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Th

m IDOUBLE

m DOCTRINE

of the

CHURCH OF ROME

BARONESS VON ZEDTWITZ

BX 1765

SMC

THE DOUBLE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME

The Double Doctrine of the Church of Rome

By BARONESS VON ZEDTWITZ

New York Chicago Toronto

Fleming H. Revell Company

London and Edinburgh

. ^

• 1*

Copyright, 1906, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

New York : 1 58 Fifth Avenue Chicago : 1 7 North Wabash Ave London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh : 75 Princes Street

To the Rev. C. L. G.

ds a mark of esteem and sympathy I dedicate this booklet

Preface

"Know the truthj and the truth shall make you free."— JOHN 8 : 32.

BEFORE making public my re nunciation of the doctrines of the Roman Church, I have considered the question from many sides; and the opinions which I now hold, are not the outcome of ephemeral fancy, nor yet of animosity.

My intimate connection with the Catholic clergy, but especially with the hierarchy, both in America and Europe, has brought me into near touch with not only the secret and inner workings of the Roman Church [7]

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but also with the doctrines by which it is governed.

In childhood and early girlhood, without palliating the unchristian conduct of almost all the prelates with whom I came in contact, I never ceased to hope and believe that when womanhood had ripened my judg ment, the apparent inconsistencies would be fully explained and the truth become evident to me. To this period of enlightenment I confidently looked forward. What was of Christ, must at bottom, contain His spirit, and accepting unquestioningly the as sumption that Roman Catholicism was the " Leader amongst Christian Churches ; " I knew that what would [8]

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be revealed to me must, on this as sumption being true, steady my wavering allegiance to the Papacy.

But Church politics had other uses for my cooperation than in the futile searching for Christ's divine spirit within its body, and I was led im perceptibly to a deeper and truer knowledge of the essence of that Church which I had always believed " Holy." The loyal Roman Catholic had active work to accomplish on earth — viz., the propagating of Church influence — not simply practicing the supposed teaching. The Church needed brave helpers, women and men, and to each the task was allotted according to the individual capacity. C9]

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The Church blessed the methods em ployed by those who really loved and served her; and all such would be considered not only permissible but laudable.

What then was to become of the moral code, if ecclesiastical and moral duty clashed? The first is law, the second habit, was the reply. The moral habit is helpful doubtless to primitive simple folk, but it is dead and lifeless in itself, and often crushes the spirit. No great work was ever done by narrow moralists ; for with that rule of life, we neither grow nor accomplish.

This gave me the first clew to the double system within the Church of

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Rome ; for the uninitiated, I knew, were wholly unaware of this dis tinction in teaching. The separa tion of morals from religion seemed to me such a highly important indication in reaching the enlighten ment I so much desired, that I followed it persistently and un remittingly, and it became therefore inevitable that I found myself at last an admitted member in Church politics, and at the source and heart of Esoteric Catholicism. God's glory and Christ's teachings were then but the armour and shield to hide the real pretensions of the Vatican ; and the Papacy, with all it promises, im plies and tolerates, is the rallying

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word with which the faint-hearted Romanist is won back to service.

But Romanism to be understood, must be traced to its source, and it is to the College of Cardinals in Rome, and the " Propaganda," one must look for the true confirmation of its spirit. As the system is found there, so it is in its real essence and nature, or else the name Roman Catholicism has no meaning. It is a known fact that after Luther had been to Rome, he ceased to believe in the religion he had never before truly known : and to-day it is generally admitted that an ecclesiastical student, when he leaves Rome, carries away with him little else than the Papal banner, and

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has laid his primitive moral code at the feet of the infallible successor of St. Peter.

Revolt was the inevitable result of my search for enlightenment, and I struggled to be free; but from the desert waste of Esoteric Catholicism but few can find the true path back to Christianity, and mine was a long and dreary search. I had been told that revolt from the Papacy meant annihilation of all belief. I saw the confirmation of these terrible words in the despairing souls of all the prel ates I had known, and in their as surance that the only bridge that saved them from spiritual ruin, was the active work necessitated by the [13]

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Papacy, and the personal ambition which spurred them to more labours.

The outlook seemed hopeless, but to cling to a system I had learned to despise, meant abandoning forever the ideals I had always before my eyes, and the hope I entertained of the final perfecting of character through the aid of religion. The voice of conscience became ever louder, and finally drowned the superstitious fear which held me back from the step I knew I must take.

In the name of Christ, whose pure

image had been long blurred by

the dross of Popery, in the name of

Righteousness and Duty, I cast from

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ce

me what was left of the garb of Ro manism, and resolved to stand before my God, as an upright, if an un clothed soul.

Owing to the extremely hostile atti tude assumed by the Roman Church in this country, towards my decision, and its persistent efforts to, at first, deny, and then belittle the sincerity of my renunciation of their system, I have found it necessary to resort to the only way of silencing the voices of those who persistently spread the report that I have never completely severed my connection with the Church of Rome.

Through the means of this booklet, I hope to convince those who credited

[is]

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the former rumours, that with the knowledge I possess of the in stitution, my decision is irrevocable; and my repudiation of its twofold system, final. I wish, especially, that my renunciation of Rome should first be known here in America, as it was here, that I was first trained in the service of the Papacy ; and here that I was first bathed in the waters of Esoteric Catholicism.

THE AUTHOR.

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THE DOUBLE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME

a Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." — 2 TIMOTHY 2 : 19.

TO one who has been a think ing member of the Church of Rome, there must come a mo ment of awakening from the unreal dreams of its Divine origin, there must inevitably come that period of emancipation from ignorant prej udices, gross superstitions, and un sound beliefs. This period marks the opening of a higher life — a regeneration as it were — it presages the hope of the perfection of char acter, through the direct workings

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of the individual conscience. It is the joyous moment when the bonds man becomes free.

The Church of Rome as an or ganization has never tolerated in dividualism amongst its members. It at once affirms and denies the individual conscience, inasmuch as that conscience must ever be sought in the dogmas and direction of the Institution.

Now what are the teachings of the Institution? There are two distinct sets and headings. First : Those for the uninitiated, or the sheep. Sec ond : Those for the initiated, or the shepherds. In other words, there

is Exoteric and Esoteric Catholicism. [18]

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With the Exoteric doctrines it finds means to defend itself against attack, and retreats always behind the bulwarks of Christian ethics. It proclaims charity, sincerity, justice, altruism, professes from the pulpits the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and thus deludes its adversaries, who fall back disheartened, and abandon a syste matic attack.

Members of the Roman com munion who are the cause of recur ring scandals, are declared lamentable exceptions to the universal virtuous living of the priesthood ; they are acknowledged as the stray sheep, whom the ever loving " Mother Church " would fain recover. [19]

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The curious searcher, however, who is desirous of reconciling the history of the Roman Church with its avowed doctrine, cannot be satisfied with such inconsistency, and it must, in time, become clear to him that only through the existence of an Esoteric doctrine can such grave discrepancies be ex plained.

When in the seventeenth century the immortal Pascal in his " Provin- ciales " brought consternation to the Christian world by his exposures of the moral code of the Jesuits, a blow was then dealt to that powerful engine of the Papacy, from which it has never fully recovered. The Church of Rome then attempted to

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localize such false precepts by allow ing the Jesuits to bear the full force of the attacks, without, however, daring to disown them as her sons, although an unsustained effort was later made by Clement XIV., in this direction. What was then con clusively proved against the moral teaching of the Jesuits, is essentially true of the whole Roman Church; were it not so, the Jesuits must then have disappeared as members of a Church which was bound, through such exposures, to repudiate them. The Papacy learned that it needed them for its support, as its whole system is committed to the same principles.

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A secret grudge was harboured by Rome, however, against the Jesuits, for having allowed the searchlight of enquiry and criticism to be thus thrown upon its Esoteric system, and it might ultimately have fared ill with them, had they not found means to reinstate themselves in Roman favour, by their unremitting persecution and final extirpation of their foes, and cause of all the trouble — the Jansenists. This brave, uncompromising community of men, rigid, austere moralists of irreproach able lives, and high ideals, was an extremely embarrassing factor in the Roman Church. The aim of their

struggle was clear. With pure mo- [22]

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tive they sought through the master hand of Pascal, to eradicate the weeds from around the holy tree of religion, but their task was an impossible one, — the evil lay deeper than they knew, or believed at the time.

To thwart this purpose, the Jesuits, well armed for attack by their doctrinal training, lured the Jansen- ists, by artful devices, from the peril ous heights of morals, to the safer plains of dogma, and having com mitted themselves on the abstruse question of the " Workings of Grace," the Jesuits hurled the anathema of Rome against them for heresy. They succumbed, heroes in the battle, refus ing openly to abandon a cause to [23]

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which they had once pledged them selves, but were impotent to aid.

Jesuitical casuistry is to-day, and has been since the Reformation, the powerful intellectual bond which holds the organization from disrup tion. The disorders and excesses of the Papacy, in glaring contradiction to Christian doctrine, could not find jus tification under the teaching of the Church doctors; the Jesuits under took to span the gulf, which was becoming wider, between Christianity and Catholicism ; and elaborated through their Fathers, a new system of ethics, to meet every emergency, and which in its completeness and conciliatory spirit, justified the out- 04]

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rages committed against the accepted moral code, by the Church of Rome.

All during the dark ages of me dievalism, the Church of Rome held such undisputed sway over the minds of all Christians, that she was practic ally independent of a specifically for mulated Esoteric doctrine ; although casuistry was systematized as a sci ence for Church use, as early as 1238, by the writings of Raymundus de Pennaforte. With its system of ob scurantism and superstition, it did not fear attack. The Church was the sole arbiter of its actions and principles, and juggled with the Christian doctrine as it suited its purpose. But as the religious mind [25]

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emerged into the light of truth, the Protestant Reformation broke out as a vigorous protest against error. The Roman Church was tried to its limits. It was then, in answer, to Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin that the Jesuits arose as the Church's champions.

It was not, as is popularly believed, to combat heresy that the Jesuits, as an order, came into being ; it was to save the Roman Church from the abyss and ruin which threatened it. Both within and without the Roman Church, Luther and Calvin are known, not as heretics, but Reform ers ; and the name Reformation can

never be torn from that stupendous [26]

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movement which freed thinking and believing minds from the servitude of Rome.

With the uncertain meaning of the " Doctrine of Probability," the Jesuit Fathers may be as right in doctrine as the holy doctors ; so that if the teachings of St. Thomas, St. Chrysos- tom, St. Augustine are outraged openly by Popes and prelates, these delinquents are fully covered and justified by Escobar, Filiutius, Molina, Lessius, and Sanchez.

It may be pleaded that these little known and less read authorities con cern the Jesuits only, and do not affect materially the universal Roman doc trine. The answer to this objection is,

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— Rome has always known the doc trine of these writers, and no Papal Bull has ever denounced them as heretical or immoral. In view of this, these and other Jesuit writers stand as authorities, whom every Ro man Catholic has a right to consult, and whose teachings may unscrupu lously be followed.

The pious Bishop Jansenius was condemned, and his book declared heretical for questioning the " Doc trine of Free Will " and " Final Justi fication by Grace." But the comfort ing assurances of Filiutius, Molina, and Lessius, that simony is not a crime, " if you direct your motive,"

that homicide is fully justified, " when [28]

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committed to avenge an affront" have never yet been officially disowned by Rome. Navarrus, another casuist, en larging upon the question of duelling discussed in the Moral Theology of Sanchez, has likewise never been condemned for saying : " It is even preferable not to employ the means of duelling against an enemy, if you can kill him secretly and in that way finish the affair ; for by so doing you can at once avoid risking your own life in the combat, and besides the participation in the sin which your enemy would commit in duelling. " St. Thomas distinctly says that " it is always simony to exchange a spiritual good for a temporal one."

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Could the selling of indulgences ' and Masses for the departed, be still permitted if another doctrine did not exist to offset this prohibition ? It is found in the treatise of Valentia who says in substance that "if money be given to obtain a spiritual good, the motive should be directed in such a manner, that the money be not con sidered the direct price of the advan tage obtained."

Rome has accepted this interpreta tion, for spiritual good is still a traffic of the whole Church, and not alone of the Jesuits, and we must infer that it is done by the law, that the motive is always "properly directed. " Papal toleration of the sweeping assertion [30]

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of Fathers Cellot and Reginaldus, that " in matters of morals the modern casuists must be followed rather than the Church Fathers," proves that the Papacy has great need of this secret negation of the immorality of any act.

It has always been on theological questions only that heresies have been declared within the Church of Rome, as its basis is spiritual specula tion and not the moral law.

Even from the early ages of the Church, constant protestations were raised against over estimation of dogma, and the neglect of morals; and in the time of Athanasius, in the fourth century, a certain Rhetorius,

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who numbered many followers assum ing different names, protested vigor ously against orthodoxy being re posed in aught but fidelity to convic tions. These reforming sects devoted themselves exclusively to the study of morals, and were condemned as heretics by John of Damascus.

The Arian and Manichaen contro versies occupied the Church for over a century, and led her consequently into every kind of religious aberra tion. The fact that all these intricate, hair-splitting distinctions in dogma, and their mystical, philosophical import, were then, and are still, above the general comprehension, did not divert the Church from the ab- [32]

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sorbing attention that she devoted to these controversies. She saw the ad vantage more and more of placing be fore the Christian world a dogmatic system of spiritual speculation, which the ordinary mind could never grasp ; but recoiled from the repeated insist ence of moralists, to enforce the ob servance of a moral code, which though within the comprehensive reach and practice of all would be clearly not to Rome's advantage if rigorously adhered to.

Jesuitism is but Esoteric Catholi cism made tangible. It is the heart and spirit of the whole system ; and whether or not, there have been, and still be Popes and prelates who [33]

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are covertly hostile to its necessary hegemony, they are aware that if Catholicism and papacy are to last, Jesuitism is absolutely indispensable for their justification ; were it other wise Rome, following the course she has always pursued in denouncing un sound doctrines of a theological nature, would have been forced to call upon the Jesuits in Vatican Coun cil to disown and repudiate the un sound moral teachings of a whole host of Jesuit authors ; or failing to obey this order banish the Jesuits from the Church. Rome has never attempted either. The Jesuits are the bold cynics who meet with a sneer, the faltering Christian doubtful of his [34]

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power to reach salvation ; they are the mockers of those seeking more light on intellectual doubts ; they, the modern Pyrrhonists, emboldened by their Greek prototype, reply now, to the seeker of truth, as Pilate once replied to Christ : " What is Truth ? "

It might be well to examine a little, by which law, moral ecclesiastical de linquents and prelates within the Church are governed.

It will scarcely be maintained, by the most partisan Roman Catholic, that the obligations placed on the priesthood are never violated. It would be preposterous to assume, even lacking positive proof to the contrary, — which, however, is abundant — that [35]

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all members of the Roman clergy and hierarchy lead that life of continency and purity which should be the un derlying spirit of their celibate law. In its very nature of denial it can be applied only to a restricted class of men who have, through a highly developed spirituality, reached that level where they can begin to realize the possibilities of the super-man.

Without any regard to these psy chological types, the Church imposes on all its clergy alike, a law beyond the power of universal observance un less accepted in its broadest interpreta tion. The unlettered peasant priest of the French provinces, the Italian contadino who before his ordination

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in his boyhood and youth has tilled the land, and been deprived of any but an instruction of the most elementary kind, the Aztec barbarian of the Mexican Church, with primi tive instincts and uncurbed animal passions, can no more understand the lofty meaning of a strict celibate vow, than they can perceive the mys ticism and transcendentalism which the Roman Catholic dogma contains. It seems quite evident that the Church has no intention of interpret ing this law so strictly in its general application, since the vows of all cloisters, and the special code govern ing Regulars include, besides the vow of celibacy, the supplementary vow of [37]

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chastity, which would naturally be wholly unnecessary, did the already existing vow of celibacy sufficiently express the denial they volunteer to observe.

The disciplinary punishment ap plied to trespassers has regard, there fore, solely to the violation of the let ter, and is broad and lax. On all points of conduct the clergy are repri manded in proportion to the scandal which they have caused, and not at all for the act per se. Their expulsion from the Church and loss of power depend entirely on the position they occupy within it ; and the treatment of such cases is always commensurate with the personal importance of the [38]

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-::. Rome is perfectly aware of the continued excesses to which this law gives rise, and too, that it largely contributes to honeycomb the Church with vice, which, because of her love of power, she abstains from eradicat ing, and it therefore becomes imper ative to apply all her administrat skill to conceal from the public, the dire results of her inexorable policy in this respect.

Do we find here an application of the Church's Exoteric doctrine? — " If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee, for it is profita ble for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell," or its [39]

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deeper doctrine expounded by Filiu- tius, that, " the laws of the Church and teachings of the doctors lose their force when they are no longer ob served/' and that according to Cellot : " too great severity should not be ap plied to the clergy as there never can be too many priests." It is evident that the Church seeks to swell her ec clesiastical members at all cost, for it helps to promote her earthly power and influence through the divine power conferred on the priests at ordination.

This is confirmed by St. Alphonsus

Liguori who, though not a Jesuit, is

generally accepted in the Church of

Rome as the great Master of Moral

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Theology. In his work entitled, " Dig nity and Duty of a Priest," translated by the Redemptorist Fathers in 1889, published in America, London and Dublin, and printed by " the printers of the Apostolic See," Liguori says : " The priest has the power of the keys, or the power of delivering sinners from hell, of making them worthy of Paradise, and of changing them from slaves of Satan into the children of God. And God Himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of His priests, and either not to par don, or to pardon, according as they (the priests) refuse or give absolution, provided the penitent is capable of it.

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" Were the Redeemer to descend ' into a church, and sit in a confes sional, to administer the Sacrament of Penance, and a priest to sit in an other confessional, Jesus would say over each penitent, ' Ego te absolvo/ and the penitent of each would be equally absolved." We read, also : " Jesus Christ has given power to His priests to rescue from hell, not only the bodies, but also the souls of the faithful."

The standard of veracity in the Church of Rome differs seriously from that used by moralists in general. The principal and most influential guide upon questions of morals, in the Roman Catholic Church, is always [42]

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Alphonsus de Liguori, who is not only a saint of the Church (since 1836) and declared by the fact of his canoniza tion to be perfectly sound in all his doctrine, but is also a " Doctor " of the same Church (since 1871), which means that he is one whose teaching deserves to be accepted and followed by every one. His work on Moral Theology is accordingly the standard now in use, and the others cur rently employed adopt its principles. Here is what he lays down on the sub ject of speaking the truth. (1) Every kind of equivocation or quibbling which just comes short of direct lying, but is intended to deceive the hearer, and does in fact deceive him, is al- [43]

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ways lawful for " a just cause" An example of each kind will help to make the matter plainer. A man asked if a particular thing be true, which he knows to be true, but does not wish to admit, may lawfully re ply : "I say, No," meaning thereby only, " I utter the word, No," and not, " I declare that the thing did not hap pen." A witness, asked if a prisoner has committed a certain crime, is al lowed to deny it, if the act be one which he himself does not think criminal ; and if the crime be a hid den one, so that no one knows the facts except the criminal and the wit ness, the latter is not only allowed but bound, to say that the accused did [44]

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not commit it. These are actual cases put by Liguori himself (Theol. Mor., IV, 151-167) and are a fair sample of scores of others.

On the other hand Rome must admit the imperative demands of St. Paul who in his Epistle to the Corinthians says — "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dis honesty, not walking in craftiness, not handling the Word of God deceit fully, but by manifestation of the Truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." And again in the Epistle to the Ephesians — "Wherefore putting away [45]

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lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another."

Wherever Rome has had pre ponderant influence in a country or is gaining in power, a certain specific type of mind and character is de veloped, however different the races who assume it may be in other re spects from one another. It is char acterized by a large " moral adapt ability," for there is nothing so detestable to Rome as a cast-iron character and an inflexible moral code. It is her principle to preserve the character of the growing child, as it were, in a fluid state and its mind in an inchoate condition, so

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that it will the better solidify and mature in the mould it has set.

Rome is retaliating against the state and society for her loss of power, by directing through the people this dangerous weapon against them. The whole system of Rome, at present, and her plan of education, point directly to the advantage of power — power not reposed in the highest functionaries of the state (for they have superseded Rome) but power in the hands of the individual in whom Rome has destroyed the moral sense. This can only lead to revolution and anarchy, to excesses and to crime. The craving for power is latent in each and every one, and [47]

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Rome shows the means to reach it. ' Firm principles must be abandoned, moral convictions must be yielded, human sympathy with fellow men must be smothered and crushed under the foot of the mighty Lion Power.

It is clear that as power is a material good, material means are the only ones fitted to obtain it ; and of all material means none is so effective as gold. The pursuit of money, therefore, is the chief method now used by Rome to regain her lost power ; and she permeates the atmos phere wherein she thrives with this spirit of greed.

A flourishing church in this age of

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commercialism must be an endowed Church; and in no country is it possible for Roman Catholicism to exert the full extent of its power where it cannot command wealth. With the enormous increase in in fluence which Rome has gained of late years in the United States (owing largely if not entirely to the influx of emigrants from Roman Catholic countries) a corresponding spirit of greed and a worship of power which wealth surely brings, is developing at a pace never before known. An apathy towards public wrongs, a cowardly spirit apparent in public investigations, and a concentrated effort everywhere visible, tending to [49]

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reconcile divergencies of thought in religious, political, and other ques tions, is the trend of modern Ameri canism. These divergencies had their origin in convictions which, in their nature, must have admitted their antitheses. Thus, any movement or social attitude which aims at har monizing irreconcilable points of view on vital and radical matters is noth ing else than " Moral Adaptability " ; and is the spirit of Romanism.

Open discussion upon all questions is the very life of progress ; and where this is hindered through any motive, a lethargy creeps over public life, and minds and char acters degenerate. Free expression of [So]

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thought in this country has now be come obsolete; everywhere does Ro man influence or pressure so coerce by bribery and threat the former liberty loving citizen, that even the sentiment of freedom has been in a measure displaced to make room for the love of power and wealth ; these are motives which Rome can use and manipulate. Liberty in any form she is impotent to handle.

France, always in the vanguard of progressive thought, has long since realized the poison which has been eating into her very life, and is now passing through a period which will be as vital in its results for her future as was the French Revolution. [Si]

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With keen perception and logical bent of mind, the French have penetrated the fact, that the National Church, so-called, and Gallicanism, are but names to evoke in the patriotic French heart allegiance and servitude to the corruptions of Ro manism. They recall with anguish the prophetic words of their great statesman Gambetta : " Clericalism, there is the enemy."

The attitude of Rome in regard to the discussion on " Higher Criticism " is suggestive and instructive. Like other Christian Churches Rome should have a deep interest in up holding in its integrity the historic

validity of the Scriptures. And yet [52]

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the full brunt of defense for their authenticity has fallen on the Prot estant denominations. Now, where Rome has had a vital interest in any social movement, or in upholding any dogma, she has always taken an active and strongly aggressive attitude towards antagonists. In this case she has seemingly waived her right, as leader among Christian Churches, in favour of Protestantism ; and Rome has tried to efface herself from the discussion as much as public opinion will permit.

One of the acknowledged modern

authorities, a skilled exegetist, Abbe

Loisy, has contributed to the works

on " Higher Criticism/' books which

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must greatly disturb and distress the Christian mind. In his two issues : " Around A Little Book " and " The Church and the Gospels " Abbe Loisy attempts to break down every historical foundation for Scrip ture. His main conclusion is, that whereas there is no vestige of histor ical validity to any of the Gospels, yet the myth which they relate is beauti ful enough in its spirit to animate all men, and that historical accuracy is unessential to the living truth which they contain. Abbe* Loisy arrived at his convictions with all sincerity, and was indifferent to the effect his books would produce at Rome.

They created such a stir, however, [54]

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in France, that the Church authorities felt called upon to administer a rep rimand, and commanded him to re tract. He was unwilling to declare untrue that which he had already proved to himself by careful study ; but in a preface to his next book, he made a declaration to the effect that the conclusions at which he had ar rived concerning the authenticity of the Gospels should not be the cause of scandal to others, and that his object was not to banish faith, but rather to disprove the foundation upon which it reposed. During the publication of these works the Abbe continued to oc cupy his chair of Professor in the Ecole Sup&rieure of the Catholic Institute. [55]

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Whatever apparent loss Rome might suffer in having the faith of Christian ity in the Gospels shattered, it is Protestantism however which is the most affected in the argument; for Protestantism stands or falls by the final decision.

To rout Protestantism, and to wipe this implacable enemy from the earth, Rome would welcome any means ; and she perceives the mighty import of the present discussion for her final triumph over dissenters.

With the " Doctrine of Probability, " her universally applied casuistry, and her administrative shrewdness, Rome could well withstand even a successful

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the Scriptures. This Exoteric doc trine is the garment with which she clothes her Esoteric reality and could, for this reason, if necessary, dis card it in favour of fresher raiment.

It were folly to suppose Rome so blind to her own interests as not to perceive the need of saintliness within her fold, and amongst the uninitiated members of the Church, numbering both humble priests and laymen, are to be found types of the truest, purest Christians. Such make unconsciously the propaganda of Rome. They nurse the sick, dispense charity to the poor, profess and know of no other doc trine than the Gospels of Jesus Christ. Of the corruptions in Roman eccle- [57]

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siastical administration, and in Church politics they are wholly un aware. It is to them that Rome points as living proofs of the work she is achieving for humanity, knowing well that through ignorance alone they remain in her communion. Roman Catholicism since it has outlived the environment to which it is adapted, has lost that vital spark which is essential to all true religion. It even bases its claim to the respect and admiration of the world, not on what it now is, or is still achieving, but on what it once was, and has ac complished. It can never free itself from the atmosphere of its essential environment. Its power represented [58]

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by the Papacy is the product of me dievalism ; and it grew and strength ened under the influence of a type of mind which is contrary to the spirit of enlightenment and the thirst for knowledge characteristic of modern times. As men's minds have enlarged and widened in their effort to better grasp the truth of scientific discovery, Romanism with its unyielding iron- cast is the powerful brake within the state, holding men back from knowl edge, and compressing their intellects to the mould which was once made for all Christianity. It no longer co operates with the State or satisfies any of its needs. On the contrary, it has established within its limits a hostile [59]

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camp, and opposes to it an unlawful supremacy. This is instanced in the torn and disrupted state of France at present, the result of her desperate effort to rescue the State and save her future ; and, again, in the persistent resistance of the " Centre Party " in the German Reichstag to vote for any measure of a patriotic import, except in consideration of an adequate advantage for the Church of Rome. It refuses to fall into the line of modern thought and enterprise, and sullenly chal lenges any effort in that direction. It smarts under the inferior position which it now occupies, and can never forget that it once was the State.

Through its disintegrating influ-

of the Church of Rome

ence, and the inertia which is the result of having no field for vital ac tivity, its tendency on the volitional and rational qualities of the citizen is demoralizing.

These, man's highest faculties, rea son and will, are held by the Church subject to her direction. Not only is strict injunction imposed to refrain from private interpretation of the Scriptures, under pain of eternal •damnation, but the power of the citi zen to use freely his rights in dealing with civic matters is curtailed by Rome when not used to promote directly or indirectly her interests.

Disaffection is already found even

amongst the members of the hier- [61]

The Double Doctrine

archy ; men of learning, some of them sincere, zealous, earnest in the cause of humanity, are awakening from their delusions.

The disheartened prelate reviews his life. Did he not embark on his voyage in the Roman ship the better to reach all humanity ; and during the first years of his travels, was he not encouraged by being ever in sight of land, and in touch with human nature which he tried to uplift and to comfort? But gradually he has found the ship drift farther and far ther from shore ; and ever onwards into the boundless, bottomless ocean of loneliness and doubt — there on the

cold, black waters of Esoteric Catholi- [62]

of the Church of Rome

cism he is cast, with nothing between him and annihilation but the Ship of Rome. — " Was it for this I sacri ficed my youth,was it to this I pledged my strength and my faith, was it for this I bartered my manhood ? " And in an overwhelming sadness and deso lation of soul, his faith wrecked, his hope dead, like Christ he lifts his voice to the Almighty Father in a despair ing appeal : " My God ! My God I Why hast Thou forsaken me ? "

END

Printed in the United States of America.

[63]

BX Zedtwitz, Mary Elizabeth (Caldwel!)

1765 von, baronessess.

Z4 The double doctrine of the

Church of Rome. —

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