesars, the germ or
nucleus of a new Catholic state. All the hopes of the old
world centre in these Catholic remnants ; all the hopes of
the new in this Catholic germ. It is this Catholic society,
sustaining itself or forming itself under overshadowing
heathenism, that we must consult in our addresses and dis-
cussions. To save the non-Catholic society from continued
decline and corruption is as hopeless as it was to save the
Jewish state under the Roman governors, or pagan society
under Nero or Diocletian. The thing is out of the ques-
tion ; because modern society, as distinguished from the
Catholic, has in itself no recuperative energy, no germ of
life. All society must conform to the principles of our holy
religion, and spring from Catholicity as its root, or sooner
or later lapse into barbarism. The living germ in all
modern nations, the nucleus of all future living society,
is in the Catholic portion of the population. They are the
salt of the earth ; they are the leaven that is to leaven
the whole lump." Quarterly Review, pp. 97, 98.
The feelings of some Romanists, and even their com-
mon sense, may revolt from this ; nay, in view of the
debased Romanist masses among us, it is both impudent
and ludicrous ; but it is the stern, inevitable, logical
result of the system, avowed in public formulas, fully
brought out by Mr. B.
" ' It is the intention of the pope to possess this coun-
try.' Undoubtedly. 'In this intention he is aided by
the Jesuits and all the Catholic prelates and priests.'
Undoubtedly, if they are faithful to their religion. ' If
the Catholic church becomes predominant here, Protes-
tants will all be exterminated.' "We hope so, if extermi-
nated as Protestants by being converted to the Catholic
faith."
THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. 27
He at this time deems it politic to disclaim in behalf
of the church all force but moral, and says that is enough,
and also concedes equal civil rights. His subsequent
doctrine as to extermination will depend upon the power
of the church. He then proceeds :
" Save, then, in the discharge of our civil duties and in
the ordinary business of life, there is and can be no har-
mony between Catholics and Protestants. The two par-
ties stand opposed ; separated, not by a mere paper wall,
as some of the sects are, but by a great gulf. The peo-
ple of Christ (i. e., the Romanists) are a peculiar people ;
they stand out from the world, distinct, separate ; and
must, if they will be the people of Christ. They can
have no fellowship with Belial, nor live in peace and har-
mony with his children, (i. e., the Protestants.")
From such views he anticipates a Protestant reaction ;
but he treats it with supreme contempt. He says,
"The signs of the times seem to indicate that the sev-
eral tribes of Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other barbarians
are forming a league for a new invasion of Rome. "Well,
be it so. He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh at
them, and the Lord shall deride them. The Episcopalians
may read their destiny in that of the old Donatists, whom
in many respects they resemble ; and all the Protestant
sects combined are not so formidable to the church as were
at one period the old Arians. The church triumphed over
the Arians ; she will triumph over the Protestants. A
union whose principle is hatred will not long subsist, but
will soon break asunder. Protestantism is doomed. The
devil may be very active and full of wrath and utter
great swelling words for a season, because he knows
that his time is short ; but Protestantism must go the way
of all the earth."
This seems to be sufficiently explicit. Yet doubtless
28 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
there will be still some charitable souls who will think
it illiberal to suspect the Romanists of ulterior evil
designs, and call even argument in self-defence persecu-
tion, and wonder why we will persecute a sect of Chris-
tians who have been so far liberalized by modern progress
as to outgrow their ancient bigotry and exclusiveness.
5. So far as it is believed, it becomes a corporation in-
vested with the highest powers of despotism that the mind
of man can conceive. It has the monopoly, not of bank-
ing, or corn, or wheat, but of the grace of God, of heaven
and hell ; and such a body will bind men to their sway
by the whole weight of eternal joys and eternal woes.
It has logically carried out its views ; and kings and na-
tions have quailed before its terrors. Its logical tenden-
cies are still the same. Nothing but the counterpoise of
Protestantism prevents it. On this it gnashes its teeth,
and longs to exterminate it. To be sure, they tell us that
it will be safe to put such power into the hands of such a
corporation ; for God will not let his bride, his wife,
abuse it. Gentle souls! As if the experience of more
than a thousand years had thrown no light on that point !
6. It urges, in the nature of the case, the most important
and momentous claim that a body of men can make. It
involves not merely a question of truth or falsehood, as in
the case of common historical facts. It admits of no mid-
dle ground between the highest and most momentous truth
and a falsehood of the deepest and most damning guilt.
God either sanctions the claim with his whole soul, or
with his whole soul he abhors it.
7. If such a question is involved, it can be settled.
There must be truth on such a point. Interest and
organic power may resist ; but God is almighty ; and
he can so wield truth that they will give way.
8. It is the great question of the age. For three hundred
THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. 29
years Christendom has been divided into two contending
camps. Things cannot remain so : there must be a de-
cision ; there will be. The systems are diametrically op-
posed : one must and will exterminate the other. But it
will not be without a moral conflict unknown before
the battle of the great day of God Almighty.
From this brief view of the state of the case one thinp-
is clear that it is a system that ought, especially at this
time, to be thoroughly understood ; not misrepresented,
not dealt with on grounds of prejudice, but studied,
analyzed, understood in the light of history, philosophy,
and Scripture.
We ought not to be simple, credulous, and the dupes of
craft and delusion. The main stress of the conflict will
be upon such points as these : Is there evidence in the
nature of things, or in the word or in the providence of
God, as developed in history, that the claims of this cor-
poration are well founded ? Or do they prove them to be
false, impious, and destructive ?
In reply to these inquiries, I shall undertake to show
that, so far is the Romish corporation from being an
ordinance of God, it is rather a fraudulent conspiracy
against the interests of God and humanity ; that it is so
far from having its basis in Scripture and reason that it
is rather an imposture and a forgery ; that it is so far
from being God's messenger of blessings to men that it
is rather the enemy of mankind and hostile to the best
interests of society ; and that Protestantism, so far from
deserving the anathemas and curses heaped upon it by
that proud and aspiring corporation, is founded in truth,
is honorable to God, and is the only sure defence of our
country and of mankind.
3*
PAET I.
ROMANISM A FRAUDULENT AND PERSECUTING
CONSPIRACY.
CHAPTER I.
THE BIGHTS OF HEX AS TO TRUTH AND FIDELITY
INVADED BY ROMANISM.
THE nature of man as a social being is such that his
fundamental necessity is a knowledge of the truth. He is
called on to act in a great system with man and with
God. How, then, can he act aright unless he knows what
that system is and what are his relations to it? How can
man act safely and confidently in his intercourse with man
unless he knows the real state and relations of the things
and events around him? Every man, therefore, has an
indefeasible claim on his fellow-man to know from him
the truth. To establish and justify the utterance of false-
hood, is to strike a blow at the very basis of the social
system.
If, then, all men have a right to know the truth as to
God and man, no man or body of men has a right to
(30)
THE EIGHTS OP MEN INVADED BY ROMANISM. 31
delude them, even under the pretence of promoting their
good, or for the sake of any alleged general interest.
All men have a right also to truth and fidelity as to
promises and contracts.
They have no less a right to defence in a free use of
their powers in the study of God and his laws and works
and truth in general.
All these rights the Romish corporation invades. In
fact, it is a conspiracy to defraud men of all their rights,
and to disfranchise and extirpate all who refuse to submit
to its claims.
They take the ground that no man has a right to know
the truth from them in any case where they regard it as
inconsistent with their own interests.
That no promises or oaths are binding- to those who
oppose their interests and renounce their authority ; and
that all the civil and political rights of those who thus
oppose their interests are forfeited, as well as their prop-
erty and lives.
A corporation which takes this ground is, in the strictest
and most absolute sense, a fraudulent conspiracy against
the interests and the rights of mankind.
In discussing these allegations, we should not deem it
sufficient to look at the professions made by the advocates
of the corporation when weak and in the minority, but
should ask, What are the principles of the corporation
itself? What has it always avowed and done whenever
no external power has prevented its full development?
These inquiries shall be answered by an appeal to history.
Xo system has a history more full and definite. The
tendencies which we shall allege have imbodied them-
selves in facts ; indeed, its history is one great tragedy.
It is like the prophet's roll written, within and without,
with mourning, lamentation, and woe.
CHAPTER- II.
POPISH PRINCIPLES OF VERACITY AND FIDELITY
No man can understand the Papal church until he has
thoroughly learned that it is a corporation which, on fixed
principle, authorizes the practice of perfidy in its own de-
fence. It is no less certain that no man is qualified to
deal with the system and its defenders until their use of
falsehood is perfectly understood.
There is among Protestants a tacit understanding that
a solemn assertion of falsehood before God is wrong ;
and when ministers, bishops, and universities swear to the
truth of certain assertions, it seems dishonorable not to
believe them.
But he who does believe them in any case affecting the
interests of their religion is simple. In precisely such
circumstances, their most eminent popes and prelates have
not hesitated to equivocate, deceive, and even directly and
unequivocally to lie. Yea, their principles offer rewards
to such lying, as eminently meritorious in the sight of God.
It is, therefore, no want of charity, it is no want of
magnanimity, to deny any credence to any of the advocates
of this system on their mere word and in cases affecting
its interests. It would be, on the other hand, inexcusable
weakness and simplicity to believe them. In addition to
the effects of the perverted teaching of this corporation,
there is also the influence of the fact, which I shall soon
(32)
POPISH PRINCIPLES OP VERACITY AND FIDELITY. 33
develop, that it is so founded on fraud and forgeries that
it cannot bear the scrutiny of an impartial historian.
But it is obvious, that if a true view of history is ruinous
to powerful existing organizations, even if they were not
educated to lie, great would be the temptation to color,
distort, or deny the real facts of history. But if any cor-
poration is from education prone to falsify history, and is
under the influence of base examples and principles, how
much more sure the results ! If, therefore, of the Romish
corporation all these things are true ; if a true view of
history will destroy them ; if they are trained to the use of
forgery and fraud, and are under the influence of base
principles and precedents, we need to be fully aware of
these facts. For this purpose I propose to state at some
length what are the genuine principles and what has-been
the practice of the Romish corporation as it regards lying
and perjury for the good of the church.
I have no intention, in this inquiry, to bring any sweep-
ing charges against every individual who is found in the
Catholic laity. I do not confound them with the corpora-
tion by which they are ruled, and of which few of them
study or understand the real principles. To a great ex-
tent, they are more deceived than deceiving. Nor do I
intend to overlook the fact that there are, in the great
body of Romish ecclesiastics and historians, a few writers
of very honorable principles and practice. Thus I do not
intend to include in any one general statement persons
whose principles and practice are so unlike as those of
Pascal, Fenelon, Dupin, Sarpi, De Thou, Daunou, on the
one hand, and Escobar, Molina, Baronius, Bellarmine, De
Maistre, &c., on the other. In a body so divided into
parties and factions as the church of Rome has always
been, and in which characters and principles are so various,
all indiscriminating charges on masses are to be utterly
34 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
reprobated. Nor do I intend to hurt the feelings of any
by charging on them the belief of principles which they
disavow in theory and repudiate in practice.
But, as a great conflict is before us, I do propose to in-
quire, What ought a wise, honorable, just, and benevolent
Protestant to think of the principles and influence of the
great Romish system that opposes him, as it regards speak-
ing the truth, and also as to the observance of truth,
as it regards history, reputation, contracts, covenants, and
oaths ? This is essential,
1. As a safeguard against the abuse of that benevolent
and honorable simplicity of unsuspecting minds on which
unprincipled deceivers are ready at all times to practice.
If we are to deal with a society who have reduced the art
of lying or equivocation to system, we ought to know
them, and not be overreached by them.
2. As essential in order to aid in forming a judgment as
to the real facts of history. If a whole body is tempted,
by fear of ruin, to misrepresent facts, we ought ever to
bear it in mind.
3. As having a direct bearing on the logic of the main
question the existence of an infallible corporation ; for,
if in the middle ages the Romish corporation decreed what
all concede to be false and immoral, their claims are
destroyed.
I come, therefore, directly to the question, How shall
these principles be ascertained ? What is the highest and
most decisive evidence ? And I reply, Not the testimony of
British laymen or ecclesiastics in the Papal church, who
had in this age of light a high interest to deny certain
allegations as to the doctrines of that church, in order to
gain political privileges, whilst still they had no power to
settle points of faith ; nor the testimony of foreign uni-
versities, who are equally devoid of power to settle points
of faith.
POPISH PRINCIPLES OP VERACITY AND FIDELITY. 35
I make these remarks in order to introduce the ex-
perience of Great Britain upon the point in question.
This will open a most instructive chapter of history, which
the people of this nation would do well to study. Ques-
tions are at issue in this country as to the relations of the
Papacy to all civil governments which are of fundamental
moment. They will be met with the whole energy of the
Papal corporation. We need fully to understand the
ground on which we stand. They will affect also every
historical or religious question that may come up in deal-
ing with that corporation.
CHAPTER III.
PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA.
DURING the long controversy on Catholic emancipation,
incessant efforts were made by Charles Butler, a learned
Popish lawyer, and by others, to convince the British public
that it was safe to restore to British Romanists full politi-
cal powers and privileges, on the ground that the Romish
system did not justify a violation of faith or of good
morals. To obtain satisfaction for the British government,
appeal was made to individual divines and to certain foreign
universities to ascertain whether the real principles of the
Papacy justified the pope in deposing heretical monarchs
and absolving their subjects from the oath of allegiance,
and, in general, the violation of faith with heretics.
The universities addressed were those of Louvain,
Douay, and Paris, in France, and Alcala, Valladolid,
and Salamanca, in "Spain. The faculties of all these uni-
versities unanimously declared that the principles of the
Romish system did not justify any of these things. They
were even, in the words of the University of Louvain,
" struck with astonishment that such questions should, at
the end of this eighteenth century, be proposed to any
learned body by inhabitants of a kingdom that glories in the
talent and discernment of its natives." The University
of Alcala does not hesitate to say that those who imputed
to the Romish church such doctrines were instigated by
(36)
PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 37
the devil, even as of old the Jews were instigated by him
to slander Christ.
The reply of the University of Douay, as the shortest^
we will quote from Butler's Historical Memoirs, vol. i.,
pp. 445-448.
Extracted from the Register of the Sacred Faculty of Divinity
of the University of Douay.
January 5, 1789.
At a meeting of the faculty of divinity of the Univer-
sity of Douay, the dean informed them that the Catholics
of England were desirous of the opinion of the faculty
upon three questions, the tenor of which was as follows :
1. Has the pope, by virtue of any authority, power, or
jurisdiction derived to him from God, or have the cardi-
nals, or even the church itself, any civil authority, civil
power, or civil jurisdiction whatsoever in the kingdom
of England ?
2. Can the pope, the cardinals, or the church herself
absolve or free the subjects of the King of England from
their oath of allegiance ?
3. Is there any principle of the Catholic faith by which
Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics
or other persons who differ from them in religious opinions ?
These questions first having been privately considered
by each professor of divinity, and afterwards having been
attentively discussed by the public meeting,
To the first and second of them the sacred faculty
answers, That no power whatsoever, in civil or temporal
concerns, was given by the Almighty, either to the pope,
the cardinals, or the church herself ; and consequently
that kings and sovereigns are not, in temporal concerns,
subject by the ordination of God to any ecclesiastical
power whatsoever; neither can their subjects, by any
authority granted to the pope or the church from above,
be freed from their obedience or absolved from their oath
of allegiance.
This is the doctrine which the doctors and professors of
4
38 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
divinity hold and teach in our schools; and this all the
candidates for degrees in divinity maintain in their public
theses.
To the third question the sacred faculty answers, That
there is no principle of the Catholic faith by which Catho-
lics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics who
differ from them in religious opinions. On the contrary,
it is the unanimous doctrine of Catholics, that the respect
due to the name of God, so called to witness, requires
that the oath be inviolably kept to -whomsoever it is
pledged, whether Catholic, heretic, or infidel.
Done on the day and in the year above stated, by order
of the illustrious lords of the holy faculty.
(Signed) BACQ, beadle and secretary.
It agrees with the original. Witness my hand.
BACQ, beadle and secretary.
"We, the sheriffs of the town of Douay and justices of
the police, certify, to all whom it may concern, that the
Sieur Bacq, who has signed the above deliberation, is
beadle, as well as secretary and registrar, to the faculty
of holy theology in the university of this town, and that
to all acts so signed by him credence is to be given in and
out of court. In witness whereof, we have caused these
presents to be signed by one of the registrars of the said
town, and the seal of the said town, where neither stamped
paper nor a small seal are in use, to be fixed to them.
The 12th January, 1789.
HERBAUT, by order.
The Answer of the Faculty of the Canon and Civil Law
in t/ie same University of Douay.
Having seen and attentively considered the above
written questions and the answers of the sacred faculty
of divinity to them, the faculties both of the canon law
and of the civil law declare that they, without hesitation
or doubt, concur in the aforesaid answers of the 5th
instant, and that they have always firmly believed and
PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 39
uniformly taught that neither the cardinals, nor the pope,
nor even the church herself have any jurisdiction or
power, by divine right, over the temporals of kings,
sovereigns, or their subjects ; and consequently that kings
and sovereigns are not, in temporal concerns, subject by
the ordination of God to any ecclesiastical power whatso-
ever ; nor can their subjects, by any authority granted to
the pope or the church from above, be freed from their
obedience or absolved from their oaths of allegiance.
Further : the doctors of these faculties declare, That an
oath implies an obligation of natural and divine right, by
which the party is bound to perform the promise contained
in his oath to whomsoever that promise be made, whether
he be a Catholic, a heretic, or an infidel ; and that no
person, through pretext of heresy or infidelity in the party
to whom the promise is given, can be released from his
obligation. The Catholic religion, far from admitting any
principle by which oaths can be dispensed with, holds such
peijuries in abhorrence.
In testimony of which we have ordered our scribe to
sign this instrument. Done at Douay this 9th of January,
1789.
SIMON, beadle and secretary.
We, the sheriffs of the town of Douay and justices of
the police, certify to all whom it may concern, that the
Sieur Simon, who has signed the above deliberation, is
beadle, as well as secretary and registrar, to the faculty
of civil and canon law in the university of this town, and
that to all acts so signed by him credence is to be given in
and out of court. In witness whereof, we have caused these
presents to be signed by one of the registrars of the said
town, and the seal of the said town, where neither stamped
paper uor a small seal are in use, to be affixed to them.
The 12th January, 1789.
HERABUT, by order.
The effect of such assertions on Protestants, ignorant
of the mazes of Romanism, would of necessity be great.
Nor do we wonder at it. Men of such eminence and
40 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
learning, they would naturally conclude, know what the
Romish system is ; and we ought not to distrust such confi-
dent assertions.
The Romish committee of Ireland in 1792, in the name
of all their Popish countrymen, and the Irish bishops,
Murray, Doyle, and Kelley, in their examination before
the British Commons in 1826, made similar protestations
against the doctrines charged.
The past history of Great Britain ought to have taught
them caution ; but they believed, and, to a certain extent,
have acted accordingly.
PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN AMERICA.
Even in Boston, at a time when the public mind began
to be aroused in view of the dangers impending from th
developments of the Papal conspiracy against these United
States, these same responses of foreign universities were
referred to as evincing that there was no ground for dis
trust and alarm by those who, for various reasons, were
disposed to look on the best side of Romanism. The
reply of the University of Douay, which is before them,
will enable iny readers to judge of the tenor of all the
others ; and certainly its denial of the doctrines imputed
is sufficiently explicit. If it were safe to regard such
statements at all as having authority, it would probably
increase the force of this particular document that we
have in it the statement of the faculty of the canon and
civil law, which was not the case in the other univer-
sities.
Mr. Brownson, too, on this side of the Atlantic, has un-
dertaken to speak in the name of his church, and to de-
nounce in no measured terms all who, with Professor Park,
PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN GEEAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 41
have dared to impute to her the maxim that no faith is to
be kept with heretics. Hear his indignant disclaimer :
" ' No faith to be kept with heretics.' Where did the
professor learn that this is a maxim of Catholicity ? It
is false. Catholicity knows no such maxim ; and Catholic
history authorizes no inference that she practically adopts
or in the least conceivable manner countenances it. In-
dividuals of bad faith may be found, no doubt, even among
Catholics ; but that Catholicity or Catholic doctors any
where countenance any thing of the sort, is a malignant
falsehood. We are taught and required to keep our faith
with all men ; and faith plighted to a heretic can no more
be broken without sin than faith plighted to a true be-
liever. We would that Protestants would observe a tithe
of the good faith towards Catholics that Catholics do to-
wards Protestants ; and, when they shall do so, we give
them leave to abuse our morals to their full satisfaction."
Bishop Kenrick, of Philadelphia, has also given assur-
ances of a similar import. He was induced to do it in
order to produce the belief that no danger is to be appre-
hended to the political institutions of this country from
the extensive spread of the Romish system. Romanists,
he assures us, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, are as good
citizens as any Protestants whatever, and do not hold the
odious dogmas as to the violation of faith to heretics that
are imputed to them. See his treatise on the Primacy,
pp. 469-471.
4*
CHAPTER IY.
WHAT OUGHT WE TO BELIEVE?
WHY ought we not to believe such statements ? Can
we suppose that such men are mistaken, or that they will
wilfully falsify ?
Without answering the question as to wilful falsification,
I reply, all such statements are of no force, because they
produce no evidence from those whose prerogative it is to
decide what is, and what is not, a part of the Romish faith.
That there is such a body, they know as well as we. Why,
then, instead of giving us their own assertions, do they
not give us the words of that supreme authority ?
They know, as well as we, that no bishop, and no fac-
ulty of any university, can settle a principle of the Romish
faith. The fundamental principles of the system forbid
it. They know, too, that all such statements are worth no
more than so much waste paper.
These universities, as well as Charles Butler, the histo-
rian and leader of the Romish party in England, and the
Romish laity, followed the principles of the Gallican or
cisalpine divines, at the head of whom was Bossuet, who
wrote under the influence of the great monarch of France.
But neither the Pope of Rome nor a general council ever
sanctioned the views of these divines. Of what use, then,
is it, in such a case, to appeal to the opinions of such au-
thorities ?
(42)
WHAT OUGHT WE TO BELIEVE? 43
Nor is any more weight due to the American protesta-
tions, especially to the statements of Mr. Brownson. "We
may well ask what is his authority, that he should under-
take to settle a question like this? He is not even an
ecclesiastic ; he is a mere layman ; and he knows, as well as
any one else, that on a point like this his assertions have no
more weight than the light dust of the balance.
WHAT IS THE SUPREME TRIBUNAL?
What, then, is binding on all Romanists as an article of
faith? "What is the highest authority in such a case?
Whose decision is final and supreme? I answer, that
which is binding according to the views of all ; that which
is the highest evidence is the decision of a general coun-
cil, sanctioned by the pope, or a decision of the pope,
ex cathedra, acquiesced in by the bishops.
That this is the true view of the case, Mr. Brownson
will not pretend to deny. He has distinctly affirmed it.
The statement of Peter. Dens is perfectly coincident.
"To whom does the authority of judgment in contro-
versies respecting the faith belong?"
" Ans. To the superiors of the church : namely, to the
bishops, and above all to the supreme pontiff."
" Does this judgment in matters of faith not appertain
to theological doctors or other ecclesiastics ? "
" Ans. No ; and hence, in general councils, they have
not a decisive vote ; but they are admitted to them only
for the examination of subjects and for consultation ;
much less, therefore, are laymen judges in matters of
faith."
He also says of the bishops not assembled in council,
that, if they coincide with a decision of a pope, it is of
equal authority as if they were in council ; for " the
44 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
church dispersed is equally infallible as if assembled in
general council, and is the same tribunal."
Nor is it necessary that all the bishops should be unan-
imous ; " but a moral uniformity of the bishops is sufficient,
or the greater part of them agreeing with their head, the
supreme pontiff." Nos. 80, 81.
"We demand, therefore, not the protestation of Mr.
Brownson, nor of the Universities of Paris, Louvain, Dou-
ay, Alcala, and Salamanca, nor of the Romanist prelates,
priests, and laity of Great Britain made after the reforma-
tion had shown so clearly the horrors of the doctrines of the
Roman corporation that they were compelled to renounce
them to escape the detestation of outraged humanity, and
made to gain political privileges of which the genuine
doctrines of that corporation rendered them unworthy ;
we demand the decision of that corporation to whom
alone, on Romish principles, it belongs to settle questions
of truth and duty for the Romish world. And I am con-
strained to ask, Why did not Mr. Pitt propose directly his
queries to the court of Rome, and request a bull, to be
acquiesced in by all bishops, in which the pope should re-
nounce all claims to civil authority out of his own terri-
tories, and all power to depose monarchs and other rulers,
and to release their subjects from their oath of allegiance,
and in which especially he should condemn as heretical
the maxim of so many of his predecessors, that no faith is
to be kept with heretics ? Or why did he not request a
general council, in which these things should be clearly
defined and settled to the satisfaction of his Protestant
majesty the King of Great Britain? Did he infer from
the previous systematic opposition of the popes to sanc-
tioning those disclaimers on these points, which had been
inserted by the British kings in the oaths of allegiance
tendered to their Romanist subjects, and which opposition
WHAT OUGHT WE TO BELIEVE? 45
even Charles Butler is obliged to condemn as wrong, that
the pope was unwilling to commit himself on these points,
lest he should renounce powers which it might be expe-
dient still to retain for future use ?
If so, was it not the extreme of simplicity in him to think
that, by a mode so purely congregational, he could decide
what are the doctrines of the Romish church? What
right have laymen, and priests, and professors in univer-
sities to decide what are the doctrines of the Romish
church ? Who authorized them ? Who gave them their
authority ? So, too, Mr. Brownson's indignant disclaimer
of Professor Park's implication, that the Romish church
have taught the maxim, no faith is to be kept with heretics,
of what worth is it ? He is neither the pope nor a
general council, and his opinion is worth no more than
that of any Protestant, and far less than that of Professor
Park, as we shall soon see. From all private opinions,
then, I shall appeal to the decisions of popes, acquiesced
in by the bishops of the Catholic world, and of general
councils, for direct and decisive evidence on the point in
question.
There is also another kind of evidence to which I shall
resort. It is the ARGUMENT CUMULATIVE FROM FACTS, on
the obvious principle that though one case of forgery, ly-
ing, or perjury does not prove that the system tends to
such results, yet the repetition of such facts, in great num-
bers and on the great scale, does implicate the radical
character of the system. The coming up of one poison-
ous weed does not prove that a given soil has in it the
seed of such weeds ; but if, year after year, such weeds
spring up in all directions and in spite of all kinds of
culture, it is proof that the seed of such weeds is in the
soil. So if, for centuries, when the system of Romanism
was most fully developed, forgeries, lying, and perjury
46 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
became the order of the day, and if the chief advocates for
the Papacy have introduced the most perfect system of
perjury and lying by rule ever known on earth, then it
must be conceded that the roots of lying and perjury lie
deep in the soil of the system, and that the foremen tioned
facts of history are their natural and genuine develop-
ment.
CHAPTER Y.
POSITIONS TO BE PROVED.
- IN conducting the examination, I shall consider mainly
that period in history when the system was left most to
itself, when there were no Protestant nations to fear or
to delude, and when it felt that the world was its own.
Then, surely, would a divinely established and infallible
corporation show its true character and develop its real
principles.
I refer to the period between the consummation of the
Papal power by the forged decretals and the time of the
council of Constance. During this time the following
general councils were held : 1123, 1st Lateran ; 1139, 2d
Lateran ; 1179,3d Lateran ; 1215, 4th Lateran ; 1245, 1st
of Lyons ; 1274, 2d of Lyons ; 1311, council of Vienna ;
1409, council of Pisa, which the Italian party consider as
not established among the general councils ; 1414, the
council of Constance.
The decrees of these councils are now before me in the
third volume of Binius, from which I shall make extracts.
This is a part of the Roman Bible. It has, in fact, had far
more authority in the Roman world than the word of God.
As in the days of Christ, they have made void the law of
God by their traditions. Referring to this and to other
sources of evidence, then, I affirm the following things :
1. That the Romish church has taught and sanctioned
(47)
48 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
lying and perjury, by professing to dissolve political oaths
and other obligations, and authorizing and commanding
men to act as if they were dissolved. Thereby she has
involved them in the guilt of lying and perjury before
God and man, as all enlightened Christians at this time
fully believe.
2. The principle that no faith is to be kept with a her-
etic was formally established by the church as an article
of faith, and all were solemnly anathematized who should
dare to call it in question.
3. The real nature of the dispensing power exercised
by the popes was in history illustrated in such a variety
of cases that there can be no possibility of misunderstand-
ing it. It has been used to dissolve, 1. A most solemn
covenant sanctioned by oath between the pope and a Cath-
olic sovereign. 2. To dissolve most solemn covenants on
oath between themselves and the body of cardinals. 3. To
dissolve solemn covenants on oath between two Catholic
sovereigns. 4. To dissolve a most solemn covenant on
oath between a Catholic and a Mahometan sovereign.
5. To dissolve the oaths of subjects to rulers, both Cath-
olic and heretical. 6. To dissolve all obligation of all
kinds and of all men towards heretics.
4. The effects on human society and on the feelings of
men, as to the obligations of truth and the sacredness of
an oath in the Romish world, have been such as would
naturally be produced by such doctrines.
5. Even since the reformation, a code of morals has
been promulgated, especially on the subject of lying and
perjury, which is adapted to sap the very foundations of
civil society and reduce the world to a state of perfect
moral degradation and anarchy. And, what is worthy of
special notice, it was promulgated by the most prominent
deienders of the Papacy, the society of the Jesuits con-
POSITIONS TO BE PROVED. 49
cerning whom we are now taught by Mr. Brownson that
they have been hated in all ages for righteousness' sake.
They were so holy, he would have us believe, that this
wicked world could not endure them ; and their suppres-
sion and restoration he compares to the crucifixion and
resurrection of Christ.
6. In connection with these facts, we are to consider the
forgeries which have disgraced the Romish corporation in
all ages, the notorious frauds as it regards relics and mir-
acles, and the cases in which prominent ecclesiastics have
been detected in notorious falsehoods as a means of pro-
moting their system, and then ask, Is such a coincidence
of so many different systems of lying and perjury in con-
nection with the same body, followed up by correspondent
practice, an accident ?
Does it not rather look like the carrying out of certain
great original and fundamental principles of the system ?
If, then, we find these principles formally laid down by
supreme authority, and in numerous and various modes
reduced to practice, can any evidence be conceived of
more decisive?
7. In order to complete the statement of facts, we add,
finally, that this system of perfidy and fraud has been
linked in with, and ministered to, an extended and exe-
crable system of persecution, with which the corporation
of Rome has endeavored cruelly to exterminate all whom
it has perfidiously disfranchised.
5
CHAPTER VI.
TESTIMONY ADDUCED.
I HAVE now arraigned the Romish corporation before
the bar of God and of the community on a charge of no
light moment, either to them as a body, or to us as a na-
tion, or to the human race. Let, then, every thinking mind
closely scrutinize the sufficiency of my evidence.
JOHN HUSS AND THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.
I shall begin with a clear development of the principles
and practice of the Romish church, as defined by the coun-
cil of Constance. This, as all know, was convened to ter-
minate the great schism. Of it, Charles Butler, a distin-
guished English Romanist, says, "It is eminent by the
number and character of the persons present at its delib-
erations, the regularity of its proceedings, and the wisdom
and energy of its decrees. It was attended by thirty car-
dinals, four patriarchs, twenty archbishops, three hundred
bishops, and one thousand other ecclesiastics."
Bonnechose says, " The composition of the council was
worthy of the great interests that were to be discussed.
There was not a kingdom, or state, or republic, or scarcely
a city or community that was not represented at Con-
stance. Two popes, John XXIII. and Martin V., acted
(50)
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 51
as presidents, one at the beginning, the other at the end."
John Huss was summoned to appear before the council and
answer to charges against him for heresy. Before going,
he applied to the Emperor Sigismund for a safe conduct.
It was given. The terms were as follows :
" We have received the honorable Mr. John Huss under
our protection and defence." To all authorities he says,
" Allow him without any impediment to go, to stop, to re-
main, and TO RETURN freely ; and, whenever it shall be ne-
cessary, let it be your pleasure, as it is your duty, to make
provision for his secure and safe conduct, for the honor
and reverence of our majesty."
Notwithstanding this, the council, by a deputation to the
emperor, distinctly urged it upon him that he was under
no obligation to keep his promise to a heretic. Dachery,
an eye witness, in his German history of the council, con-
firms this fact : he says, " The deputation, in a long speech,
persuaded the emperor that, by decretal authority, he should
not keep faith with a man accused of heresy." And in the
canon law, Decret. Greg., book v. tit. viii. cap. xvi., we
find as follows :
" Those who were bound by any obligations to heretics
are freed from all obligation." "Let those who were
bound to those who have manifestly fallen into heresy by
any compact, NO MATTER WITH WHAT DEGREE OF STRENGTH IT
MAY HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED, know that they are absolved
from all obligations of FIDELITY, authority, and obedience
of any kind."
In the third Lateran 'council, twenty-seventh canon, a
similar injunction exists as it regards those who coun-
tenance certain heretics whom the council had excommu-
nicated.
" Let those who are bound to them by any compact or
covenant know that they are released from all obligation
of fidelity, homage, and every kind of obedience whilst
they remain in so great iniquity."
52 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Tliis, it seems, they urged on the emperor, as applicable
to him if he protected Huss. The council also threatened
Sigismund, as he expressly affirms, that they would break
up the sessions and disperse, and thus defeat his great end,
that is, the healing the schism, if he persisted in his
purpose to defend Huss according to his safe conduct. In
these and other ways they prevailed. Sigismund was
taught by them that no faith was to be kept with a heretic,
and urged against his better feelings, till he consented to
do the will of the council. Huss refused to" perjure him-
self by abjuring errors which he did not hold ; nor would
he renounce what the council called errors till convinced
by them from the Bible that they were so. Hence they
condemned him to the stake ; degraded him to the con-
dition of a layman ; delivered him to the emperor; he deliv-
ered him to the chief magistrate of Constance, and he to
the executioners.
Let us survey the closing scene. I give it in the words
of Emile de Bonnechose, in his Reformers before the Ref-
ormation, pp. 103, 104, New York edition :
" They placed on his head a sort of crown, or pyramidal
mitre, on which were painted frightful figures of demons,
with this inscription : ' THE ARCH-HERETIC ; ' and, when he
was thus arrayed, the prelates devoted his soul to the
devils. John Huss, however, recommended his spirit to
God, and said aloud, ' I wear with joy this crown of op-
probrium, for the love of Him who bore a crown of
thorns.'
" The church then gave up all claim to him ; declared
him a layman ; and, as such, delivered him over to the
secular power, to conduct him to the place of punishment.
John Huss, by the order of Sigismund, was given up by the
Elector Palatine, vicar of tJie empire, to the chief magistrate
of Constance, who, in his turn, abandoned him to the officers
of justice. He walked between four town Serjeants to the
place of execution. The princes followed, with an escort
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 53
of eight hundred men, strongly armed ; and the concourse
of the people was so prodigious that a bridge was very
near breaking down under the multitude. ' In passing by
the episcopal palace, Huss beheld a great fire consuming
his books ; and he smiled at the sight.
" The place of punishment was a meadow adjoining the
gardens of the city, outside the gate of Gotleben. On ar-
riving there, Huss kneeled down and recited some of the
Penitential Psalms. Several of the people, hearing him
pray with fervor, said aloud, '"We are ignorant of this
man's crime ; but he offers up to God most excellent
prayers.'
'' When he was in front of the pile of wood which was
to consume his body he was recommended to confess his
sins. Huss consented, and a priest was brought to him, a
man of great learning and high reputation. The priest
refused to hear him unless he avowed his errors and re-
tracted. 'A heretic,' he observed, 'can neither give nor
receive the sacraments.' Huss replied, ' I do not feel my-
self to be guilty of any mortal sin ; and, now that I am on
the point of appearing before God, I will not purchase
absolution by a perjury.'
" When he wished to address the crowd in German, the
Elector Palatine opposed it, and ordered him to be forth-
with burned. 'Lord Jesus,' cried John Huss, 'I shall
endeavor to endure with humility this frightful death,
which I am awarded for thy holy gospel. Pardon all my
enemies.' Whilst he was praying thus, with his eyes raised
up to heaven, the paper crown fell off : he smiled ; but the
soldiers replaced it on his head, in order, as they declared,
that he might be burned with the devils whom he had
obeyed.
"Having obtained permission to speak to his keepers,
he thanked them for the good treatment he had received
at their hands. 'My brethren,' said he, 'learn that I firm-
ly believe in my Savior : it is in his name that I suffer ; and
this very day shall I go and reign with him.'
" His body was then bound with thongs, with which he
was firmly tied to a stake driven deep into the ground.
"When he was so affixed some persons objected to his
face being turned to the east, saying that this ought not to
5*
54 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. _
be, since he was a heretic. He was then untied and bound
again to the stake with his face to the west. His head
was held close to the wood by a chain smeared with soot,
and the view of which inspired him with pious reflections
on the ignominy of our Savior's sufferings.
" Fagots were then arranged about and Under his feet,
and around him was piled up a quantity of wood and straw.
When all these preparations were completed, the Elector
Palatine, accompanied by Count d'Oppenheim, marshal of
the empire, came up to him, and for the last time recom-
mended him to retract. But he, looking up to heaven,
said with a loud voice, ' I call God to witness, that I have
never either taught or written what those false witnesses
have laid to my charge. My sermons, my books, my writ-
ings have all been done with the sole view of rescuing
souls from the tyranny of sin ; and therefore most joy-
fully will I confirm with my blood that truth which I have
taught, written, and preached, and which is confirmed by
the divine law and the holy fathers. 7
" The elector and the marshal then withdrew, and fire
was set to the pile. ' Jesus, Son of the living God,' cried
John Huss, ' have pity on me ! ' He prayed and sung a
hymn in the midst of his torments; but soon after, the wind
having risen, his voice was drowned by the roaring of the
flames. He was perceived for some time longer moving
his head and lips, and as if still praying ; and then he
gave up the spirit. His habits were burned with him ; and
the executioners tore in pieces the remains of his body and
threw them back into the funeral pile until the fire had
absolutely consumed every thing. The ashes were then
collected together and thrown, into the Rhine."
Of these proceedings the council of Constance are the
real authors. So they regarded the case, and felt them-
selves called on to defend both themselves and Sigismund.
To effect this they passed two decrees one relating to
the impropriety of allowing a safe conduct to arrest trial
and punishment for heresy ; the other to defend Sigismund
for his treachery to John Huss, in authorizing his punish-
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 55
ment and giving him up to the magistrates of Constance
to be burned. In this second decree they not only state
the doctrine that no faith is to be kept with heretics, but
solemnly anathematize all who shall dare to call in ques-
tion the proceedings of the council or of Sigismund.
Concerning this Gieseler says, " To justify the emperor
for the infringement of his safe conduct, the council passed
the shameful decree, that no faith need be held with a
heretic." The following is a literal translation of these
decrees :
" This holy synod declares that no prejudice to the Cath-
olic faith can or ought to be produced, and no impediment
to ecclesiastical jurisdiction interposed, by any safe con-
duct given by the emperor, kings, and other secular pow-
ers to heretics or those charged with heresy, supposing
that they shall thus recall them from their errors, what-
ever be the obligation with which they have bound them-
selves. But, notwithstanding the said safe conduct, it shall
be lawful for a competent ecclesiastical judge to inquire
into the errors of such persons, and to proceed against
such errors in other ways, according to their deserts, and
to punish them as much as justice demands if they shall ob-
stinately refuse to recant their errors, although they came
to the place of trial relying on the safe conduct, and other-
wise would not have come."
The second decree is this :
"Whereas some ill-informed or ill-disposed persons,
or some accustomed, perhaps, to think themselves wiser
than they ought, not only assail his royal majesty with
slanderous tongues, but even, as it is said, this holy
council, saying or insinuating, publicly or privately, that
the safe conduct given by that most unconquerable prince
Lord Sigismund, King of the Romans and of Hungary,
to John Huss, that heresiarch of damnable memory, was
violated when it ought not to have been, contrary to
justice or honor ; when still the said John Huss, obsti-
56 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
nately assailing the orthodox faith, had rendered him-
self undeserving of any safe conduct and privilege ; nor
ought any faith or promise to be observed to him, to the injury
of the Catholic faith, by any law, natural, divine, or human.
Therefore the said holy synod, by the terms of this decree,
declares that the aforesaid most unconquerable prince did
what was suitable according to the claims of justice, and
what was becoming his royal majesty, concerning the afore-
said John Huss, notwithstanding the aforesaid safe con-
duct ordaining and enjoining on all faithful Christians,
in general and in particular, that no one hereafter shall
reproach this sacred council or his royal majesty with
their conduct towards the aforesaid John Huss, or in any
way speak to their discredit. But whoever shall do
otherwise, let him be punished without mercy, as a sup-
porter of heresy and guilty of treason."
Notwithstanding, therefore, the accumulated protesta-
tion of the foreign universities to Mr. Pitt and the in-
dignation of Mr. Brownson, this infallible council has
taught the doctrine, in theory and practice,, that no faith
is to be kept with heretics ; and not only so, but they have
taught it as an article of faith, and declared him worthy
of punishment without mercy, as a heretic, if he denies it.
And why should not the council take this ground ?
Had it not been the avowed principle of the most influ-
ential pontiffs during that "glorious period," the middle
ages ? Had not other councils, in effect, decreed the same
thing ? I shall soon show that they had. If, then, these
things are so, there is presented to Mr. B., and to all other
Romanists, this dilemma either to adopt the maxim, or
to reject the authority of that church which has thus, by
sanctioning perjury in its basest form, alike invaded the
most sacred rights and outraged the most holy moral
convictions of God and man.
Nothing can be more decisive than this testimony ; yet
I will, for the sake of rendering assurance doubly sure,
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 57
proceed to adduce more " facts, names, and dates " on the
points involved. My additional witnesses will be Urban
VI., Innocent VIII., Innocent III., and the fourth Lateran
council.
POPE URBAN VI. VERSUS 0. A. BROWNSOX.
It would almost seem to have been the object of Urban
VI. to contradict Mr. Brownson's assertion in the strongest
possible terms. He lays down explicitly, and in the most
general terms possible, that no promises, covenants, leagues,
or engagements of any kind with heretics are to be re-
garded as of any binding force.
But who was Urban VI. ? He sat in the pontifical
chair from the year 1378 to the year 1389. He was a
Neapolitan, known by the name of Bartholomew Pregnano
before he ascended the Papal throne. He is found in
the list of Bishop Kenrick as the one hundred and ninety-
eighth pope. In that of M. Daunou he is the two hundred
and fifth. Both coincide in regarding him as one of the
genuine successors of Peter, through whom all manner of
truth and grace has come down even to the present
generation.
On the fourth year of his pontificate, on the third day
of the calends of April, and from the palace of St. Peter
at Rome, he issued a decree of great moment. To this I
invite the special attention of Mr. Brownson, and of all
who desire to judge of Mr. Brownson's orthodoxy as a
genuine Romanist. It is a matter of no small moment for
Mr. Brownson to look to it ; for, unless Pope Urban is mis-
taken, Mr. Brownson is at this time lying beneath the
indignation of Almighty God, and of the blessed Paul
and Peter, his apostles, for having dared to infringe and
contravene the decree of his sovereign lord the pope.
58 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
As it is thus a matter intimately connected with the
salvation of his soul, that Mr. Brownson may have all the
means necessary for ascertaining his deplorable condition,
I would refer him to the decree in question, in order that
he may give it a careful examination. He will find it on
page 352 of the seventh volume of Rymer's Fcedera, begin-
ning thus : " Urbanus Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, ad
futuram rei memoriam ; " i. e., " Bishop Urban, the servant
of the servants of God, in order to keep the thing in
everlasting remembrance, issues this decree." Mr. Brown-
son can find a copy of this work in the law library of
Harvard College, and another in the college library of the
same institution. From the first I copy the substance of
the decree.
From the first and second sections of the decree it ap-
pears that, to nse the words of Urban, " Winceslaus, King
of the Romans and of Bohemia, and the most illustrious
Charles, Emperor of the Romans, had, either simultaneously
or in succession, entered into and made certain confedera-
tions, or contracts, or leagues, and agreements with divers
kings, princes, dukes, counts, chief men, nobles, and certain
others, and that some of these kings, princes, dukes, counts,
&c., either then were, or afterwards became, manifest schis-
matics, or heretics, and separated from the unity of the
holy Roman and universal church ; " therefore, in view of
these things, Bishop Urban was filled with deep anxiety
lest true Romanists should be shaken from the faith by in-
tercourse with such heretics, and felt himself called on to
issue this decree, " for the everlasting memory of the thing."
The great question to be settled, of course, was, in what
manner ought such confederations, or contracts, or leagues,
and agreements with heretics to be regarded and treated,
Are they binding, and to be observed in good faith ? or are
they null and void ?
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 59
In these circumstances, and with reference to this ques-
tion, Pope Urban issued his decree, and closed it with the
solemn assurance that the wrath of Almighty God, and of
the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, would rest on those
who with impious temerity should dare to resist or infringe
it. Now, that this is the very thing that Mr. Brownson
has done, I propose next to show. Let us, then, attend to
the solemn decision of the pope upon a point so grave.
He first proceeds in the most explicit and solemn manner
to state the general principles on which his decision was
to be based, and then to apply them to the case in question.
Notice his words :
" We therefore, in view of the fact that confederations, or
contracts, or- leagues, and agreements made with heretics of
this kind, or with schismatics, after they have become such,
are unreasonable, unlawful, and of right to be regarded as
not existing, (even although they may have been made be-
fore they fell into schism or heresy ;) and although they
may have been confirmed by an oath, or a solemn pledge
of fidelity, or by an apostolic confirmation, OB STRENGTH-
ENED BY ANY OTHER CONFIRMATION," &C. So much for
the statement of principles. And surely it is sufficiently
explicit to satisfy even the most confirmed sceptic.
Now for the practical application. On such grounds
the pontiff proceeds solemnly to declare, that " the king
and others who together with him may have entered into
or made such confederations, or contracts, or leagues, and
agreements, and to whom such confederations, or contracts,
or leagues, and agreements can be extended, or who have
or can have any interest in them, are absolved from them,
and OUGHT NOT TO OBSERVE THEM."
Nor is this all. In the third section the pontiff enjoini
60 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
it upon the king to assail such heretics with his whole
power, on the ground that all communion with them 13
dangerous to the soul.
In the fourth section he declares that he is animated by
a motive similar to that which Mr. Brownson avows as
the mainspring of his zeal i. e., an earnest desire of
saving the soul of the king and of others from ruin by-
heresy.
In order, therefore, to effect so laudable a purpose, he
proceeds in the fifth section, in due form, to absolve the
king and all others from all obligation of any sort to keep
foith with heretics. Listen to his words : " We therefore,
by the tenor of these letters and by apostolic authority,
declare that the aforesaid king, and all others who are- or
can be concerned, have been and are wholly absolved from
the observance of such confederations, or contracts, or
leagues, and agreements, and are not bound to observe
them in the least degree. Moreover, so far as, de facto,
they have proceeded in them, we invalidate them, render
them void, and declare them to be destitute of all binding
power."
/
Nor is this enough. As if to make assurance doubly
sure, in the great work of saving souls, he proceeds in the
sixth section absolutely to forbid the observance of such
leagues and agreements. " Moreover, to avert dangers from
the soul of the Icing and all others concerned, we utterly forbid
them at all to regard such confederations, contracts, leagues,
and agreements, or to suffer them to be regarded by ot/iers."
He then elevates his mind to the contemplation of future
ages,.and considers the probability that ignorant or wicked
men, like Mr. Brownson, will assail the sublime principles
thus promulgated, and binds them to desist by a solemn
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 61
decree. Thus in the seventh section he proceeds : " We
decree that from this time, whatever shall be attempted in
opposition to us, by whomsoever undertaken, or by what-
ever authority, and whether ignorantly or intelligently,
shall be utterly devoid of authority and force."
Then in the eighth section follows his final warning to
all ages against so great a crime, and a denunciation of
his highest anathemas against its authors. " Let no man
dare to infringe this declaration or with foolhardy au-
dacity rush against it. But if any one shall presume to
attempt this deed, let him know that he will surely incur
the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed
apostles Peter and Paul."
" Sub filis sericis Flavi, Rubique coloris, De Curia T.
Frabi."
The margin of Rymer informs us that the document in
question was copied from the original autographs. Who,
now, can read this decree and not be struck with the im-
minent peril in which the soul of Mr. Brownson is placed ?
For he has not only, dared in general to oppose the prin-
ciples of this decree, but utterly to denounce them as im-
pious and profane. Professor Park had ascribed to the
Roman Catholic church the advocacy of the very princi-
ples so clearly set forth by Pope Urban ; and Mr. Brown-
son, instead of recognizing them and standing up like a
man in defence of his sovereign lord the pope, Peter-like
denies him and Judas-like betrays him. Listen to his
daring words :
" ' No faith to be kept with heretics.' Where did the
professor learn that this is a maxim of Catholicity? It
is false. Catholicity knows no such maxim, and Catho-
lic history authorizes no inference that she practically
adopts or in the least conceivable manner countenances'
it. Individuals of bad faith may be found, no doubt, even
among Catholics ; but that Catholicity or Catholic doc-
G2 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
tors any where countenance any thing of the sort is a
malignant falsehood. We are taught and required to
keep our faith with all men ; and faith plighted to a here-
tic can no more be broken without sin than faith plighted
to a true believer. We would that Protestants would
observe a tithe of the good faith towards Catholics that
Catholics do towards Protestants ; and, when they shall
do so, we give them free leave to abuse our morals to
their full satisfaction."
Here Mr. Brownson boldly declares that the maxim,
" that no faith is to be kept with heretics," is not a maxim
of Catholicity, and manifests an utter detestation of it.
Pope Urban declares that it is. Mr. Brownson declares
that " Catholic history authorizes no inference that she
practically adopts or in the least conceivable manner coun-
tenances it." Pope Urban declares that the wrath of
Almighty God and the blessed apostles Peter and Paul
shall rest upon all who dare to assail so fundamental a
doctrine. Mr. Brownson plainly declares that keeping
faith with heretics is a duty, and intimates that it is essen-
tial to the salvation of the soul. Pope Urban declares
that it is a crime, and enjoins the duty of violating faith
with heretics as essential to save the soul. Thus we see
that there is a direct and fatal collision between Pope
Urban VI. and Orestes A. Brownson, and that, if Pope Ur-
ban is right, the wrath of God is resting on Mr. Brownson.
Let no one say that there was no general council assem-
bled to confirm this decision of Pope Urban. It was given
ex cathedra, and was acquiesced in by all the bishops with-
out any known dissent. It is, therefore, a solemn decision
of the church ; and it is sustained by councils in abun-
dance.
And now let Mr. Brownson recall his public declara-
tions of his entire submission to the authority of the pope.
He has openly declared that for him it is liberty enough
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 63
to think as the pope thinks. And, in view of all the facts
in the premises, let him, if he dares, candidly answer the
following questions :
1. Does he believe that Pope Urban spoke the truth of
God, or that he promulgated the doctrines of devils ?
2. If he spoke the truth of God, then is not Mr. Brown-
sou under the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed
apostles Peter and Paul for his impious statements above
quoted ? And, as he is very anxious to save his soul,
ought he not at once and publicly to recant them ?
3. If Pope Urban spoke the doctrines of devils, then is
not his whole decree a specimen of the highest impiety
and blasphemy ever uttered in the name of God ?
4. Of what use is a head of the church when it is
necessary to reject his blasphemies to save the soul ?
5. By what rule can it be decided whether a pope
speaks the truth of God or utters the blasphemies of the
devil ?
If Mr. Brownson "will devote his energies to a careful
investigation of these questions, and will give them an
honest answer, then for his reward I will continue to pro-
pose similar questions till he shall have had a full oppor-
tunity to illustrate to the whole American people one of
the most important and practical questions of the age.
POPE INXOCEXT VIII. AXD THE WALDENSES.
We have seen, in the case of John Huss, and of Winces-
laus, and Charles, that the principle, "no faith is to be
kept with heretics," was not a mere theoretical principle.
It had a dread practical power. Nor are these solitary
instances of its terrific operation.
The fate of the Waldenses is too familiar to need an
64 TIIE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
elaborate historical narration. I will simply present the
principles on which the head of the church dealt with
that people, whose only crime was disobedience to the
see of Rome.
Pope Innocent VIII., in preparing to consign to death,
not one martyr, but a whole body of Christians, thus com-
missions Albert de Capitaneis, Archdeacon of the church
of Cremona, as nuncio and commissioner of the apostolic
see, to labor, in concert with the inquisitor general, in the
extermination of the Waldenses. The pope subjects' to
his authority for this end all archbishops, bishops, their
vicars and chief officers. If ever a pope was called on to
act on the real principles of the church, it was in such a
case. For what end, then, are all these church powers
subjected to the legate of the pope ? Hear him :
" In order that they may be obliged with you and the
said inquisitor to take up arms against the said Walden-
ses and other heretics, and to come to an understanding
to crush them like venomous asps, and to contribute all
in their care to so HOLY and so necessary an extermi-
nation."
After this, can any one expect that any faith will be
kept with men all of whose rights are thus exterminated
at one blow ? The head of the Romish corporation then
proceeds to overturn all foundations of morality by ex-
cusing and sanctioning the sins of those who will labor
to exterminate the Waldenses, and declaring in express
terms that none are under any obligation to keep faith
with heretics.
" We give you power to have the crusade preached up
by fit men ; to grant that such persons as shall enter on
the crusade and fight against these same heretics, and
shall contribute to it, may gain plenary indulgence and
remission of all their sins once in their life, and also at
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 65
their death ; to command, in virtue of their holy obe-
dience, and under penalty of excommunication, all preach-
ers of God's word to animate and incite the same believers
to exterminate the pestilence, without sparing, by force
and by arms. "We further give you power to absolve
those who enter on the crusade, fight, or contribute to it,
from all sentences, censures, and ecclesiastical penalties,
general or particular, by which they may be bound, as
also to give them dispensation for any irregularity con-
tracted in divine matters, or for any apostasy, and to
enter into some terms of composition with them for the
goods which they may have secretly amassed, badly acquired,
or held doubtfully, applying them to the expenses attend-
ant on this extirpation of heretics ; * * * to concede
to each permission to lawfully seize on the property, real or
personal, of heretics ; also to command all being in the
service of these same heretics, in whatsoever place they
may be, to withdraw from it under whatever penalty you
may deem fit ; and by the same authority to declare that
they and all others who may be held and obliged by contract
or other manner to pay them any thing are not for the
future in any way obliged to do so ; and to deprive all
those refusing to obey your admonitions and commands, of
whatever dignity, state, order, and preeminence they may
possess, to wit, the ecclesiastics of their dignities, offices,
and benefices, and the laity of their hon-ors, titles, fefs, and
privileges, if they persist in their rebellion ; * * *
and to fulminate all kinds of censures, according as the
casein your judgment may demand ; * * * to absolve
and reestablish such as may wish to return to the lap of
the church, although they may have sworn to favor the
heretics, provided, taking the contrary oath, they promise
to abstain most carefully from doing so. * * * You,
therefore, beloved son, receiving with a devout spirit the
charge of so praiseworthy an affair, must show yourself
diligent and careful of word and deed in its execution.
Act so that by your acts, accompanied by the divine grace,
all may succeed in conformity with our expectation, and
that by your solicitude you may merit, not only the glory
which falls to the lot of those engaged in works of piety,
but that you also may be in far greater favor with us and
(5*
66 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
the apostolic see on account of your very exact diligence
and "faithful integrity.
" Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the year of the in-
carnation of our Lord 1487, fifth of the calends of May,
and the thirteenth year of our pontificate."
Let it be noticed here that we are not now considering
an individual of bad faith here and there among the
Catholics, such as Mr. Brownson admits may be found,
but the head of the church, laying down principles on
which all Romanists were to act. He authorizes his
legate to declare that it is lawful to seize on t/ie property,
reed or personal, of the heretics, and to declare that all
who may be held and obliged by contract or other manner
to pay them any thing are not for the future in any way
obliged to do so ; to absolve those who have sworn to favor
the heretics, provided, talcing t/ie contrary oath, they pr,om-
ise to abstain most carefully from doing so. Here robbery,
cheating, and perjury towards heretics in their grossest
forms are authorized by the head of the Romish corpora-
tion ; and in his bull the whole corporation and church
acquiesced : no dissent, no protest, was heard. Nay, more :
they carried out these principles, to their utmost extent,
without mitigation and without mercy. It is, therefore,
the voice of the Romish church and her act. And yet, in
view of such facts, Mr. Brownson has the audacity to say,
"'No faith to be kept with heretics.' Where did the
professor learn that this is a maxim of Catholicity? It
is false. Catholicity knows no such maxim, and Catholic
history authorizes no inference that she practically adopts
or in the least conceivable manner countenances it."
Is it to be supposed that Mr. Brownsou was ignorant of
these facts? Or was he acting on the principle, that a lie
for ecclesiastical utility is both defensible and meritorious?
If the latter, he is a proficient in this kind of morality.
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 67
POPE INNOCENT III. AND A GENERAL COUNCIL.
But let us go back a little farther, and we come to
another of the Innocents, who seem to have delighted to
exhibit the highest possible contrast between their name
and their deeds. We come to Innocent III. Let us listen
to him, for in his days the Papal corporation was at the
summit of its power ; and if it had any ideas of fidelity or
mercy towards those weak and defenceless Christians
whom they stigmatized as heretics, then it ought to have
developed itself. Hear him, then : " Whoever are bound
to those who have manifestly fallen into heresy by any
compact, confirmed by any degree of strength whatever,
let them know that they are absolved from all duty of
fidelity, homage, and all kinds of obedience to them."
These are the words of Innocent ; and from his decree
the principle passed into the canon law, from which I have
already quoted it, and where it still stands ; so that it
has not only the authority of Innocent, but of all the
popes who have sanctioned the canon law.
Nor is this all : the fourth council of the Lateran, 1215,
representing the whole of Christendom, has sanctioned
the same principle. Of this council Innocent III. was the
lord and life ; they did but register his decisions. Yet
the decisions of a pope, acquiesced in by a general coun-
cil, are those of the church ; and the decisions of this coun-
cil as to heretics have also been transferred to the canon
law, as any one may see who will compare cap. iii. De
Hereticis of the council with Decret. Greg., lib. v. tit. vii.
capit. xiii.-xv.
They in the first place anathematize all heretics simply
on the ground of heresy ; and in the whole chapter they
say nothing of any other offence. No sin against morals
68 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
or good order is referred to ; the only sin is heresy.
Hear them : " We excommunicate and anathematize all
heresy that shall lift itself up against this sacred ortho-
dox Catholic faith which we have already set forth. We
condemn all heresies by whatever names they may be
called, fades quidem habentes diversas, sed caudas ad in-
vicem colligatas, quia de vanitate communicant in idipsum."
I give the elegant Latin of Innocent and the council in
part, that all may judge of the translation. It means,
" Having faces diverse, but tails tied together, because in
their vain conceptions they hold to the same thing in
essence i. e., the condemned heretics in aspect are vari-
ous, but agree in the belief of radical error." The coun-
cil then proceeds to the annihilation of all their rights
by consigning them to death, and then also to annihilate
the rights of their defenders, or friends, by cutting every
tie by which they are bound to human society unless they
assail the heretics, and by laying them open to every
possible aggression and insult, even if they are not cut off
by a cruel and violent death.
" Let all the secular powers be led, and if necessary
forced by ecclesiastical censure, to take an oath in public
for the defence of the faith, swearing to exert themselves
to exterminate from the countries subject to their jurisdic-
tion all the heretics designated by the church. Eah
person, when he has received any authority, whether spir-
itual or temporal, shall be bound to take this oath.
Should any temporal lord, when warned by the church,
neglect to purge his country of the stain of heresy, let
him be excommunicated by the archbishop and the pro-
vincial bishops ; and, should he refuse to give satisfaction
within the year, let advice be given of it to the sovereign
pontiff, in order that he may free the said lord's vassals
from their oath of fidelity and give his lands to Catholics,
in order that they may possess them without any contra-
diction and maintain them in the purity of the faith, after
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 69
having exterminated the heretics. Catholics who shall
take the cross to exterminate heretics shall enjoy the same
indulgences and the same holy privilege as they who
fight the infidels. He who listens to unbelievers, receives,
defends, and aids them, is excommunicated like them, and,
after a year has revolved, becomes infamous ipso jure. He
cannot from that moment be called to public employments
or councils ; he cannot rote for the election of inquisitors
or councillors ; he cannot even be admitted as a witness ;
he loses all faculty of acting as witness to a will, or of
accepting an inheritance or legacy. No person shall be
bound to appear before a court of law at his suit for any
affair whatever ; but he shall be forced to appear at the
demand of every one. Should he -be a judge, his sen-
tences shall not have any force, and no suit can legally be
brought before his tribunal ; if an advocate, he shall not
be permitted to defend : if a notary, the acts which he
passes shall be of no value, and they shall be condemned
with him who drew them. * * * All that shall not fly
those whom the church shall have thus noted shall also be
excommunicated : priests are not to administer to them
the holy sacraments, or give them ecclesiastical burial, or
receive their gifts and offerings, under pain of depo-
sition."
All this and more still stands in full force in the records
of the fourth Lateran council and in the canon law of
Home. And yet Mr. Brownson has the assurance to tell
us that it is no part of Romanism.
Her more general maxim, that no oath contrary to ec-
clesiastical utility is binding, I shall now proceed to con-
sider.
THE LAW OF ECCLESIASTICAL UTILITY. INNOCENT III.
ALEXANDER III. THIRD LATERAN COUNCIL.-
We have considered some of the evidence furnished by
popes, general councils, and the canon law, that Romanism
did adopt and sanction, both in theory and practice, that
70 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
no faith is to be kept with heretics. "We have seen, too,
in the case of John Huss and the Waldenses, that mere
doctrinal correctness and exemplary piety were no defence
against the charge of heresy, if the authority of the pope
and the Roman corporation were denied. This arrogant
and usurping corporation has, in all ages, made obedience
to themselves the chief test of orthodoxy. Give them
supreme power to rule and tax the Christian world, and
all is well, even though the clergy shall be a disgrace to
the name of God and a scandal to the civilized world.
This is the key to the unspeakable bitterness and cruelty
with which that corporation has hunted down heretics
from age to age. They have arrogated to themselves the
place of God upon earth, and made disobedience to their
authority equivalent to high treason against God, and
have treated it as a crime so enormous as to forfeit every
right, and justify every kind of violence and cruelty in
its extermination. The fundamental element, therefore,
in this system, is an exaggeration of the importance of the
Romish corporation above all other interests in the uni-
verse, be they those of God or man. God has never, even
for the highest sins against himself, authorized a violation
of faith ; no, not even to his bitterest enemies. But a re-
bellion against the Pope and Bishops of Rome is a sin that
cannot be forgiven ; and to him who is guilty of it, the
most solemn oaths, vows, and covenants are no defence.
Pope Urban tells us they must be regarded as not in ex-
istence. Nothing must be allowed to shield the guilty
rebel from the bloody vengeance of Rome. Such is the
real philosophy of this maxim of that abandoned and
profligate corporation.
But the same cause that led to this specific principle
would lead, of necessity, to a principle still more general ;
i. e., that no oath contrary to ecclesiastical utility is of
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 71
any force ; that is, all principles of truth and integrity in
the universe are of less importance than the interests of
the Romish corporation. Moreover, of what these inter-
ests demand, that corporation is the only judge. That
this maxim, also, has been adopted and practised on by
that corporation, there is evidence ample and explicit.
The principle is laid down in express terms in the canon
law, Decret. Greg., lib. ii. tit. xxiv. cap. xxvii. : " Juramen-
tum contra utUitatem ecclesiasticam prcestitum non tenet."
" An oath taken contrary to ECCLESIASTICAL UTILITY is not
binding." This is the general principle, as stated in the
caption of the canon. In the body the principle is thus
expressed : " Non j uramenta sed perjuria potius sunt dicenda,
qiiae, contra utUitatem ecclesiasticam adtentantur." " Oaths
taken contrary to ecclesiastical utility are not to be re-
garded as oaths, but perjuries." This part of the canon
law is taken from the decisions of the notorious Innocent
III., the same who first laid down in scientific form the
detestable maxim, that no faith is to be kept with heretics.
Still, however, he is not entitled to the infamy of origi-
nating the maxim in its present form. This infamy prop-
erly belongs to the third Lateran council, under Alexander
III. - It there occurs in this form : "Non enim dicenda sunt
juramenta sed potius perjuria, qua contra utUitatem ecclesias-
ticam, et sanctorum patrum veniunt institua." " Those oaths
which operate against ecclesiastical utility and the insti-
tutions of the holy fathers are not to be called oaths, but
rather perjuries." Here, then, there is a concurrence of a
general council, the decrees of Innocent III., and the au-
thority of all the popes who have sanctioned the canon
law, in establishing this as a maxim of the Romish corpo-
ration. And, inasmuch as they are the only judges of
what ecclesiastical utility is, this principle gives them full
72 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
power to dissolve all oaths of every kind which they
deem inconsistent with their own interests.
A principle more thoroughly immoral and profligate
than this cannot be conceived. But it was not one whit
more immoral and profligate than the practice to which
it gave rise. Hallam remarks, with no less truth than
severity, that " this maxim gave the most unlimited priv-
ilege to the popes of breaking all faith of treaties which
thwarted their interest or passion a privilege which
they continually exercised."
HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. THOMAS A BECKET.
Let us, then, for a commentary on this principle, turn to
the page of history. During the pontificate of this same
Alexander III., Henry II., of England, established, at the
council of Clarendon, certain ordinances designed to de-
fend the rights of the king and civil powers of England
over the clergy, against the arrogant invasions of the Pa-
pacy. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, sol-
emnly accepted and signed these ; but the pope decided
that they were against "ecclesiastical utility." Becket
forthwith professed sorrow for his oath to the pope, and
the pope absolved him from it. What the meaning of ec-
clesiastical utility is in this case, in the opinion of Alex-
ander III., the lord of the third Lateran council, is per-
fectly plain. It is the right to exempt his bishops and
clergy from the control of the civil government under
which they live, in a manner which not an existing gov-
ernment on earth will now allow. The ordinances of
Henry II. were right. The oath of Thomas a Becket was
not in opposition to the law of God, but in strict accord-
% TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 73
ance with it ; for God commands ecclesiastics, as well as
others, to be subject to the laws of their legitimate civil
rulers. The pope, therefore, authorized and required of
Becket perjury ; and the Archbishop of Canterbury did
perjure himself out of a regard to ecclesiastical utility ;
that is, the ambitious plans of the pope.
POPE PASCAL II.
But in doing this he followed illustrious precedents.
Pope Pascal II. carried on a long conflict with Henry V.
on the subject of investitures. At last Henry took him
captive, and would not release him till he and sixteen car-
dinals signed a treaty, by which he guarantied to the em-
peror the right of investiture, provided he mingled no
simony with it. He also crowned the emperor, and sol-
emnly bound himself never to excommunicate him. The
oath was taken in the most solemn form conceivable. The
communion was celebrated at the time of the coronation.
When the host was broken, the pope, taking a part, and
giving a part to the emperor, said, " As this part of the
living body is divided, so let him be divided from the
kingdom of Christ and of God who shall attempt to vio-
late this covenant." Nor was this all : the pope, after he
had regained his liberty, renewed the same oath. (See Dau-
nou, Court of Rome, p. 98.) Here, then, we have the head
of the church bound by the most solemn oath that the
mind of man can conceive. Moreover, all that the pope
had promised was to give up usurped powers, to which he
never had the slightest legal claim, and which had been
secured only by falsehood and forgery. Without an oath
it was his duty to renounce these usurped powers, much
7
74 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
more with one so solemnly sanctioned over the body ol
Christ.
But before "ecclesiastical utility" what can stand?
The most solemn oaths, touched by this magic wand, be-
eome a rope of sand. The oath of Pascal brought upon
aim the bitter censures of the Roman clergy. Hear, now,
the narrative of the sequel, from the powerful and justly
earcastic pen of a Roman Catholic : "Now, the head of
the church suffers himself to be accused of double dealing.
He retires to Terracina to weep over his sin. He suffers
the cardinals to annul his decrees and promises. He is
going (so he says) to abdicate the tiara. Happily this
purpose is opposed ; and such is the docility of the pon-
tiff, that he consents with resignation to retain the power,
so that he may have the opportunity to make a better use
of it. Finally, in a council, he revoked the treaty which
he had the misfortune to subscribe. Nevertheless he re-
fuses personally to excommunicate Henry V., so great, even
yet, were his scruples to violate an engagement. The
cardinals, they pronounced this anathema in the presence
of Pascal." Daunou, p. 99.
The records of the council in Binius show that Pascal
submitted all his proceedings to the council and that they
absolved him from his oath. "We all," say they, "in
this sacred council, assembled with our lord the pope, in
accordance with the decision of the Holy Spirit, condemn
it (i. e., the covenant) with canonical censure and by ec-
clesiastical authority. We decide that it is null and void.
We annihilate its binding force ; and, that it may be utter-
ly destitute of authority and power, we utterly excommu-
nicate (!) it."
" When this result was read, the whole council cried
out, Amen ! Amen ! So be it ! so be it ! " Binius, vol. iii.
part ii. p. 445.
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 75
What oath now can stand before such principles of per-
jury ? If the highest ecclesiastic swears a solemn oath to
his king, the pope can absolve him from it. If the pope
swears a solemn oath to an emperor, he has only to call a
council, and they absolve him from it. In blasphemous
mockery of the Holy Ghost, they dissolve and excommu-
nicate the oath by his divine authority.
THE PROCESS SIMPLIFIED. PAUL IV. AND OTHERS.
But at last it was discovered that this formality of a
council was needless. The pope found out that he not
only had the authority to absolve others from their oaths,
but that he had also full authority to absolve himself from
any oath whatever. This greatly simplified the whole
business. Take an example from Edgar, Variations, p.
249 : "Paul IV., in 1555. absolved himself from an oath
which he had taken in the conclave. His holiness had
sworn to make only four cardinals, but violated his obli-
gation. His supremacy declared that the pontiff could
not be bound, or his authority limited, even by an oath. The
contrary he characterizes ' as a manifest heresy.' " (Paolo,
ii. xxvii.) Indeed, so common was it to violate solemn oaths
taken in conclave among the cardinals before election,
binding whoever was elected pope to comply with certain
conditions, that it became the regular course of events.
Indeed, I am not aware that any pope was ever guilty, in
such circumstances, of the heresy of feeling himself bound
by the most solemn oath that it is possible to take.
Of course the principle of ecclesiastical utility was ex-
tended to all other oaths that were deemed injurious to
the interests of the Romish corporation. Edgar, p. 251,
illustrates this use of the principle : " Clement, in 1526,
76 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
absolved Francis II., the French king, from a treaty which
he had formed in Spain. The Emperor of Germany had
taken his Christian majesty a prisoner in the battle of
Pavia and carried him to Madrid. The conditions of his
engagement, which were disadvantageous, Francis con-
firmed by an oath. This engagement, however, the pon-
tiff, by his apostolic power, soon dissolved, for the purpose
of gaining the French king as an ally in a holy confed-
eracy which his infallibility had organized against the
German emperor." Before " ecclesiastical utility " the
power of a solemn oath, not to a heretic, but to a Cath-
olic king, melted away.
Of course a Mahometan sultan could expect no better
treatment. Ladislaus, King of Hungary, formed a treaty
with the Sultan Amurath, and the king and sultan con-
firmed it by mutual oaths on the Gospels and the Koran.
Eugenius IV., by his legate Julian, declared it in the high-
est degree criminal to observe an oath so much opposed to
" ecclesiastical utility." " I absolve you," said the legate,
" from perjury, and sanctify your arms." " The sultan, it
is said, displayed a copy of the violated treaty in the front
of battle, implored the protection of the God of truth, and
called aloud on the prophet Jesus to avenge the mockery
of his religion and authority." (Edgar, p. 251.) The re-
sult was the defeat and death of Ladislaus. When all liars
are cast into the lake of fire, where will Eugenius, the
teacher of perjury, be found ?
Take another instance from Hallam, Middle Ages, p. 293,
note. Piccininio, the famous condottiere of the fifteenth
century, had promised not to attack Francis Sforza, at
that time at war with the pope. Eugenius IV. (the same
excellent person who had annulled the compactata with the
Hussites, releasing those who had sworn to them, and who
afterwards made the King of Hungary break his treaty
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 77
with Amurath II.) absolves him from his promise, on the
express ground that a treaty disadvantageous to the
church ought not to be kept.
Of course, if " ecclesiastical utility " can dissolve oaths
of popes, archbishops, and kings, it can dissolve all oaths
of allegiance, not merely to heretical rulers, but to all
who act against the ambition, pride, or passions of the
pope.
On this ground, Gregory VII., in the third Roman coun-
cil, excommunicated Henry IV., and dissolved all oaths
of allegiance between him and his subjects. His words
are : " I absolve all Christians from the obligations of the
oath which they have taken or shall take to him, and I
forbid any one to obey him as king." The same thing was
repeated in the seventh Roman council. Nor has the
church of Rome ever condemned these proceedings. Nay,
Paul V. canonized Gregory VII., and inserted an office in
the Roman breviary praising his holiness " for freeing the
Emperor Henry's subjects from the oath of fidelity." Thus
the praise of the doctrine of perjury was solemnly intro-
duced into the worship of the Romish church. Alexander,
Clement, and Benedict sanctioned the transactions of
Paul.
The same doctrine was sanctioned by the coincident ac-
tion of the first general council of Lyons, and the pope,
the highest authority in the Romish church. Innocent
IV., in the presence of the sacred council, pronounced
sentence of deposition on Frederic II., and declared all
his subjects absolved from their oaths of allegiance ; for-
bade any to obey or aid him as emperor or king ; and de-
clared that all who should be guilty of obeying or aiding
him should, ipso facto, be excommunicated, and directed
the electors to choose a successor. But there is not room
to give in detail the particulars and the results of this
78 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
abominable transaction. Nor have I designed to detail
all the cases in which the same principles were reduced to
practice by the popes and councils from the time of Greg-
ory VII. to Pius VII.' Time would fail me to complete
such an enumeration. It would present at least twenty
cases of teaching perjury on the great scale, by professing
to dissolve national oaths. But the facts are too noto-
rious to need more than a general reference.
THE FINAL ISSUE.
What, then, will Mr. Brownson say ? Will he admit
that the popes and general councils of the Romish church
did, in the name of God, mislead the whole world for
centuries on the most fundamental point of morals and
religion ? or will he defend their doctrine ? One or the
other he must do ; for the facts admit of no denial.
Is the pope indeed the vicar of God ? Does he, accord-
ing to the canon law, " fill the place, not of a mere man,
but of the true God on earth " ? (" Non puri hominis sed
veri Dei vicem gerit in terris ; " Decret. Greg., lib. i. tit. vii.
cap. iii.) Then let Mr. Brownson listen to the voice of
Gregory as he inveighs "against the insanity of those who
with impious mouth prate that the authority of the sacred
and apostolic see cannot absolve any one from his oath of
fidelity." (" Contra illorum insaniam, qui, nefando ore,
garriunt auctoritatem sanctae et apostolicas sedis non po-
tuisse quemquam a sacramento fidelitatis ejus absolvere.")
Let him listen to the voice of Innocent X. as he declares
that " the Roman pontiff can invalidate civil contracts,
promises,' or oaths made by Catholics to heretics, and that
simply because they are heretics ; " and " that to deny the
proposition is heresy and an attack upon the pontifical
TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 79
authority in questions relating to the faith, deserving of
the severest punishment." Let him listen to the voice of
Gregory IX., the father of the five books of decretals, as
he declares that " none should keep faith with the person
who opposes God and the saints." Let him, in addition to
this, faithfully study the canon law of his own church and
the decrees of her general councils, and then reconcile
his own statements with a due regard to historical truth
if he can. If he was so utterly ignorant of the history
and principles of his own church as to write what he did
in sincerity, then an intelligent public can judge how much
confidence ought to be reposed in his other historical
statements. If he did understand the history and princi-
ples of his own church, then either he adopts the maxim,
that no faith is to be kept with heretics, as an excuse for
his assertions, or else he has dared to make them without
even the shadow of an excuse.
MORAL EFFECTS OF SUCH PRINCIPLES.
The effects on the morals of the community of such
principles and such examples as I have described were
such as might have been expected. When seventeen of
the heads of the church were perjurers, and popes and
councils taught perjury on principle, the hope of producing
in the common mind a sacred regard for truth would be
just about as reasonable as to suppose that the example
of the orgies of Venus would produce chastity, or the
worship of Bacchus temperance.
Of the eleventh century Guilelmus says, "Faith was not
found on earth. All flesh had corrupted their way. Jus-
tice, equity, virtue, sobriety, and the fear of God perished,
and were succeeded by violence, fraud, circumveTition,
80 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
stratagem." In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, ac-
cording to Morlaix, "Piety and religion seemed to bid
adieu to man ; and for these were substituted treachery,
fraud, impurity, rapine, schism, quarrels, war, and assas-
sination." St. Bernard speaks of "perjury" as one of the
leading characteristics of the degenerate ecclesiastics of
his day. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the
same state of things is found. Petrarch laments the
" general destruction in his day of all integrity, justice, hon-
esty, and fear of God." Mariana says, " The most dreadful
outrages, perfidy and treason, were better recompensed
than the brightest virtue. THE WICKEDNESS OF THE PON-
TIFF DESCENDED TO THE PEOPLE." And what else could
we expect ? Fordun says, " Inferiors devoted themselves
to malediction and perjury. Superiors studied to oppress
their underlings in every possible manner." Antonius, in
his oration before the council of Trent, says, speaking of
the state of the community in the sixteenth century,
" Usury, fraud, &c., enjoyed distinction : worldly and per-
verse men, encouraged in their wickedness, boasted of
their villany." Let it be well noted that none of this is
Protestant testimony. Nothing can be more full and ex-
plicit than the testimony of Romanist writers on this
point. I have given but a small specimen from abundant
stores.
CHAPTER VII.
APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT TO ALL TRUE AMERICANS.
A PART of the evidence which it was ray purpose to
adduce has been presented. Before I proceed to make
additional statements, I ask leave to say a few words to
my Protestant fellow-countrymen throughout this nation.
In the providence of God, you are placed in circum-
stances of great interest and responsibility. You are
called on to judge of the character of the Papal corpora-
tion, not as a theme of abstract speculation, not as a mere
historical question, but as a matter of individual and per-
sonal as well as of general interest. You have sought
no war with the Papacy ; but the Papacy has declared war
on you and on your children. This nation, as a Protes-
tant nation, has commenced an attack upon no religious
system, but has proclaimed equal rights to all ; but upon
us, as a Protestant nation, the Papal corporation and their
agents have commenced an attack.
They declare that the territory which we occupy be-
longs to them and to their lord the pope. They declare
that we Protestants have invaded their territory, but that
they have never relinquished their claims to it, but intend
yet to make them good.
How great their power may be to execute these
schemes this is not the place to consider. If we may
(81)
82 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
trust their own statements, they regard it as adequate and
their success as sure.
One thing, at least, is certain the system still wields
immense power throughout the world ; and as it is or-
ganized by a permanent central power, sustained by the
society of the Jesuits and other extensive combinations, it
has greatly the advantage over unorganized resistance, or
resistance of men not aware of the depth of its principles
of perfidy and treachery.
There is, therefore, no more important point in this
whole controversy than that which meets you here.
Charges have been laid before you and evidence adduced ;
and now you are called on to give judgment. Linked in
with this evidence is proof of the use made of such prin-
ciples of treachery in the work of persecution and blood-
shed.
From a regard to our national welfare, you are called
on, then, to judge fairly, but fearlessly and thoroughly, of
the true character and the fundamental principles of this
corporation. Nor is this all. The interests of humanity,
and the dishonor and wrongs of the martyrs of past ages,
equally demand such a judgment from you ; and to this
work you are summoned by the providence of God.
You occupy, therefore, a station of peculiar dignity
and of immense responsibility. A judgment is demanded
of you, based upon the highest principles of historical
truth and justice, and invested with the highest power of
moral emotion.
And now I ask, in view of the evidence adduced, Is it
not manifest that the Romish corporation do avowedly
place their own interests, as a corporation, above all other
interests whatever? Do they not declare that all who
dissent from their views and renounce their authority are
APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT TO ALL TRUE AMERICANS. 83
by that act at once disfranchised ot all their rights ? All
obligations of veracity and fidelity towards them cease.
Their rights of protection and defence are vacated. They
are at once outlawed and intestate. Nay, more : to massacre
and exterminate them is a duty.
Are not these things so, according to the constitutional
law of this corporation ? And is it not a dictate of justice,
as well as of common sense, to judge of such a corporation
by its constitutional law, and not by the irresponsible state-
ments of interested apologists ?
Moreover, have not these principles been imbodied in
facts on a most stupendous scale for at least seven cen-
turies ? and have not leagues, and bonds, and covenants
been broken ? Have not fraud and delusion been employed,
and has not the blood of millions been shed, under the in-
fluence of these principles ?
Is not this corporation, therefore, responsible this day
before God and before man for these principles and for
their results ? Do you not judge of any national admin-
istration, whether whig or democratic, by their avowed
principles and measures as carried out in fact, and not by
the plausible statements of interested partisans here and
there ? Ought you not to judge of this corporation on
the same principle ? And if you thus judge it, can you
come to any other conclusion than that it is a conspiracy
against the interests, and rights, and even the lives of all
who disown their sway, which no principles of veracity or
integrity can bind ?
If the voice of blood could cry from the ground, if the
slaughtered millions who have been disfranchised by them,
and who have fallen on the plains of France, Spain, Holland,
and northern Italy, or have closed their lives in dungeons
or in the autos dafe of the Inquisition, could call aloud to
you, they would say, " Be not deceived : we know by sad and
84 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
"bloody experience the reality and the relentless power of
those principles in the hands of that despotism on which,
in the providence of God, you are now called to sit in
iudgment. Awake, then, from all delusions, and, at the call
of divine Providence, exercise righteous judgment for God
and for humanity. Be not outwitted. Let no plausible
pretences or smooth evasions turn you aside from a deep
and thorough scrutiny of the facts of the case."
Consider, then, in the first place, that there have been
laid before you, not the mere assertions of single in-
dividuals like Mr. Brownson and Charles Butler, nor of
scholastic bodies devoid of authority like the foreign
universities, nor of individual bishops. There have been
laid before you solemn and authentic decisions of the
highest and most authoritative bodies known in the Roman
world. The constitution of the United States is not more
a standard of judgment as to the principles of this nation
than are these decisions as to the principles of the RomisL
system. Nor can any pope or council hereafter condemn
and rescind them as false. Such an act would be suicidal.
It would be a public confession that the pope and a coun-
cil are fallible. Nay, more : that they have taught the
doctrines of devils on points of the highest moment. It
is, therefore, death to the system to condemn and renounce
tfiese decisions as false.
2. Consider, also, that these are only a specimen from a
great storehouse of similar facts. It would be tedious
to adduce all the evidence that -exists, especially in the
form of Papal acts, assuming and based on these principles.
For long centuries they were the established principles and
practice of the Papal world, in connection with thek indred
doctrine of the persecution and slaughter of heretics.
They were announced by the greatest of the popes, acqui-
esced in by bishops, confirmed by general and provincial
APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT TO ALL TEUE AMERICANS. 85
councils, and introduced into the canon law, and carried
into effect, without remorse and without ecclesiastical
protest, for long ages.
3. Consider once more, and this is a point of the deep-
est and most thrilling interest, that nothing but want of
power prevented their thorough application to all Euro-
pean Protestants as they were applied to the Albigenses
and the Waldenses. Repeated leagues and conspiracies
of the Romish powers of Europe were formed, and false-
hood and treachery were unsparingly used, to effect this
purpose. The massacre of St. Bartholomew was the re-
sult of such a conspiracy ; and it was effected by the use
of the most detestable fraud to delude and entrap the too
confiding Protestants of France.
A reconciliation was treacherously proposed between
the Protestants and Romanists. It was to be inaugurated
and confirmed by the marriage of Henry, the leader of the
Protestants and King of Navarre, to Margaret, the sister
of Charles IX., the Popish King of France. Under this
pretext, multitudes of Protestants, and Coligny, their great
general, were allured to Paris. Such were the assurances
of friendship made by Charles, and his mother, Catharine
de Medici, the infamous author of the plot, that he and all
the Protestants were thrown entirely off their guard and
led blindfolded into the toils of Popish malignity and
treachery. Then followed scenes of horror unprecedented
in the history of man. At midnight the tocsin tolled ; and
at the signal the work of slaughter began. The streets
of Paris were deluged with blood. From Paris, as from
a centre, the massacre spread through France. Upon such
a scene of infernal treachery and bloodshed the angels
of God never looked down before. A thrill of horror
pervaded the Protestant world.
From the same principles and conspiracy came the mas-
86 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
sacres perpetrated by the Duke of Alva in the Nether-
lands. Hence came the Inquisition hence the Spanish
Armada. Hence came the plot to destroy the King of
England and the Houses of Lords and Commons by one
tremendous explosion of gunpowder, ever since known as
the infamous Gunpowder Plot.
4. Consider still more attentively the great fact, that all
such acts of treachery, fraud, and violence, outraging alike
truth and justice, God and man, were regarded by the
Pope and court of Rome as the discharge of an exalted
Christian duty. The treachery and massacre of St. Bar-
tholomew, in particular, were commemorated, among other
religious services, by a Te Deum, as well as by the casting
of two medals, with inscriptions commemorative of the
defj$f. On one side of one of the medals was the inscrip-
tion, Virtus in rebelles " Valor against rebels." On the
other, Pietas excitavit justitiam '"Piety aroused justice."
On another coin issued by Pope Gregory is seen an
angel, armed with a sword and a cross, attacking the her-
etics. Thus the pope gave the sanction of God and his
angels to this infamous deed of treachery and blood.
5. Consider once more, that in view of all the preced-
ing facts, even according to their own doctrines, the Rom-
ish corporation and all who choose to remain Romanists
are irretrievably committed to the avowal and defence of
these principles and their practical results. There is no
one point which they urge on us so incessantly as the in-
dispensable necessity of this infallible corporation to set-
tle the canon of the Bible and the rest of the rule of faith,
and then to interpret them and promulgate infallibly the
true doctrines of the church. This is, as I have shown,
the central point, the very life, of the system. And now,
will they turn around and repudiate the decisions of this
very infallible body, to whom they are urging us to sub-
APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT TO ALL TRUE AMERICANS. 87
mit in order to escape endless perdition ? Will they con-
cede the fallibility of their church in a case the most mo-
mentous that the mind of man can conceive ? A sacred
regard to truth is the great bond of human society. But
not only to violate truth, but to do it as a means of mur-
der, and that on a scale of terrific magnitude, is the estab-
lished doctrine and practice of the Romish corporation.
If, in a case so momentous as this, they have deluged the
nations with blood by their false and damnable doctrines,
then what shadow of confidence do they deserve in any
other case ?
The only logical course by which any Romanist can
avoid a rejection of this corporation is to advocate and
defend the principles themselves.
Yet such principles are in thfs age so odious and ob-
noxious, especially in Great Britain and in this country,
that every effort has been made to escape from this po-
sition.
To these efforts I shall next call your attention.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GALLICAN, OR FRENCH, DOCTRINE.
To understand this, it is necessary to consider a few
historical facts. In consequence of the extreme despotism
and corruption of the Pope and court of Rome, an effort
was made a little before the reformation to limit his power
and to reform his court. At the council of Constance,
by a solemn decree, a general council was declared su-
perior to the pope, and authorized to reform him and his
court. Even the Romish world were driven to this course
by the extremity of his despotism. But, after the coun-
cil rose, the centralizing power of the pope, operating
steadily, baffled their efforts ; and the Papal court has ever
since repudiated their decree.
After the reformation, Louis XIV., of France, the most
powerful monarch of the age, determined to make another
effort to limit the power of the pope. He therefore aimed
a blow at the doctrine of the pope's supremacy over kings.
Up to this time, that supremacy, and the consequent right
of deposing them and of absolving their subjects from
their oaths, had been the firmly-established doctrine of the
Romish system. But, under the influence of Louis, the
Romish clergy of France, in 1682, made a declaration, in
which, among other things, they declared that " kings and
sovereigns are not subjected to any ecclesiastical power
by the order of God in temporal things ; and their sub-
(88)
THE GALLICAN, OB FRENCH, DOCTRINE. 89
jects cannot be released from the obedience which they
owe them, nor absolved from their oath of allegiance."
The Pope and the court of Borne were, of course, indig-
nant in the extreme. By a multitude of writers they viru-
lently assailed the declaration, and threatened anathemas
and excommunications.
But Louis rallied his forces for the defence of his clergy.
By an edict, he forbade all persons, secular and regular,
subjects or strangers, throughout his dominions, to teach
or write any thing contrary to this declaration, and com-
manded his whole clergy to inculcate and defend the doc-
trine therein contained.
No doubt Louis would have been deposed and his bish-
ops excommunicated by the pope had he not feared to see
France in revolt from him, after the example of England.
He feared to see Louis XIV. walking in the steps of Hen-
ry VIII. He therefore endured what he could not pre-
vent. Yet, for some time, he refused to send bulls of in-
stitution to French bishops newly elected until they wrote
to him, each for himself, protesting that the clergy of
France did not intend to make a decree of faith by their
declaration, and assuring him of their profound submis-
sion to the rights of the holy chair.
The doctrine of this declaration is called, indifferently,
the Gallican, or the French, or the Cisalpine, doctrine.
That of the court of Rome is called the Italian, or Trans-
alpine, doctrine. It is, in fact, the doctrine of the popes
of the middle ages. Of the Gallican doctrine, the chief
defender was the celebrated Bossuet.
The French Catholic historians, Dupin and Fleury,
stood upon this ground. Hence, in their histories, they
are free to expose and condemn to a certain extent the
arrogant encroachments of the pope on the church as well
as on the state. Hence, from their writings, Protestants
90 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
derive valuable aid in their warfare with the court of
Rome. But, for the same reason, they are odious to the
thorough defenders of the Papal power.
All the universities consulted by Pitt also belonged to
the same school, and were consulted for this reason.
Besides the divines and laymen of the Gallican school,
there are other Romanists in France and elsewhere who
repudiate the doctrine of the pope's temporal supremacy in
Italy in the States of the Church. They consider this as the
result of a scheme of worldly ambition, and pernicious in its
tendencies and results to the spiritual character of the Pa-
pacy and to all the interests of civil society. Of this class
is M. Daunou, a learned French civilian, who has written
an able history of the court of Rome, designed to expose
the frauds and forgeries through which this temporal
power was first gained and its destructive influence on the
interests of Europe. From such writers, also, who still re-
gard the pope as properly the spiritual head of the church,
much aid can be derived in our warfare with the Papacy.
But of course such writers are more hated by the court
of Rome than even the writers of the Gallican school.
We are now prepared to understand the course of
events in England and America and the present position
of the defenders of the Papal corporation.
The genuine doctrines of that corporation are so re-
pugnant to the convictions of England and America, and
so odious to every friend of humanity, that in some way it
is necessary to blind and delude the too confiding Protes-
tants, so as to put them off their guard until the system
has gained foothold and power.
To effect this, two courses have been adopted. The
first was tried in England by Charles Butler and others ;
the second in this country, by Bishops Kenrick and
Hughes.
THE GALLICAN, OR FRENCH, DOCTRINE. 91
But at last the servants of the court of Rome are dis-
covering reasons for abandoning these modes of defence
and returning to the genuine Papal ground which has been
set forth. This will appear as we shall consider, in order,
the two great evasions to which reference has been made.
CHAPTER IX.
EVASION OF CHARLES BUTLER.
IN the light of the present age, and before the bar of
the omniscient Judge of nations, the Romish corporation
has been long summoned to give an account for those
principles and deeds which have been set forth. But, as a
corporation, it has, thus far, made no reply. It is not
willing openly to avow and justify its past deeds of treach-
ery and blood ; and it cannot, or will not, confess fallibility
and damning guilt.
Its partisans, therefore, have come forward from time to
time to speak in its behalf. In England, Charles Butler
has taken the lead ; in America, Bishops Kenrick, Hughes,
and Purcell, and Mr. Brownson.
The first mode of defence resorted to is that of Charles
Butler. He follows Bossuet, and the Gallican, or French,
school of divines. He abandons to just mnra^ation such
decisions and deeds of the Popes of-R<3*ne As have been
stated, but endeavors to prove that the doctrines in ques-
tion are not taught by any general council, but solely by
the popes, and that the doctrines and conduct of the
popes in such cases were not the voice of the church.
This defence is obviously at war, not only with that
most unequivocal documentary evidence which I have pro-
duced, but also with much not yet presented.
The doctrines in question were as truly promulgated and
(92)
EVASION OF CHARLES BUTLER. 93
sustained by general councils as by popes. This has been
proved as to some councils, and is true of others. Six gen-
eral councils, in principle or in practice, or in both, sanc-
tioned the violation of engagements and breach of trust for
the sake of ecclesiastical utility. This view cannot be
carried out except by misrepresenting, evading, or denying
the plainest facts of history. Yet Charles Butler adopted
this course and used such fraud and evasion, because to
conduct the Eomish cause to a safe issue on any other
ground seemed hopeless at the time. It seems to have
been with him a stroke of policy.
Mr. Brownson, however, coincides with me in thinking
it poor policy to defend the Papacy by denying or ignoring
any obvious and notorious matters of fact.
The course of Butler and of all others who adopt the
principles of the Gallican party he repudiates as at war
with facts, dishonorable to the great popes of the middle
ages, and ruinous to Romanism in its ultimate tendencies
and results. It was only adopted, he tells us, because the
Romanists were then weak and cowed down, and is utterly
unfit for these times of higher courage and bolder enterprise.
As to the acts of popes in deposing sovereigns and dis-
solving oaths of allegiance, which Butler repudiates as no
part of the system of Romanism, he says,
" The answers which the church gives to all great prac-
tical questions have become historical. These answers
are in many instances, no doubt, very offensive to the
spirit of the present age, and such as the prevailing public
opinion denounces ; but there they stand on the page of
history, and can be neither honestly nor successfully de-
nied or explained away. What the church has done, what
she has expressly or tacitly approved in the past, that
is exactly what she will do, expressly or tacitly approve,
in the future, if the same circumstances occur. This may
94 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
be a difficulty, an embarrassment ; but it will not do to shrink
from it. We are responsible for the past history of the
church in so far as she herself has acted ; and to attempt to
apologize for it by an appeal to the opinion of the times,
or to explain it in conformity with the prevailing spirit
and theories of non-Catholics in our age, is only to
weaken the reverence of the faithful for the church and
yield the victory to her enemies."
"We agree with Mr. Brownson in regarding the course
of Butler and the Gallicans as fatal to the church.
For, suppose that it were true which it is not that
no general councils had sanctioned such decisions and
deeds of the great popes of the middle ages ; suppose, too,
that the popes are not infallible without a general council ;
suppose what is not true that a decision ex cathedra,
acquiesced in by the bishops, is not deemed infallible.
We ask, Why did not th'e church in some form rebuke the
popes, and set them right, if they were teaching the doc-
trines of devils and reducing them to practice ? If there
was infallibility any where in the Romish corporation dur-
ing those long and bloody centuries, why did it not in
some way show itself? Did not the Romish corporation
then know that those principles and deeds of the popes
were wrong which Charles Butler and the Gallicans now
so loudly condemn ? If they did, then why did they not
condemn them ? If they did not, then what a mockery is
it to call that an infallible corporation which could not,
and did not, defend either themselves or their head for
long centuries from errors so gigantic, promulgated to the
nations as the truths of God Almighty, the rejection of
which would surely encounter his wrath, or from their in-
evitable results in deeds of treachery and blood that have
ever since caused a thrill of horror among the nations!
After Charles Butler has denounced as errors and crimes
EVASION OF CHARLES BUTLER. 95
the solemn decisions and acts of the popes of the middle
ages, deemed the most illustrious in the long line of the
sovereigns of the church, how can he expect any Prot-
estant to retain the least respect for the Papal church or
her head in any age ?
CHAPTER X.
EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND E.ENR.ICK.
THE other mode of evading the facts, as to the deposing
power of the pope and the invalidation of oaths, is to
resolve the whole matter into the peculiar state of society
in the middle ages, in which it was the will of the rulers
and of the people that the pope should exercise such
power.
On this ground Bishop Hughes, in 1843, defended the
Papal corporation, in his lecture before the Irish Emigra-
tion Society in New York. Speaking of the Papal cor-
poration, he says, p. 12, " If she has, at times, interfered
with the civil prerogatives of temporal sovereigns, her
right to do so is not founded on her divine charter, but
resulted either from the concession of the states themselves,
or from the absolute exigency of the circumstances."
At still greater length has Bishop Kenrick defended
this view, in his labored Vindication of the Primacy of the
Pope of Rome. He says, " By the will of princes and of
nations, and at their earnest solicitation, he intervened in
former ages, and, exercising a pacific protectorate, main-
tained the rights of all. * * * g u t he no longer em-
ploys a power which the will and the wants of the nations
once placed in his hands, but which they have again in
their caprice wrested from him." Pp. 304, 305.
(96)
EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 97
Both of these bishops also assure us that from this state
of things. vast benefits flowed to the world.
Concerning this stupendous evasion, I remark, in the
first place, that it is directly at war with facts.
The Papal deposing power and dissolution of oaths
was not a " pacific protectorate," established by the na-
tions, but a constant stimulus to revolt and civil war.
Against all sovereigns who did not blindly obey the pope
it gave him full power to fan the flames of discontent
and to arouse his subjects to rebellion. It was even used to
stir up the children of kings to the vilest treachery towards
their parents. Such was the course taken by the popes
towards the children of the hated and anathematized
Henry IV.
On this point it is well to place in pointed contrast the
words of Bishop Kenrick and those of the celebrated pri-
mate Bossuet. It is an illustrious specimen of t"he "va-
riations " of Romanism.
In his Defence of the Declaration of the Gallican Clergy,
book iv. chap, xvii., Bossuet says,
" Whenever kings have been deposed by the Roman pon-
tiffs in the exercise of such authority, NEVER by any king,
NEVER by the different orders of any kingdom, has this author-
ity been recognized as lawful. On the other hand, kingdoms
and kings have resisted it, and the result has been bloody
foreign and civil wars ; wherefore the pope has not, in fact,
ever bestowed kingdoms, but has only produced causes of
war, and given a pretext and color to ambition and rebel-
lion, and involved the whole world in the flames of war ;
and, in a word, these depositions of kings by the authority of
the pope have never been of the least use, but have caused
immense odium and injury." .
In the second place, both of these writers, and Bishop
Kenrick in particular, have inexcusably misrepresented
98 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
the real nature of the Papal claim as put forth by Gregory
VII., the great founder of the system, and by his successors.
"Vftth true Jesuitical craft, Bishop Kenrick has avoided
all quotations from the letters of Gregory to the sovereigns
and ecclesiastics of Europe, in which he unequivocally
developed his purpose to reduce all temporal rulers to the
position of feudal vassals to the holy see, binding them by
an oath of allegiance similar to that by which the bishops
were soon bound, and which they take even to this day.
He does not quote his reputed claims of a divine right to
do all this. On the other hand, against both the letter
and the spirit of the act of deposition, he represents
Gregory as acting by an authority conferred on him by
the nations. In a series of twelve letters to the bishop,
published in the Christian Alliance some years since, I
at some length exposed what I could not but consider as
his deliberate Jesuitical frauds, designed to Ifoodwink and
delude my honorable and magnanimous fellow-citizens.
I have not room at present to go farther into the details
of the case.
It is enough to say, in general, that nothing can be more
at war with notorious facts than this evasion. Where or
when did Gregory VII., or Innocent III., or Boniface
VIII., or any other of those imperious lords of the church
declare or even hint that they derived their powers from
either rulers or the people, or that they were acting in
their name ? They claimed their powers directly from
God, through Peter, the great head of the church. Nor
did the nations ever pretend that it belonged to them to
confer such power on the pope. The very idea is ridicu-
lous to any one who knows the spirit and the convictions
of that age.
It deserves notice, also, that these claims of the pope, as
head of the church, do not rest on his own unsustained
EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 99
assumptions. In the great general council of Lyons, in
1245, Pope Innocent IY. and the council together con-
firmed the doctrine of the divine right of the pope and
of the Papal corporation to depose monarchs. The pope
deposed Frederic II. ; and they concurred with the pope,
proclaiming their decision as the judgment of God and
their own, but not referring, even remotely, to a delegated
power received from the people. The same principles
were established in the fourth Lateran council under
Innocent III. and by many other general councils.
Moreover, in the long run, this evasion is no less fatal
to the Papal system than the other. According to it, on
questions of the highest conceivable moment, the pope
leaves his lofty position, as filling the place of God on
earth, to become a mere fallible tribune, or president, or
referee of human appointment among contending nations.
He is a mere fallible agent of human, uninspired society,
and not Us lord and head. It in fact betrays the cause
of the Papacy and the Romish church, through fear of the
enlightened, popular sentiments of the present age.
Mr. Browrison sees the logical results of this evasion also,
and boldly repudiates it. He also declares it to be at war
with facts. Civil governments and human society, he er-
roneously affirms, did acknowledge the supremacy of the
pope over earthly rulers and his power to dissolve oaths ;
but he insists that they did not confer it. Nor did the
pope ever concede or intimate that such was the basis of
his power. Nothing can be stronger than the assertions of
Mr. Brownson in his review of M. Gosselin. He says,
" The whole current of history is against the author.
He cannot adduce a single official act of pope or council
which concedes that the temporal authority exercised was
held only by a human title. All history fails to show an
instance in which the pope, in deposing a temporal sover-
100 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
eign, professes to do it by the authority vested in him
by the pious belief of the faithful, generally received max-
ims, the opinion of the age, the concessions of sovereigns,
or the civil constitution and public laws of Catholic states.
On the contrary, he always claims to do it by the authori-
ty committed to him as the successor of the prince of
the apostles, by the authority of his apostolic ministry, by
the authority committed to him of binding and loosing, by
the authority of Almighty God, of Jesus Christ, King of
kings and Lord of lords, whose minister, though unworthy,
he asserts that he is ; or some such formula, which solemnly
and expressly sets forth that his authority is held by
divine right, by virtue of his ministry, and exercised sole-
ly in his character of vicar of Jesus Christ on earth. To
this, we believe, there is not a single exception. Wher-
ever the popes cite their titles, they never, so far as we can
find, cite a human title, but always a divine title. Whence
is this ? Did the popes cite a false title ? Were they ig-
norant of their own title ? or was this assertion of title
an empty form, meaning nothing ? This is a grave matter ;
and this fact alone seems to us decisive against the author."
He also says,
" One of two things, it seems to us, must be admitted,
if we have regard to the undeniable facts in the case ;
namely, either the popes usurped the authority tJiey exercised
over sovereigns in the middle ages, or they possessed it by
virtue of their title as vicars of Jesus Christ on earth. We
do not, therefore, regard M. Gosselin's theory as tenable ;
and we count his attempted defence of the pope on the
ground of human right a failure.
" There is, in our judgment, but one valid defence of the
popes in their exercise of temporal authority in the mid-
dle ages over sovereigns ; and that is, that they possess it
by divine right, or that the pope holds that authority by
virtue of his commission from Jesus Christ, as the succes-
sor of Peter, the prince of the apostles, and visible head
of the church. Any defence of them on a lower ground
must, in our judgment, fail to meet the real points in the
case, and is rather an evasion than a fair, honest, direct,
EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 101
and satisfactory reply. To defend their power as an ex-
traordinary power, or as an accident in church history,
growing out of the peculiar circumstances, civil constitu-
tion, and laws of the times, no\y passed away, perhaps for-
ever, may be regarded as less likely to displease non-
Catholics and to offend the sensibilities of power than to
defend it on the ground of divine right and as inherent in
the divine constitution of the church ; but, even on the low
ground of policy, we do not think it the wisest in the long
run. Say what we will, we can gain little credit with
those we would conciliate. Always, to their minds, will
the temporal power of the pope by divine right loom up
in the distance ; and always will they believe, however
individual Catholics here and thero may deny it or nom-
inally Catholic governments oppose it, that it is the real
Roman Catholic doctrine, to be reasserted and acted the
moment that circumstances render it prudent or expe-
dient. We gain nothing with them but doubts of our sin-
cerity, and we only weaken among ourselves that warm
and generous devotion to the holy father which is due
from every one of the faithful, and which is so essential
to the prosperity of the church in her unceasing struggles
with the godless powers of this world."
He also asserts that the position thus defended by him
is that of the leading Romish divines :
" He cannot be unaware that the doctrine he rejects is
the most logical, the most consonant to Catholic instincts,
the most honorable to the dignity and majesty of the Pa-
pacy, or that it has undeniably the weight of authority on
its side. The principal Catholic authorities are certainly
in favor of the divine right ; and the principal authorities
which he is able to oppose to them are of parliaments,
sovereigns, jurisconsults, courtiers, and prelates and doc-
tors who sustained the temporal powers in their wars
against the popes. The Gallican doctrine was, from the
first, the doctrine of the courts, in opposition to that of
the vicars of Jesus Christ, and should, therefore, be re-
garded by every Catholic with suspicion."
9*
102 THE PAPAL CONSPIKACY EXPOSED.
It is interesting to notice that nevertheless, in view of
the popular feeling in this country, Bishops Hughes and
Kenrick have both undertaken to defend the course of the
popes during the middle ages on the very grounds which
Mr. Brownson so pointedly condemns.
Their defence, however, deserves no confidence as an
expression of their real opinions. It was, no doubt, de-
signed to delude Protestants for the time, till the Romish
corporation might gain strength to assume a new po-
sition.
I am led to this conclusion by the fact that the Romish
agents, both in France and in this country, seem to be at
length disclosing their purpose to assume the ground
which I- have stated as the real Papal ground, and which
is the only consistent and logical basis on which to at-
tempt a defence of the Papacy. The old Gallican doc-
trine is also generally abandoned in France ; and we are
coming to the simple position, that all who revolt from
the Romish corporation, by that very act are disfranchised
and stripped of all their rights.
Mr. Brownson, in his Review for January, 1852, makes
the bold and explicit avowal that Protestantism of every
form has,, not, and never can have, any rights. P. 64.
^ He says also that "we lose all the breath we expend
in declaiming against bigotry and intolerance, and in
favor of religious liberty, or the right of any man to be
of religion or no religion, as best pleases him, which some
two or three of our journalists would fain persuade the
world is Catholic doctrine."
It seems, then, that when Mr. Brownson, in a former
extract, speaks of conceding to us equal rights, he means,
as we intimated, so long as they have no power to take
them away. But as soon as Catholicity is triumphant,
then beware.
EVASION OP BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 103
I find in the Letters of an Independent Irishman, ad-
dressed to Bishop Fitzpatrick, the following passage :
"Says Bishop Kenrick, 'No faith with heretics;' and
says Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburg, 'Religious liberty is
merely endured until the opposite can be carried into execution
without peril to the Catholic world.' This bigoted sentiment
is the same in kind with that quoted from the Catholic
Review no rights for Protestants, or any body else ex-
cept Catholics. Fine doctrine for a republic ! Of pre-
cisely the same nature was the sentiment lately uttered
by the Bishop of St. Louis : ' Catholicity will one day
rule America ; and then religious liberty is at an end.' No
doubt of it. The St. Louis bishop and I agree exactly
on this point ; and such, I presume, is your opinion also."
I have not verified these quotations ; but, whether they
have used these precise words or not, I have no doubt
that they express the real sentiments of those men.
Whatever any American bishop may say, one act of
theirs speaks louder than all their professions of patriot-
ism ; yea, louder than seven thunders. They have, by a
solemn decision of their provincial council at Baltimore,
significantly proclaimed that they adopt the system of
which the maxims are such as have been set forth.
Into the midst of this Protestant nation, by a special
act of the Baltimore council of Rornish bishops, they have
introduced the idolatrous worship of Gregory VII. ; thu?
selecting and presenting him, of all the saints of the
Romish calendar, to our own people as an object of wor-
ship, and fixing the eyes of this nation on him as the
object of peculiar attention and reverence.
We accordingly look at his character, and find him to
be the notorious author of the system of deposing kings,
and the projector of a universal feudal monarchy, of which
he was to be the head, and all kings, nobles, and rulers
his sworn vassals. We find him, in endeavoring to carry
104 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
out his claims and plans, involving Italy and Germany for
more than thirty years in a bloody civil war, and estab-
lishing precedents which for centuries disturbed the peace
of all Europe and subjected the nations to the most ap-
palling despotism ever known. Pius Y. canonized him as
a saint.
The service prescribed by him for the festival of Greg-
ory, in the Roman breviary, specially commemorates his
acts in the following terms : " Gregory shone like the
sun in the house of God. He deprived Henry of his king-
dom and freed his vassals from their fealty. All the
earth is full of his doctrine. He has departed to heaven.
Enable us, by his example and advocacy, to overcome all
adversity. May he intercede for all the sins of the peo-
ple." Alexander VII. introduced this office into the Ro-
man basilics. Clement XI., in 1704, recommended it to
the Cistercians, and, in 1710, to the Benedictines. It
was approved by Benedict XIII., and retains its place in
the Roman breviary.
Let it now be noticed still further, that this act of can-
onization had special reference to the deposing doctrine.
It indorses it, as practised by Gregory, in the most ample
manner. It regards it as the doctrine of all times and
all countries, and declares that the earth is full of that
doctrine.
Nor is this all. The maxims of Gregory VII. have not
been renounced by the court of Rome in the nineteenth
century. I refer you to the following statement of Dau-
nou, that eminently learned and candid Roman Catholic :
"If we had lost the twenty-seven propositions of Hilde-
brand, they might all be found in the acts of Pius VII.,
A. ]). 1800-1823. This will not astonish those who have
studied the history of the court of Rome. While it exists,
this court will have no other principles. Scarcely will it
EVASION OP BISHOPS HUGHES AXD KENRICK. 105
be able to dissemble them, even in times which require the
most circumspection. We shall, without doubt, see this
court taking advantage of all circumstances, which will
allow her still to maintain them, by anathemas, by wars,
by catastrophes, and by vast proscriptions."
If this seems to be bold language for a Roman Catholic,
let it be compared with the language of Bossuet, whose
words I have already quoted. It is but a faithful carrying
out of the spirit of his statements.
Let me then disclose, for the benefit of American repub-
licans, some of this doctrine of Gregory, of which the
earth is declared to be full. Baronius regards the twenty-
seven propositions as a genuine composition of Gregory
himself ; others regard them as a collection of sentiments
derived from his letters ; but all agree that they truly rep-
resent the doctrine of his epistles and of his acts. Indeed
they can all be derived from his letters.
" He alone can invest himself with the insignia of em-
pire."
" He has authority to depose emperors."
" He can absolve the subjects of bad princes from every
oath of fe'alty."
" All princes kiss his feet alone."
" His name only is to be pronounced in the churches."
"It is the only name in the world."
Such is the doctrine of Gregory VII., of which, accord-
ing to the services of the Papal church, the world is full.
But in all this it seems that the bishops of that church
in the United States of America see no ambition and no
usurpation. No ; for Bishop Kenrick tells us that Pope
Gregory VII. " is recognized as a saint, and cannot, without
temerity, be accused of ambition." Moreover, that very
church which recognizes him as a saint celebrates his
deposing doctrine and deeds in acts of solemn worship
at his shrine.
106 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Moreover, Bishop Kenrick really, though not openly,
declares that the true and proper state of society was that
which existed whilst these doctrines were in force, and
that the world has been a loser by rejecting them. All
this was fully evinced in the letters to which reference has
been made.
With such facts before us, is there any reason to doubt
that the Romish bishops of America would, if they could,
carry out the extremest views of the Italian school, of
which Gregory VII. is the founder and head ?
It is also a sign of the times that the same views are
reproduced in England, France, and America. The
French school is dying out ; and all-pervading efforts are
made to establish the most absolute doctrines of the court
of Rome, which have already deluged the world in blood.
In England, a Romish paper called the Rambler speaks
as follows :
" Religious liberty, in the sense of a liberty possessed
by every man to choose his own religion, is one of the
most wicked delusions ever foisted upon this age by the
father of all deceit. The very name of liberty except in
the sense of a permission to do certain definite acts
ought to be banished from the domain of religion. It is neither
more nor less than a falsehood. JVb man has a right to choose
his religion. None but an atheist can uphold the principles
of religious liberty. Shall I, therefore, fall in with this
abominable delusion? Shall I foster that damnable doctrine,
that Socinianism, and Calvinism, and Anglicanism, and Ju-
daism are not every one of them mortal sins like murder and
adultery ? Shall I hold out hopes to my erring Protestant
brother that I will not meddle with his creed if he will
not meddle with mine ? Shall I tempt him to forget that
he has no more right to his religious views than he has to
my purse, or my house, or my lifeblood ? No. Catholicism
is the most intolerant of creeds. It is intolerance itself ; for
it is the truth itself. We might as rationally maintain
that a sane man has a right to believe that two and two
EVASION OP BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 107
do not make four, as this theory of religious liberty. Its
impiety is only equalled by its absurdity."
This was republished and indorsed by the Shepherd of
the Valley, a Romish paper at St. Louis.
Bishop Kenrick also is quoted by the Independent Irish-
man as saying,
" Heresy and unbelief are CRIMES ; that is the whole of
the matter. And in Christian countries, as in Italy and
Spain for instance, where all the people are Catholic,
and where the Catholic religion is an essential part of the
law of the land, they will be punished as other crimes."
The Bishop of St. Louis also is quoted by him as say-
ing.
"Protestantism of every kind Catholicity inserts in her
catalogue of mortal sins ; she endures it when and where
she must ; but she hates it, and directs all her energies to
effect its destruction. If the Catholics ever gain, which
they surely will do, an immense numerical majority, re-
ligious freedom in this country is at an end."*
Honestly they cannot say any thing else ; and clearly
the principles of Brownson, with reference to the de-
cisions of the pope and the church in the middle ages,
involve all this, and also a full sanction of all their doc-
trines, as to fraud, treachery, and falsehood, towards all
out of the pale of the Romish church. They involve the
maxim, which once he repudiated with indignation, that
no faith is to be kept with heretics.
All of these decisions are, as truly as any others, the an-
swers of the church on great practical questions, and have-
become historical. To these he ought to apply his own
words.
" These answers are in many instances, no doubt, very
offensive to the spirit of the present age, and such as the
108 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
prevailing public opinion denounces ; but there they stand
on the page of history, and can be neither honestly nor
successfully denied or explained away. What the church
has done, what she has expressly or tacitly approved in
the past, that is exactly what she will do, expressly or
tacitly approve, in the future, if the same circumstances
occur. This may be a difficulty, an embarrasment ; but it
will not do to shrink from it. We are responsible for the
past history of the church in so far as she herself has
acted ; and to attempt to apologize for it by an appeal to
the opinion of the times, or to explain it in conformity
with the prevailing spirit and theories of non- Catholics
in our age, is only to weaken the reverence of the faithful
for the church and yield the victory to her enemies."
This part of the subject, then, is plain. The real and
infamous doctrines of the Romish corporation on veracity
and the rights of Protestants can neither be concealed nor
evaded.
The question of their power to gain the ascendency in
this nation, and to carry out such principles, is not at
present under discussion. Our present purpose is to en-
able all candid men to decide what the principles of the
Romish corporation are, to see that they are immutable,
and that nothing will prevent them from carrying them
out but want of power.
Have I not, then, proved the propositions which I have
announced ? Do not the pope and his corporation place
their own interests above all others whatever? Do they
not at once disfranchise all who renounce their authority ?
Do they not declare all their rights vacated ? Do they
not declare that all obligations of veracity and fidelity
towards them cease ; that all claims of protection or de-
fence are vacated ; that they are at once outlawed and in-
testate ; and that to massacre and exterminate them is a
duty?
Such is the fraudulent, treacherous, f ruol, malignant, and
EVASION OP BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 109
diabolical system that is conspiring against this country
and against humanity, and with which we are called to
contend.
But there is a still lower depth of treachery into which
the chief defenders of this system have fallen. The Jesuits
advocate and defend all that I have stated, because they
are the sworn defenders of the Pope of Rome.
But, in carrying out their plans, they have carried the
system of fraud and delusion to a more perfect develop-
ment than ever before.
We shall not understand the full power of the great
conspiracy until we understand these men.
10
CHAPTER XI.
THE JESUITS ON LYING.
WE are called on by divine Providence, as American
citizens, not only to sit in judgment on the principles of the
great central Romish corporation as to truth and human
rights, but also of those subordinate corporations which are
banded together in one great conspiracy to sustain and
extend the authority of the central power.
Of these, by far the most powerful and notorious is the
order of the Jesuits. It arose soon after the reformation,
and was organized for the express purpose of resisting its
progress. It has rendered itself so infamous that it was
once suppressed ; yet it was so essential to the Papacy
that it has been again revived, and, under its head at
Rome, is again pervading the world.
It developed a code of morals which, as a whole, is per-
fectly diabolical. It is not, however, my purpose here to
expound that code in full, but to show that, on the great
question of veracity, it is a fit exemplification of the au-
thorized principles and general tendencies of the system
of Rome. We should naturally expect this, since they
have ever been the chief defenders of the see of Rome.
It will not, then, be deemed an accidental coincidence if
we find them engaged in reducing the principles of lying,
perjury, and slander to a systematic form. Their labors
in this department I shall proceed to review.
(110)
THE JESUITS ON LYING. Ill
Nor is this needless. No body of men are making such
efforts to extend their power throughout our land. They
know well that in consequence of their former conduct
their order still rests under a load of infamy that has
made the very name Jesuit a proverb, and a byword, and
a hissing, and the terms Jesuitical and diabolical well
nigh synonymous in the public mind.
Mr. Brownson, therefore, in his newborn zeal for Ro-
manism, has felt himself especially called on to vindicate
these servants of the Papacy, as in a preeminent degree
hated and slandered for righteousness' sake.
It is, therefore, a work of no common interest and im-
portance to investigate the avowed principles of the lead-
ing authors .of this order of men as it regards speaking
the truth in our dealings with our fellow-men.
To any one who has ever read the letters of Pascal
there is little need to say much on this point. He made
it notorious throughout the civilized world that their most
prominent writers on morals totally subverted by their
doctrines the very foundations of truth in the intercourse
of man with man.
I will but quote a few of their profligate maxims from
the works of their standard authors. Pascal gives from
Sanchez the following choice specimens of morality :
" It is lawful to use ambiguous terms, to give the impres-
sion a different sense from that which you yourself under-
stand." Op. Mor., p. 2, b. iii. c. vi. n. 13.
In the same place he says, " A person may take an oath
that he has not done such a thing, though in fact he has,
by saying to himself it was not done on a certain specified
day, or before he was born, or by concealing any other
circumstance which gives another meaning to the state-
ment. This is, in numberless instances, extremely conven-
112 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
rent, and is always very just when it is necessary to your
health, honor, or property."
Again : " It is the intention which stamps the character
of the action."
To illustrate this, Escobar, tr. iii. ex. iii. n. 48, gives
this general rule :
" Promises are not obligatory when a man has no inten-
tion of being bound to fulfil them."
Again : Bourne quotes from Sanchez, Op. Mor., lib. i.
cap. x. Nos. 12, 13, p. 49 : " An oath, obliges not beyond
the intention of him who takes it." Here we have the fa-
mous Jesuitical doctrine of " directing the intention " so
as to promise or swear any thing that is desired, either
for the church or for individual interest, and yet not be
bound.
The mode by which a Jesuit or any Romanist can enter
a Protestant church by oath or covenant, without sin, is
thus given, Bauny Sum., cap. vi. cone. iv. p. 73 : " He
who maintains an heretical proposition without believing
it, or who is a communicant among the Protestants with-
out having his heart there, but out of pure derision, or to
comply with the times, and to accomplish his designs, ought
not to be esteemed a Protestant, because his understand-
ing is not infected with error."
As to truth in civil courts, Taberna, vol. ii. part ii.
tract, ii. cap. xxxi. p. 288, speaks thus : " Is a witness
bound to declare the truth before a legitimate judge ? No,
if his deposition will injure himself, his family, or prop-
erty, or if he be a priest i for a priest cannot be forced to tes-
tify before a secular judge "
Again: Layman, lib. iv. tract, iii. cap. i. p. 78 : "It is
not sufficient for an oath that we use the formal words, if
we have not the intention and wiH to swear" (See McGaviu's
Prdtestant, vol. ii. pp. 705-7.)
THE JESUITS ON LYING. 113
It is worthy of notice that these profligate principles
go beyond the maxim, that it is right to lie for ecclesias-
tical utility. They subvert the foundations of truth in all
things. No matter what words a man uses, if he secretly
intends something else, he is not bound by promises or
by oaths.
No less damnable are their doctrines as to slander.
These, of course, have a wide range, and have been ex-
tensively used by the Jesuits in controversies and in
blackening the characters of Protestants. They there-
fore sustain an intimate relation to the management of all
controversies between Komanists and Protestants. It is
an obvious dictate of honor to avoid personalities in ar-
gument and to confine the attention to principles and
facts. Especially is it a dictate, not only of honor, but of
the word of God, not to try to destroy the force of argu-
ments by slandering their authors.
When a writer has endeavored to throw light upon an
important subject, and stated principles and sustained his
assertions by documents of unquestioned authority, it may
be much easier to slander him personally, and call him a liar,
a drunkard, an adulterer, than to answer his arguments.
But one would hardly expect that men who are such saints
that the world is not worthy of them would sanction such
a mode of proceeding. Yet this the Jesuits have done.
Their maxim is this : " It is no mortal sin to oppose a slan-
derer by slandering him." Of course they must judge who
a slanderer is ; and it is very easy to conclude that who-
ever says any thing to the disadvantage of the order of
the Jesuits is a slanderer, and that it becomes no mortal
sin to slander him. This was charged upon them by Pas-
cal in his fifteenth Provincial Letter, without the slightest
hesitation, as a notorious principle of theirs ; and he sus-
tained his charge by such an array of evidence that no
10*
114 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Jesuit to this day has been able in the slightest degree to
destroy its force. Let us listen to the charge in the
words of Pascal :
"It is my purpose. to advance a step farther than merely
to show that your writings are replete with calumnious
representations. Falsehoods may be stated under an im-
pression that they are truths ; but lying is characterized by
the intention to deceive. I shall show that you design to
deceive and calumniate, and that you purposely impute
crimes to your enemies of which you know they are per-
fectly innocent, because you believe it may be done with-
out falling from a state of grace. And, though you may
be as well acquainted as myself with this point of your
morality, I shall beg permission to state it, that no further
doubt may exist, by showing that I challenge you person-
ally and individually on the subject, without even your
being able to deny it, with all your assurance, unless at the
same time you own that for which I reproach you. For this
is a doctrine so common in your schools that you have not
only maintained it in your writings, but even in your public
theses, which is an act of the utmost presumption as, for
example, in that of Louvain, in the year 1645, in the fol-
lowing words : ' It is only a venial sin to calumniate and
ruin the credit of such as speak evil of you by accusing them
of false crimes ' Quidni non nisi veniale sit, detrahentis
auctoritatem magnam tibi noxiam falso crimine elidere ?
This doctrine is so current amongst you that whoever
dares to attack it you treat as an ignoramus and a stu-
pid fellow."
To one who has been brought up in a Protestant coun-
try, and who is happily ignorant of those unfathomable
depths of Satan into which the system of Romanism can
sink the human mind, it seems impossible that any body
of men pretending to call themselves Christians should ever
have dared to teach such doctrines of devils, or could have
so seared their consciences with a hot iron as thus to au-
thorize and sanction the grossest slander, and even to
THE JESUITS ON LYING. 115
treat as an ignoramus and a stupid fellow whoever dares
to attack such doctrines.
Listen, then, to the unanswerable proof of his asser-
tions which Pascal produces :
" Not long ago this took place in regard to Father Qui-
roga, a German capuchin, who opposed this doctrine, and
was immediately attacked by Father Dicastillus, who
speaks of this dispute in these terms, (De Just., 1. ii. tr. ii.
disp. xii. n. 404 :) ' A certain grave friar, barefooted and
deep cowled, cucuttatus, gymnopoda, whose name I shall
conceal, had the temerity to decry this opinion amongst
some women and ignorant people as pernicious and scan-
dalous, contrary to good manners, subversive of the peace
of states and societies, and opposed, not only to all the
Catholic doctors, but to all who may become so. But I
have maintained against him, and still maintain, that cal-
umny, when made use of against a calumniator, though it
be a lie, yet is not a mortal sin, nor contrary to justice
or charity ; and, as a demonstration of this, I furnished
him with a crowd of our fathers and whole universities
whom I consulted, among others the Rev. Father John
Gans, confessor to the emperor ; the Rev. Father Daniel
Bastele, confessor to the Archduke Leopold ; Father
Henry, who was the tutor of these two princes : all
the public and ordinary professors of the University of
Vienna, (consisting entirely of Jesuits ;) all the professors
of the University of Gratz, (all Jesuits ;) all the professors
of the University of Prague, (of which the Jesuits are mas-
ters ;) from all of whom I have in my possession a written,
signed, and sealed approbation of my opinion ; in addition
to which I have Father Pennalossa, a Jesuit, preacher to
the emperor and the King of Spain ; Father Piliiceroli, a
Jesuit ; and many others, who have all judged this opin-
ion probable previous to our dispute.' You see, fathers,
there are few opinions which you have taken so much
pains to establish ; and, in fact, there are few which are
so serviceable to you. For this reason, you have impressed
so much authority upon it that your casuists have made
use of it as an indubitable principle. ' It is certain/ says
116 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Caramuel, n. 1151, 'that it is a probable opinion that it
is no mortal sin to bring a false accusation for the sake of
preserving one's honor ; for it is maintained by upwards
of twenty grave doctors, Gaspar Hurtado, Dicastillus, &c.
Hence, if this doctrine be not probable, there is scarcely
any one that is so in the whole system of divinity.' "
Such is the proof adduced by Pascal ; and what can be
more overwhelming ? And in what manner did the Jesu-
its reply to it ? In an attempt to answer the Provincial
Letters, published in Paris, 1659, p. 342, instead of condemn-
ing Father Dicastillus's position, THEY ADDED MORE AUTHORI-
TY TO IT, by citing several authors, besides those mentioned
before, in defence of it.
Let any one now reflect on the length and breadth of
the principles involved in this doctrine of the Jesuits,
and he will fully sympathize with Pascal in the strong
language of abhorrence with which he speaks of the
system :
" 0, what an execrable system is this, and how utterly
corrupt in all its main points and principles, that if this
doctrine be not probable and safe in conscience, ' that a
person may be accused falsely in order to preserve one's
honor,' there is scarcely any one that is ! What can be
more probable, fathers, than that those who hold this prin-
ciple should sometimes put it in practice ? The depraved
passions of mankind hurry them on with such impetuosity
that it is inconceivable, when all conscientious scruples are
done away, how violently they proceed. For instance,
Caramuel writes in the same place, ' This maxim of Father
Dicastillus the Jesuit, respecting calumny, was taught by
a German countess to the daughter of the empress, who,
believing that calumnies were but venial sins, spread
abroad so many scandals and false reports every day that
the whole court was put into a state of ferment and alarm.
It is easy to perceive the use they made of it ; so that, to
quiet this tumult, it was found necessary to apply to a
good father, a capuchin, named Quiroga, of exemplary
THE JESUITS ON LYING. 117
conduct, (which was the reason Father Dicastillus had
such a quarrel with him,) who told them plainly that this
maxim was very pernicious, especially as held by women,
and then took such especial care that the empress totally
abolished the practice of it.'
" It is by no means surprising that this doctrine should
have produced some bad effects ; it would have been more
so had it been otherwise. Self-love is always ready to
persuade us that an attack made upon ourselves is unjust ;
much more you, fathers, who are so blinded by vanity that
you would make all the world believe, from your writings,
that an injury attempted against your writings is an in-
jury done to the honor of the church ; and thus it
would be strange if you were not to pu this maxim in
practice. We must not say, as those who do not know
you do, How is it these good fathers calumniate their
enemies, since it is endangering their own salvation ? But
we must say, on the contrary, How is it these good fa-
thers would" lose any opportunity of decrying their ene-
mies when they can do it without risking their own safety ?
Let us, then, no longer be astonished at finding the Jesuits
calumniators. They are so with a safe conscience, and
cannot be otherwise ; since, by the credit they have ac-
quired in the world, they may revile others without any
apprehension from the justice of men ; and, by that which,
they have acquired in cases of conscience, they have estab-
lished maxims by which they are empowered to do as
they choose, without dreading the justice of God.
Take an illustration of those principles from the same
author :
" A remarkable instance of this occurred in your disa-
greement with 1L Puys, a clergyman of St. Nisier, at
Lyons ; and, as this affair furnishes a complete illustration
of your spirit, I shall relate the principal circumstances.
You kno\v, fathers, that in 1649 M. Puys translated an
excellent work, written by another capuchin, into French,
' On the Duty of Christians to their own Parishes against
those who wished to entice them away,' without using
any invectives, and without either pointing to any religious
118 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
order or individual. Your fathers, however, took it to
themselves ; and, paying no respect to an aged pastor, a
judge in the primacy of France, and much honored by the
whole city, your Father Alby wrote a violent philippic
against him, which you yourselves sold in your churches
on Assumption day ; in which, amongst other charges, he
was accused ' of becoming scandalous by his gallantries,
of being suspected of impiety, of being a heretic, an ex-
communicated person, and deserving to be burned alive.'
To this M. Puys replied ; but Father Alby, in a second
publication, persisted in his former recriminations. Is it
not then evident, fathers, either that you must be calumni-
ators, or that you believed all the charges brought against
the good priest, and therefore that it was needful that
you should have seen him fully exculpated before you
deemed him worthy of your friendship ? Attend now to
what passed at the reconciliation, in presence of a great
multitude of the most distinguished persons of the city,
whose names are inserted below in the order in which
they were placed in the paper drawn up on the 25th of
September, 1650.* In the presence of this assembly M.
Puys made no other declaration than the following :
' That what he had written was not intended for the Jesu-
its ; that he had spoken in general against those who
seduce the faithful from their parishes, without at all
meaning to attack their society, for which, on the con-
trary, he cherished a high regard.' This is in itself suf-
ficient in regard to his apostasy, his revilings, and his
excommunications, without any recantation or absolution.
Father Alby afterwards addressed him in these words :
'Sir, my conviction that you attacked the society to which
I have the honor to belong induced me to take up my pen
to answer you, and I thought my manner of doing it was
allowable ; but I have become better acquainted with your
* M. De Ville, vicar general of the Cardinal de Lyon ; M. Scarron, canon
and minister of St. Paul's ; M. Margat, chanter ; Messrs. Bouvand, Seve, Au-
bert, and Dervieu, canons of St. Nisier ; M. du Gue, president of the treasures
of France ; M. Groslier, provost of the merchants ; M. De Flechere, president
and lieutenant general ; Messrs. De Boissat, De St. Komaiii, and De Bartoly,
fentlemen ; M. Burgeoise, king's chief advocate in the treasury office of
'ranee ; Messrs. De Cotton, father and son ; M. Boniel ; who all signed the
original declaration with M. Fuys and Father Alby.
THE JESUITS ON LYING. 119
intention. I now declare that there exists nothing which
can prevent my esteeming you as a person of very en-
lightened understanding, of a profound and orthodox faith,
of irreproachabk morals, and, in one word, a worthy pastor
of your church. This declaration I make with high satis-
faction, and beg these gentlemen to remember it.'
" In truth, fathers, these gentlemen remember it perfectly
well, and were more offended at your reconciliation than at
your quarrel. For who does not admire Father Alby's
speech ? He does not say that he retracts on account of dis-
covering M. Puys has changed his behavior and his doctrine,
but merely ' because he found that it was not his intention to
attack your society ; so that there is nothing to prevent
him from being a good Catholic.' He did not, therefore,
believe him to be a heretic at all ; nevertheless, after
accusing him of it, contrary to his own convictions, he
does not acknowledge his error, but dares, on the contrary,
to affirm ' that he believes the manner in which he used
him was allowable.'
" My good fathers, what can you be thinking about thus
publicly to show that you only measure the faith and virtue
of mankind by their opinions of your society ? How came
it to pass that you were not apprehensive of making
people believe, by your own confession, that you were im-
postors and calumniators? What! shall the very same
individual, and without any change in himself, but merely
as he honors or opposes your society, be ' pious or impious,
blameless or deserving excommunication, a worthy pastor
of the church or fit only to be burned ; in one word, a
Catholic or a heretic ' ? To oppose your society and to
be a heretic are then, in your language, the same thing.
A pretty kind of heresy indeed ! So, then, whenever
one sees in your writings so many good Catholics called
heretics, the meaning is, ' that you believe them to be in-
imical to you' "
Nor did this abominable system, thus opening the flood-
gates of hell to pour forth all conceivable forms of slander
on the world, remain a dead letter. It was put in force with
incessant energy against all who dared to leave the Romish
120 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
corporation to oppose the Jesuits and to aid in the work
of exposing their abominations, and is in full force to this
day.
I shall also show the existence of the same spirit and
incipient attempts to practise on the same principles
among us so far as they dare.
"We have not, as yet, fully entered into the heart of the
Papal war, and have not yet been compelled to learn
what poisoned weapons of moral assassination the Jesuits
and other leading advocates of the Papacy have in other
ages used without scruple. But as it is a settled point
that we are to meet that system in one more conflict, and
that the last, it becomes us to study diligently the weapons
with which it has always fought in former wars, and to be
strong in the Lord and in the power of his might to arm
ourselves against it with the whole armor of God.
There is the more reason for this, inasmuch as the Ro-
mish corporation has recently sanctioned and adopted the
morality of the Jesuits, which was rendered justly infa-
mous in Europe by the exposure of its enormities and
abominations made by Pascal. This system, with all its
diabolism, is incorporated in the works of St. Alphonso
de Liguori ; but these works are solemnly sanctioned by
the Romish corporation, if we may trust Dr. Wiseman.
He tells us that his works "do not contain any propo-
sition .that is pernicious, erroneous, or rash," and that
"the morals of this saintly bishop cannot be censured
without setting up as a censor of authority itself, with-
out, in fine, censuring the decisions of the holy see." The
morals of this diabolical saint justify assassination, and
open murder in certain "cases, as well as lying and per-
jury. Never, therefore, were the morals of Rome so dia-
bolical as at this hour.
CHAPTER XII.
CAUTIONS TO AMERICANS IN VIEW OF MODERN EXEMPLIFI-
CATIONS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF LYING AND PERJURY.
IF, in view of all the preceding statements, any one
should say, After all, these are ancient principles and
facts ; things are now changed for the better : it is not
charitable or honorable to suppose that Romish bishops or
laymen among us will deem it a merit to lie or perjure
themselves for purposes of ecclesiastical utility, I would
request him, before coming to this conclusion, to open his
eyes on some very instructive and significant facts, most
of them of modern date.
The idea that any Romanist will take oaths of allegiance
to our country that he does not mean to'keep is often re-
pudiated as a slanderous imputation on honorable men.
They say this under the influence of their own Protestant
views, not reflecting that Romanism not only justifies, but
encourages, such false swearing for the good of the church.
If any are incredulous, then let them consider the case
of Judge Gaston, a distinguished Romanist of North
Carolina.
The facts of the case are these : The constitution of
that state was made when all intelligent men coincided
with the views expressed by the Continental Congress
in an address to the people o Great Britain, dated Oc-
tober 31, 1774.
11 (12D
122 THE .PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
In this, after expostulating against the favor shown to
the Romanists of Canada as dangerous to the liberties of
the Protestant colonies, they say, " Nor can we suppress
our astonishment that a British Parliament should ever
consent to establish in that country A RELIGION THAT HAS
DELUGED YOUR ISLAND IN BLOOD, and dispersed IMPIETY,
BIGOTRY, PERSECUTION, MURDER, AND REBELLION through
every part of the world." So thought the patriots of the
revolution.
Under the influence of such convictions, the framers of
the constitution of North Carolina determined to exclude
Romanists from office in that state, and inserted an article
to that effect. The facts as to Judge Gaston I give in the
words of Dr. Breckenridge, in his able work entitled
Papism in the United States in the Nineteenth Century.
After stating that he was one of the most distinguished
citizens of the state and one of her ablest lawyers, he
says,
" By the constitution of North Carolina, he is expressly
disqualified to hold the office he occupies, precisely because
he chooses to be a Catholic. In the thirty-second article it
is thus written : ' That no person who shall deny the being
Of God, OR THE TRUTH OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION, Or
the divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments,
or u'ho shall hold religious principles incompatible with the
freedom, and safety of the state, shall be capable of holding
any office, or place of trust or profit, in the civil govern-
ment within this state.' Now, Mr. Gaston is at this
moment a judge of the Court of Appeals of North Caro-
lina. Before he took his seat on the bench, he took an
oath in some usual form to support the constitution of that
state. Part of that constitution asserts and assumes the
truth of the Protestant religion. But Mr. Gaston is an
avowed and most decided Papist. Now, will he do him-
self the justice, mankind -the favor, and his religion the
service of explaining this conduct ?
CAUTIONS TO AMERICANS. 123
" Mr. Gaston has sworn to maintain ' THE TRUTH OP THE
PROTESTANT RELIGION ;' he has sworn to maintain a con-
stitution which disqualifies him the moment he shall
' deny the truth of the, Protestant religion ; ' and yet he is
confessedly a Papist a believer in all the necessary
dogmas, and a member in full exercise of all the privileges,
of that faith which the creed of Pope Pius IV. pronounces
to be exclusive not only, but indispensable to salvation
that church which declares itself to be, and which all who
repeat its creed promise and swear to maintain as, the
' mother and MISTRESS' of all churches, and to use all
diligence, by all means in their power, to spread all around
them. In the name of common honesty, how could Judge
Gaston assent to the creed of Pope Pius IV., which is the au-
thorized creed of his church, and at the same time assent to
the provision quoted above from the constitution of North
Carolina ? Can a man swear with a good conscience to
opposite facts, statements, and opinions ? "
After a full discussion of the subject, he comes to this
conclusion :
" If I had acted as Judge Gaston has, my sect would
have deposed me from the ministry, my congregation
would have shut my church doors against me, my friends
would have wept over me as one undone, and the whole
world would have had but one opinion about it ; and that
opinion would have been, that I was a degraded man.
Then why not mete the same measure to Judge Gaston ?
I will tell you why. It is because Judge Gaston is a Papist j
and his creed admits and approves his conduct. Arid, there-
fore, let every man that loves God pity and forgive Judge
Gaston, and frown down his pestiferous superstition, as
the parent of all vice and the enemy of every virtue."
The criminal apathy of the press on a point so momen-
tous he thus explains :
" Is the public press already Catholic, or infidel ? Is the
whole editorial corps converted, subsidized, afraid, or
124 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
totally indifferent ? No ; this is by no means so. If a
Methodist judge should take a false oath, or a Presbyte-
rian judge commit a flagrant violation of morality, or an
Episcopal judge outrage public decency, or a Deistical
judge be guilty of deliberate perfidy in official affairs, in
all these cases the public press would fully respond to the
public feeling, and the judge would be disgraced, if not
degraded. Why deal out a different measure to a Catholic
judge? I will tell you why. It is because every Catholic
in the world makes common cause with every other
Catholic in the world, and with the Pope of Rome, as the
head of all the world, and with the Catholic church, as the
mother and mistress of all the churches in the world.
Virtue is nothing, truth is nothing, religion is nothing,
country is nothing, liberty is nothing ; the church is ALL,
and the pope its head ; and all its true members form one
universal conspiracy against every good of man and the
honor of God himself. Printers feel the force, though
they may deny the reality, of this conspiracy."
The case of Judge Gaston is fearfully significant. His
church has solemnly decided that an oath contrary to
ecclesiastical utility is not binding. He simply believes
the church, and acts accordingly ; or else, according to
the Jesuits, he swears, not intending to do what he swears.
And what oath or promise is there that these same
principles will not dissolve ? No matter who it is, whether
bishop or layman, who swears allegiance to a national or
a state government, his oath does not bind him in any
case in which the pope or the bishops shall decide that
ecclesiastical utility requires its violation.
On the same principles, any Romanist, whether layman
or ecclesiastic, can profess to be a Protestant, and join any
Protestant church, for the sake of acting the more ef-
fectually to undermine Protestantism and to extend the
power of the Papacy. There is the best ground to believe
that this has been done in the English Protestant church
CAUTIONS TO AMERICANS. 12-5
on a great scale. Why should it not be so ? According
to the supreme authority of the church, and Jesuit morality
also, it is so far from being wrong that it is highly meri-
torious. In the same way men or women may assume any
disguise, and act under any profession, in order to subserve
the interests of the church.
On the same ground, a Romish bishop may in the most
solemn and public manner proclaim as true and undeniable
what he knows to be utterly false ; as, for example, in the
case of a public discussion.
Thus Bishop Purcell, in his controversy in Cincinnati with
A. Campbell, denied in the most solemn manner that a
passage quoted by Campbell from a compend of the morals
of St. Liguori was ever written by him. He said to the
audience, " I now pledge myself to show to every man of
honor in this city that the last allegation read by the
gentleman, purporting to be from the works of Liguori, is
not to be found in the works of that writer. It is all a
base fabrication, I will not say of Mr. C., but of somebody.
I will meet this charge with a complete and an overwhelm-
ing refutation." Much more of the same kind of declama-
tion he employed, and produced the desired effect for the
time. But what was the fact ? It was proved, after the
debate was over and there had been time to hear from
New York from the author of the compend, that it was in
the works of Liguori, and was properly translated. It
was found in the bishop's own copy. This extract, how-
ever, revealed the fact, that although the church will ex-
communicate a priest for marrying a wife, yet the council
of Trent only imposed fines on those priests who kept con-
cubines ; and Liguori taught that a bishop ought to appro-
priate these finesybr pious uses ! It is not to be wondered
at that the bishop's ideas of ecclesiastical utility led him
to feel that it was desirable, at least during the debate, to
11*
126 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
break the force of such statements of Liguori, and there-
fore he indignantly called them a base fabrication. (See
Debate, pp. 219, 253, and note at the end.) This is the
same bishop who used to manifest great zeal for the public
schools of Cincinnati before the people, when at the same
time he was writing to Europe denunciations of them as
pernicious and dangerous. That he was so doing became
manifest by the publication of one or more of his letters
in Europe, which found their way to this country, and were
translated and published for the benefit of the good peo-
ple of Cincinnati. The pope, of course, saw fit to remove
him, after this exposure, to some other post of honor, and
no doubt rewarded him for his zeal in behalf of ecclesi-
astical utility.
In like manner Pope Pius VI. did not hesitate to lie in
order to remove the odium of the doctrines of the church
in Great Britain. As quoted by Bishop Kenrick, p. 471
Primacy, he says, not ex cathedra and in his own name,
be it noticed, but through Cardinal Antonelli, " The see
of Rome never taught that faith is not to be kept with
the heterodox ; that an oath to kings separated from the
Catholic communion can be violated ; that it is lawful for
the Bishop of Rome to invade their temporal rights and
dominions." Now, even if the pope had said this ex ca-
thedra it would be of no force, for it is a mere assertion
as to historical facts, and he is not held even by Roman-
ists to be infallible as to such facts, but only as to doc-
trines and principles of faith ; and it is merely a denial
of facts as notorious as his own existence. He might as
well have said that Luther, and Calvin, and the reforma-
tion never existed as to make the notoriously false state-
ment above quoted.
But it was done for the sake of aiding the Romanists
of Great Britain in their struggles for civil power and
CAUTIONS TO AMERICANS. 127
privileges ; and there is no reason why a pope should not
lie for ecclesiastical utility as -well as any other bishop or
any layman.
Thus, also, we explain the fact that the deaths of Cal-
vin, Luther, Zwingle, (Ecolampadius. and Carolstadt were
deliberately and grossly misrepresented by leading Pa-
pists. It was done on grounds of ecclesiastical utility, in
order to convey to their own party the idea that these
enemies of Popery died as heretics beneath the manifest
wrath of God. Bishop Stratford has written a large and
able tract, designed to expose and refute these most atro-
cious falsehoods. But such men as Cardinal Bellarmine
the Jesuit, and others concerned in this work of slander,
were simply carrying out the doctrine of their own order
as to slander, and of the church as to lying for ecclesias-
tical utility.
For the same reason, at Rome the Jesuit teachers of
Raffaele Ciocci, as he informs us, constantly told him,
when a youth, " that the Protestants did not worship
Christ ; that they slaughtered each other daily like fero-
cious beasts ; that they put the Roman Catholics to death ;
that they attended to no civil restrictions, but continually
lived in a state of anarchy. These misrepresentations,
these diabolical assertions, were received by me as in-
controvertible truths." (See his Narrative, p. 13.)
Also in a monastery the monks suppressed his letters to
his parents, and theirs to him, and forged a correspond-
ence on both sides, in order to induce him to sign a
deed giving all his property to the monastery. Narra-
tive, pp. 39-46.
On the same principles, all nuns that escape from con-
vents are declared insane, and any kind of falsehood is
resorted to to entrap and abduct those who forsake their
faith. The case of Hannah Corcoran, of Charlestown,
128 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Massachusetts, will illustrate this statement. She was
carried off for choosing to become a Protestant. Neither
priests nor relations knew where she was ; but when it be-
came evident that an indignant community would not hold
them guiltless she was soon found and restored. And
through all the case there was no scruple to use false-
hood to any extent.
On the same principles, promises are freely made not to
interfere with the religious principles of the children of
Protestants in their schools, which are of course violated
without scruple ; and children have even been taught to
deceive their parents, in order to avoid their opposition or
censure.
We shall never understand such facts until we fully
comprehend their doctrines as to lying as I have ex-
plained them. Their system so debases and corrupts
their moral sense that they regard the most atrocious
lying for " ecclesiastical utility " as not merely no sin, but
a positive merit.
At the time of the Gunpowder Plot in England, de-
signed to blow up and destroy the king and House of
Lords and Commons, Catesby, one of the conspirators,
consulted Father Garnet, the superior of the Jesuits,
whether " it were lawful to promote the good of the Ro-
man cause by destroying some innocent among many
guilty." Garnet answered, "If the advantage of the
Catholic cause were greater by destroying some innocent
with many guilty, it was certainly lawful to kill and de-
stroy them all."
As to the propriety of blowing up the Protestants, it
seems, there could be no doubt. The only question was,
Was it right to blow up a few Romanists also who would
be present? His reply we have seen. Ecclesiastical util-
ity outweighed all else.
CAUTIONS TO AMERICANS. 129
When arrested and tried for treason as an accomplice
in the plot, he alleged that he received the knowledge of
the plot in confession, and therefore could not lawfully
reveal it. It was proved, however, that he did not re-
ceive the knowledge of it in confession.
He also solemnly declared on his priesthood that he
had had no correspondence with Greenwell (a conspira-
tor) since they had met at Caughton. Yet at this very
time the judges had in their hands letters of his which he
had written to Greenwell since that time. On seeing the
letters he confessed the fact, but, when censured, defended
his perjury on the principles of his order, as right. He
died, moreover, with another lie in his mouth, and secretly
wrote to his friends to lie for him after his death. In all
this he was but following the rule of ecclesiastical utility
and the Jesuit code of morals, and was esteemed in other
respects as a learned, amiable, and eminent man. But his
system brought him to the death of a perjured traitor.
But why should I continue the painful work of illustra-
tion and proof? Call to mind the holy coat of Treves ;
call to mind the pretended miracles of modern times ; call
to mind the deceptions as to relics and hallowed medals,
with power to avert or cure diseases.
The ecclesiastics who do these things are not ignorant
men. They know better. They delude and defraud the
people on principle and systematically. Hardly can we
call such frauds pious frauds. They better merit the name
of barefaced swindling. And yet even Romish bishops do
not hesitate to engage in such proceedings, and to use all
their power to deceive and gull the simple and ignorant
masses, who look up to them for instruction as to the ora-
cles of God.
Not only, then, do the Romish ecclesiastics adopt the
principle, that for their own interests they may dissolve
130 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
the bonds of right and honesty to those without, but, by
the use of fraud and delusion towards their own ignorant
populace for purposes of power or gain, they place their
own interests above theirs also, and thus above those of
the whole human race.
"We shall more clearly see the truth of this statement
when we have contemplated the fact, that from the very
outset the foundations of their power have been laid in
forgery and fraud.
Nothing gives such an idea of the patience of God as
the thought that he has so long endured such a system
and such men.
PAET II.
ROMANISM THE ENEMY OF MANKIND.
CHAPTER I.
THE CASE STATED. PRINCIPLES OF JUDGMENT.
A CORPORATION which arrogates to itself so exclusively
the favor of God ; which regards all Protestants as pa-
gans ; which, for the crime of rejecting its claims, disfran-
chises them, and has shed the blood of millions, ought at
least to have some peculiar and preeminent merits of its
own. It ought, in theory, to tend to good ; and, after a
trial of more than ten centuries, it ought to have left evi-
dence of the reality and power of that tendency in the
records of history.
As this corporation is constantly thrusting itself on the
attention of this nation as the only hope of humanity, and
avows its purpose, as soon as it has power, to expel and
to exterminate Protestantism, it will not be amiss if we
subject it to a rigid and thorough scrutiny.
The principles of such a scrutiny are simple and ob-
vious. "We are to consider, not the pretences of its parti-
(131)
132 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
sans, but its internal structure, its mode of operation, its
tendencies, and its results. If a company of inquisitors
were to introduce into this city various instruments of
torture such as the fertile genius of the Romish corpora-
tion has so abundantly devised, and carry them to a large
building recently erected, calling them, at the same time,
musical instruments, it is probable that such a name would
exert but little influence in satisfying the mind of the com-
munity of the benevolent nature of their designs, in erect-
ing the building and introducing the instruments. They
would consider their structure, their mode of operation,
their tendencies, and natural results. They would, after
considering these points, probably conclude that they were
instruments of torture, and that the only music that would
ever be produced by them would be that of groans and
shrieks of agony.
So it should be little to us that the Romish corporation
calls itself a church, and professes to aim at promoting
the glory of God and the welfare of man. In a case of
so much moment, we should not be deceived by names and
pretences. We ought thoroughly to examine the struc-
ture of the system itself, notice its tendencies, and inquire
what it has in fact done during its long history.
To prevent all misunderstanding, however, it is neces-
sary at this point to remark that we are to view the sys-
tem of Romanism in reference to those things which it has
in distinction from and in opposition to Protestantism,
laying out of the account any doctrines that it has in com-
mon with Protestantism.
This is but equitable ; for any good which may result
from such doctrines as it has in common with Protestant-
ism certainly ought not to be set down to its credit as
Romanism ; for it exists, not on account of the peculiar-
ities of Romanism, but in spite of them.
THE CASE STATED. PRINCIPLES OF JUDGMENT. 133
Thus, though Romanism avows a belief of the being of
a God, and receives the Bible as his word, and has in its
doctrinal system many elements of truth which may be so
arranged as to meet the wants of holy minds, yet this is
nothing to its credit as Romanism ; for the doctrine con-
cerning God, and the Bible, and the same elements of truth
are-found without that system among the Protestants, and
operate there with much greater energy, and with less to
counteract their power.
Indeed, the power of Romanism to do evil is augment-
ed by the fact that it has in it so much truth. This truth
is, if we may so say, in a state of captivity to the Romish
hierarchy, and is used by them to gain their own ends.
They use it to give authority to their system.
By means of it they fit up some rooms in the great Ba-
bel in which holy men can dwell and worship God, though
in captivity. Meantime the existence of such good men
under the system is used to give it influence. They are
as stool pigeons to draw others into the snare.
It is a part of the policy of the system to introduce all
manner of inconsistent or contradictory views for va-
rious minds. Hence, though it contains many of the fun-
damental doctrines of Protestantism for the pious, yet
none the less does it introduce for other classes other doc-
trines which neutralize or contradict them. And, if the
contradictions are pointed out, it covers them up by the
plea of mystery.
But, passing from what it has in common with Protes-
tantism, let us consider what is peculiarly its own.
Let us, then, look at the system, stripping off its sancti-
monious phraseology, and testing it by an impartial con-
sideration of its tendencies and results.
12
\
CHAPTER II.
POPERY A RELIGION, A TRADING CORPORATION AND A
GOVERNMENT.
IF we examine carefully the system of Romanism, in its
theory and in its practice, we shall discover a curious
triple combination, composed of a religion, a trading cor-
poration, and a government.
POPERY A RELIGION.
The great idea of the corporation as a religious body
is, that it has an absolute and exclusive authority to con-
fer the grace of God, as displayed in the pardon of sin
and the gift of eternal life. This grace it dispenses
through certain agents, who alone are empowered to con-
fer it and whose grace alone is genuine. All other pre-
tended grace is spurious and counterfeit.
Again : this grace is communicated through various
forms, or processes, called sacraments, and through the
profession of a certain creed, and through confession to
one of their agents, called a priest, who has full power
from God, through them, to forgive sins, and to impose
penances as the condition.
So far the system has the aspect of a religion. If, now,
all this were done freely, and not as a means of obtaining
(134)
POPERY A RELIGION, A TRADING CORPORATION, ETC. 135
money, the aspect of a trading company would not be
seen. But such is not the fact.
POPERY A TRADING CORPORATION.
In all ages this system has been used as a means of ac-
cumulating immense sums of money in return for the grace
of God, of which it has the entire monopoly. This grace
reaches, not merely to this life, but to an indefinite period
beyond this life, in which the soul is neither in heaven nor
in hell, but somewhere between, in a place of torment
called purgatory. Besides the common grace of God,
this corporation has laid up an inexhaustible store of the
merits of all saints beyond what was needed for their
own salvation ; and of these merits, also, they have the
entire monopoly. Thus, by masses, and the application of
these merits, and by prayers for the dead, they can deliver
souls from purgatory ; and for a reasonable compensation
they are always ready to do it. This gives them great
power at sick beds, and over the wills of dying men and
women, and over the purses of living relatives and friends.
They have, also, various other sources of profit from the
living, in the form of indulgences for sin ; scapularies, as
defences against all evils ; masses of every variety and
for every purpose ; dispensations from fasts ; removals of
impediments to marriage ; miraculous medals ; various de-
fences against the devil ; grace through the images or rel-
ics of patron saints, especially on their annual festivals ;
and numerous other similar devices'. It will be found that
all the peculiar doctrines and practices of Popery have a
wonderful adaptation to produce immense pecuniary profit.
Thus, at the anniversaries of saints, all who visit their
shrines are not to expect grace unless they deposit offer-
136 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
ings. In like manner, the grace of relics is most abundant
towards the most liberal contributors. One recent in-
stance will cast light on this matter. The celebrated
prelate, Arnold of Treves, and his priests, are said to have
received one hundred thousand dollars in six months from
offerings made in order to obtain a portion of the grace
stored up in the holy coat. Eighty thousand medals of
the Virgin, full of the same grace, were also sold, and also
ribbons, bits of cloth, cotton, and silk which had touched
the holy coat, and thus derived a portion of its salutary
power. All the old rags in the neighborhood of Treves
were thus sold for their weight in gold. The total value
of this particular adventure is estimated at three hundred
thousand dollars.
It is to be understood that the Romish corporation has
the monopoly of this department of gracious influence also,
and that no bones, hair, skulls, chairs, coats, ribbons, medals,
cloth, cotton, and silk are genuine except those which
come from their manufactory. I have mentioned other
important departments of traffic equally profitable, or
even more so.
Here, then, opens upon us the view of an immense com-
merce carried on for ages, the statistics of which have
never yet been reported. But it is well known that, at the
time of the reformation, this corporation and their agents
had gained possession of half, and sometimes of three
quarters, of the property of the various states of Europe.
Nor is there any question that, if the details were known,
it would be found that the commerce of Tyre, of Carthage,
of Venice, of the Hanse Towns, of the East India Compa-
ny, and of all other trading companies whatever has been
quite thrown into the shade by the traffic of this great
corporation. Hence in .prophecy its downfall is repre-
sented under the symbol of the ruin of an immense com-
mercial city.
POPERY A RELIGION, A TRADING CORPORATION, ETC. 137
POPERY A GOVERNMENT.
Viewing this corporation as a government, the aspect
of things is no less impressive. The head of the corpora-
tion is both a spiritual and a temporal ruler. He claims
to be monarch of all monarchs. His senate of cardinals
and electors are princes. His bishops also are lords each
in his diocese, but are still his vassals, bound to him by a
feudal oath. To him also are bound the rulers of the
Jesuits and of the various orders of monks and nuns, who
are an all-pervading soldiery, sworn to do his will. To
the bishops also are subjected the secular priests, and to
them are subjected the people. Thus the whole system is
one compact and all-pervading government, the rule of
which is absolute obedience to the central power and its
agents in regular subordination. It is an immense army
under military discipline.
12*
CHAPTER III.
OPEEATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM.
LET us now study the operation of this corporation on
the mind. And, first of all, it is evident that in religious
matters it puts itself in God's place. God could, no doubt,
if he pleased, reveal himself and impart grace to individ-
uals out of this corporation ; but he will not. He has de-
termined not to act except through this visible corpora-
tion. No one can have any thing to do with him but
through them. All the world outside of them is empty
of divine grace. There is no sunshine there. All is dark
as hell ; all is under the despotism of the devil. God
comes to man only as he has stored up in them his grace.
Of that grace they have inexhaustible quantities. They,
and they only, are the great head quarters of supply.
Again : as they are infallible, and as God has subjected
all men to them and put all grace into their hands, all
men are bound to be their subjects and also their cus-
tomers. To believe any others, or obey any others, or
buy the grace of God of any others, is treason.
Again : as they are infallible, so they aim, as far as
possible, to be omniscient and omnipresent. This they
effect by their agents who hear confessions. To them
every act, motive, feeling, thought, and plan must be dis-
closed, or no pardon of sins can be obtained ; for they
(138)
OPERATION AXD EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 139
cannot judge of sins unless they know all the circum-
stances of alleviation or aggravation.
Again : not only are the corporation to be regarded as
infallible, but also their agents to whom confession is
made are to be treated as infallible ; for, practically, the
people are not allowed to know what the corporation or
God teaches or demands by private judgment, but solely
through the priests. It comes to this, then, in practice,
that to each one his or her priest is as God, and hears
confessions and absolves as God ; and so their councils and
doctors teach. Each priest, then, is virtually an exten-
sion of the great divine, infallible, central corporation.
Thus the great central corporation branches out into
agencies and sub-agencies all over the world, through
which it teaches, governs, and trades.
It thus comes- to pass that though theoretically the
priest is not infallible, but only the great corporation, so
that they are not responsible for his statements, yet in
practice it is the priest who alone knows what the church,
who is infallible and as God, teaches, and he therefore is
practically infallible and as God ; and it is practical here-
sy or treason, as a general fact, not so to regard him.
GRAND PECULIARITY.
"We now come to a grand peculiarity of the system,
upon which its working power entirely depends. To the
masses it materializes and perverts all ideas of heaven
and hell ; it gives false and fanatical conceptions of God
as regarding this corporation more than real and genuine
holiness ; it fills the mind with superstitious fears, and
then concentrates all these forces, from the first dawn of
140 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
reason, to break down all energy or courage to think or
to reason from the Bible or from any other source against
their authority or decisions. Even to doubt is heresy ; it
is infidelity. It thus aims by the whole power of educa-
tion thoroughly to cut the sinews of reason and of reason-
ing, and to establish a habit-of blind and implicit belief.
In this they have most incredible success.
Few have ever adequately considered the wide range
of this operation. We know God as he is by love. Ev-
ery one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
The elements of heaven are found in the perfection of
love and of communion with God.
But the miseries of hell are but the opposite of the joys
of heaven ; they are the full development of malignant
passions and a sense of the just displeasure of God.
There is no need of literal penal fires ; nor does the Bible
teach their existence.
But the moment that God is conceived of as the partial
God of a corporation for the most part grossly immoral,
and holy men out of that church are consigned to literal
fire, no true ideas of God, heaven, or hell remain. He is
conceived of as an infinite, almighty, malignant demon.
Malignity and revenge are sanctified as zeal for him. Ar-
bitrary and fanatical terrors are multiplied. They pen-
etrate the youthful mind and freeze it with horror at the
thought of doubting the word of a corporation outside
of which he has consigned all to perdition. From the
effects of such training few ever recover.
Such is the corporation and such its mode of opera-
tion.
Let us next consider its tendencies and effects.
As Protestants, we are of course regarded as heretics.
Let us, then, first consider its aspects towards us.
OPEBATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 141
TREATMENT OF HERETICS.
First, then, it tends to make heresy the greatest of all
crimes, and especially the heresy of doubting or denying
the divine authority and the infallibility of the corpora-
tion.
The reason of this is plain. In the belief of this divine
authority and infallibility lies the whole working power
of the system in all its aspects religious, pecuniary, and
political. It is the essential, all-pervading element of its
vitality. Therefore it is only the natural instinct of self-
defence to consider the act of calling in question its di-
vine authority or infallibility the greatest of crimes. To
believe and act against its authority, its decisions, and its
will, is the great, the only, unpardonable sin. It is called
HERESY in the phraseology of theologians. Its real and
more intelligible name is, or ought to be, TREASON ; for this
is what they mean by it. It is resistance to their author-
ity, their power, their will, their law. Even if you are
not actually promulgating error, yet, if you claim the
right to judge of them or of their decisions by the Bible
or by reason, you are guilty of the very essence of trea-
son. It was for this, and this alone, that they burned
John Huss.
Again : on their premises, the destruction of heretics is
the natural and consistent development of the system.
For those who are not infallible to destroy dissentients is
illogical and inconsistent. But if such a corporation is a
true and genuine theocracy, and knows it, and is infallible
in all its decisions, if they are, in fact, God upon earth,
then they regard themselves as standing on genuine Old
Testament ground, and, in slaughtering heretics, as simply
imitating Elijah in his slaughter of the priests of Baal,
142 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
or Joshua in his slaughter of the idolatrous Canaanites at
the command of God.
So, indeed, those who have been brought up thoroughly
to believe the system have always looked at the matter.
Believing this corporation to be a true theocracy, involv-
ing all the interests of Grod and of man on earth, rebel-
lion against it and efforts to destroy its authority they
have regarded as the greatest of crimes. Hence we can
understand why, though the Spaniards pity other criminals
when executed, they exult and manifest peculiar joy at the
burning of heretics ; which is well known to be the fact.
Hence, also, the religious services on the occasion of the
massacre of St. Bartholomew were no more than the
logical results of the system.
Beyond all doubt this is the only real logical, consistent
Roman Catholic view. On no other ground can the deeds
of that system be defended ; and there is now; as we have
seen, a general tendency to take this ground and avow its
consequences, and to declare that as soon as they gain the
power they shall carry out these principles again.
On this ground Mr. Brownson denies that the Romish
church ever has persecuted : she has but exercised just
authority in punishing those who were guilty of treason.
TREATMENT OF THE BIBLE AND OF HISTORY.
But again : it follows that if in fact this corporation has
no basis in the Bible, nor in history, but is founded on im-
posture and forgery, it of course must create in the man-
agers of the corporation a peculiar and an intense hatred
of the Bible and of history. Viewed either as a religion,
a trading corporation, or a government, it would exert
immense power to avert the disclosures of God's word
OPERATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 143
and of the great volume of history. How much more
when the interests of three such systems combined in one
are in peril!
It is natural that the inhabitants of an immense palace
should regard with horror and indignation all efforts to
cast fire into it and consume it. Yet the Bible and his-
tory are merely the fire of God. Let them be fully de-
veloped, and this whole fabric is consumed. Of course
the most intense energies of this whole mighty corpora-
tion will be put forth to avert these results.
The doctrine of pious frauds, at its first development,
was feeble and its aspect plausible ; but out of it grew
the whole Papal system. And now, at last, all kinds of
fraud, pious and impious, are needed in its defence, and
must be and will be employed with the most intense en-
ergy. "We need not wonder that the system sanctions
them. It could not exist a day without them.
EFFECTS ON LIBERTY.
Once more : this system is, of necessity, one immense
conspiracy, designed to destroy the very roots of all intel-
lectual, civil, and religious liberty. This is essential in
order to sustain it. This is involved in the decision of
the church, " that he who only doubts concerning the faith,
is to be reputed an infidel." This maxim, applied from
the first development of the intellectual powers of a child,
and by every process of parental, priestly, and ecclesias-
tical influence, and by every terror that superstition can
summon up, paralyzes and cripples the minds of thorough-
ly educated Romanists to an extent of which it is hard to
conceive. This principle pervades the system with intense
144 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
power, and especially all Romish educational processes.
A habit of free and independent thought is fatal to their
church. Hence the hatred of the ecclesiastics of Rome
against our system of free schools, our histories, and our
Bibles. If she would maintain herself she must have a
system of education entirely under her control, so that she
may still, as heretofore, cripple and paralyze the mind
from its first to its last educational processes. This is
what she means to have.
How can a community thus educated be free? Can
any outward forms of government give freedom to a na-
tion the minds of whose children are thus paralyzed and
crippled from the dawn of life ? This effect of Romanism
was seen and lamented in France at the time of the last
revolution. One of her leading statesmen declared that
she could not follow the example of America in sustain-
ing popular institutions, and assigned the influence of
Papal education as the reason.
On this ground Pierce Connelly, once a Romish priest,
eloquently says, in his letter to Lord Shrewsbury assign-
ing his reasons for abjuring allegiance to the see of
Rome,
" It is not civil liberty that is the first want of the con-
tinent of Europe or of the Spanish republics of America.
The want is, the education necessary for men to be free,
the perception of what 'is liberty ; the want is, EMANCI-
PATION FROM A PSEUDO-DIVINE JURISDICTION UPON EARTH.
This is the want that makes the darkness of their future,
as of their present and their past. Rome weighs upon
her victims like an eternal nightmare. Who was more
impatient of the oppression than Venice ? But was her
proudest patrician ever free ? Nay, is Prussia, reduced to
a semi-Papal province by concordat, is Prussia or any
great kingdom of the continent free ? "
OPERATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 145
EFFECTS OX NATIONAL PROSPERITY.
Once more : the immense extortions of the system, as
well as its system of holidays, absorbing in idleness a
large portion of the time of the laboring classes, have
tended in all ages, and still tend, to impoverish the na-
tions over -which it holds sway. It is notorious that
kings and people in the most Catholic ages have groaned
most bitterly by reason of its various extortions, and have
been by them at last aroused to resistance. Such feelings
indeed, in part, caused the reformation. Hence the mis
erable condition of Italy, and especially of the population
of the Papal States.
In our own country, one of the priests has bitterly cursed
savings banks. The reason is plain. The church prefers
to extort the savings of the poor laborers of this country
for her own purposes rather than to have them deposited
for their earners in savings banks. So, also, she is deter-
mined to own all their church property. Moreover, be-
cause the system is hostile to all kinds of mental liberty,
it is of necessity hostile to all inventive power, and to all
free development of the laws of nature and of society,
and to "all social progress. This is self-evident ; for all
truth belongs to one great system ; and true freedom to in-
vestigate one part leads to true freedom to investigate
another. The only safe course is to arrest the process,
as when the Inquisition compelled Galileo to recant the
true theory of the motion of the earth.
Under such influences true social progress is impossible.
There will be no development of thrift, industry, energy,
enterprise, invention, even as we see to be the case in all
parts of Roman Catholic Ireland.
The historian Macaulay is disposed, even to an excess,
13
146 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
to give all the credit that he can to Rome before the ref-
ormation. His judgment, therefore, is the more impartial
as to what she is now. Speaking of the time since the ref-
ormation, he says,
" To stunt the growth of the human mind has been her
chief object. Throughout Christendom, whatever advance
has been made in knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in
the arts of life, has been made in spite of her, and has every
where been in inverse proportion to her power. The love-
liest and most fertile provinces of Europe have, under her
rule, been sunk in poverty, in political servitude, and in
intellectual torpor ; while Protestant countries, once pro-
verbial for sterility and barbarism, have been turned, by
skill and industry, in^o gardens, and can boast of a long
list of heroes and statesmen, philosophers and poets.
Whoever, knowing what Italy and Scotland naturally are,
and what, four hundred years ago, they actually were,
shall now compare the country round Rome with the coun-
try round Edinburgh, will be able to form some judgment
as to the tendency of Papal domination. The descent of
Spain, once the first among monarchies, to the lowest
depths of degradation, the elevation of Holland, in spite
of many natural disadvantages, to a position' such as no
commonwealth so small has ever reached, teach the same
lesson. Whoever passes, in Germany, from a Roman
Catholic to a Protestant principality, in Switzerland from
a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton, in Ireland from
a Roman Catholic to a Protestant county, finds that he has
passed from a lower to a higher grade of civilization. On
the other side of the Atlantic the same law prevails. The
Protestants of the United States have left far behind them
the Roman Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. The
Roman Catholics of Lower Canada remain inert ; while
the whole continent round them is in a ferment with Prot-
estant activity and enterprise."
OPEKATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 147
ROME THE EXEMY OF MAN.
From this general survey it is obvious that the Romish
church is the enemy of man in all aspects religious, po-
litical, and social. Nor would it seem possible to add
any thing to the magnitude and enormity of her guilt.
And yet, thus far, we have hardly begun to penetrate the
depths of her malignant influence. It is not until we have
understood the moral influence of her system upon her
priesthood, and through them upon all departments of re-
ligion and of social life, that we can thoroughly under-
stand the blasting and desolating power of Romanism.
I refer in particular to the influence of the celibacy of
the clergy, and of the confessional in connection with it.
Rome here has one advantage over Protestants. The
facts of her history in these respects are so outrageous
that they cannot, with any regard to decency, be fully
stated. Moreover they are so atrocious that, until we
see the law and the philosophy of their origin, they seem
incredible. In addition, it is painful to contemplate such
disgusting enormities and crimes.
I shall not try to deprive Romanism of her advantages
of this sort. I shall not pollute the public mind by a full
disclosure of the truth with respect to her abominations.
These are the things of which an apostle says it is a shame
even to speak.
Nevertheless, fidelity to God, and to our country, and
to humanity forbids that this topic be passed over. It is
proper, at least, to state general principles and some
leading facts.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. >
IT is plain that to administer a system like Romanism
requires a very peculiar class of men, and an intense
power of combination, and concentration, and military
discipline.
Men are needed bound to the pope more powerfully
than to any local community ; men who will not shrink
from any needed hypocrisy, falsehood, deception, or per-
fidy ; men who will be hardened and fanatical enough to
preside over and conduct the extremest kinds of torture
with a firmness of nerve which no pity can affect, and no
weakness turn back from the infliction of torment upon
torment.
In short, men are needed habituated to speak lies, in hy-
pocrisy, and having consciences seared as with a hot iron
men who are able, with brazen face, to claim all manner
of sanctity whilst performing all kinds of diabolical deeds.
Men are needed, fanatical, degraded, cruel, immitigable,
and unprincipled, to carry out such a system.
To produce concentration, celibacy is used. It cuts off
the clergy from all ties of family or home, and leaves them
to the full power of the great centre at Rome.
To fix the despotism on the people, the confessional is
used ; and by both of these together the priest is de-
graded, polluted, and defiled, and at the same time ren-
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THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 149
dered a hardened and cruel hypocrite and villain, fit for
any deed of infamy which the system demands. I do not
mean to include every priest in this statement, but only to
develop the general law and tendency of the system.
If we would thoroughly understand the full malignity,
the diabolical power, and intensity of the all-pervading
poison of Romanism, let the full import of this statement
be thoroughly understood. It is needless to make any
remarks on the importance of the clerical body under any
form of Christianity. They are the administrators of the
whole system ; they are diffused throughout the commu-
nity ; they act upon every interest of life. The family,
the school, the church are constantly under their influence.
In the sacred solemnities of marriage they officiate ; in the
joys of parents over a newborn child they sympathize ; in
the hour of sickness, by the bed of death, they are present
to administer spiritual instruction ; and in the hour of af-
fliction and bereavement it is theirs to offer the consola-
tions of the gospel. As the blood circulates through the
whole body, so does their influence penetrate and pervade
every part of the body politic.
What, then, can be more evident than that whatever
corrupts and degrades the clergy extends its malign in-
fluence throughout the whole community ? Whatever sanc-
tifies and elevates them, will diffuse with equal power
blessings of every kind.
It is, then, enough to condemn Romanism to utter det-
estation, as the enemy of both God and man, that it is a
system framed with satanic skill and power to corrupt and
to debase the clergy, and render them ineffably vile, and
hardened, and malignant.
If to any this language shall seem unwarrantably strong,
let such consider the two following facts :
By usurped authority, it undertakes to suspend, in all its
13*
150 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
clergy, the action of a great law of nature, ordained by
God for the welfare of man a law, too, which, from the
very nature of the case, acts with greater and more con-
stant power than any other that can be named. Love is
strong as death mightier than the grave. The coals
thereof are coals of fire, that hath a most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love ; neither can the floods
drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his
house for love, it would be utterly contemned.
It is not without reason that God made man capable of
this powerful affection. The family is a little model of
the universal system under God and the church ; and the
love on which it is based is an emblem of the highest love
of the universe even that which exists between God
and the redeemed.
Though God has thus associated this love with all that
is holy ; though he has pronounced marriage honorable in
all, and the bed undefiled ; though he has clearly intimated
his will that the clergy should have wives and rule their
families well, yet the corporation of Rome dares to stig-
matize as unholy what God has thus honored, and has
prohibited marriage to all her clergy, from the highest to
the lowest, on the ground that thus they can attain a
higher degree of sanctity. This is the first great fact to
be considered.
THE CONFESSIONAL.
The second great fact is this that these unhappy men,
thus condemned through life to contend with those pow-
erful impulses which God has implanted in their breasts,
are not allowed to retire from temptation and call off
their minds from forbidden thoughts, but are deliberately,
remorselessly, and constantly thrust into the very centre
THE CELIBACY OP THE CLERGY. 151
of the fiery furnace of temptation. This is done by requir-
ing them to "hear the confessions of all their flock, in which,
of course, are included those of females of all ages, and on
all the points that are involved in a thorough confession.
Any one who knows what this implies will not need to
hear any thing more. On topics upon which in common
life no refined person pretends to speak, they are required
by their theological teachers and text books to make the
most minute examinations as to the thoughts, imagina-
tions, desires, and acts of every female who comes to the
confessional. Not one Protestant in a thousand has any
idea what questions are proposed in the schedules of ex-
amination set forth in their most authoritative text books.
Decency forbids their utterance.
Now, with regard to this arrangement, it may be truly
said that satanic ingenuity could not devise a system
better adapted to corrupt and debase the clerical body as
a mass. It is no more certain that water will run down
hill than it is that they will not resist the temptations to
which they are exposed. They will be corrupted and
will become corrupters.
And yet they are bound to profess and to claim for
themselves and for their church great and exclusive holi-
ness. The Protestant clergy, who are blessed of God in
lawful marriage, they are bound to denounce as unclean.
At the same time they are distinctly conscious that the
only difference in the case is, that against solemn vows,
and without the blessing of God, and as seducers and cor-
rupters, they seek for and obtain that which the others
enjoy according to the divine and hallowed ordinance of
God.
Licentiousness always hardens and degrades the charac-
ter in any circumstances ; but in circumstances like these,
how unspeakably much more ! He who can carry on the
152 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
lying involved in such a course is trained for any and
all other lying. He who is debased and hardened by
such a process is fitted for any and all other atrocious
deeds. That such is the result of the system, there is,
alas ! evidence beyond the power of full utterance. Some
of it, however, shall be presented.
VAST SOCIAL EVILS.
But, before presenting this evidence, we need to take
another view of the case in order to understand the full
extent of the evil. We need to remember that the celi-
bacy of the clergy is founded on the heathenish notion
which early corrupted the Christian church that the
material system which God has created in so much wis-
dom and benevolence is malignant in its tendencies, and
is the chief, if not the only, cause of sin. Of course, to
be connected with a material body is, on these principles,
a great calamity and the chief source of depravity ; and
the great idea in the cultivation of holiness is to mortify
the body and refuse to indulge its appetites.
In particular, even the well-regulated gratification of
that most honorable and powerful affection upon which
God designed the marriage union and the family state to
rest is dishonored and degraded, as utterly inconsistent
with the highest attainments in holiness. Whoever would
become eminently holy, whether man or woman, must first
of all abjure marriage and take the vow of perpetual
celibacy and chastity.
Thus, at the very outset, an all-pervading injury is in-
flicted on the great mass of mankind, who must and will
live in the married state, by consigning them to a state
of necessary uncleanness and relative moral degradation.
THE CELIBACY OP THE CLERGY. 153
None of them can ever become eminently holy. That
blessed eminence is reserved for unmarried priests and
nuns.
No greater calamity can befall a community than
to have their fundamental ideas of true religion thus
darkened and confused. It lays the foundation for their
utter delusion in their religious experience as a whole, for
a low standard of morals, and for their subjugation to a
system which excludes the intelligent action of the mind
in view of truth, and substitutes for it confession to a priest,
and penances, and fasts, and sacraments, whose efficacy de-
pends solely upon the priesthood. As thus all just ideas
of religion as a rational and sanctified state of the affec-
tions and will, acting itself out in a holy life, are exploded,
we need not wonder that in place of it comes a religion
of heartless works, and forms, and shows, and imaginative
excitements.
Holiness no longer comes through a knowledge of God
and his law, producing a true sense of sin and leading to
repentance and faith in Christ ; it comes through a cer-
tain mysterious grace, through baptism, the Lord's supper,
and other sacraments, of which the clergy have the entire
monopoly ; and, as there is no discriminating standard
of holiness, all kinds of sympathetic and imaginative ex-
citements are mistaken for it. The natural affections, the
excitement of music, and pictures, and images, all is
religion.
Thus the false principles from which the celibacy of the
clergy originates, like a malignant poison, pervade the
whole system, and blast and destroy true religion at its
very roots, and introduce in its place a system of blind
delusion and of bondage.
Meantime the end at which the system professes to aim,
the actual chastity of the clergy, in the great ma-
jority of cases is not gained.
154 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
It is folly to suppose that God will interpose by special
grace to prevent a system based on a fundamental vio-
lation of his great laws from working out its natural
results. In fact he has not interposed ; and history testi-
fies in all ages, and by an inconceivable amount of evi-
dence, that it has wrought out its legitimate results,
especially in the deep corruption and fatal degradation of
the clergy, and, through them, of the community.
Well has the word of God stigmatized this whole theory
as a " doctrine of devils," introduced by the great apos-
tasy. Like an all-pervading pestilence, it smites with
fatal malignity all the dearest interests of society ; for
it not only thus debases the clergy, but also consigns to
necessary degradation and bondage all the masses of
society, confusing and confounding all ideas of the very
nature of holiness itself.
Overlooking the fundamental work of eradicating the
great roots of sin, selfishness, pride, envy, and ambition,
and thus leaving the most malignant passions to reign in
the heart, it makes holiness in its highest forms to consist
in a vain and fruitless conflict with those appetites which
God has implanted in man's nature, which can never be
overcome or exterminated, and the gratification of which
within well-defined limits is always innocent.
CHAPTER V.
REASONS FOE, A THOROUGH CONSIDERATION OF THIS
PART OF THE SUBJECT.
THERE are three reasons why this part of the system
should be wisely and thoroughly considered. First : be-
cause the Romish corporation, claiming to be the only holy
and divinely authorized church, propose to extend it
throughout this land and once more to subject the people
to it as of old. Again : because it is essential to the per-
manence and power of the Romish corporation. And
again : because on this point Romanism has so fully de-
veloped its tendencies and results in history that there are
ample materials for a full and perfect judgment.
It is plain that the Romanists contemplate the exten-
sion of the celibacy of the clergy, and of monks, and Jes-
uits, and nuns, throughout this country, from their avowals
and their proceedings. They would subject us to such a
system as France, and Spain, and Italy, and Austria have
known and still know by a sad experience. "We ought,
therefore, to know what that experience was and is. We
ought also to know what was the state of things in Europe
at large before the reformation, that we may see what the
system was when not counteracted by Protestantism. God,
by an experience of long centuries, has given to us ample
stores of knowledge on the subject, of which we ought to
avail ourselves ; for if there is a subject on which the
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156 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
whole world ought to feel with a holy, God-inspired, all-
pervading, fiery energy, it is this. In fact it is at this
time calling up in Europe the attention of even Romish
communities as well as of Protestants. On this point the
Eclectic Review says,
" The great movement at present going on in Germany
is a sufficient awakener. What has stirred like a tempest
the whole ocean of Catholic life over almost every district
of that great nation? The horrors resulting from the
celibacy of the clergy, against which they have long pe-
titioned the pope in vain.
" The scandal to public morals and to private manners
every where occasioned by the celibacy of the clergy, and
the horrors resulting from that diabolical institution, have
been of such a nature as completely to open the eyes of
the most simple and stupid, and to occasion loud demands
for its removal. According to German policy, every
means has been used to suppress the knowledge of the ter-
rible revelations which from time to time were taking
place. The press was securely prevented by the censor
from ever alluding to them ; the police hushed all possible
discussion regarding them. Yet, spite of all this, such
bloody and tragic facts have oozed through the thick walls
of nunneries, and cast a horrible shade on the still roofs
of village parsonages, as have thrilled Avith indignant
terror the heart of every hearer. In many parsonages
the people have preferred to see a family of children
growing up, of whose parentage no question could be
asked, to risking, even by a single remark, the increase
of that feeling by which infanticide was made certain and
fearfully frequent. In many states those religious pilgrim-
ages to the shrines of certain popular saints, which still
in Austria and Bavaria are very numerous, in which
often as many as ten thousand people will be engaged,
making long journeys through solitary forests and over the
mountains, encamping in obscure places far from towns by
night, and perhaps for days, at the end of their journey,
around the shrine, in some as lonely a spot, have been
obliged to be forbidden by government, from the license
REASONS FOR CONSIDERING THIS SUBJECT. 157
and the crimes to which they gave origin, and in which
the clergy often figured most mischievously for the inter-
ests of religion. In Austria the resort to these shrines is
still enormous. In the month of September alone the
visitants to that of Maria Taferl, near Linz, often amount
to one hundred and thirty thousand ; and all summer the
people are streamiug from Vienna and numberless other
places to that of the Black Virgin at Mariazell, in Styria."
But, notwithstanding such things and even worse have
been known to the Romish corporation, they are deter-
mined to cling to the system with a death grasp ; for by
it the clergy are detached from local attachments and cen-
tralized around the Pope of Rome. The question of abol-
ishing clerical celibacy was called up by the reformation ;
it was earnestly argued in the council of Trent. Leading
Catholic sovereigns urged the measure ; but Papal policy
resisted and prevailed.
Nevertheless, such is the history of the past on this sub-
ject that injured and insulted humanity every where ought
to be aroused and animated by God till the whole system
shall be consumed with avenging fire. On this point the
, same reviewer says,
" The governments of the most Catholic states are com-
pelled to curb that license which the court of Rome allows,
and to put down those atrocities which have received the
patronage and the blessings of the most celebrated pon-
tiffs. The very clergy themselves writhe and groan under
the bondage into which the decree of Gregory VII. has
thrown them a decree which has condemned them to a
living death, and made them, where they should be the
fountains of holiness, the most prolific fountains of crime
and scandal. In vain they have implored the pope to
reconsider and abolish this unnatural decree ; its abolition
now would bring down the whole Papal fabric. In the
Black Songs of Benedict Dalei, purporting to be the po-
etic autobiography of a Catholic priest, the whole terrible
14
158 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
mystery of iniquity, the purgatory, and lonely wretched-
ness of a priest's life are depicted with a feeling that makes
you shrink with horror from the contemplation. It is this
terrible reality, acting alike on priests and people in
Catholic countries, making the priest's life a true misery,
converting him into a spy and a tool, compelling him who
has vowed before God to proclaim the truth into a studied
and inevitable supporter of the most infamous frauds, a
cor-rupter of the minds of the young, and a tyrant where
he should be the friend, it is because the confessional has
become the soul trap of Satan and the well of all spiritual pol-
lutions that the popular mind has revolted from the system
throughout Germany, and will revolt from it, finally, every
where. In England we have had these horrors removed
from our observation ; and therefore Catholicism is toler-
able and even piquant to the imagination. Let M. Mi-
chelet say what is in France."
The concluding remarks of the Eclectic reviewer are ap-
plicable to this country. Popery here is not seen in its true
character and full development, and therefore to some it
seems tolerable ; and efforts have been made to render it
piquant to the imagination. Bishop Kenrick has, with
great audacity, undertaken this work. He has under-
taken, not only to vindicate the system, but to prove that
the influence of the confessional tends, " like a river of
pure water from the temple of God, to wash away all the
pollutions of society."
It is therefore essential that every true American should
be well informed on this great and momentous theme, af-
fecting as it does the morals and the whole well being of
coming ages. In vain does Bishop Kenrick say that the
system works well hei'e. A young tiger may seem, when
in his infancy, as harmless as a kitten ; but it is a tiger
still. I do not believe in the purity of the system here.
But if it were so, what then? What if, when not full
grown and surrounded by Protestant vigilance, it should
REASONS FOR CONSIDERING THIS SUBJECT. 159
not reveal itself as it always has in Romanized countries?
Still, if ever it should gain the ascendency in this com-
munity, its effects will surely be the same that they always
have been.
Before God and this nation, then, let this system be ar-
raigned, charged, and tried as the great corrupter of the
clergy, and, through them, of mankind. The bishops who
defend it, if ignorant, ought to be confronted with its past
history. If not ignorant, as is probably the case with all
of them, then their criminal attempts to delude the Amer-
ican people ought to be exposed.
It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this
part of the subject. It has been well said by an intelli-
gent French writer, once a Romanist, " The strength and
vigor of Roman Catholics depend upon their priests ;
through them is their only means of annoyance ; they are the
true column of the Papacy." On no subject did Lafayette
feel more deeply. Let us heed his warning voice. He
said, " AMERICAN LIBERTY CAN BE DESTROYED ONLY BY THE
POPISH CLERGY."
But let us be just. Young men are not corrupt, as a
general fact, when they enter the Popish seminaries to
prepare to become priests. It is the system of celibacy,
and the confessional, and the company of priests already
corrupted that corrupt them in successive generations in
actual life. Those who are thus seduced and corrupted
by an abominable system deserve our pity, although they
do finally become hardened and reprobate.
But what shall be said of that great central corpora-
tion which, well knowing from age to age that this system
was inundating the world with pollution, has, from mo-
tives of power and profit, under hypocritical pretences
of holiness, and against all protestations and remon-
strances, upheld the system ? Ought they not to meet, in its
160 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
highest forms, the unmingled execration of mankind, and
to encounter the fiery judgment of God ?
I am well aware that this language is strong and these
charges severe ; yet they are not the result of passionate
excitement, but of deep conviction before God. I am
willing to be held responsible for them. If I do not prove
them, let me be dealt with as a slanderer. But if they
are true, then, if any thing ought to move heaven and
earth, yea, God and the whole universe, to retributive ven-
geance, it is such facts as these.
CHAPTER VI.
THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE.
IT is fit that evidence should be adduced to sustain the
correctness of the views which have been presented of the
corrupting influence of the celibacy of the clergy and the
confessional.
The most common and popular evidence is found in those
severe allegations which converted Romish priests have
made against the morals of the Romish clergy, and which are
in full accordance with the views which have been given.
But the Romanists repudiate the statements of such, as the
foul slander of apostate priests. Thus they try to destroy
the force of the testimony of Anthony Gavin, in his Master
Key to Popery ; of Blanco White, in his Practical and
Internal Evidence against Catholicism ; of the Confes-
sions of a Catholic Priest, edited by Professor S. F. B.
Morse, of New York ; of Giustiniani ; of Hogue ; and of
others. Thus to a considerable extent the force of these
works, even on many thoughtful and candid Protestants, is
neutralized.
For a time, then, we ought to rise above them, and to
look at the developments of history on a great scale and
at the testimony of Romanists themselves. If we take
this course we shall come to the conclusion that these men
have spoken the truth, and that without exaggeration,
14 * (161)
162 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
and, indeed, that the evil tendencies and malignant results
of the system cannot be exaggerated.
There is, in fact, abundant evidence to justify every
Protestant in this nation and in the world in assuming as
a practical basis of action the following positions :
That, in view of the known laws of human nature as
established by God, and in view of the uniform and un-
broken testimony of history, the celibacy .of the clergy,
especially as connected with the duty of hearing confes-
sions, is in the highest sense AN IMMORAL AND CRIMINAL
INSTITUTION, hostile beyond the power of conception or
expression alike to the religious, civil, and social interests
of mankind, by reason of its malignant and corrupting
power on the clergy, and, through them, on the com-
munity.
Moreover, though some of the Romish clergy may, in
consequence of peculiarities of constitution or incidental
or local influences, continue continent, yet in any particular
case the presumption is always against every one who is
under the influence of the system ; nor can this presumption
be removed except by positive evidence to the contrary.
And finally, such being the state of facts, there ought to
be formed by divine aid, throughout this country and
throughout the world, a sentiment of holy indignation so
intense and all-pervading that it shall consume the system,
and with it the energies of its guilty supporters, as with
devouring fire.
It is proper, in disclosing the testimony of history, to
look with great care at that period when the church of
Rome was in the ascendant throughout Europe, when
there were no Protestants who had power to affect her by
thoir public sentiment, but when all things were as she
nad made them. There is one advantage in looking first
THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE. 163
at this period. We shall rely entirely on Roman Catholic
documents. But first let us glance at the earlier ages.
EARLY AGES.
Celibacy, as has been remarked, sprung from heathenish
errors. At first it was encouraged by public sentiment.
In 385 Pope Siricius enjoined it on the clergy. Other
popes and early provincial councils confirmed the injunc-
tion. Yet it was so at war with God and Nature that it
led to constant pollution too gross to be described.
The same was true of the early monasteries. "With re-
spect to these the statement of Isaac Taylor is comprehen-
sive and sufficient :
" It were better to sustain in patience the imputation
of advancing exaggerated statements, and of giving a
stronger color to an argument than the facts of the case
would justify, than to do the uninitiated reader so serious
an injury as to bring to light the evidence that bears upon
this question. An appeal, therefore, is made to whoever
has actually perused, or at least looked into, the ascetic
writers, from Macarius, Ephraem, Palladius, and Cassian,
downwards to those of the twelfth century. On the
ground of the evidence which might from those sources
be adduced a general result may be stated under three
heads ; namely,
" 1. That the monastic vow and the life of celibacy
FAILED TO SECUEE THE PROFESSED OBJECT of the institu-
tion iii all but a very few instances, and that it did not pro-
mote that purity of the heart which was acknowledged to
be its only good end.
" 2. That, besides the evil of cutting men off from the
common enjoyments, duties, and sympathies of life, the
work of maintaining and defending their chastity (exterior
and interior) absorbed almost the whole energies of those
(a very few excepted) who sincerely labored at it ; so that
164 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
to be chaste in fact and in heart was pretty nearly the
sum of what the monk could do, even with the aid of
starvation, excessive bodily toils, and depletic medicine ;
to say nothing of his prayers, tears, and flagellations.
" 3. That the monastic institution, even during its earlier
and better era, entailed the most deplorable miseries and
generated the foulest and most abominable practices ; so
that, for every veritable saint which the monastery cherished,
it made twenty wretches, whose moral condition was in
the last degree pitiable or loathsome.
"Now, shall we leave these propositions unsupported by
proof? or will the Romanist, the pride and prop of whose
church is monkery, challenge us to make good our alle-
gations ? "
This tendency of the system of celibacy to great moral
corruption was so constant and notorious that efforts were
made in successive centuries to effect a reformation by
various councils, at which time indignant disclosures were
made of the real state of facts. There were no Protestants
at that time. It was thought that^ reforms might be ef-
fectually carried on within the church ; and, in order to
effect so desirable a purpose, open and bold disclosures
were made.
TIME OF GREGORY VII.
Not unfrequently, in spite of popes and councils, those
priests who desired to avoid the prevailing profligacy had
recourse to marriage, as a divine and honorable ordinance
of God ; and at the time of the accession of the ambitious
and imperious Gregory VII., in the eleventh century,
the priesthood very extensively lived in a state of mat-
rimony.
But he saw that, if this state of things continued, they
could not be bound as his purposes required to the Roman
see, nor could the property of bishops and other ecclesias-
THE VOICE OP HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE. 165
tics be retained in the hands of the church. Hence he
rigorously enforced, against great opposition, the celibacy
of the clergy. He prohibited the laity from hearing mass
when celebrated by a married priest. The married clergy
called Gregory the patron of heresy and the abetter of a
mad system, who by violence would compel men to live as
angels, stop the course of nature, and give the slackened
reins to all pollution. But resistance was vain. By canons,
decretals^ councils, false miracles, threats, violence, arms,
fraud, flattery, anathemas, and excommunications he car-
ried the day. His successors followed his example. That
the great end aimed at has been the power of the Romish
corporation, and not real chastity, is obvious from the
fact that, whilst honorable marriage has been prohibited
under pain of excommunication, concubinage has been con-
nived at, and sometimes even licensed.
After the celibacy of the clergy had, the eleventh
century, been thoroughly enjoined, in the thirteenth century
Innocent III. fully established and enforced auricular con-
fession ; and thus was the existing system fully organized.
From Gregory VII. to the time of the reformation Popery
in its fullest development had been in constant operation
a space of four centuries. If, then, as Bishop Kenrick af-
firms, celibacy and the confessional tend to eminent holi-
ness, the clergy, the church, and the world should have
been eminently sanctified. How was it ?
CENTURIES BEFORE THE REFORMATION.
"We will appeal first, not to an individual, but to a
council the council of Paris in 1429. From them we
receive the astounding information that not only were the
clergy incontinent and immoral, but that they were noto-
166 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
riously so, to such a degree as to scandalize and degrade
the whole Christian world.
In the preamble to a canon designed to reform the
existing state of things they say,
" On account of the crime of concubinage, with which
multitudes of the clergy and monks are infected, the
church of God and the whole clergy are held in derision,
abomination, and dishonor among all nations ; and that
abominable crime has so prevailed in the house of God
that Christians do not now consider mere fornication a
mortal sin." Council of Paris 1429, c. xxiii. ; Mansi,
xxviii. p. 1107.
Let it here be noticed that we have not a Protestant
slander, nor the assertion of an individual, but the solemn
decision of a grave Roman Catholic council, assembled in
Paris, the capital of France, the centre of Europe. The
disclosure of facts is clear and terrific ; but the attempted
remedy was powerless.
Turning from this council to the councils of Yalladolid
and Toledo, in Spain, the first in 1322, the other in 1473,
we find similar testimony. The first condemns " the
outrageously dissolute lives of a portion of the clergy,
who, regardless of reputation and safety, lived in public
concubinage." The latter represented them as living in
the filthiest atrocity, and as contemptible to the people,
and as daring to touch the body of the Lord with polluted
hands. A German council, in 1225, accused the priest-
hood of unchastity, voluptuousness, and obscenity. Two
councils in Cologne, in 1536 and 1549, even after the ref-
ormation, repeated and augmented these charges. Ac-
cording to them, monks, nuns, and clergy were alike de-
filed. Of all others, the Italian and Roman clergy were
most licentious. In 1538 a select council, convened by
Paul IV., declared that they kept courtesans in splendid
THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE. 167
palaces, who at noonday walked or rode through the city,
attended by the clergy and nobility, the friends of the
cardinals. It is notorious that the Roman pontiffs were
often as filthy as their clergy, and exemplified every spe-
cies of licentiousness and pollution. Fornication, adul-
tery, incest, and sodomy are in the list of their crimes.
This testimony of Romish councils could be sustained by
that of Ramish historians and divines too many to re-
count. Nor is their testimony local ; it relates to every
nation under the jurisdiction of Rome. Especially in the
councils of Constance and of Basil were most astounding
disclosures made by those who were urging the necessity
of a reform. So also the statements of Nicholas de Cla-
menge, J. .Trithemius, Stephen, Bishop of Brandenburg,
and many others are horrific.
Indeed the whole church and the whole world groaned
under the all-pervading corruption generated by the law
of celibacy. All historians, all councils, are full of the
theme ; but language cannot utter all the fearful, the ap-
palling truth. The eminently learned, impartial, and accu-
rate Gieseler gives the following brief view of the state
of the clergy during the fifteenth century up to the time
of the reformation, sustaining his assertions by the irref-
utable testimony of numerous Roman Catholic writers
and councils :
" Their chief offence, their INCONTINENCE, seemed to grow
worse the more there was done to restrain it. The severe
lectures read them on the subject at the councils of Con-
stance and Basil had as little influence upon the conduct
of most of the clergy there assembled as the decrees
passed at those councils had on the state of the church at
large in this respect. In no century had there been so
many decrees passed against the concubinage of the clergy
as in the fifteenth ; yet in none were complaints so com-
mon of their incontinence, (which IN ITALY degenerated
168 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
even into unnatural vices,) as well as derision and lamen-
tation over the inefficiency of all the means used to restrain
them. The number of the offenders made it difficult or
impossible to carry into effect the more severe punishments ;
whilst the avarice of the bishops was easily gratified by
substituting therefor pecuniary mulcts, which soon changed
into an annual tax. The commonness of the offence made
it seem to the clergy themselves a light thing. Of course
the laity could not be expected to view it in any other
light ; and in consequence the vice increased to a fearful
degree, so as at the end of the fifteenth century to give
birth to a new and disgusting disease. As early as the
council of Constance it was openly said that nothing could
remedy these evils but to allow the marriage of priests ;
but such was the strength of prejudice that men in other
respects liberal in their views as, for instance, the Chan-
cellor Gerson resisted every effort to change the existing
laws of the church. There always continued to be intel-
ligent men who advocated the marriage of priests ; but
THE INTERESTS OF THE HIERARCHY were too deeply involved
in the question to expect them to yield." Yol. iii. pp.
278-283, American edition.
CHARACTER OF BISHOPS AND COUNCILS.
We need not wonder that the decrees of councils pro-
duced no effect, since it was well known that a large pro-
portion of the bishops composing them were guilty of the
same offence, and none were free from the suspicion. In-
deed at the councils themselves many of the clergy openly
had their concubines. Hence Petrus de Pulka, professor
in Vienna, said, in an address delivered before the council
of Constance, "Attend and consider! Behold how the
clergy of the Roman court, which, from the commence-
ment of this schism, is regarded as depraved beyond hu-
man depravity, and in like manner the clergy of this
diocese, nay, more, of this city, and of the synod itself,
THE VOICE OF HISTORY AXD EXPERIENCE. 169
obey our injunctions ! Consider, I pray you, whether from
reverence to this sacred synod, in whose presence they daily
are, they have even in the least degree amended their dis-
solute lives. Undeniably the clergy of the Roman court
are affirmed to retain their concubines without shame be-
fore all." The Viennese manuscript asserts that there
were in attendance on the council of Constance, by which
Huss was burned for heresy, fifteen hundred common or
public women.
This state of things in the council of Lyons was still
worse. It totally demoralized the city where it was con-
vened.
The celebrated Chancellor Gerson, who was one of the
ruling spirits of the council of Constance, in his answer
to Saignet acknowledged the impossibility of checking the
incontinence of the clergy, and accommodated his theory
of morals to the fact. He held that by incontinency the
clergy did not violate their vows, but by marriage they
did ; for they merely vowed not to contract marriage, but
did not vow to be continent. To remedy the evil as far
as may be, he recommends " to sin in that way as little as
possible, and meantime to do as many good deeds as pos-
sible, and to be very careful when they do sin not to do it
openly, or on the festivals, or in sacred places, or with,
married persons." "What must have been the effect of the
Romish system of celibacy on morals when the most emi-
nent man in the church at that time could thus write?
The decree of the council of Basil in 1435, as Gieseler
states it, prohibited all priests to live in open concubinage.
This provision would seem to be based upon the moral
principles of Chancellor Gerson. At a synod in Breslau
and in various councils, especially in Italy, fines were im-
posed on such offenders ; and, in spite of decrees of other
councils, this practice was extensively adopted by the
15
170 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
bishops thus making the vices of the clergy a source of
gain.
Agrippa mentions a bishop who boasted of having in
his diocese eleven thousand priests, who severally paid
their superior every year a guinea for leave to keep con-
cubines. (See Edgar, p. 526.)
POPULAR BELIEF AND FEELING.
Gieseler says, " The laity were glad in any way to se-
cure their families from the attacks of priestly lust, and fa-
vored, or even furthered, the permanent connection of their
priests with concubines." Vol. iii. p. 83.
Nicholas of Clamenge says, " The laity are so thorough-
ly convinced that all the clergy are incontinent that in
very many parishes they will not tolerate a priest unless
he has a concubine. This they do to defend their wives,
who even thus are by no means out of danger." (Giese-
ler, iii. 83.) The Swiss especially took this course. ^Eneas
Sylvius, who became pope, says of the Frieslanders, "They
are unwilling to receive priests who have no wives, fear-
ing that they will defile those of other men ; for they re-
gard it as unnatural and impossible for unmarried men to
live in continence." Gieseler, iii. 83.
This was also the opinion of j^Eneas Sylvius himself;
and on this ground he defended himself when in the coun-
cil of Basil he received from his father the intelligence of
the birth of a son. Accordingly when cardinal and when
pope he conceded that, viewing the question simply on the
ground of principle, the law of clerical celibacy ought to
be abolished.
Alvarus Pelagius, speaking of Spain and another prov-
ince, says that in them the number of the children of the
THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE. 171
laity little exceeded that of the children of the priests. In
Ireland and Norway a similar state of things existed, and
the synods only prohibited public concubinage.
PRESENT STATE OF THING*.
This state of open corruption did not at once disappear
even after the reformation. And even now the same great
river of pollution flows through Romish countries, al-
though its course is more under ground.
On this point the learned, cautious, and discriminating
Isaac Taylor says, " It is fair to assume that, of a body of
men taken at hazard from the mass and placed under the
restraint (or rather the profession) of continence, a con-
siderable portion, perhaps a third, will very early in their
course throw off every thing but their hypocrisy and be-
come thoroughly profligate. The notorious condition of
those countries where nothing has forbidden the natural
expansion of the Romish system would warrant our af-
firming that two thirds of its clergy come under such a
description. Nay, perhaps our English credulity would
be ridiculed at Madrid, Grenada, Lisbon, Florence, Lima,
or Rio Janeiro if we presumed that more than a very few
of the sacerdotal class were not utterly debauched." Fa-
naticism, p. 137.
.CHAPTER VII.
BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE.
MANY wonders occur in the history of this world
among which may be mentioned the bold assertions of
Bishop Kenrick in defence of the confessional in the
hands of an unmarried clergy.
In the number of Brownson's Quarterly for July, 1846,
is an article intended as a defence of the Romish system
of the confessional. We have good authority for ascrib-
ing it to the pen of Bishop Kenrick. Public attention has
of late been somewhat directed towards his own writings
on this subject, and he seems to feel that he is called on
to step forward in defence of the system. Bishop Kenrick
is, undoubtedly, one of the ablest defenders of Romanism
in this country ; and his works on doctrinal and moral the-
ology, as well as his defence of the Papal supremacy, indi-
cate no small degree of natural ability. If he were but
on the side of truth he would be an able writer indeed :
as it is, his naturally good powers are continually crippled
by the false and absurd system which he has undertaken
to defend.
He says, in the language of another, " If it led to licen-
tiousness or danger, that licentiousness or that danger
would have come to light, and there would be tongues
enough to tell it."
This implies that such licentiousness and danger have
(172)
BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 173
not come to light and have not been told by millions of
tongues. On this point let history testify.
He, however, does not go radically into the defence of
the confessional, because, as he assures us, he regards
it as needless to reply at great length " to the charges
advanced against an institution which is essentially di-
rected to wash away the defilements of sin, and which
is in the church like a majestic river, whose waters
absorb the impurities which they meet with in their
course."
On the other hand, he seems to repose most confidence
in an appeal to the observation of American Protestants,
and also to the convictions of American Romanists. With
affecting simplicity he says, p. 337, " Without referring
our readers to distant or past evidence, we at once ap-
peal to the instinctive feeling of the Catholic community
around us."
Is there not crafty philosophy in this ? One would think
that the proper way to test the Romish system of the con-
fessional would be to go to those communities in which it
has exercised its full power, unobstructed by Protestant-
ism, and developed its mature results. For example : the
pope has taken great pains to purge Italy by fire and
sword of the least leaven of Protestantism. Why not,
then, appeal to Italy, and hold up the spotless purity of
society there, where the confessional has poured out its
full stream of purifying influence for ages ? Why not
give us a little of the history of morals at Rome, the cen-
tre of the system ? 0, no ; the bishop does not inteud to
furnish us with any such distant or past evidence. With
striking sagacity he comes into the midst of communities
where Protestantism is in the ascendency and has created
a high tone of morals ; where Romanists are a small
minority, surrounded by vigilant eyes, exposed to the
15*
174 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
searching scrutiny of Protestant presses, over which Ro-
manism has not yet been able to establish a censorship.
Yes ; he comes here and makes his appeal to Catholics in
these circumstances for evidence of the purifying power
of the confessional. We tell the bishop, in all frankness,
that he very much underrates the intellect of his Prot-
estant readers if he thinks that they are to be affected by
such reasoning as this. But as he does not see fit to refer
his readers to distant or past evidence, we shall endeavor
in some degree to supply his lack of service.
EXPERIENCE OF SPAIN.
"We will, then, summon the bishop and our readers to a
country eminently blessed with Romish influences ; fa-
vored as the great head quarters of the Inquisition, which,
by fire and sword and tortures ineffable, has thoroughly
purged out the leaven of Protestantism. We need not
say that this country is SPAIN.
Is it not a just and equitable rule to look for the true
tendencies of a system where it has a fair field and full
opportunity to develop itself, and nothing to check its
course ? Here, then, ought we to see the full power of
the confessional, as a majestic river washing away the de-
filements of sin.
But how was it ? We answer, It was so ordered in the
providence of God that precisely here was made in the
most conspicuous manner, and in sight of all nations, a
public display of the ineffable pollutions and defilements
of the system, and of the utter want of power and also
of hearty will on the part of the managers of the system
to prevent them.
It appears, then, that, at the close of half a century after
BISHOP KEXRICK'S DEFENCE. 175
the reformation, Lutheran opinions have so far prevailed in
Spain as to call for four autos da fe against the Lutherans,
two in Valladolid and two in Seville. It was also dis-
covered that the tendency towards Lutheranism was in-
creased by a general persuasion of the profligacy of the
priests, and in particular by the public accusation that
they used the confessional as a means of seduction. This
led to sundry remarks, not peculiarly agreeable, with
respect to the Roman church as the mother of harlots and
of abominations.
So pressing was the exigency of the case that report
was made to the pope, and he felt compelled to interpose.
Accordingly, on January 18, 1556, Paul IY. addressed a
brief to the inquisitors of Grenada, in which he com-
manded them to prosecute those priests whom the public
voice accused of seduction, and not to pardon one of them.
The Archbishop of Grenada and the council of the Inquisi-
tion decided that the publication of the brief in the usual
form would produce great inconveniences, and that prudence
and moderation were needed. They therefore, to remedy
the evil, privately notified the confessors in general of the
purport of the brief, and said nothing to the people.
This course convinced the pope that the abuse was not
confined to the kingdom of Grenada. Accordingly, in 1561,
Pius IY. addressed a brief to Yaldes, the inquisitor general,
authorizing him to proceed against the guilty confessors in
all the domains of Philip, the most Catholic king. This
bull affirmed the crime to exist " in the kingdoms of Spain
and in the cities and dioceses thereof."
It seems to have been still judged inexpedient by the
ecclesiastics and inquisitors in most provinces to give
this notice. But in some, and especially in Seville, the in-
quisitors gave the required public notice and called for
information against the guilty, requiring all females thus
17G THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
abused and all privy to such acts to inform the Inquisition
within thirty days, attaching severe penalties to the neglect
or disobedience of the injunction. Then followed a scene
unparalleled in the history of the world ; but, in the prov-
idence of God, it was a true and fearful revelation of
Popery. In the words of Edgar, " Maids and matrons of
the nobility and peasantry, of every rank and situation,
crowded to the Inquisition. The fair informers in Seville
alone were so numerous that all the inquisitors and twenty
notaries were insufficient in thirty days to take their deposi-
tions. Thirty additional days had three several times to be
appointed for the reception of informations. And finally
the multitude of criminals, the jealousy of husbands, and
the odium which the discovery threw on auricular confes-
sion and the Popish priesthood caused the sacred tribunal
to quash the prosecution and to consign the depositions to
oblivion." (See Edgar's Variations of Popery, pp. 528,
529, and McCrie's History of the Reformation in Spain,
p. 242.)
For authorities to sustain these facts, Edgar refers to
Gonsalvus, Lorente, and Limborch. The pungency and
particularity of the statement seem to come from Gon-
salvus, whom Lorente calls Raynaldus Gonzalvius Mon-
tanus, and McCrie Montanus. All agree that the accusa-
tions ceased because the demand of the Inquisition was
repealed. But Lorente thinks that Gonsalvus exaggerates
the number of the informers. It were to be hoped that it
is so for the honor of humanity ; but, on any view of the
case, what can be conceived of more horrible than such a
disclosure of priestly villany and depravity ?
Those who remember the account given by Gavin of the
discovery and exposure of the seraglio of the inquisitors
in Arragon by a Spanish and French army, in 1706, will
not have much faith in the purity of the inquisitors of an
BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 177
earlier generation. At all events, they manifested a
remarkable leniency towards the crime of seduction. To
be a Lutheran was intolerable. Nothing, could atone for
it but to be burned at a public auto da fe. Lorente, how-
ever, informs us that those guilty of seduction by the
confessional were never publicly exposed at an auto da fe.
They made a private confession and abjuration of their
practical heresy and of all others, and were then absolved
and confined for a time in a convent !
Here, then, we have a fair illustration of the manner in
which the confessional washed away the pollution of Spain.
So, too, would it now purify America, if Romanism had
had the ascendency here that it has had in Spain.
Does this look like the course of a majestic river, washing
away the defilements of sin ? or like a part of her system
upon whose forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon
the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the
earth? Do not such results flow inevitably from the con-
fessional in the hands of an unmarried clergy? Nor is
this a state of things peculiar to Spain. It is impossible
to make such a system tend to any thing but pollution. It
is in direct violation of the great laws of human society
ordained by God himself, and it creates an intensity of
temptation that on the great scale never was resisted, and
never will be. In the words of the Eclectic Review, " It
is a terrible reality, acting alike on priests and people in
Catholic countries, making the priest's life a true misery,
converting him into a spy and a tool, compelling him who
has vowed before God to proclaim the truth into a studied
and inevitable supporter of the most infamous fraud, a
corrupter of the minds of the young, and a tyrant where he
should be the friend." And let any one study thoroughly
the state of things in Italy, and he will find it worse, if
worse be possible, than even in Spain, and worst of all at
178 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Rome. And in Germany, Austria, France, Mexico, South
America, and Cuba, is there any reason why the same
system should not produce the same results ? To prove
that such is the fact, we shall proceed to state a few more
facts for the consideration of the bishop.
Meantime we repeat the strong statement of the Ec-
lectic Review, than which nothing more true was ever
uttered :
"IT IS BECAUSE THE CONFESSIONAL HAS BECOME THE
SOUL TRAP OP SATAN AND THE WELL OF ALL SPIRITUAL POL-
LUTIONS THAT THE POPULAR MIND HAS REVOLTED FROM THE
SYSTEM THROUGHOUT GERMANY, AND WILL REVOLT FROM IT,
FINALLY, EVERY WHERE."
And shall America nourish a system of pollution which
even Catholic Europe, with all its degradation, is about to
reject and abhor ?
PROOF FROM BISHOP KENRICK AND PAPAL LEGISLATION.
Is it to be supposed, then, that Bishop Kenrick knew
these facts when he said of the confessional, " If it led to
licentiousness or danger, that licentiousness or that danger
would have come to light, and there would be tongues
enough to tell it " ? We answer, Certainly ; there is the
best possible evidence of the fact even the incidental
testimony of the'bishop himself.
He well knew, and will not dare to deny it, as will soon
appear, that the evils of clerical seduction by means of the
confessional even since the reformation have been so great
in European countries as to cause a scandal so widespread
as to endanger the interests of the Papacy. Urged by
such considerations, he well knew that several popes in
BISHOP KENBICKS DEFENCE. 179
succession were compelled to issue bull after bull designed
to rectify the evil. Moreover we have his own confession
on the subject.
What, then, does Bishop Kenrick say as it regards the
use of the confessional as a means of priestly seduction ?
He confesses, in express terms, that it has been so used,
and he occupies seven pages of the third volume of his
treatise on moral theology in stating the legislation that
the existence of this practice has rendered necessary in
the Romish church. These pages occur in Tractatus xix.,
De Poenitentia, chap. x. sect, vi., entitled De Crimine
Solicitationis, vol. iii. pp. 235-240. Of this legislation I
shall give some account in its place. I will here in general
remark, that no one can read these seven pages in Bishop
Kenrick and not find in them internal evidence of the
widespread existence in Romish communities of the very
things alleged by converted Romish priests, and which
Romanists call slander. He will find detailed legislation on
the subject of seduction by the confessional of such a kind
as never could exist without a corresponding cause in the
state of the body politic demanding it. What that cause
is was clearly disclosed in the progress of the effort in
Spain which we have already detailed, put forth by the
full power of the pope and the Inquisition, to prosecute
and punish those who had been guilty of priestly seduction
by means of the confessional. The attempt proved that
the whole body of the clergy were so deeply implicated
that it became necessary to abandon the prosecution in
order to save their characters from ruin.
Let us, then, consider the confession of Bishop Kenrick
himself. At the commencement of his discussion of the
topic of priestly seduction by means of the confessional
he writes as follows. We translate from the Latin :
THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
SECTION VI. CONCERNING THE CRIME OF SEDUCTION.
" We scarcely dare to speak concerning that atrocious
crime in which the office of hearing confession is perverted
to the ruin of souls by impious men under the influence
of their lusts. Would that we could regard it as solely
a conception of the mind and as something invented by
the enemies of the faith for the purposes of slander ! But
it is not fit that we should be ignorant of the decrees
which the pontiffs have issued to defend the sacredness of
this sacrament."
So, then, Bishop Kenrick himself being judge, the crime
of priestly seduction by means of the confessional is not a
mere imaginary conception, but an atrocious reality. It
is not a slander of the enemies of the church, but a noto-
rious historic truth so notorious that it is in vain to
deny it so notorious that many pontiffs have been
obliged to issue their decrees to defend the sacredness of
the sacrament of confession.
Well, too, does Bishop Kenrick say that it is not fit
that we should be ignorant of these decrees. It is not fit.
We will endeavor to dissipate this ignorance. They throw
great light on the subject. They reveal the existence of
a state of society in Catholic communities which nothing
but the system of the private confession of females to an
unmarried priesthood could produce. And when Bishop
Kenrick now comes forward to advocate the cause of all
these evils, and to urge its universal introduction among
us, we will do all in our power to dissipate the ignorance
that still exists on a system so powerful and so pernicious.
PRINCIPLES OF REASONING STATED AND APPLIED.
But, before we proceed to consider the Papal legislation
BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 181
on this subject, we will consider the proper mode of rea-
soning from such legislation.
Professor William Smyth, of the University of Cam-
bridge, England, in order to throw light on the state of
society among the barbarians, devotes part of one lecture
to a consideration of their codes of laws. After giving
a general view of the salic code, he proceeds to illustrate
the manner of reasoning from such codes. We quote a
part of his statements, with the design of applying the
same mode of reasoning to the Papal legislation as stated
by Bishop Kenrick :
" Whenever the laws of a nation can be perused, a va-
riety of conclusions can be drawn from them which the
laws themselves were never intended to convey conclu-
sions that relate to the manners and situation of a nation
more certain and important than can in any other way be
obtained. I will give a specimen of this sort of reason-
ing ; and my hearer must hereafter employ the same sort
of reasoning on these codes and on every system of laws
which he has ever an opportunity of considering. For
instance, there is one head that respects petty thefts of
different kinds.
"He who stole a knife was to be fined fifteen solidi;
but, though he stole as much flax as he could carry, he
was only tined three. Iron was, therefore, difficult to pro-
cure, or its manufacture not easy. The fertility of the
land had done more for these Franks than their own pa-
tience or ingenuity ; i. e., they were barbarians. Again :
he who killed another was only fined ; but we are not to
suppose that this arose from any superior tenderness of
disposition. There is a distinct head in these laws (the
thirty-first) on the subject of mutilations ; the very first
clause runs thus :
" ' If any one shall cut off a foot, or hand, or dig out an
eye, or cut off an ear or nose of any one/ &c.
' The most horrible excesses evidently took place.
Nothing more need be said of the manners or disposition
of a people in whose laws such outrages are particularized.
16
182 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
" That union of tenderness and courage, of sympathy
and fortitude, of the softer and severer virtues which
forms the perfection of the human character is not to be
found among savage nations ; it is only the occasional and
inestimable production of civilized life.
" Again : there is mention made of hedges and en-
closures. Agriculture had, therefore, made some prog-
ress."
In the same way, from the laws of ancient Greece and
Rome we can reason as to the state Of society in those na-
tions ; for laws are not formed on mere theory, to guard
against imaginary crimes, nor do they enter into the minute
detail of unknown crimes by way of anticipation : they
are designed to be a defence against real and existing
evils.
So is it with regard to the legislation of the popes on
this subject ; for it is incredible that any pope would
have descended into the particulars of all the various
modes of priestly seduction, and detailed things so offen-
sive and abominable, even the idea and the very sugges-
tion of which tend to injure the priesthood, if the corrupt
workings of the confessional had not brought out all these
details in fact.
We easily see the evil tendencies of the confessional in
theory ; but here we see them developed in real life, and
our convictions of the evils of the system are greatly
deepened. It is always perfectly plain that the confes-
sional is liable to be used for purposes of seduction in
numerous ways. It is also plain that the priests are, by
compulsory celibacy, placed in circumstances of the high-
est temptation to use it for such purposes. No system
can be more perfectly framed to secure such an end.
And yet, until Papal laws are read, no one would easily
imagine in how many ways it has been so used. To
get light on this point, we turn to Bishop Kenrick's
BISHOP KENBICK'S DEFENCE. 183
statement of Papal legislation. By examining this legis-
lation, we arrive at the following results. The state
of things in the Roman Catholic Church has rendered it
necessary to specify nineteen different ways in which ad-
vantage can be taken of the system of the confessional as
a means of seduction, and to declare that whoever uses it
in any of these ways is to be reported to the Inquisition
by the female solicited. These nineteen cases are sub-
divided and classified as follows :
1. Solicitation during the act of confession, five cases.
2. Solicitation before the act of confession, two cases.
3. Solicitation immediately after confession, three cases.
4. Solicitation to which confession furnishes an occa-
sion, four cases.
5. Solicitation under the pretext of confession, two cases.
6. Solicitation in the confessional, although no con-
fession is made, one* case.
7. Solicitation in any other place besides the confes-
sional, if it is used for purposes of confession, two cases.
Now, who can even read over this general statement of
the topics of these laws and not receive new light as to
the extensive applicability of the confessional for purposes
of seduction ? It can be used before confession, during
confession, and immediately after confession. It furnishes
occasions for seduction long after confession is over. It
furnishes a pretext for seduction ; it furnishes a place for
it ; and, if there is no confessional, a place can be chosen
where the same diabolical purpose can be prosecuted.
By the celibacy of the clergy they are led into the
highest degree of temptation, and then by the confessional
there is offered to them every variety of excitement and
of aid to prosecute the gratification of their excited de-
sires. But, if we descend to the details of these nineteen
cases as given by Bishop Kenrick, we shall obtain a still
184 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
more vivid conception of the actual use of the system for
this purpose.
For an example, I will take the second specification of
the fourth general division i. e., solicitation to which
confession furnishes an occasion. This is the case of one
Qui, ex fragilitate in confessione cognita, sumit occasianem,
earn tcntandi " Who, from any frailty discovered in con-
fession, takes an occasion afterwards to tempt the female
who has confessed."
How clearly does this specification bring the wide-
spread working of that pernicious system before the mind !
Here, now, is an unmarried priest surrounded by hundreds
or thousands of females. They have their frailties, their
impure thoughts, their temptations, it may be their lapses ;
but, without the system of the confessional, no man could
tell what they are. And, if a licentious or tempted un-
married priest wished to seduce any of his flock, he would
have no guide ; and, ignorant and fearful, he might be re-
pelled from the attempt. But here the confessional comes
to his aid. It spreads before him a perfect map of every
female heart in his whole flock, for they are to disclose to
him their most secret thoughts as to God ; for in hearing
confession, as Dens tells us, he acts as God, and not as
man. And now he knows the weaknesses, the tempta-
tions, the frailties, and the falls of every one ; he studies
their characters ; he knows how to approach them ; and,
wherever afterwards he may meet them, the disclosures
of the confessional are present to his mind, and furnish
him with innumerable occasions to compass his end.
Of what use is it, now, to pass a law that he who avails
himself of any of these occasions to tempt a female shall
be reported by that female to the Inquisition ? You might
as well pour water on an inclined plane, and then by law
forbid it to run down. But this is only one out of nine-
BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 185
teen specifications. Let us look at another. Take the
fourth specification under the same division ; it is the case
of one Qui aliquem solicitat, promittens se earn confitentem,
ddnceps excepturum " Who solicits a female to sin, prom-
ising that he will afterwards receive her to make confes-
sion." What power of temptation in the system does this
simple statement disclose ! It not only gives to the priest
light to choose his victims, but, if any through fear of the
penalties of sin refuse to comply with his desires, it ena-
bles him to say. You need not fear the consequences ; have
I not the power to remit sins? Comply with my request,
and then I will hear you confess and free you from all
guilt. After having furnished such means of temptation
and delusion, how vain the hope that any law will check
their use ! The trial in Spain to execute the laws clearly
proved that the system produced its natural results and
that the laws were of no avail. Even the attempt to
execute them was abandoned.
Take another instance from the first division, case five :
Charta ad venerem incitans, seu liter CB amatorite, in tribunale
traditce, solicitationis, instar sunt "Any thing written on
paper adapted to excite love, or a love letter, delivered in
the tribunal, is equivalent to solicitation in the confession-
al." This principle was first established by Alexander
TIL, in 1655, in opposition to a contrary doctrine. This is
worthy of the more notice as tending to throw light on the
effects of the confessional on the morals of Romish ecclesi-
astics ; for it appears by the testimony of Bishop Kenrick
that the following proposition had actually been maintained
by some of them : "A confessor who in the sacrament of
confession gives the penitent a letter to be read after-
wards, iu which he excites her to love, is not regarded as
having solicited her in confession, and therefore is not to be
reported." (See vol. iii. Theologia Moralis, p. 236.) This
10
186 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
proposition Alexander VII. felt himself called on to con-
demn. To what a state of degradation must the system
of the confessional have reduced priestly morals when
the pontiff was obliged to condemn such a proposition as
this ! and how clearly it shows that, although many speci-
fications had been at first condemned in the bull of Greg-
ory XV. in 1622, yet, before 1655, the priests had in-
vented a way of evading them all ! For though all who
solicited females in confession were to be reported to the
Inquisition, yet the discovery was made that to give a love
letter in the confessional, to be read after confession, was
not to solicit in confession, and was not therefore to bo
reported. Admirable sagacity ! wonderful discrimina-
tion ! "What cobwebs are laws against the momentum of
depraved desires 1 By this subtle distinction, till at last
the pope condemned it, the whole field was again cleared
for the unobstructed prosecution of their nefarious designs.
We have quoted but three out of nineteen cases. If we
were in like manner to specify and comment on the whole
nineteen, each in its turn would light up a new lamp to
expose the dark recesses of this dreary region of pollu-
tion, and justify the divine denunciation of the whole
system as Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth.
And let no one dare to call this Protestant slander.
Bishop Kenrick, the volunteer defender of the confes-
sional, and the popes, his lords and masters, are our wit-
nesses.
Well did Professor Smyth remark that, " whenever the
laws of a nation can be perused, a variety of conclusions
can be drawn from them which the laws themselves were
never intended to convey." Neither Pope Gregory XV. by
his laws, nor Bishop Kenrick by his digest and exposition
of them, intended to unfold the abominations of the con-
BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 187
fessional ; yet they have done it in the clearest and most
ample manner. Well does Professor Smyth say of con-
clusions thus derived, that they are " more certain and
important than can in any other way be obtained."
Let us, then, proceed in our examination of Bishop Ken-
rick for new light on the abominations of the confessional.
The third case under the fourth head is as follows :
" Qui autem pwUa vel voce, vel signo aliquo, peccati in con.-
fessione declarati memoriam refricaret, dum alias earn solidta-
ret, occasione confessionis solicitasse merito censerdur, et reus
foret proditi sigilli 'Whoever shall remind a female,
either by word or sign, of a sin which she has revealed in
confession, whilst at another time he solicits her, is justly
considered as having taken an occasion to solicit from
confession, and is guilty of violating the seal i. e., of
secrecy.' "
Here, now, how vividly do we see the effects of the con-
fessional in removing all those natural and divinely or-
dained obstacles to impure conversation between a priest
and the females of his flock which are the safeguard of
social purity ! If the natural laws of female modesty
were left to operate in full force, and the priest had no
religious pretext for introducing sensual ideas, who does
not see what powerful obstacles would exist to the intro-
duction of impure conversation ? The natural modesty,
both of the female mind and of an uncorrupted priest,
would prevent.
But here the accursed system of the confessional inter-
poses, and, under a pretence of religion, introduces a reg-
ular conversation at stated intervals between the priest
and every female of his flock on all topics involved in
the violation of chastity, in thought, word, and deed.
Thus the subject is introduced thus it is kept up before
the mind. There is not a female with whom the priest
188 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
has not conversed upon it. He knows the depraved de-
sires, the sinful feelings, the corrupt wishes, the unclean
acts of all.
And now the fiery oven of temptation is heated and
continually burns around him. His own passions are
aroused. He knows how to wake up in others all those
trains of thought that lead to temptation ; he knows how
to appeal to the consciousness of the female mind by signs
recalling the disclosures of the confessional. And now,
forsooth, what is to stop him ? "Why, truly, Bishop Ken-
rick tells us that, if he does, it is the female's duty to re-
port him to the Inquisition, or, if there is none in that
part of the world, to the bishop, and most severe punish-
ments shall be inflicted on him. "We shall speak of this
soon* But first let us notice another case.
It is a case of solicitation under pretext of confession.
Kenrick, p. 237, vol. iii. : " Si autem Me suggesserit ei
renuenti obfarrue periculum, ut eum prcetextu c&nfessi&nis ac-
cerseret, denuntiandus foret, quippe qui revera prcctextu confes-
sionis solidtavit ' If a priest suggests to a female re-
fusing to comply with his desires, on account of exposing
her reputation to peril, that she should send for him un-
der a pretext of desiring to confess to him, he is to be
regarded as soliciting under pretext of confession.' "
What power of seduction does this statement develop in
the system ! what facts does it imply !
Now, compare with this legislation of the Romish pon-
tiff the following statements from a French priest of whom
I shall soon speak. They reveal the state of society
which the legislation implies :
" There are no means which their cunning does not in-
vent to meet with their victims If the husband is jeal-
ous and suspicious, his wife, upon the advice of the curate,
will feign to be sick ; and it is the duty of a priest to
BISHOP KENEICK'S DEFENCE. 189
visit often (every day if possible) his sick parishioners.
He will remain alone with her, to speak about spiritual
matters in appearance or to confess her."
Take anoth'er case from the same author, still further
illustrating the immense power of seduction given by the
system of the confessional to the Romish priesthood :
"By this way, through their dark ministry, they have
an immense power upon the minds of women ; for they at-
tack only those whose disposition they have long studied
in confession. The reader can have some just idea of
this power from this single fact, of which I know the per-
sonage, because it became public. A priest in a parish not
far*from mine laid his snares for a young married woman
who had the reputation of piety because she attended
mass every morning. He, through his diabolical argu-
ments, won her and triumphed over all her scruples. She
went to him almost every morning in the vestry before
the bell rung to call the people to the mass. He then
confessed and absolved her, and she received the Lord's
supper at his mass. The good people said, admiring her
daily communion, ' How pious is this young wife ! She
partakes of the sacrament every day ; she is doubtless a
saint.' "
Now, it is in vain to reply to such facts that all systems
are liable to abus6 ; for the system of the celibacy of
the clergy and of the confessional, taken together, is as
exactly fitted to produce such results as if it was
framed for it. What mockery, then, to pretend to check
its operation by requiring females to report to the Inqui-
sition those priests who solicit them, and denouncing se-
vere punishments on the guilty solicitors I All such legis-
lation will ever be in practice a dead letter. The diffi-
culties in the way of its execution are insurmountable.
Notice a few facts.
No priest can be convicted and punished on the testi-
190 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
/
mony of one witness. Listen to Bishop Kenrick : " JVemo
damnandus est gravissimis ittis pcenis ob unius denunciationem
' No one is to be condemned to those most severe pun-
ishments on the accusation of one -witness.' " Does the
female run no risk if she fails of proving her charge ?
Hear the bishop again : " Calumniam autem impactam
sacerdotibus innoxiis ulcisci voluit 'It is the pleasure
of the pope that false charges against innocent priests
shall subject the accuser to deserved retribution.' "
How easy, then, is it for a wily priest so to conduct his
solicitations that no single female shall ever dare to
make the charge ! and how unequal the conflict between
a defenceless female and a crafty priest in a case where
every instinct of self-preservation calls on him to destroy
her character in order to save his own !
But suppose the facts so notorious that witnesses
enough could be produced to prove the charges ; will the
laws be executed then? Ask Seville. "When the terrors
of the Inquisition were put forth to compel females to
speak the truth, the fair informers, according to Gonsal-
vus, were so numerous that all the inquisitors and twenty
notaries were insufficient in thirty days to take their
depositions. Thirty additional days were needed three
times in succession. Finally the multitude of criminals,
the jealousy of husbands, the odium fast coming on auric-
ular confession and the Popish priesthood caused the In-
quisition to quash the prosecution and to consign tho
depositions to oblivion.
CHAPTER VIII.
TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS.
WE have taken some notice of the efforts of Bishop
Kenrick to gloss over the abominations of the system of
auricular confession to an unmarried priesthood. All the
laws of cause and effect must be abolished if such a sys-
tem does not produce deep moral corruption. The attempt
in Spain, through the Inquisition, to stop seduction through
the confessional failed simply because the number of ec-
clesiastics involved was so great that to proceed involved
the ruin of the clergy. The facts have been given in a
preceding chapter ; and to it we refer our readers. We
have also produced some astounding evidence to the same
effect from Bishop Kenrick himself. To this we will add
the testimony of a French priest fully and practically ac-
quainted with the system, for whose character and integ-
rity Professor Morse, of New York, is voucher, under
whose sanction the statements were published. Of him
he says,
" The question will naturally be asked, ' Why does the
author conceal his name ? ' Reasons of prudence in con-
sulting the safety of dear relatives, all Catholics in the
south part of France, where they are surrounded by a
bigoted, enslaved, and most vindictive Roman Catholic
population, (as any one acquainted with the state of that
part of France well knows,) oblige the considerate and
truly amiable author to preserve for the present a strict
(191)
192 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
incognito. His friends would suffer on his account the
most painful proscription. Little do we conceive the dan-
gers and trials, the hate and persecutions, which in our
own times await not merely the convert himself from Po-
pery in countries where it is dominant, but which pursue
even the innocent relatives of the apostate heretic as he is
called, although they remain stanch in their attachment
to their sect. Would they who inconsiderately affirm that
Popery has changed its persecuting character in modern
times but give a moderate share of attention in ascertain-
ing the facts which are every day occurring to prove its
true spirit, they would no longer be deceived, but watch
with the greater jealous}' all the movements and encroach-
ments of this necessarily intolerant sect.
" The public may rest assured that the author is what
he professes to be. He is no fictitious character. He is
personally known, not alone to me, but to several gentle-
men whose names and standing are well known to the
community. His testimonials which he showed me are of
the highest character ; and he was, when in France, under
the patronage of a French nobleman distinguished for his
liberality and philanthropy, whose name is associated in
Paris with plans of the most enlarged benevolence, whose
time and immense wealth are freely employed in the en-
couragement of industry, religion, and literature among
the French people, but whose name, for reasons obvious
to all, cannot now be given to the public."
His statements are a striking commentary on the great
development in Spain. There is in them an inherent veri-
similitude. They reveal the course of events that dis-
closed itself in those notorious results. The Catholic
priest says of himself, also, that he fell in love with one
of his flock, but concealed his passion, and after his con-
version fled to this country. We give his statement :
" It is not my intention to repeat here all the accusa-
tions so justly made against Catholic priests, -but only to
reveal, to publish in the light, perhaps for the first time,
how they defraud the poor deluded people who trust to
TESTIMONY OP CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 193
ihem. I am bold to say aloud, that Protestants have noth-
ing yet upon this important matter so precise as what I am
about to say. I have confessed priests and laymen of
every description, a bishop (once,) superiors, curates, per-
sons high and low, women, girls, boys. I am therefore
fitted to speak of the confessional.
" The confession of men is a matter of high importance
in political matters, to impress their minds with slavish
ideas ; but, not to repeat what I have already stated on
this subject in my discourse, I refer the reader to it. As.
for other matters, confessors endeavor to give a high opin-
ion of their own holiness to fathers and husbands, that
they may be induced to send to the confessional, without
any fear, their wives and daughters ; because, doubtless,
should fathers and husbands know what passes at the con-
fession box between the holy man and their wives and
daughters, they never would permit them again to go to
those schools of vice. But priests command most careful-
ly to women never to speak of their confession to men,
and they inquire severally about that in every confession.
" The confession of the female sex is the great triumph,
the most splendid theatre, of priests. Here is completed
the work which is but begun through all their intercourse
with women. ; for all our relations with them begin from
their birth and continue till their death. In their baptism
we sprinkle their heads with holy water, at their death their
grave ; and the space comprised between those two epochs
is filled by a thousand ecclesiastical duties. The more I
think of this matter, the more I remember this sentence :
' Priests, in taking the vows of renouncing marriage, en-
gage themselves to take the wives of others.'
" So soon as the first light of reason has appeared in
their tender minds, we have girls at our confessional ; and
here, with all the resources of cunning and lessons of the-
ology, we sow the seeds of our future power in their hearts,
the foundation of our future designs. Those young girls
from seven years of age come and kneel with all the inno-
cence, the purity, the inexperience of childhood, beautiful
as the lilies of the valley of which our Savior speaks in the
gospel ; they come, sent by their mothers, by the orders of
the priest, who watches his prey with eager eyes ; they
17
194 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
come with all the fear and respect of their age for the man
of God. He, seeing in them the future tool of his passions,
fills their minds with prejudices, repeats to them that he is
the minister of Heaven, that they must look to him, revere
him, almost worship him as a god ; he accustoms their
mind to obey him absolutely and blindly, to believe hitn
infallible in short, a divine oracle. Thus he gives to
their thoughts the direction he pleases ; he prepares his
batteries ; he informs them upon subjects which they ought
never to know. At first they do not understand those les-
sons at so early an age ; but by and by they bear their fruit
when developed by time. Thus confessors instruct those
girls from seven, or even six, years of age ; for the youngest
are the best. At ten years old they come to the catechism.
In those long instructions he explains diffusely, three or
four times a week, the vileness and filthiness in that shame-
ful book, which they learn by heart. As a preparation to
the Lord's supper at the end of their year of catechism,
he confesses them much oftener than usual ; they make a
general review of their whole life. When he gives them
the absolution which purifies their conscience and recon-
ciles them to God he reveals to their mind what they owe
to their confessor for such a favor. In the afternoon of
this same day, at one of the most gorgeous ceremonies of
the Catholic church, the general communion of boys, the
confessor, at the renovation of the vows of baptism, strict-
ly commands them not to neglect the holy confession, for
if they do they will be lost. Thus young girls, well in-
doctrinated and bound to their confessor, are not heedless
enough to abandon his orders ; they come again to the
confessional, through custom and habit, with the same sim-
plicity, and entertaining the same respect and fear of their
spiritual father, as in their childhood ; they kneel many
times in the vestry, without the confessional, before a man
inflamed with passions a man, perhaps, who has for a long
time fought against himself, and who yet bears evil in his
heart ; before a man, perhaps, who has long since prepared
his work, and now is ready to profit by it ; before a man
honest and pure, perhaps, at first, but who, being a man, a
son of Adam, may not be able to resist the temptation.
And I ask, Is it possible, humanly speaking, for him, a
TESTIMONY OP CATHOLIC PEIESTS. 195
priest, to remain pure, when at twenty-five or thirty years
of age he is shut either in the vestry or in the confessional
with a young woman who reveals to him the secrets of her
heart as she knows them herself, according to our rules, so
that he, the spiritual physician, may be able to see and to
judge with a woman who, being herself human, and not
an angel, speaks for hours to a young priest of her temp-
tations, her passions, her secret thoughts, &c., and convers-
ing of matters which I cannot reveal here, I say, is it
possible for human virtue to keep itself pure, not only for
a day, a week, a month, but during years and for the whole
life?
" Let not a Catholic say to me that these are the reason-
ings of a corrupt man, of a bad priest ; let him not say that
God can do what man cannot, and other similar reasons
which, / know it well, priests always give to explain their
pretended virtue. Those reasons a common Catholic may
be satisfied with ; but I, a priest, cannot be. No ; I can-
not ; I know too well the matter ; and I answer, first, that
I was no more inclined to evil, nor more liable to yield to
temptation, than others ; (for God knows that I never se-
duced any one through my ministry.) I was only a man
like others, designed by the Creator for connubial happi-
ness according to his word itself: 'It is not good for man
to be alone ; I will make a helpmeet for him ; ' designed, I
say, for a union intended by the all-wise and benevolent
Creator. Can the laws of Popery prevail over the wis-
dom of the Almighty ? Let not a Catholic say that a
priest in this situation is helped by the special grace of
God ; for I answer, by the words of Christ himself, ' Who-
soever loves danger, he shall perish in it.' And if God
has promised his grace, it is not granted in an unnatural,
immoral situation, directly against his institution.
" As soon as the young girl, for I speak peculiarly of
their confession, enters the confessional, ' Bless me, father/
she says, kneeling and crossing herself, ' for I have sinned ; '
and the priest mumbles, Dominus sit in ore tuo et in corde,
tuo ut conjitearis omnia peccata tua 'The Lord be in your
heart and lips, that you may confess all your sins.' If she
is an ugly, common country girl or woman she is soon de-
spatched ; but, on the contrary, if she is pretty and fair,
196 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
the holy father puts himself at ease ; he examines her in the
most secret recesses of her soul ; he unfolds her mind in
every sense, in every manner, upon every matter. This is
the way which theology recommends us to follow in our
interrogations: ' Daughter, have you had bad thoughts?'
' On what subject ? How often ? ' &c. ' Have you had bad
desires ? What desires ? ' ' Have you committed bad ac-
tions? With whom ? What actions?' &c. I am obliged
to stop. Many times the poor ashamed girl does not dare
answer the questions, they are so indecent. In that case
the holy man, ceasing his interrogations, says to her, ' Lis-
ten, daughter, to the true doctrine of the church ; you must
confess the truth, all the truth, to your spiritual father.
Do you' know that I am in the place of God that you
cannot deceive him? Speak, then ; reveal your heart to
me as God knows it ; you will be very glad when you will
have discharged this burden from your rnind. Will you
not ? ' ' Yes.' ' Begin ; I will help you ; ' and then begins
such a diabolical explanation as is not to be found but in
houses of infamy, I suppose, or in our theological books.
This is so well known that I have often heard of wicked
young men saying to each other, ' Come, let us go to con-
fession, and the curate will teach us a great many corrupt
things which we never knew ; ' and many young girls have
told me in confession, that, in order to become acquainted
with details on those matters pleasing to their corrupt na-
ture, they went purposely to the confessional to speak about
it to their spiritual father. Sometimes I have heard the
confession of young girls not above sixteen years of age,
who explained to me such disgusting things with a pre-
cision, a propriety (or rather impropriety) of terms, that,
when I asked them where they had gathered all this
strange learning, they seemed as much astonished at my
question as I was at their confession, and said to me,
' Why, father, our former confessor taught us all this, and
commanded us never to omit these details, otherwise we
should be damned.' I replied to them, ' I pray you never
use such terms again ; they are unworthy of a Christian
mouth ; you have misunderstood your confessor.' I learned
afterwards that these misguided persons left my confes-
sional because, they said, I was an ignorant confessor,
TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. '197
who did not confess like others, and who did not cause them to
say all.
"After so many instructions the young girl is well in-
doctrinated, well fitted to answer either the questions or
the purposes of the priest. This poison diffused in her
heart soon infects her whole mind and destroys her purity.
It is precisely at such a point of time that her cruel foe
waits for her. When he sees that she is made vicious and
corrupt by the teachings of the confessional he is sure of
his success."
To this statement Professor Morse adds the following
remarks :
" The modes by which the priest persuades his victim
that she is without sin in doing whatever he commands,
since he is responsible, and since he can absolve her from
it, and other means of deceiving at the confessional, are
then too graphically related to be publicly told ; and I
have thought it best, with the consent of the author, to
suppress all but the closing facts."
Now, let it be considered that I have shown that from
Bishop Kenrick himself evidence can be derived going to
confirm and substantiate all the statements of this French
priest. If these things are so, then it becomes Americans
to look well to this matter.
Let no one trust the efficacy of Papal prohibitory laws.
The whole system scatters broadcast the seeds of the
highest temptation known to man in the minds of the
whole priesthood, and then waters those seeds day and
night ; and then, as if in solemn mockery, or in bitter de-
rision of the interests of the human race, the pope issues
his bull and forbids them to spring up and grow.
If the human mind had not been debased, brutalized, and
crushed by the system, it would be incredible that it could
have been endured from generation to generation. If the
whole skill of earth and hell had been put forth to devise
17*
198 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
a system designed first to corrupt the clergy, and then,
through them, human society, a better devised and more
effectual one could not have been found. Hence a con-
verted French priest has well said, " This intercourse of
young girls and young unmarried priests is the fulness of
immorality." And the following account which he gives
of the corruption of the French clergy is no less philo-
sophical than true. It also exactly agrees with the state-
ments of Blanco White.
" Catholic or Protestant writers who have spoken of the
corruption of the Roman clergy, who have described its
matchless wickedness, have not shown its cause. They
saw only the effect, without tracing it up to its source. I
will try to supply their silence. I have read a certain
number of those books against a body to which I be-
longed, a body which I know as well as it is possible
for one to know it, and I can say that its whole degra-
dation is unknown. Careful of saying nothing that can
shock the reader, I will reveal only what is necessary to
unveil those ' anointed of the Lord,' but nothing to offend
the eyes. I shall surprise Protestants, doubtless, by say-
ing that, in France, the immense majority of young men in
our seminaries are not corrupted, and many of them are vir-
tuous. It is nevertheless true. They are ignorant, super-
stitious, fanatical, given up to their superstitious practices,
to theology, &c., but, I declare it, not at all vicious. That
may be conceded, although in appearance in contradiction
to their indecent studies ; for they are taught that it is
necessary to learn all these in order to be able to fulfil
their duty ; and, to hear confession in all its extent, it is
necessary to know all human perversity. I do not give a
judgment on these reasons ; be that as it may, our superiors
endeavor to inspire us, in those recitations, with a great dis-
like of such crimes ; and I can affirm that it is very pain-
ful to the natural sense of decency in any man to be
obliged, as we are, to be familiar with such books.
" This is the true picture upon this matter of the semi-
naries that I know; and I am indifferent whether it
agrees or not with pictures drawn by others.
TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 199
" The story of the corruption of the clergy begins only
when they are out of the seminary. Those young men are
sent into a parish in the quality of curates, or vicars. In
the beginning they fulfil their duties with great care, and
for some time remain faithful to their vows. Many told
this to me after their fall ; and I have seen it myself, ex-
cept in a few exceptions. But by and by they open as-
tonished eyes. Restored to freedom, after ten or twelve
years of thraldom in a college, or seminary, they become
quite diiferent men : gradually they forget their vow.
' O,' said a young priest to me, with tears in his eyes, after
having four or five years discharged the duties of his sta-
tion, ' God only knows what I have suffered during this
time ! and if I have fallen, it is not without fighting. Had
I been allowed to choose a wife as it is the law of God,
who destines man to marriage, whatever our rules teach
to the contrary I should have remained virtuous ; I
should have been the happiest man in the world ; I should
be a good, a holy priest ; while now I am 0, 1 am
ashamed of myself!'
" This is really the sad history of all their falls ; for, let
us be just, what can become of a young priest of twenty-
five years of age, confined in .the lonely wilderness of a
country parish, in a village where he has only the society
of his sacristan and of his servant, because all his parish-
ioners being but coarse peasants, especially in the south and
in the west, where scarcely any know how to read, are un-
able to afford any comfort to his solitude ? His duty oc-
cupies him but little save on the Sunday ; and during the
whole week, after his short mass and some confession of
women, he is reduced to ask himself, ' What shall I do?'
Study has few, if any, charms for him, because he is forbid-
den to read or study precisely those matters which enter-
tain the intellect. He is allowed only to peruse theology
always Dens, Gomez, Rodriguez, the Life of Saints, by
Godescar. If he should obtain some other books, the
bishop, in his episcopal visit, would chide him severely,
and call him a worldly priest. Our great poet Racine,
so pure, so chaste, is scarcely tolerated, and many bishops
do not allow him in the libraries of their priests. The
young man, before his profession, had imagined and antici-
200 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
pated a pleasant existence in the ecclesiastical state, and
he finds but privations, ennui, disgust. His passions are
also raised ; the demon of bad thoughts takes possession
of him. Moreover, his ministry puts him in so many cir-
cumstances with ignorant young countrywomen, into whose
most secret thoughts he is obliged to enter, that his virtue
receives many shocks. And can it be otherwise when a
man has those intimate and continual relations required
of the Catholic priest with women ? No ; it would be
unreasonable, to expect from human nature more than it is
able to do, to put it on too difficult a trial. Such is, how-
ever, the situation of every Catholic priest.
" I do not say all this to veil or excuse the crimes, the
natural result of this institution ; but I think I am bound
to give the matter of fact as it is. Sometimes the resist-
ance is firm, the struggle long ; but at length this martyr
of fanaticism, this victim of his system and of his superi-
ors, abandons his vow through despair, shuts his eyes, and
throws himself into the slough of passions. This is the end
of almost all priests. In the beginning their consciences
reproach them bitterly ; they try again to be faithful ; they
flutter, fall, reform again, go on, fall again, and at length, to
finish this horrible struggle, remain in vice. Let us add
to this sad catalogue the temptations against their faith
and doctrines, which end with many in complete atheism,
into which they fall by the excess of degradation, temp-
tations to atheism in those who reason, from the impossi-
bility of reconciling their faith with reason."
I
What language of detestation can be found sufficiently
strong for such a system ? And yet of this system has
Bishop Kenrick come forward as the advocate.
BLANCO WHITE.
In perfect accordance with this testimony of the French
priest is that of Blanco White, once an eminent ecclesiastic
in the Spanish church. He clearly proves that there had
TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 201
been there no improvement since the disclosures of the
century after the reformation. He says,
" I cannot think of the wanderings of the friends of my
youth without heartrending pain. One now no more,
whose talents raised him to one of the highest dignities
of the church of Spain, was for many years a model of
Christian purity. When, by the powerful influence of his
mind and the warmth of his devotion, this man had drawn
many into the clerical and the religious life, (my youngest
sister among the latter,) he sunk at once into the grossest
and most daring profligacy. I heard him boast that the
night before the solemn procession of Corpus Christi,
where he appeared nearly at the head of his chapter, one
of two children had been born, which his two concubines
brought to light within a few days of each other. Such,
more or less, has been the fate of my early friends, whose
minds and hearts were much above the common standard
of the Spanish clergy. What, then, need I say of the vul-
gar crowd of priests, who, coming, as the Spanish phrase
has it, from coarse swaddling clothes, and raised by ordina-
tion to a rank of life for which they have not been pre-
pared, mingle vice and superstition, grossness of feeling
and pride of office, in their character ? I have known the
best among them ; I have heard their confessions ; I have
heard the confessions of young persons of both sexes who
fell under the influence of their suggestions and example ;
and 1 do declare that nothing can be more dangerous to
youthful virtue than their company. I have seen the most
promising men of my university obtain country vicarages
with characters unimpeached and hearts overflowing with
hopes of usefulness. A virtuous wife would have confirmed
and strengthened their purposes ; but they were to live a
life of angels in celibacy. They were, however, men, and
their duties connected them with beings of no higher de-
scription. Young women knelt before them in all the
intimacy and openness of confession. A solitary home
made them go abroad in search of social converse. Love,
long resisted, seized them at length like madness. Two
I knew who died insane. Hundreds might be found who
avoid that fate by a life of seftled systematic vice."
202 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
CRUELTY OF ROMANISM.
Nowhere does the cruelty of Romanism appear so in-
tense as in the case of the noblest and most sincere minds
of men and women who are drawn into the priesthood or
into nunneries with the false idea that they are to find
themselves surrounded by holy influences. How bitter
their disappointment ! Some long resist temptation by a
kind of living martyrdom ; and of these some become in-
sane. The fate of many a poor deceived nun will never be
known in all its horrors till the revelations of the judg-
ment day. Whatever screams are heard, from whatever
cause, as was the case in the nunnery at Baltimore, no
Protestant can enter. And, if any victim escapes, she is,
of course, slandered and declared insane.
Few priests have the nobility and strength of character
of the French priest. His experience was this, as given
by himself :
" An assiduous reading of pious books, of the Holy Bible,
were of great use to me in confession, and gave me the
reputation of an able confessor. Soon, notwithstanding,
or I ought rather to say because of my youth, I became
a la mode all the fashion among devotees. In France
there is a 'mode,' or fashion, for every thing, for confess-
ors as well as for coats or hats. My downcast eyes, my
timidity and piety in saying mass, obtained for me the
reputation of a pious priest. Consequently many people
came to hear my sermons applied to me for my advice in
confession or my prayers in the mass. I was well nigh
believing myself a powerful saint, a heavenly being.
Alas ! alas ! I was to be recalled from this height to which
my pride had raised me, to my native earth.
" My heart, in spite of my whole pretended holiness, was
like mountains covered with enormous heaps of snow,
where a single breath is often sufficient to bring down the
terrible avalanche.
TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 203
" One day a young lady came to the vestry and asked me
if I would confess her. T complied with her request.
I confessed her often ; for she was pious, and received the
Lord's supper at least twice a week. She told me the
reason why she had changed her former confessor a
reason which it is not necessary here to tell. In the in-
timate relation of confessor and penitent, in those repeated
conversations in which a young female of nineteen opens
her heart every week, in every matter and the most secret
thoughts, to a young man of twenty-seven who feels and
laments his loneliness, it was not difficult to foresee what
would naturally happen. She spoke to me so openly, so
candidly, her confession displayed so fair a character,
such artlessness, so much innocence, that by and by, with-
out any intention or reflection, but by a natural course of
things, my heart was caught, and I fell in love with her.
I took heed not to give her the least hint of it, because it
was worse than useless, since I was prevented from being
married by my vow, by ecclesiastic rules, and also by the
laws of the state. I thought not an instant of abusing my
ministry on her account ; which, however, would have been
the easiest thing in the world. It remained, then, for me
but to smother this involuntary love. At first I tried to
believe it only the effect of my imagination too much
kindled. But vain illusion ! The more I endeavored to
trample down this feeling, the more I strengthened it ; and
it increased every day. My virtue, indeed, could prevent
me from giving my consent, but it could not prevent my
suffering its effects the mental agony of the conflict.
Ere long I saw the inutility of my exertions against it ;
and I thought I could not do better than to resign myself
to the will of God, in the hope that he would doubtless
help me in my struggles, since I fought for his glory, his
church, and my vows.
- My first thought, of course, was of removing the dan-
ger by refusing any longer to confess her by giving up
the direction of her soul, so perilous was it to mine own.
At first, in the next confession, I wished to sound her on
this subject, alleging for that purpose some Jesuitical and
apparent reason ; lor my superiors had taught me never
to be at a loss for pretexts. She answered to me, ' Fa-
204 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
ther, I gave you my whole confidence, I opened to you
my heart, I unveiled to you my most secret thoughts with
as much candor as if I was but ten years old, that you
might direct me better. You know me as well as I know
myself. I do not ask the reasons why you propose to me
to exchange you for another. But, if you deny me your
ministry, I must renounce the confession altogether ; for
you know yourself why I left my former confessor ; and
you will not oblige me to go back to him, neither to Mr.
D., nor to Mr. L. 7
" I could not tell her the true reason of my conduct, for
my sake and for her own. On the other side I was very
superstitious, believing, heartily, confession quite necessary
to the salvation of the soul. Could I then, with my ideas
of confession, assent to the loss of her soul ? I remem-
bered that a true priest ought ever to expose his own
salvation for the sake of others ; and consequently the
design of sending her to another seemed a horrible tempta-
tion of the devil. However, in a matter of so great impor-
tance I feared to direct myself ; and as in the seminary I
had been told a hundred times that our confessor ought to
rule all our business, I went to him ; I looked to him as to
my father and the representative of God ; for I practised
what I taught others viz., that the confessor is the vice-
gerent of God. He listened to my singular declaration
and to my purpose of renouncing her confession if lie
thought best. He laughed at rne ; and, notwithstanding
all my explanations, he could not, or would not, understand
me, and at length told me that my love for her was far
from being a reason of depriving her of my ministry.
" There then remained no doubt in my own mind ; and I
thought that God himself had ordered it so. But, to di-
minish the danger, 1 resolved to avoid any intercourse
with her except in the confessional ; and henceforth I
ceased to pay any visit to her family, where I went before,
oftentimes to evening parties, for fear of seeing her and
increasing my fatal attachment ; for the Holy Bible says,
Quisquis amat periculum in illo peribit ' Whosoever loves
danger shall perish in it.' Her family, astonished at my
sudden desertion, and especially her mother, asked me
why I had deserted their house if they had offended me.
TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 205
Thanks to my subterfuges, I avoided the question ; and
thus I. who would have found my joy, my happiness, in this
house, banished myself from the family where all the de-
sires of my heart carried me.
" In speaking of what I suffered in repressing my feel-
ings, I shall be scarcely, if at all, understood by men
who put their hearts in open air, who act unreservedly,
who obey the just dictates of Nature instead of having
been inured to despise them and trample upon them by
men to whom the lake of great emotions is always drained,
because they do not subvert the sacred institutions of their
Creator. These men know not with what violence this
sea of human passion ferments, gushes out, when every
issue is denied to it ; how it increases, swells, overflows,
bursts the heart, till it has torn away its bounds and dug
for itself a channel."
He proceeds to state how he had recourse to the heaviest
mortifications, even destroying his health, and then sought
for death in attending on the victims of a pestilential dis-
ease ; how by degrees he came to a knowledge of the licen-
tious and mercenary character of the clergy and was rid-
iculed for his scrupulous conscientiousness ; how he was
tempted to infidelity and atheism ; how by the Bible he
was brought truly to know God and spiritual religion ; and,
finall}', how he escaped to this country without disclosing
his feelings to the object of his affection.
I rejoice to believe that even in Papal countries there
are some such in all ages whom the cruel system does not
succeed in corrupting, but mourn to think how few.
18
CHAPTER IX.
THE RESULT.
To conclude, it must now be added that there is no reason
to doubt that the intelligent and leading managers of the
Romish corporation, as was the case with ./Eneas Sylvius
and John Gerson, know this to be the real state of the
case, and have adapted their policy to the expectation of
its permanent continuance. There is no reason to regard
them as sincerely deluded, as were the early originators
of the doctrine of celibacy. It is no doubt true that the
celibacy of the clergy was introduced early into the
church by men who, under the influence of prevailing
errors, supposed it essential to the highest degree of holi-
ness. Moreover for a time it was probably maintained
in innocence and sincerity, notwithstanding it began im-
mediately to develop its corrupting influences, on the
ground that these were but the abuses of a good thing.
But the time in which this has been innocently possible
has long since passed away. So constant, so uniform, so
fearful is the testimony of experience that I do not hesi-
tate to say that the more intelligent part of the Romish cor-
poration, or at least those who stand nearest to the centre
of power, know perfectly well that all that has been
stated by me and others on this subject is no exaggera-
tion. Nay, they well know that it falls short of the truth,
(206)
THE RESULT. 207
and look with contempt upon the easy simplicity of those
Protestants who are duped by their impudent representa-
tions of the holiness of the priesthood.
If, then, any one should ask, How do they look on the
matter ? I reply, They expect that, in all communities where
their system has the ascendency, the great majority of the
clergy of all grades will not be continent ; and they have
adjusted their morals so as to accord with this state of
things.
I desire to be distinctly understood. I do not mean by
this that they cease to teach the superior sanctity of celi-
bacy and continence, or to claim for their church superior
sanctity on this ground, or to represent the Protestant
clergy who have wives as sensual and unholy. All this is
necessary to preserve appearances, and is perfectly well
understood among the knowing ones. Those who have
just come from the very depths of pollution and sensual-
ism do not at all hesitate to speak thus.
If any say that this implies an inconceivable degree of
baseness, and hypocrisy, and unprincipled deceit, I answer,
It is no more than has notoriously existed in many of those
who stand at the very head of the system that is, the
popes. Many of them have been known to be the most
licentious wretches that have ever burdened this earth ;
and yet, in all their bulls they assume the character of
eminent saints, the peculiar favorites of the Most High.
For example, Innocent VIII., whose bull I have quoted, in
which he sanctions all manner of perfidy towards the poor
and holy Waldenses, led a most profligate life. It is a
matter of dispute how many illegitimate children he had
Onuphrius stating in general that he had several, Marullus
fixing the number at sixteen. Certainly, although a num-
ber of them died, two survived his accession to the Papacy,
and were advantageously married and highly promoted
208 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
and enriched by him. Indeed it is notorious that the same
things were done by many other popes, so that they even
ceased to excite surprise. Yet all these popes addressed
the church and the world as if they were the very choicest
saints of God, even when they wre rallying their myr-
midons perfidiously to massacre the purest saints on earth.
What they mean by holiness we can understand when we
recollect that they call such butcheries " a holy work," and
are not at all troubled by the loathsome pollution of such
lives.
Such are the men whom the pen of inspiration has viv-
idly and indignantly described as " speaking lies in hypoc-
risy, having their consciences seared as with a hot iron." But
the system of the Romish church is exactly adapted to
transform her clergy into such men, and to finish the work
by making them infidels or atheists.
If any simple and charitable souls, or any under the
influence of affected candor and liberality, shall call this
language harsh and uncharitable, I will only ask of them
for themselves to read the testimony of the Roman Cath-
olic councils and historians in the ages preceding the
reformation, when Protestantism was unknown. I defy
any man even to imagine a state of things so bad as is
there described and proved by evidence of the most in-
controvertible kind.
And yet, even after the reformation, in the council of
Trent, when such facts were urged on the Papal corpora-
tion by Roman Catholic rulers as a reason for repealing
the law of celibacy, they refused merely on grounds of
Papal policy. On this point Edgar states the following
impressive facts :
" Albert, Duke of Bavaria, in 1562, by Augustine, his
ambassador, depicted in glowing colors, before the council
of Trent, the licentiousness of the German priesthood.
THE RESULT. 209
The contagion of heresy, the ambassador said, had, on ac-
count of sacerdotal profligacy, pervaded the* people of
Bavaria even to the nobility. A recital of clerical crim-
inality would wound the ear of chastity. Debauchery had
covered the ecclesiastics with infamy. A hundred priests,
so general was the contagion, could hardly muster three
or four who obeyed the injunctions of chastity. The
French applauded the ambassador's speech. The council
also, by its promoter, joined in the French eulogy, and
styled the Duke of Bavaria the bulwark of the popedom.
"The Emperor Ferdinand, though without success, ap-
plied to the pope, in 1564, for a repeal of the laws against
sacerdotal matrimony. Maximilian also, with many of
the German princes, importuned Pius IV. for the same
purpose. The reason urged by the emperor was the
profligacy of the priesthood. His majesty declared that
among many of the clergy scarcely one could be found
who lived in chastity. All, with hardly an exception,
were public fornicators, to the greatest danger of souls
and scandal of the people. A repeal of clerical celibacy,
Maximilian stated, would gratify the populace of Bavaria,
Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, Austria, Cariuthia, Carniola,
and Hungary. All these vast regions would have rejoiced
in the restoration of marriage among the clergy.
" The emperor's application was supported by the Popish
priesthood of Germany. These, in maintenance of their
petition, alleged various reasons. The frailty of man ;
the difficulty of abstinence ; the strength of the passion
that prompts to marriage ; the permission of clerical wed-
lock by the Old and New Testaments under the Jewish
and Christian dispensations ; its use, with few exceptions,
by the apostles ; the instructions of Dionysius to Piny-
tus ; the decision of the Xicene council, suggested by
Paphnutius ; the usage of the Greeks and Latins in the
east and west till the popedom of Calixtus, all these
arguments the German ecclesiastics urged for the lawful-
ness of sacerdotal matrimony. A second reason the Ger-
mans deduced from clerical profligacy. Fifty priests,
these churchmen confessed, could with difficulty afford one
who was not a notorious fornicator, to the offence of the
people and the injury of piety. Sacerdotal logic and
18*
210 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
learning, however, were unavailing when weighed against
pontifical policy and ecclesiastical utility."
If we would understand what this ecclesiastical utility
is, attend to the Romish theory as reported by Edgar :
" Cardinal Rodolf, arguing in a Roman consistory in
favor of clerical celibacy, affirmed that the priesthood, if
allowed to marry, would transfer their attachment from
the pope to their family and prince ; and this would tend
to the injury of the ecclesiastical community. The holy
see, the cardinal alleged, would, by this means, be soon
limited to the Roman city. The Transalpine party in the
council of Trent used the same argument. The introduc-
tion of priestly matrimony, this faction urged, would sever
the clergy from their close dependence on the popedom
and turn their affections to their family, and consequently
to their king and country. Marriage connects men with
their sovereign and with the land of their nativity. Cel-
ibacy, on the contrary, transfers the attention of the clergy
from his majesty and the state to his holiness and the
Church. The man who has a wife and children is bound
by conjugal and paternal attachment to his country, and
feels the warmest glow of parental love, mingled with the
flame of patriotism. His interests and affections are in-
twined with the honor and prosperity of his native land ;
and this, in consequence, he will prefer to the aggrandize-
ment of the Romish hierarchy or the grandeur of the
Roman pontiff. The dearest objects of his heart are em-
braced in the soil that gave them birth, the people among
whom they live, and the government that affords them
projection. Celibacy, on the contrary, precludes all these
engagements, and directs the undivided affections of the
priesthood to the church and its ecclesiastical sovereign.
The clergy become dependent on the pope rather than on
their king, and endeavor to promote the prosperity of the
Papacy rather than their country. Such are not linked
with the state by an offspring whose happiness is involved
in the prosperity of the nation. Gregory VII., accord-
ingly, the great enemy of kings, was the distinguished
patron of sacerdotal celibacy."
THE RESULT. 211
Here then, as before, in the case of lying, perjury, and
murder, the Romish corporation deem universal pollution
and corruption a less evil than the loss of their own
usurped supremacy. If peculiar wrath and uncommon
plagues are reserved by God for any class of men, surely
it must be for such as these.
ADDITIONAL CHARGES.
What has been said may seem sufficient to prove that
Romanism is the enemy of man. It is sufficient ; and yet
it is far from exhausting the evidence that exists, and which
must be considered in order to gain a full understanding
of the magnitude of the interests involved in the great
question now at issue in this nation and in the Christian
world.
It is not possible, however, advantageously to present
some portions of the remaining argument until we have
considered the evidence which exists that the Romish cor-
poration has no historical or scriptural basis, but is the
result of a stupendous system of imposture and forgery.
To the consideration of this part of the subject let us
now proceed.
PAET III.
KOMANISM AN IMPOSITION AND A FORGEKY.
CHAPTER I.
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT.
IT has been seen that the Romish corporation places it-
self in such an attitude that it is practically the god of
this world. It has an entire monopoly of the grace of
God and of the word of God. God is invisible and inac-
cessible except through the mediation of this corporation.
Such a claim ought to be sustained by an amount and
a clearness of evidence corresponding with its impor-
tance. It is estimated that Rome has shed the blood of
at least fifty millions of Christians for refusing to admit
these claims ; it appears also that she still defends her
past course, and would repeat the slaughters if she had
the power.
Has she, then, even a plausible ground for her lofty
claims? I answer, No. The presumption on a general
view of the facts of the case is against her ; and a fair
examination of the records of history and of inspiration
(212)
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 213
is all that is needed to expose her as the great mother
of imposture and forgery.
PRESUMPTION AGAINST ROME, FROM HER SANCTION OF LYING.
The first presumptive argument against the members
of the Romish corporation arises from the fact that their
theory of morals is such on the subject of veracity and
fidelity that it is highly improbable that they have not
used forgery and fraud in obtaining their present position
and power. It appears that it'is a fundamental part of
their morals that the interests of that corporation are of
more importance than truth or fidelity to promises, con-
tracts, or oaths. It appears that they have acted upon
these principles for ages and on a scale of vast magnitude.
Now, it is self-evident that these same principles would
equally justify them in the use of forgery and fraud in
order to gain that power which they consider of so much
moment, and to extend and increase which they resort to
measures so treacherous and unprincipled.
Must there not be, therefore, a violent presumption that
a corporation that has promulgated and sanctioned, as a
part of its immutable and constitutional law, the princi-
ple that it is right and a duty to lie for the sake of eccle-
siastical utility, has already used this principle in laying
the foundations of its own power and authority ?
If the principle is deemed right, there will be nothing
to prevent its use at any time or to any extent that eccle-
siastical utility shall seem to demand.
To Protestants, no doubt, it would appear to be a great
crime to forge documents in the name of eminent men of
past ages in order to substantiate any claims of any Prot-
estant body. The training which they receive, and the
214 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
fundamental principles of their morality, cause them to
recoil from it with horror.
But, if the morality of infallible popes and general coun-
cils is any index of the morals of Romish ecclesiastics,
they cannot regard it as a crime to forge any documents
whatever which the welfare of the church seems to demand.
There is not, therefore, in the fundamental morality of
that system any thing to render it at all improbable or
to prevent a high probability that it is entirely based up-
on a constant use of fraud and forgeries in the past ages
of history, especially in those in which there was wide-
spread ignorance and little or no critical skill to detect
such forgeries.
Thus the Romish corporation by their own acts have
entirely cut themselves off from all defence against such
imputations and presumptions, and laid themselves open
to the just imputation of a readiness to employ forgery or
fraud to any extent which their corporate interests might
seem to demand.
PEESUMPTION AGAINST ROME FROM PROPHECY.
If we turn to the word of God we shall be struck with
the remarkable fact that the rise of a great power is fore-
told to be distinguished by these two great characteris-
tics the first, that it should arrogate to itself the place
of God on earth ; the second, that, in sustaining such ar-
rogant claims, it should resort to an unparalleled extent
to the use of every kind of falsehood and fraud. This
stupendous work of deception was to be commenced soon
after the ascension of Christ, and was to result in a sys-
tem of fraud and imposture which, though nominally re-
ligious, should be in reality the masterwork of Satan,
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OP THE FACT. 215
exerting immense power, and enduring for ages, until at
last it should perish before the glorious coming of our
Savior to inflict just vengeance on his foes. The words
of inspiration are these, addressed to those who had been
alarmed by an apprehension of the immediate coming of
Christ, (2 Thess. ii. 3-12 :)
" Let no man deceive you by any means ; for that day
shall not come except there come a falling away first, and
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, sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Re-
member ye not that, when I was yet with you, I told you
these things ? And now ye know what withholdeth that
he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of
iniquity doth already work ; only he who now letteth
will let until he be taken out of the way. And then
shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall con-
sume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with
the brightness of his coming even him whose coming is
after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and
lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unright-
eousness in them that perish ; because they received not
the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie ; that they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous-
ness."
Now, is it not plain that these words cannot be applied
to any system except one which makes peculiar pretences
to take God's place on earth one whose proceedings are
manifestly characterized by a peculiar use of fraud and
delusion one whose roots are found in the early ages,
near to the apostles, and whose development should last
till the remote ages of the Christian dispensation, and
whose power should be finally destroyed only by the com-
216 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
ing of Christ with divine power to execute vengeance
upon his haughty and usurping adversary ?
Does not the Romish corporation practically take the
place of God and exhibit itself as such, especially in ex-
alting the pope, their head, and giving him the titles and
worship of God? Is not the use of falsehood, fraud,
and perfidy their great characteristic? Are not the
roots of the system in the early ages ? Is it not at this
time, as in past ages, the great enemy of humanity, whose
destruction is essential to the coming of an age of intel-
ligence, liberty, and social purity ? To what other sys-
tem, then, can the words of the prophecy so reasonably
be applied as to the corporation of Rome ? Is not this
the masterpiece of Satan ?
To this argument the Romish corporation cannot reply
that they do not believe in the existence of any such being
as Satan, the great father of lies.
No body of religionists professes a more full and un-
doubting faith in the existence and power of the devil
than the Romish corporation. They boldly proclaim
that the reformation of Luther is in an eminent degree
his work. All Bible and tract societies engaged in the
diffusion of divine truth they ascribe to his crafty and
malignant devices. But, according to them, the great en-
emy of the devil on earth is the church of Rome, under
the pope, her illustrious head.
Agreeing, then, as we do, that there is a devil, the only
question is, Whose principles and practice most resemble
his? And is it not plain that the Romish doctrine of
falsehood is a genuine and legitimate offspring of him
who is the father of lies ? Have we not reason, then, to
think that the Romish corporation also is his work ?
I shall not here offer any apology for professing my be-
lief of the doctrine of satanic agency or enter into any
PKESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OP THE FACT. 217
argument in its defence ; for to the great majority of the
Christian world it is needless. It is held in common by
the Romish church, the Greek church, and all the other
Eastern churches, and by the whole evangelical Protestant
world, Lutheran, Calvinistic, Episcopal, Methodist, Bap-
tist, c., although comparatively little theological or phil-
osophical use has as yet been made of it. As presented in
the word of God, no doctrine is more fundamental. The
great end of the incarnation was to destroy the devil and
his kingdom by the redemption of the church. (1 John iii.
2. Heb. ii. 14, 15.) Christ will reign as Mediator till it
is done ; and then cometh the end. (1 Cor. xv. 24, 25.)
Owing to the depravity of man, he has, where God
does not prevent, entire ascendency over the race : he
forms tremendous organizations, and by them deceives
the nations and governs the world. (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.
Eph. ii. 1, 2. Rev. xiii. 1-4.)
The millennial reign of Christ is caused, not by the un-
aided progress of the human mind, but by the exposure
and destruction of Satan's organizations, and to his being
bound and cast into the abyss, so as not to be an active
agent in the history of the world or able to deceive the
nations. (Rev. xix. 20, 21 ; xx. 1-8.) If these things
are so, it must be conceded that every system of theology,
history, or philosophy is fatally defective that omits him.
It is not God's theology, history, or philosophy, but
Satan's, designed to hide himself ; and any system of
theology or philosophy is superficial that takes a super-
ficial view of him. To take a profound and philosophical
view of the Roman hierarchy, without a thorough analysis
of his character, and maxims, and modes of deceit, is im-
possible. And, before this great controversy comes to its
crisis, he, and not any individual or generation, will be the
great subject of attack.
19
218 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Assuming the truth of these views, I shall proceed to
present additional presumptive evidence that the Romish
corporation is the system of satanic fraud and delusion
which is predicted in the word of God.
It is plain, then, that the great system of fraud pre-
dicted, whatever it is, had its roots in ages immediately
after Christ, was for a time restrained, but was at last
developed and completed by an astounding use of impos-
ture and delusion, and exists even to this day. Does this
general view best accord with the Roman corporation or
with Protestantism ? I affirm that it best accords with
Romanism. I shall, therefore, proceed to present the
presumptive evidence that the Romish hierarchy is this
stupendous system of fraud.
Before proceeding to the proof, it is suitable to state
explicitly what part is to be assigned to man in this stu-
pendous fraud, and also to consider the nature and power
of the additional presumptive evidence which is to be
adduced.
What part, then, is to be assigned to man ?
1. Not that any one human mind ever in any age delib-
erately and consciously planned and organized the whole
system from the beginning, knowing it to be a fraud, as
was no doubt true in the case of Joseph Smith when he
formed a plan to delude his followers by the book of
Mormon.
2. Nor that any number of men cooperating in one
age, or in different ages, ever planned it as a whole,
knowing it to be a fraud.
3. Nor that the great mass of the laity whom it has
deluded and controlled have ever supposed it to be a
fraud.
4. Nor that all of its leading administrators and ad-
vocates have ever regarded it as a fraud, though very
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 219
many have so regarded and used it when planned to their
hands even popes, bishops, and priests.
5. Nor that there is no important doctrinal truth in
some of its dogmas : there is much.
6. Nor that no good men have ignorantly contributed
to its formation, and lived under it, and obeyed it, as
victims of delusion.
7. Nor that it has never done any good ; but that the
truth and the peculiarities of the system do not proper-
ly belong together ; that one is of God, the other of the
devil ; and that good men under it are made by the truth
in spite of the system, and not because of it ; and that
the good done is and has been done by the same truth and
by good men in spite of the system, and not because of it.
But the system, as a system, is false and pernicious, and,
though not framed at once as a whole by any man or
body of men as a fraud, was framed by that one far-seeing,
comprehensive mind of whom the apostle speaks once in
heaven, and familiar with the whole character, laws, and
administration of God, deeply versed in all questions of
theology, skilled in organization and government, perfectly
acquainted with all the phases of the human mind and of
society, and a master of alj. the arts of sophistry and de-
lusion to a degree beyond the conception of a human mind,
and before whom all men and nations, not illuminated and
defended by God, are, by reason of their dislike of the
truth, mere simpletons objects of his craft and delusive
power entangled in his snares, led captive at his will.
He, living whilst generations die, is able to lay a plan
requiring centuries for its execution. He can take ad-
vantage of human depravity in all its forms and of the
deep dislike of men to humbling and self-denying truth ;
also of existing errors of philosophy or education, know-
ing how to combine them and push them on to their final
220 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
results. Also he can avail himself of the remaining
depravity, worldliness, and pride of good men, and of
the various errors which they mingle with truth. Also
he can avail himself of existing defective forms of civil
organization, and of the spirit, associations, tastes, and
habits produced by them, in order by means of them to
vitiate the spirit and form of Christian organization.
Availing himself of all these, he has by a delusive pro-
cess, holding up great and good ends, such as preserving
doctrine and unity in the church, produced a system
adapted on the whole to do as much evil and as little
good as in existing circumstances was possible ; for being
limited to the problem of working by delusion, under the
guise of Christianity, he could not work at all without
doing some good and without some good men to work
with. All that he could do would be to profess enough
good to put men off their guard, and actually to do a cer-
tain amount of good, or at least allow it to be done by those
who had a heart to do it. But he would make the pre-
ponderating influence evil to the highest degree he could.
Now, when I call the system of the Romish hierarchy a
stupendous fraud, I mean that it is a system, devised by
Satan for this very end, and that by it he has thus far
gained it to an astonishing extent. The delusion has
been strong and complete to an amazing degree. It has
been strong delusion to believe a lie. The system has
wielded vast power and endured for century after centu-
ry. By it Satan has still retained his position as the god
of this world, and, what is still more amazing, has placed
his throne in the temple of God, and thence sent forth
his decrees to the nations and done his will without let
or hinderance. I therefore can even suppose that Mr.
Brownson and other lay Romanists are free from any at-
tempt to sustain a known and designed fraud. I can
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 221
regard them simply as the sincere but deluded subjects of
a higher fraud, and would desire in meekness to instruct
them, if peradventure God may give them repentance, to
the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may deliver
themselves from the snares of Satan who are led captive
by him at his will. Nor let any one suppose that I mean
any disrespect by this. The existence of a devil has
always been a fundamental doctrine of the Romish system ;
nor do they hesitate to declare that Protestantism is his
work. Hence Mr. Brownson represents the devil as
greatly enraged by the present onset of the Roman world
upon it and speaking great swelling words in its defence.
Now, as both systems agree most fully in teaching the
existence of a devil, and as they are logical opposites,
of one or the other the devil is the author, and the advo-
cates of one or the other are deluded. The Romanists
charge it on the Protestants, and the Protestants retort
the charge ; and thus they come to a logical issue. Just
so was it between the Jews and Christ. They charged
on him a league with the devil. He retorted on them the
charge that they were of their father the devil ; and so
they came to an issue.
I proceed to show that the logical presumption is that
the Romish hierarchy is a stupendous fraud of the devil.
What, then, is the nature and power of the presumptive
evidence which I propose to adduce? It is that which
arises from the action of the mind when it takes a rapid
and comprehensive view of the leading facts of a given
case and asks what hypothesis best explains them.
Here a general knowledge of God and of the laws and
principles of his system is supposed ; also of men and
human society ; also of the devil, and his character, laws,
and modes of proceeding. And the question is raised,
Which looks most likely that this system is of God as it
19*
222 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
claims, or that it is a stupendous fraud of the devil ? This
is an effort of the mind to guard itself against limited,
onesided views, or against the delusive power of dialectic
sophistry, which it may not see how at once to analyze
and destroy. It is like ascending a mountain and taking
at a glance a general view of the prospect around. It
deserves great regard ; and it enables sound and compre-
hensive minds at once to see the general current or drift
of evidence on a given point.
Taking, then, in the first place a general view, I assert
that, when we consider the extraordinary and all-compre-
hending claims of this corporation, the prodigious powers
of despotism they would grasp in their hands, the manner in
which such claims ought to be proved, the kind and degree
of proof offered, and the general mode in which they have
in all ages conducted the argument, the whole procedure
has on its face the appearance of a stupendous fraud.
The points asserted and to be proved are, 1. That
Christ intended to have a permanent corporation of
bishops under one universal bishop, his representative
and vicar, as successors of the apostles, who should
have, as a corporation, inspiration, infallibility, and inde-
fectibility. 2. That such a body is a church in any proper
sense, and not a mere ecclesiastical hierarchy. 3. That
Peter was the first head of this body. 4. Not only that
Peter was at Rome, but that he had his see there, as uni-
versal bishop of the church on earth. 5. That his su-
premacy was to descend to his successors. 6. That God
speaks and acts exclusively through this corporation ; so
that all who reject them reject God, and cannot believe or
be saved. Such are the claims put forth with the highest
assurance in the centre of New England and before the
civilized world and God most high.
Now, in cases far less momentous there are principles
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OP THE FACT. 223
of proof by which the common sense of mankind is wont
to test any claims affecting life, reputation, or estate ; and
there are intrinsic marks of honesty in presenting and
sustaining such claims ; so that the mind, without going
into logical details, receives, by an instantaneous judg-
ment, a conviction of the truth or falsehood of the claims.
I shall show that it is utterly impossible fairly to state
these claims, and then put side by side the proof on which
they are based, without comment, and then consider the
mode in which the argument has always been conducted,
without producing an instantaneous conviction that the
whole system is a stupendous fraud practised on the
credulity of the human race.
I am aware that the Romanists repudiate this view as
absurd and incredible ; but there are no pledges of God
against the occurrence in the nominal church of such a
corruption as this would imply, beginning early, extending
wide, and changing the most powerful acting church to a
harlot. Against this the Romanists cry out, as a breach
of God's covenant to the church, as the Jews did when
Paul announced their rejection and ruin. " If this is so,
then the gates of hell have prevailed against the church,"
say they. The whole force of this goes upon the assump-
tion that the gates of hell here spoken of are not the
gates of Rome, and that the oath of God does not bind
him to destroy her in order to defend his church against
the gates of hell. And truly nothing is adapted more
clearly to show the power of God than to defend and
preserve in this world a spiritual church, notwithstanding
the debaucheries, rage, and bloody persecutions of Rome.
All this looks vastly like defending the church against the
gates of hell and the armies of hell issuing from those
gates.
But, not to rely on a mere negative statement, we do
224 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
know from the passage quoted that a stupendous fraud
was to take place under the presiding influence of Satan,
involving so much power, and leading to an opposition to
God so great, that its destruction should call for a special
interposition of Christ by the spirit of his mouth and the
brightness of his appearing. Indeed the letters of Christ
to the seven churches, the letters of Paul, and the Apoc-
alypse of John all speak one language on this subject.
They all portend a widespread and fatal apostasy in the
visible church ; that the real church should as it were lie
hid, and yet be miraculously defended by God against the
rage of Satan in the ruling church.
"We are also distinctly informed in the text that the
elements out of which it was to be formed were then in
existence and at work, repressed indeed by certain causes,
but sure to develop themselves when those causes should
be removed. Again : we know that the full development
of the pure and holy church of God, the marriage supper
of the Lamb, the conversion of the world, the binding of
Satan, and the reign of Christ were unfolded as events in
the far-distant future, to be preceded by a period of great
iniquity, in which the bottomless pit should be opened
and stupendous satanic systems be developed, the destruc-
tion of which should precede and introduce those glorious
events.
No points are more distinctly marked in the word of
God than these. (See Rev. xix. 20.) They are like lofty
mountain peaks ; nothing can hide or obscure them. They
are in pointed contradiction of the Romish hypothesis,
that the first thing after Christ was the full development
of the true church ; they fall in entirely with the Protes-
tant view, that the first great and organized system to be
developed was a stupendous fraud, imposed on the world
by Satan in the guise of a church of God.
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 225
A second presumptive argument lies in the nature of the
system as it is now presented to us in its perfected state.
What is this system? Suppose all opposition to cease,
and let it have its way ; what would it become? A close
corporation, invested with the monopoly of the grace of
God, and of heaven and hell, to the whole human race,
centralized by a universal spiritual monarch, denying in
the name of God any responsibility to any human power
on earth.
Think now what man is that the experience of all
ages has taught us that the possession of irresponsible
power above all things corrupts its possessors ; think that
even Paul needed the counterpoise of constant afflictions
to keep him from pride ; and then ask, Are we to expect
that Romish popes and bishops, as a general fact, will be
such paragons of piety and humility that all this honor
and power will not corrupt and injure them ? I do not
ask what the facts have been ; that I shall consider when I
proceed to demonstrate that the system is of the devil. I
am looking merely at the general aspect of the system
now. God, we know, above all things abhors pride. Does
this system, now, look like an exquisite divine device to pro-
mote humility? Look at its bishops, archbishops, patri-
archs, metropolitans, cardinals, and at the summit of the
great pyramid, the absolute monarch of eight hundred mil-
lions of men, for such he claims to be by divine right,
and does it strike you as God's school of humility,? Think
what Christ said when the disciples disputed who should
be greatest ; how he mentioned the bad precedents of the
aspiring great men of this world only to condemn them
and to say, Among you it shall not be so ; and is it prob-
able that nevertheless he meant to found a spiritual aris-
tocracy, centralized by an absolute monarch, in comparison
with which all the ambitious dreams of Alexander, Caesar,
and Bonaparte are eclipsed and disappear ?
226 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
. Again : think of him whose essence is pride who said,
" I will mount up ; I will be as God ; " is it likely that we
are to find his great antagonist in such a system as this?
Does it not rather seem to bear his very image and super-
scription ? Does it seem as if Satan, if he had desired a sys-
tem to call into his service the strongest depraved passions
of the human heart, pride, and the love of wealth, honor,
power, and sensual indulgence, could have devised a better
plan ? And is this, after all, the only church of the living
God, out of which there can be no holiness and no salva-
tion ? Is it not more likely that this is the man of sin
spoken of in the text, whom the Lord will consume by the
breath of his. mouth and destroy by the brightness of his
coming?
I am aware that a cover of piety may be thrown over all
this and much said of unity and orthodoxy ; and we may
be told that we must trust in God to take care that his bride,
his wife, does not abuse her power. We will trust in God
indeed. But prove to us, first, that this corporation is his
bride, his wife ; for, to speak the simple truth, she looks
far more like the harlot of Satan, attired in scarlet, than
like the bride, the Lamb's wife, attired in fine linen, clean
and white.
Another presumptive argument that the system is a stu-
pendous fraud is found in the extreme scantiness of the
scriptural proof by which it is sustained.
There is no specific, formal, and definite statement of the
system in the Bible such as a system of power like this
ought to have. Compare the statement of powers of
officers in the laws of Moses, and the constitution of the
United States, and in the case of Christ, with the state-
ments claimed for this corporation as its scriptural proofs.
Now, this corporation is, according to Romanists, more im-
portant than all God has done besides more so than the
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 22 <
atonement or the Bible. They are absolutely of no use
without it. The system of God cannot go, it utterly fails,
without it. If so, do not reason and common sense say
it ought to be fully stated in the Bible ? If a mechanic,
designing to teach a nation how to make and use steam-
boats, should describe all other parts of the system, but
should omit all mention of steam, and of the boiler and its
attendant machinery, what should we think of it ? But if
this corporation, with their head, is the mainspring of the
system, why is it not fully described? When the disciples
were contending who should be greatest, it would have
been easy to say, Peter shall be universal bishop, and to
arrange the whole matter. When Peter was writing his
epistles, it would have been easy for him, if he was at
Rome, to say so, and, if he was head of the church, to
write in that style. It would have been easy for Paul,
when writing to Rome, to recognize the fact that Peter
was the bishop of that church, that his see was there,
and that his dominion and that of his successors was co-
extensive with the globe. And as the successors of the
apostles were to have only corporate inspiration and
infallibility, it would have been easy to state it and
how it was to be exercised a thing not even yet
decided.
Now, how easy would it have been to have started right
at the beginning if the claims of this corporation are true !
But, alas 1 what an utter void is there where indisputable
proof ought to be found ! True, certain things are said to
the apostles, and it is implied that they were to have
successors of some sort, and that with them Christ would
be to the end of the world ; but not a step can be taken
without begging the question who these successors should
be. True, also, certain things are said to Peter ; but
here, too, not a step can be taken without begging the
228 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
question and assuming their own interpretation as the
only correct one. But as to Rome, and a see there, &c.,
there is an utter blank.
Indeed the celebrated Newman, the leader of the Trac-
tarians, now, like Mr. Brownson, in the bosom of Rome, in
his work on ecclesiastical development, designed to say
all in behalf of Rome that he can, is obliged to admit the
truth of all I say. He confesses that the passages of
Scripture claimed by the Papal see are " more or less ob-
Bcurc, and NEEDS A COMMENT." He admits that the Pa-
pacy was not developed or known during the first two cen-
turies, nor were ecumenical councils. He assigns, too, the
reason why the persecuting pagan Roman empire rendered
the development of such a system impossible. He resorts
to the idea of an intended divine development of it when
it appeared. There was a development, no doubt ; but
whether of God or of the devil is the question. To me
Newman's words look like an undesigned comment on
Paul's statement, in the passage quoted, of the temporary
repression of the mystery of iniquity, and its development
when the obstacle should be removed.
Hear him : " An international bond " [like the Papacy]
" and a common authority could not be consolidated, were
it ever so certainly provided, while persecutions lasted.
If the imperial power checked the development of coun-
cils, it availed also for keeping back the power of the
Papacy." But when persecution was removed, it was, ac-
cording to him, developed, and, when the imperial power
fell, still more so. Amen. So I understand Paul to assert
of the man of sin in the text. At all events, Mr. New-
man is compelled to concede my facts. He admits that
for two centuries " the regalia Petri * slept," as " a mys-
* Royal and supreme authority of Peter.
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 229
terious privilege not understood as an unfulfilled proph-
ecy."
And is it likely that this is the way God would have
established a power on the reception of which heaven and
hell depend, without which the Bible cannot be under-
stood by a few obscure passages, so obscure that for two
centuries no one understood them, and the powers giv-
en slumbered like the meaning of an unfulfilled proph-
ecy ? And yet nothing more does even Mr. Newman dare
to claim.
No wonder that the Eomanists think that the Bible
needs the church for an interpreter ; for no other body in
heaven or on earth could get any support for their hier-
archy out of it. Plainly at first sight it is not there ;
and you may strain your eyes, and yet you cannot see it.
If all this is not strong presumptive evidence of a stupen-
dous fraud, I know not what is.
Another presumptive evidence of a stupendous fraud is
the manner in which the argument has been conducted
from age to age.
The claims of the hierarchy are not the same from age
to age ; they are now stupendous and all-comprehending.
Go back beyond Gregory VII. , and how are they dimin-
ished ! Go back to the days of Augustine, and how are
they still diminished ! Go back to the first century, and
they disappear. The system is like a pyramid standing
on its apex and with its base upward ; and Mr. Newman
is trying to prop it up by developments and Mr. Brown-
son by a priori arguments. But what does it most resem-
ble the honesty of God, or the fraud of a deceiving spirit,
augmenting his claims as best he can by any means, fair
or foul, from age to age?
Again : her universal reliance, when in the majority, on
force, and not on argument, betokens that she is the tern-
20
THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
pie of the father of lies, and not of God. When they
are in the minority her advocates disclaim the use of
force. But does the infallible hierarchy ? Let the coun-
cils of the Lateran ; let the dungeons, and racks, and stakes
of the Inquisition ; let the crusades against the Albigenses
and the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; let the oceans of
blood shed by her authority and order, reply. And does
this create a presumption that the presiding spirit of that
church is mild, and meek, and gentle, sustained by an
inward consciousness that God and all the truth in the
universe are on her side? Or is it like the conduct of a
ruling spirit who knows that the whole fabric is based on
lies, and that, so soon as true logic and true holiness shall
have free course and divine energy, he and his system will
be plunged together into a lake of logical and unquench-
able fire ?
Again : the same presumption that the whole system is
one of fraud is created by the unfeigned horror with
which it has regarded the translation and circulation of
the Bible in the living languages of men. Is not this a
clear presumption of fraud? Is the President of these
United States afraid of the constitution of these United
States? Does he deem it a dangerous document? Does
he wish to lock it up in Latin and keep it out of the hands
of the people? Why then the constant roaring of the
pope against Bible societies ? Is not the Bible the con-
stitution of the kingdom of Christ? And, if he meant to
have a pope in his church, is not his office clearly set forth
in the constitution of his church ? Alas ! Mr. Newman
tells us the passages claimed by the pope are " more or
less obscure, and need a comment." Even so they do need
a comment, and one that is able to subvert the obvious
sense of the whole Bible. Hence the indispensable ne-
cessity of keeping the Bible in their own hands if they
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 281
can, and at least of obliging all men, on pain of eternal
damnation, implicitly to believe their interpretation of it.
Five bulls against Bible societies have been issued in the
last thirty years the last in 1844. It chills the blood to
hear in what manner they speak of the Bible and of the
" crafty device " of circulating the revealed word of God.
The devil, it would seem, in his rage against Rome, has
become the great patron of Bible societies. It is hard to
tell whether this is most blasphemous or ludicrous. And
what is the flimsy pretext of all this ? Do they talk of
inaccurate versions ? Surely they were admirable judges
who in the council of Trent declared the Vulgate the ul-
timate standard of appeal, with all its notorious errors.
And why? Because the infallible bishops of that council,
according to Sarpi, did not know enough of Hebrew and
Greek to read it in the original, and in Latin they could
read it. And so Mr. Brownson now appeals to the Latin
original instead of the Hebrew or Greek ! Is this the
church to be so fierce against inaccurate translations?
But the pretext is too flimsy. Beneath those ecclesiastical
robes and forms of piety in the midst of that church there
meets the eye a presiding spirit whose whole soul is filled
with dread and hatred of the word of God. To him
it is a consuming fire ; and hence in rage he would burn
it with fire. When the time comes I shall exhibit at large
the treatment it has received from the hierarchy. At this
time I present only that impression which a general view
of facts at once forces on an honest mind. Nothing is a
stronger presumptive argument against this church than
this constant dread of the word of God, and earnest de-
sire- to introduce apocryphal books and human traditions
as the basis of her arguments in order to sustain a sink-
ing cause. But no human tongue can tell one half of the
fearful truth on this point. I leave it to be fully disclosed
232 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
by Him who, by the spirit of his mouth and the brightness
of his coming, shall, like devouring fire, forever consume
this stupendous system of organized fraud.
If any one desires to reply to this, let him, if he dares,
first give a complete and discriminating analysis of the
character, maxims, and spirit of God and of Satan in con-
trast and according to the word of God. Who will de-
ny that there is a broad, an infinite, distinction between
their characters, maxims, and spirit, as laid down in the
word of God ? What is it? Let the Romanists, then, do
what they never yet have done let them state the exact
difference between God and the devil, not in general
terms, but in a practical point of view and according to
his word, and then prove, if they can, that the facts in
the history of their church to which I have referred create
a logical presumption that God is its author, and not the
devil. But this they can never do. Nay, that is saying
but little. When such a contrast of the character of God
and the devil shall be made, it will become, according to
the law of cause and effect, as logically certain as the law
of gravitation that no being but the devil can be the au-
thor and presiding spirit of that church. But the full
proof on this point Lreserve to a future argument. It is
enough that I have clearly stated at present the presump-
tive proof that the whole system is a stupendous fraud of
Satan.
When God comes to destroy that system he will admit
of no neutrality. If it is not what it professes to be, there
is no blasphemy like it, nor will God display towards any
other system such fierceness of wrath. Let every man,
then, take care on which side he is found in this final .war.
Let us never forget that the enemy with whom we con-
tend is superhuman, the common enemy of the human race ;
and let us not hate those whom he deceives, but pity
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 233
them, love them, and pray for them. God has saved
millions from that delusive system ; he can save millions
more. Pray, then, for the deluded millions of Italy, Por-
tugal, Spain, Austria, and France. Pray for the millions
of our own land and of all lands. There is power in
prayer. Feel for them ; they are deluded. Satan is their
enemy and ours. Pray that the vials of God's wrath may
fall on him, and that they may be delivered from their
miserable bondage to him, and be saved. The time for
the utter destruction of that system plainly draws near ;
the truth must be spoken, and spoken boldly ; but the
main work is to be done by the Holy Ghost and by
prayer.
20*
CHAPTER II.
ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY.
IT is certainly very unusual to be called on to make
the charge of a regular and extensive system of forgery
and fraud upon a powerful corporation professing to be
religious, and even to assert that the very existence of
that corporation is owing to such forgery and fraud.
In ordinary. cases I would not do it; but this is no
ordinary case. In common cases any corporation profess-
ing to be respectable has a right to the presumption that
it will not practise forgery and gross deception. The
reason is that they all avow the principle that these
things are always wrong.
But with the Romish corporation it is not so. They
avow the doctrine that to lie and deceive for ecclesiastical
utility is right. This being the case, it is obviously im-
possible to create a presumption that the system was not
formed by the use of forgery and fraud. On the other
hand, there must be a very strong presumption that it was.
I do not hesitate, therefore, to say that facts accord
with this presumption, and that there is the most unequiv-
ocal historical evidence that such was the origin of the
system. Nor is the evidence of this assertion sparing or
feeble. It can be demonstrated, by even a superfluity of
unequivocal and undeniable historical evidence, that the
principle of lying for ecclesiastical utility is the absolute
(234)
ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY-. 235
creator of every .part and particle of the Romish corpora-
tion as it now exists.
Not a feature of its present constitution can be men-
tioned that cannot be traced back by the clearest histor-
ical evidence to a time when it did not exist, and the pro-
cess can be shown through which it was created by fraud
and *brgery. There is, in fact, nothing to be compared
with this system of forgery for its magnitude and results
in the history of the world. But at this we need not won-
der. If the principle of lying for ecclesiastical utility is
sound, why should it not be carried out on a great scale ?
But to descend to particulars. The pope is now a tem-
poral ruler of a territory about three times as large as the
State of Massachusetts. It stretches across Italy from the
Mediterranean to the Adriatic. It is an essential part of
.the present system. It makes him independent of any
temporal ruler. He is bound by no oath of allegiance to
any earthly sovereign. This is felt to be essential in
order to carry out his claims as a universal spiritual sov-
ereign. Was it always thus? I answer. No. He was
not always ruler of this or of any other territory. We can
trace back the history of this matter to the beginning ;
and we find that the original claim was founded on a
most notorious forgery, purporting to be a donation of
territory from the Emperor Constantine.
This was followed up by other similar forgeries, until
at last an actual beginning of temporal power, first de-
pendent, and finally independent, was made. After this it
was extended by war and treachery to its present extent.
The pope is now elected by a college of cardinals, who
are princes in the Papal state and next in honor to the
pope. From them alone can he be chosen. Was it al-
ways thus? I answer, No. We can trace back this part
236 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
of the system until it entirely disappears, and can point
out its fraudulent and unauthorized origin.
The bishops of the Romish church are now bound to
the pope by a feudal oath, which plainly betrays itself as a
product of the middle ages. "We can trace this, too, back
till it disappears, and we come to a time when every
bishop in Europe, Asia, and Africa would have denounced
with indignation the demand of any such oath as an act
of impious and unparalleled usurpation of authority.
The pope has now supreme judicial authority. No
bishop, no synod, has ultimate jurisdiction. An appeal
may be taken from them all to Rome. We can trace this
part also of the system back to the time when the supreme
judicial authority of the pope wholly disappears, and each
local church with its rulers was entirely independent of
every other. The idea of an appeal from the decision of
particular churches to synods was at length introduced ;
but even after this the idea of a universal appeal to
the Bishop of Rome was repudiated with the utmost de-
cision. Indeed by the first general council, A. D. 325, it
was absolutely and definitely forbidden. The existing
judicial power of the pope was obtained by forgery.
At the present time, too, the pope has the power of
making laws and prescribing usages for the whole church.
He also is invested with supreme executive power. "We
can trace these parts of the system also back till they
disappear. We can discover, too, the very forgeries
by which the present state of things was brought into
existence.
The pope, moreover, now claims supremacy on the ground
of the assumed fact that Peter was appointed the prince
of the apostles and the head and ruler of the church.
We can trace this claim also back to a time in which
ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY. 237
those who are now absurdly called the early Popes of
Rome were utterly ignorant of this doctrine and made no
such claim ; and we can show how after four or five
centuries the idea was introduced and how it was made
to triumph by falsehood and fraud.
The doctrine also as to the infallible authority of a
general council under the pope can be traced back till it
utterly disappears, together with the very idea of such a
council.
Moreover, when the idea of calling such a council was
originated, the Bishop of Rome neither called it, presided
in it, nor confirmed and gave authority to its decrees. His
right to do all these things has been since usurped by
falsehood and fraud.
The law of the celibacy of the clergy, which is one main
pillar of the Papacy, can also be thus traced back till it
disappears. The same is true of the doctrine of auricular
confession that great engine of Papal and priestly des-
potism.
So also the doctrines of transubstantiation, purgatory,
saint and image worship, and the whole system of sacra-
mental regeneration and sanctification can be traced back
till they vanish, and the last fragment of Romanism, either
in doctrine or in government, utterly disappears.
The creation of the peculiar doctrines of Romanism
was not so entirely effected by forgery as was the existing
Papal corporation and form of goverment ; and, as this is
the central power of the system, my main purpose calls
for a more particular exposure of this.
It is well for the community that this is a mere question
of historical fact. It is a question of unspeakable interest,
not only to our country, but to the world. If the Papal
corporation is a fraud, created by unprincipled forgery,
then it is a conspiracy against the welfare of the human
238 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
race which deserves the highest possible detestation. God
only, the Infinite, the Almighty, can adequately express the
abhorrence that it deserves.
When we consider its arrogant claims, when we trace
its history, when we contemplate the oceans of blood that
it has shed simply for the alleged crime of denying and
repudiating its claims, the mind of man is appalled, and
fails at the magnitude of the guilt involved ; nor does it
find relief till it falls back on the idea of an almighty
Judge. He can arouse the mind of humanity to under-
take this mighty judgment, and he can uphold and
strengthen them in its execution.
( Indeed his word contains a call to the friends of God
and man to engage in this work, and his providence coin-
cides in summoning the nations to the judgment. Our
country especially is called on to lead the way.
CHAPTER III.
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION.
THERE is to be, as I have said, an historical day of
judgment. God has come on burning wheels ; fiery flames
precede him ; the thrones are set, the books are opened,
and the Romish corporation and their head are summoned
before his bar to answer for their arrogant pretences and
bloody deeds.
Let us, then, open the pages of the book of history be-
fore the bar of this almighty and impartial Judge, and
listen to their testimony against the corporation of Rome.
The time covered by the claim of the Romish corpora-
tion includes nearly nineteen centuries. They exhibit to
the world an unbroken line of popes, stretching across
this vast tract of time, and terminating, as they allege,
with Peter at Rome.
To unlearned Romanists, and to others who know what
the pope now is, it appears as if the Papal leaders taught
that a line of such popes extended back to that time.
Such, we do not doubt, is the impression which they mean
to convey.
If the history of this long period were familiarly known,
such a claim would appear little less than ridiculous insan
ity, if its impiety did not eclipse every other consideration.
But there is no popular knowledge of this period, and
therefore no ability to treat such a claim as it deserves.
(239)
240 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Of course it is not possible within my limits to give so
extended a history in full ; but I can with ease make some
general statements which will dissipate the Papal delusion
to which I have adverted and place the great facts of the
case in a true light.
Bishop Kenrick, of Philadelphia, has given us a list of
two hundred and fifty persons, called popes, who are said
to have reigned during this time, ending with Gregory
XVI. Daunou, a French Catholic, has also given us a list
of two hundred and sixty-three, terminating with the same
pope. Bishop Kenrick says that " the number varies ac-
cording as certain individuals are considered intruders or
lawful popes." (Primacy, p. 488.) It appears, then, that
Romanists are not always agreed who are the true popes.
The bishop says, " It is a matter for critical inquiry." This
I think any one will concede who attempts to look into
the matter. To settle all questions involved in the Papal
schisms and the claims of anti-popes will require a very
critical inquiry, and at the best lead to very doubtful re-
sults, as is plain from the divisions of Romanists on the
subject.
But this long list of popes may be divided- into six
classes, according to the state of the civil governments of
the world.
The first class includes those who were under the Ro-
man empire for three centuries before the conversion of
Constantino to Christianity. Of these thirty-two are
given by Kenrick and Daunou, up to Sylvester, by whom,
as we are told by certain notorious Roman forgers, Con-
stantine was baptized, and to whom, the same forgers tell
us, he gave his palace, Rome, and the Empire of the West.
The second class includes those who were under the Ro-
man empire from the conversion of Constantino till its down-
fall in 476 a space of nearly two centuries. Of these
FORMATION OP THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 241
there are given thirteen by Daunou and Kenrick, includ-
ing Leo L, soon after whom Rome fell.
Though Pope Leo I. died fifteen years before the fall
of Rome, yet I select him because he was the leading
spirit of that age, and the master builder who first made
Peter the basis of the Roman claim of supremacy of juris-
diction and spiritual power.
In these two periods lived the early Christian writers
commonly known as the fathers as, for example, Augus-
tine, Bishop of Hippo, Chrysostom, Bishop of Constanti-
nople, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. Of these the see of
Rome furnished none except Leo just before the city fell.
The third class consists of those who were under the
government of the barbarian conquerors of Rome, or of
the Emperors of Constantinople when they reconquered
Rome, until the revival of the Empire of the "West by
Charlemagne in the year 800 a space of three centuries
and a quarter. Of these fifty-two are given by Kenrick
and fifty-one by Daunou, including Leo III., by whom
Charlemagne was crowned.
In this period there were a few writers in the first cen-
tury, of whom Pope Gregory, called the Great, is chief.
The last two centuries from 600 were the beginning of the
midnight of the dark ages.
The fourth class consists of those who lived between
Charlemagne, A. D. 800, and the celebrated Gregory VII.,
A. D. 1073-85, called sometimes Hildebrand, and regarded
as the Napoleon of the Romish corporation. Of these
sixty-four are enumerated by Daunou and fifty-six by
Kenrick.
During this period no great writers meet us. "We are
still in the midnight of the dark ages, notwithstanding
a transient gleam of light around Charlemagne. These
last two periods are the ages of forgery and fraud. Soon
21
242 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
after 1000, however, the period of the scholastic divines
opened. There we see Anselm, Lanfranck, Abelard.
The fifth class includes the popes from Gregory VII. to
the reformation under Leo X., A. D. 1514. This period
extends through about four centuries, and contains sixty
popes according to Kenrick, and sixty-six according to
Daunou.
This is by way of eminence the Papal period. In it the
existing corporation of Rome was first fully organized on
foundations and of materials previously forged. In it the
peculiar doctrines of Romanism which are the sinews of
its power and the sources of profit were fully developed
and established. This is the period of the crusades and of
scholastic divinity ; this, too, is the period of Papal art.
The sixth class extends from the reformation to the
present day, a period of about three centuries and a
half, and contains thirty-eight popes according to both
Kenrick and Daunou. In this period began the great
work of exposing the forgeries and frauds of Rome 1 , which
is yet to be completed.
It has been a period of intense intellectual activity ;
especially has it been remarkable as an age of historical
and critical development. The study of history was once
confined to the leading few ; it has during this period
descended more and more to the people. We, as a nation
of self-governing freemen, above all others need to be well
versed in history, and especially in the history of that
corporation whose origin and formation it is my purpose
now to illustrate in a survey of the divisions which have
been made.
To impress this division more strongly upon the mind,
and to aid the power of conception when I shall speak of
the history of the Papal corporation, I here present a sim-
ple chart of the period and of its divisions.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE POPES FROM CHRIST
TO THIS DAY.
A.D. Augustus.
Christ.
100
200
M
to
o
300 Constantino.
1
Sylvester.
400
500 Rome falls.
. -.
Leo I.
600
700
/"
800 Charlemagne.
900
fcD
E
O
LeoIH.
1000
1100 Henry IY.
=
Gregory YII.
1200
E
o
Innocent m.
1300
1400
tc
fe
Boniface VIII,
1500 Charles Y. Luther. Leo X.
1600 f g j
1700 j | [-
1800 [fJ Pius IX.
(243)
244 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
For the sake of symmetry and convenience, I place the
name of Constantino upon the year 300, though he began
to reign about a quarter of a century later ; so also I
place the fall of Home on 500, though it was on 476 ; and
Gregory VII. on 1100, though he reigned A. D. 1073-85 j
and Leo X. on 1500, though he reigned a little later.
I wish simply to impress the great outlines of the division.
I also place Sylvester with Constantino, Henry IV. of
Germany with Gregory VII., and Luther and Charles V.
with Leo X. for similar reasons. Into the fifth period I
introduce, on 1200 and 1300, Innocent III. and Boniface
VIII. for reasons soon to be stated.
THE DELUSION.
The delusion which the Romish corporation leaves upon
the minds of the ignorant masses of the Romanists is now
apparent. It is that the Romish corporation stretches
back through this vast tract of time just as it is till it
reaches the throne of Peter, the great prince of the
apostles.
"Words cannot express the magnitude and extent of the
falsehood involved in this impression and how utterly
unlike it is to the real course of events.
I will try briefly to flash out these ideas by a simple
and significant illustration.
If, when standing in St. Peter's or the Vatican, some
intelligent traveller should ask who erected these splen-
did structures, and be told the holy apostles Peter and
Paul ; they fixed on Rome as the centre of the empire
of Christ, and, knowing the importance of a central
church and a palace of suitable splendor, they laid out
the plans of the buildings, collected the masons, gathered
FOEMATION OP THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 245
contributions from the whole Christian world, and thus
erected the church and the palace ; Peter fixed his seat
here, sat on his throne in this church ; and the throne
on which the pope now sits in state is the very one
on which the apostle Peter used to sit, and in this pal-
ace he once lived in royal splendor, he would not hes-
itate to call the whole story an audacious lie. Do I not
know, he would say, that the thing is, in the nature of the
case, absurd and impossible ? Was not Rome the very
centre of the resistless power of the Roman empire ?
Was not the palace of the CaBsars there ? Was it not the
centre of Roman polytheism ? Was it not the abode of
the Pontifex Maximus ? Were not all of these vast pow-
ers arrayed in deadly conflict with the religion of Christ ?
Was not that the age of persecution and martyrdom ?
Were not the first Christians, as a general fact, poor and
unlearned ? Was it not true, as Paul says, not many
wise, not many mighty, not many noble were called ?
And was not Paul carried a prisoner to Rome ? and did he
not at last die there as a martyr ? And did not Peter,
too, die a martyr's death on the cross ? And are these
the times and these the men to erect such a church and
such a palace, before the eyes of the emperor, in the very
centre of persecuting Rome ? Then, opening some authen-
tic book of history, he would find the time when in fact
these structures were commenced, the persons by whom
and the means by which they were continued and com-
pleted, and, by a statement of the truth, cover his false
informers with shame and infamy.
And yet frauds infinitely greater have been practised
or indorsed by that corporation of bishops centralized
by the pope, and they are not yet covered with shame
and infamy ; nay, they still claim, in the name of God,
21*
246 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
supreme spiritual authority over the human race ; and to
them we are now referred as our only sure guides in the
discovery of truth, and as the only medium through which
we can reach heaven.
Nor is this all. They have shed the blood of millions
for denying these claims ; and this Mr. Brownson now
defends as only an exercise of legitimate authority. Nor
is this all. He claims a supremacy for the institutions of
this corporation over our national institutions on the
ground that what is of man must give way before what
is of God.
Let us, then, consider in the light of history the actual
process in the formation of the Romish corporation.
The fabric of this corporation, as it now stands, may be
compared to St. Peter's Church at Rome. As that in its
magnitude exceeds all other churches, so is this the great-
est fabric of ecclesiastical architecture ever known on
earth. The pope, the cardinals, the patriarchs, the me-
tropolitans, the bishops, the priests, the deacons are all
organized in a vast system, extending itself over the
globe and aiming at universal conquest. In it are the
various orders of monks, nuns, Jesuits, bound to it by
oaths and sworn to extend its sway.
When was the fabric erected ? By whom ? How ?
How did the pope gain his powers and become the centre
of such a system ? To these questions but two answers
can be given. The first, that of Rome God thus ordained
from the beginning. The other I have given it is a
stupendous fraud of the devil. Look, then, at the first
centuries days of persecution, weakness, martyrdom.
Is it not on the face of things as absurd to think it then
put up by the apostles as to think that Paul and Peter
built St. Peter's Church and the Vatican ?
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 247
FIRST CLASS OF POPES.
Where, then, was the temporal power of the pope
when the palace of the Caesars was at Rome, when Paul
died there as a martyr, when persecution after persecution
filled the empire with the blood of the slain ?
Where, then, was the body of cardinal princes clothed
in scarlet ? Where the oath to obey the pope ? Where
his supreme judicial, legislative, and executive authority ?
Whore were the general councils ? Where the canon
law ? What single part of the present great fabric can
be found there ? Not one. Mr. Newman is forced to
confess that the existing system was not then erected ;
not a particle of it could be seen. And history, with
irresistible power, repudiates every claim of Rome. All
churches were then equal and independent ; neither they
nor their pastors claimed authority over each other.
There was then no corporation of any kind in existence.
It was nearly two centuries before they even began to act
together in synods.
All this is notorious, and is conceded by all church
historians of any candor. But it is of still greater mo-
ment that it can be proved to have been the view held at
Rome, where the Romanists assure us that Peter, the
prince of the apostles, the great head of the church, had
established his see and transferred his power to his suc-
cessors, who, if these assertions are true, must have had
some knowledge of the fact.
248 THE PAPAL CONSPIBACY EXPOSED.
CLEMENT'S LETTER.
After Peter, if we may trust tradition, came Linus,
and then Cletus, or Anacletus. Of these two little or
nothing is known or said. Then comes a real person
and a writer well known Clement, son of Faustinus, a
Roman. He was really the pastor of the church of Rome.
According to Origen, Eusebius, and all the ancients, says
Bower, he is the person whom Paul, in his Epistle to the
Philippians, names among those who had labored with
him in the gospel and whose names were in the book of
life. From him there has come down to us one true and
genuine epistle.
It is also a long epistle. Moreover it is an epistle on
a subject directly adapted to bring out the Papal prerog-
atives of Clement, if he had any. The epistle informs us
that the church of Corinth had deposed some of their
presbyters and were in a state of painful division.
Clement and the church at Rome deemed this deposition
groundless in view of the statements of the church at
Corinth which had been laid before them for advice.
Have we not here a test question ? If Clement, the fel-
low-laborer of Paul, the contemporary of Peter, had
known even the A B C of the present Papal system,
would he not at once have commanded the church at Cor-
inth, in the name of Almighty God and of the blessed
apostles Peter and Paul, and on peril of their wrath, to
restore these deposed presbyters ?
Did he do it ? Nay ; he did no such thing. On the oth-
er hand, he conceded that the Corinthian church had not
exceeded their legal power and that he had no power
over them ; but he tried to convince them that they had
exercised their power unjustly and to persuade them to
FORMATION OP THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 249
restore the deposed bishops. He tells them that the de-
posed bishops had been properly chosen by the whole
church, and had long served the flock of Christ humbly,
quietly, liberally, without censure, and with a good repu-
tation among all. "These," says he, "we think cannot be
justly deposed from their office ; for it will be no small
sin to depose from their office as bishops those who have
performed their duties holily and without reproach."
Nor is this the whole strength of the case. Clement
does not even speak in his own name at all. He sinks
himself out of sight. He speaks simply as the mouth of
the church of Rome.
Let us compare the opening of the bull of Pius Y. in
which he announced the excommunication and damnation
of Elizabeth, Queen of England, with the opening of the
letter of Clement :
" Pius, bishop, servant of the servants of God : for a
perpetual memorial of the matter. He that reigneth on
high, to whom is given all power in heaven and in earth,
committed one holy Catholic church, out of which there
is no salvation, to one alone on earth namely, to Peter,
the prince of the apostles, and to Peter's successor, the
Bishop of Rome, to be governed in fulness of power," &c.
Clement begins his letter thus :
" The church of God dwelling at Rome to the church
of God dwelling at Corinth, called and sanctified by the
divine will through our Lord Jesus Christ : grace and
peace be multiplied to you by Almighty God, through
Jesus Christ."
The writer then proceeds to praise the Corinthians for
their former good conduct and to exhort them to heal
their divisions and to restore their deposed bishops. His
motives are derived from the examples of other ages and
from the words of Scripture. The government of the
250 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Corinthian church was plainly in the hands of the people,
and all that the Roman church did was to advise and
exhort.
So plain is this case that Waddington, an Episcopal his-
torian, says of the church in Corinth, " The Episcopal
form of government was clearly not yet here established."
It is no less plain that, if there was a bishop at Rome, he
was not a modern pope. He says nothing of Peter's see,
nothing of himself, nothing of the wrath of Almighty
God and the blessed apostles Paul and Peter on all in the
church of Corinth who will not obey his bull. Neither
he nor the church claim any other power or authority than
that of Christian advice, expostulation, and exhortation.
And yet the case was one of great moment and of great
urgency, as is evident from the very nature of the facts
stated and from the earnest entreaties of the letter.
I know not how a more pointed repudiation of all the
present claims of the Papacy could have been made.
How little this letter is adapted to meet the ideas of
the Romish corporation will soon become plain when we
shall come to consider certain letters afterwards forged
by them in the name of Clement in order to accomplish
their ambitious ends. They, in their forgeries, make
Clement speak to some purpose. The whole story as to
Peter is at his tongue's end.
The strength of this case cannot be over-estimated.
Bower well remarks, " Had he known himself to be the un-
erring judge of controversies, there had been no room for
persuasions : he ought to have exercised his power and put
an end to all disputes in the peremptory style of his succes-
sors." So much for Pope Clement.
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 251
PIUS I.
Let us pass over Popes Evaristus, Alexander I., Six-
tus I., Telesphorus, and Hyginus, of whom very little
is known, and come to Pius L, A. D. 142-157. Under
him occurred another event which completely annihilates
all the pretensions of the Papal corporation. Marcion, of
Sinope, had been excommunicated from the church of his
father, a bishop of the Catholic communion, for certain
grave offences. He fled to Rome and prayed to be ad-
mitted to their communion. The church of Rome told
him, as Epiphanius testifies, " We cannot admit you with-
out leave from your holy father ; NOR CAN WE, AS WE
ARE ALL UNITED IN THE SAME FAITH AND THE SAME SEN-
TDIEXTS, UNDO WHAT OUR HOLY COLLEAGUE, YOUR HOLY
FATHER, HAS DONE."
Can any thing be more decisive than this fact ? Is not
this an absolute and direct disavowal of the supremacy
claimed by the Papists for the church of Rome ? Is it not
an avowal of the doctrine that all churches are equal and
independent, and that no one has a right to overrule or
reverse the decision of another ? This was in the middle
of the second century, and proves that up to that time
the primitive equality of the churches was fully acknowl-
edged and avowed even at Rome. The incursions of
clerical ambition had not then begun.
On this narrative Bower keenly remarks, " Had Bellar
mine lived in those days he had taught them another doc-
trine, a doctrine which, however necessary, the apostles
had forgot to deliver to their disciples, viz., that the see of
Rome was raised above all other sees ; that the appeals
of the whole Catholic church were to be brought to it ;
that no appeals were to be made from it ; that it was to
252 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
judge of the whole church^ but be judged by none. Mar-
cion did not apply to Pius, or at least to him alone, but to
the elders, who disclaimed all power of reversing the
sentence of a particular bishop. And is not this an evi-
dent and incontestable proof that the power of receiving
appeals was not known or thought of in those days ? "
The next pope, Anicetus, and Polycarp, Bishop of Smyr-
na, differed as to the time of the celebration of Easter, and
could not convince each other ; but the pope did not com-
mand, nor Polycarp obey, but each followed "his own
opinions. Passing by Soter and Eleutherius, we come to
Victor, A. D. 192-201.
ROMAN ARROGANCE DEVELOPED.
Here we meet the first manifestation of episcopal arro-
gance in the Bishop of Rome ; and now a course of events
opens upon us of this kind. Claims are made by the
Romish bishops and repudiated by the churches at large,
but persevered in by their successors and referred back to
as precedents. Hallam remarks as to such claims, " In the
history of all usurping governments time changes anomaly
into system and injury into right ; examples beget custon^
and custom r-ipens into law ; and the doubtful precedent
of one generation becomes the fundamental maxim of
another."
In the case of Victor, we see the first effort of the
Bishop of Rome to exert a power of making law for the
churches. Not following the example of Anicetus in the
case of Polycarp, he undertook to impose the Roman view
of Easter on Polycrates and the Bishops of Asia Minor,
and excommunicated them for refusing to conform. But
the other churches of the Christian world repudiated this
FORMATION OP THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 253
arrogant proceeding and rendefed it null and void. Thus
it is not until the end of the second century that the
Bishop of Rome put forth claims to jurisdiction over other
churches, and then they were universally repudiated.
Passing by Zephyrinus, Callistus, Urbanus, Pontianus,
A.nterus, Fabianus, Cornelius, and Lucius, we come to
Stephen, who made an effort like that of Victor to ex-
communicate Cyprian and a council of African bishops
for refusing to adopt his views of the baptism of heretics.
This also was repudiated and rendered powerless by the
other churches of the age.
Passing over Sixtus II., Dionysius, Felix, Eutychianus,
Caius, Marcellinus, Marcellus, Eusebius, and Melchiades,
we come to Sylvester, by whom Constantino was said by
the Roman forgers to have been baptized.
Thus it appears that in the first century, and up to the
middle of the second, the Papal system not only did not
exist at Rome, but was distinctly repudiated and de-
nounced. Nor up to the time of Constantine can any evi-
dence be found of any admitted authority of the church
or Pope of Rome over the other churches. All that we
discover is an effort of a few popes to assert such "author-
ity, which was at once and indignantly repudiated.
It appears that though the bishops of the churches ad-
vised with and consulted each other and met in synods
during the third century, yet they were all regarded as
equal and independent.
This view of the case is very strongly confirmed by a
forgery which was made towards the close of the third
century, designed to give authority and system to the gov-
ernment, rites, and usages of the churches at that time.
It is called the Apostolic Constitutions and Canons ; and
it aimed, by the high authority of the apostles, to establish
and augment the power of each bishop in his own church
00
254: THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
and to regulate all church usages by definite rules. It was
made in the names of all the apostles, and is the first great
systematic and regular forgery of this kind. It is divided
into eight books, and professes fully to describe the pow-
ers of bishops, and of all the clergy, and the whole order
of the church. But it is a most significant fact that in it
there is found no place for the supremacy of the pope or
of the church of Rome.
It introduces all the apostles by name in the eighth
book, and, without hinting at the supremacy of Peter,
represents them as individually ordaining constitutions.
Moreover it is careful to represent them as independent
and equal. There is over them no primate or prince. It is
a book of two hundred and fifty-seven octavo pages ; and
yet it may be searched through from beginning to end with-
out finding any thing that in the least degree countenances
the existing claims of the Papal corporation. On the
other hand, we find in it the same views of the independ-
ent authority and equality of all bishops, and of the
mode in which they ought to concur in church unity, which
are found in the works of Cyprian.
I have thus finished the first and earliest class of the so
called popes. Two things are now undeniable : the first,
that the testimony of this class is the most important ; the
second, that the testimony of the earliest popes is decisive
against all the claims of Rome.
It now remains that I show how these claims were in-
troduced and that the whole system is based on forgery
and fraud.
In order, however, to understand the course of event?,
it is necessary to glance at the state of the Roman em-
pire during the period in which the second and third
classes of popes lived.
Any history will inform us that Constantine founded
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION.
another seat of empire at Byzantium, greatly enlarging
and adorning the original city, and calling it the city of
Constantine, or Constantinople.
Afterwards the empire was divided into the Western
Empire, of which Rome was the capital ; and the Eastern
Empire, of which Constantinople was the capital.
In the year 476 the Western Empire fell, being con-
quered by Odoacer, King of the Heruli. After this, till
the year 800, Rome was sometimes under the sway of the
barbarians, and at other times it was reconquered from
them and ruled by the Emperor of Constantinople.
Now, with regard to the Bishops of Rome during both
of these periods, two great facts are prominent : 1. They
were not temporal rulers of Rome or of any other territo-
ry, either as independent or as dependent sovereigns ; they
were subject to whatever civil power ruled Rome, whether
barbarian or Greek. 2. Their chief contest was with the
Bishop of Constantinople for a certain kind of spiritual
supremacy.
In order to see how this came to pass, let us look at the
condition of the second class of the popes i. e., the Bish-
ops of Rome.
After the conversion of Constantino a new state of things
was introduced among the bishops at large. Christianity
having become the religion of the empire, the churches
were favored and endowed and the bishops honored and
exalted in power. In addition to this, they were regu-
larly organized into hierarchal combinations according
to the divisions of the empire. As in every province there
was a chief city or metropolis, and as the bishop of this
city had already been appointed metropolitan bishop to
preside over the others even in the third century, so this
system was confirmed by Constantine.
Again : certain provinces were united around the largest
256 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
cities of the empire into patriarcliat.es, and the bishops
of these cities were appointed patriarchs, and the metro-
politans and other bishops were subordinated to them.
Thus, around Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch,
and Jerusalem, after some changes, were patriarchates
finally formed, and their bishops became rival patriarchs.
Of these bishops, the dignity was according to that of
the city in which their see was located. Of course the
patriarch of old Rome stood highest ; the patriarch of
Constantinople next ; and after them the patriarchs of Al-
exandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
During this period also the practice of calling general
councils to represent the whole Christian world was in-
troduced.
Concerning this period three things deserve special no-
tice : 1. That during it the civil authority of the emperors
over the bishops was supreme ; and it was the emperors,
and not any of the bishops, who called the general coun-
cils. 2. In these general councils canons were made di-
rectly at war with the present pretensions of the Bishop
of Rome. 3. At the close of this period the Bishop of
Rome was in imminent danger of losing the basis of his
superior honor and influence by the downfall of Rome, and
was obliged to invent a new basis on which to rest his
claims, and also higher claims of jurisdiction. The im-
portance of these statements will become more clear in
view of the following narrative of facts.
The first general council was that of Nice, A. D. 325.
This was called, not by the Bishop of Rome, but by the
Emperor Constantine. Nor did the pope or his legate
preside in it. Thus are all his present claims to call coun-
cils and preside in them negatived.
Again : the fifth canon of this council commanded all
ecclesiastical causes to be finally decided in each province
FORMATION OP THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 257
by a provincial synod thus cutting up by the roots the
present claims of the Pope of Rome to supreme jurisdic-
tion and to receive appeals in all cases and from all quar-
ters. Against this even Binius makes no reply. It is
true that after this, under Pope Julius, a small provincial
council convened in Sardica, the metropolis of Dacia, in
Illyricum, introduced and authorized the practice of ap-
pealing to the Pope of Rome. But a provincial council
cannot lawfully repeal the canons of a general council,
the Romish corporation being judge. Moreover, under
Damasus, a council convened by the Emperor Theodosius
at Constantinople expressed their disapprobation of the
doings of the council of Sardica by renewing and con-
firming the decision of the council of Nice.
The Bishops of Rome, in fact, confessed the insufficiency
of the decree of the council of Sardica by trying to palm
it off as a decree of a general council. It was Pope Celes-
tine (A. D. 422-32) who undertook this work of fraud.
He attempted to impose upon a council of African bish-
ops the canons of Sardica as being canons of Nice, in or-
der to obtain the authority of that general council for his
claim to the right of receiving appeals. How early did
Rome begin her great work of fraud ! The African bish-
ops, however, at last detected the imposition, and severally
rebuked the successor of Celestine for the unprincipled
conduct of his predecessor.
Nor is this all. In the second general council of Con-
stantinople it was decided that the Bishop of Constan-
tinople had equal rank with the Bishop of Rome.
In the fourth general council, at Chalcedon, it waa
expressly declared that the peculiar dignity and authority
of the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople were de-
rived from the political importance of the capital cities of
the empire.
22*
258 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Here, then, we see the first three general councils all
fundamentally at war with the present pretensions of
Rome. What can be more decisive ? Notice in particu-
lar that the doctrine of the council of Chalcedon is DI-
KE CTLY AT WAR WITH THE ROMISH CLAIM OF SUPREMACY
ON THE GROUND OF THE SUPREMACY OF PETER.
It became plain also that, if Rome should fall and Con-
stantinople stand, the Bishop of Rome must also fall and
the Bishop of Constantinople remain supreme.
It was plain also that the downfall of Rome was at
hand. Hence it became imperatively necessary to invent
and establish a new basis for the claims of the Roman
bishop which would survive that downfall. It was the
province of Leo L, the Great, to perform this work by
substituting the authority of Peter for the dignity of
Rome. Of this change I shall elsewhere speak more at
large. It is the first great point in the history of the
Papacy.
So much for the second class of popes. Let us pass to
the third. During the three centuries that followed the
downfall of Rome, the ideas of Leo as to Peter's suprem-
acy and the claims of the pope founded thereon were
germinating and preparing the way for a universal spirit-
ual empire among the ignorant and credulous barbarians.
Meantime three of the Eastern patriarchs were humbled
by the onset of the hosts of Mahomet those of Alexan-
dria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. These cities fell before the
invaders. Constantinople only remained. Meantime new
national churches in Western Europe were rising in the
young and vigorous kingdoms founded by the German
conquerors of Rome. Here then, as soon was evident,
was to be the field of the spiritual monarchy ; for Con-
stantinople was declining, and destined at last to fall.
During the greater part of this period Rome was subject
FORMATION OP THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 259
to the Emperor of Constantinople, but was so far distant,
and was so exposed to the inroads of the barbarians, that
it threw great responsibilities on the bishop, and sug-
gested to him the idea of a temporal as well as a spiritual
monarchy.
"We now come to the fourth class of popes. After the vi-
cissitudes of the last period and the weakening of the East
by the Mahometan powers a new centre of power arises in
the West. The old Roman empire of the West, that for
centuries had been dead, is revived once more ; and Charle-
magne is at its head, crowned by Pope Leo III. Charles
Augustus, Emperor of the holy Roman empire.
We have now come to the point where the principle of
forgery is to disclose itself in all its magnitude in these
ages of the deepest ignorance until the two great concep-
tions of a spiritual and temporal monarchy were realized.
Leo I. had developed, as the foundation of the spiritual
monarchy, the rock Peter ; and now the basis of the
temporal monarchy was laid by a forged donation of Con-
stantine. Moreover the plan of the spiritual monarchy
was drawn, and its materials provided, and an effort made
to erect it. By the fifth class of popes the fabric was
erected and finished, and stood in great power till the
time of the reformation. Under the sixth and last class
of popes it has been assailed by the Protestants for three
hundred years. In this assault we are now summoned
anew to engage. Nor will it cease till the whole fabric
is utterly burned with the avenging fires of God Al-
mighty.
Let us now approach and take a more particular view
of the structure of the fabric.
At the time of Nicholas I., A. D. 858-867, we discover
the model of this new building prepared and the materials
for it wrought out. Moreover the first efforts to erect
it were made by him.
260 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
It is true that this exercise of power and claim of
prerogatives was followed by a period of great Papal
weakness and corruption one of the most disgrace-
ful in the history of the Papacy. The power of the
vigorous German emperors was needed and was inter-
posed to correct most scandalous abuses and immoralities
and to regulate the head of the church ; and for a time
the imperial power was greatly in the ascendant. Still,
however, the principles and claims advanced by Nicholas,
after the uniform policy of the popes, were never with-
drawn. They were precedents, to be used as soon as cir-
cumstances favored. They were seed sown, to come up
and bear fruit at the destined time. Accordingly under
Gregory VII. they came up in full vigor. Accordingly,
if we pass on and survey the time from Gregory VII. to
Innocent III., we find the building up and completed
even as it was at the reformation and as it stands at
this day.
And now is it asked, "Who planned this building ? I
answer, The Romish hierarchy, just as truly as they
planned St. Peter's Church in the interval from Julius I.
to Leo X. What is its great idea ? A corporation of
bishops centralized around the pope, and bound to him
by feudal oaths in accordance with the ideas of feudal
times. The pope is the great feudal monarch of the
church, and also an independent temporal ruler. He also
claims to be the feudal lord of kings and emperors. Who
erected this building ? I answer, The pope, the bishops,
and their workmen. On what is it founded ? and what
are its materials? On forgeries entirely; and these are
its materials in all its parts. Of these forgeries, what are
the chief? The forged decretals of Isidore and the dona-
tion of Constantine. Such is an outline of the course of
events which resulted in the present Romish corporation.
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 261
If we examine carefully the whole of this extended
scheme, we shall find that its execution presupposed and
demanded the four following great steps :
1. By a false idea of holiness, and a false sacramental
system, to put the people into the hands of the clergy for
salvation.
2. To establish the principles early developed, of mo-
narchical power in the bishops of the churches in numer-
ous small spheres, by an early and primitive set of forge-
ries in the name of all the apostles, and thus to hew out the
component parts of the last great fabric by themselves,
but not to raise the building or put together its parts.
3. After these parts had been once centralized around
different and coordinate centres in the Roman empire, to
devise the plan for a new organization of them around a
common centre in the feudal ages that should follow the
downfall of Rome. To effect this, it was necessary to
provide a model for the new building, and also the scaf-
folding, coupling irons, girders, braces, pins, and bolts
that were necessary to put the parts together and fix
them in their places.
The last step obviously was,
4. To raise the building, put it together, cover and
paint it, and finish it inside and out.
The first step of this process was accomplished in the
early ages of the church. Even in the days of Paul the
principles were at work.
The second part was completed by the forgery of the
Apostolical Constitutions, designed to establish by divine
authority the augmented power, dignity, and honor of
the bishops, but not to centralize them around the Pope of
Rome. Thus the elementary parts of the great fabric
were prepared ; but they were not so combined as to make
a universal despotism.
262 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
The third part of the process was accomplished by first
organizing these parts into coordinate hierarchies under
the Roman government, and by then preparing the means
for the consolidation of them into one by the forged de-
cretals in the feudal times after old Rome fell, and to give
this a basis on a temporal monarchy by the forged dona-
tion of Constantine and other similar forgeries.
The fourth part of the process was effected by such men
as Nicholas I., Gregory VII., Innocent III., who labored
assiduously from century to century till the fabric was
completed.
From this brief survey, it is evident that the period from
Gregory VII. to the reformation, a period of four centuries,
is eminently THE PAPAL PERIOD. Parts of the system were
developed in early ages ; but such a combination of them
as distinguished this period, and the various inventions de-
signed and essential to carry out and perfect the system,
were not even dreamed of in the early ages. It is no less
evident that fraud and forgery are the basis of the whole
system, and that, to go to the bottom of the whole matter,
we ought to take a radical view of the origin and nature
of the pious frauds of the early ages and the forged
literature of the middle ages. This I propose in its place
to do ; but at present I can only give a brief account of
the greatest of all forgeries ever known on earth, and on
which, more than on all else, the present Romish corpora-
tion is based.
It appears that the principles needed were such as were
suited to centralize the bishops around the pope, to give
him supreme legislative and judicial power, and to make
him an independent temporal monarch.
But whence can they be derived ? From the Bible ? It
is not pretended. From the authentic works of the fathers ?
No ; they are not there. From previous forgeries ? No ;
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 263
these have had their day ; they are not sufficient. From de-
cisions of general councils ? No ; these are all against the
plan. How then? They must be forged newly, wholly
forged.
But in whose name ? The decretals are to be forged in
the name of Clement, spoken of by Paul, and of those
claimed as his successors in the early centuries in the chair
of Peter, as the Pope of Rome. They are to be decrees
issued by them to the churches, and they are to contain
just what the popes or Satan needed at that time to carry
out their plans of a centralized monarchy. The points at
which they aim are,
1. To make plain the establishment of Peter's see at
Rome, and the transmission of his power to the popes, and
what that power was.
2. To establish, and defend, and increase the power of
the bishops against the laity, and to shield them from all
attacks.
3. Above all, to make the pope the great centre of the
whole system investing him with a plenitude of power,
legislative and judicial.
4. To give him independence of all temporal powers
by the use of an earlier forgery in the name of Constantino.
Accordingly the forgeries were made ; and in the names
of those men and a forged council under Sylvester all
these things were done, and the decretals were put forth
as the decisions of God through the early popes, to be re-
ceived and obeyed on penalty of eternal damnation.
And now, perhaps, you will call for my proof of all this.
It is found in the first volume of an 'edition of the councils.
Here are the forged decretals themselves ; here is the do-
nation of Constantino ; here is the forged council of
which I spoke ; and they contain all that I have alleged.
But whose edition is it ? Is it authentic ? or is it a
264 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Protestant edition ? It is the first volume of Councils, by
Severinus Binius, published at Cologne 1618, authenti-
cated by a special bull of Pope Paul V., sanctioned and
patronized by the Emperor of Germany, doubly approved
and licensed by the Romish censors of the press.
Its titlepage exhibits its character. On the top the three
Persons of the Trinity are represented ; on one side of
them is Peter, with his keys and coat of arms ; on the
other, a representation of the temporal power wielded by
the pope through the sword. On the right side the church,
holding a cross, the pope's triple crown, and keys ; on the
left side religion, with a crucifix ; and over each the Holy
Ghost as a dove. At the bottom, the pope, at the head of
the corporation of bishops, treading on a prostrate band
of so called heretics ; and over them, in Latin, the inscrip-
tion : " They are dead that sought the church's life."
No one need doubt that this is a genuine Roman Cath-
olic book. Besides, Binius, in his address to the magis-
trates of Cologne, speaks of its contents as the basis of
the Roman canon law, and calls on the pope to defend it
against the assaults of innovators and heretics ; and the
pope responds to his appeal, sanctions it by a bull, and
says the book has given him great consolation, and that
he believes that the audacity and the petulance of the ad-
versaries of truth will be powerfully crushed by it, and
their impostures and lies against the sound and orthodox
doctrine of the holy fathers will be admirably detected.
Let us now read and see. The heretics say that there
is no proof that Peter ever was at Rome or had his see
there, or a chair or llhrone there, or that he transmitted
his authority, and no proof that he had any to transmit.
Now, see how very easy it is for this book to crush tbre
audacity and petulance of such adversaries of the truth.
Here we find a long letter from Clement, Pope of Rome,
GENERAL
ANT) I'il'iVlXCJAL,
G K K K K A X D L A T 1 N' ,
SO FAK AS KXOV.'X.
ALSO,
DECRETAL EPISTLES
AXD LIVES OF ROMAN PONTIFFS.
ALL BY THE STUDY AXD LABOR OK
, D.D..
PRESBYTER OF THE METROPOLITAN
cnrRcii OF COLOGXE.
REVISED, ENLARGED, AXD AGAIN
ILLUSTRATE!) WITH NOTES,
AND ARRANGED IX AX HISTORICAL
METHOD.
TO *'. D. X. PAUL. I'OPK I'.
COLOGXE.
BY JOHN GYMNICl'S,
i ei 8.
wrrn THE F.I ruK.ixn 1'RiriLKut: ot
HIS HOYAL JfAJEffY.
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 2()5
to James the apostle at Jerusalem, establishing beyond
dispute the genuine Romish doctrine on all these points.
This great gap in history is thus completely filled.
Clement opens the letter by pronouncing a eulogy on
Peter, as an introduction to a statement of the mournful
fact of his death. He then proceeds to say, " When he
saw that his death was near, having assembled the breth-
ren, he suddenly arose, and, taking me by the hand, spoke
these words in the hearing of the whole church : ' Hear
me, my brethren and fellow-servants. Inasmuch as the day
of my death is at hand, even as I have been told by my
Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, who sent me, I ordain this
Clement as your bishop, and to him alone I assign the
chair of my preaching and doctrine. He has been with
me in all things from the beginning as an attendant, and
thus has thoroughly known the truths which I preach.
In all my trials he has been my constant and faithful com-
panion. I have found him to be eminently distinguished
for his love to God and to man, chaste, devoted to study,
sober, kind, just, patient, and able to bear injuries even
from those who profess to be students of the word of
God. Therefore I give, him the power of binding and
loosing which was given to me by my Lord ; so that what-
soever he shall decree on earth shall be decreed in heav-
en. He shall bind what ought to be bound and loose what
ought to be loosed, as one who perfectly understands the
laws of the church. Hear ye him, therefore, knowing
that whosoever shall grieve a teacher of the truth sins
against Christ, and offends God, the Father of all, and
shall therefore perish. But he who rules others ought to
act the part of a physician, and not to be actuated by the
fury of a wild beast.' ;; He then proceeds to state his
own modest reluctance to assume so great a burden, and
the urgency and decision of Peter in refusing to allow
23
266 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
him to decline the office. After this he records at length
the charge of Peter to him, to the other officers of the
church, and to the brethren, extending through six large
folio pages. At the close he demands belief and obedi-
ence of all, on penalty of the wrath of God and endless
Buffering in penal fire.
Thus we have an account of this important transaction
in detail, to the confusion of all heretics and to the honor
and comfort of all genuine Romanists. In the same way
these decretals set forth the power of the bishops. Of
course they fully unfold the magnitude of the pope's pow-
er, and set forth the doctrine that he is the summit of
judgment in ecclesiastical cases, and that all who think
themselves injured may and ought to appeal to him.
Thus Anacletus, the third pope, after setting forth the
regular order of appeals to metropolitans and patriarchs,
expressly says, " If difficult questions arise, let them, on
appeal, be referred to the apostolic seat ; for the apostles
decided this by the command of the Savior, that the great
and more difficult questions shall always be referred to
the apostolic chair, upon which Christ built the whole
church when he said to the blessed Peter, the prince of
the apostles, ' Thou art a rock, 7 " &c.
Sixtus, the seventh pope, says, " If any one has been
overthrown in judgment by any calamity, let him not hes-
itate to appeal to this sacred and apostolic seat ; but let
him take refuge in it as the head of the church, lest he
should be condemned without cause or his church suffer
wrong."
Here, now, we have the highest authority ; for Anacle-
tus, as appears from the Papal lists, was pope before Clem-
ent, even in .the very times of the apostles, and Sixtus ia
only the thirji after Clement. What more, then, could
the most incredulous wish ? Moreover, as the pope need-
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 267
ed to be independent of all civil law and jurisdiction,
here is the donation of Constantine, the original basis of
his claims to temporal power.
In this, Constantine, after referring to his baptism by
Sylvester, gives to him and his see all glory, all dignity,
all imperial power ; also the palace of the Lateran, all
imperial vestments, and the imperial dignity. He then
adds, " That the Papal supremacy may not be degraded,
but may excel in honor and power all earthly authority,
we give and grant, not only our palace as before said, but
the city Rome, and all the provinces, places, and cities
of Italy and of the "Western regions, to the aforesaid
blessed Pope Sylvester, universal bishop, and to his suc-
cessors in the Papal authority and power. * * * For
this reason we have thought it fit to transfer our authority
and power into the Oriental regions, and in the best loca-
tion in the Byzantine province to build a city in our name
and there to establish our empire ; since where the head
of the priests and of the Christian religion, ordained by
the King of heaven, bears sway, there it is not right that
an earthly emperor should have any power."
But, lest the pope should seem to rest his jurisdiction
on the decision of the imperial power, the authority of a
council is needed ; and therefore, to make assurance
doubly sure, here is the Roman council, under Sylvester,
giving religious and political supremacy of judgment to
the pope.
Of this the twentieth canon is as follows : " Let no one
judge the chief bishop ; since all prelates desire that jus-
tice should be dispensed by the chief bishop. Let not this
judge be judged, neither by the emperor, nor by the whole
clergy, nor by kings, nor by the people."
Is not this enough to crush the petulance and audacity
of the enemies of the truth ?
268 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
And then, think of the terrific sanction annexed to a
disregard of the decretals the wrath of Almighty God
and eternal fire on all who will not believe and obey !
And now it may be asked, Were these things ever put
forth to be believed ? I answer, Yes, and to be acted on ;
and for eight long centuries they were believed and acted
on. They furnished the very principles that the pope and
his agents needed to put up the present structure of this
corporation. They used them and put it up, and they be-
came the very basis of the present Romish canon law.
There was, as I have said, an earlier set of apostolic
canons and constitutions forged and fitted to use for a
time. But these, though useful in their day, did not contain
the powers needed for the present exigency ; but, as they
still had authority in some things, they and the Isidorian
canons were wrought together by Gratian and an effort
made to reconcile the contradictions. (Concordantia Dis-
cordantium Canonum, 1. iii. 1151.) At last all of the old
canon law that was inconsistent with the new was dropped,
and the Isidorian principles in Gratian prevailed, and are
now the very lifeblood of the Romish canon law, only it
has been pushed to still greater extremes. And now, when
I repeat that these are all forgeries, unmingled forgeries,
without even a particle of truth to build on, I leave you
to judge by what name such a deed should be called.
Not a superficial forgery, but a forgery of a real terrific
government, to the exclusion of the Bible a fundamental
forgery of the very system which they now attempt to im-
pose on us, as ordained of God and essential to salvation.
But it may be asked, Is there clear proof that all these-
things are forgeries ? I answer, There is proof so clear
that even the ablest writers of the Romish church do not
pretend to deny it.
To be sure, this infallible corporation has never made an
FORMATION OF THE EOMISH CORPORATION. 269
honorable confession ; nor have they yielded to the truth
from the love of it, but because they were forced to do it
by evidence so strong that they knew that it would be ruin-
ous to their cause to make issue on this point. First Lyra
and Calvin, and then the Magdeburg centuriators, assailed
them ; and if any one desires to see a perfect logical, criti-
cal, and historical annihilation of their claims, let him read
the analysis of them in the second and third centuries of
the Magdeburg centuriators and in Calvin. Their works
are in the Boston Athenaeum and in the Harvard Library.
Yet still Turrianus, a Jesuit, wrote five books in their de-
fence ; and this book of Binius joins with Turrianus to
defend them. The work of David Blondell, at Geneva,
in 1628, ten years after this, settled the question. Baronius
the cardinal, who wrote expressly to answer the Magde-
burg centuriators, abandons the defence of them. Bellar-
mine the Jesuit, a cardinal, and the great champion of the
Romish cause, abandons the defence of them. Fleury, the
great French historian, confessor to Louis XV., not only
abandons the defence of them, but powerfully exposes their
falsehood and pernicious consequences. I need not say
that all Protestant historians do the same, and those who
are neither Catholic nor Protestant do the same. Indeed
these stupendous forgeries are as much an established and
conceded fact in history as the English, American, and
French revolutions.
What, then, is the nature of the evidence that, against
interests so prodigious and motives so violent, compelled
the Romanists (not the popes, their decisions still stand) to
abandon the defence of these foundations of their system?
They were, in general, the utter absurdity on internal
evidence of supposing them to have been written in the
age in which they professed to have been written, and the
absurdities and contradictions with which they are filled.
23*
270 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
The professed authors lived in ages of persecution and
weakness and befcTre the hierarchy was developed. They
omit all that is proper to that age. Their writings are not
adapted to console or strengthen those suffering, persecuted
Christians to whom they write. Nay, they are intent on
nothing but the great work of regulating a hierarchy that
did not exist, increasing the power of the pope and his
patriarchs and bishops and organizing them into a compact
system of despotism. They profess to be the letters of
successive popes during the first two centuries. They are
all in the style of one man. They profess to have been
written long before the peculiar Latin words and style of
the middle ages were formed or known ; yet they are full
of such words, and all in the style of those ages. It is as
if, in a professed letter of Lord Bacon, we should find
him talking of daguerreotypes, and steamboats, and rail-
roads in the style and idiom of this day. They profess
to have been written long before certain writers lived and
certain laws were made ; and yet they freely quote
those writers and those laws. This is as if a professed
letter of Franklin should quote the laws of this state
passed this year or the last proclamation of Governor
Briggs. They profess to have been written when in fact
certain doctrines and rites were unknown ; and yet they
are full of those doctrines and rites. They profess to have
been written before the occurrence of certain controver-
sies respecting some of the very points decided by them ;
and yet, though their authority would have been decisive,
no one in those controversies ever appealed to them.
Again : they profess to be written by men who must at
least have known enough to date their own letters cor-
rectly ; yet they are full of false dates ; so that, according
to the dates, some were written before the authors were
popes, and others after they were dead.
FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 271
But the most notorious blunder of all is in trying to
link the pontifical chain to Peter at Rome. Great pains
is taken to do this thoroughly ; and yet, in his efforts to
make assurance doubly sure, the forger makes Clement
tell us that Peter, before his death, enjoined it on him to
write to James, brother of our Lord, at Jerusalem, and
inform him of all the facts. And yet it is a notorious
fact that James died seven years before Peter ; and yet
Peter, it seems, did not know of this fact, but supposed him
still living at Jerusalem. He must have been a poor
pope indeed. Our popes commonly find it out before
seven years when a bishop dies. But Peter, it seems, did
not yet know, when he ordained Clement Pope of Rome,
that James, one of his brother apostles, was dead, though
he had been dead seven years.
The force of this is so great that it staggered Binius.
He says, either this epistle was not written by Clement, or
else the name James crept into the title instead of Simeon ;
which last he seems to rest on. A miserable subterfuge
truly. Not only is the name James in the title, but in
the body of the letter ; and not in one letter, but in two.
Truly this is a splendid way, as the pope says, to crush
the audacity and the petulance of the heretics.
1. And now, who is responsible for all this? It may
be said, not the popes and bishops, but Isidore and other
forgers. Is it so ? I ask, Whose ends did these forgeries
promote? whose power were they designed to increase?
"Was it not that of the bishops and popes ? Again : Who
used them ? Did not the bishops and popes ? Again :
Who sanctioned them ? Did not the successive popes ?
and did not the bishops consent? This, as Peter Dens
tells us, binds the whole church. Again : Who gave these
decretals such authority in the new canon law of Rome ?
And have these things ever been retracted or undone ?
2t2 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
2. What - defence is made? Are the facts denied?
They cannot be. The defence is, that the pope and bish-
ops did not gain AS MUCH by them as is alleged. Then
the guilt of a forgery is to be estimated by the amount
gained : and, so far as you diminish the amount, you dimin-
ish the guilt. Is this Romish morality ? So it seems.
But one thing is sure it is not the morality of God. He
that is unfaithful in little is unfaithful in much. But is it
little for such a system to have had undisputed power for
eight hundred years, with an authority greater than that
of the Bible ? Let the candid judge.
3. Was no protest made in that long age ? There was ;
but Papal power, and the terrors of excommunication,
and the stake silenced it.
4. This point, then, renders my argument complete.
Even if an infallible corporation was promised, this is not
the one. Mr. Brownson's a posteriori scriptural argument
only professes to reach this point that Christ promised to
establish an infallible corporation. His a priori argument
only professes to prove that one is essential to faith.
Neither argument is valid. But if they were, I still say,
a forging and swindling corporation is not God's inter-
preter or guide to heaven, but the object of his fiercest
wrath.
5. I have selected this as a case clear and momentous
and of which the proof is undeniable ; but it stands not
by itself. It is the part of a widely-extended system, as
I shall show in its place. Satan did indeed come through
this corporation with power, and signs, and lying won-
ders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness. They
spoke lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared
as with a hot iron.
6. And now, can a corporation of which such are the
actions be a teacher of honesty ? Do not actions speak
FORMATION OP THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 273
louder than words ? I hesitate not to say that the Romish
corporation, by these and similar forgeries and frauds,
founded her whole system on notorious falsehoods. What
wonder, then, that, as I have shown, she became the great
school of lying for the whole world ? Nor can a moral
soundness on earth as to the truth be produced except
by the formation of a sentiment of righteous abhorrence
that shall consume her as burning fire. She is .simply - a
political, religious, and commercial confederation, or cor-
poration, banded against God and the truth ; and either
God and the truth must give way, or she must be de-
stroyed. Which do you think will be the result?
7. Finally, to do this work God asks no brutal force,
no persecution, no material fire. He needs only that
brute force shall not be allowed to murder those who
speak the truth ; and then he will kindle no fire but the
fire of holiness and truth. But none does he need besides.
This will consume the wb.de system to ashes and burn it
to the lowest hell.
CHAPTER IT.
NICHOLAS I. AND THE FORGERIES AND FRAUDS OF THE
MIDDLE AGES.
WE are prone to be incredulous when we see a phe-
nomenon far beyond the range of our experience. We, as
Protestants, have never sounded the depths of the sys-
tem of pious frauds. We need, then, to pause and to look
more deeply into the matter. No one can easily conceive
how deeply it has affected the destinies of Europe and of
the world.
We propose, then, to aim at two points at once to
sketch the character of the pope who first appealed to
the forged decretals, that we may have a specimen of
their use ; and then to give a view of the principles from
which they originated, and a more full description of the
decretals themselves and of their influence on the world,
as well as of the influence of the theory of pious fraud on
which they are based. It will be seen that this was the
key that opened the bottomless pit and let out the locust
priesthood of Rome to ravage and devour the Christian
world.
In speaking of the forgeries of the middle ages, we
take the Papacy of Nicholas I. as the point of vision
A. D. 858-867 ; in the first place because he first ap-
pealed to the forged decretals, the most wonderful in-
stance of forgery ever known in the history of the church,
(274)
THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 275
and then because he is a fine exemplification of that spir-
it of matchless impudence with which the leaders of the
corporation of Rome have imposed their forgeries and
frauds on the world in all ages.
After Leo the Great, A. D. 440-461, and Gregory the
Great, A. D. 590-604, and before Gregory VII., A. D.
1073-1085, this same Nicholas is, beyond all doubt,
the most remarkable of the pontiffs. And although his
name has not the same bad eminence in the popular mind
with that of the notorious Hildebrand, yet so great was
the influence exerted by him on the course of events that
Guizot does not hesitate to assert that the sovereignty of
the pope really takes date from his reign.
When he ascended the throne, the Popes of Rome, in
their progress towards supremacy, were exposed to the
resistance of four powers the patriarch of Constanti-
nople, their most dangerous spiritual rival and antago-
nist ; the national churches of Europe, which had arisen
since the invasion of the barbarians, especially those of
Italy, France, Spain, and England ; the metropolitans, an
ecclesiastical nobility who ruled the bishops of particular
provinces ; and the civil power, whether imperial or royal.
Three of these powers were represented by two men
quite as remarkable as Nicholas himself. The chair of
the see of Constantinople was filled by Photius a man of
vast native powers, of unrivalled scholarship and learn-
ing, of exhaustless energy and infinite ambition. Before
he was raised to the patriarchal throne he had passed
through almost all grades of civil office and promotion.
Without entering into the details of the warfare, it is
enough to say that these ambitious rulers of the Eastern
and Western churches met in fierce encounter. Nicholas
excommunicated Photius, and Photius Nicholas ; and the
great and incurable Greek schism was the ultimate result.
276 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
The national churches were represented in the person
of the celebrated Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims and
Primate of France, the great churchman of the age. and
the most learned canonist of the church.
In his relations to his own bishops he also represented
the ecclesiastical nobility, whom the pope needed to sub-
due, in order to centralize all the bishops directly in
himself.
By the canons of the council of Sardica, A. D. 34T,
(which yet was not ecumenical,) the Papal power was
extended, as we have said, beyond all precedent, and con-
trary to all right, in merely allowing appeals at all from
metropolitan councils to the Roman pontiff, and for cen-
turies after this council the African bishops forbade such
appeals. And yet, even by these canons, the pope could
only order a new trial in the province, aided by his
legates, and, if need be, by delegates from neighboring
provinces. (Bower, i. 57, 58.) Nor did the East or Af-
rica ever receive this council ; nor did the council of
Chalcedon sanction its decrees.
This council, then, did not furnish the materials needed
to establish and consolidate the Papal power. Such
materials, in fact, did not -exist. It was necessary to
forge them, and thus to set up claims which should give
to the pope the right of removing all such cases to Rome,
to be tried before his own tribunal. And this point, too,
was to be carried, and was carried, against such a man as
Hincmar of Rheims.
The regal power was also to be subdued, and was sub-
dued, in the person of the feeble Lotharius. Had the
regal authority been represented by a sovereign like
Charlemagne, swaying with strong grasp the power of a
united empire, the aggressions of Nicholas would have met
with less success had he dared to engage in a warfare so
unequal.
THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 277
But the vast dominions of Charlemagne had been divid-
ed among his feeble descendants, and they had turned their
arms against each other. Two grandsons and three great-
grandsons of Charlemagne then sat on feeble thrones.
The grandsons were Louis in Germany and Charles the
Bald in France; the great-grandsons, Louis in Italy and
Rhoetia, Lotharius .in Burgundy, Alsatia, and Lorraine,
and Charles in Provence. The rest of these could in a
moment be stirred up to invade the dominions of any of
the five whom the pope should excommunicate. Hence
each was powerless in single combat with the pope. A
single Papal anathema would become the signal for the
invasion and subjugation of his territories by the others.
Of course Nicholas felt that he was their master, and
declared himself such. He singled out Lotharius as the
object of an attack designed to demonstrate and estab-
lish his power. Lotharius having married one wife,
Theutberga, desired, like Henry VIII. in after days, to
divorce her, and to take another, Waldrada. So in fact
he did, and that with the countenance of his own bishops,
led on by the Archbishops Gunthier and Teutgaud, a
brother and uncle of "Waldrada. Notice, now, the influ-
ence of weakness in a king on the conscience of a pope.
Charlemagne twice did the same thing. He also left
illegitimate children behind him, as the fruit of his licen-
tious excesses. But he was strong ; therefore the Papal
conscience was undisturbed, and he was sainted. But
Lotharius, his luckless- descendant, was weak. This
aroused the tender conscience of the pope ; and with
apostolic zeal he declared war upon him for his manifest
crime.
Even so the conscience of Gregory VII. was very
sensitive in the case of Henry ' IV., who was enfee-
bled by a revolt in his empire, but was quite tor-
24
278 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
pid in the case of "William the Conqueror, for he was un-
conquerably strong. Yet William had sinned as griev-
ously as Henry. At- the synod of Winchester, A. D.
1076, Gregory's law, enjoining the celibacy of the clergy,
was very materially modified. The bishops whom Greg-
ory had summoned to Rome were forbidden by William
to obey the summons, to the very great annoyance and
chagrin of Gregory. The king, too, continued to exer-
cise the right of investiture, which in the case of Henry
was so impious. Other presumptuous demands of Greg-
ory were repelled with cold indifference. Yet no thun-
derbolts of divine wrath were hurled from the pontifical
throne against the royal sinner. Gregory prudently
declined the encounter with so vigorous an antagonist,
fearful of provoking him to terrific retaliation. Hence
the spirit of the Papal policy in all ages is truly described
in the old saying, in which we are told that the chief
end of man is to keep what he has got and to get what
he can. The aggrandizement of their power has been
their constant end in all ages. In pursuit of this, they
have, as circumstances favored, steadily augmented their
claims, regarding merely the principles of selfish policy,
and never those of benevolence, honor, or truth.
So Nicholas acted in the case of Lotharius. Theut-
berga solicited his aid. He undertook her cause, and,
under pretext of defending her, put forth and established
the most arrogant claims of Papal supremacy. He encoun-
tered and defeated both king, archbishops, and bishops.
Though the council of bishops at Aix-la-Chapelle, in
accordance with the wishes of the king, had divorced her,
this was nothing to Nicholas. He sent legates into Lor-
raine, and, at a second council at Metz, caused the case
to be reexamined by his legates. Lotharius bribed the
legates, and the second council confirmed the doings of
THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 279
the first. Nicholas was enraged, but not dismayed. By
an extravagant assumption of power, by his own authority,
he declared the decision null and void, and deposed at a
blow the king's archbishops, Gunthier and Teutgaud, and
he was victorious. Though they struggled long and des-
perately against him, they could not retain their office,
but fell before his power. He also excommunicated
Waldrada, and compelled Lotharius to take back Theut-
berga. Thus did he effectually subdue the regal power.
Twice also, in an ecclesiastical conflict, he defeated
Hincmar ; and here he invested himself in the panoply of
the forged decretals. Of these we may safely say that,
of all the forgeries that ever disgraced the nominal fol-
lowers of Christianity, they are the most gigantic in con-
ception, successful in execution, and terrific in power.
They changed the whole face of the Christian world, and
are the spirit of the canon law and the basis of the Papal
corporation to this day.
THE FORGED DECRETALS.
Gieseler fixes their composition between A. D. 829 and
845 in France, and ascribes them to Benedict Levita, of
Mentz. Guizot coincides. As to the direct agency of
the popes in their composition, opinions vary. But
Mosheim does not hesitate to regard the popes as their
knowing and deliberate authors. He regards it as im-
possible that such a forgery should have come into exist-
ence and use, touching as it does all the springs of their
influence and authority, without their knowledge and
cooperation. At all events, Nicholas I. has the unenvi-
able notoriety of having first appealed to them as au-
thentic documents.
280 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
From him, till the reformation detected the cheat,
that is, for about seven centuries, they were appealed
to without suspicion in the public affairs of the church
and used by the popes to gain their ends without any
material opposition. That we do not falsely charge
Nicholas, facts show. None of his predecessors have
referred to them.
Leo IV., A. D. 850, does not include them among the
standards of judgment. Nor does even Nicholas L, in
863 ; but in 865, in his letters to all the French bishops,
he defends their authority. Gieseler, ii. 65-69.
Nicholas was a fit leader in the enterprise of intro-
ducing so vast a scheme of fraud for the purposes of
hierarchical aggrandizement. He is an exact image of
Gregory VII. or Innocent III. He was a man "of un
common intellectual power, of great attainments for
his age, and of gigantic energy of will. He 'was also
ambitious to the highest degree, and strained his claims
of supreme authority, infallibility, and irresponsibility to
man to the highest pitch of extravagance and arrogance ;
and having fought and gained a great battle with the
civil power, in the person of King Lothaire II., on the
points already specified, he also determined to gain a
victory over the ecclesiastical nobility that came between
the pope and the common order of bishops, and over
national churches, in the person of Hincmar, Archbishop
of Rheims, head of the French church. Hincmar had,
without sufficient reason, suspended Rothade, Bishop of
Soissons. He appealed to the pope. Hincmar disre-
garded his appeal, and deposed him at the synod of
Soissons. Rothade appealed again ; and Nicholas called
up the affair at Rome, and by his own authority annulled
the decision of the council and restored Rothade. Hinc-
mar resisted, but was obliged to submit.
THE FORGEKIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 281
To defend himself in this highhanded measure, Nich-
olas appealed to the authority of the forged decretals,
thus introducing the use of that vast system of fraud ;
for this is the first example, as before stated, of an
appeal to this forgery.
On this occasion, also, he asserted the pseudo-Isidorian
principles in full that obedience was due to all Papal
decrees as such, and demanded from all metropolitans, at
their investiture with the pallium, an oath to this effect.
Hincmar was the most learned canonist of the age : but so
low was the general standard of scholarship and of criti-
cism at that time that he could not expose the forgery.
He did not deny the genuineness of the decretals as he
ought, but resisted their authority. Nicholas, of course,
prevailed.
But we should misunderstand Nicholas and the men
of that age if we supposed that they suddenly, and by
one gigantic stride, so enormously overleaped the eternal
barriers of truth, and, unaided and uninfluenced by pre-
ceding generations, at once completed, like Satan and
his workmen in hell, the vast fabric of falsehood, so that
at once " the ascending pile stood fixed in stately height."
Neither communities nor individuals become suddenly
thus corrupt. The conscience of the church had been
seared as with a hot iron, and she had spoken lies in
hypocrisy, long before Nicholas. These portentous re-
sults were but the mature fruit of seed early sown and
plants assiduously cultivated -from almost the earliest
ages of the church. One who comes fresh from the pure
morality of the New Testament, consigning all liars to
the lake of fire, finds it impossible to utter the feelings
of shame and disappointment which agitate the mind
when the history of the opinions and practices of the
early ages on the subject of pious frauds is first unfolded.
24*
282 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
When, however, the power of these first emotions has
somewhat subsided, and he attempts to take a philosoph-
ical view of the facts, he finds in depraved human nature
a deep foundation for such frauds, and soon discovers
that a propensity to them is not limited to the Romish
church, but that even in the Protestant world there is a
constant temptation to fall into them. For a more full
illustration of this dangerous tendency, we refer to an
able essay of Archbishop Whately on Pious Frauds in
his work entitled the Errors of Romanism traced to
their Origin in Human Nature.
"We shall, therefore, proceed to speak of the general
nature of pious fraud ; the early introduction of it into
the Christian church ; of its pernicious effects in the
earlier ages upon the literature and history of the Chris-
tian body ; its most perfect development in the forged
decretals, in the frauds of Baronius, Bellarmine, and
others ; the subsequent power and state of the system
among the Romanists, and finally among the Puseyites.
In a field so extensive, only a general sketch can be ex-
pected in a brief essay.
PIOUS FRAUDS.
Pious frauds, as defined by Whately, are " those which
any one employs and justifies to himself, as conducing,
according to his view, to the defence or promotion of
true religion." " There is in such conduct," he remarks,
" a union of sincerity and insincerity of conscientious-
ness in respect to the end, and unscrupulous dishonesty
as to the means ; for without one of these there could be
no fraud, and without the other it could in no sense be
termed a pious fraud."
THE FORGEEIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 283
It is, therefore, only a specific case under the general
diabolical maxim, that the end sanctifies the means a
doctrine which God has emphatically condemned, by de-
claring that the damnation is just of all who teach, Let
us do evil that good may come.
Yet is it not still an oft-disputed question among us,
whether a lie is in any case justifiable? E.g.: Is it right
to lie to a highwayman in order to save our money or our
life? So, too, the question may be raised, "Was it not
right for Rahab to save the spies by a lie, and for Jael
to deceive Barak, the enemy of the Jews, in order to
destroy him ? It may be asked, Did not Samuel deceive
when he said, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord, when
yet his real and main end was to anoint David as king ?
Yet God directed him so to do.
"We refer to these things to show that, if the early
Christians were tempted to use pious frauds, there were
materials enough of easy self-deception at hand. And if
any one will look at the temptation in advocating a great
and good cause, even at this day, to select and state only
facts adapted to excite the public mind, and produce lib-
erality, and to slur over unfavorable facts, he will see
how easy it is to be led to overstate or falsely to color
facts, or. to suppress what truly belongs to a full presen-
tation of the subject considered.
In addition to the case of temptation which we have
stated, Whately supposes eight cases more, in which,
even among .Protestants, there might be a temptation to
employ pious fraud. And even these he specifies, not as
exhausting the cases, but as illustrating the extent and
power of the temptation. He refers also to the heathen
legislators and philosophers who encouraged or connived
at a system of mythology which they disbelieved, in
order that they might, through fear of the wrath of the
284 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
gods and of Tartarus and the hope of Elysium, keep the
populace in order. Their statesmen deluded and over-
awed the populace with oracles and prodigies, just as the
priests of the Romish and Greek churches have with
false miracles and revelations. The present use of fraud
and forgeries to gain important political ends or to save
the country we need but advert to as of the same general
kind. And many even now attempt to use similar influ-
ences in governing children.
Also he remarks, that when the process has once com-
menced, and some falsehood has been wrought into a sys-
tem regarded as in the main sound, there is a temptation
to tolerate it, through fear of greater evil in destroying
reverence for the whole system or of losing influence in
assailing it. We thought it necessary to take this gen-
eral view before coming to exhibit the development of
these principles in the primitive church.
The mass on whom Christianity operated had been al-
ready degraded by such maxims and practices in the
pagan world ; and they were not thoroughly and in a
moment purged of their pollutions when they became
Christians. Moreover a higher power of fraud prepared
through them the way for results of which they little
dreamed when they began their work of promoting truth
by the use of fraud. Let us now consider the early in-
troduction into the church of the system of pious frauds.
Mosheim states (Cent. II., vol*. i. p. 130) that the Pla-
tonists and Pythagoreans deemed it not only lawful, but
commendable, to deceive and to lie for the sake of truth
and piety. The Jews in Egypt learned from them this
sentiment even before the days of Christ. From both
this vice early spread among Christians. Books were
forged under the names of eminent men ; also the Sibyl-
line verses were fabricated by some Christian, in order
THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 285
to bring idolaters to "believe in Christianity. The pa-
gans were indignant at this forgery, which they ascribed
to Christians. (See Origen contra Celsum.) He also
tells us (Cent. III., pp. 183, 184) that a similar mode of ar-
gument was used by Origen and others. From such
principles came the forged Apostolic Canons and Con-
stitutions, the Recognitions of Clement, and the works
of Dionysius the Areopagite in the fourth and fifth cen-
turies. The system of pious frauds was adopted even
by Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine, Gregory Nazianzen, Jer-
ome, and Sulpitius Severus, in the Life of St. Martin.
Thus was the way prepared by Satan for the deepest
delusions of the middle ages.
Gieseler (vol. i. p. 298) gives passages from Jerome and
John Cassian in which the principles of the system are
unfolded. The same fathers who thus wrote and prac-
tised ascribed accommodation to Jesus and the apostles.
Cassian argues its lawfulness from the case of Rahab and
of Delilah. Though they used lies, they were aiming at
great and good ends. Gieseler tells us, (vol. i. p. 298,)
speaking of spurious writings up to A. D. 200, that their
purpose was to encourage the persecuted, to convince the
unbelieving, and to give the sanction of antiquity to cer-
tain opinions.
For such ends old spurious writings of the Jews were
interpolated e. g., the Book of Enoch and the Fourth
Book of Ezra. Others were forged e. g., the Testament
of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Ascension of Isaiah, the
Shepherd of Hermas, the Books of Hystaspes, the Acts
of Pilate, the Sibylline Prophecies, <fec. All these are
designed to promote millenarian views.
"Waddington (pp. 54, 55) traces many of the forgeries in
the names of apostles and fathers to an imitation of
pagan philosophers, who, without attempting delusion, in-
286 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
troduced ancient worthies as uttering their own opinions.
Christianity, too, he tells ns, was then in the hands of
Greeks and Africans, to whom our maxims of moralit
were not known. " We shall never," says he, " do justic
to the history of our religion unless we continually be
in mind the low condition of society and morals existing
among the people to whom it was first delivered."
Some of the passages adduced by Gieseler we will
translate. Jerome (Epist. xxx. al. 1., to Pammachins)
thus defends the propriety of lying in certain cases : " It
is one thing to write controversially, another didactically,
or dogmatically, (yv/ju/aa-nxws, ^o/jxa-ixwg.) In the former
the controversy is not restricted by fixed principles, and
he who is replying to an antagonist may state now one
thing, now another ; may argue as he pleases ; may de-
clare one thing, but act on the opposite supposition ; may
pretend to show bread (as the saying is) when he has in
his hands nothing but a stone. But in the second kind
of writing, openhearted frankness, and, if I may so say,
candor and ingenuousness, are necessary."
For evidence that they were disposed to allow far too
great a latitude of accommodation, (oixovofwa.) attributing
it in the same extent to Jesus and the apostles, see
Suicer, s. v. <fuyxa<ra8a.fts. T. ii. p. 1067.
In this way Jerome wished to explain the passage,
(Gal. ii. 11, seq.,) but was opposed by Augustine, whose
principles were more strict. (See his writings On Lying
and Against Lying. See correspondence on this point
between them, Epist. Hieron., Ep. Ixv. Ixvii.-lxxiii. Ixxvi.)
Chrysostom On the Priesthood, vol. i. 5, lays down very
questionable principles ; concerning the lawfulness of de-
ception in certain cases. He was followed in this by his
pupil, John Cassian, Coll. xvii. 8, seq. ; e. g., cap. xvii. :
" Therefore we ought to regard and use falsehood as if it
THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 287
were of the nature of hellebore, which, if taken when
threatened by a deadly disease, is salutary, but if without
e necessity caused by such danger, results in immediate
eath. For God not merely investigates and judges our
words and actions, but also regards our purpose and
intention. But if he sees that any thing has been done
or promised by any one for the sake of eternal salvation
and with that perception of results which proceeds from
divine contemplation, although it appears to men shame-
less and unjust, yet he, regarding the interior piety of the
heart, will consider in his decision, not the sound of the
words, but the purpose of the will ; for the end of an
undertaking and the disposition of the agent are to be con-
sidered. In this way some, as has been remarked before,
have been able to secure justification by lying, (e. g., Ra-
hab, Josh. ii. ;) and others, by telling the truth, have in-
curred the penalty of eternal death, (e. g., Delilah, Judg.
xvi.")
Yet at this time they tithed mint, anise, and cumin.
The neglect of ecclesiastical forms was a great crime.
All oaths, the taking of interest, self-defence, capital pun-
ishments, and second marriages were reckoned as crimes.
In comparison with the violation of mere ceremonial laws,
a disregard of the weightier matters of truth and justice
was deemed a venial offence, or even a virtue, if meant
for good ends. Hence we can see how men could come
to such a state of mental delusion as to perpetrate for
good ends the abominable imposition of the invention of
the cross. Hence we can see how even Ambrose could
conspire with a butcher to hide bones and blood under
the pavement of his church, and then pretend to be in-
formed by a special revelation that the relics of the mar-
tyrs Protasius and Gervasius, of whom no one had ever
heard before, were hid there, and that he should dig
288 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
them up, and prepare for them a shrine, and transfer their
remains to it with the solemn mockery of prayer and
preaching, and that miracles of healing should be
wrought by these remains, and that the bones and blooc
should be sold for a great price. "Was not the end a
good one ? Was it not important that the church of
Milan should have influence and wealth ? Are not these
means of doing good? But, alas! she had no martyrs.
Hence there could be no shrine, no saint worship, no
miracles of healing, no casting out of devils, and, above
all, no precious gifts. Why, then, should there not be an
invention of martyrs as well as an invention of the
cross ? To be sure, if it were to be found out, it might
seem a shameless fraud to man ; but God would judge
in view, not of the words, but of the purpose of the heart.
Hence, too, the working of false miracles for a good
end admitted of an easy justification, and no less the
forging of saints and the ascription to real saints of mir-
acles which they never wrought. Hence the deluge of
saints' lives and miracles with which the world was
flooded and the Romish world still is flooded ; for in
Alban Butler these forged saints keep their place even
to this day. Hence, too, we find in leading men, both in
the Latin and Greek churches, shameless lying for any
ends that interested men could convince themselves were
good ends.
The celebrated Photius, no doubt, regarded it as of
great importance that he should be patriarch of Constan-
tinople for the glory of God and the good of the church.
Hence he did not hesitate to give to the emperor a letter
in the name of Ignatius severely censuring the emperor,
and another in the name of the pope in favor of Photius,
which Eustralius, arriving at Constantinople in the habit
of a monk, had delivered to him. And yet there is no
THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 289
reason to doubt that he had caused these letters to be
forged in order to get Ignatius, whom the pope declared
to be the true patriarch, out of the way. Lotharius (or
Bishop Adventinus of Mentz for him) did not hesitate to
forge the tale that he was married to "Waldrada, when
young, by the command of the Emperor Lotharius, his
father, and was afterwards forced by Count Herbert to
marry his sister ; and Bishop Adventinus related it as a
fact in the council of Aix-la-Chapelle. He also wrote for
him a lying letter to the pope, and finally lied to excuse
himself to the pope.
When we meet with such things in the leading charac-
ters of the nominal church, when we find in Gregory VII.
a system of deliberate lying, adapted and designed to re-
duce the world to one vast feudal monarchy, of which he
should be the head and the kings of the earth his vassals,
instead of feeling that we are in the kingdom of God,
we seem to be involved in the deepest gloom of hell it-
self, and are, for a moment, overwhelmed with horror and
amazement. But, when we trace the system to its origin,
we see that a single key is enough to open the bottomless
pit ; and, as we read the corrupt maxims of some of the
leading doctors of the church, we seem to see a star fall
from heaven to earth, and take the key of the bottomless
pit and open it, and to behold the smoke as of a great
furnace arising from the pit, till the sun and the air are
darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. Never was
there such a lesson, as it regards the danger of tampering
with the truth even in the least degree, as may be read
in the history of the church. Let us look at the perni-
cious effects of the system of pious frauds on the litera-
ture and moral condition of earlier and of subsequent
ages. Waddington, speaking of the literary forgeries that
corrupted and disgraced the ante-Nicene church, says,
25
290 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
" Their immediate effect was exceedingly injurious." We
will hint at some of their effects.
1. They tended to degrade the moral character of the
age by the circulation of degrading materials of thought.
The truths of God's word are pure, simple, elevating.
The devil might well exult to see the people of God neg-
lecting such heavenly food and turning away to feed on
false gospels, Sibylline oracles, spurious saints' lives, and
degraded and degrading acts and decisions of the apostles.
2. They have immeasurably injured the interests of all
subsequent ages. The welfare of all ages is involved in
the correctness of the historical and literary documents
of the early ages. Nowhere is historical truth more im-
portant ; and yet, through the influence of the system of
pious frauds, nowhere is it harder to be discerned. The
decision of whole controversies is prevented by the doubt-
ful state of early documents. To illustrate this, it is suf-
ficent to refer to the interminable controversies as to
what Ignatius actually said concerning bishops. We know
that his letters have been more or less interpolated for
purposes of pious fraud ; but who can tell how much ?
By this uncertainty whole controversies are kept alive
that otherwise would easily be settled. Let any one read
Binius, Baronius, and Bellarmine, and then try to strike
out all that is spurious and forged in their writings, and
he will find himself in a labyrinth at once.
3. The earlier forgeries furnished principles and prece-
dents for worse deeds ; and very soon the lowest depths
were reached by men speaking lies in hypocrisy and hav-
ing their consciences seared as with a hot iron. Bad as
are the forged decretals, they are no worse, except in ex-
tent, than many preceding forgeries. Nothing can be
worse than the attempts by Popes Zosimus and Celestine
to palm off the canons of Sardica as those of Nice be-
THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 291
cause the council of Nice was an ecumenical council
and that of Sardica was not.
4. They provoke God to abandon the church, and thus
to send strong delusion to believe a lie. Whately well
says, that how far any one who propagates a lie may be
himself deceived or may be guilty of pious fraud, and
how far a fraud is a pious fraud, God only knows. Prob-
ably most have begun in wilful deceit and advanced to-
wards superstitious belief. Those who report a lie often
believe it. The curse on those who do not love the truth
is strong delusion to believe a lie. Thus a man intent on
an end may first deceive himself into a belief that it is
a good end, and then that it is right to lie to gain it, and
finally that the lie is a truth. Many are conscientious in
the sense that they have led their conscience to approve
the purposes of the will, and not that their conscience
has led their will to form its purposes. They persevere
in wrong till they convince themselves that it is right.
THE FORGED DECRETALS.
Let us now consider the most perfect development of
this system in the forged decretals.
We have already taken a brief view of these. Let us
more fully develop the great mystery of iniquity.
The ultimate result of them was twofold to concen-
trate the bishops round the pope and subject them to his
authority ; and to raise the ecclesiastical above the civil
power.
To accomplish this, they seemed to propose to defend
the bishops against the tyranny of their own metropoli-
tans and of their civil rulers. Before the Papal despot-
ism was established bishops were tried and judged by the
292 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
bishops of a metropolitan province under their metropol-
itan, and without appeal to the pope. Of course they
were liable to injustice ; and if the metropolitan were
imperious and haughty, as was often the case, they were
to expect often to experience it. Hence very likely the
origin of the canons of the council of Sardica. But as
these only authorized the pope to command a new trial in
the province, the main and ultimate power was, after all,
not in the pope, but in the metropolitan. But to remove
the case to the court of Rome, and to put the power of a
final decision into the hands of the pope, would effectu-
ally break down the power of the metropolitans. And
if at any time they were guilty of abusing that power, it
would create in the bishops a wish to see it done. In
like manner bishops might wish a defence of their spirit-
ual power against their kings.
Things were tending in this direction when the forged
decretals made their appearance. They purport to be
decretal letters written by the early popes, from Clement
downwards to Gregory the Great. They were published
in a collection with other canons. This collection of can-
ons and decretals, in the name of St. Isidore, consisted of
three parts.
1. Fifty-nine pseudo-Isidorian decretals, besides two
from Clement to James, already in existence, going down
to Melchiades.
2. Canons of councils, chiefly genuine Isidorian.
3. Thirty-five pseudo-Isidorian, mixed with genuine,
epistles from Sylvester to Gregory the Great.
The bishops universally received them. They were like
the horse which was so intent on conquering the stag that
he took the bridle into his mouth from the man, and the
saddle upon his back, and allowed him to mount, and was
from that time a slave. The pope conquered the metro-
THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 293
politans through the bishops ; and as soon as he had done
this the bishops were ipso facto enslaved. These decretals
seemed to favor the patriarchs, and yet subjected them to
the pope's authority to act in his name. All that was
taken from the metropolitans fell finally to the Papal see.
To complete the picture, we will briefly restate some con-
nected facts. The donation of Constantino was promul-
gated in the time of Adrian L, and was based on, and con-
nected with, a fabulous narrative of the baptism and cure of
Constantine of the leprosy at Rome by Pope Sylvester. In
token of gratitude Constantine withdrew from Rome and
founded Constantinople, and gave to the pope Rome, Italy,
and the provinces of the West.
The history and decrees of a council that never met
were also forged. It was said to have been held at Rome
in the days of Sylvester : the aim and result of it were to
exalt the power of the pope.
We have given portions of these precious documents
from the history of councils by Binius, published under
the sanction of the pope, and defended by Binius even
after Calvin and others had exposed the forgeries of the
decretals. Indeed the Papacy held on to them till they
were irresistibly wrung from its unwilling grasp.
The influence and effects of these decretals are thus set
forth by the learned civilian Daunou, a Roman Catholic :
" So early as the end of the eighth century the decretals
of Isidore had planted the germs of pontifical omnipo-
tence. Gratian gathered the fruit of these germs and
made them still more fruitful ; the court of Rome being
represented as the source of all irrefragable decision, as
the universal tribunal which decided all differences, dissi-
pated all doubts, cleared up all difficulties. She was con-
sulted from all quarters by metropolitans, by bishops, by
chapters, by abbeys, by monks, by lords, by princes even,
25*
294 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
and by the untitled faithful. There was no limit to the
pontifical correspondence but such as was imposed by the
tardiness of the means of communication. The affluence
of questions multiplied bulls, briefs, epistles ; and from
those fictitious decretals ascribed to the popes of the first
ages there sprang up and multiplied, from the time of Eu-
gene III., thousands of responses and decrees which were
but too authentic. All affairs religious, civil, judiciary,
domestic then were more or less embarrassed by pre-
tended connections with the spiritual power. General in-
terests, local controversies, individual quarrels all went
in the last resort, and sometimes in the first instance, to
the pope ; and the court of Rome acquired this influence
over the details of human life, (if we may so speak.) which
is of all others the most formidable, precisely because each
of its effects, isolated from the others, appeared to be of
no great consequence. Isidore and Gratian transformed
the pope into a universal administrator."
The agency of Gratian in this matter, to which Daunou
here refers, was in brief this : In 1152 he compiled a col-
lection, of canons, commonly designated as the " Decree
of Gratian." It was called by him the concord of dis-
cordant canons, (concordantia discordantium canonum.) The
study of the civil law had just been revived in Italy by the
discovery of the Pandects of Justinian. But, as the eccle-
siastical power was fast gaining the ascendency over the
civil power, a similar storehouse of the principles of eccle-
siastical law was needed. Such the Decree of Gratian
became. It is divided into three parts : one devoted to
principles and ecclesiastical persons ; the second to judg-
ments ; the third to things.
Of its character as a code Daunou thus speaks : " Rep-
etitions, impertinences, disorder, errors in proper names,
mistakes in quotations are the least faults of the compiler.
THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 295
Mutilated passages, chimerical canons, false decretals, all
sorts of lies abound in .this monstrous production. Its
success was only the more rapid on that account. It was
explained in the schools, cited in the tribunals, and in-
voked in treaties. It had almost become the public law
of Europe, when the return of light dissipated by slow
degrees the gross imposture. By it the clergy were held
not to be amenable to answer in the secular tribunals ; the
civil powers were subjected to ecclesiastical supremacy ;
the state of persons or the acts which determine it were
regulated, validated, or annulled absolutely by the canons
and the clergy ; the Papal power was enfranchised from
all restrictions ; the sanction of all laws of the church was
ascribed to the holy see that see itself being independent
of the laws published and confirmed by itself."
By whom Gratian was employed to perform this work
the facts just stated sufficiently show. He was but a tool
of the Papacy. Through him the man of sin erected his
throne by reducing the forged decretals to a legal system.
A translation of a few passages from Gratian will give a
clear idea of the prevailing spirit of the work. He is
teaching the doctrine that the pope is not of necessity
subject even to his own laws, and that if he submits to
them it is only by a voluntary humiliation by way of ex-
ample to others.
"As Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath and of the law,
submitted himself to the law of the Sabbath, so the pon-
tiffs in the seat of supremacy manifest reverence for the
canons established either by themselves or by others
authorized by them ; and, by humbling themselves to obey
them, they augment their authority, so that they may
present them to others as their supreme law." Again :
" Sometimes, either by new enactments, or definitions, or
by contravening the canons, they proclaim themselves
lords and creators of the laws." Again : " Upon others
296 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
is imposed the necessity of obedience to the canons ; but
it has been made manifest that in the chief pontiffs there
is an authority to obey at their pleasure, so that, by ob-
serving their own decrees, they may show to others that
they are not to be contemned. This they do after the ex-
ample of Christ, who himself observed as an example, and
that he might thus sanctify them, those sacraments, the
observance of which he enjoined upon his church."
Here we see the roots of those highest claims of Papal
omnipotence, and of dispensing above right, and contrary
to right, which subsequent canonists carried to a still
more blasphemous extreme exalting the pope not only
to an equality with God, but above all that is called. God
or is worshipped.
All these principles, first drawn from the fountain of
the forged decretals, still slumber in the canon law, like
a sword returned for a time to its sheath, or like the re-
tracted and hidden claws of a tiger. But let the state of
the nation be so changed, and circumstances so favor that
it can be done, and the sword will be again unsheathed,
and the pontifical tiger will again rend the subjugated
nations with his claws.
To translate long passages from these forged decretals
would be tiresome alike to the translator and to the
reader. To form a conception of their matter and style,
we need only to suppose an ecclesiastic, capable of writing
in the Latin style of the middle ages, first raising the in-
quiry, What is needed to exalt the ecclesiastical entirely
above the civil power? and finally to concentrate all
power in the pope, and then writing all that he could con-
ceive of to his heart's content in the name of the ancient
popes. A few specimens must suffice. Hear how, in the
first epistle of Pius, A. D. 147, the bishops are defended
against lay influence : " Let not the sheep censure their
THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 297
shepherd, nor the laity accuse a bishop, nor the populace
reprehend him ; since the disciple is not above his lord,
nor the servant above his master. But the bishops are
to be judged by God, who has chosen them as his eyes.
* * * Of this the Master has given an example, when
he drove from the temple the buying and selling priests,
by himself, and not by another." The judgment of God
on bishops is of course to be exercised through the pope.
Hence the forger tells us, through Zephyrinus, A. D. 208,
Ep. i., " Let not the patriarchs or primates who try an
accused bishop pass a definite sentence till it has been
sanctioned by apostolic (i. e., Papal) authority." He then
proceeds to give rules as to accusers, witnesses, and the
trial, and then concludes : " Let the ultimate determination
of his case be brought to the apostolic seat, that there it
may be issued. Nor let it be finally determined before it
is sanctioned by the authority of the pontiff, as was or-
dained by the apostles or their successors." We notice
here, as through all of these forgeries, a constant repetition
and superabundant fulness, as if the writer were deter-
mined to make assurance doubly sure in all things re-
lating to the Papal authority.
To concentrate all power at Rome, we find passages
like this : " The Roman church, through the merits of
Peter, consecrated by the word of the Lord and sustained
by the authority of the holy fathers, holds the primacy
among all the other churches. To her the highest con-
cerns, trials, and complaints of bishops, and also the im-
portant interests of all churches are to be referred as to
the head." Vigilius, Ep. ad Profuturum.
Again : Zephyrinus, Ep. i., says, " All, and especially
the oppressed, must have recourse to the Roman church,
and appeal to her as to a mother, that they may be nour-
ished by her breasts, and defended by her authority, and
298 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
delivered from their oppressions ; for the mother neither
can nor ought to forget her child."
One great object of these forgeries is to give authority
to Papal decrees as such, investing them with the power
of laws, thus making the pope an independent legislator
and an absolute despot. Hence the forger in the name of
Damasus, Ep. iv., says, " All the decretals and the statutes
of all our predecessors which have been promulgated con-
cerning the ecclesiastical orders, and the discipline of the
canons, it is our pleasure and decree that you and all
bishops and priests shall observe ; so that, if any one shall
infringe them, let him know that it is an unpardonable
offence."
The direct result of all this was to exalt the canons of
the pope to an equality with the canons of general councils.
Hence in the canon law both kinds are mixed up indiscrim-
inately, and, as Daunou well remarks, the forged decretals
became the source and model of innumerable and genuine
Papal decretals in subsequent ages. Indeed these lying
forgeries have been so thoroughly digested and absorbed
into the system of the canon law that to this day they
constitute its vital principles, its very life's blood.
At the hazard of being tedious we will give a few
more extracts from these forgeries, showing in what man-
ner, by impudent and reiterated assertions, the power of
the Papacy was established. The forger in the name of
Damasus, Ep. vi., says, " It is lawful for the metropoli-
tans, with their provincial bishops, to investigate the
causes of the bishops and other weighty ecclesiastical
matters, provided the bishops are all present and agree ;
but to define and decide definitely on such points, or to
condemn bishops without the authority of this seat, is not
lawful ; for all, if it be necessary, ought to appeal to
it and be sustained by its authority ; for, as you know,
THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 299
it -is not Catholic to convene a synod without its sanc-
tion."
The conduct of Hincmar in deposing Rothade, to which
we have before adverted, shows plainly that he, though a
learned canonist, had admitted no such principles as
these. But when Nicholas encountered him, nullified his
proceedings, and restored Rothade, he fell back upon
these and similar passages of the forged decretals for his
defence ; and certainly nothing could be better fitted to
accomplish his purposes. It seems as if this passage had
been forged with satanic foresight for the very case in
hand. Nor is it to be wondered at that Nicholas exerted
himself to the uttermost to give authority to a system by
which he was invested with such absolute power.
In the decretum of Gratian the forged materials were
mixed up with the old and genuine canon law for the
sake of hiding the cheat. In his endeavors to reconcile
the discordances thus produced, Gratian of course de-
cided in favor of the new Papal law ; and as, during the
subsequent study of the canon law, new contradictions
came to light, the popes gave new decisions, deciding of
course in accordance with the principles of the forged
decretals. As these new decretals multiplied, it became
necessary to reduce them to system. Hence in 1234
Gregory IX. employed the Dominican Raimund da Pen-
nafort to compile a new collection of decretals in five
books, almost entirely composed of later decretals, and
in accordance with the spirit of the forged decretals.
To this Boniface VIII. added a sixth book in five parts.
To these, five books of Clementine Constitutions, by
Clement V., were added, and also certain Extravagantes
of John XXII. and five books of Extravagantes Com-
munes. Such was the spirit, such the origin, and such
the progress and completion of the canon law. The
300 THE PAPAL COXSPIRACT EXPOSED.
leaven of the old canon law, retained in the decretum of
Gratian, so far as it was inconsistent with the new law,
was purged out, and the Papacy was placed on the basis
on which it has since stood even to this day.
It is, indeed, a specimen of lying and forgery on a
sublime scale ; and when we see all Christendom trem-
bling before the frown of the pope, and the intellect of
all Europe engaged in studying and commenting on this
law, then we see completed the highest and most as-
tounding result of the forged literature of the middle
ages. The little fountain head of pious fraud which
broke out in the early ages has given rise to a mighty
river, emptying itself into a boundless ocean of unfathom-
able delusion and fraud.
How great the influence of these forgeries has been
may be learned from the confessions even of candid
Roman Catholics. The testimony of Daunou has been
given. Fleury, though not so severe, is no less explicit
in testifying to their pernicious influence on the church.
"With him coincides Bossuet ; and the celebrated Charles
Butler, in a brief account of the Roman and the canon
law, in an. appendix to his Life of the Chancellor
D'Aguesseau, does not hesitate to say, " To the com-
pilations of Isidore and Gratian, one of the greatest mis-
fortunes of the church, the claim of the popes to temporal
power by divine right, may in some measure be attrib-
uted. That a claim so unfounded and so impious, so
detrimental to religion, and so hostile to the peace of
the world should have been made is strange ; stranger
yet is the success it met with."
It is no less strange that so intelligent a man could
not discover that all the remaining claims of the pope
are alike unfounded and impious, detrimental to religion,
and hostile to the peace of the world.
THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 301
In view of such facts it is that Gibbon severely, but
justly, remarks that the Vatican and Lateran were an
arsenal and manufactory, which, according to the occa-
sion, have produced or concealed a various collection of
false, or genuine, or corrupt, or suspicious acts, as they
tended to promote the interests of the Romish church.
Before the end of the eighth century, some apostolical
scribe, perhaps the notorious Isidore, composed the decre-
tals and the donation of Gonstantine the two magic
pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the
popes. (Vol. iii. 339.) "This humble title, 'peccator,' was
ignorantly, but aptly, turned into ' mercator ' his merchan-
dise was indeed profitable : a few sheets of paper were
sold for much wealth and power. The edifice has subsisted
after the foundations have been undermined." P. 340.
To form any adequate idea of these abominable and
blasphemous forgeries, they must be read. They are writ-
ten in an assumed style of conscientious sanctity. Their
authors pretend to be watchmen for souls, accountable to
God for their fidelity ; and the penalty of disobedience is
eternal damnation. Yet the impious forgery betrays itself
on every page. Of the events and wants of their own age
they say and seem to know nothing. "With the hierarchi-
cal claims of the distant future centuries they are perfectly
familiar. They do not know the times of their own lives,
or pontificates, or deaths. Some date their letters before
they were popes some after they were dead. They
quote the Latin Vulgate long before it was made. They
quote writers who in their day had not written, laws
that had not been made, councils that had not been held,
and use words and a style of language not then in exist-
ence. Nor were they ever quoted before the ninth centu-
ry amid controversies on which they would have been
decisive. Such are the documents which Nicholas I. pro-
26
302 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
mnlgated in the name of God, and which for centuries
ruled the world. ,
Let us, in conclusion, consider the subsequent state and
power of the system. The church of Rome has indeed
retreated from certain positions, from which she has been
irresistibly driven. But never has she abandoned the
practice of the system ; and, if any have seemed in her
name to condemn it in principle, this condemnation is
but a new specimen of pious fraud. She cannot condemn
it. It is wrought into her whole history. Moreover it is
a case of necessity to that church to lie. Her existence
depends on it. All true history is against her. Hence we
see a constant tendency to rely on and defend forged
documents in Baronius, and to forge lies in Bellarinine,
as in his infamous narrative of the death of Calvin ; also
in Audin's Life of Calvin the same course is pursued. In
the same spirit, a stupendous enterprise was once under-
taken to alter and expurgate all the fathers on the great
scale.
Hence Platina's History of the Lives of the Popes has
been altered and corrupted by Papal scribes ; so that only
the Venice edition, 1479, and the editions published in
Holland, 1640, 1645, 1664, are worthy of confidence.
Hence we may account for the omission in some editions
of the statements concerning Gregory VII. which De
Cormenin quotes. Hence, too, the systematic writing of
false histories for the use of Jesuit schools ; and the falsi-
fication of Ranke's History of the Popes, of which he
complains, and the circulation and use of such falsified
copies in Jesuit schools as genuine. Pagi says, " Much has
been said of the popes by other historians, but very little
by their own."
Bower adds " that the very little has been thought
too much ; whence some of them, Platina in particular,
THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 303
have been made in all their editions since the middle of
the sixteenth century, to speak with more reserve, and to
suppress or disguise some truths they had formerly told."
Yol i. p. 15.
When to the influence of principles so corrupt is added
the bias of party rage, as in the long strifes of the Guelphs
and Ghibelines, or in the great schism, one can easily im-
agine the extent to which lying would be carried, and how
much the difficulty of coming at the truth in many cases is
augmented. As these parties fought with the sword, so,
says Bower, did historians with more rage fight with their
pens ; and the same persons, especially the popes and em-
perors, are by opposing writers painted in very different
colors.
Indeed so thoroughly has this leprosy of pious lying
struck through the Romish church that all who are approx-
imating to her seem naturally to fall into it. Of this we find
a striking example in the English Puseyites, who are re-
viving the doctrine of economy, or accommodation viz.,
lying so far as is necessary to keep their hearers from re-
volting from their sentiments till they can lead them along
step t)y step to Rome. Hence Newman's fierce assaults
on Rome, as he begun his Puseyite movement, were all a
pious fraud, according to the principles of the economical
system, to be recanted when they had enabled him to
corrupt all whom he could. On the same principles, Je-
suits in secret may join any church and profess any thing
in order to work in the dark for Rome.
No maxim has ever been so constantly carried out in all
ages as that to lie for the Romish church is not only no
sin, but a virtue of the highest kind. On this principle
pious frauds are at this day knowingly carried on in Mex-
ico, as described by Waddy Thompson, in Rome, and in
other parts of the Romish world. Such a system under
304 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
the government of God cannot last forever ; but it lias a
great temporary power.
For a hierarchy of priests, many of them men of educa-
tion and great intellectual power and learning, and trained
to lie on system, to sustain their own corporate power and
wealth, can keep the masses subjected to their sway in
Romish countries in utter ignorance of the facts of history,
as is universally the case, and by bold assertions can
paralyze to a certain extent the power of history in
Protestant countries.
The bold inpudence of Pope Zosimus staggered all the
assembled bishops of Africa. He declared certain canons
of the provincial council of Sardica to be canons of the
council of Nice, though it was held twenty years before
that of Sardica.
The canons of Sardica were in none of the African
copies of the council of Nice. The African bishops pro-
posed to send for copies to Constantinople, Alexandria,
and Antioch.
" It matters not," replied the conscious legate, " whether
or not those canons are to be found in your copies, or in-
deed in any other. You must know that the canons and
ordinances of Nice, which have been handed down to us
BY TRADITION and established by custom, are no less bind-
ing than those that have been conveyed to us by writing."
A fine specimen of matchless impudence ! But so has Rome
made tradition in all ages her grand storehouse of lies.
The African bishops would not be so deluded. They
sent for the copies as proposed, exposed the fraud, and
held up the pope as a barefaced impostor.
Bower well calls it one of the most impudent and bare-
faced impostures recorded in history ; yet Bishop Kenrick
has not a word of censure for the pope, and tries, like Ba-
ronius and Bellarmine, to gloss it over as a mistake.
THE FORGEKIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 305
The truth is, on the principles of that church there was
no sin in the lie, but merely in attempting it in so bungling
a way as to be found out and exposed. So did Purcell.
of Cincinnati, twice lie, and was publicly exposed.
But multitudes of other impostures, equally gross and
impudent, were not found out, and made the Papal power
what it is ; and the same impudent system of lying will
still be pursued, for nothing else can preserve it from ruin.
This general view should not, however, lead to despair of
a final victory of truth nor to historical scepticism. Let
a man look at one of our counterfeit detectors containing
scores of pages of counterfeits. He might at first say, It
is of no avail to try to distinguish between forged and
true bills. But with care and practice it can be done.
So is it in history. Many forgeries have been so exposed
that none dare now advocate them ; and, notwithstanding
the delusions and lies of the hierarchy, God has foretold,
under the symbol of the false prophet, his doom. He
shall be taken by the Son of man and cast alive into the
lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Clearly then all Protestants are simpletons who do not
judge Romanist ecclesiastics in view of their principles
and their past history. He that is simple believeth every
word of such men ; but the prudent looketh well to his
going.
In conclusion, I would say that the good of our nation
requires a more full exposure of this subject than we can
now make, with the facts of history classified and ar-
ranged. We are contending with a matchless system of
compacted fraud, and need to have a perfect understand-
ing of it and its principles and deeds.
26*
CHAPTER Y.
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT.
WE have seen that in the forged decretals the rock
Peter was made the foundation of the immense fabric of
fraud and forgery. We have seen, also, by what course
of corruption the Romish ecclesiastics had been prepared
for such a forgery.
But the success of that great forgery implies that an-
other work had been previously performed ; it implies
that the public mind had been prepared to receive the
forgery by a preceding course of claims and precedents
on the part of the popes which the forgers could imbody
and establish by the pretended decretals of the earlier
popes.
We have also said that Leo the Great, who closes the
second division of the popes, was the main agent in de-
veloping and establishing such claims and pretensions.
We intimated, moreover, our purpose to consider more
fully his agency in thus laying the deepest foundation of
the great Papal fabric.
We will make him, as we already have Nicholas I., a
sort of mountain top from which to survey the widely-
extended field of the Papal campaigns.
Nicholas, who developed and first used the forged de-
cretals, lived, as we have seen, in the deep midnight of
the dark ages. The whole fabric of the western Roman
(306)
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 807
empire had been long broken up, the empire of Charle-
magne had arisen, its power had waned, and the interests
of Europe were then in the hands of his feeble successors
and of the Pope of Rome.
Let us now go back to the time just before the great
breaking up of the Western Empire and see how Leo pre-
pared the pretended bark of Peter to launch into the
great deluge of the northern nations that immersed Eu-
rope in a second flood, out of which has arisen the new
world of modern Europe.
LEO THE GREAT.
History is made up of two elements facts which
transpire in this world and the relations of those facts
to the universal system. That there was such a man as
Leo the Great ; that he lived in the fifth century ; that he
was a leading spirit of his age ; that he was engaged in
divers controversies and aimed at certain definite ends,
these and similar things are facts easily ascertainable
and capable of a definite and precise statement ; nor with
regard to the leading facts of his life is there any con-
troversy.
But when we pass to the consideration of the relations
of these facts to the universal system we enter at once a
new world. Whilst generations of men die, higher and
permanent orders of spiritual beings meet our eyes. Each
generation of men- has its principles, ends, and aims ; but
no common intelligible human plan runs through the his-
tory of all ages. To discover such a plan we must pass
into the invisible world and study the designs of Him of
whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things,
and who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will.
308 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
To give the relations of the facts of history from this
point of vision is by no means so easy as to state the
facts. It leads us at once upon controverted ground.
The moment we raise this question as it regards Leo we
meet the great controversy of the age. To the partisans
of Rome he is Leo the Great to their opponents he is
but a prominent founder of a terrific and malignant anti-
Christian system which was matured and perfectly devel-
oped by Nicholas L, Gregory VII., and Innocent III.
God only can write a perfect history of the world from
this point of vision, and at the day of the revelation of his
just judgment he will do it. Meantime there is to be even
on earth, under the guidance of his Spirit, an historical
day of judgment. On no subject has more illusion and
fraud been practised, especially since the days of Christ,
than on the history of this world. But the day cometh
that shall burn as an oven. God is yet to reign ; and he
will reign by the truth, and not by delusion and fraud.
No one, therefore, is more concerned in promulgating and
establishing correct views of the history of this world than
he. In all our inquiries, then, let us entreat him to dissi-
pate all delusions, to open our eyes, to purify our hearts,
and to touch our lips as with a coal from his own altar.
In the historical sketch which we have undertaken to
present we have chosen an individual to stand as the cen-
tral figure of the picture ; and yet our mainf design is,
through him, to evolve the principles and spirit of the
Romish corporation in his age.
Leo was chosen Bishop of Rome A. D. 440, and died
A. D. 461, after an eventful reign of twenty-one years.
From 423 to 455 Valentinian III. was Emperor of the
West. Maximus, Avitus, and Majorianus ruled during the
remaining six years of his life. From 408 to 450 Theo-
dosius II. was Emperor of the East ; Marcian from 450 to
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 309
457 ; Leo, also called the Great, from 457 to 474. Such
were his contemporary civil rulers.
As to his parentage and early education little is known.
He was a Roman by birth. His father's name was Quinc-
tianus. His first appearance in history is just before his
choice as Bishop of Rome. He was sent by Pope Sixtus
III. to effect a reconciliation between Aetius and Albinus
in Gaul, of which we shall soon speak. During his ab-
sence Sixtus died, and Leo was chosen in his place.
The main characteristic of the age of Leo was the ap-
proaching destruction of those institutions of Roman civil
society which paganism had formed. Concerning these
Guizot remarks, " The civil society of the Roman world,
to all outward appearances, seemed Christian equally
with the religious society. The great majority of the Eu-
ropean nations and kings had embraced Christianity ; but
at the bottom the civil society was pagan. Its institutions,
its laws, its manners were all essentially pagan. It was
entirely a society formed by paganism, not at all a soci-
ety formed by Christianity. Christian civil society did
not develop itself till a later period, till after the invasion
of the barbarians. It belongs in point of time to modern
history. In the fifth century, whatever outward appear-
ances may say to the contrary, there existed between civil
society and religious society incoherence, contradiction,
contest ; for they were essentially different both in their
origin and in their nature."
" I would pray you never to lose sight of this diversity ;
it is a diversity which alone enables us to comprehend the
real condition of the Roman world at this period."
This political society was enervated, and rapidly ap-
proaching dissolution and death : slavery and the deep
degradation of the masses of the people were the main
310 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
causes of this state of things. The barbarians were God's
instruments for breaking in pieces that old fabric which
was tottering to its fall and ready soon to vanish away.
Hence the names of Alaric, Attila, and Genseric begin
to figure on the page of history ; and the Vandals, Franks,
Goths, Visigoths, and Burgundians, under the guidance
of such leaders, issue from the North to execute the pur-
poses of God.
A period of political dissolution and chaos is to ensue,
during which a new religious society is to exercise a
centralizing and organizing power. Of this society Leo
claimed to be the divinely ordained head ; and his whole
energies were put forth to develop and establish the prin-
ciples of the Papal monarchy. Never was there a point
in which a great mind, swayed by ambition, and not con-
trolled by a regard to truth, had a finer opportunity to
exercise a creative and organizing power.
In various ways the Bishop of Rome had already ob-
tained great influence. But he was by no means monarch
of the Christian world. Indeed never had there been a
time when he had rivals so powerful as were now the pa-
triarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and especially
of Constantinople.
The power of these bishops originated from two sources
one political, the other spiritual. The former was
in fact the only source of the extraordinary and despotic
powers they were intent on establishing. Of this we
have a full illustration in the history of the see of Con-
stantinople. The Bishop of Byzantium was at first but a
suffragan to the Bishop of Heraclea, exarch of the dio-
cese of Thrace.
But Constantine made Byzantium a new Rome ; and lo,
the Bishop of Byzantium soon becomes the leading patri-
arch in all the East ; for it was not fit that the emperor's
THE BOCK PETEB AND LEO THE GREAT. 311
bishop should be inferior in rank or power to any of the
bishops of the East. His central political position, too,
gave him the same means of augmenting his power which
the Bishop of Rome enjoyed at the West ; and diligently
and skilfully did he use them, and rapidly did he gain on
the Bishops of Home in the race.
And if the political basis of the bishop's power were to
continue the main one, it was plain that if Old Rome fell,
and New Rome stood, the patriarch of Constantinople
might finally win in the race.
It was certainly a critical period. Some master spirit
was needed fully to develop and establish the doctrine
that the |ower of the Bishop of Rome had a higher ori-
gin than that of the Bishop of Constantinople ; so that,
even if Old Rome fell, his spiritual kingdom might not
only remain unshaken, but take her place and rise upon
her ruins.
Such a master spirit was needed. In Leo he was found.
A Roman by birth, of powerful intellect, indomitable will,
dauntless courage, vivid imagination, great power of emo-
tion, a finished education, extensive learning, a majestic
person, and fervid eloquence, he was beyond all doubt
immeasurably superior, in most of those elements which
give power over mind, to all the men of his age. He is
worthy to be placed side by side with Nicholas I., Greg-
ory VII., and Innocent III.
But, considering the claims of the see of Rome to be the
great preserver of the faith on earth, it is not a little re-
markable that Leo is the first theological writer of any
ability which the see of Rome produced, the first who
has left any important work for the benefit of posterity,
if we omit the apostle Peter and the evangelical and
primitive Clement.
Before Leo, the leading champions of the faith did not
312 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
come from the see of Rome. So far from it was the fact,
that the faith would have been betrayed had it been left
solely to the Bishop of Rome. Athanasius, Bishop of Al-
exandria, was the great pillar of the doctrine of the Trin-
ity ; whilst Pope Liberius signed an Arian creed. Augus-
tine, Bishop of Hippo, was the great champion of the
doctrine of human depravity and the sovereign grace of
God ; whilst Pope Zosimus became the champion of Pe-
lagianism till compelled by the power and perseverance
of Augustine to recant. Popes Julius and Felix, long be-
fore Eutyches, had promulgated the Eutychian doctrine,
which the whole energy of Leo and after ages labored in
vain utterly to overthrow and eradicate. .
The great writers of the East and the West, Augustine
and Basil, Athanasius and Ambrose, the Gregories and
Chrysostom, had adorned their respective sees ; whilst
Rome remained in a state of comparative intellectual and
theological barrenness till Leo arose.
But the moment he appeared on the stage the centre of
both ecclesiastical and intellectual power was no doubt at
Rome. With a strong hand and a determined will he
grasped all the great questions of the age, and made an
impress on the world that is felt to this day. He gave a
decided turn to theology and to the current of events in
favor of the see of Rome ; nor, judging by their standards,
have the partisans of that see erred in calling him LEO
THE GREAT.
The acts of his life may be arranged in five classes :
1. Those which related to the existing interests of the
Roman empire as endangered by the barbarians.
2. Those which relate to the powers of the see of Rome.
3. Those which relate to the vindication and establish-
ment of the orthodox system of faith.
4. Those which relate to the use of force in the sup-
pression of heresy.
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 313
5. Those which relate to the discipline of the church.
It will be seen at a glance that all his acts except those
of the first class related to principles destined to exert a
vast influence on all future generations. Whatever may
be thought of the character of the Romish church, no one
can deny that it was for ages the centre of intellectual and
ecclesiastical power for Christendom. No point of vision
gives so comprehensive an insight into the religious and
political condition of the Christian world for ages. An
emotion of sublimity, therefore, fills the mind as we stand
at the fountain head of this great river of destiny and
watch the elements that are from time to time mingled
with it by the presiding spirit at Rome.
1. "We have excepted Leo's acts of the first class from
the list of such as involve principles destined to affect
future ages. They were indeed in his own day more
thought of ; they occupy a more prominent place in the
histories of the age ; but they affected simply the question
of the earlier or later downfall of Rome. That mistress
of the world was thoroughly corrupt. Her measure of
iniquity was nearly full. All that Leo could do for her was
for a little time to delay her fall. When, A. D. 440, under
the weak rule of Yalentinian, the safety of Rome was en-
dangered by the alienation of Aetius, the greatest Roman
general of the age, and Albinus, a Gallic lord of great
power, and this at the very time when the empire was
overrun by the Goths, Burgundians, Franks, and Huns,
Leo was chosen, as qualified above all others by eloquence,
sagacity, and tact, to reconcile them. To effect this, he was
sent on an embassy to Gaul. He fulfilled his mission with
such success that he stood conspicuous in the eyes of his
own generation as a great peace.maker and the savior of
the empire from impending ruin.
Again : A. D. 452, when Attila and his Huns, having been
27
314 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
driven by Aetius out of Gaul, had invaded Italy, and, hav-
ing captured Aquileia, Pavia, and even Milan, the imperial
residence, were preparing to lay siege to Rome, Leo was
sent at the head of an embassy to him, that he might exert
the power of his effective eloquence and address upon the
mind of the terrible leader of the barbarians. Without
the aid of a vivid imagination, it is easy to invest this
transaction with a peculiar and impressive dramatic in-
terest. All hearts were dismayed ; even Aetius trembled
before the barbarian hosts ; when lo, the gates of Rome
open, and her bishop, in sacerdotal robes and with majes-
tic aspect, goes forth to try the force of intellectual and
spiritual arms against the victorious leader of barbarian
hosts. To the natural and inherent interest of the scene
religious fiction has sought to superadd a new intensity
by introducing a miraculous appearance of Peter and
Paul to second the eloquence of Leo. It is enough, how-
ever, for us to know that the embassy was successful.
Attila retired, and Rome for a time was saved. It is
added by others that a pestilence in the camp of Attila,
the invasion of his own country by Marcian, the prospect
of speedy and powerful reinforcements for the Romans,
and the stipulation of an annual tribute of two thousand
pounds of gold were the real influences that gave power
to the eloquence of Leo. Be this as it may, the glory that
he has derived from the success of this mission has been
great. Yet, after all, it accomplished little for Rome, and
still less for the world. It affected, as we have safd, no
great principle, and it caused but a brief delay of the
downfall of Rome. Even the same Leo at a later date in
vain exerted his eloquence to deter Genseric from the sack
of Rome. Summoned by Eudoxia, the widow of Valentin-
ian, to avenge her on Maximus, who had slain her husband,
assumed his throne, and compelled her to marry him, he
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 315
plundered Rome, and carried away, not only vast treasures,
but also many Romans as slaves. At the request of Leo,
he only consented to save the city from the flames.
2. Let us now come to those acts of Leo that related to
principles destined to increase in power till they should
ingulf all other power in their tremendous vortex. We
have already remarked that the power of the Bishop of
Rome was originally based upon the political supremacy
of Rome. Even Newman, in an argument designed to
conduct his disciples into the bosom of Rome, is obliged
to admit that the doctrine of the " regalia Petri" was unde-
veloped in the early ages. He intimates, indeed, that it
slumbered in the record, ready to be developed when needed ;
but it is a very suspicious fact that the new basis of the
claims of the pretended succession of Peter was not dis-
covered till the political basis seemed to be in danger of
being subverted by the superior political power of the
Bishop of Constantinople. Then the hidden sense of
" Thou art Peter " began to open rapidly on the mind of
Leo ; and with imperious energy he thus sets it forth in his
letter to the Bishops of Gaul: "It was the will of our
Lord that all nations should hear the truth through the
apostolic trumpet. Yet it was also his pleasure that the
blessed Peter should preside over the other apostles in the
discharge of this duty ; so that all divine gifts should flow
to the body from him as the head, so that none could
partake of the blessings of the kingdom of God who
should-dare to depart from the rock Peter. This office
of Peter Christ proclaimed when he said, ' Thou art Peter'
<fcc. Thus the structure of the eternal temple, by the
wonderful grace of God, was made to rest on the rock
Peter." In all this there is NOW no originality ; but in the
days of Leo there was need of his master mind to give
currency to this doctrine. With reference to him Gieseler
316 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
says, " By exalting the authority of the apostle Peter, and
by tracing all his rights to this source, as well as by his
personal qualities and good fortune, he did more than any
of his predecessors in extending and confirming the power
of the Romish see."
Gieseler also, in section ninety-two, says that " this view
was first fully developed by Leo." Bower, however,
has shown, from a letter of Innocent I. (A. D. 401-417) to
Alexander, Bishop of Antioch, that the merit or de-
merit of first developing this idea belongs to Innocent.
In that letter he derives the prerogatives, privileges, and
jurisdiction of the Roman see from St. Peter. In view
of this Bower remarks, " Innocent may be justly said to
have pointed out the ground on which the unwieldy fabric
of the Papal power was afterwards built." Still it is
true, as Gieseler asserts, that Leo first FULLY developed
this view. THUS, THEN, INNOCENT I. ORIGINATED IT AND
ACCUSTOMED THE EARS OF MEN TO HEAR IT. LEO FULLY
DEVELOPED AND TO HIS UTMOST POWER ENFORCED IT.
NICHOLAS I., BY THE GREAT FORGERY, ADDED TO ITS POWER.
GREGORY VII. ERECTED THE FABRIC, AND INNOCENT III.
REIGNED IN THE MERIDIAN SPLENDOR, OF PAPAL GLORY.
Nor was Leo at all deficient in that unprincipled bold-
ness and energy which were essential in order to enforce
such claims of authority. This was especially seen in his
encounter with that distinguished Romish saint, Hilary,
Bishop of Aries and Exarch of the seven provinces of
Narbonne. A council of bishops in which Hilary pre-
sided had deposed Celidonius, Bishop of Besanon. He
appealed to Leo. Hilary denied the right of Leo to re-
ceive the appeal and review their proceedings ; Leo main-
tained it. The fifth canon of the council of Nice con-
demned the usurpation of Leo. Hilary went to Rome to
protest against it. Leo arrested and confined him there,
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 317
and appointed a day for reviewing the case. Hilary es-
caped from confinement and fled to Aries. Leo, enraged
at his contumacy, reexamined the case, and, against noto-
rious facts, declared Celidonius innocent, and restored
him to his office as bishop. Nor did he stop here : he
excommunicated Hilary, deprived him of all jurisdiction,
suspended his episcopal functions, and abolished the
dignity of exarch, formerly conferred on the see of Aries.
Even this did not suffice : he wrote to the Gallic bishops
a slanderous letter designed to blast the character and
destroy the influence of Hilary. It was in this letter that
the doctrine of the divine supremacy of Peter and his
successors was first fully developed. His next step was to
enlist the imperial power on his side. The weak Valen-
tinian was by him deluded, misinformed, and thus led to
confirm by an imperial edict all of his arrogant claims,
and to state, in notorious contravention of facts, that the
Bishop of Rome had always exercised the powers claimed
by Leo. This edict occurs in Leo's works, and no doubt
came from his pen. There is nothing in the forged de-
cretals of a later age more thoroughly unprincipled than
this conduct of Leo. Hilary never yielded to him, but
died under his ban ; yet he continued to exercise all the
functions of his office as before, respected by all who
knew him as one of the most eminent Christians of the
age. The Romish church, too, has refuted the slanders
of Leo by canonizing him ; and even Leo, after the death
of Hilary, was inconsistent enough to call him " Hilary
of holy memory." Such was Leo the great ; such was
the manner in which he toiled to lay the broad founda-
tions of the Papal power. Since the Romish church has
canonized Hilary, the Romanists are greatly perplexed to
know what to say of the conduct of Leo. One author of
the Life of Hilary omits his excommunication. Certainly,
27*
318 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
if Hilary was a saint, Leo was not ; yet both have been
canonized. Hilary, perhaps, deserved the honor. On the
other hand, the conduct of Leo was too profitable to
Rome to pass without reward. It aided to lay the
broad basis of all her powers. Therefore she has canon-
ized him also. So, then, both Leo, who excommunicated
Hilary, and Hilary, who died under his anathema, were
both eminent saints. Consistent Rome !
The same traits of character were displayed by Leo in
his obstinate resistance of the twenty-eighth canon of the
council of Chalcedon. In this, as we have already stated,
was distinctly advanced the doctrine, that the power of
the Bishop of Rome as well as of Constantinople was
solely of political origin. Of the dangerous tendency of
this doctrine Leo was too well aware, and resisted it with
implacable hostility ; yet it was impossible with any
show of historical truth to resist the canon. Leo there-
fore supplied his lack of argument by imperious obstinacy
and falsehood. But the canon of the council remains to
this day, an unanswerable proof of the real origin of that
great central despotism which at last claimed by divine
right the supremacy of the whole Christian world. That
large ecumenical council of six hundred bishops expressly
say, " Since the fathers, properly conceded eminent pre-
rogatives to the episcopal throne of old Rome, because of
the political supremacy of that city, (<5t TO paodeieiv mv n6hy
^<-/'V',) the divinely beloved fathers of the council of
Constantinople, acting on the same principle, assigned
equal prerogatives to the episcopal throne of New Rome ;
thinking it suitable that a city honored by imperial au-
thority and a senate, and enjoying equal political preroga-
tives with Old-Rome, should possess an equal preeminence
with her in ecclesiastical authority." The only differ-
ence admitted by the council between the two sees was
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 319
not one of authority, but of honorary precedence, which
was naturally assigned to the see of the oldest of the two
cities. This, it is plain, is a doctrine totally subversive
of the theory of Leo, that the supremacy of the Bishop of
Rome is derived from the divine appointment of Peter to
be the head of the church universal. But this is not all.
The see of Constantinople was, by the council of Chal-
cedon, invested with the right of receiving appeals from
all other ecclesiastical tribunals whatever. This power,
at least in words, was granted without any limitation.
And even if, with Bower, we think that it had in reality
reference to the Eastern church alone, yet it is plain be-
yond a doubt that the council decided that the Bishop of
Constantinople was entirely independent of the see of
Rome. Still further : the universality of their language
gave to the Bishop of Constantinople better ground to as-
sume the title of universal bishop, and head of all the
churches, and primate of the Christian world than the
Bishop of Rome ever had. And when the Western Empire
fell he did in fact put forth such claims, greatly to the ter-
ror of Gregory the Great, who felt that his own throne was
tottering to its fall. When, now, we consider the notorious
fact that all churches were at first independent and equal,
we shall see how immense was the chasm to be bridged over
before the church of Rome could arrive at universal mon-
archy by divine right over all the churches of the earth.
We also see that intrepid forgery and lying were the only
materials out of which the necessary bridge could be con-
structed. The greatness, then, which is involved in found-
ing the Romish power is of necessity based upon such ele-
ments ; and for such greatness Leo, Nicholas L, Gregory
VII., and Innocent III. were eminently distinguished.
Leo could not resist the twenty-eighth canon of the
council of Chalcedon except by forgery ; and accordingly
320 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
he forged, or caused to be forged, an addition to the canons
of the council of Nice. The legates of Leo produced in
the council of Chalcedon a Latin translation of the sixth
canon, in which the see of Rome was said always to have
enjoyed the primacy. But the whole council regarded
the addition as a forged interpolation ; and plainly they
were right. It is inconsistent with the context, and has
been since omitted in the best Latin translations of the
canons. That Leo could retain any character or influence
after such an infamous fraud, throws a striking light on
the morality of the age. The leprosy of religious lying
had so corrupted the nominally Christian community that
to be exposed in it seemed to injure no man's character,
standing, or influence. Well has inspiration given as one
tra'it of the great apostasy, " Speaking lies in hypocrisy."
Leo, after the council of Chalcedon, did not hesitate to
profess a sacred regard to the council of Nice, and to
oppose the obnoxious Chalcedonian decree by an appeal to
his own forged addition to the decrees of Nice. And yet
such was his personal influence and power that he was
feared alike by the Eastern and Western emperors and
by all the civilians and ecclesiastics of the age.
In thus professing a supreme regard to the canons of
Nice he was guilty of a gross inconsistency ; for the fifth
of these canons ordered all appeals to be finally decided
by the bishops of each province. Yet he excommunicated
Hilary for adhering to this very canon and claiming final
authority in the case of Celidonius against the imperious
claims of the usurping Bishop of Rome. Again we say,
What can be conceived of more unprincipled than the
conduct of Leo ? Yet for this very conduct Rome has
ever regarded him as Leo the Great. And well may she,
so long as she retains her arrogant claims ; for they aro
founded on nothing: else.
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 321
In the transactions which have passed under review we
see the germs of some of the greatest developments of
subsequent ages. In Leo I. we see the model of Nich-
olas I., Hildebrand, and Innocent III. ; in his contest
with Hilary, a preparation for the great controversy as to
the Gallic liberties which nearly lost France to the Rom-
ish church ; in his warfare with the see of Constantinople,
the forerunner of the great Greek schism. Any one could
easily have foreseen that Constantinople, the great rival
of Old Rome, would sooner consent to lie under her
anathema than tamely submit to her power.
3. From acts so discreditable to Leo we gladly turn to
consider his influence on the doctrines of the church ; for
here we can find, results of his intellectual powers in
which orthodox divines, both Romish and Protestant,
concur to this day. We refer to his discussion of the
great doctrine of THE UNION OP THE TWO NATURES OP
CHRIST IN ONE PERSON. After what has been said of his
unprincipled policy in extending the power of the see of
Rome, it is perhaps little to the credit of the orthodox
doctrine of the person of Christ that he should be found
to be its great champion, and to have done more than any
one person of antiquity in giving it the form in which it
is now held. But truth does not cease to be truth even
if advocated by an unworthy defender.
The chief work of Leo upon this momentous theme is
his letter to Flavianus, Bishop of Constantinople. The
circumstances that called it forth were these : Eutyches,
reacting from the reputed error of Nestorius, had main-
tained that the divine and human natures after their
union in Christ became OXE NATURE. For this he was
condemned and deposed by a provincial council at Con-
stantinople under Flavianus, bishop of that see. Eutyches
appealed from the decision to an ecumenical council.
322 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
He addressed his appeal in particular to the Bishops of
Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Thessalonica. It was
in answer to this appeal and in prospect of this council that
Leo wrote his celebrated letter to Flavianus in opposition
to Eutyches, in which he developed the true doctrine.
This letter was afterwards received as canonical by the
council of Chalcedon and by all the orthodox bishops.
It was, says Bower, in the "Western churches read during
the advent with the Gospels. The council of Rome
anathematized all who should reject even a word of it.
Gregory the Great made it the standard of orthodoxy on
that point. The council of Apamea styled it " the true
column of the orthodox faith ; " and some even caused it
to be read to them at the point of death, in proof that
they died in the true faith of the church. Such have been
the fame and the power of this letter ; yet it was not at
first received without opposition so violent as to require
all the influence and energy of Leo to defend it.
4. Our attention is next naturally called to the influence
exerted by Leo on the great question of the use of force
and the infliction of civil pains and penalties in the sup-
pression of error. If any who were called at the origin
of this question to investigate it, and to give form to the
doctrine of the church on the subject, could have had a
prophetic vision of such scenes as the massacre of St.
Bartholomew, celebrated by the Te Deums at Rome, or of
the dungeons, stakes, and autos dafe of the Inquisition,
had they at all weighed the import of that fearful symbol,
a harlot drunk with blood, with what fearful solicitude
would they have entered upon the investigation ! But it
was destined that early generations should sow the seeds
of the system of religious persecution, and future ages
reap the harvest of blood. To Leo the bad preeminence
does not belong of having originated the system of per-
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 323
sccution for opinion's sake. But it must be said of him
that he strengthened it when it was relatively weak and
sanctioned it by his great influence, when, if he had re-
sisted it with all his power, he might have destroyed it
forever.
The idea of inflicting civil pains and penalties for opin-
ions sprang naturally out of the alliance between church
and state. In the early ages of Christianity it was ut-
terly repudiated. One form of subsequent intolerance
was so plausible that it caused little apprehension ; it
was the suppression of paganism by law, the destruction
of heathen temples and implements of idolatry, the con-
fiscation of property consecrated to such uses, and fines
on the use of frankincense and libations. These things
were done in the reigns of Gratian and Theodosius.
Constantine and his immediate successors were tolerant
towards the pagans. The edict of Milan indicates 'the
original views of Constantine. It was a charter of re-
ligious liberty to all. The spirit of persecution arose
under the influence of THE HIERARCHY. Penal laws
against heresy among Christians preceded the persecu-
tions of pagans. Constantine issued two such laws, The-
odosius fifteen, Arcadius twelve, Honorius eighteen. The
Arians, Donatists, Pelagians, Manicheans, Priscillianists,
and Paulicians were among the more prominent perse-
cuted heretical sects. The Arians in their turn, when in
the ascendant, retaliated on the orthodox. But the Ro-
man laws did not punish heresy by death. Banishment,
fine, confiscation of goods, infamy, disqualification to buy
or sell, exclusion from civil and military honor were the
common penalties. According to Mosheim, however,
some of the Donatists were put to death A. D. 316,
the indignation of Constantine being aroused by their
disregard of his decision against them, pronounced after
324 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
a personal investigation their case having been previ-
ously investigated by two councils summoned by his au-
thority, and they having been twice before condemned.
Of this infliction, however, other historians say nothing ;
and Gieseler expressly says that the first instance of the
judicial execution of a heretic was in the case of Priscil-
lian, A. D. 385, who was, with others of his followers,
tried and executed by the usurper Maximus, at the insti-
gation of the Bishops Idacius and Ithacius. Hagenbach
also says that the Priscillianists were the first heretics
persecuted by the sword.
It is worthy of note that this proceeding at that time
met with general reprobation. In particular, Martin of
Tours and Ambrose of Milan loudly condemned it ; and
the instigators of the deed were finally expelled from
their bishoprics.
Such was the state of the Christian world on the sub-
ject of persecution when Leo was called to meet the ques-
tion, by the flight of large numbers of the Manichees to
Rome from Carthage and the provinces which the Van-
dals under Genseric had Overrun. A letter from Turri-
bius, Bishop of Astorga, called his attention to the revi-
val and spread of the heresy of Priscillian in Spain.
Leo had now a glorious opportunity to set forth the true
principles of religious liberty and to rectify the errors
of preceding years. There was, it is plain, deep feeling
in the church against punishing heretics by death, and
the guilt and folly of all civil pains and penalties for er-
roneous opinions could have been clearly shown. The
authority of the earlier fathers could have been easily
adduced against them. Tertullian had said, " Religion
does not compel religion ; " Origen, " Christians should
not use the sword ; " Lactantius, " Coercion and injury
are unnecessary ; for religion cannot be forced. Barbar-
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 325
ity and piety greatly differ from each other : nor can
truth be conjoined with violence, or justice with cruelty.
Religion is to be defended, not by killing, but by dying ;
not by inhumanity, but by patience." Cyprian had as-
cribed to Christ alone the right to punish for opinions.
Had Leo fallen back upon such authorities, and employed
his great abilities in defence of religious liberty, how glo-
rious had been his reward ! He could have turned back
the Christian world to the true and lofty ground on
which they once stood and averted the infamy of future
ages. But how could a prelate, whose great object was
to exalt the authority of his own see above that of all
others, appreciate the dignity and glory of such an enter-
prise? Power, centralization, rule were his great ideas ;
to subjugate the human mind to ecclesiastical authority,
not to give it liberty, was his great aim. His conduct
may be inferred from these principles. It may be also
inferred from the fact that in later times Maimbourg ap-
peals to the writings of Leo to prove that heresy is a
capital crime and may be justly punished with death.
Leo, then, is one of the main fountain heads from which
has issued that river of blood which in after ages deluged
the world. How little could he comprehend the influence
on after ages of a few words written by him in defence of
the system of religious persecution !
It is true that in the case of the Manichees he did not
resort to capital punishment ; nay, he says that it was
repugnant to the spirit of the church, and to that lenity
in which she places her chief glory, abhorring to shed the
blood even of the most detestable heretics. But the
church of Rome has in all ages made the same profession.
She has never shed the blood of heretics not she ! The
true test is this : Has she ev.er justified the civil magistrate
in shedding it ? Has she ever enjoined it upon him so to
os
326 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
do ? So, in this case, the true test to be applied to Leo
is this : How did he regard the execution of Priscillian
and others by Maximus ? Did he justify and defend it ?
Or did he, like Martin of Tours, reprobate and abhor it?
To answer these questions, we only need to read his letter
to Turribius, who had implored his assistance against the
Priscillianists. In this he condemns their doctrines as im-
pious and detestable ; declares that all who tolerate here-
sies are no less guilty than those who embrace them ; and
justifies the execution of Priscillian and some of his dis-
ciples by Maximus. This is the letter to which Maim-
bourg appeals to prove that heresy may justly be punished
by death.
But, even where Leo did not resort to the penalty of
death, he used every other form of persecution with the
utmost severity. He stirred up Valentinian to pass a
law confirming all the persecuting edicts of his predeces-
sors against the Manichees. Banishment, confiscation,
exclusion from civil and military employments and hon-
ors, incapacity to give or receive by will, to sue at law or
make a contract, and compelling the whole community to
act as irresponsible informers against them, these were
the penalties attached to these laws ; and these Leo did not
deem inconsistent with that lenity of the church in which
she places her chief glory.
Some have, indeed, attempted to defend the execution of
Priscillian on the ground of the immoralities of which he
was guilty and to which his system tended ; but, when
we call to mind that the Romish party defend the mur-
der of the Albigenses and Waldenses on the same ground,
we ought to be suspicious of such a defence. The opin-
ions of Priscillian were, indeed, grossly erroneous as they
are now set forth. Neander says of them, that, " so far as
we can gain any knowledge of them from the meagre
THE EOCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 327
accounts of their adversaries, Dualism and the emanation
theory were combined together in them elements relat-
ed to Gnosticism and Manicheism. Their moral system,
as their doctrine required, was rigidly ascetic. It enjoined
austerities of all sorts, and in particular celibacy. The
charges laid against them of dissolute conduct are, to say
the least, not sufficiently well authenticated." Maximus,
indeed, alleged that Priscillian confessed his crimes ; but
Neander distrusts the confession if made, as probably in-
voluntary and extorted by the rack. It should also be
borne in mind that, after heretics have been executed,
there is a uniform tendency in their persecutors to defend
tftemselves by bearing false witness against their victims.
Indeed it is always easy to change heretical contumacy
into the crime of rebellion against the civil powers.
It is, however, but fair to Leo to say that his is not the
only great name of that age to whom the advocates of
persecution may appeal for support. On a name far greater
than his own the same opprobrium rests even that of Au-
gustine, Bishop .of Hippo. He was originally tolerant in
his views ; but becoming, as it would seem, impatient in con-
sequence of the perversity of the Manichees and Donatists,
he was led to advocate and defend the use of force. " It
was by Augustine," says Neander, " that the theory was
proposed and founded which contained the germs of that
whole system of spiritual despotism, of intolerance, and
persecution which ended in the tribunals of the Inqui-
sition." By this it cannot be meant that the practice of
persecution had not begun before Augustine, but that he
first devised those sophistical arguments which in after
ages were used in its defence. He did not defend it on
the ground that force in itself tends to produce direct con-
vie. ion of truth, but that by suffering the mind may be so
affected that it shall at last seek to know the truth. This
328 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
he illustrated by a reference to the discipline of the prov-
idence of God and of a father ia his family. He seemed
not to notice that such discipline is not for error, but for
sin, and that it involves no sense of violated rights ; whereas
all efforts to convince by force do involve a sense of in-
justice and tend to reaction. But wretched as this sophis-
try is, falling in as it did with the tendencies of the age,
it passed for argument. But sophistry much less subtle
was resorted to by Leo in defence of the system of perse-
cution to which he stood committed. In his letter to Tur-
ribius he says, with reference to the execution of Priscillian,
" Such a use of the sword has been advantageous to the
exercise of the lenity of the church, who, although content
to give ecclesiastical decisions and averse .to shed blood,
is nevertheless aided by the severe laws of Christian
princes ; since those who fear bodily punishment will be
more readily disposed to seek spiritual salvation." One
might almost suppose that these were the words of some
gentle inquisitor of modern days whose tender heart re-
volts from shedding blood, but is intent on saving the souls
of his victims by the terrors of dungeons, the rack, the
scaffold, and the fires of an auto dafe.
5. We now come to consider the fifth and last class of
the acts of Leo namely, those relating to the sacraments
and discipline of the church.
These topics, it must be conceded, much occupied his
thoughts, and occur very frequently in his letters. And
yet he accomplished little in these particulars that left a
bold and definite impress on future ages. Indeed some
of his decisions have since been reversed and branded as
heretical by the church of Rome. This is particularly
true of his decision on the effects of the baptism of here-
tics. The present doctrine of the Romish church is, that
such baptism is not devoid of saving power, but remits sin,
THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 329
confers grace, and sanctifies as really as the baptism of the
church. But Leo decided that those baptized by heretics
received nothing but the external form of baptism, and
still need an imposition of hands, and an invocation of
the Holy Ghost by the church, in order to receive the in-
ward power and sanctification of baptism.
The celibacy of the clergy, one great pillar of the Papal
edifice, Leo found already enjoined by a decree of his
predecessor, Siricius, A. D. 385. He merely extended the
prohibition to subdeacons, who had before been exempt
from the law. Here, too, Leo failed to exert his power
to check the progress of the Gnostic and ascetic apostasy.
This pernicious interdiction of marriage to the clergy
was totally unknown in the first three centurie^s. In the
fourth, Jerome tells us that the married clergy were pre-
ferred to the unmarried by the majority of the community.
In the celebrated council of Nice, A. D. 325, it was pro-
posed to enjoin continence on the clergy who were already
married ; but Paphnutius, one of the most eminent prelates
of the time, himself unmarried, vindicated the purity of
the marriage state, and protested against imposing on the
clergy burdens that they could not bear. The council,
influenced by him, refused to enact the canon proposed.
Still Paphnutius was in favor of celibacy in the clergy
not already married. Sixty years after this, the decree
of Siricius was promulgated, enjoining celibacy on the
clergy, and soon after it was enjoined by councils in Af-
rica, Gaul, Spain, and Germany. This resulted so directly
from the spirit of the great Gnostic apostasy then coming
to its crisis that Leo might have utterly failed if he had
opposed it. But it would have been glorious even to fail
in such an attempt. But nothing of the kind could be
rationally expected from him ; nothing of the kind was
attempted by him. He sanctioned a practice which has
28*
330 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
in all ages made the Romish church, literally as well as
spiritually, " the mother of harlots and of abominations
of the earth." The evils of the system did indeed at
length lead to a reaction towards the marriage of the cler-
gy, as we have stated. But Gregory VII. resisted this,
and confirmed the present pernicious system.
CHAPTER VI.
PERIOD OF GREGORY VII., THE PATRON SAINT OF THE
ROMISH BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES.
"WE have called the period from the eleventh to the
sixteenth century the Papal period. It is eminently
such. It discloses the theory and practice of Popery
in their perfection.
It may with no less propriety be called the period of
Gregory VIL, for he was the great master builder who
combined the forgeries and frauds of all preceding ages,
augmented by so'me of his own, into the model of that
gigantic ecclesiastical despotism that during four centu-
ries reigned sole monarch of Christendom.
It becomes us, as Americans, to feel a peculiar interest
in this period. The bishops of the Romish church who
reside in these United States have seen fit to introduce
into this free land the festival of that pontiff by whom
this system of centralized despotism was founded and by
whose principles it was established. He is therefore, in
a peculiar sense, their patron saint.
It is well that they have taken this ground. They are
parts of the great central corporation. Each of them is
bound to the pope by a feudal oath of which Gregory was
the author. These men know its import and to what
principles it commits them. They also know that his
canonization implies a full sanction of these principles.
(331)
332 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Is it not well, then, for Americans to understand what
they are ?
We have seen what materials Leo I. and Nicholas I.,
with their fellow-laborers in the same cause, had pre-
pared. At the accession of Gregory VII. the time to use
them had fully come.
Two things were to be effected. The bishops were to
be detached from all earthly sovereigns, and as subjugated
vassals to be bound to the pope as their supreme lord by
feudal oaths. The bishops also, and especially the pope,
their head, were to be emancipated from subjection to the
Emperor of Germany and other civil rulers, and made an
independent spiritual power. Nor was this all. The
kings of Europe were to be subjected to him as his sub-
jects and vassals. To carry out the last part of this great
scheme Gregory needed forgeries of his own for which,
as we shall see, he was never at a loss. Let us now con-
sider the execution of his plan.
GREGORY ASSAILS HENRY IV.
The imperial power had passed from the Frankish to
the German emperors. The popes had risen from the
degradation into which they fell for a time after the Pa-
pacy of Nicholas I. The sceptre of the German empire
was not swayed by an emperor of undisputed and resist-
less authority like Otho the Great. On the other hand,
Henry IV., a youth, was enfeebled by a rebellion among
his Saxon subjects. There was also, to a considerable
extent, a disposition among the barons of the empire to
take sides with the pope against Henry, at least until they
had reduced the power and prerogatives of the emperor.
There is no reason to doubt that there were ju?t causes of
PERIOD OF GREGORY VII. 333
complaint against Henry ; but it was not a regard to
them, but a purpose to emancipate the Romish church
from the imperial power and to establish a theocracy
over kings, that impelled Gregory in his usurping career.
It was a right of the emperor to invest the Romish
bishops in the empire with the insignia of spiritual and
temporal authority, receiving from them at the same time
an acknowledgment of his sovereignty and promises of
allegiance. Gregory determined to wrest the whole of
this authority from the emperor and to vest it in himself.
He attacked him almost immediately after he had ascended
the imperial throne and when weakened by the revolt of
the Saxons. Alleging that the power of the emperors had
been abused by the sale of bishoprics and otherwise, he
commanded Henry to relinquish his prerogatives to the
pope. Henry of course refused to comply with the inso-
lent demand. Hereupon the pope summoned Henry to
appear before him to answer to charges to be preferred
against him. Henry, enraged at such usurping insolence,
summoned a council at Worms and deposed Gregory and
appointed a successor. Gregory then, in a council at
Rome, deposed the emperor, and by authority received as
he alleged from Peter, released his subjects from their al-
legiance and forbade them to obey him. Thus was opened
a new era in the history of the Papacy and of the world.
In this act of deposition no reference at all was made
to any complaints of the subjects of Henry against him.
The only crime for which he was deposed was rebellion
against St. Peter in the person of Gregory.
This was the first act in a campaign of centuries. It
inaugurated a new theocracy on earth. It disclosed a
plan to make all kings but the humble vassals of the holy
see of Rome.
Had there been no civil war and no hostility to Henry
THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
the deposition would have been powerless. As it was, it
raised against him a powerful party, who determined to
regard him as deposed and to appoint a successor unless
Henry would submit to the pope and obtain absolution.
And now the imperial majesty was degraded indeed.
Urged by the danger of losing his crown, in midwinter,
and at the expense of much toil and suffering, Henry
crossed the Alps into Italy, and at the fortress of Canossa
humbled himself before the pope and sought absolution.
Gregory determined to use his power to degrade him to
the uttermost. Three days he refused to see him, and
kept him standing in the cold air imprisoned between the
outer and inner walls of the castle, barefooted and in the
garb of a penitent. Nor would he at last give the uncon-
ditional absolution that Henry Demanded. He restored
him to communion, but forbade him to reign until he had
been tried before himself in a German council that was at
hand.
A large party of the Italian subjects of Henry, indig-
nant at the insolence and usurpation of the pope, rallied
around him ; and, thus encouraged, he refused to go to the
council, and again defied the pope. Hereupon a succes-
sor, Rodolph, Duke of Swabia, was appointed in Germany,
to whom Gregory gave the crown, and from whom he re-
ceived a feudal oath, as his vassal.
Henry, however, defeated and slew Rodolph, and at
last banished Gregory from Rome, established another
pope as his successor, and from him received the im-
perial crown.
GREGORY'S PRINCIPLES TRIUMPH.
Gregory died in exile at Salerno ; but his successors
inherited his spirit and principles and carried 011 the war
PERIOD OP GREGORY VII. 335
which he had begun, and at the end of a century had
gained the victory. In the days of Innocent III., to use
the words of Hallam, " The maxims of Gregory VII. had
been matured by more than a hundred years, and the right
of trampling upon the necks of kings had been received,
at least among churchmen, as an inherent attribute of the
Papacy. ' As the sun and the moon are placed in the
firmament,' (such is the language of Innocent,) ' the greater
as the light of the day and the lesser of the night : thus
are there two powers in the church the pontifical, which,
as having the charge of souls, is the greater ; and the royal,
which is the less, and to which the bodies of men only are
intrusted.' Intoxicated with these conceptions, (if we may
apply such a word to successful ambition,) he thought no
quarrel of princes beyond the sphere of his jurisdiction."
In another place he says, " The noonday of Papal dominion
extends from the pontificate of Innocent III. inclusively
to that of Boniface VIII. ; or, in other words, through the
thirteenth century. Rome inspired during all this age
the terrors of her ancient name. She was once more the
distress of the world, and kings were her vassals."
THE CANON LAW.
Then was fully developed the canon law, based on the
forged decretals, but rising even above them in extrava-
gance of claims. The decretals of Gregory and of other
pontiffs after him, especially of Innocent III., form a large
portion of its substance. To exalt the Papacy above all
earthly power is its great aim. It expressly declares that
" the pope does not fill the place of a mere man, but of
the true God on earth." It declares his divine right to de-
pose monarchs and to absolve subjects from their oaths of
^336 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
allegiance. In short, it ascribes to him all the rights and
prerogatives of God, and some which he does not claim.
God never claimed superiority to the laws of right or the
power to dispense with them. It was reserved for the
Pope of Rome to make this claim. Thus has he exalted
himself above all that is called God or worshipped ; thus
has he, as God, sat in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God.
THE BISHOP'S OATH.
Of the Papal supremacy over kings enough has been
said. The subjugation and centralization of the bishops
were no less complete. By the law of celibacy they were
detached from all local interests and ties ; and, to complete
the work, the regulation, that no bishop should exercise his
functions until confirmed by the pope, resulted in binding
them all to him by a feudal oath as his conquered vassals.
Of this regulation Hallam says, "It was one of vast impor-
tance, through which, beyond, perhaps, any other means.
Rome has sustained, and still sustains, her temporal influ-
ence as well as her ecclesiastical supremacy." Such is the
origin and such the influence of the odious, humiliating,
and disgraceful bishop's oath. No rightminded man can
regard without pity the degeneracy of the miserable men
who take it.
When we consider how gross the forgeries on which the
Papal supremacy of jurisdiction is based, how directly and
expressly it is in violation of the laws of Christ, and at
war with the just liberty, equality, and independence en-
joyed by the pastors of churches in the early ages, it will
at once become apparent how utterly degraded is the
position of all Romish bishops and how infamous the oath
by which they are bound. That oath is as follows :
PERIOD OP GREGORY VII. 337
" I, N., elect of the Church of N., from henceforward
be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the apostle, and
to the holy Roman church, and to our lord the Lord N.,
Pope N., and to his successors canonically coining in. I
will neither advise, consent, or do any thing that may
lose life or member, or that their persons may be seized
or hands any wise laid upon them, or any injuries offered to
them under any pretence whatsoever. The counsel which
they shall intrust me withal, by themselves, their messen-
gers, or letters, I will not knowingly reveal to any to their
prejudice. I will help them to defend and keep the Roman
Papacy and the royalties of St. Peter, saving my order,
against all men. The legate of the apostolic see, going
and coming, I will honorably treat and help in his necessi-
ties. The rights, honors, privileges, and authority of the
holy Roman church, of our lord the pope, and his foresaid
successors, I will endeavor to preserve, defend, increase,
and advance. I will not be in any counsel, action, or
treaty in which shall be plotted against our said lord and
the said Roman church any thing to the hurt or prejudice
of their persons, right, honor, state, or power ; and, if I
shall know any such thing to be treated or agitated by any
whatsoever, I will hinder it to my power, 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. Here-
tics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord or his fore-
said successors I will to my utmost power persecute and
wage war with. I will come to a council when I am
called unless I be hindered by a canonical impediment.
I will by myself, in person, visit the threshold of the
apostles every three years, and give an account to our
lord and his foresaid successors of all my pastoral office,
and of all things any wise belonging to the state of my
church, to the discipline of my clergy and people, and
lastly to the salvation of souls committed to my trust,
and will in like manner humbly receive and diligently
execute the apostolic commands. And, if I be detained by
a lawful impediment, I will perform all the things afore-
29
838 TEE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSES.
said by a certain messenger hereto specially empowered,
a member of my chapter, or some other in ecclesiastical
dignity or else having a parsonage ; or, in default of these,
by a priest of the diocese ; or, in default of one of the
clergy (of the diocese,) by some other secular or regular
priest of approved integrity and religion, fully instructed
in all things above mentioned. And such impediment I
will make out by lawful proofs to be transmitted by the
foresaid messenger to the cardinal proponent of the holy
Roman church in the congregation of the Sacred Council.
The possessions belonging to my table I will neither sell,
nor give away, nor mortgage, nor grant anew in fee, nor
any wise alienate, no, not even with the consent of the
chapter of my church, without consulting the Roman
pontiff. And, if I shall make any alienation, I will there-
by incur the penalties contained in a certain constitution put
forth about this matter. So help me God and those holy
Gospels of God."
The real nature and origin of this oath cannot be hid-
den for a moment. It regards the pope as a feudal mon-
arch, and makes every bishop his sworn vassal obliged
to come at his call, keep his secrets, defend his interests,
assail, and if possible destroy, his enemies the heretics,
and in all things be an obedient slave to his will.
Let the origin of this oath, then, never be forgotten. Let
the principles and practice of the age of Gregory VII., In-
nocent III., and Boniface VIII. be recalled and reviewed as
set forth in the first part of this work. Let the import of
" the royalties of St. Peter," and " the rights, honors, priv-
ileges, and authority of the holy Roman church of our
lord the pope and his foresaid successors" be interpreted
in the light of the principles and practice of the age in
which the oath originated. All these the Romish bishops
who reside in America are sworn to " preserve, defend, in-
crease, and advance." Consider what is implied in " the
APOSTOLIC DECREES, ordinances, or disposals, reservations,
PERIOD OP GREGORY VII. 339
provisions, or mandates." Does not this include the canon
law, in which the temporal supremacy of the pope is car-
ried to the highest point ? Does it not include the depos-
ing power, the absolution from oaths, perfidy to heretics,
the persecution of heretics, and other similar doctrines of
the canon law ? But why ask this question as to the per-
secution of heretics ? Does not the oath expressly demand
the promise " to persecute and wage war with heretics,
schismatics, and rebels to our said lord the pope to their
utmost power " ? It is in vain to try to evade the import
of this part of the oath, as does Bishop Kenrick, by say-
ing that it denotes merely moral warfare by the truth.
This is an evasion worthy only of a Jesuit. Was the
duty of bishops towards heretics so understood in the age
of Gregory, when the oath first originated ? Is it so un-
derstood in the canon law which the bishop has sworn to
observe ?
Let it be noticed that this oath binds by its own force to
obey the pope's decrees independently of a general council.
It is an oath that in reality represents the views of THE
ITALIAN PARTY ; that is, of the highest advocates of the
Papal power. It is an oath framed by the head of the
Roman court. Call to mind, now, the 'expressions of hatred,
abhorrence, and utter detestation with which the popes even
at this very time speak of the principles of religious liberty
on which this nation is founded, and their steadfast purpose
to oppose to their progress an iron will, and the conclusion
is plain : either the bishops who take the oath are perjured,
or else they do and will, to their utmost energy, cooperate
with the pope to subvert our civil and religious liberty,
and in place of them to establish the intolerant, persecut-
ing, and bloody despotism of the pope. But perjury to
himself the pope never allows. In his own behalf he
sanctions and enjoins it ; but against himself it is an unpar-
donable sin.
340 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Such, then, are the institutions of the canonized Gregory,
whom our American bishops honor as a saint. We com-
mend them to the careful consideration of American free-
men.
It was by the same Gregory also, although before his
Papacy, that the present mode of electing the popes by
cardinals was introduced. This was another important
step in the work of securing the independency of the
Papacy of all secular power, and it has contributed greatly
to the strength and perpetuity of the whole Papal system.
GREGORY'S IMPOSTURES.
We have said that Gregory resorted to forgery and
fraud in carrying out his purpose of making the monarchs
of Europe his vassals. Of this we find a striking case in
a pretended quotation of his from what he asserts to be a
statute of the Emperor Charlemagne, declaring that France,
as a feudatory of the holy see, was bound to pay an annual
tribute called Peter's pence. He declared that this tribute
was, by order of Charlemagne, collected yearly at Puy, in
Velai, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and at St. Giles. This statute
was lodged, as he says, in the archives of St. Peter's Church.
This absurd pretence was in substance a second and
revised edition of the old forgery of the donation of Con-
stantine. Yet he insisted upon the tribute upon this
ground.
So he set up a claim that Spain originally belonged to
Peter, and on this ground authorized Count Euvulus to
conquer those parts of it occupied by the Moors in his
name, and to hold them as a feudatory and tributary of
St. Peter. He demanded tribute also of all the Christian
kings of Spain on the same ground.
PERIOD OP GREGORY VII. 341
He claimed Hungary from King Solomon as a gift to
Peter from Stephen, the first Christian king. Solomon re-
sisted the demand on the ground of allegiance to the em-
peror, but was driven from the throne by his cousin Geisa ;
and on him Gregory conferred the kingdom on condition
that he would be his vassal, and not that of the emperor.
In like manner he laid claim to Corsica, Sardinia, Dalma-
tia, Russia, Denmark, Poland, Saxony, and England, as fiefs
of the apostle Peter. In Italy the Normans, masters
of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, the Dukes of Benevento,
Capua, and Aversa, and other princes, swore allegiance
to Gregory, lest if they did not he should stir up other
monarchs to invade them. A more barefaced system of
imposition, fraud, and villany was never practised ; and
yet it is only a consistent extension of the principles of
the forged decretals. All of these proceedings were car-
ried on by Gregory in a style of eminent Papal sanctity
and authority. The details may be found in his letters and
in Bower's Lives of the Popes. On these proceedings
Hallam remarks, " It was convenient to treat this apostle
as a great feudal suzerain; and the legal principles of that
age were dexterously applied to rivet more forcibly the
fetters of superstition."
Such is the morality of St. Gregory VII., the patron
saint of the Bishops of Rome who sojourn in these United
States. But in all this he has but followed sainted popes
of other ages. All the great architects of the Romish
Babylon have been men of a kindred character. Bold,
energetic, aspiring, intelligent, in ages of darkness they
have, on principle and without scruple, resorted to the
use of forgery and fraud to establish their usurped author-
ity over a subjugated world.
29*
CHAPTER VII.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VIL
WE have traced the formation of the Romish corpora-
tion to the time of its maturity and full development.
' Let us now consider some of the characteristics of the
age when it developed itself without impediment.
First of all it follows from the necessity of the case
that it must have been eminently a period of credulity.
It was, of necessity, entirely devoid of the critical and
historic spirit. To a great extent all men lived in an
unnatural, mythical, dreamy world ; this was the inevita-
ble result of that training to which the barbarous nations
had been long subjected by means of that widespread sys-
tem of pious fraud which has been described and the false
system in which it resulted. The whole energy of the ec-
clesiastics of "Western Europe was put forth to develop
and cultivate habits of credulity as the basis of hierarchal
power. The whole European mind was thus immersed
into a lake of credulity, until it was thereby steeped and
impregnated in all its faculties, and, even in its very es-
sence, with credulity. Such were the ages sometimes mis-
called the ages of faith.
The consequence of this was, that the system introduced
and established operated with immense, with inconceivable,
power. Bungling as were the forged decretals, the dona-
tion of Constantine, and other similar forgeries, yet, being
(312)
DISPENSATION OF GREGORY TIL 843
fully believed, they exercised an equal power with the
word of God.
Nor is the existence of the scholastic divinity inconsist-
ent with this statement. That was, no doubt, a powerful
development of systematizing and of logic ; but the prem-
ises were furnished by the hierarchy, and were to be
received without dispute, on peril of anathemas and ex-
communications. History and intelligent criticism had
no place in their studies. Hence they did not detect or
expose the forged decretals nor any of the frauds of other
ages. They ground in the great mill of the Papacy like
blinded Samson in the mill of the Philistines. Nay, more :
they forged new shackles for humanity by developing and
defending the peculiar doctrines of the Papacy, such as
transubstantiation, purgatory, and the seven sacraments.
It is a natural result from the preceding statements
that this was an age of profound superstition. The world
was darkened by false views of God and the unreal terrors
of the Papacy. The excess of terror produced in the
boldest minds by excommunication is to us inconceivable,
and an interdict was the climax of horrors. An interdict
was the suspension of all the ordinary offices of religion
throughout a whole province, or kingdom, commonly for
the sin of some ruler. It was designed by the pope to
subdue the refractory spirit of such ruler by the terrors
of his subjects. In the ages of the deepest credulity it
was as if the sun was turned into darkness and the moon
into blood as if the stars were falling from heaven and
all the powers of heaven were shaken. By it God was
eclipsed, heaven shut up, and hell opened. " The churches,"
says Hallam, " were closed, the bells silent, the dead un-
buried, no rite but those of baptism and extreme unction
performed. The penalty fell upon those who had neither
partaken nor could have prevented the offence ; and the
344 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
offence was often but a private dispute, in which the pride
of a pope or bishop had been wounded. They were issued
not unfrequently against kingdoms ; but in particular
districts they continually occurred." With regard to the
policy of Rome in issuing such interdicts Hallam justly
remarks, " No stretch of her tyranny was, perhaps, so out-
rageous as this."
The terrors of excommunication, though commonly not
so widespread, were equally vivid and overpowering.
The church not only excluded from communion, but with
all her power poured odium upon her victims. In the
words of Hallam, " They were to be shunned like men in-
fected with leprosy by their servants, their friends, and
their families. Two attendants only (if we may trust a
current history) remained with Robert, King of France,
who, on account of an irregular marriage, was put to this
ban by Gregory Y. ; and these threw all the meats that
had passed his table into the fire. Indeed the mere inter-
course with a proscribed person incurred what was called
the lesser excommunication, or privation of the sacraments,
and required penitence and absolution. In some places a
bier was set before the door of an excommunicated indi-
vidual and stones thrown at his windows a singular
method of compelling his submission ! Every where the
excommunicated were debarred of a regular sepulture,
which, though obviously a matter of police, has, through
the superstition of consecrating burial grounds, been
treated as belonging to ecclesiastical control."
In this age also there was an entire subversion of all
moral principle in the constant effort of the pope and his
corporation to exaggerate the guilt of heresy, that is, of
resistance to their decisions and their authority, and to
extirpate it by fire and sword. If any, repelled by the
gross immorality of the clergy, had recourse to the Bible
DISPENSATION OF GREGORY TIL 345
for a purer religion, it mattered not if they manifested
every element of the Christian character. It was in vain
that they were chaste, temperate, industrious, benevolent,
compassionate, intelligent, and in all respects pure in
heart and life : the one sin of heresy that is, resistance to
the pope outweighed it all. On the other hand, fraud,
perjury, lust, uncleanness, murder, violence, plunder were
all transmuted into virtues by the popes, and rewarded
with the pardon of sin and the promise of heaven if they
were but employed for the church in the extermination of
heretics. The whole history of the crusades against the
Albigenses, of which Innocent III. was the life and soul,
is full of illustrations of the truth of these remarks. Nor
was it enough to torture and murder the pure and the in-
nocent. Slander was added ; and those crimes of impurity
which rendered the Romish clergy justly infamous were
falsely imputed to their pure and innocent victims.
So utterly had the church thus perverted the moral sense
of the masses that they entered with rapturous joy on the
work of massacre if heretics were to be the objects of
assault. In these works of blood the popes were ever
the mainspring, and ecclesiastics their mcrst infuriated in-
struments. Moreover the whole bloody work was done
under the forms of religion, and massacres the most atro-
cious were celebrated by Te Deums.
During the Papacy of Innocent III. the Romish system
was at its highest point of development. He is the most
perfect imbodiment of the system. And yet it was he
who first fully and on a great scale incorporated into the
fundamental law and practice of the church the principles
of fraud, perjury, robbery, and murder in the extirpation
of heretics.
His crusades against the Albigenses cannot be thought
of to this day without a thrill of horror. Take but one
346 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. .
act out of that great drama of horrors. The army of
brutal and fanatical crusaders whom Innocent had stirred
up by indulgences and promises of heaven to the work of
blood poured like a torrent into the province of Langue-
doc, on the Gulf of Lyons. Here and in the adjacent
province of Provence were the chief abodes of the Albi-
genses. The crusaders assailed Beziers, a city containing
about fifteen thousand inhabitants ; but as from the castles
and villages around men, women, and children had fled to
it, from forty to sixty thousand people were concentrated
there. As soon as the crusaders took the place their vic-
tims- crowded to the churches ; and, by way of supplication
for mercy, the bells were tolled. In vain the churches
were deluged with blood. In one alone seven thousand
corpses were counted. All were slaughtered to the last
living creature, the houses were plundered, and the city
burned. Not a building remained not a human being
was left alive. All this and other similar scenes of hor-
ror Innocent stirred up the crusaders, by bulls, and briefs,
and promises of reward, to undertake and execute ; and he
sanctioned and applauded them when done. The com-
munity of the Albigenses was the most civilized, intelli-
gent, moral, religious, and refined in Europe. For this
reason they saw the abominations of the Papacy and re-
volted, adopting the true doctrines of the word of God.
For this very reason, too, Innocent determined on their
utter extermination ; and, as the slow processes of trial
were too tardy in their operation, he determined to effect
a summary extermination without trial ; and, as in the
case of the Gunpowder Plot, the death of a few "Papists
was not to be thought of when compared with ecclesias-
tical utility. By such measures this first reformation was
totally extinguished. So prodigious was the slaughter,
BO freezing the terror, that the church, says Shoberl,
DISPENSATION OF GREGORY Til. 347
seemed completely to have gained her end. The worship
of the reformed Albigenses ceased, their teachers were
slain, and only a few scattered exiles remained. But
even this did not satisfy Innocent. These, too, must be
tracked and hunted out. For this purpose he established
a body of inquisitors ; and, after some modifications, this
arrangement resulted in the infamous and permanent tri-
bunal of the Inquisition.
The principles of perjury, treachery, robbery, and mur-
der thus inaugurated by Innocent and sanctioned by the
church, both by theory and example, descended as a lega-
cy to the popes of other ages. They stimulated the hie-
rarchy to the persecution of the Lollards, the disciples of
Wickliffe in England, for about a century and a half;
to the persecution and death of Jerom of Prague, John
Huss, and their followers in Bohemia ; to the long-contin-
ued and intensely cruel persecutions of the "Waldenses in
northern Italy ; and finally to the extended leagues framed
to slaughter and exterminate the Protestants of Europe
after the reformation of Luther. Well does inspiration
depict this abandoned and profligate body as a harlot
drunk with the blood of the saints. Nor need we won-
der that the highest indignation of God is manifested to-
wards this unparalleled series of crimes. In view of the
blood of saints found in her, the holy inhabitants of heav-
en are called on to praise God for his avenging judg-
ments on her ; and in view of such ineffable crimes they
say hallelujah, whilst her smoke goes up forever and ever.
PAPAL HATRED OF TEE BIBLE.
Another striking characteristic of this age is found in
the fact that the hostility of the Romish corporation to
348 THE PAPAL CONSPIBACY EXPOSED.
the Bible was first fully developed and that prohibitions
were issued against its use in the vernacular tongues of
Europe.
The feelings of hostility to the popular reading of the
Bible manifested by the Romish church at this day are
well known. Can any thing be more striking than the
fact that the great Romish saint, Gregory VII., took the
lead in the enterprise of depriving the people of the Bi-
ble ? In January, 1080, Yratislaus, Duke of Bohemia,
desiring leave to have divine service performed in the com-
mon tongue of the people, that is, the Sclavonian,
Gregory gave him the following reply : " As you desire us
to allow divine service to be performed among you in the
Sclavonian tongue, know that I can by no means grant
you your request, it being manifest to all who will but re-
flect that it has pleased the Almighty that the Scripture
should be withheld from some, and not understood by all,
lest it should fall into contempt or lead the unlearned into
error. And it must not be alleged that all were allowed
in the primitive times to read the Scriptures, it being well
known that in those early times the church connived at
many things which the holy fathers disapproved and cor-
rected when the Christian religion was firmly established.
We therefore cannot grant, but absolutely forbid, by the
authority of Almighty God and his blessed apostle Peter,
what you ask, and command you to oppose to the utmost
of your power all who require it.'' 7
Thus did this pretended vicar of Christ repeal the com-
mand of the great Head of the church, " Search the Scrip-
tures," forbidding them even to be read in public divine
worship in the vernacular tongue.
And yet during this period the Albigenses and Wai-
denses, as well as Wickliffe and the Lollards in England,
did obtain and study the Bible in their own tongues. The
DISPENSATION OP GREGORY VII. 349
vigilance of Rome, however, early sought to guard against
this source of danger. In 1229 the council of Toulouse
passed a decree against the Waldenses and Albigenses.
forbidding them to have the Bible translated into the vul-
gar tongue. Similar prohibitions were issued in England.
The aim of such prohibitions is twofold to defend
the hierarchy from exposure ; and also to keep an absolute
monopoly of scriptural truth in their own hands, so as to
subject the people perfectly to their power.
Against such prohibitions Wickliffe said to the pope,
" A prohibition of reading the sacred Scriptures, and a
vanity of secular dominion, would seem to partake too
much of a disposition towards the BLASPHEMOUS ADVANCE-
MENT OP ANTICHRIST." He then condemns the hatred of
the Romish corporation to the gospel, their claims of in-
fallibility, their crowding to Rome to obtain dispensations
and to " PURCHASE A CONDEMNATION OF THE SACRED
SCRIPTURES AS HERETICAL."
In England the penalty for daring to read the Bible in
the vernacular tongue was TO BE BURNED ALIVE. The in-
quisitors and ecclesiastics carried on a persecution against
the disciples of Wickliffe, for a century and a half on this
ground, and many were burned alive. In 1519 seven per-
sons were burned at Coventry, having been convicted of
the crime of having the Scriptures in their possession, or
portions of the same. Such scenes were extensively re-
peated. All of the Bibles also were burned that could be
obtained an example which Romish priests in this land
are intent to follow.
Thus was the first full development of the Papacy in the
period of Gregory, the patron saint of American bishops,
signalized by a systematic proscription of the word of
God. In the ancient church such a course was unknown.
All were exhorted to read and study the word of God.
350 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
But, when the Romish corporation had completed their
structure of forgery and fraud, it was fit and reasonable
that they should regard the word of God in the hands
of the people as their irreconcilable and unconquerable
enemy, even as they do to this day.
PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF POPERY.
This introduces another remarkable characteristic of
this period. It was the period in which the most power-
ful and unscriptural peculiarities of Popery were fully
developed, established by supreme authority, and consoli-
dated into a system. It has been often stated that there
were such peculiarities ; but the time of their incorporation
as authorized parts of the system has not been distinctly
considered. Is it not, then, a striking fact that these great
peculiarities are not venerable for antiquity, but are the
comparatively late products of the fifth class of popes ? It
is also noteworthy that these last-established doctrines
are the main sinews of the power and the sources of the
profit of the Romish corporation. These peculiarities are
the highest forms of the Papal supremacy the servitude of
the bishops, the celibacy of the clergy, auricular confession,
penances, purgatory, the seven sacraments, and especially
transubstantiation and masses.
It is not denied of course that the celibacy of the clergy
existed before this age. But it was fast going into dis-
use when Gregory arose ; and he and his successors en-
forced it as never before.
Of the Papal supremacy and the subjugation of the
bishops enough has been said. Nor is it necessary to add
any thing on the subject of the confessional, whicli is a
product of this period.
DISPENSATION OP GREGORY VII. 351
The immense utility of the doctrine concerning purga-
tory as a source of income to the priests has also been set
forth. This doctrine also was established during this
period.
The doctrine of seven sacraments was also first fully
developed and established in this age. The doctrine of
transubstantiation and of masses which has ever since
been a prime source of priestly power and an inexhausti-
ble mine of wealth, deserves particular notice under this
head.
The profound learning and the unquestionable candor
of Ranke will give great weight to the following tes-
timony on these points from his History of the Refor-
mation :
" The question, at what periods and under what circum-
stances the distinguishing doctrines and practices of the
Romish church were settled and acquired an ascendency,
merits a minute and elaborate dissertation.
" It is sufficient here to recall to the mind of the reader
that this took place at a comparatively late period and pre-
cisely in the century of the great hierarchical struggles.
"It is well known that the institutions of the seven
sacraments, whose circle embraces all the important events
of the life of man and brings them into contact with the
church, is ascribed to Peter Lombard, who lived in the
twelfth century. It appears upon inquiry that the notions
regarding the most important of them, the sacrament of
the altar, were by no means very distinct in the church
itself in the time of that great theologian. It is true that
one of those synods which, under Gregory VII., had con-
tributed so much to the establishment of the hierarchy,
had added great weight to the doctrine of the real pres-
ence by the condemnation of Berengar ; but Peter Lom-
bard as yet did not venture to decide in its favor. The
word transubstantiation first became current in his time ;
nor was it until the beginning of the thirteenth century
that the idea and the word received the sanction of the
352 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
church. This, as is well known, was first given by the
Lateran confession of faith in the year 1215 ; and it was
hot till later that the objections which till then had been
constantly suggested by a deeper view of religion gradu-
ally disappeared.
" It is obvious, however, of what infinite importance
this doctrine became to the service of the church, which
has crystallized (if I may use the expression) around the
mystery it involves. The ideas of the mystical and sen-
sible presence of Christ in the church were thus imbodied
in a living image ; the adoration of the host was intro-
duced ; festivals in honor of this greatest of all miracles,
incessantly repeated, were solemnized. Intimately con-
nected with this is the great importance attached to the
worship of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, in the
latter part of the middle ages.
" The prerogatives of the priesthood are also essen-
tially connected with this article of faith. The theory
and doctrine of the priestly character were developed ;
that is, of the power communicated to the priest by ordi-
nation ' to make the body of Christ ' (as they did not
scruple to say) ' to act in the person of Christ.' It is a
product of the thirteenth century ; and it is to be traced
principally to Alexander of Hales and Thomas Aquinas.
This doctrine first gave to the separation of the priest-
hood from the laity, which had indeed other and deeper
causes, its full significancy. People began to see in the
priest the mediator between God and man.
" This separation, regarded as a positive institution, is
also, as is well known, an offspring of the same epoch.
In the thirteenth century, spite of all opposition, the
celibacy of the priesthood became an inviolable law. At
the same time the cup began to be withheld from the
laity. It was not denied that the efficacy of the eucha-
rist in both kinds was more complete ; but it was said
that the more worthy should be reserved for the more
worthy for those by whose instrumentality alone it was
produced. ' It is not in the participation of the faithful/
says St. Thomas, ' that the perfection of the sacrament
lies, but solely in the consecration of the elements. 7 And
in fact the church appeared far less designed for instruc-
DISPENSATION OF GBEGOEY VII. 353
tion or for the preaching of the gospel than for the show-
ing forth of the great mystery ; and the priesthood is,
through the sacrament, the sole depositary of the power
to do this. It is through the priest that sanctification is
imparted to the multitude.
" This very separation of the priesthood from the laity
gave its members boundless influence over all other classes
of the community.
" It is a necessary part of the theory of the sacerdotal
character above alluded to that the priest has the exclu-
sive power of removing the obstacles which stand in the
way of a participation in the mysterious grace of God :
in this not even a saint had power to supersede him.
But the absolution which he is authorized to grant is
charged with certain conditions, the most imperative of
which is confession. In the beginning of the thirteenth
century it was peremptorily enjoined on every believer
as a duty to confess all his sins, at least once in a year,
to some particular priest.
"It requires no elaborate argument to prove what
an all-pervading influence auricular confession and the
official supervision and guidance of consciences must give
to the clergy. With this was connected a complete, or-
ganized system of penances.
" Above all, a character and position almost divine
was thus conferred on the high priest, the Pope of Rome ;
of whom it was assumed that he occupied the place of
Christ in the mystical body of the church, which em-
braced heaven and earth, the dead and the living. This
conception of the functions and attributes of the pope
was first filled out and perfected in the beginning of the
thirteenth century. Then, too, was the doctrine of the
treasures of the church, on which the system of indul-
gences rests, first promulgated. Innocent III. did not
scruple to declare that what he did God did through
him. Glossators added that the pope possessed the un-
controlled will of God ; that his sentence superseded all
reasons. With perverse and extravagant dialectics, they
propounded the question, whether it were possible to ap-
peal from the pope to God, and answered it in the nega-
tive ; seeing that God had the same tribunal as the
30*
354 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACT EXPOSED.
pope, and that it was impossible to appeal from any
being to himself.
" It is clear that the Papacy must have already gained
the victory over the empire that it could no longer
have any thing to fear either from master or rival'
before opinions and doctrines of this kind could be en-
tertained or avowed. In the age of struggles and con-
quests, the theory of the hierarchy gained ground step
by step with the fact of material power. Never were
theory and practice more intimately connected.
"Nor was it to be believed that any interruption or
pause in this course of things took place in the fifteenth
century. The denial of the right of the clergy to with-
hold the cup was first declared to be heresy at the coun-
cil of Constance. Eugenius IV. first formally accepted
the doctrine of the seven sacraments. The extraordinary
school interpretation of the miraculous conception was^
first approved by the councils, favored by the popes, and
accepted by the universities in this age.
" It might appear that the worldly dispositions of the
popes of those times, whose main object it was to enjoy
life, to promote their dependants, and to enlarge their
secular dominions, would have prejudiced their spiritual
pretensions.. But, on the contrary, these were as vast
and arrogant as ever. The only effect of the respect in-
spired by the councils was, that the popes forbade any
one to appeal to a council under pain of damnation.
With what ardor do the curialist writers labor to demon-
strate the infallibility of the pope ! John of Torquema-
da is unwearied in heaping together analogies from Scrip-
ture, maxims of the fathers, and passages out of the false
decretals for this end. He goes so far as to maintain that,
were there not a head of the church who could decide all
controversies and remove all doubts, it might be possible
to doubt of the Holy Scriptures themselves, which de-
rived their authority only from the church ; which, again,
could not be conceived as existing without the pope. In
the beginning of the sixteenth century, the well-known
Dominican, Thomas of Gaeta, did not hesitate to declare
the church a born slave, who could have no other remedy
against a bad pope than to pray for him without ceasing."
DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 355
PECUNIARY EXTORTIONS.
In this age also -was developed a system of pecuniary
extortions that it is hard either to imagine or believe
until we study the most authentic records of the age.
To understand its extent, we must divide these exac-
tions into two classes those needed to sustain the ex-
travagance of the Roman court and to execute their vast
plans for governing the world ; and those that were de-
signed to support and enrich the secular clergy and the
various monastic orders in each particular nation.
Gregory's demand of tribute in the form of Peter's
pence comes into the first class ; and in this way im-
mense sums were raised. The pope also managed to de-
rive an immense income from a trade in bishoprics and
livings. A small degree of this traffic aroused the tender
conscience of Gregory to depose Henry ; but by the popes
it was practised without modesty or limitation. They
contrived also to obtain immense profits for their favor-
ites and tools at Rome by setting up claims to the right
to interfere, not only in the election of bishops, but also
in the conferment of benefices in the various dioceses of
all Europe. The power of the patronage of the Presi-
dent of the United States can give but a faint idea of the
power of patronage thus wielded by the pope. Take
one single example from the history of England, our
motherland. In the thirteenth century, Gregory IX.,
the great systematizer of the canon law, filled all the
best benefices in England with his Italian priests. It
was alleged, as Hallam states, in a remonstrance in the
name of the whole nation, that they drew from England,
in the middle of the thirteenth century, sixty or seventy
thousand marks a year a sum far exceeding the royal
356 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
revenues. A similar state of things existed. in France
and Germany. These Italian favorites were allowed to
employ curates, and, as non-residents, to live in luxury
and ease. Some of them were thus enabled to hold from
the pope fifty or sixty preferments.
The popes also at length imposed a tax on the national
clergy ; and then the rapacity of Papal exactions was with-
out bounds. Hallam states that " the usurers of Cahora
and Lombardy residing in London took up the trade of
agency for the pope ; and in a few years he is said through
them, partly by levies of money, partly by the revenues
of benefices, to have plundered the kingdom of nine hun-
dred and fifty thousand marks a sum equivalent to not
less than fifteen millions sterling at present."
Immense amounts were also extorted from all newly-
appointed bishops for the conferment of the pallium, or
bishop's cloak. The cost of a pallium for Mainz in Ger-
many was twenty thousand gulden, assessed on the sev-
eral parts of the see. Three hundred thousand gulden,
it was calculated, were thus yearly absorbed from Ger-
many by Rome.
In view of such exactions of all kinds, Edward III. ad-
dressed a strong remonstrance to Clement VI., declaring
that they were intolerable and must be remedied. But it
was of no avail. Shoberl states that in 1376 the commons
in Parliament presented to the king an urgent remon-
strance, affirming, what seems almost incredible, that " the
taxes paid to the pope yearly amounted to five times as
much as the taxes paid to the king."
On this point F. Shoberl says,
" The rapacity of the 'popes, who, as we have seen,
claimed the right of nominating to all benefices and
made the exercise of it a source of prodigious wealth,
had for many years excited violent murmurs, not in Eng-
land only, but throughout all Christendom. By such
DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 357
means Pope John XXII. was enabled to leave at his
death twenty-two millions of florins in his coffers. ' This
prodigious treasure/ says Fleury, 'was amassed by the
industry of his holiness, who reserved for himself the
reversion of the benefices of all the collegiate churches
in Christendom, alleging that he did so to prevent
simony. Moreover by virtue of this reservation he never
directly confirmed the election of any prelate, but pro-
moted a bishop to an archbishopric, and put an inferior
bishop in his place : hence it frequently happened that
the vacancy of an archbishopric or a patriarchate occa-
sioned six promotions or more, producing large sums of
money to the apostolic chamber.'
" When Innocent VI. sent Philip de Cabassole to Ger-
many to levy the tenth of all the ecclesiastical revenues,
the prelates of that country loudly complained of this new
exaction. ' The Romans,' said one of them, exhorting his
brethren to oppose it, ' have always looked upon Germany
as a gold mine, and invented divers means of exhausting
it. What doth the pope give to this kingdom but letters
and words ? Let him dispose of all benefices as far as
the collation goes ; but let him leave the revenues to
those who perform the duties. We send money enough to
Italy for divers merchandises, and to Avignon, [where the
Papal court was then residing,] for our sons who are
studying there or soliciting, we will not say buying, bene-
fices. All of you well know that large sums of money are
every year carried from Germany to the court of the pope
for the confirmation of prelates, for the grant of benefices,
for the prosecution of suits and appeals to tJie holy see, for
dispensations, absolutions, indulgences, privileges, and other fa-
vors. In all times the archbishops confirmed the elec-
tions of the bishops, their suffragans. It was Pope John
XXII. who in our time wrested this right from them' by
violence. And now the pope is again demanding from
the clergy a new and unheard-of subsidy, threatening with
censures such as will not give it or as shall oppose it.
Stop the beginning of the evil, and suffer not this dis-
graceful servitude to be established.' "
It appears from this statement that Papal ingenuity
358 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
exhausted itself in devising various modes of obtaining
money. Who does not understand the immense trade
in indulgences carried on by them and their agents in
all Europe ?
So, too, dispensations from impediments to marriage
were a constant source of revenue. To this must be
added pilgrimages, jubilees, and other ingenious modes
of deluding the people and filling the pope's coffers with
their hard-earned wages.
Besides all this, immense sums were obtained by the
mendicant friars that all-pervading Papal army. From
Germany, for example, shortly before the reformation,
they collected, according to Kanke, a yearly revenue of
one million gulden.
It must be borne in mind also that the secular clergy
as well as the monasteries drew largely on the resources
of the people. The monasteries and regular clergy held
about one half of the land of Europe, and besides, by the
various kinds of spiritual traffic already described, ab-
sorbed the earnings of the people.
I do not affirm that by the locusts who, under their
leader Apollyon, issued from the smoke of the bottomless
pit to prey upon men and to torment them God meant to
describe the Romish corporation, and monks, and clergy,
under their leader the pope. But, however this may be,
one thing is plain no symbol can better describe them
and their deeds. One long, loud, universal cry went up
throughout Europe, alike from kings, nobles, and people,
of the rapacious and plundering spirit of Rome and her
myrmidons. None but those who experienced it can ever
conceive how great was the plague. The language of the
times labors in vain to express it. Even imagination
fails and is powerless.
Such is one of the most remarkable aspects of this
DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. i 859
period a period well deserving the study of Americans.
It was the period created by the principles of Gregory
VII., the very pontiff whom the Romish bishops of this
country have chosen as the patron saint of America.
PAPAL MORALITY.
As the main claim of the Papal corporation is, that it
is the only true and holy church, and the only author of
holiness, we ought to find in this age of its supremacy
abundant evidence of the truth of such claims. It is
needless to say that we shall seek for them in vain. On
the other hand, in this age a degree of moral corruption
was developed in the Roman court and in the community
the depths of which it is almost impossible to fathom and
the atrocity of which is beyond description.
The celibacy of the clergy, as has been shown, in this pe-
riod had thoroughly debauched the whole European world.
The selfish, treacherous, and rapacious policy of the Papal
court at length utterly corrupted the policy of kings.
Machiavelli, in his Prince, did but apply to the state the
Papal principles as to ecclesiastical expediency. Kings,
following Papal maxims, justified and employed perjury,
perfidy, poisoning, and secret murder for state ends. Of
all these things the court of Rome had furnished abundant
examples. It seemed to be God's purpose to develop the
true tendency of the maxims of the Papal court in the
atrocious life and death of Alexander YI. Sismondi de-
clares that by reason of such extreme corruption " the six-
teenth century was marked by an entire abandonment of
all morals, honor, and virtue." Steinmetz, in his history
of the Jesuits, says, " In Italy, amidst its splendor of arts
and scieu.ce and its talk of religion, morals are so cor-
360 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
rupted that public shame is utterly lost ; the vices of
individuals even the most remarkable for their riches,
rank, and position exhibit a front of brass in the boastful
impudence of guilt. Nothing is concealed nothing dis-
graces." " It seems as if men look on crime as their
meals with an appetite or not, as the case may be ; but
all is natural ; children grow up like their parents born
in the midst of wickedness, how can they be otherwise ? "
Of the religion producing such results he says, " It was
not Christianity, but a timeserving, political, sensual, las-
civious, avaricious system formed by the passions and in-
tellect of men."
In a review of the life and works of Machiavelli, Ma-
caulay thus speaks of his most famous work :
" It is indeed scarcely possible for any person not well
acquainted with the history and literature of Italy to read
without horror and amazement the celebrated treatise
which has brought so much obloquy on the name of
Machiavelli. Such a display of wickedness, naked, yet
not ashamed, such cool, judicious, scientific atrocity,
seem rather to belong to a fiend than to the most de-
praved of men. Principles which the most hardened ruf-
fian would scarcely hint to his most trusted accomplice, or
avow, without the disguise of some palliating sophism, even
to his own mind, are professed without the slightest cir-
cumlocution, and assumed as the fundamental axioms of
all political science."
After trying and rejecting various modes of accounting
for such a moral phenomenon, he comes to the conclusion
that Machiavelli was a kind, well-meaning man, but that
the morals of Italy had been so debased by the Papacy that
neither he nor any one around him had any idea that
there was any thing wrong or immoral in his book. He
says,
DISPENSATION OP GREGOPvY VII. 361
" There is no reason whatever to think that those
amongst whom he lived saw any thing shocking or in-
congruous in his writings. Abundant proofs remain of
the high estimation in which both his works and his per-
son were held by the most respectable among his contem-
poraries. Clement VII. patronized the publication of
those very books which the council of Trent in the fol-
lowing generation pronounced unfit for the perusal of
Christians. Some members of the democratical party
censured the secretary for dedicating the Prince to a pa-
tron who bore the unpopular name of Medici ; but to those
immoral doctrines which have since called forth such se-
vere reprehensions no exception appears to have been
taken. The cry against them was first raised beyond the
Alps, and seems to have been heard with amazement in
Italy. The earliest assailant, as far as we are aware, was
a countryman of our own, Cardinal Pole. The author of
the Anti-Machiavelli was a French Protestant."
This is what the mother of harlots and of abominations
effected for Italy and Rome. Let us now see what she
did for France and Avignon during the seventy years' res-
idence of the Papacy there after Boniface VIII. Wick-
liffe was sent on a mission to the Papal court to secure the
correction of abuses in England. The mission was vain ;
but not so his opportunities of observation. It affected
him as Rome at a later day did Luther. Shoberl says,
" If no immediate result was obtained by this mission,
still the opportunities which it afforded Wickliffe for ob-
servation convinced him that the system of the Papal
court and its doctrines were equally corrupt. These con-
victions he did not fail to express on his return in the
boldest manner. He insisted that the Scriptures contain
all truths necessary to salvation, and that in them only is
to be found the perfect rule of Christian practice ; he de-
nied the authority of the pope in temporal matters ; pro-
claimed that he was the man of sin, the son of perdition,
described by St. Paul, ' Sitting as God in the temple of
31
862 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
God, showing himself that he is God,' and denounced him
as Antichrist. These doctrines Wickliffe openly taught
and maintained ; and well he might, for at this period the
popes themselves, their court, and the clergy in general,
pampered by the wealth which their rapacious arts were
incessantly supplying, exhibited a corruption of morals, a
depravity, a licentiousness scarcely to be conceived, much
less described. In assuming the sacerdotal office they
seemed to have vowed utterly to discard all that man-
kind had been accustomed to call virtue. It is impossi-
ble to read without profound horror the description given
by Petrarch, himself a churchman, of the dissoluteness of
the Papal court in the fourteenth century while resident
at Avignon ; and all contemporary accounts prove that he
is not chargeable with having recurred in his picture to
the poet's license. ' You imagine/ he writes in a letter
to a friend, ' that the city of Avignon is the same now that
it was when you resided in it. No ; it is very different.
It was then, it is true, the worst and vilest place on earth ;
now it is become a terrestrial hell, an abode of fiends and
devils, a receptacle of all that is most wicked and abom-
inable. What I tell you is not from hearsay, but from my
own knowledge and experience. In this city there is no
piety, no reverence or fear of God, no faith or charity ;
nothing that is holy, just, equitable, or humane. Why
should I speak of truth, where not only the houses, palaces,
courts, churches, and the thrones of popes and cardinals,
but the very earth and air seem to teem with lies ? A fu-
ture state, heaven, hell, and judgment are openly turned
into ridicule as childish fables. Good men have of late
been treated with so much scorn and contempt that there
is not one left among them to be an object of laughter.'
In the same letter he declares that the more profligate a
man was, the more certain he was of preferment in the
church.
" It is no wonder that, amidst so deep a corruption of
manners in those whose lives should be patterns to the
other classes of society, the vices of the clergy were
standing subjects of satire in every country of Europe,
and especially England, in the fourteenth century. The
poems of Chaucer abound in passages of this kind ; and
DISPENSATION OP GREGORY VII. 363
the Ploughman's Tale is one continued satire upon the
clergy for their gross ignorance, cruelty, covetousuess,
simony, vanity, pride, ambition, drunkenness, gluttony,
lechery, and other vices. This profligacy gave rise to an
opinion, which universally prevailed, that the coming of
Antichrist was at hand. We are told indeed that, in 1364,
Dr. Nicholas Orem, a celebrated preacher, in a sermon be-
fore the pope and cardinals, undertook to demonstrate this
proposition from the enormous corruption and the intol-
erable abuses of the church. Even Petrarch, though not
scrupulous in regard to doctrines and ceremonies, was so
shocked at the gross depravity of the Papal court that he
applied that passage in the book of Revelation concern-
ing Babylon, the mother of harlots and of all abomina-
tions, to the city of Avignon, where, as it has been
observed, the pope then resided."
It is not until we understand such a state of shameless
moral debasement that we can regard as credible what is
nevertheless a fact, that, at the close of the council of Ly-
ons, Cardinal Hugo dared to utter to the citizens, as a
brazen joke, the following address, descriptive of a fact :
" My friends, we have conferred on this place a great ben-
efit. When we came here there was a number of houses
of ill fame ; but now there is but one ; but that one ex-
tends from the eastern to the western gate of the city."
The infidelity that reigned at Avignon no less devel-
oped itself at Rome. On this subject Macaulay says,
" During the generation which preceded the reforma-
tion that court had been a scandal to the Christian name.
Its annals are black with treason, murder, and incest.
Even its more respectable members were utterly unfit to
be ministers of religion. They were men like Leo ' X. ;
men who, with the Latinity of the Augustan age, had ac-
quired its atheistical and scoffing spirit. They regarded
these Christian mysteries of- which they were stewards
just as the Augur Cicero and the Pontifex Maximus Cae-
sar regarded the Sibylline books and the pecking of the
364 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
sacred chicken?. Among themselves they spoke of the
incarnation, the eucharist, and the Trinity in the same
tone in which Cotta and Yelleius talked of the oracle
of Delphi or of the voice of Faunus in the mountains.
Their years glided by in a soft dream of sensual and intel-
lectual voluptuousness. Choice cookery, delicious wines,
lovely women, hounds, falcons, horses, newly-discovered
manuscripts of the classics, sonnets and burlesque ro-
mances in the sweetest Tuscan, just as licentious as a
fine sense of the graceful would permit ; plates from the
hand of a Benvenuto ; designs for palaces by Michael An-
gelo ; frescoes by Raphael ; busts, mosaics, and gems just
dug up from among the ruins of ancient temples and vil-
las, these things were the delight and even the serious
business of their lives."
Such was the ineffable malignity of the influence of the
Roman corporation, falsely called a church, when in its
full development and in its highest glory. How, then,
must it have appeared in the sight of a pure and holy
God 1 We know how ; for prophecy has informed us
what he will declare concerning it when the hour of his
judgment is fully come. Then will he set it forth as being
a habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a
cage of every unclean and hateful bird ; a great sorceress
and harlot, making all nations drunk with the wine of the
wrath of her fornication, and herself drunk with the blood
of the saints.
PAET IY.
THE JUDGMENT OF GOD AND THE BUBNING
OF BABYLON.
CHAPTER I.
BABYLON ON FIRE.
ON the morning of the 10th day of December, 1520,
the inhabitants of Wittemberg, in Germany, were aroused
and filled with amazement by the breaking out of a great
conflagration at the east gate of the city. The intelli-
gence of this conflagration at once spread as on the wings
of the wind, and wherever it came it no less aroused and
amazed the world. It was but the emblem of a greater
conflagration which had then broken out, and which has
continued to burn to this day, and which is destined still
to burn with fiercer flames until Babylon the great is ut-
terly burned with fire by the avenging judgment of her
almighty Judge. From that day to this intense efforts
have been made to extinguish the mighty conflagration.
The great fire company of the Jesuits was formed for this
especial end, and have labored manfully, but in vain. It
31 * (365)
366 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
still burns, and will burn till the avenging judgment of
God is completed.
Not least of all does the conflagration rage in this land.
The very fundamental principles of our civil and religious
institutions are devouring fire to the great Babylon ; for
which reason earnest efforts are now made to quench their
fiery energy. But all shall be in vain.
But let us draw near and consider the burning in Wit-
temberg. Of it we find the following authentic account :
"This 10th day of December, in the year 1520, at the
ninth hour of the day, were burned at Wittemberg, at
the east gate, near the Holy Cross, ALL THE POPE'S BOOKS,
the Decree, the Decretgls, the Extravagante of Clement VI.,
Leo X.'s last bull, the JJngelic Sum, Eck's Chrysoprasus,
and some other works of Eck's and Emser's. Is not this
new?"
What was this last bull of Leo X. ? It was the bull of
excommunication of one Martin Luther. What had he
done ? He had in the year 1517 seriously interfered with
the trading operations of the great corporation in the sale
of indulgences for the professed purpose of building St.
Peter's Church at Rome. When called to account, he had
refused to retract what he had said. When called on to
dispute, he had refused to be beaten in an argument.
When the authority of the pope was quoted against him,
he had dared to call in question that authority, as of mod-
ern origin. When the forged decretals were quoted against
him, though at first silenced, not knowing them to be forged)
he at last discovered the imposture, and dared to denounce
the pope and his forgeries. When pressed by the authority
of councils, he dared to declare that councils were not
infallible, and had erred, and that the Bible alone was in-
fallible. He had dared, moreover, to appeal to the Ger-
man princes to arouse themselves and resist the usurpa-
BABYLON OX FIRE. 367
tions and aggressions of the pope. He had dared to assail
the celibacy of the clergy, and the pope's temporal as well
as his spiritual monarchy, and to demand that all things
should be reduced to order according to the word of God
and the testimony of history.
This, in brief, was what Martin Luther had done ; and
in truth it would seem to have been enough, if there were
any virtue in bulls, to call for one of the most roaring
kind and the most terrific energy. Accordingly it came ;
and we have seen its reception by Luther, and its doom.
But the burning of the bull was not the most significant
part of the proceedings. "With it were burned the forged
decretals and the canon law. Astonishing audacity ! So,
then, the very foundations of Babylon the great are utterly
burned with fire.
"Who, then, had the courage, at that age and in those
circumstances, to do that deed ? I answer, It was not by
the courage of man that it was done, but by the courage
of God. Nor did it express human passion. It was but
an outward manifestation of the righteous judgment of
the invisible yet present and avenging God.
"When Luther began, he had not the remotest conception
of the issue to which he should come. He believed in his
heart that the pope had, by the will of God, supreme au-
thority in the church. He trembled, step by step, as he
encountered those deeprooted prejudices which had en-
slaved him as well as the rest of Europe. But God would
not let him rest. His word was in him like a fire in his
bones as truth after truth was revealed to him ; and he
was weary with forbearing and could not stay. God,
too, who fits his instruments for his work, had fitted him
to encounter the men and the system with whom he had
to deal. They were impudent, and stiffnecked, and hard-
hearted, and rebellious ; but God made his face strong
368 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
against their faces and his forehead strong against their
foreheads. As an adamant, harder than a flint, he made
his forehead against their impudence and audacity.
"When our souls have been filled with indignation, in
view of the inconceivable abominations and atrocious
slaughters of the Papacy, it is a joy to find that God has
at length given to one man energy and courage, by words
and by acts, to express the indignation of God. A brief
account of the conflagration at Wittemberg has been
given in the words of Luther himself. Let us now draw
near and take a more full view of the scene as depicted
by D'Aubigne:
" On the 10th of December a placard was posted on
the walls of the University of Wittemberg, inviting the
professors and students to be present at nine o'clock in the
morning at the eastern gate, near the Holy Cross. A
great number of doctors and students assembled ; and Lu-
ther, walking at their head, conducted the procession to
the appointed place. How many burning piles has Rome
erected during the course of ages ! Luther resolves to
make a better application of the great Roman principle.
It is only a few old papers that are about to be destroyed ;
and fire, thinks he, is intended for that purpose. A scaf-
fold had been prepared. One of the oldest masters of
arts set fire to it. As the flames rose high into the air
the formidable Augustine, wearing his frock, approached
the pile, carrying the Canon Law, the Decretals, the Clem-
entines, the Papal Extravagants, some writings by Eck
and Emser, and the pope's bull. The decretals having
been first consumed, Luther held up the bull and said,
' Since thou hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord, may
everlasting fire vex and consume thee ! ' He then flung
it into the flames. Never had war been declared with
greater energy and resolution. After this Luther calmly
returned to the city ; and the crowd of doctors, professors,
and students, testifying their approval by loud cheers,
reentered "Wittemberg with him. ' The decretals,' said
Luther, ' resemble a body whose face is meek as a young
BABTLOX ON FIRE. 369
maiden's, whose limbs are full of violence like those of a
lion, and whose tail is filled with wiles like a serpent.
Among all the laws of the popes, there is not one word
that teaches us who is Jesus Christ.' ' My enemies,' said
he on another occasion, ' have been able, by burning my
books, to injure the cause of truth in the minds of the
common people, and destroy their souls ; for this reason I
consumed their-books in return. A serious struggle has
just begun. Hitherto I have been only playing with the
pope. I began this work in God's name ; it will be ended
without me and by his might. If they dare burn my
books, in which more of the gospel is to be found (I speak
without boasting) than in all the books of the pope, I can
with much greater reason burn theirs, in which no good
can be discovered.'
" Luther had reentered Wittemberg. On the morrow
the lecture room was more crowded than usual. All minds
were in a state of excitement ; a solemn feeling pervaded
the assembly ; they waited, expecting an address from the
doctor. He lectured on the Psalms a course that he
had commenced in the month of March in the preceding
year. Having finished his explanations he remained silent
a few minutes, and then continued, energetically, 'Be on
your guard against the laws and statutes of the pope. I
have burned his decretals ; but this is merely child's play.
It is time, and more than time, that the pope were burned ;
that is, (explaining himself immediately,) the see of Rome,
with all its doctrines and abominations.' Then, assuming
a more solemn tone, he added, ' If you do not contend with
your whole heart against the impious government of the
pope, you cannot be saved. Whoever takes delight in the
religion and worship of Popery will be eternally lost in
the world to come.'
" ' If you reject it,' continued he, ' you must expect to
incur every kind of danger, and even to lose your lives.
But it is far better to be exposed to such perils in this
world than to keep silence. So long as I live I will de-
nounce to my brethren the sore and the plague of Baby-
lon, for fear that many who are with us should fall back
like the rest into the bottomless pit.'
" We can scarcely imagine the eft'ect produced on the
assembly by this discourse, the energy of which surprises
370 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
us. ' Not one among us,' adds the candid student who has
handed it down, ' unless he be a senseless log of wood,
(as all the Papists are, he says parenthetically,) doubts
that this is truth pure and undefiled. It is evident to all
believers that Dr. Luther is an angel of the living God,
called to feed Christ's wandering sheep with the word
of God.'"
Here we have beyond all doubt the judgment of God,
uttered by one of his servants whom he had raised up
and qualified to engage in the great work upon which the
interests of the church and the world and the glory of
God were suspended.
He had prepared the way for the work by the removal
of the seat of the Papacy to Avignon, in France, after the
death of Boniface VIII., and by the great and terrible
schism that followed soon after it was removed again to
Rome. For fifty years there were two rival lines of
popes, each anathematizing the other and denouncing each
other's crimes with about equal truth. Europe was nearly
equally divided between them ; and, as Bonnechose says,
" The nations that were subject to the pope, and bent the
knee before this new divinity, knew not where to find
their idol." Though the council of Constance healed the
schism, it did not obliterate from the mind of Europe the
questionings to which it gave rise. And as the arrogance,
and rapacity, and immorality of the court of Rome in-
creased, kings and people were so alienated, that, when
Luther burned the pope's bull, the pope could not induce
the secular powers to burn him ; and soon one half of Eu-
rope was in open revolt against the Papal corporation.
From that day to this the conflagration has gone on in
different parts of the great city. In some parts it has
been for a time extinguished by torrents of blood. But
it is a fire kindled by God, the Omnipresent, the Almighty.
Before it can be quenched, God must be* dethroned.
CHAPTER II.
THE FIRE OF GOD
WHAT, then, are those great elements of truth through
which God develops his fiery energy and by which he
will at last utterly consume Babylon the great ?
It is greatly for our interest to understand these truths.
Our civil institutions as well as our religious are based
upon them ; and between them and the Papal corporation
there is a necessary, an inevitable, a mortal conflict.
One or the other must die.
The vital principle of the Romish corporation, as we have
seen, is, that it is God's avowed purpose in communicating
his grace to mankind to act through a corporate body ; and
that they are that body, under the pope, their head.
In direct antagonism to this is the great truth that, in
communicating his grace to man, it is not God's purpose
to limit himself to act through any one corporation what-
ever, much less through the corporation of Rome. On
the other hand, it is his purpose, and ever has been, to
act at his pleasure through individuals, and to array them
against any and all corporations whenever necessary to
rebuke their negligence of duty or disobedience to God.
It will not be denied, not even by a Romanist with
any reverence for God, that God is able, if he pleases, to
manifest himself to individuals in all ages, independently
of any corporation ; to illuminate them, to sanctify them,
(371)
372 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
to avert mental disease, to give them wisdom, courage, dis-
cretion, zeal, energy, and in all things to qualify them to
do his will. None but an atheist can deny that God has
the power to do this.
The question is simply one of fact. It is this : Is it
God's will to do this ? To this the Papists reply, No ;
the Protestants, Yes.
Here, then, is the issue ; and there neither is nor can
be a greater issue than this. It is an issue that divides
the world, and the decision of which will agitate the
world as with an earthquake.
The claim of any corporation, on any ground, of a
monopoly of the grace of God, is the great source of spirit-
ual despotism and of religious and civil bondage. It is
the source of all ecclesiastical arrogance and ambition.
It is an impious invasion of the rights of individual
minds in God and of the rights of God in individual
minds. It assails the principles on which God has organ-
ized society, not only in this, but in all worlds. It is a
direct warfare with the purposes and with the omnipo-
tence of God.
And yet it is upon this claim that the corporation of
Rome is based. This corporation arrogates the right to
come between God and all individuals whatever. No
one can come to God but through them ; nor will God
come to any one but through them. Outside of them-
selves there is no God, no radiance of heaven ; all is
empty of divine grace and dark as the bottomless pit.
This is the great, the impious, the malignant, the all-
comprehending, the heaven-daring, the God-defying lie of
Romanism. It is a lie on earth ; it is a lie in all worlds ;
it is at war with the very nature and structure of all
created minds.
Never will the human mind be properly developed,
THE FIEE OF GOD. 373
never will man have true freedom, never will society be
truly organized till this is properly understood.
Let us, then, look into this matter. If we once thor-
oughly understand it, we shall need to consider little else
in order to see the impious and damnable nature of the
claims of Rome. As Americans, and as lovers of our
country and of the world, we are specially called on to
go to the very roots of this question. We are bound to
dig deep, till we are sure that all of our principles and
institutions are based on the solid rock of eternal truth.
It is a question of deep interest, What is God's design
in raising up this nation ? What is the destiny of our in-
stitutions, and what their dangers ? The usual answer
among us has been, To aid in the work of destroying the
despotisms of the old world ; and their chief danger is
from the Papacy and its connected civil systems. A new
answer has lately been given : Our chief danger lies in
our revolt from the Papacy. Nothing but the Papacy
can save us.
One thing is plain nothing but God can save us ; and
he will not save us unless we acknowledge and defend his
rights in the human soul and the rights of the human
soul in him. I propose to develop them ; to show their
relations to all organizations, civil or ecclesiastical ; and
to demonstrate that the claims of the Popish hierarchy
are at war with them all.
GOD'S RIGHTS IN THE SOUL AND OF THE SOUL IN GO!
God's rights in the soul will be disclosed by studying,
both in the soul and in his word, his design in making it,
its relations to God, and the principles of his law. From
both sources we learn that God did not design to make
32
374 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
the soul capable of independent perfection that is, per-
fection in the separate and independent use of its own
powers. On the other hand, the soul was either design-
edly, or more probably of necessity, made and left imper-
fect in itself, and unable to gain its true destiny without
a concurrent action of God in and through it. Thus no
plant has in itself the power of perfect development and
growth out of its proper relations to the soil, air, light,
heat, and water, that are designed to nourish and develop
it. Now, as these elements are to the development of a
plant, so is God to the development and perfection of the
mind. All created minds have a natural and an eternal
need of God in order to retain moral and intellectual
health and to secure a beautiful and perfect development.
This necessity is so founded in the nature of things that
it cannot be suspended. The idea that any mind can be
to itself as a god, knowing good and evil, and that it is
or can be perfect in itself without a constant concurrent
influence of God, is the root of pride and all falsehood ;
it is an essential revolt from God and all truth. It was
the primal sin and ruin of Satan ; it is the radical ele-
ment of his most fatal temptations in this age of pride
and of the worship of human reason.
Let us, then, look at the correlation of God and of the
human mind. As God is infinite in intellect, in love, in
sympathy, in power ; and as he fills all time and all space
by his existence, attributes, and kingdom ; and as of the
increase of his kingdom there is to be no end ; and as the
mind was made to know him and be blessed in his love,
it was made with power to conceive of infinitude in intel-
lect, emotion, sympathy, time, space, numbers, and power,
but not to fill its own conceptions. It was made to be
filled with all the fulness of God, and with nothing be-
sides. He is the natural complement of the soul ; and in
him it lives and is perfected.
THE FIRE OP GOD. 375
Hence the primary law of the mind is direct conscious
unity with God in thought, love, and will. " He that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Ye
shall know that ye are in me and I in you. Because I
live, ye shall live also. I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. Thou art the Fountain of life. In thy light shall
we see light." Hence God's rights in the soul involve the
right to insist that no created being or corporation shall
attempt to interfere with or to prevent this direct union
of the soul to God, this conscious personal contact of the
soul with God.
The rights of the soul in God correspond. The soul
has a right to claim at all times this personal access to
God, this conscious personal union to him and life and
perfection in and by him. Ko man or body of men have
a right to attempt to monopolize it any more than to mo-
nopolize the right to breathe the air or to see the sun.
These are the fundamental rights of God and of every
created being in his universe. No personal rights, no
laws of organization, can rise above them. They are the
very basis of the universe irrepealable, eternal.
Let us study the relations of these principles to faith.
The mind of man was made to rest in a certain knowledge
of spiritual truth. But the centre of all truth is God ;
for he is the greatest of objects to be known, and the Cre-
ator of all existences besides himself, and rules through-
out the universe, and works all things after the counsel
of his own will. Of him, through him, and to him are
all things. Hence he is the Author of all truth ; he sees it
in all its relations and harmonies ; and he is .the Sun who,
by his illuminating power, makes the system in its symme-
try visible to other minds.
It is therefore the glorious prerogative of God, and of
God alone, to give to any mind that highest certainty of
376 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
spiritual truth which is necessary to give rest to the soul.
The mind, being imperfect in itself, cannot, by any process
of reasoning and power of its own, put itself in that
state of clear and certain perception of the system in
which it is, except by that concurrent action of God and
the soul for which it was made. To a soul in this state
God is a constant, unsetting Sun, in whose light all truth
is seen in its true colors and proportions. It is not a
state of mysticism or enthusiasm, (using these terms in
the common bad sense,) but a state of calm intellectual
and moral health and life, in which God guides and aids
in the study of all truth, whether disclosed in the struc-
ture and laws of the mind itself, or of the body, or of the
material world, or by providence, or by the revealed
Scriptures, and gives a point of vision from which to see
all truth.
This concurrent action of the divine and human mind
is the highest element of the faith by which God keeps
the soul holy unto salvation. There is a natural faith, in-
volving all that the mind can do to produce belief by a
logical exercise of its own powers. But it does not sat-
isfy the wants of the mind ; it does not give rest to all
its powers ; it does not give that certainty and repose
for which it longs. The concurrent action of God with
the mind introduces a supernatural element, and thus per-
fects faith, meets all the demands of the mind, and gives
it rest in God. In his light it sees light and is certain.
(See 1 John. ii. 26, 27.)
This leads to no neglect of evidence or means of knowl-
edge. It impels to the study of the mind as made in the
image of God, and therefore the key to unlock his mind
to the soul, to the study of his works, and providence,
and word, as parts of one harmonious disclosure of God
and his plans in divers ways. It uses all parts of the sys-
tem of truth, and neglects none.
THE FIRE OF GOD. 377
Hence it is a right of God that all souls shall come di-
rectly to him for faith ; and it is the right of all souls
thus to come. Indeed it is absurd to think of gaining it
in any other way, and an invasion of the rights of God
and of man to affirm that any man or body of men can
stand between God and the soul as essential to faith.
This state of faith, I have said, is supernatural ; not
because it does not correspond with the natural and origi-
nal state of the mind, but because all men are fallen, and
depraved, and separated from God by sin. Hence the need
of atonement, pardon, and regeneration by the Holy Spir-
it in order to bring the mind into this state of faith.
Hence all efforts to reach God except through Christ
fail of producing faith, because they do not convince of
sin, purify and forgive, and truly reunite to God. All
such efforts land in infidelity, pantheism, or atheism.
MODES OF DIVINE ACTION IN SOCIETY.
Thus have we considered God's direct action on the
soul and the rights growing out of it. Besides this, God
resorts to two indirect modes of action on the soul
one through individuals, another through organizations.
But these are always subordinated to his rights as it re-
gards the first great law. God, then, is pleased to sancti-
fy individual minds and act and speak through them, pro-
ducing by the influence of creatures on creatures a new
series of effects. To do this is God's great delight. He
can train and form individual minds exactly to his will,
and then utter all his heart by them. This is not true of
corporations ; there is in them no unity of character.
All great revolutions God has produced by the power of
individual minds, urging others towards God, holding up
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378 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
elevated principles, and yet leaving men free. Yea, it is
the instinctive tendency of all such minds to throw men
off from themselves upon God. If any fall down to wor-
ship, they say with the angel, " See thou do it not. I am
thy fellow-servant. "Worship God."
Lastly. God acts indirectly through organization,
through the family, schools, churches, and civil govern-
ments. But the first duty of all such organizations is, not
to rise above God's first law and rights, but to regard
and defend them against all invasion. Of civil govern-
ments, the ends are, to prescribe the established modes of
organic action and to regulate and defend rights. Their
great effort should be to remove the disposition to do
wrong, to increase individual knowledge and the power
of self-government, and to throw as much responsibility
on individuals, families, and towns as they can, and thus
reduce the work of the higher class of rulers to the
smallest possible extent. Thus, as the individuals, fami-
lies, and towns become a law unto themselves, will the
general government be more and more simple and less
and less expensive. Reject, too, the idea that any organi-
zation has been established for the honor, glory, or emol-
ument of those who use it, or that God has any interest
in having it so. The highest honor that God can receive
is to give constant force to the first great direct law of
concurrent action between him and the soul ; for it is
the true glory of God, by a direct and omnipresent yet
invisible influence on all men, to reduce the world to such
order that all human governments will become so simple
that men will scarcely feel their existence, and only use
them as necessary guides and rules of organic action.
Hence the idea that the glory of God can be promoted
by exalting the glory of a given external organization is
false and absurd.
THE FIRE OF GOD. 379
The glory of God consists in the universal instruction,
sanctification, and exaltation of the individuals of the hu-
man race to the highest degree, and in the government of
them by his invisible but sweet and blessed power, and
then arranging them in those simple and free organiza-
tions into which men would naturally fall who are thus
filled with the fulness of God.
THE GLORY OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS.
This is the true view of the principles of organization ;
and it is the grand peculiarity of ours, first of all on
earth, that they are based on the principle of defending
to the utmost the rights of God in the human soul and
of the human soul in God. And, if properly used, they
can secure the perfect results of which I have spoken.
De Tocqueville noticed with admiration the extent to
which in our institutions the responsibilities of govern-
ment were thrown upon the townships, families, and indi-
viduals, and thus withdrawn from the care of the state
and national governments. Increase this tendency; defend
the rights of God in individuals and the rights of indi-
viduals in God ; give new power to the direct relationship
between God and the soul; and, as the power of the invis-
ible government of God increases, the cares and respon-
sibilities of the state and national governments will be-
come less. Every thing in our organizations will be sim-
plified ; men will be free as the air that they breathe ; and,
over all, and in all, and through all, the invisible but om-
nipresent God will be for a glory and for a defence.
This is not the infidel or transcendental millennium ; it
is the true Protestant, scriptural view. It is based on the
great original law of immediate personal union between
380 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
individual souls and God, and a reliance on the power and
willingness of God to regenerate the individual members
of the community by the truth, and thus restore fallen and
depraved man to that law, and a system of universal
education designed to qualify every individual for self-
government under the influence of a divine faith in God,
which satisfies the highest affections of the mind in him,
keeps the intellect and moral powers in health and in de-
lightful harmony with all truth, removes all doubt by a
delightful certainty, and makes all organizations the
servants, and not the masters, of the soul. This is the
glorious result foreseen by Isaiah when he says, " Thy sun
shall no more go down nor thy moon withdraw itself ; for
the Lord shall be thine everlasting light and thy God thy
glory."
JUDGMENT OF POPERY BY THIS STANDARD.
And now we have before us a standard of judgment.
This is the state towards which all true views of God and
man tend. By it let us proceed to test the Papal corpora-
tion. What are its principles ? To what does it tend ?
I answer, in a word, To expel from the world all rights of
open, free, direct, individual intercourse with God ; to
repeal and tread under foot the fundamental law of the
universe of created minds ; to expel God from the world
as its present Ruler and Governor ; to put the Papal corpo-
ration in his place, and to make the work of glorifying and
exalting this corporation more important than holiness
itself and the great duty of man, so that in effect it shall
be the only ruling god of this world ; to arrest entirely
the healing, illuminating, and regenerating influence of the
divine mind ; to destroy the power of intelligent self-
government ; to corrupt all of the organizations of society;
THE FIRE OP GOD. 381
and to sink the whole world into the deep abyss of a polluted,
extorting, extravagant, centralized, spiritual despotism. It
is the most perfect device the devil ever contrived for
utterly destroying the appropriate influences of Christianity
on the human mind and human society. To do this, it first
invents the truly diabolical dogma of a mysterious, invisi-
ble, unintelligible something which it calls grace, and
which is transmitted to the soul, not by instruction, nor by
any truth perceived and felt, nor by any intelligent action
of the intellect and emotions, but by external, material
means called sacraments. This above all other things is
an exquisite device of the devil to destroy the importance
of instruction, and intelligent, personal communion with
God ; it is the master key to the dungeon of spiritual
despotism ; for, the moment you make external, material
sacraments the channel of what is called grace instead of
instruction and a clear perception of the truth, and then
give to the Romish corporation the sole right to administer
these sacraments, you have darkened and enslaved the
world. The importance of study, preaching, thought is
destroyed. A dead language is as good as any other as a
medium of worship. A cloud is drawn over God and the
glories of his throne ; all direct access to him for life is
cut off ; and men lie trembling at the feet of those who, by
refusing the sacraments, can exclude them from heaven
and consign them to hell. The power over the sacraments,
on this view, is the possession of the keys of heaven and
hell ; and it involves the virtual destruction of all need of
preaching or of thought.
2. This corporation has corrupted all ideas of saving
faith by designedly shaking confidence in the Bible as a
revelation intelligible to the common mind and sufficient for
salvation through faith in Christ. It has even taken part
with infidels in their assaults on the written Scriptures, to
THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
create the necessity of aid from an infallible corporation,
with the design of making saving faith to mean, in fact, an
implicit belief in just what they say, instead of a penitent
reliance on the atonement of Christ for salvation, by which
the soul is reunited directly to God and the affections and
will harmonized with those of God. The design is to cut
man off from God and from the Bible and to destroy all
standards of appeal above and beyond themselves, making
the Bible merely their creature and tool, and its meaning
just what suits them best. They tell us the Bible is a dead
book and needs a living interpreter. Do not all human
lawgivers say they establish judges to interpret human
laws ? But the cases are unlike. Men make human laws
and can unmake them, and their penalties are limited to
this world. Men also can remove judges if they interpret
wrongfully. God makes a revelation ; and, when made,
not all the earth can alter it ; and its penalties are beyond
this world and eternal. He, therefore, who has the exclu-
sive divine power to interpret a divine, immutable revela-
tion, has in full all of the powers of the Deity centred in
him ; nor can the whole world judge or remove him. He
is the acting god of this world. His word is law : the
Bible is nothing. The system is in theory and practice an
annihilation of God and of the Bible, and an enthronement
of the pope or the Papal corporation in place of God ;
and all that the pope has ever claimed, all that his highest
flatterers ever gave him, to reign as the only god on
earth, is the legitimate result of the system either for him
or for his corporation. Thus does this corporation repeal
the first great law of God, destroy the rights of God in
the human soul and the rights of the human soul in God,
and concentrate in itself all of the prerogatives of God.
3. The Papal corporation exalts the importance of a
mere organization above the importance of holiness. It
THE FIRE OF GOD. 383
makes an alleged means of more importance to God than
the great end of all means ; that is, personal union to God
in holiness and truth. It has acted on and established the
principle that the Papal corporation is so important that
no amount of sin in its head, or members, or servants can
vacate its charter. If the pope is the veriest moral
monster ever seen on earth ; if the bishops are a gang of
debauchees and swindlers ; if the priests are all fornicators,
adulterers, and seducers, it is no sufficient reason for
abandoning the system. IF THE RIGHTS OF THE CORPORATION
ARE GIVEN UP OR DESTROYED, then the gates of hell pre-
vail against the church. But if every vestige of hpliness
ceases in the popes for centuries, if bishops and priests are
for centuries sunk in the slough of sensuality and pollution,
and become the chief corrupters of the human race, still,
IF THE CORPORATION ONLY KEEPS ITS POWER, then the gates
of hell do not prevail ; then the church is safe. What
higher blasphemy of God, what higher contempt of holi-
ness, is possible than is involved in these principles ? And
yet they are the real and only practical principles of the
Romish corporation ; and they have acted them out for
ages.
If any amount of the vilest sins that the mind of man
can conceive, in popes, bishops, and priests, could vacate the
claims of a corporation, long since those of Rome had
been vacated. The records of the world may be searched
in vain for such depths of moral pollution and degradation
as are found in the history of this corporation, not as rare
exceptions for long centuries, but as the general law.
The hierarchy and the priesthood of Rome have, as a
general fact, been the great central channel of the pollu-
tions of the Romish world, an insult to God, a scandal to
humanity. Nor need we wonder. The system is skilfully
framed, according to all the laws of the human mind, to
384 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
produce these results. It is by its structure the hotbed
of ambition, pride, the love of money and of power. The
great law of the compulsory celibacy of the clergy, together
with the established practice of appointing unmarried ec-
clesiastics to examine females in the confessional on all
points on which a polluted mind can form a conception, is
as perfect a system for debauching the clergy as Satan
could devise ; and, when not checked by Protestantism, it
has been terribly, inconceivably effectual. The sober facts
of history are too shameful to state. They are so enor-
mous as to defy belief till the philosophy of the system is
studied from which they spring. And yet the system is
skilfully constructed to sustain and survive all this. That
satanic idea of grace, "where there is neither Christian
instruction nor Christian example, grace through material
sacraments, and in spite of a polluted corporation, removes
the whole difficulty. It gives to Satan his highest result.
It enables him to establish on earth, in the name of God,
a corporate body, with an irrevocable charter, which no
amount of sin can forfeit.
Let the pope be or do what he may. He may be (and
I am now referring to actual facts) an atheist ; he may be
perjured before God and man ; he may be a poisoner and
an assassin ; he may be a drunkard ; he may be an infidel,
a blasphemer, an adulterer ; he may sacrifice to Venus
and to the devil ; he may commit incest with his own ille-
gitimate daughter ; he may debauch by violence all the
females who come to Rome on whom he can lay his
hands ; the majority of the popes for long, dark ages
may give no evidence of piety, and clear proof that they
are the firstborn of Satan. It makes no odds. Home is
still the centre of unity for the whole Christian world.
The pope in his bulls, speaking ex cathedra, is still the
father of all Romanists and the voice of God to them.
THE FIRE OF GOD. 385
The system still stands. Apostolic grace still descends
through the great filthy central channel.
So, too, the bishops assembled in council may be igno-
rant, polluted, and sunk in the slough of all filth. They
i^ay so debauch the place in which they meet as to make
it one vast house of ill fame, as Matthew Paris, a contem-
porary historian, states that Cardinal Hugo in his closing
speech after the council of Lyons declared to be a fact
as regarded that place ; they may discuss doctrines in the
midst of throngs of prostitutes gathered for their recep-
tion, as was the case in the co'uncil of Constance, accord-
ing to Dachery, Bruys, and the Vienna manuscript ;
their character may be like that of the council of Con-
stance drawn by Baptiza, one of its own members, " actu-
ated only by malice, iniquity, pride, vanity, ignorance,
lasciviousness, avarice, pomp, simony, and dissimulation."
Still such men are authorized to call themselves a holy
council, assembled in the Holy Ghost to interpret infal-
libly the word of God and to commit all contumacious
rebels against their authority to the flames. God, it
seems, has given an irrevocable charter to such councils
to preserve in its purity the Christian faith. And so
firm is this charter that no conceivable amount of sin
can vacate it.
So, too, the whole clergy may be, in the language of St.
Bernard, " pastors in name, but in reality plunderers ;
who, unsatisfied with the fleece, thirst for the blood of the
flock, and merit the appellation of traitors ; who do not
feed, but slay and devour, the sheep ; who melt in the fur-
nace of covetousness, and dare for gain to barter assas-
sination, adultery, incest, fornication, sacrilege, and per-
jury." And yet it makes no odds. The system has a
charter from God. No amount of sin can repeal it.
The time from the tenth to the sixteenth century is the
33
386 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
time of the most full and perfect development of the sys-
tem of the Papal corporation ; and during this time, accord-
ing to their own historians, the Papal world, clergy and
laity, were, as a general fact, sunk 'in the lowest depth of
moral pollution.
Sabellicus, Stella, Baronius, Giannone, Dupin, William
of Paris, Spondanus, Morlaix, Honorius, St. Bernard, John
of Salisbury, Alliaco, Petrarch, Dante, Marianna, ^Egid-
ius, Mirandula, Fordun, Gerson, Madruccio, Cervino,
Pole, Monte, Sarpi, and others may be summoned to estab-
lish these assertions by an amount of testimony and in
a fervor and eloquence of language in comparison with
which all I have said or can say would be weak and pow-
erless.
They deemed these results, indeed, abuses of the true
system, and called aloud for reform. But they were no
abuses; they were its genuine legitimate results. The
system is exquisitely adapted by satanic skill utterly
to corrupt those whose example and influence must
have chief power, and by them to debauch and ruin the
world. Hence, the nearer you come to the centre of the
system, the deeper in all ages has been the moral degra-
dation.
Now, suppose in the days of Christ it had been said to
Satan, God's great law of influencing men by a holy ex-
ample is now developed in full power in Christ and. in
Paul and the apostles ; there are free churches, and God
is open to all ; you are in imminent danger of ruin ; what
will you do ? and suppose he had said, I will by forgeries
concentrate all these free churches under one head ; I will
cut off all men from the right of direct access to God with-
out him and his corporation ; I will make him, when
fully developed, the image of the devil, and debase the
corporation to the lowest depths of pollution ; and yet I
THE FIRE OF GOD. 387
will give them an irrepealable charter from God to be
the only channels of life to the world, would it not have
seemed incredible even to hell itself that such a work
could be done ? Yet it has been done ; and Mr. Brownson
has the audacity to present this system to us as the only
road to heaven and the only defence of our free institu-
tions from ruin.
4. Let us, then, finally look at the influence of this sys-
tem on civil organizations. Let such a power, then, exist
and develop itself, and gain full control over the people,
and it will surely overrule, and subdue, and corrupt all
the civil authorities of our country nay, of the world.
The central theocracy will control the people by the fears
of hell and the hope of heaven, and in a conflict with
rulers will undermine them, if they dare to resist, by turn-
ing the people against them, as they did in the middle
ages. Again : the central theocracy will divide the civil
powers and subdue them one by one, rallying the obedi-
ent against the refractory, as it did in the case of John
of England. If he had not submitted, his kingdom would
have been given to the King of France. And so long as
the sphere of every civil power is. local, while the theoc-
racy is universal and holds the people by the hopes and
fears of eternity, any civil power can be overruled and
crushed.
I need not say that the system has no tendency to
sanctify and educate the masses, and make individuals
independent thinkers, and to throw them upon God for
life, light, and government : this course would be inev-
itable death to the system. Its managers well know it,
and hate and fear such a course as they do the plague.
What they desire is, not a people so holy, so elevated as
individuals, so intelligent, so given to reading, thought,
and prayer, and so fixed in truth by direct faith in God
388 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
and life in him that he, and he only, is their real and con-
stant rule, but implicit, unquestioning faith in themselves
and unthinking obedience to their decrees. Never did
they make deliberate efforts to give an elevating educa-
tion to the mass of the people never will they. It is
death to the system to do it.
Nor does the system tend in its ultimate results to
simplify organization and reduce the expenses of govern-
ment. By its own spirit and example it fosters the love
of worldly pomp and authority and of extravagant cen-
tralized aristocratic systems. It will be, as it always has
been, the great corrupter of all earthly governments, by
sanctioning in the name of God all the sins and abuses
to which they are most prone. Think what a centraliza-
tion of government would be effected if all the religious
interests of a hierarchy, governing Europe, Asia, Africa,
North and South America, and the islands of the sea, were
centralized at Rome ! What trains of legates, what a
complicated machinery of ecclesiastical rulers, for the
whole globe I What imagination can penetrate the infi-
nite details, the boundless extravagance and extortion, of
such a system? And with such examples before their
eyes, will secular rulers, in their civil relations, learn to
be simple, humble, and unassuming? And will society
ever be regulated simply by the spiritual presence of an
invisible God, as an unsetting sun ? Never ; no, never.
Finally. It is not possible for the human mind to
conceive of a more perfect antagonist to God and to his
system and to our institutions than exists in the system
of the Papal corporation. It meets and conflicts with
them at every point with deadly hatred. In one system
is developed the full soul of Satan, in the other of God ;
and it is the final collision of these systems and their
advocates that is near at hand. So sure as* there is a
THE FIEE OF GOD. 389
God, the result cannot be doubtful. The Papal corpora-
tion and its allies shall be cast alive into the lake of fire.
We are to judge of the real end of a system by regard-
ing, not what it professes, but what it is adapted to do
and what in fact it has done.
If a set of men were among us from Russia, building
massive stone buildings, forging chains, putting in grated
windows, fitting up dark cells, and surrounding them with
walls, and should all the time profess to be merely erect-
ing colleges ; then putting up strong stone edifices on
commanding points, with portholes, and trenches, and
covered ways, calling them barns for cattle, and then fill-
ing other buildings with muskets, and powder, and shot,
and calling them hunting establishments ; and if, in the
whole empire of Russia, there was talk of colonies to
America, of officers and students for the colleges, and of
farmers to take care of these barns, and of hunters to use
these guns, do you think that this thin veil of words would
hide the real nature of the system that was in preparation ?
Would not the sagacious say, These are fine words indeed;
but this looks far more like war, and subjugation, and
prisons, than like colleges, and barns, and hunting?
Even so it is with this system. It calls itself, boastfully,
the only holy church. Its avowed ends are to produce
faith, and thus to save souls ; to restore men to God, to
disclose his relations, to lead them to keep his laws. But,
judged by its structure, its real and only end is to aggran-
dize a set of ecclesiastics at the expense of God and the
human race.
It is precisely adapted to enable a set of the most un-
principled men whom the world ever saw to make use
of the name of God and of the eternal sanctions of his
government as the basis of a system the great end of
which is to subjugate the human race to themselves, and
33*
390 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
to make them the abject instruments for the promotion of
their own honor, power, and wealth at the expense of all
holiness and truth.
Strip off the hypocritical garb of religious names, re-
move the disgusting cant about the holiness of this cor-
poration, which the history of all ages contradicts, and
the system is simply what God in his own terrific language
has declared it to be the habitation of devils, the hold of
every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful
bird.
And the single question is, Shall God rule the world
by a holy church ? or the devil, through this mother of har-
lots and of abominations ? Of this question who can doubt
the issue? The systems are fast coming into their last
collision ; and, when the time comes, one final, sudden blow
from God shall smite the brain of the system, and its con-
vulsive dying agonies shall be felt in every land as a voice
from the throne shall proclaim, It is done ! This work be-
longs to God alone ; it is his last and greatest work be-
fore he reigns on earth. To him, then, let the eyes of the
church be directed in earnest, fervent prayer till he comes.
CHAPTER III.
PROTESTANTISM DEFENDED.
IP Eomanism is in its very essence, as has been proved,
a fraudulent, perfidious, and treacherous conspiracy
against all of the rights of humanity ; if its tendencies
and results prove it to be the immitigable enemy of man-
kind in all their interests, pecuniary, social, civil, and
religious ; if its lofty, arrogant, and impious claims are
based upon mere imposture ; if it was originated and
perfected only through a series of the most stupendous
frauds and forgeries, in comparison with which the forge-
ries of Mormonism are completely thrown into the shade ;
if it has always rendered its clergy, as a body, debauched,
licentious, and profligate, so that the open though corrupt
polygamy of Mormonism is no worse, or rather is much
better, than their atrocious and widespread seductions
only a very small part of which has ever come to light,
though even that small part is enough to fill the world
with their infamy ; if, when in power, they have remorse-
lessly butchered whole Christian communities, whose only
crime was that they preferred the truth and purity of
God to the impositions and to the pollutions of Rome ;
if it is an essential part of the system (avowed, estab-
lished, and practised by councils, popes, and Jesuits) to lie,
to swear falsely, and to practise perjury for the destruc-
tion of all heretics ; if the system is the most perfect
(391)
392 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
incarnation of all villany, diabolism, and profligacy ever
known on earth ; if the conscientious treachery and
stranglings of the Thugs of India, in the service of their
malign divinity, are altogether eclipsed by the conscien-
tious treachery and butcheries, burnings and tortures, of
Eomish popes, bishops, priests, and inquisitors ; if all this
and more is true, (and that it is true has been shown, not
by declamation, but by a simple statement of only a part
of the multitudinous facts of history facts open, noto-
rious, uncontrovertible facts that blaze from the pages
of history like the sun at noonday,) then no more need
be said to justify the existence of Protestantism and to
vindicate its godlike character and divine origin. It is
enough to say that it is the protest of God, through the
Bible and through humanity, against a system of such
atrocity and blasphemy.
To decide this whole great controversy, nothing is
needed but a simple historical statement of what Popery
is and has done. Moreover, if the European and Ameri-
can world do not mean to have this infernal system
astride their necks forever, like the old man of the moun-
tains upon the neck of Sinbad the sailor ; if, in the elo-
quent words of Conelly, they do not mean to have Rome
weigh down upon their dearest hopes and most sacred
interests " like an eternal nightmare ; " if they do not
wish to have the integrity and morals of the globe para-
lyzed and palsied by those satanic conspirators, male and
female, whom Rome trains up and sends forth under the
name of Jesuits to corrupt the nations, then the system,
the whole system, must be radically and eternally de-
stroyed. It has kept no terms with humanity ; humanity
should keep no terms with it. It has kept no terms with
God ; and God will assuredly keep no terms with it. It
has impiously usurped his place on earth. All common
PROTESTANTISM DEPENDED. 393
blasphemy disappears and is forgotten in comparison
with the blasphemy of the popes and their insensate
worshippers. They have not only claimed power as God,
but above God and against God ; and let the nations be
assured that he will not hold them guiltless forever.
The day of his judgment hastens ; it is at hand.
Yes, humanity shall at length be released from this
widespread and long-enduring curse. Yes, it shall come
to pass that the Lord shall give the nations rest from
their sorrow, and from their fear, and from their hard
bondage wherein they have been made to serve. Then
shall they take up this proverb against the King of Baby-
lon and say, How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden
city ceased ! The Lord hath broken the staff of the
wicked, the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the
people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the
nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The
whole earth is at rest and is quiet ; they break forth into
singing. Hell from beneath is moved to receive her
own once more and lament over his fall. Then shall it
be said alike in heaven and on earth, How art thou fallen
from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning ! How art
thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the na-
tions ! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend
into heaven ; I will exalt my throne above the stars of
God ; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I
will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought
down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee
shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying,
Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did
shake kingdoms ? For I will rise up against him, saith
the Lord, and will cut off from Babylon name and rem-
nant, and son and nephew ; and I will sweep it with the
besom of destruction, saith the Lord. The Lord of
394 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
hosts hatli sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought so
shall it come to pass ; and as I have purposed, so shall it
stand. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed; and who
shall disannul it ? And his hand is stretched out ; and
who shall turn it back ?
We should take our views upon this subject from the
word of God. The destiny of the Romish corporation,
as there foretold, is not reformation, but destruction. It
is to be utterly burned with fire ; because God, the aven-
ging Judge, is almighty. How sublime is yet another
symbol, by which inspiration foretells this her final
doom : " A mighty angel took up a stone, like a great
millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with vio-
lence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and
shall be found no more at all " ! How fearfully signifi-
cant the reasons assigned for this doom : " By her sor-
ceries were all nations deceived ; with her the kings of the
earth have committed fornication ; and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her
fornication. She has been drunken with the blood of the
saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus ; and in
her is found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of
all that were slain on the earth " !
Hence we need not wonder that in heaven the spirits
of martyred saints are called on to exult over her doom.
Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and
prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her. We need not
wonder that with loud acclaim they respond to this appeal,
saying, "Alleluia : salvation, and glory, and hono^and pow-
er unto the Lord our God ; for true and righteous are his
judgments ; for he hath judged the great whore which did
corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the
blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said,
Alleluia ; and her smoke rose up forever and ever."
PROTESTANTISM DEPENDED. 395
From God's point of vision we can now see what Prot-
estantism is. It is the beginning of that great work that
shall issue in this glorious redemption of the human race
from the bondage of hell, and that shall inaugurate the
final reign of God in righteousness and truth. The pro-
cess is simple. The same divine energy that shall so in-
vigorate the church that she can abhor the worldliness
and the pollutions of Babylon shall make her so heavenly
minded and pure that she shall be free from all fanaticism,
all malignity, all revenge, all diseased emotions, and there-
fore in the highest possible degree capable of a divine
boldness and unmitigated hatred of sin, such as the de-
struction of a system of wickedness so gigantic demands.
In that system is concentrated the highest energy, the
whole energy, of Satan. " He gave to it his power, and
his seat, and great authority." When it is destroyed, his
fate is decided. The conflict with that system is the
"Waterloo conflict of the globe.
Immediately after its decision Satan shall be bound and
shut up, not in Elba, nor in St. Helena, but in the bottom-
less pit.
It is the custom of Romanists to scoff at Protestantism
because, as yet, it has not completed its work, and has re-
vealed many imperfections and defects. This is only an-
other illustration of the unparalleled impudence of that
system. It had so corrupted society that it has required
centuries to purge out its corruptions. It had so in-
wrought the belief of the necessity of some visible head
to the church on earth into the nations as if God were
entirely incompetent to take care of his church that
when the churches of Europe revolted from the pope they
made kings and emperors their heads. And how could
the church become pure enough to contend with a concen-
trated system of worldliness and iniquity, so long as she
396 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
was not a free church, depending upon her true and only
head for her ministry and for her support ?
So, too, the dogmatic despotism that has sometimes dis-
graced and enfeebled Protestantism was but a lesson
learned in her school, and not yet unlearned.
The extent to which she debased the conceptions of
Christendom concerning God, heaven, and hell, and all
the doctrines of theology, is not even yet fully understood.
She retained these doctrines in form, but changed God into
an infinite and almighty demon, delighting in treachery
and carnage. Her conceptions of heaven, and especially
of hell, were sensual, material, brutal. A large portion
of Christendom has not yet recovered from the supersti-
tious terrors with which she has frozen their minds by her
profane threats of the wrath of the almighty fiend of
whom she conceived in the place of a pure and holy God
of love.
Nevertheless, the church of Protestantism has century
by century worked her way out of the infinite slough of
pollution into which all things had been cast by the Ro-
mish harlot ; and the time is near at hand when it shall .be
given unto her to put on fine linen, clean and white even
the righteousness of the saints. Then, at length, shall the
marriage supper of the Lamb come, even on earth. Then
shall the nations know the difference between the harlot
of Rome, in her meretricious purple and scarlet attire, and
the bride, the Lamb's wife, in her fine linen, clean and
white, in which she shall be publicly owned and acknowl-
edged by her royal and divine Head.
Nor have the results of Protestantism even thus far been
small. It has affected the public sentiment of Christen-
dom, and even of Rome herself. Rome is not as atheistic
and profligate as she was before the reformation : she is
bad enough ; but she is at least outwardly a little more
PROTESTANTISM DEFENDED. 397
decent than she once was ; and in all Protestant coun-
tries some of her clergy are in fact better, and all regard
appearances a little more than they once did. Let no one,
however, be simple enough to think that Rome, or her
clergy, or her monasteries, or nunneries are yet pure. Be-
yond all doubt, as Gavazzi declares, the abomination of
desolations still reigns within.
But the pope's most audacious temporal aggressions have
been checked and terminated. Kings are not, as once, his
vassals ; they do not hold his stirrups ; he does not put
his foot upon their necks.
The pecuniary traffic of the great corporation, too, has
to a vast extent been destroyed. True it is that she still
deludes and swindles hundreds of millions, but not to the
extent that she once did.
Protestantism, also, has produced communities in which
families are safe from the profane intrusion of licentious
priests into all the secrets of social life by the confessional
communities intelligent, and educated, and with a mo-
rality so elevated that the pollutions of Popery seem in-
conceivable and incredible.
Protestantism has opened the Bible, and made God,
through it, the Sun of the moral world, instead of his en-
emy the pope. It has established systems of popular ed-
ucation, which Rome fears in this land more than any
thing except the Bible. It has produced industry, intelli-
gence, enterprise, thrift, and a striking development of na-
tional resources wherever it has been permitted thorough-
ly to unfetter the human mind.
And last of all, Protestantism, through the Bible, has
made this great nation, in which, for the first time, the
great principles of civil and religious liberty have been
developed on a scale adequate to the wants of humanity.
The power of these principles, too, is felt and feared even
34
398 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
now in Papal lands ; and therefore Bishop Hughes, of New
York, saw fit to scoff at them as they were imbodied in the
proceedings of the great meeting in behalf of the Madiai,
and to slander the victims of the persecution of Borne, and
all who sympathized with them, in his infamous letter, the
atrocious principles and falsehoods of which have been so
ably exposed by Dr. Baird and other Americans, who are
not ignorant of the abominations of Romish doctrines and
morals. Among the replies of such, I am glad to be able
to make honorable mention of the speech of General Casa
in the Senate of the United States.
CHAPTER IT.
THE TRUE POSITION OF THE ROMISH BISHOPS RESIDENT
IN AMERICA.
IT will be observed that I have not unfrequently used
an uncommon form of speech in speaking of the bishops
of the Romish church in this country. I do not speak of
them as American citizens, or as American bishops, but as
bishops of Rome sojourning here.
This language is not without intended significance. I
do not regard them as in any sense American citizens in
heart, whatever they may be in profession.
My reason is this : They are part and parcel of a great
conspiracy which now exists to subvert the most important
and fundamental principles of the constitution of these
United States and of every particular state in this Union.
I do not make this charge heedlessly, but wittingly, ahd
with a full understanding of its import. Nor shall I leave
it unsustained by ample proof ; for, if there is one prin-
ciple of our national and state constitutions more funda-
mental than another, it is the great principle of religious
liberty.
Now, of this principle the pope has in every variety of
form declared himself the implacable enemy. When the
Christian Alliance was formed to extend the principles of
religious liberty into all lands, Pope Gregory XVL, in an
encyclical letter to all patriarchs, primates, archbishops,
(399)
400 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.-
and bishops, issued May 8, 1844, denounced and slandeied
with the utmost virulence the whole doctrine of religious
liberty, as hostile to the very fundamental elements of the
Papacy, as well as of civil despotisms in general. He
slandered it under the name of " indifference in religion."
The same pope also, in 1832, declared "that liberty of
conscience is a most pestilential error," and " that unbridled
liberty of opinion is THAT PEST OP ALL OTHERS MOST TO BE
DREADED IN THE STATE." He also denounced " that worst
and never to be sufficiently EXECRATED AND DETESTED LIB-
ERTY OF THE PRESS."
But why should any one be simple enough to wonder at
all this ? Does any man like to see his own house set on
fire ? Why, then, should the pope like any better to see
Babylon the great reduced to ashes, and himself in it?
The fact is, that the fundamental, constitutional principle of
this nation is a rejection of the claims of Rome; and this has
been in all ages regarded and treated as TREASON at Rome.
The past history and present claims of that corporation
cannot for a moment be sustained or defended on any
other ground. On no other ground can they justify their
inquisitions, and crusades, and massacres.
The only wonder is that any man can be simple and
thoughtless enough not to see that there is in fact, and
from the necessity of the case, a death grapple between
the two systems. There is no neutrality, no middle
ground, between them. If one prevails, the other is ex-
terminated.
And are the Romish bishops in America at war with
the pope ? Do they love what he hates and hate what he
loves? Are they engaged with all their might in build-
ing up what he is laboring with all his might to throw
down ? Do they heartily love that which he declares to
be the worst of all evils an evil never to be sufficient-
POSITION OF ROMISH BISHOPS IN AMERICA. - 401
ly execrated and detested even the liberty of the
press ?
Let it now be remembered that their code of morals,
though it justifies perjury towards heretics, will not tol-
erate perjury towards the pope. What, then, have they
sworn to do in their peculiar and anti-republican feudal
oath ? To say nothing of the oath to persecute and wage
war with heretics, about which they make contemptible
and Jesuitical quibbles to cover up its obvious meaning,
have they not sworn to obey the pope's mandates and de-
crees ? And what is this but an oath to obey the most
infamous persecuting enactments of the canon law ?
According to their own principles, then, are they not
guilty of treason to the constitution of these United
States treason not in any declamatory sense, but in
strict and legal verity ?
For if the claim of liberty of conscience was in the
case of John Huss treason, as at war with the constitu-
tion of Rome, if they burned him for it at the stake, and
if they have slaughtered millions before and since for the
same crime, then why is it not treason for the Romish
bishops in America to conspire with the pope and foreign
potentates to overthrow the fundamental principle of our
national constitution ?
Let us consider a few facts on this point. In the year
1828, F. Schlegel, a Romanist, delivered in Vienna a
course of lectures against Protestantism, and in favor of
Popery, as adapted to sustain the existing civil despotisms
of Europe. In those lectures he thus speaks of this coun-
try : " The true nursery of all these destructive princi-
ples, the revolutionary school for France and the rest
of Europe, has been Xorth America. Thence the evil has
spread over many other lands, either by natural contagion
or by arbitrary communication." Hereupon the St. Leo-
34*
402 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
pold foundation was set on foot, for the purpose of sup-
porting, in their own words, " the greater activity of Catho-
lic missions in the United States" This Schlegel was one
of the Austrian cabinet, the confidential counsellor of
Prince Metternich. This society was received under roy-
al protection and sanctioned by the pope. It prepares in
the seminary of Vienna, and supports a body of Jesuits
who are pervading this country. The pope issued a bull
promising full indulgence and remission of all their sins
to those who should contribute to the society. This bull
was made perpetual and sanctioned by the emperor. The
tenth article provides that masses shall be said for the
souls of all contributors after their death.
Seven days after this bull, Prince Metternich wrote to
the Bishop of Cincinnati, who when in Austria had pub-
lished a pamphlet on the state of the western country,
which was one of the influences leading to the formation
of the society, stating the joy with which the emperor
cooperated in the plan of the society.
What have we here, then ? Is this any thing but a for-
mal and avowed plot to subvert our institutions, in which
the Romish Bishop of Cincinnati conspires with the pope
and the Emperor of Austria ?
Consider another fact. The society at Lyons, in France,
from whose address to its patrons I have given an extract
on page 17, insults the Protestant settlers of this coun-
try, laments that Protestantism had gained the ascen-
dency here, and declares that " the Catholic church could
never abandon the invaded territory" and encourages the
hope of its speedy recovery. For twenty-two years this
society has been sending money to all the bishops of this
nation. From their own reports, it appears that in the
four years from 1839 to 1843 it sent the enormous sum of
six hundred and twelve thousand six hundred and fifty-
POSITION OF EOMISH BISHOPS IN AMERICA. 403
six dollars. This society, though a general missionary
society, was formed with special reference to us, and has
sent to us more money than to any other great division
of the globe.
Once more : the English Romanists formed an emigra-
tion society designed to establish colonies of Romanists
under their priests in the great North-Western States.
Of this a full account is given by H. Norton in his Signs
of Danger and of Promise, and in his Startling Facts,
pp. 28-37. It is simply a consistent part of one great
plan. On it Norton remarks,
" It may suffice to say that the policy of the society
is to imbody the Papal population together in the west,
remote from Protestant influence. It aims at throwing a
majority into the great valley, and thus to control the des-
tiny of the United States.
" They are very confident of success, as appears by this
document. The energy of hope is apparent on every
page. Yes, they hope ; they confidently anticipate the day
when the religion and the government of the United
States will be Roman Catholic.
" Hear this, ye Protestants who never dream of danger,
who imagine that such a thought could have danced only
in the brain of a lunatic ! Read attentively a few quota-
tions from this pamphlet, written by a Roman Catholic
gentleman :
" ' Judge Haliburton asserts that all America will be a
Catholic country.' ' The Roman Catholic church bids
fair to rise to importance in America.'
" ' They gain constantly ; they gain more by emigration,
more by natural increase in proportion to their numbers,
more by intermarriages, adoption, and conversion, than
Protestants. With their exclusive views of salvation
and peculiar tenets, as soon as they have the majority
this becomes a Catholic country, with a Catholic govern-
ment, with the Catholic religion established by law. Is
this a great change ? A greater change has taken place
404 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
among the British, the Medes and Persians of Europe, the
nolumus leges mutari people.'
" Towards the close of this document is the following
sentence in capitals :
" ' The cooperation of other European nations in pro-
moting the objects of the society is most desirable, par-
ticularly of those possessing a redundant population
that is, Roman Catholic, &c. }
" This observation is especially applicable to Belgium,
France, and a large portion of Germany. They speak of
those nations as follows :
" ' The western districts may be said to have a particu-
lar claim to the patronage of France, as it was under
their former sovereignty that their vast resources and fa-
cility of connection between the northern lakes and the
first navigable tributaries of the Mississippi were discov-
ered by those enterprising and amiable French Jesuit
missionaries, Henepin and La Salle. As to Belgium and
Germany, it is almost needless to call on them for greater
support than is already furnished by the mass of Catholic
population daily flowing from these kingdoms into the
fertile west.
' ' In proof of this, St. Louis, risen up as it were but
yesterday in the heart of this country, now boasts of
more than thirty thousand inhabitants, twelve thousand
of which are German, Belgian, French, and Irish Catho-
lics, mainly attracted by the system of education afforded
by the Belgian Jesuits, who have not only been the means
of establishing a magnificent cathedral in this city, and
also a college now classed so high in affording instruction,
that, beyond the commendations universally bestowed on
its internal arrangements, its rules may be almost said to
hold out the best model for diffusing general knowledge
through the west.' 71
Again : the Duke of Richmond, formerly governor of
the Canadas, said in a speQch at Montreal, " The govern-
ment of the United States ought not to stand, and it will
not stand ; but it will be destroyed by subversion, and not
by conquest. The plan is this to send over the surplus
POSITION OF ROMISH BISHOPS IN AMERICA. 405
population of Europe. They will go over with foreign
views and feelings, and will form a heterogeneous mass,
and in the course of time will be prepared to rise and
subvert the government." He then adds, " The church
of Rome has a design upon that country. Popery will in
time be the established religion, and will aid in the de-
struction of that republic. I have conversed with many
of the sovereigns and princes of Europe ; and they have
unanimously expressed their opinions relative to the gov-
ernment of the United States, and their determination to
subvert it." (See Norton's Signs of Danger, p. 16.)
In connection with these proceedings of foreign organ-
izations in cooperation with the Romish bishops in this
country, note also the fact that the Catholic Telegraph,
of Cincinnati, under the supervision and censorship of the
bishop, openly published a condemnation of our American
institutions, as " not of a nature to invite the reflecting
part of the world." This was said in view of a single
fact in a trial in Boston after the burning of the Charles-
town nunnery. Concerning this he says, " This one fact is
a condemnation of the system of American institutions, con-
firmed lately by numerous other proofs"
Bishop England, a Jesuit, on his return from Europe
said, in an address to his diocese, " In Paris and at Lyons
I have conversed with those excellent men who manage
the affairs of the Association for propagating the Faith.
I have also had opportunities of communication with some
of the council which administers the Austrian Association.
The Propaganda in Rome has this year contributed to our
extraordinary expenditure, as has the holy father himself."
A few years since the Association for propagating the
Faith stated their conviction that within thirty years the
Romanists would have the ascendency in this country.
What would be the state of things in that contingency,
406 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
learn from the Shepherd of the Valley, the organ of the
Bishop of St. Louis : " The church is of necessity intol-
erant. Heresy she endures when and where she must ; but
she hates it, and directs all her energies to its destruction.
If Catholics ever gain an immense numerical majority, re-
ligious freedom in this country is at an end. So our en-
emies say ; so we believe." November 23, 1851. (See
supra, p. 107.)
The propriety of this course is thus defended by Mr.
Brownson : " The liberty of heresy and unbelief is not a
natural right. * * * All the rights the sects have, or
can have, are derived from the state, and rest on expedi-
ency. As they have in their character of sects, hostile to
the true religion, (Popery,) no rights under the law of Na-
ture or the law of God, they are neither wronged nor
deprived of liberty if the state refuses to grant them any
rights at all." Brownson's Review, October, 1852, p. 456.
Mr. Brownson says he writes nothing without the sanc-
tion of his bishop ; and the Romish hierarchy in this coun-
try indorse his work. Of course, as soon as the Romanists
gain the majority, the rights of all Protestants will be at
an end.
Such is the conduct of these bishops towards what they
treacherously call their country. Is this their idea of true
allegiance ? Do they swear no other allegiance than this
to the pope ? Mark well the words of their oath : " I will
not be in any counsel, action, or treaty in which shall be
plotted against our said lord and the said Romish church
any thing to the hurt or prejudice of their persons, right,
honor, state, or power ; and, if I shall know any such thing
to be treated or agitated by any whatsoever, I will hinder
it to my power, 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 interests of the malignant enemy of our
POSITION OP ROMISH BISHOPS IN AMERICA. 407
institutions they swear to regard as thus sacred. Against
him they swear not to plot : him they swear to warn of
danger.
But, when he with foreign despots leagues against us,
they take sweet counsel together with them, receive their
funds, and carry out their purposes. Nor is this all : they
are sworn to go or to send a trusty messenger every third
year to the centre of this great conspiracy, and to give a
strict account of their fidelity in all their proceedings to
their lord the pope.
And now, if all this is not treason, what is ? But it may
be asked, What will the Komish bishops say to this charge?
That depends altogether upon their locality and audience.
At Rome, Lyons, or Vienna, and before their fellow-con-
spirators they will say, " It is true ; and we glory in it."
Moreover they will sneer, and not without reason, at the
simplicity of any among us who ever have been hood-
winked by their old tricks of Romish perjury, in swearing
mock oaths of allegiance to a government which is re-
garded at Rome as guilty of treason and deserving of
damnation, because Protestant and founded on the prin-
ciples of religious liberty. Let no one say this is not
charitable. True charity does not consist in stultifying
ourselves and forswearing common sense. The very re-
ligion of these men enjoins and canonizes fraud and per-
jury towards heretics, and robbery and murder also, when
they have the power : all history proves this. Will they,
then, be better than their religion ?
When, rny countrymen, will you thoroughly under-
stand and firmly believe that the Romish bishops among
us mean to be faithful to their oath to the pope, and that
fidelity to the pope and church of Rome is, of necessity,
enmity and treachery to the highest interests of this
nation ?
CHAPTER V.
APPEAL TO THE JUDGMENT OF GOD.
I HAVE already appealed to every truehearted Amer-
ican for a righteous judgment in the great case before us.
It is with joy that I now turn to the judgment seat of
God. I turn with joy, because he is not burdened, wearied,
or depressed even by a cause so vast as this. When be-
neath its magnitude my mind faints and fails, I turn with
joy to him, the unfain ting, the unfailing, the all-comprehend-
ing, the omnipresent God, the Lord of all power and might,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.
Before his judgment seat I bow ; to him I present my
cause for judgment.
To him and to his holy angels I appeal that I have not
sought or provoked this warfare with the Romish corpo-
ration. To him I appeal that it has been with deep sor-
row, and not with joy, that I have made the severe charges
against them which stand upon my pages awaiting his
judgment. Before him I confess that I am sacredly bound
by the highest obligations of truth and justice in dealing
with their characters, reputation, and interests.
But I found them grossly assailing all that is most
dear to myself, my friends, my country, and my God.
What truehearted American does not love and revere the
Pilgrim Fathers and all the other noble Protestant found-
ers of this nation, to whose piety, toil, and blood we owe
(408)
APPEAL TO THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. 409
all our present blessings ? Yet I found this corporation
defaming these men as violent, restless heretics ; as the
mere scum of sects and as the invaders of their terri-
tory. What patriotic American does not love the insti-
tutions of this country, based on religious freedom and
consecrated to the glory of God and the welfare of man ?
Yet I found them leagued with foreign despots for the
subversion and destruction of these sacred institutions.
Who does not love those pure and holy spirits who, for
their love to God and to his word, have endured tortures
lingering and unutterable in the dungeons of this corpo-
ration, or have been suddenly and ruthlessly slain by their
fierce crusaders, or burned in their funeral piles? God
loves them, with whom they now are ; he has treasured up
their tears ; he will make inquisition for their blood. Yet
I found this corporation still defaming their character by
atrocious slanders, justifying their murder, and exalting
with honor the bloodstained authors of their death.
Who does not regard with deep and tender interest the
welfare of his children, and of their children, and of all
the coming generations of this great country? Yet I
found that bloody corporation straining every nerve to
destroy those great and blood-bought principles that now
defend us in the free and intelligent worship of God, and
to prepare the way for endless proscriptions and slaugh-
ters such as have covered their career in the old world
with deep and endless infamy.
Who does not love the free schools of this nation, con-
secrated to God and to liberty, in which prayer daily as-
cends and the word of God is read ? Yet I found this
slanderous corporation assailing these as infidel and god-
less schools, and rallying all their myrmidons for their
destruction.
Who does not love and revere the intelligent, benev-
35
410 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
olent, energetic, pure Protestant Christians of this land,
expending time, labor, and wealth in sustaining the in-
stitutions of religion and education, relieving human suffer-
ing and want, elevating society, and sending forth the
heralds of salvation to all climes ? Yet I found this fero-
cious and bloody corporation reviling them as pagans,
and thus pouring scorn and contempt upon God himself
by scoffing at and slandering some of the most glorious
results of his regenerating grace.
And, as if this were not enough, I found the same un-
holy and licentious corporation arrogating to itself all the
holiness of earth and an entire and irrevocable monopoly
of the grace of God.
Still more : I found this arrogant corporation stigma-
tizing as persecution all attempts to repel such a murder-
ous onset on all that man holds dear, and claiming, under
the shield of our principles of religious liberty, the right
to conspire and combine with the despots of the old world
to destroy the very principles that gave them shelter and
defence ; declaring that the children of the founders of
these institutions, as heretics, have no rights, but that this
same immaculate corporation has the entire monopoly of
rights in this world, as well as of holiness and the grace
of God. They claim that God has given to them the ab-
solute and exclusive right to persecute, and that to restrain
them from the free exercise of this right is persecution
and an invasion of their inalienable^ rights. Moreover to
write or to say any thing against them is impious slander,
deserving the torments of the Inquisition and the stake ;
for they, and they only, are infallible ; they fill the place
of God on earth.
"Who, then, is the assailant ? Who is the invader ? Let
God judge. No doubt he will judge. He knows that
they have brought on the conflict and provoked the war.
And now I well know that I am no match for the in-
APPEAL TO THE JUDGMENT OP GOD. 411 .
tensity of the wickedness of this widespread corporation.
No human power is adequate for such a crisis. God alone
is almighty ; he alone can meet it ; and to him I turn with
exulting confidence and hope.
Before him and his holy angels and the hosts of the
redeemed, as well as before men, I present those charges
against this corporation, for which I am ready to give an
account before the bar of my final Judge. I have not made
these charges in the language of passion or exaggeration,
but of sober conviction.
I have declared, and do declare, that without the slight-
est authority or pretext it has impiously arrogated to
itself the place of God, and given the sanction of his
holy name to deeds and principles which he abhors ; that
its whole energy has been put forth to corrupt the prin-
ciples and debauch the morals of mankind ; that it has
been the great teacher of fraud, perfidy, perjury, and
murder ; that it has deluged the nations with the blood
of the saints ; that by its great engines of despotism,
the confessional and the celibacy of the clergy, it has
debauched the whole body of its ecclesiastics and rad-
ically corrupted and enslaved human society ; that it is at
war with all the interests of humanity ; that forgery and
frauds of the most atrocious kind are the basis of its pow-
er ; that therefore it cannot live except by the destruction
of history and the Bible, and therefore it remorselessly
wars upon both of them ; that those of the corporation
who reside among us are engaged in a traitorous con-
spiracy to resist the cause of God by the subversion of re-
ligious liberty in this nation, and throughout the world,
in order again to deluge the nations with blood.
Before God I thus charge them ; and I put upon them
the guilt of the blood of his martyred saints, and invoke
him to hear their prayers for judgment and to destroy
those who have so long destroyed the earth.
CHAPTER VI.
WHAT SHALL BE DONE?
THE very nature of this work reveals the fact that it
was not written for purposes of theory, but for a practi-
cal end. In every crisis the great question is, What shall
be done?
To answer this question, I would say to my fellow-cit-
izens, Consider first who you are, where you are, and what
God expects of you. You are God's jurors, in behalf of
your country and of humanity, in the great question now
before the bar of God. You are in the age of light, and
not in the dark ages of forgery and fraud ; not indeed,
as yet, in the age of perfect light, but destined soon to
become so. It is to be the age of true and impartial his-
tory ; it is to be an historical day of judgment for the globe.
God expects of you, therefore, a true judgment in view of
the law and of the facts in the case.
The law is obvious, alike by nature and by revelation.
It is the great law of universal and reciprocal benevolence
to God and to man. It is the law of truth, of honor, of
justice, of love. It gives to God his rights in all men, and
to all men their rights in God.
Is it not plain, then, that the first great work to be done
is to understand the facts of the case to know certain-
ly what this Papal corporation is to know its origin,
its principles, its laws, its history, its deeds to strip off
(412)
WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 413
all its disguises, all its manifold robes of concealment, all
its false pretences and religious cant, and to compel it to
stand naked in the light of God's own truth before his
judgment bar?
The next thing to be done is to demolish Popish de-
fences derived from the doctrine of rights of conscience.
The Romish bill of rights is, that their corporation has a
divine right to follow a conscience that impels them to
persecute and murder all who will not give up intellect,
conscience, property, wives, and daughters to their godless
ambition and lust. This theory is to be exposed to the
abhorrence it deserves, as an arrogant and diabolical in-
vasion of all the rights of God and man.
We are also to expose those defenders of the Romish
church who raise the cry of persecution against those who
boldly reveal her crimes. Her bill of rights on this point
is, that she has from God the exclusive right to persecute
all over the globe all who refuse to obey her imperious
mandates ; and, if any man dares to peep or mutter against
her for her butcheries, that she is unjustly persecuted for
righteousness' sake. Mr. Brownson is fast assuming this
ground, and is very piously consoling the gentle popes that,
like Christ, they are persecuted for righteousness' sake.
On the other hand, the true and only way of destroying
persecution from the globe is utterly to destroy that cor-
poration which, as claiming infallibility, has enjoined per-
secution against all heretics by unchangeable law ; which
has repeatedly deluged in blood the nations of Europe by
massacres the most atrocious and by the torments and fires
of the Inquisition ; which still justifies these massacres, and
declares her purpose to prepare the way for the repetition
of them in this land upon our children, and children's
children, and all coming generations. Whatever perse-
cution is, it is not persecution to aim at the utter destruc-
35*
-414 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
tion of a corporation like this ; not, indeed, on the ac-
cursed principles of that corporation by perjury and vio-
lence, but by a public sentiment formed by God and the
truth, so pure and powerful that it shall reduce it to ashes
beneath the soles of our feet.
If then these, the true principles of the case, were
thoroughly understood, and if all American freemen were
thoroughly acquainted with the real facts of the case, all
else would follow of course.
I say this because eighteen millions of free American
Protestants can with perfect ease, if enlightened and full
of moral energy, form a public sentiment, with the aid of
God, that shall not only do the needed work for our coun-
try, but also impart new energy to the friends of freedom
in the old world. Romanism, as ought to be known to
all, is plotting, not only our downfall, but also that of
Great Britain, and is confidently expecting both. But, if
united, intelligent, bold, and energetic, we can with per-
fect ease defend ourselves, aid our brethren in the old
world in their struggles, and turn the tide of war to the
gates of Rome.
These views involve no hostility to the masses of the
Romanists in this country or in the old world ; nay, they
involve love and sympathy for them, and an earnest desire
to destroy that corporation which is their worst enemy, and
which is intent only on deluding, enslaving, and plunder-
ing them. Mr. Brownson testifies that he found multi-
tudes of Romanists in this country disposed to adopt and
defend the true principles of religious liberty, and is now,
with the pope, straining every nerve to prevent such a re-
sult. We ought not, indeed, to confide political trusts even
to liberal Romanists till they have renounced all allegiance
to the persecuting despotism of Rome a despotism which
even now is ready to persecute them just as it persecutes
WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 415
Meagher for his love of true liberty. But we can treat
all such with the utmost kindness, and do all in our power
to hasten their emancipation. What the world needs is,
that God should smite the Romish corporation itself on
the brain with an omnipotent energy that shall at once
destroy its life. "When he shall at last do this, when the
struggles of the monster shall be over and it shall be
stretched out dead upon the plains, then will it be easy to
break the chains of its captives and bid them go free ;
then will shouts of triumph go up from an emancipated
world.
Whilst I thus place my main dependence upon the pow-
er of God, acting through an enlightened and energetic
public sentiment, I would not exclude the proper use of
legislation. In particular, we ought to have such legisla-
tion as shall render it impossible for the pope and his
agents to accumulate real estate in this country, to the in-
jury of the nation and the detriment of liberty. All na-
tions, even the most Papal, have been compelled by the
steady and persevering rapacity of the pope and his agents
to defend themselves against him by law. The English
statutes of mortmain were designed for this end.
On this point Blackstone says, " Another engine set on
foot, or at least greatly improved, by the court of Rome,
was a masterpiece of Papal policy. Not content with the
ample provision of tithes which the law of the land had
given to the parochial clergy, they endeavored to grasp
at all the lands and inheritances of the kingdom, and,
had not the legislature withstood them, would by this time
have probably been masters of every foot of ground in the
kingdom.'' He then details their ingenious and systematic
contrivances to effect it and to evade the laws. All his
discussion of this point deserves careful consideration at
this time. And now, is it not time to ask, What right has
416 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
the pope to claim, through his pecuniary emissaries called
bishops, the right to hold directly or indirectly all the
church property of the Romish denomination in this coun-
try. This is not merely a question for the corporation of
the St. Louis church in Buffalo to consider ; it is a ques-
tion for the nation. Is it nothing to us that three millions
of Americans are thus enslaved to the pope by his abso-
lute possession and control of all their church property ?
Do we desire to give him. the utmost possible power orer
them, and to remove them as far as possible from conform-
ity to our institutions and susceptibility to their influence ?
Shall we allow the worst enemy of this nation to exert
against us a power so vast?
Sooner than to allow this, and if it cannot be other-
wise prevented, every title held by the pope, or any bishop,
Jesuit, or priest of his, should be annulled by law, and the
property confiscated, unless the church to which it belongs
wift hold it for themselves by a board of lay trustees like
those of the St. Louis church.
In all this there is no intolerance ; it is simple common
sense. Why should we play into the hands of the great
conspiracy against our institutions, of which the pope, the
Emperor of Austria, and Metternich are the mainsprings ?
Moreover, it is time that the amount and condition of all
the property of every kind owned or controlled by the
pope, through his agents, in this country were thoroughly
understood.
Once more : it is the duty of American citizens to re-
move from all editors of newspapers and all politicians all
temptation to play into the hands of the pope or his bish-
ops. If we are faithful to ourselves, we may be sure that
they will be faithful to us. They will not pay court to
the rulers of three millions of Romanists, if, by so doing,
they are sure to lose the favor of eighteen millions of
WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 417
Protestants. We owe it to ourselves, to our country, and
to the world to strengthen, embolden, and sustain them in
the discharge of their duties as Protestants. As soon as
all American citizens shall view with proper indignation
the Romish emissaries, called bishops,who reside in America,
their lordly titles, and gaudy robes, and pious cant will avail
them little in their efforts to enslave Protestant politicians
and the Protestant press. The entire emancipation of the
press, then, and of politics, from Romish influence and in-
trigue, is an object the importance of which no mind can
estimate. This emancipation the people can effect simply
by acting as Protestants ; and they must take the work
into their own hands. When this work shall have been
effected, when we shall have an all-pervading, free, bold,
independent, intelligent Protestant press, then the Romish
bishops among us may retire as soon as they please into
the obscure shades of private life. But if Protestants will
not be faithful to their own principles, if for inferior party
ends they will sacrifice religious liberty, free schools, and
the property and lives of all coming generations, then let
them not make editors and politicians the scapegoat on
which to place the sin of the ruin of this nation. I do
not hold editors or politicians guiltless if they yield to
temptation ; God and his country ought to be to every
Protestant dearer than life. Neither, on the other hand,
do I excuse the people, if, having the power to invigorate
and embolden editors and politicians in the path of duty,
they fail to put it forth.
Our enemies glory in our divisions ; by them they de-
clare boastingly that they shall prevail over us. Let us
show them that freemen can be united by noble principles,
by the love of God, of our country, of freedom, of human-
ity, more closely than the vassals of superstition by terror
and chains.
418 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Look well into the question of monasteries and nunne-
ries ; there is no doubt that they are a curse to the nation.
Nunneries are prisons of deluded and hopeless victims.
Romish public sentiment and force imprison them. Unmar-
ried men have the charge of unmarried women, and hear
them confess in these secret abodes. Need more be said ?
Even Catholic Spain was compelled to break up the whole
system because of its abominable profligacy. The united
testimony of all ages is against it, as I have already shown
by abundant proof. Shall this root of abominations, then,
be allowed to spread far and wide, and by its pestilential
influences blast society on every side ?
I ask your particular attention to the pernicious influ-
ence of Romanism on the morals of the community in this
respect, that you may learn to what a depth of immorality
and vice this country would be plunged if Popery should
prevail. By the returns laid before Parliament, it appears
that in London the proportion of illegitimate births is four
per cent. ; in Paris it is thirty-three ; in Brussels thirty-six;
in Munich twenty-five ; in Vienna fifty-one per cent. The
amount of immorality thus manifested is a hundred fold
greater in some Romish parts of Europe than in any part
of Protestant England. In Rome, the city of popes, car-
dinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns, they
dare not make returns. But one fact speaks for itself :
The number of births in Rome, by Dr. Bowring's returns,
is four thousand three hundred and odd per annum ; and,
by the returns of Mittermeyer, the number of foundlings
in the diiferent foundling institutions in Rome, during a
period of ten years, gives a return of three thousand one
hundred and sixty per annum. Hobart Seymour, from
whom I take these statistics, says, "All this certainly
speaks very strongly of the immorality of Rome, or de-
clares that, if the mothers be married mothers, they are
WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 419
the most unnatural mothers in the world." An examina-
tion by Mr. Seymour of the official and governmental re-
turns of every Roman Catholic country in Europe, in fif-
teen or twenty folio volumes, enabled him to say that
Popery is universally the mother of vice and crime. Thus
in England the ratio of murders, during ten years, was
four to a million ; during the same time in Ireland it was
forty-five to a million per annum, and in the most favora-
ble years never less than nineteen to a million. In Bel-
gium, one of the best Romish countries, the murders are
eighteen to a million ; in France thirty-one to a million ;
in Austria, the great pillar of Popery, thirty-six to a mil-
lion ; in Bavaria, a Romish state, including homicides,
sixty-eight persons to a million excluding homicides,
thirty to a million ; in Italy, in the Venetian and Milan-
ese provinces, forty-five to a million ; in Tuscany forty-two
to a million ; in the States of the Pope one hundred to a
million ; in Sicily ninety to a million ; in Naples, doubly
cursed by Popery and the most immitigable Popish civil
despotism, two hundred to a million. The average of all
these Papal nations is seventy-five to a million. "In
Italy," says Seymour, " the land of popes, cardinals, bish-
ops, priests, monks, and nuns, there is perpetrated such
an amount of murder that the number of persons killed
every year in cold blood is greater than the number of
men that have fallen in some of the most terrific struggles
on the modern battle fields of Europe." In one of the
doctrines of Popery there is a direct tendency to this re-
sult. The Protestant believes in no change after death ;
the Romanist believes that masses, whether purchased by
friends or by the murderer, can deliver a soul from pur-
gatory, and these masses can be purchased at a very cheap
rate. Mr. Seymour delivered a soul from purgatory, as
he was assured by the authorized priest at Rome, who sold
420 TUB PAPAL COXSPIKACY EXPOSED.
him a mass at the cheap rate of two francs. He was
asked to enter the name of the soul to be delivered in the
altar book, which he did, and was assured that the soul
in question was actually delivered from purgatory. This
was certified by a receipt from the priest, which he pub-
licly exhibits. The only slip in the case was that Mr.
Seymour entered his own name in the book, thinking, as
he said, that, as they had pledged to take him out of pur-
gatory that day, they would have done better to have been
sure that they had got him in first.
Resist with united and irresistible indignation all Ro-
mish attacks upon the Bible, upon history, upon our public
schools.
There are also other important principles to be stated
concerning the rights of self-defence, conferred by God
on Protestant communities, against the plots and threats
of Romanism ; but the full consideration of these we shall
leave to the coming exigencies of the times and to the
future developments of the providence of God.
Finally : confide above all things in the sanctifying
power of the Spirit of God ; avoid fanaticism and all dis-
eased and malignant emotions ; be in sympathy with God,
in whom love is almighty. He gives us the honor of aid-
ing in his great judgment ; let, then, his Spirit animate us
and his principles be our guide. Then will his glory il-
lumine our prospects, and his victory shall be ours.
APPENDIX.
LETTER TO THE HON. JOSEPH R. CHANDLER.
DEAR SIR :
SINCE the preceding investigation and argument were completed
and issued, I have read with deep interest and close attention
your speech delivered in the House of Representatives of the
United States of America on January 10, 1855, in which you promul-
gate your views of the relations of the Papal power to our national
and state governments.
Your acknowledged abilities as a jurist and a civilian, your ele-
vated position as a member of our national government, the eulo-
gies passed upon your speech even by some Protestants, and the
measures adopted to give it universal circulation throughout this
nation, invest your statements with peculiar interest and impor-
tance.
You deny the power of the pope to depose kings and other rulers,
and to release their subjects from their oaths of allegiance by divine
right ; you declare that, although the popes have exercised this
power, as you freely admit, yet they have never claimed to exercise
it by divine right, but have rested their claims solely upon the con-
cessions, agreements, and constitutions of rulers, and nations ; and
finally you assert that the pope has unequivocally disclaimed the
right to exercise the power in question.
To sustain your positions, you present the testimony of American
bishops, of foreign universities, and finally of Pope Pius VI., the
essence of which may be found on pp. 36 41, and 126 of this work.
I regret that I am forbidden to concede the validity of your evi-
dence or the truth of your positions by the positive testimony of
Pius VI., to whom you appeal, and of other popes, including the
present reigning pontiff. Their testimony is in direct conflict with
422 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
that of yourself, of the American bishops, of the foreign universi-
ties, and even of Pius VI. himself ; so that I cannot avoid the fol-
lowing painful conclusions : .
First, that the alleged disclaimer of Pius VI., which you quote, is
worthy of no confidence whatever, but is demonstrably a specimen
of that pious fraud to which, in all important emergencies, the
popes have so often resorted.
Second, that the popes have claimed, and do still claim, the
power of deposing kings and rulers, and of releasing subjects from
oaths of allegiance by divine right, and not on the ground of con-
cession by rulers and nations.
Third, that these claims of the pope are sustained by the most
weighty authorities of the Papal church, including popes, councils,
and standard divines, and that your disclaimers, and those alleged
by you, have no legitimate weight or authority in the decision of
this question.
Allow me, before proceeding to the proof of the first of these po-
sitions, to present a brief illustration of the nature of the pious
fraud alleged, as adapted greatly to facilitate the present investiga-
tion, and to invest it with augmented interest.
Let it be supposed, then, that after the delivery of your disclaim-
ers and protestations, and those of your bishops, in our national
councils, and after they had produced the effect designed in favor
of your church, it should be discovered that you and they had sub-
sequently prepared and signed, in Italy, a solemn document, in
which you had repudiated, reprobated, and condemned the very
positions you had advocated before this nation, declaring them to
be false, rash, scandalous, and extremely injurious to the holy see,
and that you had justified your deception and treachery on the
ground that they were best adapted to promote the interests of your
church, and therefore laudable and right let this be supposed,
and you will have a clear idea of what I mean by a pious fraud.
Upon you, sir, I charge no such fraud. I do not believe that you
have so far neutralized the salutary influences of your early educa-
tion as not to regard it with just abhorrence. But upon the pope I
do charge such a fraud in the documents which you have presented
in his behalf in our national councils. I am willing to assume
that you presented them in innocence, believing them to contain
the real opinions of the pope, and that you did not mean to
TO THE HON. JOSEPH R. CHAXDLER. 423
delude this nation by ignoring other fundamental documents in
the case, the presentation of which, by exposing the fraud, would
have dissipated the delusion created by your speech.
But I do affirm that Pope Pius VI., after allowing the docu-
ments which you have quoted to pass as an expression of his opin-
ions, and to produce their full effect in favor of his church throughout
the British empire, did in Italy, in a most solemn and authentic
document, under his own name, repudiate and condemn, as false,
rash, and scandalous, and extremely injurious to the holy see, the
doctrine of those very documents, and claim a divine right to depose
kings and rulers, and to release subjects from their oaths of alle-
giance. I affirm, moreover, that his successor, Pius VII., not only
confirmed this document, but distinctly and formally claimed the
divine right in question, and that it is at this very day claimed by
Pius IX. in a formal brief issued in the year 1851.
The proof of these statements is simple and direct. It is this :
By the bull " auctorem fidei," they utterly condemn the doctrine of the
Gallican declaration of 1682. Of the nature and importance of this
declaration you are well aware. In it the clergy of France, under
the lead of the eminent prelate Bossuet, assumed the very ground
which you now occupy that the pope has not a divine right to
depose kings and rulers, and to release their subjects from their
oaths of allegiance. Upon this declaration of the French clergy it
was that Charles Butler and the Romanists of England planted
themselves. No declaration was ever more conspicuous in the his-
tory of that church. Charles Butler repeatedly assured the people
of Great Britain, at the time of the great contest, as you now assure
us. that the whole Roman Catholic world had at last come over to
that ground. On this basis the universities whose opinions you
quote, planted themselves. It was by assuming this position, as
you concede, that they quieted the fears of the peopla of England,
and gained the political power which they now enjoy. All this
was well known to Pius VI., and he aided in producing the preva-
lent conviction by allowing his cardinals to issue, as in his name,
and with his approval, the document which you have quoted : and
yet you will observe that he does not speak in it in person, nor does
he sign it with the fisherman's ring, nor in any other way does he
authenticate it as a bull ; nor does he in any formal and official
way authenticate the oath which you quote. He simply allows his
cardinals to say that he approves these documents.
424 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
Not so is it when, in Italy, he condemns the declaration of the
French clergy and its advocates and defenders. This he does in
his own name, in a formal bull, officially authenticated.
I need not say to you that the four articles of this declaration
were expressly designed to resist the Papal claims of omnipotence
in church and state. By them he was denied to be infallible in his
decisions, and superior to general councils and the established
canons of the church.
But with special prominence and fulness was his temporal power
over kings and rulers denied in the first article, which I will present
in full, in order that the pope's condemnation of it may be seen as
in the light of the noonday sun.
" We declare that power over spiritual things, and such as pertain
to eternal salvation, but NOT over civil and temporal things, was
conferred by God on the blessed Peter and his successors, in ac-
cordance with the divine declaration, ' My kingdom is not of this
world.' John xviii. 36. And again, ' Render, therefore, to Ccesar the
things that are Casar's and to God the things that are God's.' Upon
this basis is founded the apostolic declaration, ' Let every soul be
subject to the higher powers ; for there is no power but of God ; the
powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resistetk
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.' Therefore kings and
rulers in temporal things are not subjected by the ordinance of God
to any ecclesiastical power; nor can they, by the authority of the
keys of the church, be deposed either by direct or indirect power ;
nor can their subjects be exempted from the duty of fidelity and
obedience, nor be released from their oath of allegiance. We de-
clare that this doctrine, which is essential to the public tranquillity,
and equally advantageous both to church and state, ought by all
means to be maintained, as in accordance with the word of God,
the traditions of the fathers, and the example of the saints."
Such is the famous declaration of the French clergy in 1682. Is
not this the precise ground assumed by you in your speech ? Was
it not the professed ground of the English Roman Catholics, led
on by Charles Butler? Are not these the very disclaimers which
you ascribe to Pope Pius VI. ? Yet this is the very declaration
which that pope condemned and repudiated as scandalous and ex-
tremely injurious to the holy see.
Yet this condemnation was not made openly in England, but
TO THE HON. JOSEPH B. CHANDLER. 425
covertly in Italy, so as not to arouse the public mind. It was
effected on the following occasion. In a council held in Pistoia in
1786, by the celebrated prelate Scipio Ricci, the reformer of the
notorious and scandalous immoralities of monks and nuns, to cor-
rect various abuses, the prelates adopted and eulogized the declara-
tion of 1682, in order to sustain the Duke of Tuscany, their patron
and defender, against the pope, who manifested a deadly hostility
against these reforms. For eight years Pius VI. repressed his feel-
ings against this declaration. Indeed, in the year 1791, he allowed
it to be said in England that he approved its doctrines, as we have
seen. Three years after, however, he adopted the following mode
of condemning them. He issued a long dogmatic bull, in which
he condemned eighty-five propositions of the council of Pistoia,
This bull is known as the bull " auctorem fidei." In the rnidst of
this immense Latin dogmatic swamp, which he supposed few Eng-
lishmen would ever undertake to penetrate, he saw fit to locate his
condemnation of the declaration of the French clergy. The emi-
nent French Roman Catholic civilian Daunou has, nevertheless;
brought it forth to the light, and I now submit it to you for your
careful consideration. Thus speaks Pius VI. :
" We must not pass in silence the famous and fraudulent rash-
ness of the synod of Pistoia, which has dared not only to speak
with eulogy of the declaration of the French clergy in 1682, loig
since censured by the holy see, but also undertaken to invest it with
greater authority by introducing it into a decree concerning the
faith, openly adopting the articles it contains, and sealing, by a
public and solemn profession of these articles, the principles scat-
tered through this same decree ; whence it follows, first, that we
have grounds to form against the said synod complaints much more
serious than those of our predecessors against the assembly of 1682 ;
and we may add that this synod outrages also the church of France
when it deems it worthy of being invoked as the patrcn of the
errors with which this decree is infected.
" In consequence, our venerable predecessors, Innocent XL, by
his brief of llth of April, 1682, and after him, more formally still,
Alexander VIII., by the bull 'inter multiplices,' dated the 4th of Au-
gust, 1690, having, in fulfilment of their apostolic duties, disowned,
abrogated, and declared null and without effect the said acts of the
assembly of the clergy of France, the pastoral solicitude exacts of
36*
426 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED.
us, with much stronger reasons, that the adoption which has been
recently made of these acts in the council of Pistoia be by us con-
demned and reprobated as rash, as scandalous, and, after the de-
crees which have emanated from our predecessors, as extremely
injurious to the holy see ; and accordingly we reprobate and con-
demn it by our present decree, and we ordain it to be held as rep-
robate and condemned."
Here, then, is disclosed, in all its stupendous magnitude, the
alleged Papal fraud. In England, where the Romish church was
weak and had an end to gain, Pius VI., with the assumed indigna-
tion of injured innocence, has the audacity to declare that the see
of Rome never claimed the power to depose kings and rulers, and
to release subjects from their oaths, and that those who affirm it are
heretical slanderers. Universities say amen, and bishops seal the
protestation by an oath.
Yet the same Pius VI., in Italy, in 1794, by a solemn bull, repro-
bates and condemns THE DENIAL that the pope has these very
powers, as false, scandalous, and extremely injurious to the holy
see.
And let it never be forgotten that this bull of Pius VI. does but
confirm the decrees of his predecessors, and has been sanctioned
by all his successors, and is now the supreme law of the see of
Rome. So, then, not only you, but all the bishops of this country,
if you may be trusted, are involved in the condemnation of this bull.
It may, I am aware, be alleged in behalf of the bishops that they
have also sanctioned the opposite doctrine, the true Papal doctrine,
as promulgated by Mr. Brownson in his Review, with the special
approval of Pius IX. There is the more reason for this allegation
since that gentleman assures us that he publishes nothing without
the sanction of his bishop, and since the leading bishops in this
nation, if not all of them, have indorsed and recommended his
work. This magnanimous course will, I presume, satisfy Pius IX
that at heart they are faithful to him, and he will allow them, as
well as yourself, to continue to defend, in his name and in that of
Pius VI., those doctrines which both he and his illustrious prede-
cessor abhor and have utterly condemned and reprobated. Why
should not the pope pursue the same course to delude the simple-
hearted and credulous Americans which his predecessors pursued
with such success in deluding the English ? for the same course of
TO THE HOX. JOSEPH R. CHANDLER. 427
fraud was assiduously pursued by Pius VII., and especially after
the concordat by which the Romish church was reestablished in
France under the auspices of Napoleon, subsequent to its destruc-
tion in the revolution. This treacherous pontiff allowed in England
the use made of the fraudulent document of Pius VI., on which
you rely ; he left uncensured the protestations of Charles Butler,
that the whole Romish world stood on the ground of the decla-
ration of the French clergy in 1682 ; he allowed his bishops to
take the oath quoted by you, framed in accordance with those
doctrines, whilst at the same time he was using all his influence
and energies for the destruction of that same hated Gallican decla-
ration.
That eminent Roman Catholic civilian and historian Daunou
says of him, that " he particularly solicited [from the French gov-
ernment] the retraction of the maxims proclaimed by the clergy of
France in 1682. In order to obtain this point he was provided with
the letter written by Louis XIV. in 1693 to Innocent XII., [in which,
in his old age, and under the terrors of the pope and of his con-
fessors, he abandoned the defence of the hated declaration of his
clergy,] and he seemed not to doubt at all of success. He hoped
that in reentering Rome he could proclaim himself the legislator of
the Gallican church, the only and infallible oracle of the church
universal, the superior of councils, and the sovereign of kings ; foi
such were the titles which the declaration of 1682 denied him."
Not succeeding with the French government, he consoled himself
with a new condemnation of the obnoxious declaration. This, how
ever, he did not do in an open and manly way, but by introducing
into a speech delivered in Rome on June 26, 1805, a eulogy on a
bishop who had adopted and indorsed the condemnation of each of
the eighty-five propositions of the council of Pistoia, contained in
the dogmatic bull " auctorem jidei ?) of Pius VI., already men-
tioned.
In commenting on this dastardly proceeding, the Roman Catholic
Daunou remarks, '' Now, it is known that one of the condemnations
contained in the bull ' auctorem fidei ' is levelled at the approba-
tion given by the council of Pistoia to the four articles of the French
clergy. It was thus that, confirming in all its terror a decree of
Pius VI., without an explication of its details, Pius VII. proscribed
at his ease the maxims of this Gallican church, in the bosom of
428 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
which he had just experienced so honorable a reception. We may
here remark a specimen of the artifices familiar to the court of
Rome. ' Ab uno disce omnes.' >J *
Nor did Pius VII. cease here. In his instructions to his nuncio
resident at Vienna, first made public from the Papal archives by
M. Daunou, he claimed as a divine right the power to depose Icings
and dissolve oaths of allegiance, after the example of Gregory VII.,
Innocent III., and others. You will find those instructions in the
address to American citizens prefixed to this work, p. 7. In those
instructions he declares that the merest tyro in history cannot but
know that sentences of deposition against heretical princes have
been pronounced by pontiffs and by councils, and that the subjects
of an heretical prince are enfranchised from every duty towards
him, and dispensed from all fealty and homage. He calls these
the most sacred maxims of just rigor of the church, and declares that
she still has THE RIGHT of deposing heretics from their principal-
ities, and of declaring their goods forfeited, although the present
calamitous circumstances render it inexpedient and impossible to
reduce these principles to practice.
Leo XII., Pius VIII., and Gregory XVI. intervene between Pius
VII. and the present pontiff, Pius IX. Pius VIII. was the special
friend and confidant of Pius VII. Of course we understand his
views. Leo XII. and Gregory XVI. distinguished themselves by
their denunciations against those declarations of rights of conscience,
and those principles of religious liberty and liberty of the press,
which lie at the foundation of our national and state constitutions, a
specimen of which you will find on p. 400 of this work, which
I recommend to your careful consideration.
And now, under Pius IX., we meet once more a formal condem-
nation of the doctrines of your speech in a fresh condemnation of
the doctrines of the Gallican declaration of 1682. It happened on
this wise : Francis G. Vigil, Roman Catholic Bishop of Lima, South
America, published certain dissertations, concerning which he thus
speaks : " The grand object of my dissertations is to refute the
doctrines of those who have confidently assured the faithful that
the spiritual and material swords are in the hands of the church at
the bidding of St. Peter and his successors; that kings and pontiffs,
* From one learn the policy of all.
TO THE HON. JOSEPH E. CHANDLER. 429
clergy and laity, do not compose two republics, but one only, which
is the church ; that, as in every body, the members must be united
and dependent ; and as spiritual things cannot depend on temporal,
the latter must depend on the former, and be made subservient to
them." In his second dissertation, among other lofty Papal as-
sumptions, he exposes the maxim that " he who governs in things
spiritual governs also in things temporal." Such are the dogmas
refuted by Bishop Vigil. Thus nobly does he plant himself with
you on the Gallican declaration of 1682. But what says Pope Pius
IX. to all this ? Of course, according to you, he says, " Well done,
good and faithful servant." Nay, rather, by a special brief, bearing
date June 10, 1851, he anathematizes, condemns, and suppresses
the book, " as reviving many of the errors of the synod of Pistoia,
which have been already condemned by the bull of our predecessor,
Pius VI., of grateful memory." Here, then, from the reigning
pope, Pius IX., we have a new indorsement of the bull " auctorem
fidei " of Pius VI., and a new condemnation of the Gallican doc-
trines of 1682, on which you stand. But this is in South America,
where Romanism bears sway. Here, as in England, so long as it
is weak, you and the bishops are allowed to teach, the Gallican
doctrine, and to confirm it in the name of the pope.
And now are any words needed to prove that the popes do claim
the deposing and absolving power by divine right ? Read again
the Gallican declaration. What is the main point of that docu-
ment ? Is it not a denial of a DIVINE RIGHT to the power in ques-
tion? And when the popes anathematize and condemn this denial,
do they not thereby claim the divine right denied ?
In reply to your assertion that Gregory VII. appealed to the con-
stitution and laws of the empire for his authority, and not to divine
right, I reply that you are not only at war with the established doc-
trine of the whole line of your own popes, but with all the docu-
ments of Gregory himself, and that you have quoted no document
from him to sustain your position. Why did you not quote even
one ? But your caution is judicious ; there is no document which
would bear a moment's scrutiny. Your learned prelate and histo-
rian Bossuet could find none, and affirms that there is none.
Moreover, he expressly declares that kings and people have never
recognized the deposing power as lawful. I ask your attention to
his declaration to this effect on p. 97 of this work. Moreover,
4:30 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
he drew up the declaration of 1682 against the divine right of the
popes to the deposing power, because he knew that the popes
rested their claims on that basis, and on no other. Moreover, your
champion, Mr. Brownson, whose historical learning I presume you
will not call in question, is no less at war with you. He declares
that " ALL HISTORY FAILS to show an instance in which the pope,
in deposing a temporal sovereign, professes to do it by the authority
vested in him by the pious belief of the faithful, generally received
maxims, the opinion of the age, the concesssion of sovereigns, or
the civil constitution and laws of Catholic states. On the contrary,
he ALWAYS claims to do it by the authority committed to him as
the successor of the prince of the apostles, by the authority of Al-
mighty God, of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, whose
minister, though unworthy, he asserts that he is, or some such
formula, which solemnly and expressly sets forth that his authority
is held by divine right, by virtue of his ministry, and exercised
SOLELY in his character of vicar of Jesus Christ on earth. To this
we believe there is NOT A SINGLE EXCEPTION." Such is the testi-
mony of Mr. Brownson. Till you disprove it by quoting some
authentic document against it, I shall believe that he is right on
this point, and that you are in a fundamental error. Allow me also
to call your attention to his views of the inexpediency, not to say
folly, of your present position and course on pp. 100, 101 of this
volume. He there declares that you will not succeed in making
your disclaimers credible, and that it is the wisest course openly to
avow the truth.
Why, then, if he repudiates your declarations, should we be so
simple as to believe them, and not those of your supreme authori-
ties? Or would you have us still be deluded by the pious fraud
of Pius VI., and by the responses of the universities, which were
in fact condemned by the bull " auctorem jidei," and have been re-
peatedly condemned by successive popes even to this day ? Shall
we not be taught by the course 'of events in England ? There
Charles Butler once took your ground ; but now Dr. Wiseman, the
main agent of the pope, declares that the canon law is established
in England, which contains all these atrocious claims of the popes
in their highest form. He also declares that the morals of Liguori,
which are the profligate morals of the Jesuits in their perfected
form, are now sanctioned by the pope, and are of supreme author-
TO THE HON. JOSEPH B. CHANDLER. 431
ity. The doctrines of persecution also are openly advocated in
leading Romish periodicals, (see p. 106 of this work.) and in histo-
ries prepared for their schools, that a generation may be trained up
indoctrinated for future deeds of blood.
Nor can you be ignorant that recently the same doctrines were
boldly avowed among us, as you may see on the same page,
although, since the result is proving that the development was pre-
mature, it seems to be for a time suspended. But in France, Bel-
gium, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere, the Papal court is exerting
all its energy to eradicate the Gallican doctrines, and to establish
the supreme civil as well as spiritual authority of the see of Rome.
In this movement the leading Romish periodicals, the majority of
the bishops, the Jesuits, and all the other religious orders rally
around the pope. At one time the threat was hinted in England
that the time might come of uniting Ireland and France in an
armed assault upon the Protestant power of Great Britain.
What, then, if Charles Butler was sincere ? What if you and
others are ? Generations die ; but the Papacy, with its immense
patronage and power of seduction and corruption, still lives, and
pursues a steady course of policy, the nature of which I have ex-
posed, and the ultimate aims of which are fast disclosing them-
selves in England. Even in France the Papacy has at last brought
the majority of the clergy to repudiate the glorious old Gallican
declaration, and to rally on the ground of the court of Rome, for
which the popes have so long and so pertinaciously contended. In.
South America, too, as we have seen, the Gallican doctrines are
fiercely anathematized by Pope Pius IX. And can it be possible
that even you, in view of all these facts, can longer remain simple
enough to be deluded by the infamous fraud of Pius VI., and by
the ambiguous responses of the American bishops, who virtually
sanction the doctrine of Mr. Brownson, whilst you are quoting them
against it ? Will you, too, be a party to the stupendous pious fraud
which I have exposed ? I will hot believe it without further evi-
dence. No ; I shall rather assume that your numerous ecclesias-
tical guides, whom, as you tell us, you have anxiously consulted,
including pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests, have successfully
conspired to keep you in ignorance of the true state of the sim-
plest and most notorious facts, and that, when you put forward your
theory as that of the whole church, you were not aware that the
432 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.
leading Papal organs of Europe abominate it, and that Mr. Brown-
son, in his review of Gosselin, had in this country repudiated it as
dishonorable to the Papal power, (as you may see on pp. 99, 101 of
this work,) proving that " the principal Catholic authorities are cer-
tainly in favor of the divine right," and of course against you. I
shall assume that you were thus led ignorantly to make statements
which, had you been well informed, you could not have made
without forfeiting your character as a man of honor and integrity.
Moreover, I shall assume in closing, as in beginning this letter, that
you will not knowingly prostitute your eminent powers in advocating
a known and undeniable fraud. Let me, then, hope that, in view of the
unequivocal evidence laid before you, you will abandon your inde-
fensible position, and join your Protestant fellow-citizen in repu-
diating a system the supreme head of which is a sworn defender
of principles which you renounce and abhor, and a patron of fraud
BO dishonorable that a noble and ingenuous mind cannot but recoil
from it with indignant abhorrence.
I am yours, with sincere affection,
E. BEECHER.
BOSTON, FEB. 17, 1855.
M. W. DODD
PUBLISHES,
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THE BIBLE ITS OWN INTERPRETER:
A Complete Concordince to the Holy Scriptures ; or, a
Dictionary and Alphabetical Index to the Bible. By
ALEXANDER CKUDEN, M. A., by which,
I. ANT TKIISK in the Bible may be readily found by
looking for any material word in the verse. To which is
added,
II. The significations of the principal -words, by which
their true meaning in the Scriptures is shown.
III. An account of Jewish customs and ceremonies, il-
lustrative of many portions of the Sacred Record.
IV. A Concordance to the Proper Names of the Bible,
and their meaning in the original.
V. A Concordance to the Books called Apocrypha.
To which is added : An original Life of the Author. 1
vol. royal 8vo, $3 50.
In its Complete form this work has stood the test of
more than one hundred and twenty-five years, outliving
every attempted substitute, such as abridgments of this, or
other works of similar character made out of it, Bible Anal-
yses, Manuals, Commentaries, &c. As a help t8 the study
of the Scriptures, it stands unrivaled among all who are fa-
miliar with works designed for that purpose. It has been
justly styled, "The Bible its own Interpreter."
TESTIMONIALS.
From the Rev. Professor Goodrich, D.D., of Tale College, New Ila-
Ten. I have made use of Cruden's Concordance for many years, and
have always regarded it as a monument of industry, and an indispen-
sable assistance, in its complete form, to the study of the Word of God.
From the Rev. M. W. Jacobus, D.D., of the Theological Seminary,
Pittsburg, Pa. No topical arrangement of passages, however complete
and useful in its way, can answer (lie same purpose. It is, indeed, a
Belf-interpreting Bible. Such a verbaT Concordance as Crudc-n has pro-
duced, is more needful to the liible student than the dictionary to a
common reader.
From the Rev. William B. Sprague, D.D., (Presbyterian,) Albany.
It has been the companion of my whole life, both as. a theological stu-
dent and a minister; ami it is the last book, with th;e exception of the
Bible itself, that I would consent to have pass out of my hands.
From the Rev. Thomas Do Witt, D.D.. (Dutch Reformed. 1 ! New York
City. It is invaluable to the biblical student, and the abridgment*
which have been made of it furnish no idea ofths thoroughnesn and
fMuess of th original ami complete work Other works, such a*
" Gaston's Collection,' 1 " Scripture "Manual/' "Analysis of the Bible,"
&c., cau never supply the place of the original Crudea's Concordance.
*
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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS!
From the Christian Chronicle (Philadelphia).
"This edition of tho Concordance is a most superior thins; and, In
fact, the only one that should bear the name of the distinguished
author. Every pastor, every student of the Bible, and every family,
should have this Concordance."
From the Albany Argw>.
"Though this work is now considerably more than a century old,
and has ha 1 competitors in one form or another, it retains an un-
questionable supremacy in this department of literature to the present
hour. It has been repeatedly abridged; but no abridgment has ever
approached the original."
From the Christian Secretary (Hartford).
"Every Bible-student, Sabbath-school, and Bible-class teacher, will
find it to his advantage to purchase this complete edition in preference
to any of the abridged ones. Beyond all question it is the best index
to the Bible ever published."
From the Evening Post.
"It has pretty much superseded every other similar work with
which it has been brought into compel! iio'n."
From the Religious Herald (Hartford).
"A partial imperfect Concordance is little better than none. There
is but one complete Concordance of ihe Bible, and that is CllL'DEN'S,
the work which is the subject of this notice."
From the New York Organ.
" It is a great mistake to suppose that only the clergy need its aid.
It i< i'!u;>h:, k'ally a book for the people, and no family should be with-
out it. It is proper to mention that this edition is not a condensed
one, but complete, as the author left it."
From the Christian Mirror (Portland.)
" In every family it should have a place beside the Bible. It is In-
dispensable to the thorough study of the Seiiptures. The Christian
father needs it The Sunday-school teacher needs it. The preacher
needs it. No work of the kind ever excelled this."
From the Advocate and Herald.
"Cruden's complete Concordance has stood the test of Biblical
study, and will never be displaced by any mere af/i-tdtfement. A good
Concordance is the best help for ihe study of the Bible ; and Cruden's
unabridged is incomparably the best English Concordance ever
compiled."
From the New York Observer.
" It is incomparably superior to all others. It should be In every
family, and not alone" in the. minister's library. lie could better dis-
pense with all bis commentaries than with this.' 1
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd.
From the Rev. Bishop Janes, D.D., (Methodist Episcopal Church,)
New York City. No book has aided tne more in the study of God's
Word enabling me to compare Scripture with Scripture, and interpret
Scripture by Scripture. I believe Its usefulness both to laymen and
ministers can hardly be overrated.
From the Rev. .T. B. Condit, D.D., of Lane Theological Seminary,
Cincinnati, Ohio. I have used it more than twenty years, with a grow-
ing estimate of its value. In its complete form, as published by Mr.
Dodd, I would earnestly commend it as the book that should find a
place in every family by the side of the Bible.
From the Rev. I. S. Spencer, D.D., (Presbyterian,) Brooklyn, N. T.
Crnden's Concordance is, in my opinion, altogether superior to any
other work of the kind. I do not believe that any Compendium, Ar-
rangement, or Analysis of the Sacred Scriptures "that has ever been
published, is so well calculated as this to be of assistance to students of
the WoidofGod.
From the Rt. Rev. Bishop Mcllvaine, D.D., ("Episcopal,) Ohio. No
English Concordance can take its place or do without it It is equally
precious to the minister of the Word and the earnest reader of the
Scriptures, or any sort or condition of men.
From the Rev. Albert Barnes, (Presbyterian,) Philadelphia. I have
long been in the habit of consulting the work to which you refer, and
deem it of Inestimable value, and do not believe that it Is superseded,
or Is likely to be, by any other similar work.
From the Rev. H. Humphrey, D.D., late President of Amhert Col-
lege, Mass. I have found it an'invaluable help in "comparing Scrip-
ture with Scripture."
From the Rev. Samuel H. Cox, D.D., (Presbyterian,) late of Brooklyn,
N. T. The value of Ouden'a Concordance, unabridged and entire, I
consider as Incomparable and indispensable.
From the Rev. Francis Wayland, LL.D., (Baptist.) President of Brown
University. I am happy to hear that yon are publishing Cruden's Con-
cordance "in Its original state. To the student of the Scriptures I con-
elder it (I write deliberately) above all price.
From the Rev. Gardiner Spiincr, LL.D., (Presbyterian,) New York
City. I can only say, that if I possessed but two books in the world,
they should be God'"s Bible and Cruden's Concordance.
From the Rev. Joel Parker, D.D., (Presbyterian,) New York Cltv.
It is a work worth more than all other books of reference combined" for
aiding in the study of the Sacred Scriptures. . . . Every Sunday-
school teacher, every family, and every young person who has not easy
access to it in the family of which he is a part, ought to have Crnden
standing beside the Bible on his table.
From the Rev. David S. Doggett, D.D., (Methodist,) Editor of the
Southern Methodist Quarterly Review. I regard Cruden's Complete
Concordance to the "Holy Scriptures" as Incomparably superior to
every work of the kind that has ever appeared Besides
furnishing the very best interpretation of the Sacred Writings, It is also
Dictionary of the Bible, of the highest utility to every student of the
Word of God.
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd.
A PASTOR'S SKETCHES:
Or, Conversations with Anxious Inquirers respecting the
Way of Salvation. By ICHABOD S. SPENCER, D.D., Pastor
of Second Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. 2 vols.
12 mo.
This work has had an almost unequaled sale, for one of
its kind. For individuality and graphic delineation of
character, and for absorbing interest to the reader, it is
hardly surpassed by any thing in the language.
A few opinions of the press are here subjoined:
This is a book of remarkable interest. It is one of pastoral experi-
ence; and the thrilling interest that gathers about many of the scene*
and incidents which it; describes, justifies the comparison which baa
been made of it in this respect to the well-known " Diary of a Physi-
cian." Indepen den t.
It is a work of intense interest, and is destined to a wide circulation
and great usefulness. Albany Argus.
We leave this book with reluctance. It has all the interest of War-
ren's sketches, entitled "Diary of a Physician," and it is an interest of
a much higher order. It is a book, too, of a pointed and solemn in-
struction, on the gravest of all themes. Nothing like it exists. Amer-
ican Bible Repository.
This is a remarkable book. The work is written in a bold, clear,
straightforward style, that carries the idea direct to the heart. N. Y.
Recorder.
We have rarely read a book of a religiously didactic character that
has abounded with so much strong practical good sense, or so much
interest to us, as this volume. We warmly commend it to Christian
pastors of every denomination. After reading it they will, we are sure,
recommend it with equal fervor to those in their congregations who
need its counsels. Com. Advertiser.
We can convey no idea of the exceedingly happy and triumphant
logic often displayed in this volume. As an intellectual work, it is of
surpassing interest. But in a spiritual point of view, the earnest, ab-
sorbing desire to open plainly the way to Christ, and the tender religioua
feeling pervading all these discussions, give the work an interest and
value which we feel in no danger of exaggerating. N. Y. Evangelist.
The pictures are true to life, and are sketched with such graphic
skill as to forbid the possibility of their having been the product of
mere fancy. We earnestly hope that the work will have a very wide
circulation. 2T. T. Observer.
Those sketches that we have as yet been able to read, are intensely
Interesting, especially that of the "Dying Univevsalist." To those who
are fond of lending good books, we would vehemently commend this
as one that will be very sure to be read. PuHtin Recorder.
The book is in the dramatic form, and so vividly drawn that the
reader becomes not merely a spectator, or a listener, but an actor In
all that is described. Few will be able to leave it until they have read
I is last page. Literary Messenger.
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd.
SERMONS OF THE REV. I. S. SPENCER, D.D.
Author of " A Pastor's Sketches."
With a Sketch of his Life. By Rev. J. M. Sherwood.
2 vols. 12mo. With fine portrait.
OPINIONS OF THl PEESS I
Prom, the Puritan Recorder.
"The Trifle circulation which his two volumes of Sketches have
gained will render these two posthumous volumes of discourses the
more universally welcome; and we can assure those who have read
the former, no matter with how much delight, that they will be in no
danger of disappointment in reading the latter."
From the New York Independent.
" As a whole they are fine specimens of the clear, simple, earnest,
faithful preaching of the Gospel. They are good sermons for the
family. The memoir is an interesting sketch of a life of industry,
diligence and devotion."
from the Daily Courant (Hartford).
"They are rich in thought, clear, discriminating, and sound in doc-
trine, and withal remarkable for sim; licity of style and directness of
address. The sketch of Dr. Spencer's Life as drawn by Mr. Sherwood
is Just, and presents him as an admirable example of pastoral fidelity
and great success in ' his work.' "
From the Journal of Commerce.
" A more valuable collection it would be difficult to find. The mere
titles are impressive, embracing all the great fundamental truths of the
Gospel. Most cordially do we commend these sermons to the atten-
tion of the Christian public."
From the New York Observer.
"They are fall of the strong, good sense, the powerful logic, and the
pointed appeal, which made his preaching so effective."
From the New York Evangelist.
"They are very striking, original, clear and impressive efforts.
There is not an ordinary sermon in the volumes ; while some of them
evince consummate ability. They are instinct with life and power.
The memoir prefixed by Mr. Sherwood strikes us as admirable."
From the Christian Chronicle (Philadelphia).
"The sketch of his life and character, and the discourses that are
added, give a clear view of this good and useful minister of Christ, and
can not be too highly valued. They are a valuable contribution to
sacred literature."
From the Christian Observer (Philadelphia).
"These handsome volumes contain a truly valuable addition to the
religious literature of our country. They are the works of an able,
devoted and eminently useful minister of Christ."
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THE WORKS OF
GARDINER SPRING, DJX, LLD,
In Eleven Vols. 12mo. Uniform binding.
COMPRISING
THE ATTRACTION OF THE CROSS;
Designed to Illustrate the Leading Truths, Obligations
and Hopes of Christianity.
THE MERCY SEAT;
Thoughts suggested by the Lord's Prayer.
FIRST THINGS;
A Series of Lectures on the Great Facts and Moral Les-
sons first revealed to Mankind. In 2 vols.
THE GLORY OF CHRIST;
Illustrated in his Character and History, including the
Last Things of his Mediatorial Government. In 2 vols.
THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE WORLD TO THE BIBLE;
A Series of Lectures to Young Men.
THE POWER OF THE PULPIT;
Or, Thoughts addressed to Christian Ministers, and those
who hear them.
SHORT SERMONS FOR THE PEOPLE.
Twenty-six Discourses of a highly popular and practical
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PROF. BOYD'S WORK ON THE WESTMINSTER
SHORTER CATECHISM;
Being the Shorter Catechism : with Analysis, Scriptural
Proofs, Explanatory and Practical Inferences, and Illus-
trative Anecdotes.
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES, THE PUBLIC PRES8
4C. AC.
Prom the Presbytery of Geneva.
Resolved "That we recommend to onr churches the forming of
classes for the study of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the
use of the recent work prepared by the Rev. J. K. Boyd, explanatory
and illustrative of that admirable compend of divine truth.
" Passed at session of Geneva Presbytery at Waterloo, Feb. 7th,
1855."
from the Richmond Watchman and Observer.
" Believing, as we do, that the Shorter Catechism is one of the most
complete products of uninspired intellect, we hail with pleasure every
aid to its right comprehension. The one before us we regard aa the
very best we have seen. It presents first an analysis, Ac
There is thus furnished to the parent or teacher a complete apparatus
for explaining this wonderful condensation of Scriptural truth."
From the Princeton Review.
After quoting the title-page, the notice proceeds :
"This descriptive title gives a just idea of the author's somewhat
novel plan, which appears to have been carried into execution with
commendable diligence and good success."
From the Puritan Recorder.
" This was a happy conception. While it relieves the Catechism of
Its exclusively didactic character, thus rendering it more attractive to
the young, its felicitous illustrations are well fitted to impress the truth
more deeply upon persons of every age and character."
From the New York Evangelist.
"Prof. Boyd, whoso editions of the Poets have become well known,
has published an edition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, with
elucidatory notes. The author has given first an analysis of the Cate-
chism, &c The light thrown by these various exercises
upon the text is very great We do not know of any work so full of
suggestion, in reference to the venerable Catechism, as this; and as a
book for Bible-classes and the family, recalling that inimitable old
symbol, we wish we could commend it with power enough to bring
it into universal use."
From the Independent.
"We like the plan of this Commentary on the Catechism. On the
whole we think it the best help to the parent, the teacher and the
pastor, In the use of this venerable formulary."
From the Philadelphia Christian Observer.
" A valuable and interesting manual for the Bible-class and family."
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd.
from the Presbyterian Magazine.
" Mr. Boyd's work on the Shorter Catechism seems well adapted to
take with the young. So far as we have examined it, the strictures
and inferences are evangelical and judicious; and we hope that Pres-
byterians will appreciate this effort to promote the study of their
standards."
From the New York Baptist Register.
"The book forms a brief but suggestive system of theology, valua-
ble both to the ministry and laity," and in the family circle."
From the Newark Daily Advertiser.
" This little book of Mr. Boyd's is admirably adapted to interest the
young in the study of the Catechism, to convey its lessons clearly to
their minds, and enforce them on their hearts. We consider it a valua-
ble aid to teachers of Sabbath-schools and Bible classes, and to par-
ents in conducting family instruction."
From the Christian Mirror.
"Mr. Boyd's Commentary is exceedingly well planned and exe-
cuted ; and we think it will prove widely acceptable."
From the New York Observer.
" "We hope that this volume, evidently prepared with much care,
and giving an analytical view of that monumental compend of di-
vinity, 'The Shorter Catechism,' mav be an encouragement to its more
diligent study. It is designed for Bible-classes and family instruction,
and is very largely provided with proof upon the various doctrines
exhibited, and with illustrative extracts, which will make the study
more interesting to the young."
From the Boston Traveller.
"This is a most valuable little book, filled with the most important
Instruction, and enlivened by numerous pertinent anecdotes, illus-
trative of t,he doctrines taught."
From the Philadelphia Christian Chronicle.
"The admirers of the "Westminster Catechism will be gratified to
meet with this edition."
From the Boston Evening Telegraph.
"The plan is original, and just adapted to the wants of the age.
The aged, too, will love the Catechism more by familiarity with this
volume. The plan of the work has been submitted to some of
our most distinguished divines, and they give it their unqualified
approval.''
From the Literary Scrap Book.
"We hail with pleasure the appearance of the "Westminster Shorter
Catechism in its present form No better summary of re-
ligions Bible truth can be found or conceived of, than that contained
in this Shorter Catechism."
Many other notices have been received of a similar scope and
character.
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd.
ORIENTAL AND SACRED SCENES;
From Notes of Travel in Greece, Turkey and Palestine,
By Fisher Howe. 1 vol. 12mo. Beautifully illus-
trated with maps and colored engravings, in the highest
style of art
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS:
From the New York Independent.
"Few travelers have made so intelligible a report of the East, free
from redundancy, accurate and distinct"."
From the Journal of Commerce.
"Mr. Howe's Sketches, by their brevity and popular interest, will
attract the mass of biblical readers more even than the elaborate re-
searches of .Robinson and Smith."
From, the Congregationalist (Boston),
" It ought to get within t'ue reach of all parish libraries."
from Vie Presbyterian Magazine,
" This is a work of rich instruction and uncommon merit. It is pub-
lished in an elegant style, and deserves a wide circulation."
Irom the New York Evangelist
" He travels with the Bible in his hand, and his descriptions often
throw striking light upon many difficult passages."
From the Journal and Messenger.
" We welcome the book as a valuable accession to sacred literature."
from the 2f. IT. Palladium.
"A very elegant, entertaining and instructive book."
From Norton's Literary Gazette.
"His style is animated, and his descriptions so graphic and life-like,
that the reader seems to be transported to the place which he is de
scribing."
From the Western Literary Magazine.
"This book possesses more than one attraction. The letter-press is
superb, the illustrations are numerous and beautiful, and the subject-
matter is both agreeable and instructive."
From the N. Y. Christian Intelligencer.
"The volume is full of graphic description and valuable inform-
ation."
From the Merchants Magazine.
" It contains much in relation to scenes, manners and customs of
the parts visited by the author, that will interest not only the biblical
student but the general reader."
Books Published and for Sale by M. fy . Dodd.
A BOOK FOR EVERY ONE.
THE WORLD'S LACONICS?
Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors, Ancient and
Modern, in Prose and Poetry, Alphabetically and Top
ically arranged. By EVERAKD BERKKLET. With an In
troduction, by WM. B. SPRAGUF. D. D. 1 vol. l*2mo.
" So far as we know, this i? decidedly the best book of the kind in
the whole of Knglish, and, we beMeve it may safely be added, of th*
world's literature." Hartford Daily Times.
'This volume contains a mine of valuable sayings and sentiments
from the g'-eat masters of lan2U:igc. A C.ilifrni-i of Golden Thoughts,
ou subjects alphabetically arranged.'' Christian Advocate.
"This is by far the best book of laconics ever published. It is a
perfect storehouse of thought and truth, sparkling, from beginning to
end, with the richest gems, gathered from ihe pages of the best authors
of ancient and modem times." JVeu; London Daily Star.
"It contains a rich collection of great thoughts thoughts which
cannot die, for they have the principle of life in them." Christian
Observer.
" It is a glorious ocean of thought and sentiment, moral and spirit-
ual." Spectator.
"Here is a book, "The World's Laconic."," that has not n single
parngraph in it that would not suffice to leaven a pretty big lump of
modern reading.'' Express Messenger.
"The labor and research nec-'ssiry to make up such a rolume as
this, must have been very creat; but they are not greater than the
good judgment and taste displayed in the manner of its execution."
Gamming** Evening Bulletin.
" It is a book where are enshrined the richest pearls, fished from
the great ocean of thought." Christian Intelligencer.
" fiere, on every page, sparkle the purest gems of those who have
lived to enlighten, instruct and benefit the world, b their imperish-
able writings." Daily State Register.
"This work seems to be carefully and skilfnlly compiled, and gives
us a great accumulation of the wisest things that have been produced
by the wisest men." Puritan Recorder.
" We regard it as an admirable addition to our literature, and it
must be invaluable to all writers." .Morning Ezprets.
" Almost every subject within the range of human thought, is here
presented in a brilliant and compact form." C.4. Secretary.
" We have here a great range, embracing almost every leading
subject, illuminated and warmed by some bright conception, a inn
exquisite sentiment, some pithy and striking Buying of a noble mind
lu its best mood." Hangar Whig.
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd.
POETIC READINGS
For Schools and Families. With an INTRODUCTION. By
J. L. COMSTOCK, M. D., author of " System of Natural
Philosophy," <fec. <fec.
"This is a selection from some of the choicest poets, in which the
best feelings of youth lire reflected. It will kindle the interest and fix
the attention of the young, and give to the mind a healthful tone."
The. Book Trade.
"The selection before us is in all respects one of the most valuable,
if not the very best, that we have ever met with. It displays flue
judgment, admirable taste, and a keen appreciation of the beautiful ;
while in its moral tone, it is perfectly unexceptionable." The
Family Friend.
"We cordially recommend to all young renders this charming col-
lection. It is executed with soundness of judgment, delicacy of taste,
and great range of research ; and no school ought to be without it."
Home Journal.
"The poetry is of the highest moral stamp, of the very character
fitted to cultivate intellect and heart." Spectator.
"The collection is from the best pens, the Howitts, Taylors. Bernard
Barton, Cowper, and other*, "household words." and is made in ex-
cellent tusto and keeping ; and it is a book, out of its very simplicity,
in which :ige cnn find as much delight and heart nutriment as youth a
welcome little volume." Literary World..
"A very handsome collection of choice poems from the first au-
thors. Among them we notice that touching ballad, ''The Children
in the Wood," John Gilpin, Cassabianca, and a hundred others of
equal interest to the young." Daily Mercury.
" Parents and Sabb-tth School touchers will find this a book from
which their children can commit most excellent pieces to memory."
Watchman and Reflector.
"These selections of poetry for the young present an admirable
mirror, in which they may see their own best feelings reflected, and
wherein whatsoever is excellent is set before them in the most attrac
live form." Hunt's Merchant's Magazine.
SOVEREIGNS OF THE BIBLE.
By ELIZA R. STEELE, Author of " Heroines of Sacred
History," Ac. With illuminated title and numerous fine
illustrations. 12mo.
"We have here the scattered facts in the lives of the Kings of
Israel and Judah, skilfully arranired into continuous narratives, which
are at once highly instructive and deeply monitory." Albany Argus.
"It will give order and distinctness to all previous acquaintance
with Jewish history." Spectator.
" It will be a useful and interesting work for the Sunday School and
home libraries." Newark Daily.
"The book deserves high commendation, and will be extensively
read." Jfont Journal,
University of California
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