Romanism and the republic : a discussion of the purposes, assumptions, principles and methods of the Roman Catholic hierarchy

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ROMANISM AND THE REPUBLIC.

A DISCUSSION OF THE PURPOSES, ASSUMPTIONS,

PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF THE

ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY.

BY

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

of Worcester, Mass.

WITH AN

INTRODUCTION

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

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

oXKc

BOSTON:

ARNOLD PUBLISHING COMPANY,

Congregational Building.

1890.

COPYRIGHT

ISAAC J. LANSINC

1889.

Prksswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

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

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

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

iv Author's Preface.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Author's Preface. V

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

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

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

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

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

vi Author's Preface.

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

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

I. J. LANSING.

Worcester, May 15, 1889.

PEEFACE TO LATEST EDITION.

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

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

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

I. J. LANSING.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGB

Preface, 3

Author's Preface, 11

CHAPTER I.
Reasons for Considering this Question 17

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

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

CHAPTER IV.

Romanism Antagonistic to the Constitution and the Laws. 87

CHAPTER V.
Romanism Antagonistic to the Constitution and the Laws

No. II 120

CHAPTER VI.

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

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

Their Alleged and Actual Reasons, No. II 181

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

No. Ill 219

viii Table of Contents.

FAO*

CHAPTER IX.

The Morality which Romanism would Teach American

Youth 253

CHAPTER X.

Shall Romanism Teach a Pagan Morality to American

Youth? 286

CHAPTER XL
Shall Romanism Teach a Pagan Morality to American

Youth? No. II 317

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

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

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

No. II 407

Concluding Note 435

INTEODUOTIOK

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

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

x Introduction.

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

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

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

Introduction.

XI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

xii Introduction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Introduction. xiii

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

XIV

Introduction.

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

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

The momentous, the perilous fact is the public indiffer-

Introduction. xv

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

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

ROMANISM AND THE REPUBLIC.

Sermon 3L

REASONS FOR CONSIDERING THE RELATION OF
ROMANISM TO THE REPUBLIC.

" Agaiu the word of the Lord came unto me, saying: Son of
man, speak to the children of thy people, aud say unto them,
When I briug the sword upon a laud, if the people of the land
take a man of their coasts, and set lnm for their watchman; If
when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trum-
pet and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of
the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come aud take
him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the
sound of the trumpet and took not warning, his blood shall be
upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
But if the watchman see the sword come, aud blow not the trum-
pet, and the people be not warned; If the sword come, and take
any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity:
but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." — Ezekiei,
33: 1-6.

The picture in this text is better understood in

Eastern lands than it can be in this country.

Many cities there are located on lofty heights,

from which a wide survey can be made of the

surrounding country. They are so located for

purposes of defence ; for where enemies are likely

to come in like a flood, and wandering hordes

to make sudden incursions, such situations are

highly favorable to safety. The watchman, placed

on the walls, scans the country far and wide,

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

18 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

DO *

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 19

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

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

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

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

20 Romanism and the Republic

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 21

dissipate, rather than create, intolerant and ignorant
antagonism.

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

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

22 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Romanism, and the Republic. 23

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

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

24 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic . 25

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

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

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

26 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 27

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

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

28 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 29

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

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

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

30 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 31

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

32 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 33

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

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

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

34 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 35

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

36 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Romanism and the Republic. 37

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

any and every invasion of the civil sphere

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

38 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Sermon ft

THE JESUITS AND THEIR PURPOSE.

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

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

40 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 41

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

14

e

42 liomanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism, and the Republic. 43

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

44 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 45

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

46 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Romanism and the Republic.

47

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

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

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

48 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 49

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

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

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

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

50 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 51

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

© © © ©

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

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

52 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 53

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

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

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

54 liomanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 55

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

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

56 Romanism and the Republic.

I

thus justify any wickedness in pursuit of the purpose

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 57

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

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

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

58 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Romanism and the Republic. 59

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

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

60 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Sermon EH-

THE POPE AND THE PAPAL POWER THE FOES OP
FREEDOM.

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

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

62 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 63

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

64 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 65

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

66 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 67

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

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

68 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

liomanism and the Republic. 69

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

70 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Romanism and the Republic. 71

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

72 Romanism, and the Republic .

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 73

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

74 liomanism and the liejpublic.

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

Romanism and the Republic. 75

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

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

76 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 77

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

78 Romanism and the Republic.

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

History of Romanism," pages 615-10).

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 79

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

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

80 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 81

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

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

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

82 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 83

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

84 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 85

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

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

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

86 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Sermon W.

ROMANISM ANTAGONISTIC TO THE CONSTITUTION
AND THE LAWS.

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

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

88 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. ' 89

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

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

90 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 91

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

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

92 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 93

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

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

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

94 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 95

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

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

96 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 97

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

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

DT

98 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Romanism and the Republic. 99

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

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

100 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 101

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

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

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

102 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 103

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

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

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

104 Romanism, and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 105

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

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

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

106 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Romanism and the Republic. 107

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

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

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

108 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 109

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

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

110 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Homanism and the Republic. Ill

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

112 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 113

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

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

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

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

114 Romanism and the Republic,

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 115

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

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

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

116 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

liomanism and the Republic . 117

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

118 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 119

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

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

.Sermon #♦

ROMANISM ANTAGONISTIC TO THE CONSTITUTION
AND THE LAWS.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 121

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

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

122 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 123

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

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

124 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 125

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

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

In addition to these appropriations, thus forced

126 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 127

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

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

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

128 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 129

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

130 Romanism and the Republic.

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

Romanism and the Republic. 131

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

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

132 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 133

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

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

134 Romanism and the Republic.

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

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

Romanism and the Republic. 135

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

But we go even further than this, and are unfortu-
nately able from history to show that Roman
Catholics, being wholly at the mercy of the Pope,
cannot be relied on in their oaths, even when we
suppose that they speak without reservation, and
when, so far as we can judge, their oath is honestly
taken. You may be familiar with what is known as
Catholic Emancipation in Great Britain. The Roman
Catholics, on account of the universal doubt enter-
tained of their loyalty, had long been subject to
civil disabilities, under which they groaned, and
against which they protested. These disabilities
were not imposed capriciously by the Crown or Par-
liament of Great Britain, but were the result of Ions:
contention with Papal usurpation, and of an honest
doubt as to the loyalty of Roman Catholics. While
the agitation was going on, and the measures for
the relief of British Roman Catholics were pending,

136 Romanism and the Republic.

English and Irish priests and laymen combined to
affirm, under oath, that "It is not an article of the
Catholic faith, neither are they required to believe
or profess that the Pope is infallible. Second : That
their Church has no power that can directly or
indrectly injure Protestants, as all she can do is to
refuse them her sacraments, which they do not want.
And third : That no ecclesiastical power whatever can
directly or indirectly affect, or interfere with, the
independence, the sovereignty, laws and Constitution
or government of the realm."

And on the 26th of February, 18 10, the English
Catholic bishops declare as follows : " The said oath,
and the declarations, objurations and protestations
therein contained, are notoriously, to the Roman Cath-
olic Church at large, become a part of the Roman
Catholic religion, as taught us by the Bishops, and
received and maintained by the Roman Catholic
Churches in Ireland ; and as such, are approved and
sanctioned by the other Roman Catholic Churches.
The protestation was signed by two hundred and forty-
one priests, including all the vicars apostolic, by all
the clergy and laity of England of any note ; and in
1789, in a general meeting of the English Catholics
in London, was subscribed to by every person
present, and the document was deposited in the
British Museum as a proof of their loyalty and
honesty. •

And yet what do we see? We see a Council at
the Vatican, in 1870, imposing a new law upon these
Roman Catholics and their descendants, in utter and

Romanism and the Republic. 137

absolute contradiction of the vow that they them-
selves sustained and declared, concerning which Mr.
Gladstone says, while he does not deny the honor of
the Roman Catholics that made this protest, •« Either
the Papal See and Court, had at that time, abandoned
the dream of the enforcement of the infallibility of
the Church; or else, by wilful silence, they were
guilty of practicing upon the British Crown one of
the blackest frauds recorded in history." (" Vatican-
ism," p. 134.)

Here, then, is a historic instance, which, if
it proves anything proves this : that if all the lead-
in"- Roman Catholics in this country should meet
together and solemnly swear that there was nothing
in the laws of their Church inconsistent with their
highest patriotism and devotion to the country, — if
they should swear that, according to their under-
standing, the Pope could not interfere with their civil
allegiance, — he might, within twenty-four hours of
that time, on his sole and only responsibility, reverse
their oaths, and command them, under pain of eternal
damnation, to take up arms against the Constitution
and laws of the United States ; and their honesty of
purpose in the avowal which they had made could
not for one moment stand against the order and the
will of the infallible Pope. No wonder that an
eminent Catholic layman, in a recent periodical, with
most pathetic and sorrowful allusions, protests
against the fact that the conscience, the judgment,
the loyalty of Roman Catholics are subject solely
and only to the Pope of Rome. Thus by the evident

138 Romanism and (he Republic.

laws and purposes of the Romish Church, and by
their history also, they are thoroughly disloyal to
the Constitution of the United States, and pledged
to disobedience to the laws.

I do not hesitate to say that, in all candor and
reason, every Roman Catholic who confesses this alle-
giance to the Papacy, ought to be disfranchised in the
United States, and forbidden the right to participate,
as a citizen, in either holding an office or casting a
ballot.

For that is exactly the attitude which we take to
Mormons, who affirm primary allegiance to their
hierarchy. Here is the case of a man asking to be
naturalized before the court, who vows that he is not
a polygamist, but does believe in polygamy ; that he
is a Mormon, and if a polygamist were brought
before the court, he, the applicant for naturalization,
would not as a juror vote to condemn his fellow-
Mormon for polygamy. Whereupon the United
States Court, in an elaborate, learned, and rational
opinion, refused to naturalize him, on this ground,
that no man who is pledged to disobedience to the
laws of the United States, or who is pledged to
uphold and maintain others in disobedience, can, or
by right should, become a citizen of the United
States. The application of the principle would dis-
franchise every Roman Catholic in America, and
ought to. Slowly as we are awakening to our
dangers, even politicians, much more statesmen, are
becoming filled with alarm ; while all wise publicists
are recognizing with dread, as the dangerous element

Romanism and the Republic. 139

in American politics, the ecclesiastical power of
Rome. There is no city but what is burdened
with it; there is no state but what is imperilled by
it : and the whole land stands in the shadow of an
impending peril, a thunderbolt in the hand of this
modern Jove of the Vatican, that may yet shatter the
nation from center to circumference.

But I must close this line of argument and proof,
in order to show finally what are the results of
Roman Catholic supremacy. They have been privi-
leged to try the experiment of absolute government,
and what has been the consequence ? I will not refer
to the misgovernment of American cities, nor point
to the degradation of South American Republics ; I
will not take time to speak to you of prostrate
Mexico, of ruined Spain and Portugal, and of down-
trodden Italy, but will try to answer the question.

4. What kind of government comes from the
Papal plan, where they have absolute sway ? I answer,
a government as totally unlike ours as its principles
are opposed to those of our Constitution.

In the Roman States, until Papal supremacy was
abolished, the people suffered under one of the worst
governments in the civilized world. The people
were considered as so many tenants, who occupied
and enjoyed the Papal estate on the condition fixed
by the infallible head of the church, for her welfare
and not their own. They were possessed of no civil
rights whatever, in the sense in which the world holds
them ; but only such privileges as their sovereign, the
Pope, thought proper to confer upon them ; and

140 Romanism and the Republic,

these could be changed, modified, or entirely with-
drawn at his personal discretion, or whenever the
interests of the Church should require it. If the
government was a trust held alone for the benefit of
the Church, as Papists allowed, then the people had
no right to demand of it anything on their own
account. The government was conducted wholly
without reference to them, and they were required to
submit, whatever it did. Popular liberty was there-
fore unknown and impossible. The Papacy alone
was free to do as it pleased, and this was called the
freedom of the Church. The people, having thus no
voice in public affairs, were in a condition of vassal-
age. The government was a revival, with slight
exceptions, of the old system of feudalism, without
its redeeming features. There was no written con-
stitution, not even a collection of precedents, from
which the citizen could learn the extent of the privi-
leges conceded to him. So, whatever of fundamental
law there was, could be found only in the decrees,
canons, and constitutions of councils, and the bulls
and briefs of Popes, published in a language which
no one but the educated nobility could understand.
No freedom of worship was allowed. No Bibles in
the hands of the common people.

The Consul of the United States at Rome for four
years, until 1865, W. J. Stillman, reports a condition
of persecution which beggars description. Spies were
placed at the doors of places of Protestant worship as
they were at the door of our church last Sunday night,
to see if any Roman Catholic went in. Men were

A

Romanism and the Republic. 141

arrested in bed at night, and carried off by officers
of the holy church, and never heard of again, for no
offense. The system of terrorism was such that lib-
eral Romans dared meet only in public, and never
permitted a stranger to approach them in conversa-
tion. Says the Consul : "I can conceive of no sys-
tem of torture worse than this terrible espionage
under which every patriotic Roman lay, fearful of his
own breath, one scarcely daring to speak to another,
except in tropes and innuendoes. They suffered the
penalty of crime for wishing merely to be free. Had
it not been for the system of counter espionage kept
up by the Roman committee on the government, no
liberal could have lived in Rome. * j

f The Roman government of that time (this is 1865) \ ^
/was the embodiment of the spirit of the middle ages. J
s Not a Bible could be sold. Not a voice could be
heard preaching Christ on any part of Italian soil.
The punishment for such offence was imprisonment,
or death. The few friends of freedom, sometimes in
caves, sometimes in woods, were accustomed, in fear
and trembling, to meet and pray. The dungeons of J /'
the Inquisition were full. The stories of their hor-
rors are too dreadful to be told here. The testimon-
ies of De Sanctis and Gavazzi and others, which
cannot be impeached, open before us damp, dark
dungeons, where men and women were starved to
death ; the horrible vats where they were put alive
into quick-lime to perish for their faith ; the secret
trap-doors through which they were dropped, where
their cries could not be heard, and their protests were

Hu *

142 Romanism and the Republic.

unknown. Such was the condition of the people
under the kind of Papal supremacy which they pro-
pose to foist upon the United States in the end of
the nineteenth century.

In Spain, under Queen Isabella, in 1860, death was]
the penalty for heresy. But why need we go tol
Spain or Italy for proof that those who leave the
Roman Church are subjects of tierce and violent per-
secution? There is not a Roman Catholic in this or
any city of America that dares to leave his Church,
unless he is willing to bear the fiercest imprecation,
abuse, ostracism, slander and persecution ; while all
over this country, when men and women have con-
fessed Christ instead of the Pope of Rome, they
have been spirited away and imprisoned in Roman
Catholic institutions, under the care of priests; and
not a few of them have passed from within those
walls, from a life of suffering, to the only place of
rest which they could find — the heavens of God.

Wherever Papal power prevails, there crime in all
its phases is greatly increased. There are more
murders, Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, gambling,
illegitimacy, and all forms of crime, in Roman Cath-
olic than Protestant countries. The Pastoral Letter
of the Catholic Council of Baltimore in 18(50, says —
and here, you see, Roman Catholics are speaking for
themselves — "It is a melancholy fact, and a very
humiliating avowal for us to make, that a very large
proportion of the idle and vicious youths of our prin-
cipal cities are the children of Catholic parents."

While in Roman Catholic Ireland there were nine-

Romanism and the Republic. 143

tccn murderers to the million of population ; in
Roman Catholic Belgium eighteen ; in Roman Cath-
olic France thirty-one ; in Austria thirty-six ; in
Barvaria sixty-eight; Tuscany fifty-six; while in
the Papal States there were one hundred and thirteen
murderers to the million ; in Roman Catholic Sicily
ninety ; in Naples one hundred and seventy-four ; at
the same time there were, in Protestant England,
only four murders to the million. Name any Pro-
testant country in Europe, and let its depths of vice
and immorality be measured and named, and I will
name a Roman Catholic country or city whose
depths of vice and immorality are lower still. (Bar-
num's " Romanism as It Is," chap, xxvii.)

The distinguished French Catholic Lavelaye, pro-
fessor in the University of Liege, in a celebrated
pamphlet on '« Protestantism and Roman Catholi-
cism in their relation to the Liberty and Prosperity of
the Nation," contrasts Protestant and Roman Catholic
countries in their relative progress, social condition,
growth of power, education, enlightenment, morals
and free institutions, and in those contrasts, confesses
the diminution, degradation and weakening of Roman
Catholic nations, and the education, industry, activity,
expansion and power of Protestant nations. I would
that I could quote his eloquent words at length. I
am only denied that privilege by the space and time
of which I may make use.

"A few years ago," he says, "the supremacy
belonged to the Catholics. To-day, place on the
one side Fiance, Austria, Spain, Italy and South

144 Romanism and the Republic.

America, and on the other side Eussia, Germany,
England and North America, and evidently the pre-
dominance has passed over to the heretics. Nor is
it difficult to point out the causes." Can there be
any soul living under the great opportunities which
have been developed by Protestant Christianity in
this free Republic, who would wish to see it under
the influence of that power which has overwhelmed
with shame and crime, with ignorance and death,
the fairest portions of the world? I undertook to
show that Romanism is irreconcilably hostile to our
Constitution and laws, and to all other forms of relig-
ion than itself. You see what I have done. I have
proved that Romanism denies the supremacy of the
Constitution and laws, and affirms the supremacy of
the Pope and the Church. They deny that the
people under God are supreme, and declare that the
Pope under God is supreme. The Constitution
guarantees freedom and justice ; the Pope attacks
and tries to break down all Constitutional guarantees
of freedom. The Constitution forbids Congress to
establish any religion ; the Papacy demands that it
alone be established by law. The Constitution for-
bids legislation against any form of religious worship,
the Papacy demands legislation against every form
of worship but herself. The Constitution protects
freedom of conscience, the Papacy pronounces it a
delirium. The Constitution guarantees freedom of
speech and of the press, Rome denounces both as a
pest and a pestilence. The Constitution guarantees
a fair and open trial by jury, the Papacy commends,

Romanism and the Republic. 145

urges and employs the secret tribunals of the Inquisi-
tion. The Constitution forbids cruel and excessive
penalties ; the Papacy demands torture and death for
heretics and claims the right to inflict it. The Con-
stitution forbids legislation and appropriations by
the State to religious sects ; the Romish Church
already has seized millions of public money in
defiance of law. The Constitution taxes justly all
property ; the Romish Church demands, and by fraud
secures, exemption to a large degree. The Consti-
tution demands renunciation of foreign allegiance
from all citizens ; the Roman Catholics boldly avow
their chief allegiance to a foreign ruler. The Con-
stitution has brought the largest liberty and the
greatest prosperity ; the Papacy has cursed the lands
where it has ruled.

Now as a final word. Suppose that in America
there were six or seven millions of Russians who
were taking the same attitude toward our Govern-
ment as the Roman Catholics take. Suppose that
they personally avowed, as a matter of conscience
and duty, their primary and eternal allegiance to
the Czar, — an allegiance he should also announce him-
self to claim, and from which he would not absolve
them. And suppose that this foreign body in our
midst, took all their oaths with mental reservation of
their superior devotion to the Russian Czar and the
principles of his absolute monarchy. And suppose
that they attacked, denounced and defied, personally,
and in conclave, and through their leaders, every
principle of American liberty, including the Constitu-
tion which is the foundation of our rights and our laws.

146 Romanism and the Republic.

And suppose that they announced and gave it out
that they were bound to obtain the supremacy in
this country ; that they would act as a political unit ;
that they would make the Czar supreme ; and that
nothing should stand in their way. How long
would the seven or eight times as many loyal Ameri-
can-born citizens permit this body of foreigners to
flaunt the banners of absolutism and threaten the
overthrow of the State? One of two things is cer-
tain : that foreign body would bo compelled either
to confess primary and absolute allegiance to this
government and to forego all treason in theory,
speech or act ; or they would be expelled from the
country by an irresistible force. They would be
waited on in the name of the nation, and would be
compelled to make their choice, either to renounce
allegiance to a foreign potentate, or to leave the
country. That is the way we would treat disloyal
Russians. I regard the rule of the Czar, and my
inference is drawn from reason and history, as much
more benevolent than the rule of the Pope and his
ecclesiastics. And the foreign body which is now
among us, cursing and threatening all that we hold
dear, much more deserves subjugation and expulsion
than the subjects of any other foreign ruler or power.
In the name of the Constitution, which I believe
will hold America as the Polar Star holds the mair-
net, — in the name of the majesty of the law, that like
the sun in the heaven has flooded this Western world
with the glory of liberty, — we demand of every Roman
Catholic, that he either renounce political allegiance
to a foreign prince, or leave the country.

Sermon 3JI.

THE PURPOSE OF ROMANISM TO DESTROY OUR
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

You will find my text in the First Epistle to the
Corinthians, the tenth chapter and the fifteenth verse :
" I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say."
While the intense interest which attaches to a theme
that is so personal to every one of us and to our coun-
try may lead us at times to a degree of earnestness,
and, in denunciation, of possible severity, I propose
primarily, in all these discourses, to address myself
to the calm reason and understanding of wise men.
Where there is no thoughtfulness, where passion
holds sway, where superstition rather than reason
controls the mind, it may be possible to secure tem-
porary and indeed vigorous interest in a great theme,
by merely lashing the feelings of men into a greater
or less degree of earnestness or fury. But where
the interests of every man and of his children to the
latest generation are at stake, where the affairs of
education and of the nation are deeply involved,
where mistake would be almost fatal, and where
vengeance and hatred would be contrary to the law of
Christ and the law of the land, it is desirable that

148 Romanism and the Republic.

our highest wisdom be exercised and our best judg-
ment employed.

No greater compliment can be paid to any auditory
than that which the sacred writer in this epistle
paid to his Corinthian brethren, when arguing with
them concerning the false teachers and the false doc-
trines which were threatening their overthrow. He
says, in effect: "I desire you to retire into the
thoughtf ulness of your own souls, to concentrate all
your knowledge and all your wisdom upon the facts
which I am discussing, and to listen to what I say as
wise men, and then to judge whether what I say is true
or not." I take this word as my sentiment toward
this congregation ; and because you are the final
court before whom this and many similar questions,
must be adjudicated, I call upon you all, not to
awaken your prejudice against the Roman Catholic
church, and particularly not to permit prejudice to
move you against the Roman Catholic people ;
but I call upon you all to consider whether the
facts that I bring to your attention are not so
momentous as to deserve your most careful consider-
ation, and to call for most responsible and vigorous
action.

It is my purpose to-night to show to you that
Romanism intends to destroy that system of public
education which we are accustomed to speak of as
the public schools; and in order to that, first, that
you may see this as an inference, I have only to recall
to your recollection the facts that have been empha-
sized in the last two discourses, and that have been

Romanism and the Republic. 149

supported by unbounded testimony from the most
reliable sources. You may remember that, in these
discourses, we have been considering the Constitution
of the United States and the Constitution of Roman-
ism, and that last Sunday evening, at the close of the
sermon, I reviewed these points, almost a score of
them, in which the Constitution of the Roman Catholic
Church is diametrically and wholly opposed to the
Constitution which is the basis of our government
and the stronghold of our liberties. If you were not
present to hear that review you should read it, for
I want you to know that the summary which was
made at that time showed the irreconcilable antag-
onism of the absolutism of Rome to the Constitu-
tion of the United States.

Now the Constitution of the United States is a
political document : it is not a religious pronuncia-
mento ; it is not a declaration of religious faith or
religious creed ; but it is a declaration of those prin-
ciples which can make a great Republic, and which
have already made this nation, in every essential
respect, the rival, if not the superior, of almost every
nation on the face of the earth. When, therefore,
you find that Romanism antagonizes this political
document ; and when you find that the principles of
civil liberty, which are necessary to every state, and
which are declared in the Constitution in order to
form the basis of a state, are the objects of the hos-
tility of the Roman Catholic Church ; when you find
that a document which says nothing about religion,
excepting to say that it shall have free exern'se, is

150 Romanism and the Republic.

denounced and proscribed with the fiercest hatred
by the statutes of that Church, your inference must
be that the Roman Catholic Church has descended
from the sphere of religion to the arena of politics,
and that, as a political power, it has assailed a politi-
cal instrument.

There is no other church in America that has antag-
onized the Constitution ; no other church that has
pronounced against it ; no other church but what
cordially supports it. The Churches operate in the
domain of religion ; and it is their intention and
purpose, by saturating the public mind with religi-
ous principles, to make the State what now it is to
some extent, a Christian State. For this is his-
torically and actually a Protestant State ; there is no
question about that ; its history shows the fact.
When, therefore, Romanism attacks our political
institutions, reviles and antagonizes our national con-
stitutions, asserts its authority over our political
opinions and annuls political statutes, demands that
the realm of politics, as well as of education and faith,
shall be subjected to it — when the Roman Catholic
Church enters the arena of political conflict as a polit-
ical force, it has no right whatever to claim the
immunities of a religion. It is there as a political
power, and as a political power we meet it. It does
not make any difference whether the political power
that assails us is on the shores of the Baltic, or on
the shores of the British Channel, or on the shores
of the Tiber. Romanism, attacking our Constitution
and our State, is simply a political engine.

Romanism and the Republic. 151

Now with our politics, as embodied in the Consti-
tution, our common schools are in direct accord, and
have been since the origin of the government. If
you survey the history of past times, you will find
that the Constitution and the general intelligence of
the country, which grew out of our schools, were
contemporaneous in their origin. You will find that
there has never been a time when any statesman in
America, however jealous of the authority of the
Constitution, has ever hinted that the common
schools were unfriendly to it. You will find, on the
other hand, that every American statesman, and that
every student of civil government, declares that with
the Constitution and the theories of the United States
our common schools are in full accord; and, going
farther, states, that on the general intelligence which
they diffuse, must depend that Constitution for all
time to come.

Moreover, you can see rationally that a system of
public education must belong to a Republican gov-
ernment, ( and I use that word exactly as I would
use the word Democratic, for the two words mean
the same, as I employ them now not in a partisan
sense,) I say, you can see very clearly, that in a
Republican government, where the citizen is a final
authority, and where the voter is king, everything
depends on the ability of that ruler to exercise his
powers wisely and discreetly. You may see there-
fore, that in our form of government, under our Con-
stitution, every voter ought to know how not only
to govern himself, but to help to govern the State ;

152 Romanism and the Republic.

and that our schools, therefore, are of infinite import-
ance for the common people. No doubt, in a mon-
archical or an oligarchical form of government, only a
few need to be educated, and only a few are edu-
cated. Where a few persons are to exercise all the
political authority, the more ignorant the rest are the
better the rulers like it.

You have an illustration of that in the Southern
United States of America when they were having an
oligarchical and unrepublican form of government.
They had no common schools, because they thought
that the more degraded the colored man was the
more easily he could be governed. And so, while
the upper classes of the South had the best possible
education, the lower classes had none at all. This
was not the outgrowth of our Constitutional govern-
ment, nor in harmony with the principles of American
liberty, but it was the result of an abnormal form of
civilization, of a barbaric institution which was for a
time attached to our Republican Constitution. Just
as soon as Constitutional government had sway in
the South, as soon the whole people were recognized
as the source of authority in government, every
Southern State began a system of common schools,
and they are diffusing, exactly as the Northern States
have done, education among the people as an essential
of a form of Constitutional and Republican govern-
ment.

Now Romanism is an absolute monarchy ; it is a
despotic form of government : its idea has always
been that ignorance is the mother of devotion, I

Romanism and the Republic. 153

have only to point to the States where it has had
sway to prove this, as I have done heretofore. And
Romanism, in its monarchial theory of government,
which dictates to all men instead of reasoning with
them, and which commands them instead of teaching
them to exercise self-command, — Romanism, by its
intrinsically monarchial character, can never agree
with the essentials of a free Constitution, nor uphold
its supports and bulwarks.

While, therefore, the public schools are abso-
lutely indispensable under our Constitution, such
public schools are recognized by Rome as abso-
lutely hostile to theirs. I shall come, ere long,
to show from their own words, that this is true ;
I state it now, and prove it hereafter. No
wonder then, that when they attack our institutions,
they attack them at the point which projects farthest
out against Papal policy. No wonder that the Redan
of our civilization, (for you remember that the Redan
at Sebastopol was the great bulwark of Russia against
the might of the allied forces,) — no wonder that the
main defences of our civilization are the first object
of their assaults. Against our common schools Rome
is throwing all the weight of its power ; not because
the common schools alone are the objects of its hos-
tility, but because the Constitution which our educa-
tional system supports is the real object of their
assault.

Now so far as the benefits are concerned that
have been conferred and are being diffused over
the world by free America to-day, as compared

154 Romanism and the Republic.

with those that are being conferred by the Church
of Rome, there is a great deal to be said

in

favor of the good influence of America. Contrast
any country where Rome has had sway with
ours, and are you not immediately compelled
to affirm, that the United States is giving more
intelligence, more morality, more reverence for
law, more self-government, more happiness, more
wealth than Rome has ever given to any state for
the last thousand years ? And if I to-day were called
upon, in noting the great agents which are benefit-
ting mankind, to decide whether Romanism, or politi-
cal America as we see it to-day, was the greatest bene-
factor of the race, — if I were called upon to decide
which of the two should cease to exist, — as a lover of
humanity and a lover of God, I should prefer to keep
America in the world for the world's good, rather
than to keep the Roman Catholic Church.

After thus much of an introduction, which shows
you that Rome is unreconciled to our schools, because,
as a political power, it is unreconciled to our govern-
ment, I propose to show you, first, That the Roman
Catholic Church denounces violently our public
schools. I propose to show you, secondly, That she
is threatening them with overthrow and destruction.
I propose, thirdly, To bring to your attention the
agencies which she has put in operation for their
destruction. I propose, fourthly, To ask why? and
to give you the reasons they allege why they do
it ; and then to give you the real reasons which
they elsewhere state. And I propose at that point

Homanism and the Republic. 155

to close this discourse, and on next Sunday evening
I design to take it up and tell you what they will
put in its place : when the common schools are
destroyed, what they demand shall be substituted
for common schools ; what has been the result of
their system where, it has been tried, for it has been
fully tried. And then to ask you, how much you are
willing to yield ; and how much you are willing to do
in the line of resistance.

First, then, I ask you to notice that theEoman
Catholic Church, through its hierarchs and governing
powers, is openly hostile to our public schools.
In order to prove that, I shall quote from the follow-
ing authorities : From the Encyclical of the Pope ;
from the declarations of the Eoman Catholic press ;
from the opinions of their Councils ; and from the
words of their bishops. This book which I hold in
my hand is entitled, " The Judges of Faith : Christ-
ian vs. Godless Schools." I bought it myself at a
Roman Catholic book- store in Boston, and it is
endorsed by a large number of Roman Catholic pre-
lates. It is said in the preface : " It may be worthy
of remark, that these pages contain the conciliar, or
single rulings of no less than three hundred and
eighty of the high and the highest Church dignitaries."
There are brought forward twenty-one Plenary and
Provincial Councils, six or seven Diocesan Synods,
two Roman Pontiffs, two Sacred Congregations of
some twenty Cardinals and Pontifical Officials, seven
single Cardinals, who, with thirty-three Archbishops,
make forty Primates and Metropolitans ; finally,

156 Romanism and the Republic.

nearly eighty single Bishops and Archbishops
deceased or living in the United States. It says, in
the first page of acknowledgment: "Thanks and
humble acknowledgments are due, and never to be
sufficiently repaid, to His Eminence John Henry
Cardinal Newman, His Grace the Most Rev. Arch-
bishop of Baltimore, Delegate Apostolic, James
Gibbons, D. D., and Most Rev. Patrick J. Riordan,
Archbishop of San Francisco, of Archiepiscopal
rank, and to the Rt. Rev. the Bishops : John J.
Hogan of St. Joseph's and Kansas City, John J.
Keane of Richmond ( who was in this city the other
day, I believe), John L. Spalding, of Peoria, Francis
Janssens, of Natchez," and others. This then is
fully sanctioned and endorsed, and represents the
Roman Catholic Church.

First of all, I quote from the Papal Encyclical,
to show you how the Pope, who is the infallible head
of the Roman Catholic Church, regards our public
schools. Says he: "The Romish Church has the
right to interfere in the discipline of the public
schools, and in the arrangement of studies of public
schools, and in the choice of the teachers of these
schools. Public schools, open to all children for the
education of the young, should be under the control
of the Romish Church, and should not be subject to
the civil power, nor made to conform to the opinions
of the age." ( Encyclical XLV. and XLVII.) Those
schools to-day are under the control of the civil
power and are not under the control of the Roman
Catholic Church ; but that authority, which is as much

Romanism and the Republic. 157

to them as the Bible is to you, and possibly more,
declares that our schools shall not be as they now
are, an adjunct of the civil state, but shall come
under the power of the Roman hierarchy. In this
book which I have described, and have before me, we
have the declaration made that the public schools arc
to be destroyed, their buildings are to be deserted,
and the whole system to be abandoned.

I quote from " The Judges of Faith." On page 3
it is said : " These pages make no pretense to dictate
to either state or individual in their own provinces ;
neither is it expected of, or designed by a Catholic
that he should aid in any secret conspiracy for the
bootless enterprise of suddenly overthrowing a pub-
lic legal system, unlawful though that system be.
We bring home to the consciences of Catholics, that
it is their duty to continue deserting all mere secular
schools, and building schools of their own, until
public opinion itself undermine what contains the
source of its own downfall, (now notice this last
word) and we be relieved of unjust taxes." And on
the sixth page it is said: "The equal advance ot
God-hating European societies with God-eliminating
systems of popular instruction, ought to enforce*
co-operation with the simultaneous, energetic action
of our glorious Leo," (I just read from the Encyclical
what " glorious Leo "thinks) ** smiting with one arm
the audacious chiefs of secret revolutions, while with
the other he shields the cradles and firesides oi
Christian homes. And Catholics will continue build-,
ing schools on their own grounds ; until, like the

158 Romanism and the Republic.

many deserted sectarian temples which are legally
acquired by inpouring children of the Church, the
future state-school buildings, left empty by Catholics
deserting them, and non-Catholics becoming practi-
cally disgusted with the unrepublican and unchris-
tian system, shall also be lawfully acquired, and
occupied by denominational schools." This hope, as
the rest of the book, is sanctioned by the prelates
indicated.

. You see, then, that their purpose, their explicit
purpose, is to so break down our system of common
schools until the school buildings shall be deserted.
Now let me call your attention to the opinions of
some of their bishops, who have made declarations
along the same line. " The faithful are required,
by conforming to the words of Christ's Vicegerent,
their head and the head of all the militant faithful,
to break down these schools ; by doing their bounden
duty in every country where the government, or
others, publicly or privately, seek to divorce edu-
cation from religion, by tearing the children of the
Church from her bosom, to nurse them on the lap
of the Pagan goddess of Liberty." On the eighty-
sixth page we have the following declaration : ' * The
doctrine that godless schools are good enough for
Catholic children, is explicitly condemned by the
authority of the Church." This is the declaration of
the late Bishop Rosecrans, in Lent 1873. Then fol-
lows this remarkable statement: "The sons of the
Crusaders are not yet extinct. They live, they breathe,
they fight ; not now for the sepulchre of. Christ, for

Romanism and the Republic. 159

the honor of the dead now risen to die no more, but
for his cradle, and that of His holy spouse, the
Church ; for the living sons of God, foully betrayed,
robbed and plundered of goods and spiritual life by
the ruthless of the nineteenth century." That is
supposed to describe our school system. On the
eighty-seventh page it is declared, by the late Rt.
Rev. Dr. Toebbe, Bishop of Covington : " The Public
Schools are infidel and godless, and must therefore
be avoided." On the eighty-ninth page we have the
same declaration, in the following words, from the
Bishop St. Palais, of Vincenncs, Indiana, who is
characterized as a saint : " We object to the public
schools on account of the infidel source from which
they originated," (there is history for you !) ; "we
object to those schools because the teachings of
religion is excluded from them, and such exclusion
will inevitably produce religious indifference, if not
infidelity. We object to these schools again, because
the promiscuous assembling of both sexes of a cer-
tain age is injurious to the morals of the children ;
and because we dread associations which might,
in time, prove pernicious to them, and distressing
to their parents." And later, on page ninety, he
says, that duty compels him to instruct pastors to
refuse absolution to parents who permit their chil-
dren to attend the public schools. On page ninety-
seven you have another important opinion of the
same spirit, wherein it is said, by the Rt. Rev.
Francis Janssens, Bishop of Natchez, " That since
the public schools were bound by Constitution to

160 Romanism and the Republic.

leave out religion, and teach science without inculcat-
ing God, His doctrines, His commands ; hence, the
public school system should be looked upon by every
Christian not only as insufficient, but as positively
dangerous, promoting, of its very nature, indifterent-
ism, if not infidelity." When you remember the
authority that Romish Bishops have in their Church,
and that their word is law for the priests who are
under them ; when you remember that these priests,
carrying out the law of their Bishops, make those
Bishops a most dangerous power against what they
oppose ; when you recall all these declarations which
are unqualifiedly against our system of public edu-
cation ; then you can understand that their whole
influence, as well as their fiercest denunciations, hurled
at this method of imparting public instruction, are
intending to destroy the system they denounce.

But now, suppose we turn to the public press of
the Roman Catholic Church, and hear what that, as
further representing the influence of the prelates, is
ready to say ; for the public press of the Roman
Catholic Church is an organ of the dignitaries, rather
than an organ of the people. In the Boston Globe,
a representative of Rome wrote, in 1885 : " We want
to make our children good Catholics ; which is the
same as making them good Christians. We must
have positive Christian schools, with entire liberty of
religious instruction, even at the expense of building
and supporting them, and though we should empty
half the grand school-buildings in Boston, and give
them to be sold at public auction to the highest
bidder."

Romanism and the Republic. 161

We have also a still further declaration from Roman
Catholic writers, this time from the Boston Adver-
tiser, wherein a Catholic priest says: "Catholics
would not be satisfied with the public schools, even
if the Protestant Bible and every vestige of religious
teaching were banished from them. They will not be
taxed either for educating the children of Protestants,
or for having their own children educated in schools
under Protestant control." The New York Tab-
let says: " The education itself is the business of
the spiritual society alone, and not the secular society.
The instruction of children and youth is included in the
sacrament of Order, and the State usurps the func«
tions of the spiritual society when it turns educator.
The secular is for the spiritual, is subordinated to
religion ; which alone has authority to instruct man
in his secular duties. The organization of the
schools, their entire internal arrangement and man-
agement, the choice and regulation of studies, the
selection, appointment, and dismissal of teachers,
belongs exclusively to the spiritual authority."

So, one after another, the authorized agents and
representatives from the Roman Catholic Church
denounce our schools in the most violent language.
They call them godless, infidel. The New York
Freeman 's Journal calls them " pits of destruction."
It states how the little lambs of the Church fall into
them, and calls them "a devouring fire." It warns
parents that their children will be lost forever if they
go to these schools ; and in the language which is
best calculated to stir the heart of a Roman Catholic,

162 Ho/nanism and the Republic.

denounces those that come under the influence of our
system of public instruction. (N. Y. Freeman's Jour-
nal, Dec. 11, 18G9.) Now all this is intended, as
you plainly see, to discredit the public schools, and to
raise hostility against them on the part of Roman
Catholic people, and on the part of Roman Catholic
children.

But they not only declare their hostility, they
also declare their purpose to overthrow these schools.
I quote now concerning their purpose, as follows :
Mr. Parton in the Atlantic Monthly of May, I860,
in an article on " Our Roman Catholic Brethren,"
said, that, judging from the past, they conclude that
in the year 1900 they will count one-third of the
population of the country, and perhaps a majority of
the controlling cities and states of it ; and of the
extent to which they hope to change American insti-
tutions, should they obtain the power, the Catholic
World of July, 1870, gives this interesting informa-
tion : " The supremacy asserted for the Church in
matters of education, implies the additional and cog-
nate functions of the censorship of ideas, and the
right to examine and approve, or disapprove, all
books, publications, writings and utterances intended
for public instruction, enlightenment, or entertain-
ment, and the supervision of places of amusement."
(It maybe that this censorship is what is now affecting
the papers of our city and preventing their publica-
tion of stirring matters of common interest.) " The
cognate functions of the censorship of ideas and the
right to examine and approve, or disapprove, all

Romanism and the Republic. 163

books, publications, writings and utterances " ( per-
haps that refers to me, and to all utterances of the pul-
pit which they would censure and suppress) "intended
for public instruction, enlightenment or entertain-
ment." In other words, their threat implies not only
the overthrow of our schools, but the censorship and
overthrow of all our provisions for free speech and
free utterance.

I now quote from Monsignor Capel, a very dis-
tinguished Roman Catholic, who made a tour through
the country, and stopped a long time in the city of
New York, where he was the object of very great
attention. His utterances concerning the purpose of
Rome were among the boldest ever given in this
country, and among them are the following. In the
interview with Capel — an interview by Mr. H. A.
Cram, recorded in his " Further Consideration of the
So-called Freedom-of- Worship Bill," to the question
" Whom must we obey, if the State should command
the citizen to do one thing, and the Church should
command him to do another?" Monsignor Capel
replied: "Then he must obey the Church, of
course." The Monsignor remarked, that the thing
that was troubling him the most seriously was the
school question ; and he added: "I have not yet
spoken upon this definitely, but I shall go to Wash-
ington when Congress is in session, and make a for-
mal declaration which shall carry some authority with
it ; for I am pursuing'a careful study of your whole
school system. The result is, there is going to be a
fight — there are a good many Catholics in this country,

164 Romanism and the Republic.

eight millions, somebody says. Your public school
system is inadequate for them, and they are going
to leave it. Suppose that the Church sends out a
command to State schools in every parish to establish
and support parochial schools and send all Catholics
to them. He says : " It can be done by the utterance
of a word, sharp as the click of a trigger ." Mon-
signor Capel ! the American people are not afraid of
the click of a trigger. We have heard it within the

Do

past twenty-five years.

" That command," he says, "will be obeyed; new
schools will spring up eveiywhere. What will be
the result of that? A fight. If it is not a down-
right fight, it will be at least the war-like condition,
a million or two of voting, tax-paying citizens war-
like to the Government," etc. To the prediction of
a fisrht, unless America submits to all the demands of
Rome, we are already accustomed. The Catholic
Herald of May 24, 1879, is quoted as saying,
' ' that a most awful conflict between the power of
good and evil is in the near future, and that the fate
of the Republic depends on the result." And so
cool and experienced an observer as General Grant
said: " If we are to have another contest, in the
near future of our national existence, it will be
between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and
superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other."
He was awake to the threatcnings of Romanism, as
you see ; and he closed that memorable Avarning with
the words, " Keep the Church and State forever
separate."

Romanism and the Republic. 165

Now, in addition to this attitude of the Roman Cath-
olic Church, in which they are already threatening
to destroy our schools ( and I have not. yet read it all,
there is more to follow which will come in due order) ,
there is a definite demand made by them for a divi-
sion of the school moneys. I say, there is a definite
demand made by them for a division of the school
moneys. On page 41 of " Judges of Faith," there
is an explicit demand that the schools of this country
be divided into Popish and Protestant. Not only is
the demand made there ; but the New York Tablet
of Nov. 27, 1866, now twenty years ago, said this :
" Appropriate to the support of Catholic schools the
proportion of the public money according to the
number of children they educate, and leave the selec-
tion of teachers, the studies, the discipline, the whole
internal management to the Catholic educational
authorities." That demand has been often repeated
since twenty years ago. We have also the same
demand, in almost the same language, from the Bishop
•)f Trenton. On the 118th page of this book, the
Bishop of Trenton makes the following remark :
" These schools," he says, in closing up his indict-
ment against them, " impose an enormous tax, every
year growing greater, upon the entire community.
and a very unjust and unnecessary tax upon a large
section of that community." Bishop McQuaid of
Rochester says : " No Catholic is in harmony with tho
Church who maintains opinions opposed to these
teachings against the public schools- It is absurd to
say that one Bishop more than another insists od

166 Romanism and the Republic.

the establishment of Catholic schools. It is not left
to the Bishops to choose in this matter." And so he
goes on still further in the same line.

The demand is in the air, that the Roman Catholics
shall have a portion of the public money appropriated
to their schools. In the day when our school fund is
divided and is given to sects, in violation of the Con-
stitution of the United States, in that day our school-
system gets its death-blow ; and in the day that
our school system gets its death-blow, the intel-
ligent citizenship of America begins to stagger
under the same stroke. When the State schools
in Belgium, where Rome has vast power, were
crippled and nearly destroyed, this book indi-
cates, there was almost general, universal exul-
tation ; and I presume they expect a similar degree
of jubilation and gladness in this country over a
similar catastrophe.

And now, as against these statements, we hear the
denial of a priest of Worcester, however patriotic,
who brands as bigots those who know the purposes
of Rome and state them, whose eloquent voice not
long since was pleading for Ireland, a voice now
silenced under the authority of the Pope ; whose
patriotic heart was beating openly the other day for
his dear Ireland, that dare now only in secret pulsate
in its behalf, because of the Papal rescript ! It may
be worth while for him while he dares, lest Rome
shall stop him as she has stopped him once, — it may
be worth while for him to say that the purposes of
Rome are in harmony with the welfare of this

Romanism and the Republic. 167

country ; but when the Bishops of America speak as
in this book, and the Pope and the Baltimore Council,
with hundreds of foreign Bishops, I am compelled,
however much I respect this voice crying in the
wilderness, to listen to what is the real declaration
of Rome, instead of pinning my faith on the state-
ments of a heart not yet dead, who ought not to be
where he now is, under the tyranny of a power that
crushes out manhood. Do not be imposed upon by
your personal respect or love for any individual
priest of Rome, for if he strikes for America, he turns
his back on the Pope.

The Baltimore Plenary Council, we are told in
this book, devoted fifty of one hundred and eighty
pages to schools, and in their denunciations they
traverse about the same ground that I have already
gone over, making it the duty of every priest to see
there is a parochial school in his parish, and making
it incumbent upon him to get all the children to
attend the parochial schools under threat of the dis-
pleasure of the Church, and under threat of personal
displeasure also.

That brings me now to speak of the enginery
they have put in operation in order to carry out
their will; and I will endeavor to speak of it as
briefly as I may. The power that is brought to bear
on the Bishops of the Roman Catholie Church, in
order that they shall destroy our system of public
education, is spoken of on page 118 of this Roman
Catholic book, where it is declared that there is no
option with the Bishops whether they shall favor the

168 Romanism and the Republic.

establishment of parochial schools and the with-
drawal of the children from the public schools, or not.
They simply are compelled to do it. In relation to
the priests, the same attitude has been taken. Every
priest of the Roman Catholic Church was compelled
by the Baltimore Council to do his utmost for the
establishment of parochial schools, under penalty of
their displeasure. This is what the Council says ;
and this is what it says about the priests. Hear the
decree of the Council: 1. "We determine and
decree, that hard by every church, where it does not
already exist, a parochial school is to be erected
within two years of the promulgation of this Council
(January 6, 1886), and to be kept up in the future ;
unless the Bishop see fit to grant a further delay on
account of more than ordinary grave difficulties to
be overcome in its establishment. 2. That a priest
who, within the aforesaid time, hinders by serious
negligence the building and maintenance of a
school, or does not regard the repeated admonitions
of the Bishop, deserves removal from that Church."'
And again they say : " The priest's promotion to an
irremovable rectorate, or other dignity, will depend
upon their care of their schools ;" that is to say,
under the fear of the displeasure of the Church,
these wifeless and childless men, whose all is in the
Church, are told that, unless they put forth their
utmost endeavors to get all their children out of the
schools of this countiy and put them in Roman Cath-
olic schools, they shall not be promoted, — which is
the darling desire of their heart.

Romanism and the Republic. 169

And when it comes to their influence on the mem-
bers, they bring to bear a still stronger power.
Now it is a perfectly well-known fact, that there are
thousands of Roman Catholics who sincerely love the
public schools, and Avho are very reluctant to take
their children out of those schools. You find that
almost every Roman Catholic who has been trained
in our public schools has respect for them ; and you
will find that he prefers that his children shall go to
them rather than to the priests' schools. How is he
to be prevented from sending his children to them ?
Why, all through this book, the threat is ringing
from Bishop to Bishop, that when a Roman Catholic
declines to take his children out of the public schools,
he is at issue with the church ; that is, in antagonism
to it ; and the Archbishops have given it as their
opinion, and the Sacred Congregation of Rome as
their opinion, and the Baltimore Plenary Council as
their opinion, that in case the Roman Catholic popu-
lation do not take their children out of the public
schools, they shall be refused absolution at the con-
fessional. What does that mean? Why it means
this : You and I believe that God forgives our sins.
We go to Him in prayer, and expect from Him not
only forgiveness as he has promised, but also the
conscious evidence of that forgiveness in peace in our
hearts. The Roman Catholic expects his absolution
at the hands of the priests. Every Roman Catholic
lives in mortal terror of dying without priestly absolu-
tion. If he dies without having made confession and
received that absolution, he has no hope of anything

170 Romanism and the Republic.

but eternal damnation, and if he lives without that
absolution, he lives in mortal sin, and under the ban
of the church. Now these priests are everywhere
instructed — and I could read it to you over and
over from this book, and quote the pages from which
it is taken, — that they may refuse absolution to par-
ents who keep their children in the public schools.
Is that mortal sin ? Is it a mortal sin, endangering a
man's eternal future, for him to give his children the
benefit of American schools?

So says the Church. Let me give you an example
of that, in the declaration of the Archbishop of
Boston, whom, we would suppose, on account of his
living in Boston, to be a liberal-minded patriot. He
is far from it. On page one hundred and thirteen of
" The Judges of Faith," we have some very inter-
esting disclosures. Before that, I will give you the
benefit of the following, on page one hundred and
twelve: "It is notorious among the old stock of
English descendants, that New England is fast
becoming New Ireland [We earnestly pray that New
England may never become New Ireland, since the
Ireland of the Bishop is the slave of the Pope] ;
and the land of the Cotton Mathers and Eliots is
transforming into the inheritance of the martyred
Rasles, Jogues (Jesuits), and their children, the
meek sons of the Church. Schools are bound to fol-
low their counterparts, the congregations of the faith-
ful," and so on. Further : "Though it was thought
by those more conservative that the time had hardly
arrived for anything like a general reversal of for-

Romanism and the Republic. 171

mer toleration of even the best common schools of
Catholics, it was not long until there were dis-
covered many more practical supporters of the
change than was at all suspicioned — thanks, per-
haps, to certain Roman hints." This was after
many liberal-minded Romanists protested against
priest Scully's brutality in Cambridge.

And here is the following from Archbishop
Williams of Boston : " Any priest, however, hearing
confessions, in the private tribunal of penance, is
free, in the exercise of his faculties, in this as in all
other cases, to give or withhold absolution, guided by
the disposition of the penitent and his own judg-
ment and discretion, and his knowledge of the facts
and principles involved." (p. 115.) That is to say,
if a Roman Catholic is contumacious, and tells his
priest he will not take his children out of the public
school, and put them into the parochial school, he
may be refused absolution by the priest. This in
Boston, Massachusetts. And this fearful threat
hangs over every Roman Catholic. You and I laugh
at priestly absolution : the Roman Catholic trembles
under the lack of it, and thinks his salvation depends
on receiving it. This, then, is the enginery that
the Roman Catholic Church proposes to use in order
to accomplish its ends. We had supposed, until
we had so many of these highly enlightened people
among us from over the sea, that our common
schools were very good, very helpful to civilization
and the community, helpful to morals, and a bulwark
of the Constitution of the United States.

172 Romanism and the Republic.

They have taken this highly antagonistic
attitude ; we would like to know why they have
taken it. Among the very first answers is this ;
The first position that the Roman Catholics took in
this country against the schools, was, that we had
Bibles in them, and those Bibles, they said, were
sectarian books ; consequently, if the schools had
Bibles in them, they were sectarian schools. Reply-
ing, Ave said : First of all, the Bible is not a sectarian
book. The translation of the Roman Catholic
English or Douay Bible is from the Vulgate, and is
notoriously a corrupted version. And I challenge
Roman Catholic scholarship, (and remember here I
say " scholarship ;" I do not now refer to the ignorant
denunciations of priest or Bishop) — I challenge them
to show that the Bible, as we have it, is not made up
from the collation of the very best Greek manu-
scripts ; while their Vulgate is an imperfect transla-
tion of the Holy Scriptures. But that is of very
little account to them after all.

You remember, that even their own Douay Bible is
not in the hands of their people. You remember
that Bible Societies have been denounced by their
Popes from the first as a pestilence. You remember
that I have read to you here, in the language of their
Popes, that the Bible, in the hands of the common
people, is dangerous. All this we have learned
from them ; and yet when they protested that it was
unfair to have the Bible in schools, we were willing,
for the sake of peace, in a great many cases, to let it
go out. No sooner had the Bible been taken out of

Romanism and the Republic. 173

the schools, than they specifically stated that they
did not care a penny whether the Bible was in them
or not. Let me read to you their exact language.
The Freeman's Journal of November 20, 18G9, says :
"If the Catholic translation of the books of Holy
Writ, which is to be found in the homes of all our
better educated Catholics, were to be dissected by
the ablest Catholic theologians in the land, and merely
lessons take from it, such as Catholic mothers read
to their children ; and with all the notes and com-
ments in the popular edition, and others added with
the highest Catholic indorsement ; and if these admir-
able Bible lessons, and these alone, were to be ruled as
to be read in all the public schools, this would not
diminish in any substantial degree the objections we
Catholics have to letting Catholic children attend the
public schools." Now you know what a hue-and-cry
has been made against the Bible in the schools ; but
here is the authoritative declaration, that it does not
make any real difference to them whether the Bible
is there or not. It is the schools they wish to blot
out, not merely the use of the Bible in the schools.
It adds as follows: "The Catholic solution of this
muddle about Bible or no Bible in the public schools,
is — hands off. No state taxation or donations for
any schools. You look to your children, and we
will look to ours." (I notice, our police have to
look to theirs.) " We don't want you to be taxed
for Catholic schools ; we don't want to be taxed for
Protestant or godless schools. Let the public school
system, go to where it came from — the devil.'"

174 Romanism and the liepublic.

That is the New York Freeman's Journal, of Nov.
20, 1869, one of the most respectable Catholic pub-
lications in America. You understand then, do you?
I think we all do.

Then, just as soon as the Bible was taken out of
the schools, what did they say? " Your schools are
godless. Your schools are without religion. Your
schools are infidel. Your schools are immoral."
I have not time to take that matter up in full detail,
only I will say this ; that we cannot claim that our
public schools teach religion as a principal branch ;
but they have always taught morality and religi-
ous principle, and excepting for the opposition of the
Roman Catholic Church, they would be teaching it
now far more than they are ; and moreover, our pub-
lic schools are not more godless than the business
of Christian men is godless who carry on their busi-
ness on Christian principles.

The third reason alleged against our public
schools, why they hate them so, is that they are
immoral. The pages of this book, from the declara-
tion of the Sacred Congregation to the declarations
of the Bishops, teem with references and dark hints
and subtle suggestions and open statements that our
schools are terribly immoral ; that it is perilous for
any Catholic child to go to them, on the ground that
it sinks him in the slums of immorality.

And this impeachment comes from a Church that
furnishes nine-tenths of all the hoodlums in our
streets. This comes from a Church that furnishes
seventy-five to eighty per cent, of the crime in New

Romanism and the Republic. 175

York city. This comes from a Church whose the-
ology is so vile that it cannot be translated into
English, lest the translator be taken up for publishing
obscene literature. This comes from a Church whose
priests ask, and are compelled to ask, questions of
boys and girls in the confessional, that are not tit to
be repeated even between grown men, unless they
are physicians. Immorality, forsooth, in our public
schools ! The public schools criticised as dangerous
to morality ! If, for their visible immorality, on
such complaint the public schools should be sunk in
the depths of the sea as a punishment, by the same
standard of justice, the Roman Catholic Church should
be sunk into hell. " I am not mad, most noble
Festus. I speak forth the words of truth and sober-
ness." I simply draw my inference from the stand-
ard of judgment which they have made.

But now, wThat are the real reasons why they hate
our public schools ; for the above are plainly not the
real reasons. What are the real reasons ? The first
reason is, — that they claim — Popes, Bishops and all,
— that our schools, perpetuated and patronized, would
result in the destruction of the Roman Catholic faith.

That is what they say. Here listen to "The
chief guardian of souls on earth." (That is, Leo
XIII. Thanks be to God, my soul is not under his
guardianship !) Listen to the chief guardian of souls
on earth: "The design of withdrawing primary
schools from the control of the Church, and the exer-
tions made to carry it into effect, are, therefore,
inspired by a spirit of hostility toward her, and by

176 Ilomanitsm and the Republic.

the desire of extinguishing among the people the
divine light of our holy faith."

That is what they say. They are afraid that the
schools will extinguish the light of their Church.
The schools must be destroyed to save Romanism.
Listen to what is said on page 122 of this book.
The Archbishop sums up, — that is Cardinal Gibbons,
Archbishop of Baltimore, Administrator Apostolic,
&c, — in a pastoral letter : " If no provision is made
for the Christian culture of the rising youth, it is to
be feared that, twenty years hence, it will be much
easier to find churches for a congregation than a con-
gregation for our churches." Again he says: "It
may safely be asserted, that the future status of
Catholicity in the United States is to be determined
by the success or failure of our day schools."

Now you know the exact reason. The Roman
Catholic Church, in antagonism to the Constitution
of the United States, and in antagonism to the
common schools as the support of that Constitution,
endeavoring to foist its absolute tyranny upon the
American people, says : We cannot do it if you
have your public schools. And we answer : You
will not do it, then, till the day of judgment !

Our schools teach loyalty. I have been in
the public schools. I remember that little school-
house on the hillside in a distant country town in
Rhode Island, where a beautiful woman, now in
heaven, inspired me both with respect for her sex
and ambition for learning ; where I went in summer-
time, bare-footed, and with humble clothing, and

ttomanism and the Republic. Ill

learned the value of education by patient strivings,
and was inspired to go further in its pursuit. I
have been in the public schools, not as you have
them here in the cities, in all their glory, but as we
had them on the hills of New England. And this
is what I remember was taught in those schools :
Loyalty and love for the State ; loyalty and love for
man. I remember the day brave old John Brown was
hung (I was only a little lad,) : in our school we
almost covered our faces and wept, to think that so
brave and good a man was dying that hour for his
fellowmen. We were taught there the principles of
the Constitution. We were taught that the people
were the source of political authority in the United
States, under God. We were taught that every
child had the same rights as every other, and every
citizen had the same rights as every other. We were
taught history for the sake of knowing the truth, and
there was nobody there that was afraid to have the
truth told in history. We were taught science, and
that we need not fear that what God revealed in
nature man might study in books. We were taught
"the principles of religion. We were taught to
fear and reverence God ; and when, on the Lord's
day, there used to come from far the Christian
people of our neighborhood, to that old, unpainted
school-house, they opened the Bible and let us read
it for ourselves, and so we learned something about
the great and good God. That seems to be very
helpful both to the State and to the person ; but that
can never co-exist with Romanism, so they say
who speak for that system of ecclesiasticism.

178 Romanism and the Republic.

What is all this cry of fair-play coming to ere long ?
For Roman Catholics are saying : "If you are fair, you
will let us have our own schools, and will give us a
share of the money." "If you are fair," said Jefferson
Davis and Southern rebels, "you will let us alone. All
we ask is, to be let alone." If you are just and patri-
otic, said the spirit which awoke when the guns thun-
dered on Sumter, if you are just and patriotic, you will
suppress rebellion and save the country. There is the
difference in the theory of duty, the difference in the
theory of fair play. If you are fair, says Rome, you
will give up to us our schools, and you will help pay
for them. If you love America, says the rising spirit
of this country, you will save the schools, whatever
the Pope says. This matter of fair play is an inter-
esting matter, with clearly defined bounds. When
everybody else rises up and wants the same kind of
fair play, you see what will happen to our schools.
But two or three weeks ago, in the city of Brooklyn,
New York, at the commencement of one of their pub-
lic schools, a little girl mounted the platform, and
recited a poem against intemperance and licensing
the saloon. She described in that poem, in her child-
ish way, the poor man's wife begging the saloon-
keeper that he would not sell liquor to her husband ;
but he said he had a license, and went on and
sold it, and she told what was the result. And
as she described it in the pathetic way, which is not
half so pathetic in description as in fact, she did not
know what afterwards was disclosed, that there, on
the platform, sat a rumseller, who was licensed and
who had several children in that school. The rum-

Romanism and the Republic. 179

seller was exceedingly disturbed and greatly excited,
and no sooner were the exercises over than he began
roundly to denounce the management of the public
schools that had dared to insult him by having the poem
repeated. He called together a lot of his associates
in the saloon business, and they prepared and signed
a remonstrance against having any of that kind of
declaration in the public schools, because it was not
fair to rumsellers. That is a matter of current news
in our religious papers within the last two weeks.
Now there are two hundred thousand rumsellers in
the United States, and they will want everything
taken out of our school books and out of our
school exercises that looks towards censure of the
liquor traffic ; just exactly as the Roman Catholic
Church wants everything taken out of our school
books that does not favor the Roman Catholic Church.
Now, you will be fair with liquor saloonists, will you
not? Oh, do ! Now suppose here comes the Hebrew,
and says : You have on all your text-books the
figures 1871, 2, 3, etc., as the date of publication.
That is Christianity : that is not fair to us. Our
school children open their text-books and see that as
they read, and they say, What does this mean ? That
means the birth of Jesus Christ. That is anti-Juda-
ism. And suppose all our Jewish fellow-citizens
should rise up and say, Do be fair with us. Give us
our own text-books and our own schools. Then, after
them all, the Quakers might come, and say: Your
books praise the heroism and glories of war. You
have in them " Sheridan's Ride," and " The Battle of
Ivry," and " The Battle of Nasby," and all that kind

180 Romanism and the Republic.

of composition ; and that so teaches the glory of war,
which we reprobate, that we want these compositions
taken out, or else we want our own schools.

And then the Christian Scientist comes along, and
says : Why, you have praised there, in several places,
the giving of medicines by physicians, which is all a
humbug, and is contrary to our conscience ; and we do
not want anything of that kind in our text-books and
in our schools. Give us schools of our own, and our
share of the public money. Then the Englishmen
come along and say : Now, see here ! you have some
things in your public schools about England oppress-
ing Ireland, and we do not believe in that ; the speech
of Robert Emmet for example. And the Home-
Rule Irishman says : You have things there about the
glory, greatness and beneficence of England, and we
do not believe in that at all. Come right along,
gentlemen: you shall all have fair play. Tear in
pieces our whole system of schools. Let each one
take shreds and fragments of a dismembered and
ruined country, and then we can all drop back into
barbarism, and see what beauty there is in fair play,
as you call it. No ; the fairest of fair play, the most
beneficent course of action to take to all classes of
citizens, is to maintain in its integrity our common-
school system, undestroyed and undivided. I will
tell you what Romanism wants in our public schools,
and I shall prove it when we meet again : Romanism
wants Rome dominant in our public schools ; Rome
for the controlling power, with priests for the ruling
agents, the Bishops for governors, and the Pope for
dictator ; and this Rome will never get I

.Sermon OTL

THE PURPOSE OF ROMANISM TO DESTROY OUR

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: THEIR ALLEGED

AND ACTUAL REASONS.

My discourse to-night is a continuation of that of
last Sunday evening, and I resume by inviting your
attention to the same text as we then used, which
you will find in the First Epistle to the Corinthians,
the tenth chapter and the fifteenth verse : "I speak
as to wise men : judge ye what I say." Before the
army of the Tennessee, in 1876, General Grant used
the following weighty words: "If we are to have
another contest in the near future of our national
existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be
Mason and Dixon's, but it will be between patriot-
ism and intelligence on one side, and superstition,
ambition and ignorance on the other. In this cen-
tennial year, the work of strengthening the founda-
tion of the structure laid by our forefathers one hun-
dred years ago, should be begun. Let us all labor
for the security of free thought, free speech, free
press, and pure morals, unfettered religious senti-
ments, and equal rights and privileges for all men,
irrespective of nationality, color or religion.

182 Romanism and the Republic.

Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dol-
lar appropriated to them shall be applied to the sup-
port of any sectarian school: resolve that any child
in the land may get a common school education,
unmixed with atheistic, pagan, or sectarian teachings;
Keep the Church and State forever separate." He
also wrote, when President, in his message to Con-
gress, recommending the passage of an amendment
to the national Constitution, " prohibiting the grant-
ing of any school funds or school taxes, or any part
thereof, either by legislative, municipal or other
authority, for the benefit, or in aid, directly or indi-
rectly, of any religious sect or denomination ; or in
aid, or for the benefit of any other object of any
nature or kind whatsoever." Thus this wise patriot
and statesman, anticipating the very danger which
we are now confronting — a demand for a division of
the school funds, a part to be used for sectarian pur-
poses — urged that an amendment should be made to
the Constitution of the United States forever pro-
hibiting such misuse. President Garfield, in his
letter of acceptance, July 12, 1880, said: "Next in
importance to freedom and justice, is popular educa-
tion, without which neither freedom nor justice can
be permanently maintained. It would be unjust to
our people, and dangerous to our institutions, to
apply any portion of the revenue of the nation, or of
the State, to the support of sectarian schools. The
separation of the Church and the State, in everything
relating to taxation, should be absolute." The
^Republican party of that year dared to say that this

Romanism and the Republic. 183

ought to be the policy of the nation. This year
they did not dare to say it. Here, then, we have
the statements of two of the greatest of the statesmen
of America in favor of the public-school system as
we have it ; and you will remember that both these
men were poor boys, and if it had not been for our
system of public education, they probably would
never have arrived at the dignity which they achieved.
The public school system primarily is established for
the poor, and not for the rich. The rich can compass
an excellent education for their children at any time
by the use of their money. It is not for the sake of
the most favored class in our community that the free
schools should be maintained ; but the public school
is particularly instituted to educate the children of
those who otherwise could not give their children a
good education ; and because it is so instituted and
is so especially advantageous to the poor, it ought
particularly to command the suffrages of a very
large majority of this nation. Now it is against this
system of benevolent education, which is so clearly
in the interests of Constitutional liberty, that the
hierarchy of Rome is throwing all its power, as I
told you last Sunday night. To review a little ; for
by their own words we prove that they endeavor to
discredit our school system by declaring their antag-
onism to it, and by violently denouncing it. They
have already threatened it in the strongest and most
earnest language, and have declared their purpose,
the Pope, and the Baltimore Council, and a large
number of bishops and prelates, to destroy it, I

184 Romanism and the Republic.

also brought to your attention the fact, that already
the attempt has been made to secure a division of
the school fund, and that the tax, as now used, has
been protested against in numerous cases as unjust.
Then I showed you — and you have not fogotten it,
and will not — that the Roman Catholic Church is
using all the enginery of which it is possessed, to
compel its people to abandon our free schools for the
parochial schools, and that bishop after bishop had
intimated that his priests would be directed, as they
were already empowered, to refuse absolution to
any of their people who do not take their children
out of our public schools. Then we paid some atten-
tion to the alleged reasons why they take this course.
First, that the Bible was in the schools. (I then
showed how they repudiated that reason as soon as
the Bible was taken out.) Again, that our schools
were godless ; and then I brought to your attention
the fact that that was not the real reason. I believe,
also, that I spoke in reference to their claim that our
schools were immoral ; and suggested that such a
protest from such a source was hardly in keeping
with good taste. Then I read to you what were the
real reasons why they desire to destroy our school
system, and I quoted from Cardinal-Archbishop
Gibbons the following statement: "It may safely
be asserted, that the future status of Catholicity in
the United States is to be determined by the suc-
cess or failure of our day schools."

Having made it perfectly plain, then, that they
had drawn the lines of conflict between Romanism and

Romanism and the Republic 185

the Constitution, with all that supports the Constitu-
tion, and that they were antagonizing the public
schools because they were afraid that the public
schools would destroy the power of the Roman
Catholic hierarchy in this country, I then, for a
moment, dwelt on the folly of supposing that we
could divide up piece-meal our school-fund as they
desire, and as the rumsellers of Brooklyn and of the
country desire, and as a great many other partisans
might desire, without utterly destroying the system
and ruining the State. Having proceeded as far as
this, I was compelled, almost abruptly, to pause.

But now, on this occasion, I wish to bring to your
attention another of the alleged reasons which they
urge. I want to show you that the claim that it is
in violation of the conscience of Roman Catholics
that we should have our system of free schools is a
fallacious claim ; and that the call for a division of
the school funds on grounds of conscience, in case
they have their own parochial schools, is also on falla-
cious ground. Then I want to show you, that, after
antagonizing the Bible in the schools, they are with
equal urgency setting themselves against true and
correct history in the schools. I shall then proceed
further to show that their antagonism is not confined
to history, but is also against literature and science ;
and by the time I have closed this evening's dis-
course, I shall have made it plain to you, that nearly
all of what we call Truth has been denounced by the
hierarchy as inappropriate to be taught in our pub-
lic schools.

186 Romanism and the Republic.

1. Let us, then, address ourselves to the argument
that is brought before us, and which is highly influen-
tial in New England, that the Roman Catholic people
are violating their consciences in sending their chil-
dren to our schools, and that because we believe in
liberty of conscience, therefore we should grant them
their own separate schools, and help to support them.
Now, first of all, you remember that liberty of con-
science is an utterly unknown quantity in the Roman
Catholic Church. From early times and for centu-
ries, the bulls and Encyclicals of the Popes have
denounced liberty of conscience. To give you an
idea of the correctness of this statement, I call your
attention to the following paragraph, which I read,
for the sake of brevity and accuracy : " When in
this country we speak of liberty of conscience, we
mean that every man shall be permitted to worship
God as his own personal convictions of duty shall
dictate. But the Papal hierarchy have no such
meaning, and intend nothing of the sort. With them,
liberty of conscience merely consists in the right to
embrace, profess, and practice the Catholic religion
in a Protestant country ; and not the right to embrace
profess, and practice the Protestant religion in a
Roman Catholic country. Protestantism cannot be
tolerated or compromised without sin, and must be
exterminated." ("The Papacy and the Civil
Power," p. 35) Now, still further as to liberty of
conscience : in the bull of Gregory XVI., of 1832,
which is endorsed by Pius IX., we have denunciation
and anathema upon liberty of conscience as a most

Romanism and the Republic. 187

pestiferous error, from which spring revolutions,
corruptions, contempt of sacred things, holy institu-
tions and laws, and in one word, that pest of all
others most to be dreaded in the State, unbridled
liberty of opinion." ("Papacy and Civil Power,"
p. 206.) Here you have manifest proof of the fact,
that the liberty of conscience which is urged upon
us, as a reason why they are denouncing and would
destroy our schools, is not permitted to Roman Cath-
olics, is against their highest law, and is the object
of Papal anathema. Whose conscience is it, then,
that is being violated by our school system? Not
the conscience of the Roman Catholic people, of
whom the most intelligent part, I believe, are devoted
friends of our free schools, and are very reluctant to
have their children taken out of them. Not the con-
science of intelligent American priests, who are being
forced to establish these parochial schools or lose their
standing in the Church. The only conscience that
is tolerated in the Roman Catholic Church, the
only conscience that can make a demand upon us
is the conscience of the Pope ; and I am prepared to
say, that if there is a conscience under heaven that I
think ought to be repudiated, both by morality and
piety, it is the conscience of the Pope. I predi-
cate this opinion on the characters of Popes that the
Romish Church has had for centuries, and on the
quality of the lives that they have lived, on the
enactments that they have made, and on the excom-
munications that they have issued. Is the man who
could swear so blasphemously at Victor Emanuel as

188 Romanism and the Republic.

did Pope Pius IX., in the bull of excommunication,
a man whose conscience should dictate to America
concerning its school policy ? But suppose this false
plea of conscience is allowed, what will it next object
to ? We have Bibles in our courts and in our Con-
gress. We have chaplains also in our army. When I
visited our house of correction, I found Bibles there in
every cell. All Bibles and their free use are against
this same conscience. How soon will they be taken
out ? It must be also against the conscience of the
Pope, that there should rise in all the cities of Amer-
ica churches that are not Roman Catholic, and do
not recognize any allegiance to him. As the children
of Roman Catholic parents behold these churches,
they are are likely to be impressed, as they are by
the character of Protestant Christians, that there
are good Christians in the world beside the Pope,
and beside the Roman Catholics. But if our com-
mon schools, in contradicting that idea, come to be
the objects of Papal hatred, and if the Papal con-
science demands the destruction of the mighty fabric
of our common schools because it is likely to woo
their youth away from the Roman hierarchy, when
will their conscience demand the levelling of our
churches, because our church edifices are likely to
suggest to the consciences of Roman Catholic chil-

CO

dren that their religion is not the only true religion
in the world? And if we grant the right of their
conscience to destroy our public schools, which are a
structure vaster and grander in this nation than any
piles of brick and mortar, what answer shall we

Romanism and the Republic. 189

make them, when the Pope of Rome demands that
all Protestant structures be levelled to the ground to
satisfy his conscience? Liberty of conscience must
have its limitations, and those limitations have
already been reached. This Papal conscience is the
same which found it necessary to recognize the
Southern Confederacy when this nation was, being
riven by rebellion. This is the same conscience
that called Jefferson Davis the beloved son of the
Church. Evidently, the "conscience of the Pope is
not a good guide for Americans.

Now when you remember that this claim to a
conscientious right to overthrow our public school
system is not the claim of the conscience of the
Roman Catholic people, but is only the drift and
purpose of the hierarchy, then you can see, that
while we are loyal to the doctrine of liberty of con-
science, there is no reason in the world why we
should consent to the destruction of our schools.

And right along that line they raise another sug-
gestion, namely, that of fair play : because, they say,
they are taxed for the support of public schools, and
that ought not to be. The tax is called unjust.
Their children are going to be withdrawn from those
schools, they say, and when thus withdrawn, this
unjust tax must no longer be levied on Roman Cath-
olics. So, as M. Capel said, as quick as the click of
a trigger, when the Pope says it, they will all
refuse to pay the tax. Now, such refusal is not
fair play. Do not all these people enjoy the privi-
leges of that Constitutional government which is

190 Romanism and the Republic.

supported by our public schools? Does not the
diffusion of general intelligence furnish them with
better surroundings than they could have elsewhere?
Is not this country made a more desirable place to
live in because of the tax expended for the support
of public schools ? If they are not deriving as great
benefit from this government as they pay for in their
taxes, let them emigrate to Spain or Mexico, to
Portugal or Belgium, where they can have their own
way. Spain is about the last state in the world of
any consequence where they can have their own
way. Italy and Austria and France, after ages of
bondage, are having their. way now, and are renounc-
ing all allegiance to the Papacy. But I say, if any
Roman Catholic priest or bishop, or any layman,
feels himself defrauded when he pays his taxes
in America, let him go and pay his tax in Spain or
Mexico, and have all the benefits of Papal supremacy
and Papal law. But even when people send no
children to school should they therefore not be taxed
for the support of schools and for the common good ?
How about that large number of people possessed of
great property in the community who have no chil-
dren and pay taxes for the support of schools ? Is
that unjust? How about many millionaires of our
country whose children have never seen a day in our
public schools? Shall they, because they are not
sending their children to the public schools, deny the
right pf the State to tax them for the support of
public education? I do not know about the method
of distributing school monies in this city, but in some

Romanism and the Republic. 191

cities the taxes are paid into a common treasury.
The taxes that are raised in a locality are not all
spent in that locality, but the levies that are raised
in one section of the state may be spent in remote
localities for the support of schools there, because
one county has a surplus of wealth, while another
is poor. Do you suppose that every man who
objects to any part of the polk^ofthe State is going
to have exemption from taxation for the support of
that part of the government's policy? Suppose I, if
I were a single man and not owning property, should
say, I can take care of myself and do not need any
police. Being alert and strong and tolerably muscu-
lar, I do not intend to be taxed for the support of
the police-force of the city, because it does me no
good. How about that? Now you can apply this
principle far and wide, and you will find the further
you reason about it the more utterly absurd is all
this talk about a division of the school-fund when
Roman Catholics withdraw their children and refuse
to use the public schools. I tell you, my friends,
there is going to be a struggle on the part of the
best of the Roman Catholics before they withdraw
their children from the common schools, and they
ought to count on the intelligent support of every
lover of his country when they make their stand
against the terrors and threats of the hierarchy.
That is why I bring you this argument, so that you
can remember it, and help them.

When it comes to the argument of fair play,
we retort and ask: Is it fair play, on account of

192 Romanism and the Republic.

hostility to the best government under the sun, and
to the freest Constitution, which gives you the largest
liberty and the greatest privileges, — is it fair play, at
the mandate of a foreigner, who is no friend of lib-
erty, and whose principal care for you is to fleece
you, — is it fair play for Roman Catholic people in
America to lend their influence to destroy the sys-
tem which has given them such large benefits? No,
it is not. And when we come to the question of
fair play, the rights of fair play are all on the side of
the defence and protection of our schools. Keep
before you, then, all these fallacies thus fully
answered. The true reason was given by the Bishops,
and by Archbishop Gibbons, now Cardinal. The
real antagonist in this fight against our public schools
is the political machine which Father McGlynn has
so correctly characterized ; it is the machine of absolut-
ism in Rome ; not love of liberty, not fair play, not
conscience, not morality, but the hierarchy of Rome.
I have always had an idea that the breaking of
machines of that sort was the best use you could put
them to.

2. Romanism not only cannot be reconciled to
the Bible, but it cannot be reconciled to history : for
the shocking iniquity of the Popes is perfectly plain
as written in the annals of the world. If I thought
it necessary, I should repeat quotations that I have
already made, to show that Bibles and Bible societies
are regarded as pestiferous by the Pope. But the
objection that the people should not read the Bible
because they do not know how to interpret it, is not

Romanism and the Republic. 193

an honest objection. If the people do not know how
to interpret the Bible, and therefore ought not to
read it, pray tell me what books and periodicals are
they able to interpret, and what shall they read?
The people are not able to interpret, perhaps, the
protective tariff. They may not be able to interpret
fully the Constitution of the United States, accord-
ing to this theory of Rome. They may not be able
to interpret natural sciences. They may not be able
to interpret political economy. Who is going to
interpret these for them ? The Pope ? He claims
the right. In the matter of the Bible, they say, the
hierarchy shall interpret. But the truth is, this
argument against the Bible in the hands of the
people, and the power of the people to interpret it,
is not the reason why the Roman Catholic hierarchy
have tried for ages to hold in bondage the intelligence
of their people. It is rather because, with an open
Bible, their manhood rising up, protests against
being kept in constant infancy and pupilage, and they
demand the right to think for themselves.

Now the real objection to the Bible is : You cannot
find in it many of the fundamental dogmas of Roman-
ism. You cannot find in it priestly or episcopal
celibacy. If the Roman Catholic people should read
it, they would all see that their priests are not keep-
ing the law of God in living without families, recog-
nized families. The doctrine of the Immaculate Con-
ception is not in the Bible ; nor do Roman Catholic
theologians claim that it is. It was only created by
Pius IX., in 1854, who said, not long before he made

194 Romanism and the Republic.

it, that he did not know whether it was true or not.
The worship of Mary is not in the Bible. Purga-
tory is not in the Bible. The Mass is not in the
Bible. The Assumption of the Virgin is not in the
Bible. Indulgences are not in the Bible, nor Papal
infallibility, nor extreme unction, nor the Inquisition,
nor Den's Theology, nor a good deal more that they
depend on. That is the real reason why they object
to the Bible ; because the open Bible, in the hands of
the people, destroys the wicked pretensions of the
hierarchy, and emancipates men from a yoke that
neither they nor their fathers have ever been able to
bear without being pressed down to the ground.

But I am coming to a central point in this matter
of controversy. The attitude that they take against
the Bible is the attitude that they take against his-
tory, and for the same reason. Because history can-
not be tortured into a justification of the ivays of th Is
infallible Church, therefore they object to it. Three
hundred years ago, all Germany, and all the world,
was shaken by a conflict on so-called Indulgences.
Is it not a remarkable fact, that in Boston, in this
year of grace 1888, the conflict between Romanism
and the public schools is over the very same thing?
As Luther rose up then and denounced Indul-
gences and their sale, so it seems once more, after
the lapse of centuries, we have got to rise up and
protest against Indulgences as a reason why a book
of history should be expelled from Boston public
schools, and why a master of those schools should be
removed from his place. I propose now to give you

Romanism and the Republic. 195

some insight into that Boston incident. You know
that, not long since, Boston was convulsed by the
action of the school board, half of whom were Roman
Catholics, in taking out of the schools Swinton's
book on history, and in discharging Mr. Travis, one
of the public school teachers, from his position,
because he had taught concerning indulgences what
the Roman Catholic Church denied, or at least the
Roman Catholic people on that school board.

The following is the exact language of Swinton's
History, which has been made the ground of its pro-
scription in Boston Schools :

" When Leo X. came to the Papal chair, he found
the treasury of the Church exhausted by the ambi-
tious projects of his predecessors. He therefore had
recourse to every means which ingenuity could
devise for recruiting his exhausted finances, and
among these he adopted an extensive sale of indul-
gences, which in former ages had been a source of
large profits to the Church." (Here is a star, and a
foot note which I will presently give you.)

"The Dominican friars, having obtained a monopoly
of the sale in Germany, employed, as their agent,
Tetzel, one of their own Order, who carried on the
traffic in a manner that was very offensive, and
especially to the Augustinian friars."

Now, after this mild statement, read the foot-note,
which was most offensive to Romanists: "These
indulgences were, in the early ages of the Church,
remissions of the penances imposed upon persons
whose sins had brought scandal on the community.

196 Romanism and the Republic.

But in process of time, they were represented as act-
ual pardons of guilt, and the purchaser of indul-
gences was said to be delivered from all his sins."

Now I will demonstrate to you, out of the mouth
of popes and bishops and John Tetzel himself, that
Swinton's History is but a mild statement of literal
truth, and that the only objection that can justly be
brought against it is, that he states so kindly facts
which are a disgrace to Rome.

The theory of indulgences I will state in the words
of Pope Leo X., in order that you may know exactly
what it is, from Papal authority. Pope Leo X.
explained the doctrine of indulgences thus: "The
Roman Church, whom other churches are bound to
follow as their mother, hath taught that the Roman
Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth, pos-
sessing the power of the keys, by which power all
hindrances are removed out of the way of the faith-
ful, that is to say, the guilt of actual sin, by the sac-
rament of penance, and the temporal punishment due
for those sins, according to the divine justice by
ecclesiastical indulgence, that the Roman Pontiff
may, for reasonable causes, by his apostolic author-
ity, grant indulgences out of the superabundant
merits of Christ and the saints, to the faithful who
are united to Christ by charity, as well for the liv-
ing as for the dead ; and that in thus dispensing the
treasure of the merits of Jesus Christ and the saints,
he either confers indulgences by the method of abso-
lution, or transfers it by the method of suffrage
(that is, favor) ; wherefore all persons, whether liv-

Romanism and the Republic. 197

ing or dead, who really obtain any indulgence of this
kind, are delivered from so much temporal punishment
due according to divine justice, for their actual sins,
as is equivalent to the value of indulgences bestowed
and received." That is to say, indulgences are of
various classes, and the classes are in several divi-
sions ; and these indulgences are supposed, by the
theory of the Church, to remit the pains of purgatory,
and to remit also the penalties of guilt in this life.
(Dr. Barnum's " Romanism As It Is," p. 530.) Pro-
fessor L. T. Townsend, of the Theological School of
Boston, one of the cleanest and clearest scholars of
New England, said, that after examining fifteen
authorities in reference to a definition of indulgen-
ces, he found that there was nothing in Swinton at
variance with their general statement.

What are the actual facts about Indulgences, when
you come to the practice of their dispensation ? You
will find in D'Aubigne's " History of the Reforma-
tion," vol. I, book iii, chapters 1-2, what Tetzel,
who was the great agent and auctioneer of indul-
gences in Luther's time, said about his wares ; and
because I want you to know what Indulgences really
are, I will give you some of Tetzel's own words.
" Indulgences," said Tetzel, (who had a voice like a
lion and the manners of a mountebank, whose vices
were infamous, and, though a monk, had two of his
children with him,) — indulgences are the most preci-
ous and the most noble of God's gifts. This cross
(pointing to the Red Cross) has as much efficacy
as the very cross of Jesus Christ. Come, and I will

198 Romanism and the Republic.

give you letters, all properly sealed, by which even
the sins that you intend to commit may be pardoned."
These are his own words. " I would not change my
privileges for those of Saint Peter in Heaven ; for I
have saved more souls by my indulgences than the
Apostle by his sermons." (That was rather bad
for Peter.) "There is no sin so great, that an
indulgence cannot remit ; and even if any one (which
is doubtless impossible) had offered violence to the
blessed Virgin Mary, mother of God, let him pay,
only let him pay well, and all will be forgiven him."
(The consummate indecency of the man had to come
out even in the sale of indulgences.) " Keflect,
then, that for every mortal sin, you must, after con-
fession and contrition, do penance for seven years,
either in this life or in purgatory." (I judge that
Tetzel is in purgatory yet !) " Now, how many
mortal sins are there not committed in a day, how
many in a week, how many in a month, how many in
a year, how many in a whole life ! Alas ! these sins
are almost infinite, and they entail an infinite pen-
alty in the fires of purgatory. And now, by means
of these letters of indulgence, you can, once in your
life, in every case except four, which are reserved
for the Apostolic See, and afterward in the article of
of death, obtain a plenary remission of all your
penalties and all your sins."

That is not a Protestant declaration.

Those are the exact words of John Tetzel, the
a^ent of the Pope, and of Albert, Archbishop of
Mainz, who went all through Germany selling

Romanism and the Republic. 199

indulgences, before and after Martin Luther pro-
nounced the ninety-five theses against them. He
says also : ' ' The very moment that the money rattles
at the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from
purgatory and flies liberated to heaven." Further:
we give one of these letters of absolution. I am
sure you will be interested. It is worth while learn-
ing the contents of these diplomas which led to the
reformation of the Church : " May our Lord Jesus
Christ have pity on thee, N. H., and absolve thee
by the merits of His most holy passion. And I, in
virtue of the apostolic power that has been confided
to me, absolve thee from all apostolic censures
judgments, and penalties, which thou may est have
incurred : moreover from all excesses, sins and crimes
that thou mayest have committed, however great
and enormous they may be, and from whatsoever
cause, were they even reserved for our Most Holy
Father the Pope and for the Apostolic See. I blot
out all the stains of inability and all the marks of
infamy that thou mayest have drawn upon thy
self on this occasion. I restore thee anew to partici-
pation of the sacraments of the Church. I incorpor-
ate thee afresh in the communion of saints, and
re-establish -thee in the purity and innocence which
thou hadst at thy baptism. So that in the hour of
death, the gate by which sinners enter the place of
torments and punishments shall be closed against
thee ; and, on the contrary, the gate leading to the
paradise of joy shall be open. And if thou
shouldst not die for long years, this grace will

200 Romanism and the Republic

remain unalterable until thy last hour shall arrive. In
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."
The foregoing was signed by John Tetzel "with
his own hand." (D'Aubigne's " History of the Refor-
mation," vol. 1, p. 247.) Now if that had been in
Swinton's text-book, I should not have wondered if
the Roman Catholic members of the school-board
had been greatly exercised, but Swinton's statement
was not like that. If that is not a permission to
commit sin, with a guarantee that if a man does not
die for long years to come the indulgence will keep
him out of hell and open to him heaven — if that is
not what it says, then I cannot understand language.
" A Saxon nobleman, who had heard Tetzel at
Leipsic, was much displeased by his falsehoods.
Approaching the monk, he asked him if he had
the power of pardoning sins that men have an inten-
tion of committing. ' Most assuredly,' replied Tet-
zel, 'I have received full powers from His Holiness
for that purpose.' ' Well, then,' answered the
knight, < I am desirous of taking a slight revenge on
one of my enemies, without endangering his life. I
will give you ten crowns if you will give me a letter
of indulgence that shall justify me.' Tetzel made
some objections ; they came, however, to an arrange-
ment, by the aid of thirty crowns. The monk
quitted Leipsic shortly after. The nobleman and his
attendants lay in wait for him in a wood: they fell
upon him and gave him a slight beating, and took
away the well-stored indulgence-chest the Inquisitor
was carrying with him. Tetzel made a violent outcry,

Romanism and the Republic. 201

and carried his complaint before the courts. But the
nobleman showed the letter which Tetzel had signed
himself, and which exempted him from ever}' penalty.
Duke George, whom this action at first exceedingly
exasperated, no sooner read the document than he
ordered the accused to be acquitted. Duke George
was a most earnest Roman Catholic, and a life-long
enemy of the Reformation. Tetzel, speaking for him-
self, makes manifest the wickedness and folly of indul-
gences, to gloze over which, this very summer, text-
books are changed and teachers persecuted in Bos-
ton, Massachusetts ! Bishop Challoner, in his " Cath-
olic Christian Instructed," defined an indulgence thus :
•« An indulgence is simply a remission or mitigation
of those temporal punishments which the sinner still
owes to the Eternal Justice, even after the forgiveness
of the guilt of his offence." Now we have here a
Brief of Indulgence published in Sadlier's Catholic
Directory for 1870-71: " Saint Patrick's Day. Most
Holy Father: James Frederick, Bishop of Phila-
delphia, most humbly begs that your Holiness would
deign to grant to all the faithful of his diocese who,
having duly confessed and worthily approached the
holy Sacrament of the Eucharist on the feast of Saint
Patrick, shall visit their representative churches, a
plenary indulgence, which may be accounted every
year, and which may also be applied in favor, aid or
assistance of the souls in purgatory." The Brief is
appended thus asked for, granting the request, signed
by the Pope's Secretary. I have here the translation
of a prayer which Romanists state was found in the

202 Romanism and the Republic.

tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, pre-
served by His Holiness and Charles V., in their ora-
tories, in silver cases. After a great deal of blasphe-
mous nonsense which you may find in that so-called
prayer, we have the following: "Whoever daily
recites three Paters and three Aves, is granted by
Pius IX. one hundred years of indulgence, corres-
ponding with the number of drops of blood which I
shed. And if he lives like a good Christian, he
grants him five graces, namely : (1) Plenary indulg-
ence and the remission of all his sins0 (2) He
shall be freed from the pains of purgatory. (3) If
he dies before reaching the age of twelve years, he
shall be as if he had reached that age. (4) He shall
be as if he were a martyr, and had shed his blood for
the faith. (5) I will come from heaven to earth for
his soul, and for the souls of his relations to the fourth
generation. He who carries this prayer with him
shall not die under condemnation, nor a bad death,
nor by sudden death. He shall be safe from con-
tagion, from plagues, from arrow-shots : shall not
die without confession : he shall be safe from his
enemies, from the power of justice, and from all mal-
evolent men and false witnesses. In houses where
this prayer is kept there shall be no treachery nor
other evil things, and forty days before death the
inhabitant shall see the blessed Virgin Mary." A
part is omitted as unfit for print or speech. ("Rom-
anism As It Is," p. 535).

The Rev. Dr. Hall, late chaplain to the American
legation in Rome, says: "On a marble slab in the

Romanism and the Republic. 203

Church of St. Lawrence is this inscription : " Who-
soever with devout and contrite heart approaches
this cross, and the other (in the adjoining cloister),
shall obtain plenary indulgence of all his sins." In
the Church of St. Agostino, is this inscription;
"Our Lord, Pius VII., granted in perpetuity one
hundred days of indulgence, to be obtained once a
day by all those who devoutly shall kiss the foot of
this holy image (a statue of the Virgin and Child),
reciting an Ave Maria for the necessities of Holy
Church." On the gate of St. Paul is written : " Kiss-
ing devoutly the most holy cross in any place gains
one year and forty days indulgence." In the church
of St. Sebastian, at the entrance to the Catacombs, on a
marble slab, is this inscription: " Whoever contrite
and confessed shall have entered it (the Catacomb) ,
shall obtain plenary remission of all his sins, through
the merits of the 174,000 "holy martyrs" buried
there. The Roman doctrine of Merit teaches, that a
martyr in dying renders more to God than is neces-
sary for the expiation of all his sins. The same is
said of all saints and monks. (Bellarmine, Indulg.
1: 2, 5). The surplus of merit of these martyrs
and monks is supposed to be deposited in the treas-
ure (or box) of the church, of which the Pope only
has the key, enabling him to grant indulgences with-
out limit, and authorizing Bishops and priests to do
the same. Pierre du Moulin, (" Roman Traditions,"
361) says: "These indulgences are for those who
will pay for them." " There is no sin so great that
the indulgence cannot remit it," said Tetzel.

204 Romanism and the Republic.

I do not take you any further into this matter of
indulgences ; but when you compare what is in the
text-book that has been taken out of the Boston
schools, you will find that it does not represent one-
fiftieth part of the enormity of the promises, the
blasphemies, the follies that are in the extracts which
I have read you from prominent and authorized rep-
resentatives of the Papal Church, from the Pope
down. And is Massachusetts calmly and timidly
submitting to have a text-book taken out and the
teacher decapitated because he dared to tell a frac-
tion of the truth? Shades of the fathers! Would
that your spirits might reanimate your sons ! It is
not the utter silliness of the doctrine to which I call
your attention ; but the question is simply this : Shall
our schools teach history ; or shall they teach Roman-
ismf That question is going to be decided by the
American public. Now Gladstone says, in his pam-
phlet " Vaticanism" (p. 129), that " Rome does not
keep good faith with history as it is handed down to
I her and marked out for her by her own annals." You
\ understand that. Let me read it again. This man
\who weighs every word, and I think has as remark-
able power of exact statement as any man speaking
the English language, says : " Rome does not keep
faith with history as it is handed down to her and
marked out for her by her own annals." And what
is the reason? The reason is, that Romanism cannot
and dare not face her own history. This is true in
every essential particular relating to the Church.
For instance : almost every doctrine or dogma out-

]

:

Romanism and the Republic. 205

side of immediate Christian biblical doctrine, almost
every dogma of the Roman Catholic Church is
exploded by history; as for example, the Papacy, in-
fallibility, temporal power, purgatory. All these are
wholly unsubstantial in the light of nistory. Take
all the assumptions of the Papacy of Rome, which
depend on the allegation that Peter was the first
Bishop of Rome. Now, from the very best evidence
that I can get on both sides, Peter was never in
Rome, and that has been the opinion of many of the
most learned theologians and historians. In a debate
in Rome some years ago, after free Italy took pos-
session and made debate possible, all the weight of
argument and all the truth of history was on the side
of the belief that Peter was never in Rome. That
the office of Bishop was held by him is without one
bit of proof. The Bible says nothing about it, nor
does tradition for a hundred years, nor do the fathers
who came directly after the apostles. All tradition
points the other way. Take another Romish dogma :
We have in the Papacy the figment of apostolic
succession. They think that Peter was in Rome and
was the first Bishop, and handed down his power to
his successors ; but to whom they do not know.
Roman Catholic historians cannot agree, for their
lives, on who the next four Popes after Peter are.
There is no concord of opinion. I have here a book,
(Edgar's "Variations of Popery,") which quotes one
hundred and seventy and more of the leading
writers, historians and fathers of the Roman Catholic
Church, and the summation of their teaching is, that

I

206 Romanism and the Republic.

they do not know who the first four Popes were,
after Peter, who never was a Pope ! Where is your
unbroken apostolical succession? Nowhere. There
V is no such thing in history.

And now further. In this apostolic succession
there are many Popes, of some of whom it is
altogether uncertain whether they were legally Popes
or not. There are at least four periods where there
were two Popes at once, and how they did curse each
other ! I never heard or read such cursing, except
as between Popes. You remember what a gift at
that Pius IX. had. Well, from the first, — and that is
one reason why we know Peter was never a Pope, —
from the first, these Popes have used the most diaboli-
cal language toward one another when there happened
to be two of them. And on two separate occasions
there were three Popes. Now which of the three
was Pope, when all claimed to be? They were all
cursing, — if that is any mark of a Pope. — every man
of them anathematizing and denouncing the others.
At the time known as the great schism, occurring
from and after 1378, there was a period of seventy
years in which there was a Pope at Avignon over in
France, and a Pope in Rome, and they surely did not
hold each other in good estimation. There were
seventy years in which the air was blue with their
mutual anathemas, and the apostolic succession was
wholly unsettled. Now, you remember that these
Popes were all infallible. I affirm to you that, by
the authority of Roman Catholic historians, many of
these Popes were guilty of the most infamous crimes,

\

liomanism and the Republic. 207

and that the Councils of the Roman Catholic Church
itself have characterized many of the Popes in lan-
guage so dreadful that it is hardly fit to be read
before any audience. What did the Council of Con-
stance say concerning John XXIII. , who was a Pope
of Rome? I will read as much as I dare to you,
" The Council, seeing no other alternative, resolved

, to depose John for immorality. The Sacred Synod
of Constance, in the twelfth session, convicted His
Holiness of schism, heresy, incorrigibleness, simony,
impiety, immodesty, unchastity, fornication, adul-

\ tery, incest, rape, piracy, lying, robbery, murder,
perjury and infidelity." This was John XXIII., Pope
of Rome ; and that is what the Council of Constance
said of him, the very same Council that burned John
Huss and Jerome of Prague. Nor was he an excep-
tion either ; for what do they say concerning another
of the Popes ? Benedict VIII. , the Council convicted
of" schism, heresy, error, pertinacity, incorrigibility,
and perjury." At the same time, the Popes had their
opinion of the Councils too, as you will find ; for the
Council of Basil incurred (he displeasure of Eugenius,
who was Pope at that time ; and you ought to know
what an infallible Pope thought of an infallible
'Council. This assembly he called "blockheads,
fools, mad-men, barbarians, wild beasts, malignants,
wretches, persecutors, miscreants, schismatics, here-
tics, vagabonds, renegades, apostates, rebels, mon-
sters, criminals, a conspiracy, an innovation, a
deformity, a conventicle, distinguished only for its
temerity, sacrilege, audacity, machinations, impiety,

208 Romanism and the Republic.

tyranny, ignorance, irregularity, fury, madness and
the dissemination of falsehood, error, scandal, poison,
postilence, desolation, unrighteousness and iniquity."
That is what he said. If the Pope told the truth,
the Council was indeed a fearful set of villains ; if he
told a lie, he was a fearful villain himself. Eugenius
proceeded then to expel a pernicious pestilence and
a gross impiety from the Church, by disabling all the
members of this Council, the Doctors, Archbishops,
Bishops and Cardinals, of all honor, office, benefit,
and dignity : in excommunicating and anathematizing
the whole assembly, with their patrons and adherents
of every rank and condition, civil and ecclesiastical;
and consigned " that gang of all the devils in the uni-
verse, by wholesale, to receive their portion in con-
dign punishment and in eternal judgment, withKorah,
Dathan and Abiram." The pontifical and synodical
denunciation extended to the Basilian magistracy, as
well as sheriffs, governors, officials and citizens.
These, if they failed in thirty days to expel the Coun-
cil from the city, Eugenius subjected to interdict and
confiscation of goods. Their forfeited property might,
by pontifical authority, be seized by the faithful, or by
any person who could take possession, This edify- >
iug sentence is infallibly pronounced in the plenitude
of apostolic power, and subjected all those who should
permit any infringement on his declaration, constitu- .
tion, condemnation and reprobation, to the indigna-
tion of Almighty God and the blessed apostles Petei
and Paul. This was the act of the general, apos-
tolic, holy Florentine Council, and was issued with du(

Romanism and the Republic. 209

solemnity in a public synodical session. ( Romish
Historians, quoted by Edgar, pp. 96-7.) Now after
that, another Pope — Pope Nicholas — cursed the
Council, and having cursed to his satisfaction, he took
it all back ; Nicholas, in the plenitude of apostolic
power, and in a bull which he addressed to all the
faithful, rescinded, in due form, all the suspensions,
interdicts, privations and anathemas which had been
issued against Felix and the Council of Basil : while
at the same time he "approved and confirmed all
their ordinations, promotions, elections, provisions,
collations, confirmations, consecrations, absolutions
and dispensations." He denied all that was said or
written against Felix and the Basilian Convention.
Now when one infallible Pope exhausts language to
denounce, and gets as good as he sends from an
infallible Council ; and when another infallible Pope
takes it all back, and calls the Council a lot of good
men ; I want to ask you where the infallibility of the
Pope pomes in ?

Can Romanism appeal to history for sanction of
Papal Infallibility? Shall I have time to tell you of
the monsters of iniquity that some of these Popes
were? " But the Roman Catholic hierarchs of the
middle and succeeding ages exhibited a melancholy
change. Their lives displayed all the variations
of impiety, malevolence, inhumanity, ambition,
debauchery, gluttony, sensuality, deism and atheism.
Gregory the Great seems to have led the way in the
career of villany. This well-known pontiff has been
characterized as worse than his predecessors, and

210 Romanism and the Republic.

//

better than his successors ; or, in other terms, as the
/ last good and the first bad Pope. The flood-gates of
j moral dissolution appeared, in the tenth century,
to have been set wide open, and inundations of all
impurity poured on the Christian world through the
channel of the Roman Catholic hierarchs.

Awful and melancholy indeed is the picture of the
Popedom at this era, drawn as it has been by its
warmest friends. Platina, Petavius, Luitprand,
Genebrard, Baronius, Hermann, Barclay, Binius,
Giannone, Vignier, Labbe, and Du Pin. (Edgar's
" Variations of Popery," pp. 108-9).

"Fifty Popes," says Genebrard, " in one hundred
and fifty years, from John VIII. to Leo IX., entirely
*1 degenerated from the sanctity of their ancestors, and
were apostatical, rather than apostolical. Forty pon-
tiffs reigned in the tenth century. The successor,
in each instance, seems demoralized even beyond his
predecessor." Baronius, a famous Roman Catholic
historian, in his annals of the tenth century, seems
to labor for language to express the degeneracy of
the Popes, and the fearful deformity of the Popedom.
"Many shocking monsters," he says, "intruded
into the pontifical chair, who were guilty of murder,
assassination, simony, dissipation, tyranny, sacrilege,
perjury, and all kinds of miscreancy." "The
Church," says Giannone, " was then in a shocking
disorder, in a state of iniquity." The greatest of the
Popes was Gregory VII., known as Hildebrand.
Now concerning Gregory VII. we have an opinion,
and we have a declaration from Roman Catholics of

Romanism and the Republic. 211

the highest standing in those times, that he was
elected through force and bribery and without the con-
currence of the emperor or clergy. He obtained his
supremacy, in the general opinion, by gross simony ;
but he had the hardihood to pretend that his dignity
was intruded on him against his will. The Councils
of Worms and Brescia depicted his character with
great precision. The Council of Worms, compre-
hending forty-six of the German prelacy, met in
1076, and preferred numerous imputations against
Gregory. This Synod found His Holiness guilty
of usurpation, simony, apostasy, treason, schism,
heresy, chicanery, dissimulation, fornication, adultery
and perjury. His Holiness, in the sentence of the
German prelacy, preferred harlots to women of char-
acter, and adultery and incest to just and holy matri-
mony. The Council of Brescia, which was composed
of thirty bishops, and many princes from Italy,
France and Germany, called Gregory a forni-
cator, an impostor, an assassin, a violator of the
canons, a disseminator of discord, a disturber.
He had sown scandal among friends, dissensions
among the peaceful, and separation among the mar-
ried. The Brescian fathers then declared His Holi-
ness guilty of bribery, usurpation, simony, sacrilege,
vain-glory, ambition, obstinacy, perverseness, sor-
cery, divination, necromancy, schism, heresy, infidel-
ity, assassination and purjury." These are the words
of Councils of the Roman Catholic Church concerning
the character of the greatest Pope — unless Innocent
III. disputes that eminence with him — that ever sat in

212 Romanism and the Republic.

the Papal chair in Rome. Boniface III. was as bad, or
worse. Sixtus IV., in 1471, just before the discov-
ery of America, is characterized in terms as hor-
rible. Of one of the Popes it is said, he was con-
victed of forty crimes. The Fathers of Trent found
him guilty of — I will not read the list. You are
getting quite familiar with it ; and there are some
parts of it that you never will get familiar with
from my reading.

Alexander VI., Pope of Home, was a Borgia, and
the very name is associated with the wickedness of
wickedness. If ever there was a monster on earth
who was guilty of every imaginable crime that could
belong to a person that had disgraced human nature
by the vilest uses, Alexander VI. was one of those
men.

Now, my friends, I will give you a morsel that is
more remarkable than anything yet said. I hold in
my hand a modern History, which I suppose the
Romish Church intends to put in the place of Swin-
ton's. This modern History is written by Peter
Fredet,D. D., and was published by J. Murphy &
Co., of New York, in the year 1886. On the 511th
page of this History, I find the following declara-
tion about these Popes: "It is true, a few among
them gave great scandal to the Christian world io
their private character and conduct; but it ought to
be remembered at the same time, that, through a spec-
ial protection of Divine Providence, the irregularity
of their lives did not interfere with their public did//,
from which they never departed. The beneficial

Romanism and the Republic. 213

induce ofsacre^-M^n does not &** on <M
private virtue of the persons invested ivith it; but
on their divine mission and appointment to feed the .
Christian flock. Nor did Christ promise personal
sanctity to its chief pastors ; but gave to them author-
ity to teach and govern the faithful." That is Roman
Catholic history. Monstrous ! Monstrous ! ! The
Popes who, by Roman Catholic authority, are char-
, acterized in terms that carry with them the utmost
condemnation, are declared by a Roman Catholic
historian, in 1886, to be so correct in their adminis-
tration that it makes no difference how they live !
They are equally infallible, whatever their vices and
crimes ! I am reminded of what was said once by a
man who was told, in the case of a Bishop of scanda-
lous character, that the Bishop did not sin ; it was
the man that sinned. The Bishop was sinless, though
the man was wicked. He simply asked: "Pray
tell me, what will become of the Bishop when the
devil gets the man?"'

Let me ask you, now, what history will give us in
defense of the doctrine of purgatory, through which
Rome wrings, from superstition, countless millions
of money. I have here a letter from the late Chap-
lain of the American legation in Rome, who has
given close attention to the study, and who writes]
also in regard to indulgences. After stating that .
"the Pope can give a living man indulgence of his
sins ;" we have the following citations, which are of
very great interest: "The doctrine of purgatory \
was declared to be an article of faith in the Roman

214 Romanism and the Republic.

A

Church, by the Council of Florence, only in the
I year 1439." (That is, up to that time, for 1450
years nearly, either purgatory was undiscovered, or
the souls of Catholics and everybody else went to it,
and nobody knew it! And are they there yet?)
\ " In the latter part of the fifteenth century, Pope
Alexander VI. was the first to declare that indul-
gences delivered souls from purgatory." {In the
latter part of the fifteenth century, you see !) < Car-
dinal Cajetan, before whom Luther was summoned,
said in a tract on indulgences : " We have no certain
knowledge in regard to the origin of indulgences ; and
we possess in writing no authority on this subject,
nor in Holy Scripture, nor in the writings of the
' ancient fathers, nor of the Greek and Latin doctors."
Cardinal Fisher, in confuting Luther, said : " As to
indulgences, it is uncertain by whom they were insti-
tuted ; and as to purgatory, no mention is made of
it by the ancients ; so that belief in indulgences and
in purgatory has not been necessary to the primitive
Church." Take away purgatory, and no one will
need indulgences, or seek them. Purgatory and
indulgences are all a modern invention ; and when
you come to study and read history, you will find
that the Koman Catholic dogmatic system cannot
stand in the face of history for a day or an hour.

And what of Mariolatry and other similar blasphe-
mies? I declare to you that now, when it is time to
close, I am not half through this line of thought, and I
am not going to try to finish it to-night. Such is the
abundance of evidence proving that the pretensions

Homanis?n and the Republic. 215

of Romanism are inconsistent with all truth, and
with all open study of what is necessary for men to
know, that our contempt for the false claims of this
infallibility increases with proof, until it piles up
an indictment which disannuls forever the claims of
Rome, and which seems to say to every citizen of
this Republic : Against Roman usurpation, based on
falsehood in the name of truth, yield not for one
hour, not for one moment !

I have not told you how she changes history. It
it is only a question of time with me that I should.
But I have to add one thing that is more startling
than anything that I have hitherto said : By the
dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church, as laid down
by Cardinal Manning, the Pope is the judge of ivhat
history is ; and if he says that a thing did not exist,
notwithstanding the world knows it did, — if he says
that certain facts are not historical, the Church is
bound to believe him !

"History is a wilderness into which infallibility
will allow no one to wander without guilt of his own
appointment, and it denies to every man the right to
exercise his own reason or common sense in separat-
ing the true from the false." (" Papacy and the
Civil Power.") \W^A^^>

" If any one say," says Cardinal Manning, (" The
Vatican Council and its Definitions," page 121,) —
"If any one say that there is no judgment but
right reason, or common sense, he is only reproduc-
ing in history what Luther applied to the Bible.
Again, in Catholics such a theory is simply heresy."

216 Romanism and the Republic.

Why? He answers thus: "The only source of
revealed truth is God : the only channel of that
revelation is the Church. No human history can
declare what is contained in that revelation. The
Church (the Pope) alone can determine its limits,
and therefore its contents. And when the Pope,
actino- for the Church, does determine what are its
limits and contents, no difficulties of human history
can prevail against it. The Church is its own evi-
dence, anterior to its history, and independent of it.
Its history is to be learned of itself." It is under his
dictation that they are telling Boston schools what
shall be taught as history. And they are coming to
Worcester to tell you ; and what are you going to
say to them? I can imagine. I have faith for the
future. I had laid out here, in my discourse, to read
to you from Fredet's History, of 1886, a precious lot
of things that are as far from the truth as the poles
are apart. I had intended to tell you how intoler-
ant they are of nearly all our books ; to bring before
you an incident not yet four weeks old, where the
Papal power, after having sanctioned a book and
said that the faithful might read it, has now resolved
that the book ought not to be read, and put its lead-
ing proposition on the Index Expurgalorius. I had
iutended to tell you of the Index Expur gator ius, and
in what attitude the Papal Church stands toward all
literature and science. But I have only time at this
moment to draw to an abrupt close, deferring these
revelations to another day. I want you to know
them all. I cannot bear that you shall go into this

Romanism and the Republic. 217

conflict half equipped. I do not want the insolent
and arrogant priests of Rome to tell you, either in
their papers or in their churches, a mass of lies, that
are lies in the face of their own history, and have you
believe them. I am simply giving you ammunition.
I am only bringing before you a variety of facts of
the utmost importance for you to know before you
advance to the attack. Let us put on the shield of
truth, against which every Romish pretence is shiv-
ered ; as are shivered the javelins of hate on the
bucklers of Almighty God. We know what correct
history is. Did our ancestors persecute the Quak-
ers? We know it, and are ashamed of it. Did they
hang the witches? We admit it, and say, It never
shall be so again ! No matter what the imputation,
if it be truth, admit it. An honest man, or Church, or
State, has no reason to deny a frank, fair declaration
of fact. But if wre professed to be an infallible
Church, and were resolved that all was perfect, and
had always been, and had resolved to stand up for
everything we and our ancestors had done, we would
be compelled, either to deny the truth, or else to
bend it in justification of the enormities of former
days.

That giant among men of thought, Victor Hugo, \
said, in a marvellous paper, which I shall read in your
hearing yet one day, that after all the mischief they
had done elsewhere, Rome was now assailing France.
" But," he said, with that singular felicity of expres-
sion which characterizes his writings, "France is a /
lion, and is alive." And here — in the presence of

218 Romanism and the Republic.

these confessed and hostile designs with which
Romanists assail our national policy and free institu-
tions, counting on our acquiescence and the effects
of hidden treachery — I take up the words of that
herald of freedom in France, and say, for the benefit
of the hierarchy wherever they are, whether in Wor-
cester or in Rome : " Beware ! America is a lion,

AND IS ALIVE I "

Sermon OTEE.

THE PURPOSE OF ROMANISM TO DESTROY OUR
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

" I speak as to wise men ; judge ye what I say :"
these have been the words of my text for two con-
secutive Sunday evenings, and because the three ser-
mons on our public schools are practically one, these
are the words of my text to-night. You find them in
1 Corinthians, 10: 15. I have no time for intro-
ductory remarks, save for a word in review. I great-
ly desire that as wise men you shall keep distinctly
in mind exactly what I propose to show. I have
shown you that the Roman Catholic Church is hostile
to the constitution of the United States, and to our
public schools, which are an adjunct and a necessity
to that Constitution. I have shown you that its hos-
tility to the common schools has been exhibited by
disparaging them, by threats against them, by the
expressed determination to ruin them if possible, by
demands for a division of the school fund, by protests
alleged, though falsely, to be founded on conscience
and on fair play, by opposition to the Holy Scriptures,
and also by opposition to correct history. When we
closed our review on last Sunday night, I was show-
ing that the Roman Catholic Church, in its fear that
public education would work its destruction, and in

220 Romanism and the Republic.

its determination to destroy the common schools, not
only objects to the Bible and to history, but that it
carries its objections against almost everything that
we call truth.

Turning to this book, "Judges of the Faith " (which
I described to you before, the Roman Catholic book
which is endorsed by hundreds of prelates from the
Pope down ), I call your attention next to the fact,
that on the 11th, 21st and 24th pages, not only the
Bible and History are declaimed against, but also the
Readers that are used in our public schools, and all
our school literature, in general. Here are objections
offered not only to Svvinton, but to Wilson, Hume and
Hallam, to Peter Parley, and many other historians ;
and the most contemptuous characterizations are
given to a great variety of other school literature. On
the 24th page, they speak very contemptuously of a
History which contains the following allusions, as they
quote : " Indulgences sold for profit" (we fortunately
know something about that); "actual pardons of
guilt ;" the Murder of Mary, Queen of Scots, justified,
and herself vilified (see Froude's late researches) ;
the Thirty Years' War put upon Ferdinand II., en-
deavoring to extinguish Protestantism ; Philip II. 's
schemes "principally actuated by bigotry ;" "the glori-
fication of Garibaldi, the famous Italian patriot."
All these phrases are held up as though erroneous
and wicked. And yet they are true !

What does Italy think of Garibaldi, whom they re-
fuse to acknowledge as an Italian patriot? I will tell
you. If you visit the Hall of Representatives in Rome,

Romanism and the Republic. 221

where gather the men who now legislate for free
Italy, you will find that one seat is taken away, and
in the place where that seat formerly was is a silver
plate, on which we read that Garibaldi once sat there,
and because they think no man is worthy to be his
successor, they have removed his chair. While
Romanism hounds Garibaldi, Italy reveres him as a
patriot.

The objections of Romanists to our school books
are so general, that in Cincinnati, in the year 1869,
Archbishop Purcell, (who gained great notoriety
in this country by stealing a million or two of dol-
lars from the Roman Catholic Church — if, indeed, it
could be called stealing, for the Bishop has a right
to all he can get in the Roman Catholic Church, and
holds in his own name all the church property of the
diocese) — Archbishop Purcell objected to the books
of general reading and reference in the libraries of
the schools in Cincinnati; and the school committee,
disposed to make peace, permitted him to take a
catalogue of the library books and indicate what
works should be removed from those libraries. That
was witnessed in 1869, in Ohio. Will it be a happy
day for America, for literature and for general intelli-
gence, when the Roman Catholic Church takes out of
all our school libraries the books that it objects to?
We wonder what will be left. They claim and
expect the censorship of all literature, and all utter-
ances of the press, platform and pulpit, as I read to
you from the Catholic World last Sunday night.

Now the censorship of Rome over all this litera-

222 Romanism and the Republic.

ture, not only biblical and historic, but scientific
also, is a part of the machinery of that church.
They have in Romanism, exercising authority
throughout the world, what is called The Sacred Con-
gregation of the Index, over which a Cardinal, and
sometimes a Pope presides, and which meets every
Monday in Rome. It is the duty of this committee
of the Roman Catholic Church to determine what
books shall be permitted to be published, read and
studied throughout the Roman Catholic world, and
what shall be forbidden. When a book is objection-
able to them, they refuse to have it printed and cir-
culated ; when a book is favorable to Romanism, they
consent to its circulation. So fierce is the antagonism
of the Roman Catholic Church to books that are
obnoxious to them, that, long centuries ago, an edict
of excommunication was issued against all persons
who either printed, or possessed, or read heretical
books. I will read you from that bull. The
earliest one published is that by Gregory XII. in
1411, which was renewed, with additions, by Pius V.
His bull was renewed under the same name by
Urbane VIII. in 1627, and finally as a bull of excom-
munication by Pius IX., on the twelfth of October,
1859. The first article of this bull is as follows :
" We excommunicate and anathematize, in the name
of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the
authority of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and
by our own, all Wickliffites, Hussites, Lutherans,
Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, and all other
heretics, by whatsoever name they are called, and of

Romanism and the Republic. 223

whatsoever sect they be ; and also, all schismatics,
and those who withdraw themselves, or recede
obstinately from the obedience of the Bishop of
Home ; as also their adherents, receivers, favorers,
and generally any defenders of them ; together with
all who, without the authority of the Apostolic Bee,
shall, knowingly, read, keep or print any of their
books which treat on religion, or for any cause what-
ever, publicly or privately, on any pretence or color,
defend them." That is to say, we have a bull
endorsed by at least five Popes, of excommunication
against those who shall dare to publish, circulate,
read or possess books that are forbidden by the
Sacred Inquisitorial Congregation of Rome.

And what is the penalty pronounced by the con-
gregation and church against those who have violated
this bull of the Pope ? You will find, when you come to
study the history, that very heavy fines and penalties
have been denounced upon persons who shall publish,
and even those who shall possess, such books.
Under a King of Spain, by Papal direction and
sanction, death was the penalty for those who pos-
sessed books forbidden by the Sacred Congregation
of the Index.

The Roman Catholic Church does not merely
object to the Bible, and to history ; but it also
objects to science, it objects to literature, it objects
to every department of knowledge that is contrary
to its pretensions ; and that objection is carried so
far, that the curse of excommunication is pronounced
on any who shall dare to have books which they

224 Romanism and the Republic.

have proscribed, and shall presume to study books
which they have denounced. You will be interested
at the citation of one sample of how their policy
worked in a matter of science and scientific investi-
gation. On the fifth day of May, 1616, The Sacred
Congregation of the Index denounced and forbade
the Copernican theory that the earth moves round
the sun. They denounced it as a heresy ; cursed
those that taught it, anathematized those that printed
it, and threatened those that believed it. There has
been a great deal of wriggling on the part of the
Roman Catholic Church to avoid the responsibility
of this act, but truth is strong ; and when the Roman
Catholic Church grapples with the truth of history,
history is ultimately sure to win in the conflict.
Later, in 1620, they denounced Copernicus by name.
Then they denounced Galileo, and arrested him, and
threatened him, and imprisoned him, and made him
affirm that the earth did not move around the sun ;
and when he said it, he muttered under his breath,
"But it does move." Galileo's book appeared in
1632, and was condemned in 1634. That edict of
the Roman Catholic Church left the Copernican
theory on the list of forbidden books in the Index
Expurgatorius until 1835. Every man, therefore,
who dared, up to 1835, to believe that the earth
moved round the sun, or dared to teach it or print
it, or who had a book in his house or in his posses-
sion which stated it, — every such man was excom-
municated and damned by the Pope of Rome and
The Sacred Congregation. Do you propose to take

Romanism and the Republic. 225

your science from an authority like that? Yet if in
the public schools the movement of the earth round
the sun had been taught anytime before 1835, Rom-
anists would have objected just as strongly to this
Copernican theory that the earth moves round the
sun as they object to Swinton's History ; and I sup-
pose that some cowards would have let them forbid
the book in the public schools. I do not believe we
are ready to have our text-books assorted by such
scientists. In 1835, from the Index Expurgatorius,
(of which, fortunately, I happen to have through the
kindness of a friend two copies), and without a word
of apology, the books on the Copernican theory, for
the first time in two centuries, were omitted from the
list of forbidden publications.

In the year 1844, there was formed in the City of
Montreal the Montreal Institute, — a company of
young men mostly Roman Catholics, who desired to
improve themselves through association and through
literature. They gathered together a library of
about nine thousand volumes ; and at length it began
to be noised abroad that there were heretical books
in the library. The Bishops interfered, and endeav-
ored to break up the Montreal Institute. The
gentlemen composing that Institute handed out their
catalogue and said: "What is there here that is
obnoxious?" There was no answer. Hostility did
not take the form of debate. It was understood
that Milton's " Paradise Lost " and Dante's " Inferno"
and " Paradiso " were among the books objected to.
An edict of ecclesiastical censure was pronounced on

22(5 Romanism and the Republic.

the Montreal Institute, and that Institute appealed
to Rome. Among the leading men of the Institute
was Joseph Guibord, a printer, a man of great intelli-
gence, who became the object of distinct hostility
because of his desire to perpetuate the Institute and
keep their library intact. While the matter was
pending, Joseph Guibord died, and the attempt was
made to bury him in what is known as "sacred
ground," where he owned a lot, somewhere about the
last of November, 1869. The attempt was met by the
resistance of a mob of Roman Catholics, inspired by
the leading church officials, who so far hindered and
forbade that poor body being laid to rest in the lot
which he had purchased, that the remains were taken
to a Protestant cemetery, and temporarily placed in
the vault. Then began litigation in the courts, to see
whether the body of Joseph Guibord should lie in
his own lot. What was his offence ? He belonged
to the Montreal Institute which had not instantly
yielded when the hand of the Bishops was laid upon
it; because it was seeking for intelligence, and, to a
degree, for freedom of thought. An appeal was
made to the courts to permit the body to be buried.
Some courts decided one way, and some another.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Guibord, who was a brave and
earnest woman and a Roman Catnoae, gave her
effort to the work of securing the right to bury her
husband in his own cemetery lot, and dying, left her
estate for that purpose. At length an appeal was
taken to the privy council of Great Britain, and it
was decided that the body should be buried in

Romanism and the Republic. 227

sacred ground. Then followed mobs, disturbances
and denunciations, the like of which even Canada,
priest-ridden as it is, had hardly seen. The grave
was prepared ; and finally, guarded by the military,
in the presence of a howling mob, the body of Joseph
Guibord was laid in the grave, and cement of the
strongest sort, mixed with iron, was poured in over
it, in order to keep it safe from the fury of the
enraged Romanists. Then the Bishop of Montreal
apostolically cursed the ground where this man's
remains lay — cursed it with mocking tones, as if the
voice of Joseph Guibord was speaking from the
ground. Some one inquired how far down his curse
went, as the wife's body was laid in the same grave,
and she was a good Catholic and not excommunicated !
He cursed it with the remarkable facility for cursing
which priests have, in the presence of the Roman
Catholics of Montreal, and went unrebuked by his
fellow-bishops, and by the Pope of Rome. What
was the offence for which Joseph Guibord's dust was
cursed? That he belonged to a library association
which dared to think without priestly and papal
repression, and to own Milton's " Paradise Lost" and
Dante's " Paradiso " and " Inferno/', I should think
that the Bishop of Montreal might well take Dante's
"Inferno" and read in it a description of his own future
habitation, if he dared to curse a man for loving
truth and freedom. Now the Roman Church blesses,
and now again curses, and it is a little doubtful when
and why.

Forty or fifty years ago, Rosmini, a distinguished

228 Romanism and the Republic.

ecclesiastic of the Eoman Catholic Church, a man of
learning, who was an intimate friend of three of the
Popes, published certain scientific books. These
books were repeatedly attacked, and came three
times before The Congregation of the Sacred Index.
Every time they came, the Congregation said there
was nothing in them contrary to the theology or
doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. But the
Jesuits were busy. They kept insisting that these
books ought not to be circulated. The Sacred
Congregation insisted that they should; and finally,
the Pope issued an edict that there should be nothing^/
more said about it. The Jesuits worked on as they
always do, Pope or no Pope, and within the last few
months The Sacred Congregation have taken forty of
the leading propositions of Rosmini's book, con-
demned them, and demanded that those shall be
taken out of the books, if they are circulated. When
you yield your Swinton's History in the public schools,
when you yield your Bible, you are simply on the
line of yielding everything. There is no limit or
stopping-place at which Rome says : You may per-
manently have these books in your schools.

I want 3'ou to notice this ; because, when our
Massachusetts committees, in their desire to be kind
and fair, begin to yield, they begin to slide down an
inclined plane with accelerated velocity, and they '
do not know where they will stop. Yon never can
satisfy Rome until you are her absolute slave*. This
is the point at which I purposed to close my last
Sunday evening's sermon.

Romanism and the Republic. 229

I was hoping to get as far as this. Then I meant
to show you that, in order to satisfy Roman Catholics,
you must take out of the public schools all our
Bibles ; all books that speak disrespectfully of those
Popes of whom I read you so many interesting facts
last Sabbath evening ; all books that condemn any
doctrine that has been praised by Rome, or praise
any doctrine that has been condemned by Rome ;
therefore, all works on political economy according
to the principles of the Constitution of the United
States ; all books on natural science that are obnoxi-
ous to the priests of The Sacred Congregation. And,
by the way, how long will they allow us to teach
Chemistry? since chemistry proves that the " Sacri-
fice of the Mass" is folly, and that the wafer is no
more the body and blood of Jesus Christ, after the
priest has spoken over it, than it was before.

So our scientific books and our Bibles, our histo-
ries and our literature, are to be taken out of the
schools, and you want to know what we shall have
in their place. What kind of a system of public
education does Rome intend to give us? What do
they want taught in our schools ? and if we yield to
them what shall we have? When we know this,
then we shall know the plans of this Church, and
what we can rely upon for the future. To answer
these important questions, I have so much to say that
I can adorn it very little, and must speak with great
directness concerning the general system of Roman
Catholic education. In this first book, "Judges
of the Faith," page 139, I read the following words

230 Romanism and the Republic.

from The Sacred Congregation of Rome, endorsed
by The Third Baltimore Plenary Council : " Reserv-
ing the exclusive right of the priest as regards, partic-
ularly, the appointments and dismissal of teachers, the
discipline of the school, and superintendence in spir-*
ituals." We are, then, to have a system of education
as far as the Roman Catholic Church goes, that is
exclusively presided over by priests ; and they, as
you know, are compelled to further this scheme of
parochial schools, for the sake of their own prefer-
ment ; which they will lose, unless they do further it.
The duty of the laity is also prescribed in this
book, in the following words : " Nor with less zeal
and prudence is the erroneous opinion to be
uprooted from the minds of the laity ; viz., that the
solicitude for the school is to be confined to that
portion of the congregation actually and directly
making use of it for their children. It must be
plainly demonstrated, that the profits and blessings
accruing from the preservation of faith and morals
in parochial schools redound to the benefit of the
whole community." That is to say, if Roman Cath-
olic parents have no children in the parochial schools,
The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore expressly
insists that those parents shall pay their money into
those schools for their support, and shall do all they
can for their prosperity. But, remember, it is a mat-
ter of conscience with many Roman Catholics that
they shall not support parochial schools. What
then? We heard them claim, that because their con-
sciences demand parochial schools, therefore we must

Romanism and the Republic. 231

yield our system to them. And now this is their
demand, within their own communion, that those who
have no children in the parochial schools, and who do
not believe in the parochial schools, shall be com-
pelled to support them. How about conscience?
Is this freedom of conscience? I tell you, the Roman
Catholic Church never says Conscience when it has
any other meaning than submission to the Pope.
Never !

We have it indicated here in this book, on page
141, that the preferred teachers of Rome are monks
and nuns. We have the statement of Father Chini-
quy, who was fifty years in the Romish Church, and
who has written one of the ablest books on this
question that we have, that Jesuits are always pre-
ferred as teachers in Roman Catholic schools. I
noticed in one of our papers in this city, yesterday or
the day before, a list of the professors in the Roman
Catholic College of the Holy Cross in this city for
the ensuing year. Every one of those gentlemen
had after his name the letters S. J. What does that
mean? Society of Jesus — Jesuits. In other words,
they are all Jesuits, every man of them. And that
paper which is just now fondling the Roman Catho-
lic Church, and may be assumed to be accurate on
Romanist matters — the paper that is giving us col-
umns of Roman Catholic news, and scarcely a refer-
ence to any other church — is responsible for the
statement that all the teachers in this Worcester
College are Jesuits. We learned something about

232 Romanism and the Republic.

the Jesuits not very long ago. Here is a little
more.

In the Jesuit oath (for you want to know what
kind of men are preferred for this teaching) you find
the following words : "I do renounce and disown \
any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince or
state named Protestant, or obedience to any of their
inferior magistrates or officers. I do further declare,
that the doctrine of the Church of England, the
Calvinists, Huguenots, and others of the name of
Protestants, to be damnable ; and they themselves are
damned, and to be damned, that will not forsake the
same." (I wish they were a little freer with salva-
tion, and not so free with damnation. It seems to
me that they know more about that subject than I
ever heard before.) "I do further declare," says
the Jesuit, who is to be the chief teacher in these
schools, "that I will help, assist and advise all or
any of His Holiness' agents in any place wherever I
shall be, in England, Scotland or Ireland, or in any
other territory or kingdom I shall come to ; and do
my utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant's
doctrine, and to destroy all their pretended powers,
legal or otherwise. I do further promise and declare
that, notwithstanding I am dispensed with to assume
any religion heretical," (that is, he may come and
join this church and lie all through, even at God's
altar, provided there is some Jesuit end to be attained
by it,) "for the propagating of the Mother Church's
interests, to keep secret and private all her agents'
councils from time to time, as they intrust me, and

Romanism and the Republic. 233

not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writ-
ing or circumstance whatsoever, but to execute all
that shall be proposed," etc. (See "Romanism,"
A. P. Grover, Chicago, 1887, page 116.) These
are the favorite and choice teachers, the chosen
teachers, of the Roman Catholic Church ; men who
have announced their hostility to every form of
government, of teaching, and of religion, except the
Church of Rome ; and men that swear absolute devo-
tion to her in all that they do, and are privileged to
do ; and play the hypocrite in any assembly, and join
any church, for the purpose of finding out its secrets ;
and vow solemnly to act wholly in the interests of
the Pope and the papacy. And yet the Roman
Catholic Church prates about morality in schools, and
thinks our teachers are not teaching morality enough,
and fears that their youth, their tender youth, will
be corrupted by our teachers, and wants to put them
under the care of the Jesuits, men that are perjured,
as is everyone who has sworn allegiance to the Con-
stitution of this country and has sworn oaths of
papal obedience against it ; she wants these men to
be the leading educators of America !

Toward what are they aiming? What is their
purpose, and what do they mean by education? This
is a most interesting query. I shall answer you in
their own words, for I am very much interested to
know from their own lips what they do mean. I
find the following declaration of their idea of educa-
tion, which I want you to contrast with ours. The
Catholic World for April 1871, gives the Roman

id \

234 Romanism and the Republic.

Catholic idea of education as follows : " Education is
the American hobby — regarded, as uneducated or
poorly educated people usually regard it, as a sort
of panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to. We
ourselves, as Catholics, are as decidedly as any
other class of American citizens in favor of universal
education, as thorough and extensive as possible — if
its quality suits us. We do not indeed prize as highly
as some of our countrymen appear to do the ability
to read, write and cipher. /Some men are born to
be leaders, and the rest are born to be led. (Who is
born to be led ; and who is born to be a leader? is a
fair question.) " The best ordered and administered
state, is that in which the few are well educated and
lead, and the many are trained to obedience, are wil-
ling to be directed, content to follow , and do not aspire
to be leader's. In extending education, and endeavor-
ing to train all to be leaders, we have only extended
presumption, pretension, conceit, indocility, and
brought incapacity to the surface. We believe that
the peasantry, in old Catholic countries, two centuries
ago, were better educated; although for the most part
unable to read or write, than are the great body of
I American people to-day." Now you understand that
this theory of education states that the few shall be
educated and shall be leaders ; that the many shall be
educated, whether they know how to read and write
or not, and shall be led. That is Roman Catholic
education. Do you say that this is only my state-
ment of it? No ; it is their own. And do you want
it emphasized? Look at Italy, and France, and

Romanism and the Republic. 235

Spain, .and Portugal, and Austria, and Mexico, and
South America, if you desire illustrations. What is
their idea of education ? The few to be taught and
lead, the many to do what tyrants have made their
subjects do through all the years of this suffering
world's history — to grind in their prison-houses for
the enrichment of despots. That is their theory ;
and they want to transplant it here. I do not think
I ever heard a statement more utterly contrary to the
American policy concerning the rights of man than
this.

What is our theory of American education ? It is,
to teach every man all he can learn. It is, that the
boy on the tow-path shall come to be President, if he
knows enough. It is, that the tanner-man shall lead
the greatest armies of history in the grandest of all
struggles for human rights. It is, that the boy from
the shoemaker's bench in Natick shall preside over
the Senate of the United States, which is the grand-
est House of Lords in the world. It is Garfield, and
Grant, and Henry Wilson. This is American educa-
tion. What is Roman Catholic education? The few
to lead, the many to be slaves. Now the Roman
Catholics know this. The more intelligent among
them know it. Their leaders know it. The beating
hearts of many American citizens that protest, al-
though within the Roman Catholic Church, against
this type of education, affirm it. And what does the
Freeman's Journal say? Fortunately, I have just a
little extract from that. The New York Freeman's
Journal and Roman Catholic Register, for March 12,

236 Romanism and the Republic.

1881, describing parochial education, says: "A
smattering of the catechism (in parochial schools)
is supplied to fit them for the duties of life ;" and inti-
mates that these schools and their policies, then, are
only "apologies, compromises, systemless pretenses"
for education. That is what the Freeman's Journal
thinks of parochial schools. Dr. O. A. Brownson,
who was a great authority in the Roman Catholic
Church for twenty years, and whose Review was pub-
lished in New York, and republished in London dur-
ing that time,-!- Dr. A. O. Brownson tells what he
thinks, from inside the Roman Catholic Church, conA
cerning Roman Catholic education. In the number
for January, 1862, Brownson's Review thus spoke;
of the quality of Roman Catholic schools and colleges. I
(Now remember that Brownson had more power as a
Roman Catholic writer in this country than any other
man, so far as power of statement and power of defi-
nition could give it.) He says : " These schools prac-
tically fail to recognize human progress. As far as
we are able to trace the effect of the most approved
Catholic education of to-day, whether at home or /
abroad, it tends to repress, rather than quicken the/
life of the pupil ; to unfit, rather than prepare him for
the active and zealous discharge either of his relig-
ious or social duties. They who are educated in our
schools seem misplaced and mistimed in the world ;
as if born and educated for a world that has ceased to
exist. Comparatively few of them [Catholic gradu-
ates] take their stand as scholars, or as men on a level
with the Catholics of non-Catholic colleges ,: and those

Romanism and Ike Republic. 237

who do take that stand, do it by throwing aside near-
ly all they learned at their own colleges, and adopt-
ing the ideas and principles, the modes of thought
and action, they find in the general civilization of the
country in which we live. The cause of J.he failure
of what we call Catholic education is, in our judg-
ment, in the fact that we do not educate for the pres-
ent or the future, but for the past. We do not mean
that the dogmas are not scrupulously taught in all
our schools and colleges ; nor that the \yords of the
catechism are not duly insisted upon. We concede
this. There can be no question that what passes for
Catholic education in this or any other country, has
its ideal of perfection in tljej^a^k and that it resists
as un-Catholic, irreligious and opposed to God, the
tendencies of modern civilization." (Go on, Mr.
Brownson. I wish you were here to say this as you
could say it. But I suppose he is in purgatory!)
"The work it gives its subjects, or prepares them to
perform, is not the work of carrying it forward, but
that of resisting it, driving it back, anathematizing it,
as at war with the Gospel ; and either of neglecting
it altogether, or taking refuge in the cloister, in an
exclusive or exaggerated asceticism, always border-
ing on immorality (Hear that again ! Pie says,
they are driving back progress, and either neglecting
the Gospel, or taking refuge in the cloister, in an
exclusive or exaggerated asceticism, always border-
ing on immorality) ; or of restoring a former order
of civilization, no longer a living order, and which
humanity has evidently left behind, and is resolved

238 Romanism and the Republic.

shall never be restored." Broivnson's Revieiv, Jan-
uary and April, 1862. A truthful confession !

You have then from Roman Catholic authorities,
what their idea of education shall be ; and you have
the opinion of one of their leading men as to what
its effect is. He goes on further, and says, it is a
foreign education, and that the Roman Catholic
| people by it are made a foreign people in the land
; where they live. Father Chiniquy says (and he had
a Roman Catholic education in their very best
schools in Canada) : "The purpose of Rome is to
educate a man just enough so he will kiss the toe of
the Pope." And further he says, speaking of the
repression of inquiry : " You are told that you must
not question your superior in any matter, but yield
implicit obedience to him, and the only liberty
allowed is the liberty of obedience." He is well
qualified to speak, and in no degree discredited
because his mind and conscience were too well edu-
cated to permit him to remain a Romish satellite.
So much for the general idea of Roman Catholic edu-
cation.

Priests and monks, nuns and Jesuits for teachers j
a type of education that ignores the masses, while it
makes the few leaders; a type of education that
gives a smattering of the the catechism ; a system of
the past, and not for the future ; a method that pros-
/trates the intellect, instead of lifting it up ; a type
of education that makes the peasants of two hundred
years ago more an ideal community than the people
of this enlightened commonwealth, who have had the

Romanism and the Republic. 239

education which America has given throughout all its
history !

But now what do they demand shall be taught in
our public schools? for I must hasten in order to
bring this to 3'our attention.

First of all, they demand that Romanism shall be
taught ; and I will read this demand from the opinion
of the Bishops of the Netherlands, who speak for all
the Bishops, found on the seventy-second page of the
-" Judges of Faith " : " It is further necessary that
the schools teach the children and make them practice
the Catholic religion." The worship of the Virgin
must be taught ; that is stated on the 132d page in this
book. Papal infallibility must be taught: that is'S,
exactly, in so many words, what the Roman Catholics
of Germany said after the Vatican Council, and what
the government refused to have done ; and after 1870
laws of Germany were made, in order that the Papal
infallibility should not be established, and the author-
ity of the emperor overthrown. They profess the
right to teach the most unqualified sectarianism.
Some of the text-books that they have already used
in this country, in schools where they have the power,
are sectarian to the very last degree.

You recollect that they call our schools " godless
schools." Godless schools ! Then I suppose they
would call their schools godly schools. Would you
like to hear what they teach iu these "godly"
schools? Let me take time to tell you, Fortun-
ately, a text-book is occasionally issued which dis-
closes the spirit of their teaching without disguise.

240 Romanism and the Republic.

There is a volume, one of a series, entitled, " Familiar
Explanation of Christian Doctrine, adapted for the
family and more advanced students in Catholic
schools and colleges," published in 1875, by Kreuzer
Brothers, Baltimore, and sanctioned by Archbishop
Bayley. Lesson XII, is called, " No salvation out-
side of the Roman Catholic Church." The questions
and answers run thus (this is what they want to
use instead of Swinton's History) : " Q. Since the
Roman Catholic Church alone is the true Church of
Jesus Christ, can any one who dies outside of the
Church be saved? A. He can not. Q. Did Jesus
Christ himself assure us most solemnly, and in plain
words, that no one can be saved out of the Roman
Catholic Church? A. He did; when he said to
his Apostles, ' Go and teach all nations,' etc." (I
confess, I don't see the connection.) " Q. What do
the Fathers of the Church say about the salvation of
those who die out of the Roman Catholic Church?
A. They all, without any exception, pronounce them
infallibly lost forever." A little farther on may be
found the following: " Q. Are there any other
reasons to show that heretics, or Protestants, who die
out of the Roman Catholic Church are not saved ;
A. There are several. They cannot be saved
because, (1) They have no divine faith ; (2) They
make a liar of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, and
of the Apostles; (3) They have no faith in Christ.

(4) They fell away from the true Church of Christ.

(5) They are too proud to submit to the Pope, the
vicar of Christ. (6) They cannot perform any

Romanism and the Republic. 241

good works whereby they can obtain heaven. (7)
They do not receive the body and blood of Christ.
(8) They die in their sins. (9) They ridicule and
blaspheme the mother of God and his saints. (10)
They slander the spouse of Jesus Christ, the Cath-
olic Church." Again, page 97: " Q. Now do
you think that God, the Father, will admit into
heaven those who thus make liars of his son, Jesus
Christ, of the Holy Ghost, and the Apostles? A.
No ; he will let them have their portion with Lucifer
in hell, who first rebelled against Christ, and wUo is
the father of liars. Q. Have Protestants any faith
in Christ? A. They never had. Q. Why not?
A. Because there never lived such a Christ as they
imagine and believe in. Q. In what kind of a
Christ do they believe ? A. In such a one of whom
they can make a liar, etc., etc. Q. Will such a
faith in such a Christ save Protestants? A. No
sensible man wTill assert such an absurdity. Q.
What will Christ say to them on the day of Judg-
ment? A. I know you not, because you never knewi
me." Again, page 104: " Q. Are Protestants willing
to confess their sins to a Catholic Bishop, or priest,
who alone has power from Christ to forgive sins?"
(1 could answer that myself, without looking on the
book), "'Whose sins you shall forgive, they are for-
given them.' A. No; for they generally have an
utter aversion to confession, and therefore their sins
will not be forgiven throughout all eternity. Q.
What follows from this? A. That they will die in
their sins, and are damned." These are the lessons

242 Romanism and the Republic.

instilled by Romish teachers in the minds of Ameri-
can youth. A child goes to one of the Roman Cath-
olic schools, and soon learns of parents, brothers and
sisters, that the Christ in whom they believe is no
true Christ, and that they will all die in their sins
and be damned, and not Romanists. This is not the
teaching of an obscure priest, but of Archbishop
Bay ley.

Would you rather have a godly school or a godless
school, according to their definition? I confess
that I begin^to see why they think and talk so much
about being damned. It is because people who tell
lies like those above quoted deserve to be. Here is
a text-book teaching hatred, hatred of all other
religious except that of Rome. Says Rev. Louis N.
Beaudry, a very gentle and sweet-spirited man, who
j came out of a very pious Romish family : " The first
lesson that I learned as a Catholic child was to hate
Protestants." Says a gentleman in this city, who is a
convert from the Roman Catholic Church, and who is
now a minister of the French Baptist Church : "When
I was a little boy, in Canada, at school, we were

(encouraged in dislike of our Protestant fellow-pupils,
so that Ave thought it right to throw missiles at
them, and abuse them ; and often they went bleeding
from the encounter, having committed no offence
; against us, only they were Protestants." Such a
spirit as that of the text-book above quoted will not
assist to the improvement or elevation of education ;
nor will teaching of that kind be likely to give us
civilization, but rather barbarism.

Romanism and the Republic. 24S

I read to you the other night from Fredet's History,
and only refer to it now. This is a History that
justifies the Inquisition ; that justifies the Popes of
Rome in the villanies of which I read you last Sun-
day night : that justifies the massacre of Saint
Bartholomew, and the act of the Pope who struck a
medal on that occasion to celebrate it. This is a His-
tory having the date of publication 1886, which tells
Roman Catholics, and tells us that, no matter how
vile the Pope may be, he is still as infallible as if
he were good. And to learn this is education !
Already, in some schools, they have images, and the
confessional. I am told there is a school in Boston
where they have introduced them.

Now what is the consequence of education like
this ? I am not theorizing. I am not telling you of
what has not been tried. We have nations for our If
text-books, and ages for the leaves that we turn,
when we inquire what Roman Catholic education has
done, and will do again. Survey the world and see
what hats been produced by the Roman Catholic
education, which they would substitute for ours in
schools. What a revelation does history disclose of
their policy? It has produced illiteracy, pauperism,
degradation and crime. To learn what Roman
Catholicism has done, I turn to the Report of the
Minister of Instruction in Italy for the year 1864.
I have not time to read it all ; but this distinguished
man says: "Of every thousand males in the old
provinces and Lombardy, 539 were able to read, and
461 did not know their letters. Of every thousand

244 Romanism and the Republic.

females, 426 could read, 574 could not. In Naples
and Sicily, of every thousand males, 165 were able to
read, 835 could not. Of every thousand females,
62 could read, 938 could not. That is, in
every hundred of the population in these Neapolitan
provinces, about ten only were able to read. The
ratio of pupils to inhabitants was, in the old provin-
ces and Lombardy, one pupil for every thirteen
inhabitants ; in the central region, one for forty-two ;
in Naples and Sicily one for seventy-three ; while
the number of pupils in Connecticut was one to five.
Compare that with one to seventy-three and one to
forty-two, as you have it in regions where Rome
has its sway. Out of twenty-one million people in
1864 in Italy, three and one-half millions could read
and write, and the rest could not. We have the
statement that in Spain seventy-five, and some
authorities say eighty per cent., cannot read nor
write. In regard to Switzerland, in the year 1842,
a Romish priest, Franseini, of the Canton of Ticino,
showed how much superior in every respect the
Protestant cantons were, giving among the reasons
the fact that Roman Catholic education prevails in
Romish cantons, and Protestant education prevails
elsewhere. We have also a picture of Ireland, show-
ins: us what the condition of Ireland was in the ter-
ritory where the Romish Church was dominant, and
what it was outside of the Romish counties, reveal-
ing the same lessons as Switzerland. In the Protes-
tant countries of Great Britain and Prussia, in 1869,
where twenty can read and write, there are but thir-

Romanism and the Republic. 245

teen in the Roman Catholic countries of France and
Austria. In European countries, one in every ten
are in schools in the Protestant countries, and but
one in one hundred and twenty-four in the Roman
Catholic countries. In six leading Protestant coun-
tries in Europe, one newspaper or magazine is pub-
lished to every 315 inhabitants, while in six Roman
Catholic countries there is but one newspaper to
every 2,715 people. It was estimated, in 1850, that
at least seven-eighths of the twenty millions of peo-
ple in Spanish America (Mexico, Cuba, Central
America, and the north and west parts of South
America, etc.) were unable to read. See Barnum's
"Romanism As It Is," pp. 14-17. That is what the
Romish system has done on a large scale. In Mexico,
90 per cent, of the people cannot read and write.

Now I want to ask one question : If the Roman
Catholic Church is animated by a desire to educate,
if they really desire to spread sound learning, why,
in the name of all that is good and kind, do they not
leave their children in the schools of our country to
be educated as they ought to be, and spend their
money in Mexico, in South America, in Spain, in
Italy, in teaching Roman Catholics there to read and
write? Why do they not? The answer is plain
enough. There is no desire for general education
in their minds, but only the desire to advance the
Roman Catholic Church.

I now invite your careful attention to what is per-
haps the most convincing fact on the effects and dan-
gers of Romish schools. I shall show you, from plain

246 Romanism and the Republic.

figures, that Romish education in our country brings
forth illiteracy, pauperism and crime in a startling
degree of increase, as compared with education in our
public schools. We have some figures concerning
this that I think you can carry away with you in
mind. Do you know that parochial schools in Bos-
ton have, as they claim, over 60,000 Roman Catho-
lic children? And do you know what the effects of
Roman Catholic parochial education are? There
are furnished to every 10,000 inhabitants by Roman
Catholic schools 1,400 illiterates ; that is to say, where
there are 10,000 people whose children go to the paro-
chial schools, there are furnished 1,400 illiterates from
such population ; by the public schools of 2i states
350 illiterates, only one-quarter as many ; by the pub-
lic schools of Massachusetts 71, while the Roman
Catholic schools in the same proportion furnish 1,400.
And how about paupers? Every 10,000 people
sending their children to parochial schools furnish
410 paupers as the result of that form of education ;
by the public schools of 21 states, 170 paupers to
10,000 ( compare with 410 ) ; by the public schools
of Massachusetts 69 paupers to every 10,000, against
410 paupers furnished by the parochial schools. Do
we want more parochial schools at that rate?

And how about criminals? By the Roman Catholic
parochial schools, to every 10,000 of the population,
thercare furnished 160criminals ; by the public schools
of 21 states 75, not half as many ; by the public
schools of Massachusetts there are furnished only 11
criminals to every 10,000 inhabitants, compared with

Romanism and the Republic. 247

160 criminals furnished by every 10,000 who send
their children to the parochial schools. That is, the
parochial schools furnish about fifteen times as many
criminals as the public schools of Massachusetts.
There are more children now in school than there
ever were, and still an increase of crime. In France,
two or three years ago, were reported in 10,000 lay
schools 5.55 crimes, 22.29 offences ; in 10,000 church
schools 65.10 crimes and 90.50 offences. The whole
world furnishes proof of the evils of parochial schools.
What seems to be the inference ? There is a kind of
schooling that is not a safeguard against crime.
(Dexter A. Hawkins in Doc. XX. Evangel. Alliance
p 42, and elsewhere.)

I have one final and very important matter to state
to you here to-night before I close this discourse.
It is this : Where the state furnishes money to Roman
Gtitholic institutions, — which is, you know, con-
trary to the genius of our country and contrary to
the constitution of the United States, — the increase of
pauperism is enormous. Why? Because the insti-
tutions get an appropriation according to the num-
ber of persons that they have in their orphanages,
protectories and schools for juvenile delinquents; so
much for each child. Just as soon as they get
money from the state they begin to take in children
/ whose parents are both living. They get the state
appropriations, so much per capita; then make the
support of these children come down to the very low-
est figure ; and pour the balance of the money
into the treasury of the church. You want some

248 Romanism and the Republic.

proof of that? I will give it to you. There is plenty
of it; I can assure you of that. The " Report on
the Institutions for the Care of Destitute Children of
the City of New York, " Nineteenth Annual Report
State Board of Charities, pp. 78, 79, transmitted to
the Legislature, Jan. 28, 188(3, shows, that in Kings
County there were, in August, 1875, about three hun-
dred children in the Nursery, a branch of the alms-
house. These were at that time transferred to secta-
rian institutions, and the number of dependent chil-
dren at once increased wonderfully. In August of
each of the succeeding five years, the number in the
county was as follows: 1876, 670; 1877, 784; 1878,
1169 ; 1879, 1304 ; 1880, 1479. This is an increase
of Jive hundred per cent, in six years, dating from and
including 1875.

In Kings County, during the five years referred
to, the cost to the people of the County from this
pauperizing of children, seven hundred and twenty
of whom were found to have both parents living, was
reported as having risen from $40,000 to $172,000,
at a price for each child so large that Commissioner
Ropes said that the over-crowded asylums farmed
out those whom they had no room for. The propor-
tion in different asylums, as reported, was: Roman
Catholic, 1,298; all Protestant denominations, 266 ;
Jewish, 17. Do not forget these figures. Just as
soon as the state opens her treasury to the Roman
Catholic Church, just so soon, by means as dexter-
ous as they are dishonest, they pauperize their chil-
dren and their people to aggrandize their Prelates,

Romanism and the Republic. 249

their Bishops, their Cardinals and their Church.
Here is the demonstration of the incomparable supe-
riority of our system of education to theirs. Illiter-
acy, pauperism, crime, degradation follow on the
Roman Catholic methods. And what follows on
ours ? Let the proud position of our country among
the nations of the earth demonstrate. I close to-night
by reading something as perfect in language as it is
accurate in fact, which, though extended, I am sure
will be interesting to the very last word. The
following was written by Victor Hugo when the a
priests were striving to obtain control of education £
in France :

" Ah, we know you. We know the clerical party ;
it is an old party. This it is which has found for ■"
the truth those two marvellous supporters, ignorance
and error. This it is which forbids to science and
genius the going beyond the Missal, and wishes to
cloister thought in dogmas. Every step which the
intelligence of Europe has taken has been in spite of
it. Its history is written in the history of human pro-
gress ; but it is written on the back of the leaf. It is
opposed to it all. This it is which caused Prinelli to
be scourged, for having said the stars would not fall.
This it is which put Campanella seven times to the
torture, for saying that the number of worlds was
infinite, and for having caught a glimpse at the secret
of creation. This it is which persecuted Harvey for
having proved the circulation of the blood. In the
name of Jesus, it shut up Galileo. In the name of
St. Paul, it imprisoned Christopher Columbus. To

250 Romanism and the Republic.

discover a law of the heavens was an impiety, to find
a world was a heresy. This it is which anathema-
tized Pascal in the name of religion ; Montaigne in
the name of morality ; Moliere in the name of both
morality and religion. For a long time the human
conscience has revolted against you, and now
demands of you : ' What is it that you wish of me ?'
For a long time, already, you have tried to put a gag
upon the human intellect ; you wish to be the mas-
ters of education, and there is not a poet, not an
author, not a thinker, not a philosopher that you
accept. All that has been written, found, dreamed,
deduced, inspired, imagined, invented by genius, the
treasure of civilization, the venerable inheritance of
generations, the common patrimony of knowledge,
you reject.

There is a book — a book which is for the world
what the Koran is for Islamism ; what the Vedas are
for India — a book which contains all human wisdom
illuminated by all divine wisdom — a book which the
veneration of the people calls The Book — The Bible.
Well, your censure has reached even that — unheard
of thing! Popes have proscribed the Bible! How
astonishing to wise spirits, how overpowering to
simple hearts, to see the finger of Eome placed upon
the book of God ! And you claim the liberty of
teaching. Stop ; be sincere ! let us understand the
liberty which you claim. It is the liberty of not_
caching. You wish us to give you the people to
nstruct. Very well. Let us see your pupils. Let
us see those you have produced, What have you

Romanism and the Republic. 251

done for Italy? What have you done for Spain?
For centuries you have kept in your hands, at your
discretion, at your schools, these two great nations,
illustrious among the illustrious. What have you
done for them? I shall tell you. Thanks to you,
Italy, whose name no man who thinks can any
longer pronounce without inexpressible filial emotions
— Italy, mother of genius and of nations, which has
spread abroad, over all the universe, all the most
brilliant marvels of poetry and the arts, — Italy,
which has taught mankind to read, now knows not
how to read ! Yes, Italy is, of all the states of
Europe, that where the smallest number know how to
read. V

"Spain, magnificently endowed Spain, which
received from the Romans her first civilization ; from
the Arabs her second civilization ; from Providence,
and in spite of you, a world, America — Spain,
thanks to you, a yoke of stupor, which is a yoke of
degradation and decay, — Spain has lost the secret
power which it had from the Romans ; this genius of
art which it had from the Arabs ; this world which it
had from God ; and in exchange for all that you have
made it lose, it has received from you the Inquisi-
tion— the Inquisition which certain men of the party
try to-day to re-establish ; which has burned on the
funeral-pile millions of men; the Inquisition, which
disinterred the dead to burn them as heretics ; which
declared the children of heretics infamous and incap-
able of any public honors, excepting only those who
shall have denounced their fathers ; the Inquisition,

252 Romanism and the Republic.

which, while I speak, still holds in the Papal library
the manuscripts of Galileo, sealed under the Papal
signet. These are your master-pieces. This fire
which we call Italy you have extinguished. This
Colossus that we call Spain you have undermined —
the one in ashes, the other in ruins. This is what
you have done for two great nations.

" What do you wish to do for France ? Stop ! You
have just come from Rome. I congratulate you ;
you have had fine success there. You come from
gagging the Roman people, and now you wish to
gag the French people. I understand. This attempt
is still more fine : but take care, it is dangerous.
France is a lion, and is alive."

This closing sentence I quoted to you last Sab-
bath. Freeman of America ! here is the exchange
which Rome would make for your public schools.
The Constitution proscribed, the Bible banished,
history made to speak falsely under the command of
the Pope; multitudes of men 'that know not how
to read, other multitudes made criminals for lack of
instruction, other multitudes made paupers by the
greed of the hierarchy. This is what Rome offers
to America. O, men and brothers ! if you be men,
before you lose what your fathers bought with their
blood, by your ballots, by your pulpits, by your
newspapers, by your hope for America and your
love of mankind, I charge you think, act and strike
for your country's intelligence, prosperity and virtue.

.Sermon !£♦

THE MORALITY WHICH ROMANISM WOULD TEACH
AMERICAN YOUTH.

Our subject to-night is the morality which Roman-
ism would teach American youth. The subject of
next Sunday evening will be a continuation of this,
in a somewhat different way. You will find the
texts, first in the 19th Psalm, the 7th verse : " The
law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."
The second passage, Matthew 5 : 17, is a confirma-
tion and corroboration of this by our Lord Jesus
Christ : " Think not that I am come to destroy the
law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy but to
fulfil." For the sake of condensation in preliminary
statements, and in order to reach most directly the
facts which bear on Romanism, I will beg you to
excuse me for five minutes while I read the propo-
sitions which lay the foundation of the discourse.

The perfection of God's law for the government of
physical nature in man, or elsewhere, is not greater
than its perfection as relates to the rules of conduct
which are commonly called morals. The law of
God, which is perfect in the eye of the Psalmist, is
not merely the law of physical creation, which needs
no amendment, but also the law of moral conduct,

(

254 Romanism and the Republic.

which cannot be tampered with without doing great
injury to man and to society. The system of perfect ■
human conduct which is embodied in the Bible, is,
in the Old Testament Scriptures, most concisely
expressed in the moral law of the Ten Command-
ments, which code has frequently been the subject of
our careful study and of our emphatic commenda-
tion. The law of the Ten Commandments is
repeated in every particular in the Christian sys-
tem as developed in the New Testament, since our
Lord came not to destroy but to fulfil ; and He
expressly names and sanctions severally, nearly every
one of the Ten Commandments, giving them a
broader, a deeper, and stronger meaning.

Any system for human government must minister
to and conserve morality ; else, whatever its other
good qualities, it is deserving only of denunciation
on the part of good men. For example : a piratical
colony might exhibit bravery, and display remark-
able obedience to its chief, and might be enviably
rich, as the result of an evil conspiracy against the
property of other men. But such a band cannot
be commended for their good qualities, because of the
essential immorality of their purpose and of their
society.

Especially, any system of religion, in order to
substantiate a claim to divine origin, must be justi-
fied or condemned by what it exacts and produces in
moral conduct. A good religion cannot produce,
teach, nor sanction a bad morality ; and I say this, in
order that those who seek, and perhaps find, in

Romanism and the Republic. 255

other religions than the true Christian religion some
excellence, may understand that such religion must
be subjected to a moral test, and that if its morals
are not consistent with the highest welfare of man,
the religion is impeached at the outset as not being
from God. This test is especially justified concern-
ing any system professing to call itself Christianity.
Any religion which theoretically and practically
debases morality, would, by that, be proven false
and unchristian, and should not be disseminated. If a
religion calling itself Christianity violates domestic
sanctity, blasphemes God, encourages invasion of
property-rights, takes human life without sanction
of the principles of justice, it is not and cannot be
a Biblical or Christian system of faith. Any religion
which degrades man in this world, cannot guide him

to the heavenly7 world, nor is there anything in the
system of Christianity to suggest that, out of a bad
morality in a present religion, a man shall be evolved
into a pure character in the heavenly life.

Proposing to apply this test to Romanism, in order
to clear your minds of uncertainty, let me state two
or three preliminary propositions : 1. The immor-
ality of a few members of any church cannot discredit
it, nor can such evil-doing discredit their creed, pro-
vided it be shown that such immorality is contrary to
their creed and theory, and in practice is discounte-
nanced also by the church. This is a rule to apply
widely and always. It is undoubtedly true, that
there is no religion however good, no form of Chris-
tianity however pure, which has so purified all its

256 Romanism and the liejmblic.

professed adherents that there shall be no hypocrites
among them; •'but if the creed and the system
denounced, opposed and resisted all immorality, it
cannot justly be held responsible for that immorality.
Even the fall of ministers into grievous sin, does
not discredit the system of religion which they teach,
provided that system of religion and that church sus-
pencTtlieir function, discipline them, and forbid
them to exercise the calling which they have dis-
graced. I do not infer, if some Roman Catholic
priests, or bishops, or popes are bad, therefore the
whole system is bad ; for such inference would
impeach Protestantism also, and would be manifestly
unfair and untruthful. 2. Moreover, there may be
portions of a church's history not consistent with its
highest and best understanding of divine truth. A
church may, under unfortunate conditions, have an
incorrect idea of what is right and wrong. I do not
think that the early Puritan church as such, can be
held responsible, as a whole, for the persecution and
hanging of people called witches ; but, if you choose
to hold the entire church responsible, we are glad
that at the present time, and for a very long period
of time, all these barbarisms have been repudiated
and denounced. On the other hand, the Roman
Catholic Church, as a whole, should not perhaps be
discredited by the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, if
they had since and now repudiated it. But the
impeachment we bring against the Romish Church is,
that it has never, in the slightest degree, officially
denounced the Inquisition, and that it sanctions,

Romanism, and the Republic. 257

defends and recommends it to-day. So Romanism
takes and deserves as a system the whole responsi- ,
bility of the Inquisition.

The whole Ten Commandments are moral law, one
as much as another. The first, second and third
are principles more nearly relating to religion.
The fourth is just as truly a principle toward God,
while it relates also to the wants of man in the phy-
sical and visible world, because it seeks to give him
la day of rest. The remaining six commandments
relate to human society : the fifth to the family, as
also the seventh ; the sixth to the sanctity of the per-
son and life ; the eighth to the rights of property ;
the ninth to truth in human intercourse ; the tenth
to the disposition of the heart in regard to selfishness.
Some of these commands are so related to God and
to man, that while essential to morality, they cannot
wisely be made the subjects of statutory legislation.

For instance, experience proves that it would not
be wise for us to legislate that a man should not wor-
ship an idol, if he desired to; because that would
trench upon the province of his conscience and relig-
ion. , Nor would it be exactly wise for us, in the case
of every man who swears a profane oath, to shut him
up in prison ; much as the wickedness of the act
shows how unfit he is for human society.

But in relation to the commandments affecting: the
integrity of the family ; as, for instance, the seventh
commandment, " Thou shalt not commit adultery ;" in
relation to the commandments affecting property,
rights," Thou shalt not steal ; " the protection of the

258 Romanism and the Republic.

person, ' 'Thou shalt not kill ; " in matters of truth and
honesty, "Thou shalt not bear false witness ; " in rela-
tion to these, society could not exist unless there
there was legislation against the violation of the law
of God in these special particulars. The violation
of these last commandments we call immorality; the
keeping of these commandments we call morality.
In my next discourse, I shall speak of Rome in its
relation to the higher morality, that is, the first
four commandments ; in this, of Rome in reference
to the common morality ; that is, morality that
relates to the integrity of the family, the rights
of property, the protection of the person, and
to truth and honesty in the intercourse of man
with man. What, then, is the relation of
Romanism to the law of property? What is its rela-
tion to the law of family? What is its relation to
the law for the protection of human life? And what
its relation to each of the five commandments of the
second table of the law?

The theory in detail of Romanism is immoral.
Romanism, by her accredited theologians, teaches
the violation of several of these commandments of
the moral law. Who are the authorized theolo-
gians of the Roman Catholic Church? I answer,
foremost among them is Peter Dens, who was
born in the 17th century, and died about the
year 1775. Peter Dens has received the sanction
of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland as
a body ; his works are put into the hands of the
young priests to be studied ; the questions which he_

Romanism and the Republic. 259

says ought to be asked in the confessional are asked
there. He is the theological tutor of the young
Roman Catholic priests, a standard authority. 2.
Liguori, an Italian, who is called a " saint," and whose
writings are similar to those of Dens, is also an
authority. The Congregation of Rites, in 1803, after
an examination for twenty years of Liguori's works,
decreed, that " in all the writings of St. Alphonsus
Liguori, there is not a single word that can justly be J
found fault with." (Montagu's " Sower and Virgin."/
His " Glories of Mary," in 1868, was heartily com-
mended by Cardinal Manning. 3. J. P. Gury,
whose Moral Theology is on sale in a Boston book-
store, (where I myself saw it), and who has written
theological works similar to those of Dens and Liguori,
is also aj authority, and his work was published in
Ratisbon, in 1874, and is a standard among Roman
Catholics. These, and many others who might be
quoted, who stand in the same relations to Roman
Catholic teaching, are accredited and standard theolo-
gians. Moreover, 1 call you to notice the remarkable
fact in regard to every one of these books, that none
of them can be printed in the English language ;
because the laws of this country very properly forbid
it. I can give a very striking confirmation of that
from a book which I hold in my hand: "The cele-
brated work of Peter Dens contains several numbers,
in Vol. IV, upon this subject (the confessional), with
which I am unwilling to soil these pages, even by
the insertion of the Latin. Several years ago, in the
city where I reside, a gentleman read and translated

si

260 Romanism and the Republic.

these before an audience where there were no ladies,
and an honest young Roman Catholic layman present I
was so shocked that he caused him to be arrested and
carried before the mayor upon a charge of public inde-
cency." (That is the statement of R. W. Thompson,
on page 192 of "The Papacy and the Civil Power.")
You will remember that, when a Roman Catholic
finds the justification of his conduct in the writings
of one of their theologians or, fathers, he proceeds
with good conscience to the performance of acts
which they justify. The theological works by Protes-j
tant Christianity are not authoritative in any such!
sense. All the books of the Roman Catholic Church
are issued by the authority of The Sacred Congrega-
tion. The Sacred Congregation gives its assent and
seal to these writings. Every man, therefore,
writing under the assent of The Sacred Congreiration

c Oct

of the Index, stands as sanctioned by Rome, and Rome

stands as sponsor for him.

Now, concerning all the above authorities, Dens,

Liguori, Gury and others, I say, they sanction lying,

deceit, perjury, the breaking of faith, theft, murder,

and so present and excuse adultery as to make it I

common even among their ecclesiastics. The first

*. .
of these propositions, which I shall demonstrate from

their own words, is this : 1. That theologians of Rome,

and therefore the Roman Catholic Church, sanction

lying, deceit and perjury. Liguori, whom I have

already named, says ( I have before me the Latin

text, and its translation also, in Chiniquy's "Fifty

Years in the Church of Rome," chap, xiii) :/" A culprit

Romanism and the Republic. 261

or a witness questioned by a judge, but in an illegal
manner" (of which I suppose the culprit is to be the
judge) "may swear that he knows nothing of the
crime about which he is questioned, although he
knows it well, meaning mentally, that he knows noth-
ing in such a manner as to answer." When the crime
/is very secret and unknown to all, Liguori says, the
/ culprit or the witness must deny it under oath. Here
are his own words : ' ' He may swear that he knows
nothing, when he knows that the person who commit-
ted the crime committed it without malice ; or again, ,
if he knows the crime, but secretly, and there has
been no scandal. When a crime is wTell concealed, I
the witness, and even the criminal, may, and even
must, swear that the crime has never been committed.
The guilty party may yet do likewise, when a half
proof cannot be brought against him." Liguori asks
himself: " If one accused, legally interrogated by a
judge, may deny his crime under oath, \v7hen the
confession of the crime might cause his condem-
nation, and be disadvantageous to him?" and he
answers: " It is altogether probable that when the
accused fears a sentence of death, or of being sent to
prison, or exiled, he may deny his crime under oath,
understanding that he has not committed this crime
in such a manner as to be obliged to confess it." "He
who has sworn to keep a secret is not obliged to keep
his oath, if any consequential injury to him or to
others is thereby caused. If anyone has sworn
before a judge to keep the truth, he is not obliged to
say secret things." Liguori asks whether a woman,

262 Romanism and the Republic.

accused of the crime of adultery, which she has really
committed, may deny it under oath? He answers :
" Yes : provided she has been to confess, and received
the absolution ; for then," he says, " the sin has been
pardoned, and has really ceased to exist." Liguori
maintains that anyone may commit a minor crime in
order to avoid a greater crime. He says: "It is
right to advise any one to commit a robbery or a !
fornication, in order to avoid a murder."

These are but samples, and the authority which
adduces these, being perfectly familiar with the
theology and morality of the Church of Rome, says :
" I could fill volumes with similar statements." But
this is not all.

A Roman Catholic, according to this authority,
may perjure himself to conceal his faith. And here
again : " We may be allowed to conceal the truth, or j
disguise it under ambiguous or equivocal words or
signs, for a just cause, and when there is no neces-
sity to confess the truth. If by that means one can
rid himself of dangerous pursuits, he is permitted to
use it. When you are not questioned as to your
faith, you are not only allowed to conceal it, but it
is often more to the glory of God and the interest of
your neighbor. If, for example, you are among a
heretical people, you can do more good by conceal-
ing your faith : or if, by declaring it, you are to
cause great trouble, or death, it is temerity to
expose one's life." The Pope has the right to release
from all oaths. " As for an oath, made for a good
and legitimate object, it seems that there should be

Romanism and the Republic. 263

no power capable of annulling it. However, when
it is for the good of the public, a matter which comes
under the immediate jurisdiction of the Pope, who
has the supreme power over the Church, the Pope
has full power to release from that oath." Dens
says (in ' ' Papacy and Civil Power," note to p. 560 —
I read you this verbatim, because I want you to
know that the citations are exactly correct) : "It
has undoubtedly become the settled law of the
Roman Church that the Pope may dispense with any
promissory oath, by withdrawing the promise or pro-
hibiting its performance." The doctrine is thus
laid down by an author greatly distinguished in the
Church for his learning. In answering the objection
that the obligation of an oath is of natural and divine
right, and therefore that it cannot cease to be binding
through dispensation, commutation or veto, he says :
" The consequence is denied ; because through dis-
pensation, etc., it is brought about, that that which
was included under the oath, by withdrawing, pro-
hibiting, etc., is not included under the oath, and so
there is nothing done contrary to the oath."

Further, the Lateran Council — and the Lateran
Council was, like the Pope, infallible, — has said:
" They are not to be called oaths, but rather perjury,
which are in opposition to the welfare of the Church
and the enactment of the Holy Fathers." Pope
Innocent XI. sanctions perjury in the following
words: "If any, either alone or before others,
whether asked or of his own accord, or for the pur-
pose of sport or for any other object, swears that he

264 Romanism and the Republic.

has not done something which in reality he has done,
by understanding within himself something else
which he has not done, or a different way from that
in which he has done it, or any other truth that is
added, he does not really lie, nor is he perjured."
That these rules are part of the Jesuit system of
"mental reservation '" is undoubted. Sanchez, one
the fathers, says : " A man may swear that he never
did such a thing (though he actually did it) , mean-
ing within himself that he did not do so on a certain
day, or before he was born, or understanding any
other such circumstances, while the words which he
employs have no such sense as would discover his
meaning." The reason given by him, and Filiutius,
, another father, is, that " it is the intention that deter-~\
mines the quality of the action." "After saying''
aloud, ' I swear that I have not done that,' to add, in a
low voice, ' to-day ' .- or after saying aloud, ' I swear,'
to interpose in a whisper, ' that Isay,' and then to con-
tinue aloud, 'that I have done that.'" In this, the
same : " No more is required of them to avoid lying
than simply to say that they have not done what they
have done ; provided they have in general the inten-
tion of giving to their language the sense which an
able man would give to it." And Escobar, another
and greater of the Jesuit fathers, lays down the I
/"following demoralizing rule: "Promises are noF>

/ binding, when the person in making them had no
intention to bind himself." ("Papacy and Civil J

^- Power," page 607.)

Do you wonder that Roman Catholics perjure

Romanism and the Republic. 265

■
themselves in our courts? Do you wonder that
Roman Catholic saloon-keepers, who constitute nine-
tenths of all the saloon-keepers, will swear directly
contrary to fact in the courts ? That is the theology \
of their Fathers, of their Councils, of their Bishops
and their Priests ; and pray tell me, why it should not
be the practice of the laity also? Do you wonder
that they deny history? Do you wonder that now,
on one hand, we have Bishops affirming their purpose
to destroy our public schools ; and on the other hand,
Bishops affirming that they purpose no such thing ?
Do you wonder that Roman Catholics cannot endure
the truth of history, and that they falsify everything
which goes against their infallible Church ? Do you
wonder that the Pope and the Emperor broke faith
with John Huss, who had come to the Council of 1
Constance under promise of "safe conduct," and/
burned him to death? Do wonder that the Councils (
of the Roman Catholic Church have accused Popes;
of perjury, and substantiated by proof their accusa-
tion ? When I say to you that the Roman Catholic
Church in theory favors falsehood ; that its doctors,
lawyers and chief theologians favor falsehood, lying,
deceit and perjury ; I only ask you, if you can, to
believe what they themselves say ; for Heaven knows
they might have been lying when they said this.

For instance, to take the matter of indulgences.
William Hogan, who was for many years a priest of
the Roman Catholic Church, says, on the 172d page
of his book, which he wrote after he became a dis-
tinguished lawyer in the southern United States ; "I

r

/

266 Romanism and the Republic.

pronounce all Roman Catholic Priests, Bishops,
Popes, monks, friars and nuns to be the most delib-
erate and wilful set of liars that ever infested this or
any other country, or disgraced the name of religion."
So says a man who was a priest, who lived with
them and knew them, and who abandoned them, and
gave us the result of his observations. "I have
{ asserted, and continue to assert, that there is not a
Roman Catholic church, chapel or house of worship
in any Catholic country where indulgences are not
sold. I will go even farther, and say, that there is
not a Roman Catholic priest or inquisitor who has
denied the fact, that does not sell indulgences him-
self. And yet these Priests and these Bishops, — these
men of sin, falsehood, impiety, barbarity and immor-
ality,— talk of morals and preach morals ; while in
their Hves and their practice they laugh at such
ideas as morality.

«' I would ask all or any of them, if they have ever
heard mass in any Catholic Church in Dublin, or any
other city in Ireland, without hearing published
from the altar a notice, in the following words.
* Take notice, that there will be an Indulgence on
day, in church. Confession will be heard

on

-day. Prepare, those who wish to partake i
of the Indulgence.' I have published hundreds
of such notices myself; and any American who may
visit Ireland, or any other Catholic country, and has
the curiosity, may enter the Roman Catholic chapel
aud hear these notices read ; and when he returns to
the United States he will hear the Roman Catholic

Romanism and the Republic. 267

priest say that there are no indulgences sold by the
Romish Church. Beware, Americans ! How long
will you be the dupes of popish priests ? " (Hogan's
" Popery," p. 172.) And yet the twelve Protestant
members of the school board of Boston, because of
the mild statement in Swinton's History, were either
so ignorant of the modes and wiles of Rome, or else
were so culpably negligent, that they voted at Rome's
bidding that the History should be taken out of the
schools, because it stated mildly what every man
knows to be true who knows anything about Rome.
But the indictment goes much farther. Only the
lapse of time, which lapses so rapidly, prevents me
from citing J. P. Gury, whom I have already spoken
of as a standard theologian of the Roman Catholic
Church; who in detail, on the same points, one after
another, lays down rules of conduct precisely as
damaging and as immoral as those that I have already
mentioned.* There is no misunderstanding them ;
/they directly inculcate lying, perjury, deceit and
/ falsehood as a part of the practical morality of the
/ Roman Catholic Church. Do not understand me \
as saying that every Roman Catholic is a liar. Not '
by any means ! I do not believe it ! I do say that
every Roman Catholic may perjure himself and not
come under the censure of his Church because in so
doing he follows the rules of moralists, sp-called, to
whom the Church has given her sanction. No other
rational inference can be drawn from their doctrines
or practices.

I stated to you that stealing is encouraged ; and
I quote again from Liguori, the distinguished

268 Romanism and the Republic.

authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Let me
read to you exactly what he says, as follows :
"A servant has the right to rob his master, a child
his father, and a poor man the rich." The Salmantes

say that a servant may, according to his own judg-
ment, pay himself with his own hands, more than
was agreed upon as a salary for his own work, if he
finds that he deserves a larger salary ; " and," says
Liguori, " this doctrine appears just to me." "The
poor man who has concealed the goods and effects of
which he is in need, may swear that he has nothing."
(Lying and stealing both.) "In like manner an
heir, who, without taking an inventory, conceals his
goods, when it is not the goods mortgaged for a debt,
may swear that he has concealed nothing, under-
standing the goods with which he was to pay." There
are many opinions about the amount which may be
stolen to constitute a mortal sin. " Nevar has said,
too scrupulously, that to steal a half piece of gold is
a mortal sin : while others, too lax, hold that to steal
less than ten pieces of gold cannot be a serious sin.
But Tol, Mech, Less, etc., have more wisely ruled,
that to steal two pieces of gold constitutes a mortal
sin." Is it a crime to steal a small piece of a relic?
(Liguori now) : " There is no doubt of its being a sin
in the district of Rome ; since Clement VII. and
Paul V. have excommunicated those who have com-
mitted such thefts.

11 But this theft is not a serious thing when com-
mitted outside the district of Rome ; unless it be a
very rare and precious relic ; as the wood of the

Romanism and the Republic. 269

Holy Cross, or some of the hair of the Virgin Mary."
Once more : " If any one steals small sums at differ-
ent times, either from the same or from different
persons, not having the intention of stealing large
sums, nor of causing a great damage, his sin is not
mortal ; particularly if the thief is poor, and he has
the intention to give back what he has stolen. If
several persons steal from the same master, in small
quantities, each in such a manner as not to commit
a mortal sin, though each one knows that all these
little thefts together cause a considerable damage to
their master, yet no one of them commits a mortal
sin, even when they steal at the same time." (Still,
if there are enough of them, they could take about
all a man has, according to that. There is more of
this.) Liguori, in speaking of children who steal
from their parents, says: " Silas, cited by Croix,
maintains that a son does not commit a mortal sin
when he steals only twenty or thirty pieces of gold
from a father who has an income of 150 pieces of
gold," — you must regulate it according to what your
father has, — " and Lugo approves of that doctrine.
Less, and other theologians say, that it is not a mortal
sin for a child to steal two or three pieces of gold
from a rich father." I wonder if they teach that in
their Sunday schools? " Bannez maintains, that to
/ commit a mortal sin a child must steal not less than
, fifty piece of gold from a rich father ; but Lacroix
rejects that doctrine, except the father is a prince."
(Chiniquy "Fifty Years," chapter xiii). Great
advantage in having a prince for a father; you can
steal all you have a mind to I

270 Romanism and the Republic.

Now, when your Eoman Catholic servant-girl takes
out of your house sundry articles of food or clothing,
for needy persons that are related to her, as cousins
of one degree or another, you see that she is acting
in harmony with the definitions and directions of the
sanctioned theologians and saints of Rome. More-
over, the despoiling of heretics has been, in theory
and in practice, the rule of that church. Always.
Now, you understand me. I do not say that every
Roman Catholic is dishonest : far from it. I do
not say that every priest teaches this outrageous and
thievish doctrine. But I do say, that the theologians
of Rome, who have the sanction of the Roman Cath-
olic Church herself, and who teach by that sanction
infallible doctrine, do countenance and encourage
and excuse theft and stealing. You may judge of
the consequences of such teaching.

They also sanction and authorize murder, the
murder of heretics. For example, let me quote you
their exact language ; for what they say is so much
worse than anything that I could say if I tried to
quote its substance, that I like to read it exactly as
they state it. Dens says, in his "Theologica Moralis :"
"A man who has been excommunicated by the Pope
may be killed anywhere, as Escobar and Deaux teach ;
because the Pope has an indirect jurisdiction over
the whole world, even in temporal things, as all the
Catholics maintain, and asSuarez proves against the
King of England." An excommunicated man may
be killed anywhere ; and we are all excommunicated,
you understand. Only last week, I read you the
Papal bull excommunicating all heretics.

Romanism and the Republic. 271

Lord Acton, one of the Eoman Catholic peers of
England, reproaching the bloody and anti-social laws
J of his own church, wrote : "Pope Gregory VII. '
;. decided it was no murder to kill excommunicated
f persons." This is taken from the London Times,
July 26, 1872, written by Lord Acton. Gregory
says : " This rule was incorporated in the canon law.
During the revision of the code, which took place in
the sixteenth century, and which produced a whole
volume of corrections, the passage was allowed to
stand. It appears in every reprint ot the Corpus
Juris. It has been for 700 years, and continues to
be, part of the ecclesiastical law. Far from being a
dead letter, it obtained a new application in the days
of the Inquisition; and one of the later Popes has /
declared, that the murder of a Protestant is so good a
deed that it atones, and more than atones, for the
murder of a Catholic." That is to say, according to
this infallible Pope, if a man has murdered a Roman
Catholic, he may expiate the deed by murdering an
excommunicated person ; and all Protestants are
excommunicated. This is their own language.

In the last Council of the Vatican, has the Church
of Rome expressed any regret for having promul-
gated and executed such bloody laws ? No ! On
the contrary, she has anathematized all those who
think or say that she was wrong when she deluged
the world with the blood of the millions she ordered
to be slaughtered to quench her thirst for blood ;
she positively said that she had a right to punish
those heretics by torture and death. Further than

272 Romanism and the Republic.

that: They claim the right to murder all rulers
whom they consider apostates ; and has it ever been
brought to your attention (I speak of it as a curios-
ity only) , that every person who had anything to do
with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a
Roman Catholic? — that John Wilkes Booth was a
Roman Catholic ; Payne and Atseroth, also Dr.
Nudd, who dressed his leg ; Garrett, in whose
premises he was killed ; also, that Harold was a
Roman Catholic ; Mrs. Suratt and her son were
Roman Catholics ; their house was the head-quarters
for Roman Catholics and for the Jesuit priests. All
this was brought out before the military tribunal
which condemned some of them to death. As early
as 1861, certain political partisan papers of this coun-
try were filled with statements that Abraham Lincoln
was an apostate, who had been born in the Roman
Catholic Church and left it. This was false ; but
was evidently intended to arouse fanatical hate
against Lincoln as an apostate. I do not say that
Rome planned that murder ; but remember, that when
John Suratt fled from Washington he was taken
charge of by Jesuits, and under a Jesuit convoy was
carried to France. If they murdered Abraham
Lincoln, they acted in harmony with the authority of
their theologians.

Repentant heretics, we are told by this same
standard of morality, cannot have their lives spared,
although they have repented. Let me give you the
words: "Though the heretics who repent must
always be accepted to penance, as often as they have

'

ttomanism and the Republic. 273

fallen, they must not in consequence of that always
be permitted to enjoy the benefits of this life. When
they fall again they are admitted to repent ; but the
sentence of death must not be removed." That is
what they practised in the Inquisition. When here-
tics recanted Protestant doctrine, they were, in
repeated instances, slain, by the orders of the Inquis-
itors. The Lateran Council has given us a declara-
tion in favor of the extermination of heretics in lan-
guage like this: " Catholics who shall assume the
cross for the extermination of heretics, shall enjoy the
same indulgences and be protected by the same
privileges as are granted to those who go to the help
of the Holy Land. We decree, further, that all who
may have dealings with heretics, and especially such
as receive, defend or encourage them, shall be
excommunicated. He shall not be eligible to any
public office. He shall not be admitted as a witness.
He shall neither have the power to bequeath his pro-
perty by will, nor to succeed to any inheritance."

The Roman Catholic Church, as we have shown,
has been a bloody church. The Inquisition, whose
/ history we have in the language of Llorente, him-
self secretary of the Inquisition, — the Inquisition
has been recommended, and I have read the recom-
mendation in your hearing, by Segur, whose books
are on sale in Boston ; by LaMaistre, whose books
have been on sale in Boston ; by Fredet, whose his-
tory bears the mark 1886, published in Baltimore by
John Murphy.

This Church is a church that is red with the blood

274 Romanism and the Republic.

of the saints ; and as I have said to you here before,
if one day the priests and bishops of Rome should
say to you, We are your brothers, and will do nothing
to your injury ; and the next day they should strike
you dead ; they will do exactly what the Romish
Church, and Charles IX., and Catherine de Medici,
his mother, did to Admiral Coligny, and to seventy
thousand Protestants, at the massacre of St.
Bartholomew. They may profess the utmost friend-
ship ; but they violate neither their theology nor J
their principles when they take the lives of heretics. /

It may be that it has not come to your attention
that Roman Catholics are forming and drilling mili-
tary companies here in America, composed entirely
of their own adherents. I do not know what they
mean by it, and I do not care. There are other men
who can handle a gun in America, when necessary, to
resist treason and tyranny. I touch now upon deli-
cate ground, and shall be very brief, for I reserve a
considerable part of this to another discourse, when
I shall not have a mixed audience present.

The crime of adultery has the sanction of the
Roman Catholic Church, in this wise. Now listen
closely. They deny all civil and Christian marriage
to be true and lawful marriage when not performed
within the Roman Catholic Church, and Pope Pius
IX. calls it "filthy concubinage" They have divided
between a husband and wife in England — I quote
from Mr. Gladstone in his preface to " Vaticanism " —
because they were not married by a Romish priest ;
this man having embraced the Romish faith for the

Romanism, and the Republic. 275

sake of getting rid of a noble and excellent wife.
Mr. Gladstone calls attention to the fact, and wonders
that the menace to human society contained in the
act had not been taken more account of in England.
The history of a celibate priesthood, which fills this
remarkable volume now in my hand, " History of
Sacerdotal Celibacy," by H. C. Lea, is written by one
of the most judicially minded historians that ever wrote
history. The work of six hundred and fifty pages
is full of facts, stated in the most judicial and impar-
tial manner, by a man who has no case to make out,
but has simply gone to the fountain-heads of infor-
mation and learned what the state of that celibate
clergy has been ever since it originated. And
though the book is most elevated in style and exalted
in motive ; though it is not in any sense obscene ;
though it might be read by any man, woman or
child without a blush ; there is more recorded vileness
in that book, more history and record of abomination,
than I have ever found in any book ; and the author-
ities for its statements are almost invariably Roman ;
Catholics. If the system makes necessary such af
record, alas for the seventh commandment ; or rather ,[
alas for the system of Romanism. I have to limit
this to private discussion ; but as I pass it, I confess
to you, my friends, that if I should tell you the tithe
of what I have read in that book, giving names,
dates and places, from the earliest times until now,
you would be inclined to drive me from this house ;
and yet, you would know that my statements were
true.

276 Romanism and the Republic.

I pass now from this portion of my subject,
and call your attention to another portion that is
equally interesting, and quite as conclusive. I have
given you already their rules of conduct as stated in
their theologians, and bring now a broader impeach-
ment. As a system, Romanism leads directly to 1
immorality. The framers of the system favored the
violation of the moral law. I propose to demon-
strate that in brief words. Among the doctrines and
dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church is this, that
the Pope maybe never so vicious, and still the infal-
lible head of the Church as vicar of Christ, deserv-
ing the most exalted names and titles. On the 511th
page of Fredet's History — I quoted that last week —
it is explicitly stated that, whatever the character
of a Pope, whether he be a Eugenius, a Gregory, a
Benedict VIII. , or an Alexander VI., or whatever
monster of crime he may be, he is equally infallible
in his legislation and leadership as head of the
Church. You remember that fact was read to you
from their standard history. Now, notice further,
that the same rule applies to bishops and priests.
Every Archbishop, Cardinal, Bishop, or Priest in
the Church of Rome, according to the law of that
church, may be a vile, immoral and criminal man, and
still exercise all his functions. No matter what he
has done, it does not vitiate the sacraments which he
performs.

I will read it to you in the exact phraseology of the
Roman Catholics themselves, and show you their
position. On the 173d page of this work of R. W.

Romanism and the Republic. 211

Thompson, there is a quotation from the Catechism I
of the Council of Trent. (The Council of Trent is
probably the most esteemed of all the councils of the
Roman Catholic Church.) Listen to the language.
Referring to such as are excluded from the pale of the
Church, it is here said (Ibid., pp. 73-4) : "Were
even the lives of her ministers debased by crime,
they are still within her pale, and, therefore, lose

(none of the powers with which her ministry invests
them." That is to say, a man may be never so bad
a man, and may be a good Pope, giving infallible
doctrine and law to the Church ; a good bishop, a
good priest, confessing and absolving men, women
and children, although, as they say, he be a vile
man, and guilty of crime.

Now, if a cleric may be a good pope, bishop, or
priest, and be a bad man, why should not a layman
be a good Catholic and still be a bad man ? For a
layman may be made a priest to-morrow ; it is in the
power of the church to do so. And I know the intel-
ligence of Roman Catholics well enough to know that
when they understand that the priest may be a good
priest and a bad man, they have sense enough to infer
that a Roman Catholic may be a gocd Catholic and a
bad man ; and their reasoning is just as good and
their conclusion is just as sound as that of the Coun-
cil of Trent in reference to the priests. 1 ask you, if
such doctrine does not naturally lead to all manner
of immorality ? If a man may be a good Catholic and
a bad Christian, may be a good priest and a villain, /
where is the limit that the church sets to immorality I /
as excluding men from her sacraments ?

278 Romanism and the Republic.

Moreover, this system of casuistry, by which the
words and commandments of men are exalted, equal
to or above the word of God, creates confusion, and
immorality results. I cannot cite to you all the
demonstrations of this. Here is one. Pope Sixtus
V. brought out a translation of the Vulgate Bible
that abounded in errors. There was neither scholar-
ship nor sense in it. It was so scandalously bad that,
although he pronounced an infallible anathema on all
who did not receive it, Bellarmine, the famous Jesuit
undertook to set it right, and when Bellarmine under-
took to set it right by the help of another Pope, he
went on to say that it had not been published, that
Pope Sixtus had not intended to make it public, and
that those slight recensions were a part of the inten-
tion of Sixtus V. — every statement of which was a
downright falsehood, as proven by facts. (Barnum, p.
171.) When they have thus deceived concerning
the Sacred Scriptures (for a Pope can lie easily, and
by the casuistry of the Church be excused), do you
not see how they confound all moral definitions?

The Church makes a mortal sin of very little things,
and at the same time sanctions great enormities, the \
result of which is to produce the utmost confusion in
the minds of her people. For illustration of that, on
page 519 of this book, Dr. Barnum gives the fol-
lowing quotation about mortal sins (I will first read
to you from page 518 from the Catechism sanctioned
by the most reverend Dr. Hughes, Archbishop of
New York, that you may know what is a mortal sin) :
«<Q. What is a mortal sin? A. A mortal sin is

Romanism and the Republic. 279

that which kills the soul and deserves hell. Q. How
does mortal sin kill the soul ? A. Mortal sin kills
the soul by destroying the life of the soul, which is
the grace of God." Passing from this, I want to
tell you what the Rt. Eev. Armand Francis Mary
de Charbonnel, who was the Bishop of Toronto in
Canada, declared were mortal sins. He says :
"Catholic electors in this country who do not use
their electoral power in behalf of separate schools,
are guilty of mortal sin. Likewise parents not
nmltm^the™s5^Tift(?^gsliecessary to secure such schools,
or sending; their children to mixed schools. More-
over, the Confessor who would give absolution to
such parents, electors, or legislators as support mixed
schools, to the prejudice of separate schools, would be
guilty of a mortal sin." " It is a gross and very com-
mon error to believe that to drink in violation of
one's pledge is a sin in itself. To drink beyond
measure, is a mortal or venial sin of intemperance,
according to the degree of drunkenness ; but to
drink with moderation, though in violation of one's
pledge, is not a sin, unless the pledge has been taken
with an obligatory intention, or by way of vow or
oath ; which should never be done without a spirit-
ual father's advice."

There you have as a sample the confusion that they
create. They say a man will go to hell if he does
not vote against mixed schools ; that a parent will go
to hell if he permits his children to go to them. They
say that a priest will go to hell who absolves the
people who do these things ; and turn right round and

280 Romanism and the Republic.

>

say that when a man has vowed that he will not
drink, he commits no sin in breaking his oath, although
he commits a sin if he gets too drunk. By means of
such confusion all moral definitions are confounded,
and the confounding of those definitions inevitably
leads to immorality. While in this way monstrous
evils and sins are made almost virtues, what can you
expect in the field of morality?

They teach as doctrines that some very just acts
are exceedingly wicked ; for instance, that it is a
sacrilege for any man to strike a priest ; and yet if
some of the outraged husbands and sons should follow
the dictates of their natural indignation, there would
be a great deal of that kind of sacrilege committed.
Many a priest would get a blow from the hand of
outraged virtue, that now, by reason of his arrogance
and assumed power, he escapes.

Moreover, they declare that the marriage of priests
is incest, and what can be a viler crime? And yet the
Church has licensed and collected taxes, not once but
many times, of priests who keep in their houses not
wives but other women, by permission and sanction
of ecclesiastical authority, provided they paid the tax
to the Church. Out of similar sin the Church has
gained great revenue. How all moral definitions
are thus confounded, and how inevitably immorality
follows !

Father Chiniquy says, they teach that the duty of
obedience lays the entire responsibility of the act,
whatever that act may be, upon the Superior, and not
on the person who has done the deed. Now I am

Romanism and the Republic. 281

very near the close, although I have not finished all
that I have to say on this topic. Permit me to read
to you as follows, from St. Liguori once more : "The
principal and most efficacious means of practising
obedience due to superiors, and of rendering it meri-
torious before God, is to consider that, in obeying
them, we obey God himself, and that by despising
their commands, we despise the authority of the
Divine Master." Notice very closely now (I am
reading to you from Saint Liguori, in a volume
addressed to the nuns) : " When thus a nun receives
a precept from her prelate, superior or confessor, she
should immediately execute it, not only to please
them, but principally to please God, whose will is
known by their command. If, then, you receive a
command from one who holds the place of God, you
should observe it as if it came from God himself. It
may be added, that there is more certainty of doing
the will of God by obedience to our superiors than
I by obedience to Jesus Christ," ( God forgive us for
reading such blasphemy!) "should He appear in
person and give His command. St. Philip used to
say, that the nun or monk shall be most certain of not \
having to render an account of the actions performed
through obejjisftce ; for these, the superiors only, who
commands them, shall be accountable." ( Chiniquv
hap. xiii.)

Let me comment in a word. Here is a nun and a
monk sworn to absolute obedience ; as the priest is
to the Bishop and the Bishop is to the Pope. To
her the Superior gives a command ; any kind of a

282 Romanism and the Republic.

command. What shall the person do who receives
that command? Obey it as if God spoke ! Obey it
more than if God spoke ! ! That is clearly what is
stated. Whatever the deed which that person is
commanded to do, and shall do, the doer has no
moral responsibility for the deed ; but the responsi-
bility rests solely on the person who directs her
to perform the deed, and he will be absolved by
another man who has done the very same thing.
Thus the very foundations of all society are imper-
illed ; all moral obligation is destroyed ; all proper
definition of what is right and wrong is set aside, by
such a theory and doctrine as this.

But I must not weary you. I have given you as
much as you can think of and remember ; although
much remains to be said upon this topic, which I will
bring forward on the next occasion. I just now
stated that a priest may absolve from sin, whatever
his character.

The superstitions of the Roman Catholic Church
aver this : that the priest, of whom I have spoken,
in the mass, makes out of the wafer God. Then he
falls down and worships it ; the people all about
him fall down and worship it : and although it might
be poisoned by chemistry , or might be eaten by rats,
or might perish from moisture or drought, they say
that that wafer is God, the body, soul, and divinity
of God, and that all of God is there present. At
once you infer that the creature who can create God
is greater than God. The man who can manufac-
ture Deity is greater than the Deity that he manu-

Romanism and the Republic. 283

factures. If the priests can make God out of wheat
and flour bread, then they are more divine than God
himself. But this priest who is held in such super-
stitious veneration, of course, has power to absolve
from sin. Why not?

And what does he do with that power? He
absolves his own companions in guilt ; he absolves
his own paramours in lust ; and when it is done, those
persons can say, under oath, that they have never
done it ; because the sin absolved is as though it had
not been done. Where is the chance for morality
here? The priests have done this so often, that
Father Chiniquy says a very great number of them
are atheists and unbelievers, because the natural
conscience, given by the universal diffusion of the
spirit of God, makes it impossible for a man to believe
such things to be right, and do them.

I cannot speak of their alleged miracles ; you know
how many there are. They claim to have the thorns
that came from the brow of the bleeding Son of
Man ; and say that these thorns bleed on certain
occasions ! There are two cities that have the holy"
coat woven without seam, Treves in Prussia and
Argenteuil in France, and they have often contended
over their rights in the matter ! During the present
century, the exposure of that alleged coat has
brought hundreds of thousands of dollars into the
Papal treasury. They liquefy, on certain occasions, \
in Naples, the blood of St. Januarius, and the super-
stitious crowd supposes the Church is working a great
miracle. The priests, the Bishops and the Pope

J

284 Romanism and the Republic.

know better; but they permit it. We remember
when the time came round in Naples once for the
miracle to occur, the French were in possession of
of the city, and the priests were so enraged that they
would not let the blood liquefy. The crowd was
furious and frantic, and a riot was imminent. Their
fury was against the French troops. The blood
would not liquefy, and some great calamity was going
to fall upon them. Whereupon the French com-
mander planted cannon before the church and at the
corners of the streets, and sent word to the priests
that, unless the blood liquefied in ten minutes, he
should open fire. In about five minutes the miracle ( ?)
was done, the people were satisfied, and order
was restored !

Now, my friends, I close with these words. Our
papers here, as I have already said, are not protest-
ing, as leaders of public opinion should, against paro-
chial schools. They are rather helping them. We
are treated to two columns of an address by a priest at
the laying of the corner-stone of a parochial school
in honor of Leo. XIII. called after him, and not one
word of warning or remonstrance against Rome's
avowed policy. Public opinion in this city and
throughout the country is awakening, but our papers
have no word to say. Now when Rome teaches our
youth what I have read you, as an essential part of
Romanism, when Rome has taujrht that and made the
people receive it, she will make of us what she has
made of other nations. And Rome has always taught
and practiced such immorality. Our immoral and

Romanism and the Republic. 285

godless schools of which they talk, are worth more
to-day for the purification of morals than all the
Papacy. I would give more for the diffusion of
American public schools throughout all Europe
and the world, as a moral force, with the American
spirit in them, than for all that corrupted Romanism
is doing to-day ; and I am giving my strength
to this work, sanctioned by your splendid support,
which I know will not fail, that we may conserve the
interest of a morality as strong as Plymouth Rock,
and may build up the colossal empire which God has
given us to up-build, on the foundations, not of Rom-
ish casuistry or Papal superstition, but on founda-
tions of pure morality, sound learning, free education,
the ten commandments, and the true religion out of
which all these blessings spring.

Sermon X-

SHALL ROMANISM TEACH A PAGAN MORALITY TO
AMERICAN YOUTH?

You will find my text to-night in the Ten Com-
mandments, the first and second. I might also
include the third ; for they are all germane to what I
shall say. In the 20th chapter of the Book of Exodus
we read: "Thou shalt have no other gods before
me : Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image, or any likeness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth. Thou sh:ilt not bow
down thyself to them nor serve them : for I, the
Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep
my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain : for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

As the base of a great pyramid, so are these first
commandments of the ten to all that follow ; for all
the Second Table, as it is called, that command man
in his relations to his fellows, and on which we spoke
on last Sabbath evening, are founded on those views

Romanism and the Republic. 287

of God and relations to God which we are taught to
cherish. It is therefore particularly appropriate that
the Ten Commandments should be based on God and
true worship, inasmuch as morality must find its
only sure foundation in religion. These command-
ments, given in an idolatrous age, pointed directly at
and against all Polytheism, the worship of many gods ;
and all Paganism which forgot God ; all Atheism,
which denied God ; and all Idolatry, which substitutes
some other thing for the God who alone is worthy of
worship. The Commandments so solemnly announced
at Sinai and recorded in the book of Exodus, are
still further elaborated throughout all the Sacred
Word, in which no sin is more frequently spoken of
or more strongly denounced than the sin of idolatry.
Through all the Old Testament Scriptures, from
almost the first wrords to the last, you find the holy ]
prophets and the sacred historians teaching us of
the ruin that is wrought by idolatry; how contrary it
is to the divine word, how sinful it is in the sight of
God, and how hurtful to all mankind. We think our-
selves so far away from such gross and false worship,
that, as we turn our thoughts to paganism and idol-
atry, we are ready to say : Where in all the world do
these things now exist ? and can it be that there is any
place so benighted as that men there fall down to
worship stocks and stones? And we congratulate
ourselves that a better faith prevails over the land
where we live ; and that we are removed, as we
fondly suppose, by thousands of miles, from any peo-
ple that so violates the plain precepts of God, of

[\pl*

288 Romanism and the Republic.

reason and of morality. But let us inquire a little
concerning paganism and idolatry, and we may be
compelled to confess that we are not so far removed
from it as we supposed.

Paganism, by thoughtful and philosophical writers,
is divided for discussion into three parts. You know
that the word Paganism means, originally, the people
who live outside cities ; for as the true faith of God
came to be known first in the great centers of popu-
lation, while the people outside of those centers still
adhered to their ancient superstitions, it came to pass
that those who dwelt outside were denominated
pagans, on account of their false worship. Paganism,
as false religion, is divided into three divisions.

First, we speak of fabulous paganism, or paganism
founded on story, and legend, and myth ; such as you
find scattered all through the early Roman, and Greek,
and Assyrian mythologies, and through all the nations
of the north. Strange, weird and marvellous stories
are made the object of the credulous faith of the
people. The second type of paganism is spoken of
as physical paganism ; that is seen among people who
have an idea of the great Ruler of the world, and yet
who think it impossible to approach the sovereign
God, and so imagine a great number of inferior gods
or demi-gods, who are characterized sometimes as
demons and spirits, and sometimes as mighty
men and heroes. This kind of paganism has
also prevailed in many quarters of the world at vari-
ous periods of history. The third type of paganism
is known to thinkers as political paganism ; that is to

J

Romanism and the Republic. 289

say, a form or system of idol worship, with elaborate
ceremonial liturgies and formulas, favored by the
rulers, and used to suppress the freedom of the peo-
ple, to attract their attention and to make them at
rest under various forms of tyranny. You know
that_Cicero and Seneca dicLnot belie-ve in the gods
of their time ; but they thought it a good thing for
the people that they should so believe : and so
they cultivated all the elaborate ritual of the early
Roman paganism, in order that the people might have
some sort of religion satisfying to their minds, closely,
linked to the state, ancLunder state control.

All history illustrates these various types of pagan
worship. And myths, mediators and ceremonials
are strikingly suggestive of the practices of a corrupt
and paganized Christianity. By idolatry we mean,
that exhibition or form of paganism in which the
object of worship is a graven image of some sort, or
a man, or a hero, or some animal, or something else
than the great and true God. The Egyptians were
idolators when they worshipped a great variety of
living creatures ; the Romans were idolators when
they sacrificed to the emperors ; the Greeks were
idolators when they adored the beautiful statues of
the Parthenon ; the African and the American Indian
are idolators when they roll up a little hair in a wad,
I called a fetich, and bow down to that as giving them
good luck and favorable fortunes.

In contrast with all these types of paganism, how
sharp the distinction is when compared with true
religion. The elements of the true Christian relig-

290

Romanism and the Republic.

ion seems to me to be these : first, a belief in the one
only true God, the father and creator of all things;
second, a belief in the general sinfulness of mankind
in their relations to God as the result of the violation
of His law ; third, a belief in the Mediator between
God and man, Jesus Christ, very God and very man.
who in the fulness of time was manifested for human
salvation ; fourth, repentance, and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, by which men come to be partakers of
His merit and grace ; and finally, to sum up as com-
pactly as possible our relations to man, the spirit of
love, of generosity and of humanity, with Christ as
that type of manhood which we are all to seok after
and imitate.

When you contrast this system of true religion
with paganism, how marked the antagonism. For,
instead of one God, the pagan believes in many gods ;
instead of one mediator, he believes in a great vari-
ety and number of mediators, who variously aflect
the supernal Power, and obtain favors for men.
Paganism not only believes in a variety of spiritual
mediators, but also believes in the mission of priests ;
who, as the priests of paganism, always had an
extraordinary power over the people, because those!
people supposed that all the favors which they coul
possibly obtain from Deity must be obtained throug!
the intervention of these priests. Moreover, pagan
ism always tends to a very elaborate and sensuous
ceremonial ritual, with a great, variety of sacrifice,
show, form and splendor. It burns incense; clothes
its images in gorgeous apparel ; and supposes that

t

O

Romanism and the Republic, 291

from those images, on certain festivals, special favors
can be obtained. Not only so, but paganism has
shrines which are counted especially holy, where
favors can be obtained for men. To these, pilgrim-
ages are made, when thousands of people move to the
sacred shrine, to get from it, as from the Delphic
oracle, some enlargement of knowledge concerning
divine things. Paganism, moreover, is always intol-
erant, fiercely so. The spirit of paganism cannot
t tolerate any other gods than the gods which they
/ themselves worship ; and therefore there have always/
been religious wars between pagan nations on account
of their mutual hatred of each other's religion. Not
only is paganism fiercely intolerant and inhuman in
its relations to mankind, but it is grossly immoral,
and always so. There is not an idolatrous worship
in the world, nor has there ever been one, that has
maintained a high standard of pure morality. And
this fact is a demonstration that the moral law is a
unit, inasmuch as those who are violators of the first
commandments are always disobedient to those that
follow. Not only is paganism grossly immoral, but
the ideals of manhood which are entertained by pagan
nations are invariably false. Sometimes their ideal
man is a cruel conqueror ; sometimes he is a hidden
ascetic ; sometimes he is a filthy fakir ; sometimes he
is one who subjects himself to self-immolation, and
who is able to endure torture like the American
Indian, stoically, and without a cry of suffering.

These are some of the features that mark paganism
and systems of idolatry. Now we suppose when we

292 Romanism and the Republic.

think of Romanism that it is a form of Christianity.
Before fully considering it, we naturally say that
Romanism is a part of the Christian Church. We
suppose that they accept the same God whom we
accept ; they worship the same Saviour in whom we
believe ; they cultivate the same morality that we
cultivate ; they advance the kingdom of Christ which
we seek to advance ; and they undertake to further
the same doctrines which we profess. To a degree,
it is true that a portion of the doctrines of the Roman
Catholic Church are Christian doctrines ; and it is
also true, that if we look at a few Biblical doctrines
Romanism may justly be called a Christian Church :
but is just as true that in Romanism error has been
so mingled with truth that while Rome does adhere
to some of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity,
it adheres to all the doctrines of paganism; and while
Rome on the one hand holds as truth not a few of
/ those things that are held by Protestant Christians,
I on the other hand it exhibits and developes every
feature that characterizes idolatrous systems and
pagan theologies.

Observe, if you please, that Romanism receives as
J the word of God, equal to the Gospels, the word of
the Pope, the canon law, the decrees of councils. Be-
sides the true God, they worship other beings, paying
them divine honors. They worship the Pope, the
mass ; they have their sacred shrines ; they burn their
incense ; they have their elaborate and sensuous
ceremonials ; they clothe their images with splendid
apparel. They have pilgrimages to special shrines,

Romanism and the Republic. 293

exactly as idolaters have always had. Moreover,
among their mediators they glorify the Virgin Mary,
las much or more than Christ. They depend for their
salvation not on Christ alone, but as truly on martyrs,
whom they petition, and to whom they appeal. They
worship images ; they worship them all the world
over, and believe that in the image itself there resides
some supernal power. A large number of their
images have been supposed to be able to work mira-
cles, as I shall hereafter show you. Not only this,
but their priests exercise the same extraordinary
sway over the people that was exercised by the pagan
priests in former times, and that is exercised to-day.
Those priests are mediators between God and man.
Men are dependent on them for forgiveness and
heaven ! They with the martyrs and saints, the
Virgin, the images and the mass, stand between God
and man, and hold the superstitious veneration of
millions of their deluded followers as being almost
more than human. But moreover : Romanism, like
Paganism, is fiercely intolerant. It visits all other
religions with anathema, with excommunication and
with curse, and has visited them from time to time
with the sword, with the Inquisition, and with the
vengeance of torture and death. Moreover, as I
showed you on last Sunday night, Romanism is
grossly immoral. It teaches immorality by its theo-
logians. It practices immorality by its Priests,
Bishops, Popes and Jaymen. It justifies immorality
by false reasoning ; and throughout all the world
where its teachings prevail, exhibits a standard of

294 Romanism and the Republic.

moral teaching which is closely allied to that of
paganism. Not only is Romanism immoral, but it is
inhuman in its conception of the ideal man. Popes,
Councils and Bishops have lauded what they call
I virginity or the unmarried state as far superior to holy
/marriage, while they have founded their innum-
erable houses of monks and nuns which have needed to
be reformed very many times by the laws of the
Church, on account of the vile immorality into which
they have plunged their votaries ; and while they
have done this, they have multiplied immorality in
practical life throughout all nations which they have
controlled ; so that to read the history of Roman
Catholic countries to-day is to read a history of
viciousness which brings a blush to every Christian's
cheek.
f While, therefore, Romanism, on one hand, has
/ some attributes of Christianity ; on the other hand it
has all the attributes of idolatry and paganism ; and
I shall show this evening, and on next Sunday even-
ing, if God spares us until that time, first, that the
Roman Catholic Church worships and indorses the
worship of images; second, that they worship the
mass, which is no more nor less in fact than an object
of adoration, asJ3ro.d : third, that they worship the
Pope, and call him God : again, that they worship
saints and martyrs, and entreat their interest at the
Throne of heavenly grace : in addition to this, they
believe in charms, and attribute to them supernatu-
ral powers. Relics, also, are objects of their wor-
ship. The idols of Rome are scarcely fewer than
the idols of India,

Romanism and the Republic. 295

Do you ask me why I bring this impeachment
against them? I answer, for the following reasons :
They demand the allegiance of us all. They
denounce against us the direst excommunication.
They remand all of us to perdition (thejrJPopes do,
some of their liberal clergy do not) ; for I have read
you from this pulpit the excommunication of all
heretics by the Pope. They denounce our schools
as godless, saying that they will make them godly by
teaching Romanism ; which in itself is a falsehood of
vast magnitude. And they are putting forth all their
energies to substitute on this continent, in the last
part of the 19th century, a system of religion as
foreign to the intelligence and piety of our people
as the system that prevails in India, or which
prevailed in Egypt, or in the Roman Empire at the
beginning of the Christian era. Therefore I resent
their claims ; therefore I call your attention to them ;
therefore I impeach their Christianity ; and therefore
I pray, that the day may never come when wre shall
have idolatry substituted for the pure word of God
and the fellowship of saints.

The Roman Catholic Church is idolatrous, wor-
shipping images and sanctioning their worship. That
is a startling charge, but listen to the proof.

In the first place, the Roman Catholic Church, in
many of its standard works, takes out of the Ten
Commandments the Second Commandment ; and in
order to make ten, divides up the tenth into ninth
and tenth. Here is their first attempt for the
justification of their idolatry, the suppression of the

296 Romanism and the Republic.

word of God, so that the plain command, "Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth ; thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them," — this commandment is
bodily rejected from the ten. I have here in my
hand a list of five of their catechisms in which this
has been done. Let me read. From Dr. Barnum's
"Romanism," p. 630, 1 read : " The Roman Catholic
Church sometimes suppresses the second command-
ment of the decalogue in its catechisms," etc. Of works
published in this country, "The (Catechism of the
Council of Trent," "The General Catechism of Chris-
tian Doctrine," prepared by order of the National
Council, "St. John's Manual," etc. , bring the first and
second commandment into the first, and divide the
tenth into the ninth and tenth. "Butler's Catechism," as
published in New York, gives the Ten Commandments
thus, word for word : "(1)1 am the Lord thy God :
thou shalt not have strange gods before me, etc.
(2) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain. [Here I omit what intervenes between
the 2nd and 9th.] (9) Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife. (10) Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's goods." "Collet's Doctrinal and Scriptural
Catechism " abridges the commandments still more :
giving the first, on page 277, as: "Thou shalt not
have strange gods before me," and then devoting
more than thirty pages to this command as thus given.
Yet on pp. 274 and 277, the copy of the command-

(

Romanism and the Republic. 297

merits as they are recorded in the Holy Scrip-
tures, Book of Exodus, chapter 20, gives the first as
above, with this in addition : " Thou shalt not make
to thee a graven thing : thou shalt not adore them
nor serve them." The Catechisms published in this
country are thus inconsistent in their citations of this
commandment. Those published in thoroughly
Roman Catholic countries probably omit more uni-
formly that part of the First Commandment which
we properly call the Second Commandment. The
Roman Catholic Church thus rends the Ten Com-
mandments, the basis of all moral law, in order that
they may not, with all their affrontery, stand up
defiantly and face the moral law as God gave it.

Pagans were wont to set up images in nearly all
places, as well as in all their temples. The Roman
Catholics also set up images in all places : from the
great fane of St. Peter's in Rome, down to the cross-
roads in Switzerland and Italy, you find everywhere
the images placed there by the Roman Catholic
Church. Images form a part of the stock-in-trade
of the religious furnishing-houses of that church,
Images made of zinc, of the Virgin and the Child, are
offered for sale at prices varying from $5 to $350.
As concerning these images, the pagans formerly sup-
posed that images (in some way, they knew not how,)
contained the disembodied spirits of those whose
image was worshipped. Romanism teaches exactly
the same doctrine. I have a book here which I have
not introduced to you before, written by the Right
Hon. Lord Robert Montagu, who was a member ot

298 Romanism and the Republic.

the Church of England, and who afterwards joined
the Roman Catholic Church. He remained in that
Church for a number of years, and at length left it
on account of its utter inadequacy to satisfy his soul,
and has given us the benefit of his great learning and
of his careful observation, in a work which is called
"The Sower and the Virgin ; " a work that is pub-
lished in England, but which I am so fortunate as to
have obtained. From this I will read (p. 162), to
prove to you that Romanists believe that spiritual
powers reside in their images : " Particular localities,
churches, or shrines, were held to be more frequented
by the saints than all other parts of the world, and
those places were therefore visited by thousands, who
came from vast distances to pray to those omniscient
and omnipresent saints. Moreover, images of those
saints, in accordance with the teachings of the Neo-
platonists, were supposed to contain their disem-
bodied spirits in some way, which rendered prayers
to images an efficacious way of obtaining the fulfil-
ment of one's desires. This was exactlv the doc-
trine of the pagan priests of antiquity. It was this
doctrine which gave sanctity and power to the images
of Jupiter, of Mercury and of Apollo. It was this
/ doctrine which lay at the root of the practice of
ignorant heathen, from the time of the primeval
Chamites of Africa to the Turanians of India in their
fetich worship. The bones of supposed martyrs, the
bits of the real cross, the blessed crucifixes that had
taken the place of the barsam, the amulets and talis-
mans and charms, which were supposed, in old times

^

Romanism, and the Republic. 299

to foretell the future, to repel evil spirits, and to
heal the diseases of body and mind."

The Eighth General Council commands the adora- h
tion of images. The fatuous superstition of that age
is perhaps more fitly illustrated by the third canon
of the Eighth General Council, which was held in
Constantinople, in 870 A. D. : "We decree that
the holy image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the libera-
tor and saviour of all men, shall be adored equally
with the Book of the Holy Gospels" (Remember,
this was the infallible Council laying down rlyorrmg
that are just as much believed in the Roman Catholic
Church as we believe the Bible) ; " for as by uttering
the syllables which are found written in that book
we all attain our eternal salvation, so also, by the
operation of the imagination on the colors of the
jmage, wc all, learned and unlearned, derive an
equal advantage. Every one, therefore, who does
not adore an image of ourJBavijour, shall not behoTT
jjimselt wnen he comes in his glory, to be glorified
with and to gIorify_jjdl his saints : but such an one shall
be debarred from all communion with him in his
glory. The same rule applies to the image of Mary,
his pure mother, and the mother of God : so it does
also to the images of the holy angels, and also to
images of the most praiseworthy apostles and. pro-
phets and martyrs and holy men, and to the images
of all the saints. We must honor and adore all those
images also. And if any one should omit to adore
them all, let him be anathema from the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit," (Montagu, p. 224.)

300 Romanism and the Republic.

Here you have the verbatim declaration of a
General Council, which makes the salvation of every
Romanist, and every other person, to depend on his
adoration, not only of images of Christ, but images
of the Virgin, and the apostles, and martyrs, and all
other images that are set up in their churches to
be worshipped.

St. Thomas Aquinas is one of the great saints of
the Roman Catholic Church ; and perhaps he deserves
his saintship quite as well as any of them, for it must
be said in truth, that many of the saints of the
Roman Catholic Church were chiefly distinguished
as sinners. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the
service rendered to the person ought to be also paid
to the image. I read on the 268th page of this book :
" Thomas Aquinas declares that the same service
j or worship has to be paid both to the person and to
the image of the person ; the same to an image of
Christ as to Christ himself; the same to Mary and to
an image of Mary ; the same to a saint and to an
image of the saint. As Christ must be worshipped
with supreme devotion, therefore an image of him
must always be adored with supreme devotion."
Further, Thomas Aquinas says, mentioning the
cross on which Christ was crucified : " We say that
a cross is to be worshipped with the worship due to
God ; and for this reason we supplicate a cross, and
we pray to a cross, as if Christ himself, hanging on
the cross, were before us ! "

Many and many a time, in foreign lands, have I
seen the poor people drop down in the presence of a

Romanism and the Republic. 301

cross by the road -side, or in a chapel, and embrace
it as though they held the feet of Christ himself; and
you remember, that in so doing, they are simply
following out the teaching of their most revered
theologians and their canonized saints.

They claim further, that images have the
power to work a variety of miracles. I might read
passages to you affirming this, and should be glad
to, if I had time. There is in Auvergne, in France,
an image called The Black Virgin, which is rever-
enced by the superstitious people as the very
Mother of God. This image is said to have per-
formed a variety of miracles. Moreover, there are
images that are said to roll their eyes, and other
images sweat blood on given occasions ; while other
images are able to heal the sick, and others to give
personal benefits of great value to such as frequent
their shrines. Some of these images have passed
under my own eye, among them the famous Bambino.
In the Church of the Aracoeli at Rome, at the
Capitol ine hill, there was formerly a bronze image
of a she-wolf that was worshipped by the old Roman
pagans. They have taken away the bronze image of
the she-wolf, and have put in its stead one of the
most hideous-looking wooden dolls that one ever
beheld. That Bambino (the word means baby) as
an object of worship, I have looked at, while hundreds
were thronging in and prostrating themselves before
it. It is most carefully guarded by the priests of that
Church, as containing miraculous power. More defer-
ence is paid to the gem-crusted, swathed, ugly, mod-

302 Romanism and the Republic.

I

ern image of Bambino Jesu, kept by the friars of the

church of Aracoeli, than to any other image of Christ
in Rome. It is supposed to work miracles, and
gems are offered from the sick whom it has healed.
It is taken in a splendid carriage, with servants in liv-
ery, to the sick person, and if when laid upon the
body it remains red in the face a cure will be effected ;
if it becomes pallid, the sick person will inevitably
die. Not only so, but they adorn their deities with
splendid dresses ; the Bambino is clothed royally,
and decorated with glittering gems. I have seen
images of the Virgin clothed in almost royal robes.
On her head crowns are placed sparkling with jewels,
and these robes and these crowns are to make more
life-like the images before which the superstitious
people bend in fervent and devout adoration. If the
day shall ever come when the shrines of Rome shall
be spoiled for the sake of getting back into the hands
of the impoverished people a part of the ill-gotten
wealth which has been lavished thereon, it will be
found that there will be an abundance of treasures
which now adorn images that are supposed to be
invested with supernatural power.

Charms are said to be wrought by little images, and J
/those charms are believed in exactly as the pagans/ . ,0/
| believed in theirs. "Just as Scylla, the dictator) \r
consulted a little Apollo hung around his neck,
(B.C. 68), so Pope Gregory XIV. (A. D. 1590) put
his trust in a figure of St. Philip Neri, by which
image he believed that his life was saved in an earth-
quake at Beneventum." (Hare's "Rome," vol. 2,
page 168.)

Romanism and the Republic. 303

And so that man, the head of the Roman Catholic
Church, arrogating to himself to be the vicar of
Christ, worshipped as a demigod, and even a god, by
his people, believed in charms ; exactly as the savage,
roaming the Western plains, believes in the little
bunch of hair that he carries about his neck !

Among the images that I must mention, in order to
give you a just idea of their prominence, let me
remark on that in St. Peter's, the image of Peter y^
himself. Under that grandest dome in the world, in a
church the splendor of which exceeds anything your
eyes ever rested on, unless you have seen that itself,
on a high pedestal, higher than my breast, stands
this bronze statue, larger than life, cast from the bronze
that was formerly in an old Roman statue, now made
to represent the apostle Peter. This also is clothed
with the Pope's robes, once in a year ; on its head is
placed the triple crown, and on its finger the ring of
the Pope ; and every day when that church is open,
(I think it is open every day in the year),
the thronging multitudes crowd about the image and
bow themselves down before it as if it were God.
The bronze statue of Peter is worshipped devoutly
by the peasants and lower population, who kneel long
on the marble floor before it ; then reverently approach
to kiss the worn toe, that records the millions of
kisses it has received. I saw a noble-looking priest,
robed in white, his head as white as his dress, rever-
ently approach this statue, carefully wipe the worn
toe, kiss it, and press his forehead against it ; kiss it a
second time with tokens of awe and reverence, and

304 Romanism and the Republic.

then retire as from the presence of a royal ruler.
In the Cathedral at Pisa is an old image of Mars, now
called St. Ephesus, and held in great veneration.

"At St. Paul's Church, in Rome, is venerated a
crucifix saved from the great fire of 1824, which
spoke to St. Bridget. These are but a few instances
from thousands of images worshipped."

What farther proof is needed that the Roman
Catholics are idolators by command of their councils ;
by the command and toleration of their popes ; by
the examples of their priests, and by the word of
' their greatest theologians? Do you say that they
only use these images for the sake of assisting devo-
tion, and that they really do not worship them? I
answer, that a friend of mine, who was a missionary
in India, conversing with the better class of natives,
asked : " Can it be that you worship these grotesque
images ? " And they answered : " Oh, no ; we do not
worship the image. The image assists our devotion ;
but we worship the great being that is suggested by
it." So said they, and we call them idolators ; but as
a matter of fact, we know that while the more intel-
ligent Hindoo or Roman Catholic may think of
diviner things than the statue, most of them pay
their devotion to the statue itself, and suppose that the
image has in it God ; just as much as the old Greek
supposed that Zeus, or Minerva, or Approdite,
or any other of their gods was present in the marble
statues with which they decorated Athens, and to
which they paid their vows. When these images
are alleged to work miracles, to laugh and cry, to

Romanism and the Republic. 305

roll their eyes upward ^nd downward, to sweat drops
of blood ; and when sometimes their perspiration is
is said to be so holy that the people almost trample
on each other to get closer in order that they may
apply their finger to the sacred moisture ; when these
things are occurring every day, how can we hesitate
to affirm that the Romish adorers of images are vio-
lating the fundamental law of God, and that they are
idolaters, just as much as any who ever lived on the
face of the earth.

I have not time, nor do I know as I have the dispo-
sition, to tell you how these images are made to
appear to work. Every intelligent person here
present knows that by various devices all this could
be done. However, for example, there was found
an image in South America which had great fame as
a sweating image. It was made of papier mache,
and a pipe connected the interior of it with a hot
water tank, from which the convenient liquid was
passed into the statue, to the wonder of the awe-
inspired crowd of worshippers.

And they worship also the "mass." You know
that Christian churches celebrate the Lord's supper
by the use of bread and wine. The Roman Catholics,
in celebrating the Lord's supper with very great cere-
mony, get out of the bread, or the wafer, which they
use at the mass (as they say in their catechism and
their theological works), the body and blood, the
spirit and divinity of Jesus Christ ; and when the
priest has performed over this piece of bread the
ceremonial of the mass, he bows down and worships

306 Romanism and the Republic.

it, as being truly and all divine ; and then lifts it up as
a sacrifice to God. Father Chiniquy says, that when
he was made a priest he believed that the making of
the bread of the mass into the body of Christ was a
greater miracle than that performed by Joshua when
he commanded the sun and moon to stand still ; and he
tells of the devout feelings with which he bowed him-
self when, for the first time, this divine thing was in
his hands. Pope Urban II. tells us, and I will read
his own words, that this bread is truly God and to be,
worshipped. (Montagu, page 231.) Pope Urban II.
who had sanctioned the indiscriminate murder of all
excommunicated persons, came to the Papal throne in
1088. While presiding over a council, he made the
following declaration, and all the members of the
council shouted "Amen" : " The hands of all priests
are exalted to an eminence denied to all angels ; for
priests create God, the Creator of the universe ; then
with their hands they offer him up for the sins of the
whole world." There is more similar to this that I
could read you, but this is sufficient.

Father Chiniquy tells us, that when he was in the
seminary of Nicolet in Canada, the Father-Superior was
wont to tell them the following story, to illustrate the
power of the priest : that once a French priest, con-
demned to death, while passing along the street,
performed the ceremony of the mass on every loaf
of bread that there was in the street ; so that, accord-
ing to the Father-Superior, every particle of that bread
was the very body and blood, spirit and divinity of
Christ. And he also told his students, that one priest

Romanism and the Republic. 307

had the power, if he chose, to turn every loaf of bread
in the universe into that same Divinity !

A friend of mine told me, ten years ago, that in
the city of Montreal he could remember the time
when a procession was passing, with the Host (that
is, with the sacred bread made into the body of God) ,
elevated in the midst of the procession ; and he said,
the people were expected to fall on their knees all
along that street as it passed. And when a Protest-
ant gentleman declined to fall down, he was struck
on the head a violent blow by one of the passers-by,
and was compelled by force to kneel. That was in
Canada within the past twenty years ; and it shows
how great their reverence is for this mass-worship.

In order to give you a clearer idea of this whole
matter, allow me to read from an author who quotes
Roman Catholics so fully that his words are more
emphatic and convincing than my own. I read from
Edgar's "Variations of Popery," p. 418 : "Transub-
stantiation varies from our ideas of matter and the
evidence of the senses, while it presents the absurd-
ity of creating the Creator, and the horror of canni-
balism in eating the Incarnate God ! This dogma
contradicts all our ideas of material substances. Mat-
ter it represents as divested of dimension, figure,
parts, impenetrability, motion, divisibility, exten-
sion, locality, or quantity. Length, breadth and
thickness, according to this theology, exist without
anything long, broad or thick. Substance remains
without accidents, and accidents without substance.
The same body is in many places at the same time.

308 Romanism and the Republic.

Jesus, at the same instant, is entire in heaven, on
earth, and on thousands of altars ; while millions of
bodies are but one body. The whole is equal to a
part, and a part equal to the whole. A whole human
body is compressed into the wafer, and remains en-
tire and undivided in each of ten thousand wafers.

"The person who can digest all these contradictions
must have an extraordinary capacity of faith — or
credulity.

"The Popish dogma also contradicts the infor-
mation conveyed by our senses.

"Sight, touch, taste, and smell declare flesh and
blood, if this theory be true, to be bread and wine.
No man can see, feel, taste or smell any difference be-
tween a consecrated and an unconsecrated wafer. The
senses, not merely of one, but of all men, even when
either the organ or medium is indisposed, are, ac-
cording to this theory, deceived, without any possi-
bility of detecting the fallacy. Many subjects, such
as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are beyond the
grasp of our bodily senses, and, indeed, of human
reason ; these are to be judged by the testimony of
revelation : but bread and wine are material, and level
with the view of our organs of perception. The
sacramental elements can be seen, smelled, touched
or tasted. Our external organs, say the friends of
transubstantiation, are in this institution deceived in
all men, at all times, and on all occasions.

"Cardinal Biel extends this power to all priests.
'He that created me,' says the Cardinal, 'gave me, if
it be lawful to tell, to create Himself!' His Holiness

Romanism and the Republic. 309

not only manufactures his own God, but transfers,
with the utmost freedom and facility, the same pre-
rogative to the whole priesthood. 'This power,' Biel
says, 'exalts the clergy not only above emperors and
angels ; but, which is a higher elevation, above Lady
Mary herself. Her ladyship,' says the Cardinal,
'once conceived the Son of God and the Redeemer of
the world ; while the priest daily calls into existence
the same Deity. These creators of God, therefore,
excel the Mother of God.' The Popish clergy, as
they make, so they eat their God, and transfer him to
be devoured by others. The Papist adores the God \
whom he eats, and eats the God whom he adores.
This divinity is tasted, masticated and swallowed,
and, accidents excepted, digested. The eating of the
sacramental elements, if transubstantiation be true,
makes the communicant the rankest cannibal. He
rivals the polite Indian, who eats the quivering limbs
and drinks the flowing blood of the enemy. The
Papist even exceeds the Indian in grossness. The
cannibals of America and New Zealand swallow only
the mangled remains of an enemy, and would shud-
der at the idea of devouring any other human flesh ;
but the partizans of Romanism glut themselves with
the flesh and blood of a friend. The Indian only eats
the dead ; while the papist, with more shocking fero-
city, devours the living. The Indian eats man of
mortal mould on earth ; the Papist eats God-man as
he exists exalted, immortal and glorious in the heav-
ens. The Egyptians worshipped sheep, oxen, garlic,
onions ; but even these deluded votaries of idolatry

310 Romanism and the Republic.

and superstition abstained from eating the objects of
their adoration. The believer in the corporeal pres-
ence, at once worships and swallows, adores and
devours his deity. Saturn, according to pagan myth-
ology, devoured his own offspring. Jesus, accord-
ing to the Popish theology, swallowed his own flesh.
He ate the sacred bread and drank the hallowed wine
which he administered to the Apostles. Such are
the horrors which follow in the train of this ab-
surdity.

"This is the light in which the corporeal presence
has been held, not only by Protestants, but also by
Jews, Mahometans and heathens. ' Christians,' said
Crotus the Jew, 'eat their God.' 'I have travelled
over the world,' said Averoes, the Arabian philoso-
pher, 'and seen many people ; but none so sottish and
ridiculous as Christians, who devour the God whom
they worship.' Cicero entertained a similar opinion.
'Whom,' says the Roman orator, 'do you think so
demented as to believe what he eats to be God?'
Roman philosophy shames Romish theology ; tran-
substantiation accepts the Popish deity to be de-
voured not only by man, but also by the irrational
animals. This divinity may yield a rich repast to
mice, rats, vermin, worms, and every reptile that
crawls on the earth. ' The smallest mouse,' says Ber-
nard, 'sometimes gnaws the species of the bread.'"

Did you ever hear anything more absurd ? I think
not. Would it not be a more reasonable and sensi-
ble kind of idolatry for one to carve a little image
with his own hands, as was so felicitously and so

u

Romanism and the Republic. 311

ridiculously deseribed by Isaiah the prophet in onr
Scripture lesson : burn a part of it to get one's dinner,
and save the little image as the object of one's wor-
ship? And yet this idolatry of the ''mass" is per-
formed every Lord's Day once, twice, or thrice, in
every Roman Catholic Church in this city, and the
people are all taught just exactly this !

I have one more point to sustain, just before I
close, and as you have heard me so kindly hereto-
fore, I will now bring that to your attention.

Not only do the Roman Catholics worship
the "mass," but they worship the Pope as God ; they
call him God. "The sainted Bernard affirms, that no
one, except God, is like the Pope, either in heaven or
on earth. The name and the works of God have
been appropriated to the Pope by theologians, can- \/P
onists, popes and councils. Gratian, Pithou, Du-la^j-
ram, Jacobatius, Musso, Gibert, Gregory, Nicholas,
Innocent, the Canon Law, and the Lateran Council
have complimented His Holiness with the name of
Deity, or bestowed on him the Vicegerency of Hea-
ven. On the authority of the Canon Law, they style
the pontiff the Almighty's vicegerent, who occupies
the place not of a mere man, but of the true God. Vy<*
According to Gregory II., 'the whole Western nations
reckoned Peter a terrestrial God,' and the Roman
pontiff of course succeeds to the title and estate.
/♦The Emperor Constantine,' says Nicholas I., 'con-
ferred the title of God on the Pope. He, therefore,
being God, cannot be judged by man.' According
to Pope Innocent III., the Pope holds the place of

312 Romanism and the Republic.

the true God. The Canon Law, in the gloss, denomi-
nates the Roman hierarch 'Our Lord God.' Mar-
cellus, in the Lateran Council and with its full appro-
bation, called Julius, 'God on earth.' This was the act
of the General Council, and therefore, in the Papacy,
counted as the decision of infallibility." (Edgar, p.
157.)
>^Sj Pope Sixtus IV. placed on a triumphal arch,
erected on the bridge of St. Angelo, an inscription in
which he calls himself God. On page 331 of this
book of Montagu I find the following statement of
that fact : After having given us some Latin concern-
ing what the Pope did that I dare not translate in
this presence, he says: "He set himself up as a
god. On the triumphal arch, erected to his honor
by his creatures, on the bridge of St. Angelo in
Rome, these lines were inscribed : —

'Thy words an oracle which all obey :
That thou art God on earth we truly say.'

This horrible man hired assassins to kill the Prince
de Medici while at mass, and the elevation of the
host was the preconcerted signal for the murderers to
strike with their poniards. He, moreover, enriched
himself by imposing a tax on the inhabitants of
brothels ; and to increase his exchequer he encour-
aged their multiplication ; so that, at last, Rome
was said to be one vast brothel — a veritable
mother of harlots." And yet, at this day, not one
of all the Romish theologians, priests, bishops or
Popes, dares to deny infallibility to this man ; and
he is canonized as infallible, like God himself.

Romanism and the Republic. 313

If you have never heard of blasphemy, if you
have never heard of idolatry, of paganism, in its
lowest, most abominable and accursed form before,

/ you have heard it to-night, from Romish Popes and
theologians. The works and attributes of God are
attributed to the Pope. "The works as well as the

/ name of God have been ascribed to the Pope, by In-
nocent, Jacobatius, Durand, Detius, Lanier, the
Canon Law and the Lateran Council. 'The Pope
and the Lord,' in the statement of Innocent, Jacoba-
tius and Detius, 'form the same tribunal ; so that, sin
excepted, the Pope can do nearly all that God can
do.' Jacobatius, in his modesty, uses the qualifying
expression 'nearly,' which Detius, with more effron-
tery, rejects as unnecessary. 'The pontiff,' says
Jacobatius and Durand, 'possesses a plenitude of
power, and none dare say to him, any more than to
God, 'Lord, what doest thou?' He can change the
nature of things, and make nothing out of something,
and something out of nothing.' The same is found,
in all its absurdity, in the Canon Law, which attri-
butes to the Pope the irresponsibility of the Creator,
'the divine power of performing the works of God,
and making something out of nothing.' The Pope,
according to Lanier, at the Council of Trent, has 'the
power of dispensing with all laws, and the same
authority as the Lord.' An Archbishop, in the Lat-
eran Synod, called Julius, 'Prince of the world;' and
another orator styled Leo, 'The possessor of all power
in heaven and on earth, to preside over all countries
pf the globe.' This blasphemy, the holy, unerring

/

314 Romanism and the Republic.

Roman Council heard without any disapprobation,
. and the pontiff with unmingled complacency. Some
1/ / of the Popes,' says Coquille, 'have allowed them-
l selves to be called omnipotent.' Others make the
Pope superior to God. According to Cardinal Zaba-
rella, 'The pontiffs, in their arrogance, assume the
/ accomplishment of all they please, even unlawful
things ; and thus raise their power above the Lord
God.' The Canon Law declares that 'The Pope, in
the plenitude of his power, is above God, can
i change the substantial nature of things, and transfer
\ unlawful into lawful.' Bellarmine's statement is of a
similar kind. The Cardinal affirms that the Pope can
transubstantiate sin into duty, and duty into sin.
'He can,' says the Canon Law, 'dispense with right.'
Stephen, Archbishop of Petraca, declared in the
/Council of the Lateran, that Leo 'possessed power
/ above all powers, both in heaven and in earth.' This
brazen blasphemy passed in a General Council, and is,
therefore, stamped with the seal of Roman infalli-
bility." (Edgar's "Variations," Chap. IV.)

I am going to close my sermon to-night with a
little revelation made by a Roman Catholic saint.
This Romish saint was a woman, and her name was
Bridget. There are a great many Roman Catholic
saints of that name, I suppose; but not all of
them are deserving of the canonization which this
Saint Bridget got. She was said to be an inspired
woman. She said a great many things, about the
year 1360, that caused her to be consecrated a saint
in the Roman Catholic Church. Some of the things

f

Romanism and the Republic. 315

she said I cannot agree with ; but the following I think
I can agree with fully. Saint Bridget says: "The
Pope is a murderer of souls. He destroys the flock
of Christ, and fleeces it. More savage is he than
Judas, and more unjust than Pilate, and worse and
more wicked than Lucifer. He has exchanged all
the ten commandments of God for this single one of
his own : 'Give me money, money, money !' "(I think
St. Bridget had it right.) "The Pope, with his clergy,
/ are the forerunners of anti-Christ, rather than the
\ servants of Christ. The Pope's court on earth plun-
ders the heavenly court of Christ. The clergy never
read the Book of God ; but they are ever studying
the book of the world. For them the wisdom of
God is reputed to be but folly, and the salvation of

souls a mere fable." She adds: "I once loved

_

priests more than men and even angels, but now they
disgust me more than all the Jews and Gentiles, and
all the devils, too. The kiss of peace of those forni-
cating priests is the kiss of Judas when he betrayed
our Lord." (Those were awkward words for a saint
and prophetess to have used.) Cardinal Cajetan
tried to escape from it, by observing that Bridget was
canonized during the great schism of the West, when
there was no undoubted Pope, that is, no Pope
at all, according to the maxim, 'A doubtful Pope is
no Pope.' The Jesuit Cardinal Bellarmine tells us,
that the Pope's canonizations are doubtful and sub-
ject to error. Perhaps that was the reason why
Pius V., who bribed Ridolfi to assassinate Queen
Elizabeth, was canonized. But here again we get

316 Romanism and the Republic.

into difficulty. The Pope's canonizations are sub-
ject to error; but Cardinal Manning, in his "True
Story of the Vatican Council," p. 89, positively asserts
that the canonization of saints comes under the head
of "faith and morals ;" in all which cases the Pope's
judgment is infallible, they say. Putting the two
Cardinals together, we get this result : The Pope's
infallibility is fallible and subject to error. To make
matters worse, Cardinal Newman, in his preface of
1887 to his "Via Media," p. 84, says of canonization,
' The infallibility of the Church must certainly extend
to this solemn and public act, canonization ; and that
because on so serious a matter, affecting the worship
of the faithful, . . . the Church, that is, the Pope,
must be infallible.'

"So then, the canonization of Bridget was infallible,

/ and her revelations were authentic and true ; and,

therefore, it follows, that the Pope is a murderer,

and more savage than Judas, and more unjust than

1 Pilate, and that he has exchanged all God's Ten
Commandments for this one of his own — 'Give me
money, money, money.'" ( Montagu, pp. 305-6. )
I am glad St. Bridget was canonized. There are
some Romish saints in whom I believe, and St. Bridget
in just so far, is one of them. Thus by Rome, truth
is mingled with contradictions, follies, irrationalities,
absurdities, things ridiculous, contemptible, disgust-
ing and disgraceful. And this is the religion that is
to be taught in "godly" schools! and this is what
we are to have substituted for the " godlessness" of
New England education ! !

Sermon X3L

SHALL ROMANISM TEACH A PAGAN .MORALITY TO
AMERICAN YOUTH ?

You will find our text exactly where you found it
last Sabbath evening, the first three of the Ten
Commandments, in the Book of Exodus, the tenth
chapter :

" Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

" Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thy-
self to them, nor serve them ; for I, the Lord, thy
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy
unto thousands of them that love me and keep my
commandments.

" Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guilt-
less that taketh his name in vain."

The pagan idolators, of whom we spoke on last
Sabbath evening, added to the list of their gods who
represented men, goddesses also, or women gods ; so
that every idolatrous cult in the world has female

318 Romanism and the Republic.

divinities, as well as male. The Egyptians had Isis,
as well as Osiris ; the Phoenicians Astarte, or Ash-
taroth, as well as Baal ; the Greeks, Hera, as well as
Zeus ; the Romans, Juno, as well as Jupiter. They
had many other female gods besides these chiefest
ones that I have named, too many to mention. The
Romans, who in the great city of Rome had the seat
of their empire' and their most splendid temples,
worshipped not only Juno, but Venus, Fortuna,
Ceres and many others, who received almost equal
adoration with the first named. The descriptive
names by which these goddesses were called, were
almost the same in all lands. The various peoples
spoke of them as " Queen of Heaven," " the mother
of gods," or "mother of God," "the mediatrix
between God and man." They characterized them
as "defenders," "protector," "solicitor" or "plead-
ers" for human welfare.

On the very ground where the goddesses were wor-
shipped, and before the people had forgotten the
forms of idolatry that were so persistent in their
national history, there sprang up a corrupt form of
Christianity, that put in place of these goddesses,
especially the chiefest of them, a wholly imaginary
being, suggested by a historical character, unlike all
the creatures of her sex, and having the idolatrous
names that were applied to the old heathen god-
desses, under the primary name of The Virgin Mary.
She, too, is called by her worshippers the " Queen
of heaven," as was the Phoenician Astarte ; she is
called the " mother of God," as was the Egyptian

Romanism and the Republic. 319

Isis ; she is known as the mediatrix between God,
the great God, and men," as was Fortuna, the god
dess of fortune ; she is addressed as the mother of
love, as was Venus of the Romans, and the Aphro-
dite of the Greeks. The ordinary Protestant, little
informed of the worship of the Virgin Mary, who is
known by all these names, can hardly conceive of
the prominence that she has in the Romish ritual.
To her they offer prayer, adoration and devotion ; to
her they erect the most splendid of their churches
and temples of worship ; to her they consecrate their
most sacred shrines ; to her they raise the most
costly and splendid images, which images they adorn
with richest and almost royal apparel ; the prayers
to her are the most popular in the Romish Church ;
the " Rosary of Mary," as it is called, is their favorite
act of devotion. And they so fill the horizon of the
Romish mind with Mary, that after you have trav-
elled in Roman Catholic countries, as I have done,
you come to the inevitable conclusion that Mary has
a very much larger place in the thought of a Roman
Catholic than is given to Jesus Christ.

The Protestant mind, accustomed to a generous
sentiment toward all religions, (for tolerance is the
law of Protestantism), is accustomed to regard the
worship of The Virgin Mary in a somewhat esthetic
and sentimental light. We are wont to say, that to /
| bring into the barbarous times of the early ages the '
idea of a woman, pure, good and elevated, who
should take the place of the cruel gods, the thoughts
of whom debased the minds of the people, was a very

320 Romanism and the Republic.

happy idea, and must have exerted a softening,
genial, and gracious influence upon the minds of
those who were taught thus to reverence and adore
her.

This kindly sentiment toward Romish idolatry
is not warranted by the facts of history. For
the worsnlp of the goddesses of the pagans was
always attended with the worst obscenity, the
utmost vice, and the most abominable rites. There is
nothing in the worship of the man-gods of the Egyp-
tian, Phoenician, Grecian or Roman that can be com-
pared for abominableness with the worship of their
woman gods : and while sentiment may suggest to
you that the elevation of a woman to the high plat-
form which The Virgin Mary is occupying in the
Roman Catholic Church, may have a happy and
tender effect upon the popular mind, you must
remember that history is against you ; and while
Protestantism teaches us to cherish the most elevated
sentiment toward noble and pure womanhood,
woman worship has always been the fruitful source
of the greatest abominations that ever afflicted the
i world. Montague says, that Mariolatry, in the Roman
\ Church, has always flourished most in times of the
greatest immorality and wickedness. When, there-
fore, The Virgin Mary (not the real virgin of the
Holy Scriptures, not the maid of Nazareth who wel-
comed the message of her Lord, andwho, with human
infirmity and frailty, herself doubted the Messiah-
ship of her Son, and afterward finished her life in
quiet with John, (the beloved apostle as we suppose) —

Romanism and the Republic . 321

when the Virgin Mary of Roman Catholic worship,
who is made up of myth and legend, imagination and
superstition unwarranted by history, is elevated to
divinity in the minds of Roman Catholics, there are
very many things expressed and implied connected
with her worship that have the flavor of idolatry in
its worst forms.

Among the nameable things, they say of her that
she was immaculate in her conception ; that is to say,
that she had no taint of original sin when she was
born of her mother. They say also, that she was
perpetually a virgin ; that she had no other children
than Jesus Christ ; although the Bible says differently.
They say, that she was carried up to heaven without
going through the process of death and decay as we
go through it, and glorify in art this alleged " Assump-
tion of the Virgin." The immaculate conception ot
the Virgin Mary, which takes her out of the ranks of
those tainted with original sin, is a dogma of the
Roman Catholic Church, which they must believe
under penalty of loss of salvation. /

On the eighth day of December, 1854, Pope Pius
IX. sat under the dome of St. Peter's, with a triple
crown, blazing with jewels, on his head, and with the
splendid apparel of the Pope upon his shoulders.
Around him knelt five hundred prelates and digni-
taries of the church ; before him were ten thousand
of the faithful ; and in the great square outside fully
forty thousand more. As they solemnly waited in
this presence, a cardinal arose, and advancing toward
the Pope, said slowly : " Father, tell us if we shall

I

322 Romanism and the Republic.

believe and teach that The Virgin Mary was immacu-
late in her conception ; " and the Pope solemnly
answered, "We do not know. Let us inquire of
the Holy Spirit." And all joined to sing, " Come,
Holy Spirit." Then the cardinal again arose, and
advancing as before, asked the same question, and
the Pope answered: " We do not know now. Let
us ask the Holy Spirit." And once more the assem-
bled thousands sang, " Come, Holy Spirit." When
for the third time, in all the pomp and magnificence of
ceremony, the cardinal advanced, the Pope answered
to the question, " Shall we believe and teach that The
Virgin Mary was immaculate in her conception?"
" Yes, Yes. The Virgin Mary was immaculate in
her conception. So believe and teach. There is no
salvation to those who deny this teaching." And
it was then proclaimed a dogma of the Church.

So, in contradiction of the opinions of many
of the most distinguished fathers of the Church,
after long years of effort on the part of the
most superstitious wing, contrary to sound reason,
contrary to truth, and in contradiction of the
claim of the Church which says it never
changes, in the year 1854 was made a new
dogma, which thousands of Roman Catholics do not
believe, but which they were told they must believe
on pain of the displeasure of the Church and the

(penalties which are inflicted on heresy.
I proceed now to show you that The Virgin Mary
is a veritable idol goddess, in the worship of the
Roman Catholic Church ; Gut as I pass, I wish to vin-

Romanism, and the Republic. 323

dicate in a few words the authorities that I shall
quote. The only embarrassment which I meet, is the
abundance of authorities and the fulness of their testi-
mony. Every night when I have spoken to you, the
time has expired before I could give you all that I
had selected bearing on the subject under discussion.
But some have said to me, That certain Roman Cath-
olics deny that the authorities which you bring for-
word are truthful in their statements. For instance,
when you bring forward St. Liguori, they say, either
that he did not say this ; or else, that St. Liguori has
no authority. You remember that this distinguished
saint is the one from whom I read so freely in regard
to theft, lying, and sundry other things, a few
nights since. I think I fully vindicate his right to
speak for the Roman Catholic Church, by the fact
that the Sacred Congregation of Rites, of Rome, after
twenty years' examination of the works of St.
Liguori, said, that there was M not one word in all his
writings that could justly be found fault with."
In 1852, an edition of the " Glories of Mary," by St.
Liguori, appeared with the sanction of Cardinal
Wiseman of England, and the eminent Cardinal
Manning, in 1868, spoke in the highest terms of
approval of this authority.

The kind of testimony that I bring to you here is
the kind of testimony that I think would stand before
a jury ; and if Roman Catholics, or any others, deny
or seriously doubt it, I will meet them with the fol-
lowing proposition : Let us enlarge this jury until it
numbers two thousand people. The Roman Catholics

324 Romanism and the Republic.

shall select one thousand, and I will select one
thousand, under mutually fair conditions. I will meet
any priest of Rome of the city of Worcester, or from
any other part of the country, on the public platform,
in Mechanics Hall. I will present the authorities
for sustaining every proposition which I have made
here. If they can refute them, or show that they are
unreliable, I will withdraw them, provided that they
on their part agree, that if I can substantiate my
statements by full proof, they will accept theifi, and
confess error.

I have stated on this platform at least a hundred
propositions. I began by stating", concerning the
Jesuits, what they were, and what they do. I am
prepared to make good all that I have stated. In
my third discourse, I said that the Pope was the
enemy of civil and religious freedom, and substan-
tiated that by various testimonies. I am prepared to
bring forward those theses and stand by them until
they are refuted. I then set forth in at least twenty
particulars that Romanism was contrary to the Con-
stitution and the laws of the United States. I do
not retract one word of that argument, and am Avill-
ing to have any representative of the Roman Catholic
Church take up these statements before a selected
audience for the purpose of fairly refuting the argu-
ment. I then, in three sermons, set forth that the
purpose of Romanism was to destroy our public
schools. Those sermons stand unimpeached, until
they can be contradicted by something more than the
round assertion that my statements are not true.

Romanism and the Republic. 325

And what I say about the paganism of Home I am
prepared also to vindicate, by adducing still more
copious proofs, in any presence, whether before a con-
gregation of Worcester, or the just bar of the eternal
God. Let no man therefore say that the authorities
which I quote are not reliable, unless he knows it;
and if he knows it, let him so say it that I may have
the benefit of his proofs. For I say to you, my
friends, here to-night, that mere victory in an intel-
lectual struggle has never been dear to me. Truth
is more precious than rubies ; the triumph of truth
is all that I seek. If I have it not, let me have it ;
and if I have it, let no man wrest it from me.
Truth, truth I want ! Not arrogance, not presump-
tion, not pretence, not false history, not round
denial ! Truth let us have ; and if that truth cuts
away the foundation of Protestantism, let us thereby
get nearer to the Rock of Ages ; if it demolishes the
pretences of Romanism and sinks the system, let us
man the life-boat to save every man of them, by hold-
j ing out the truth of God.

\/ And now, in harmony with this purpose, I proceed
/to show that the worship of the Virgin Mary in the
Romish Church is idolatrous ; that she is really wor-
shipped as a divine being with divine attributes,
according to the consent and statements of Popes, of
cardinals, of saints, and of doctors of theology.

I. My first proposition is, that they consider and
call The Virgin Mary divine, giving her the attri-
butes of Jehovah. Pardon me if I read the proofs.
I wish I were a better reader, but you are such good

326 Romanism and the Republic.

listeners that it takes away the half of my embarrass-
ment.

1. Divine powers, and powers above divine, are
accorded to Mary. St. Bernardinus Senensis offers
to us the following, in one of his sermons, (and a
saint becomes a saint because he receives the sanc-
tion of the Roman Catholic Church) : " In order to
become the mother of God, the blessed Virgin Mary
had to be raised to an equality with the Trinity, so to
speak, by being made infinite in perfections and
graces, an equality which no creature ever obtained.
He who was himself God, served, and was subject to
His mother on earth. Yes, this is true. All things
are subject to the empire of the Virgin ; even God
Himself is subject to her." Proceeding further, he
says : "The blessed Virgin, all alone, did more for
God, or at least as much, so to speak, as God did for
the whole human race. Rendering, then, to each their
due, (that is to say, what God did for man, and
what the blessed Virgin Mary did for God,) you will
perceive that Mary did more for God than God did
for man." Again he says : " There is no grace comes

from heaven to us, unless The Virgin Mary dis-
penses it to us. For this office she, and she alone,
obtained of God from all eternity ; as is testified by
Proverbs 8 : 23 : 'I was set up from everlasting ; '
that is, as the dispenser of all heavenly gifts."

2. It is also distinctly stated by authorities of
the Church that The Virgin Mary is omnipotent ;
where it is said : ' • The most blessed Virgin is the
Empress, because she is the wife of the eternal

u

Romanism and the Republic. 327

Emperor, of whom it was said 4 He that hath the
Bride is the Bridegroom.'" Further: " Since the
blessed Virgin is the mother of God, and God is her
son ; and since every son is by nature inferior to his
mother, and is her subject, and the mother has the
pre-eminence and is superior to and above her son ;
it follows that the blessed Virgin is superior to and
above God, and God is her subject, because of the
humanity which He derived from her." This was
Bernardinus de Bustis, who flourished about the year
1480, and who was a Franciscan monk.

3. The Virgin Mary is said to be possessed of
infinite power. It certainly was a great privilege
and most singular grace that was conferred upon her,
they say : while Laurentius Chrysogonus and a mod-
ern saint and doctor of the Roman Church (the
places in their works are given) say the following :
"To the most holy Virgin all things are possible,
because of the most high dignity of her Divine
maternity, which brought her an infinite power and
empire in the things of all the world." This is con-
tinued and amplified ; but the expression "infinite
power " fully vindicates my statement that they
accredit her with infinite power.

4. They, in so many words, declare that she is
eternal ; as, for instance, when it is said by St. Sabas
the abbot : " O, virgin-mother of God ; of thee alone
it has been proved to the world that thou wast pure

from all eternity.''' And this is very much like an
Orphic ode from the heathen poets to heathen divin-
ities, and reminds the classical scholar of such.

328 Romanism and the Republic

They pay to her divine honors, and think her worthy
of those honors. This I shall also so amply prove in
further quotations, that several quotations I had
intended here to employ I will omit.

5. She is called the "lamb of God," as I will
read to you now. Georgius, the Archbishop of
Nicomedia, is quoted by Zoller, a Eoman Catholic
historian of the whole doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception, as saying, in the passage which the Arch-
bishop addresses to the Virgin Mary : " 0 immacu-
late Lamb, who wast taken up to the feast of angels,
and fed with angels' food : O immaculate Lamb,
victim acceptable to God, who wast offered in God's
temple, and from whom was born that Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world : O Lamb
verily immaculate, more pleasing than every sacri-
fice, who wast sacrificed to the Creator, not as an
offering rendered acceptable by God, but as accept-
able through the excellence of her purity."

6. She is also called the wife of Christ. This
passage I will read from one of the saints already
quoted, St. Sabas, the abbot, and this is only one of
many passages teaching us the same : " From thee,
Mary, Christ's only parent, did thy husband come

forth — thou most pure lily, growing amid thorns
and thistles."

7. She is said to be married to God the Father.
You will see in a moment that all these are only repro-
ductions of the old heathen fables. A Cardinal of
the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Hostiensis says :
" There is a state of marriage existing between God

Romanism and the Republic. 329

and the blessed Virgin Mary," (and the Latin phrase
is given here that he uses) ; " wherefore it is
said : Lo ! thou art fair, my love ; behold thou
art fair ; thou hast dove's eyes ! " As though the
Father God ever said this to the Virgin Mary !
"The Angel Gabriel was sent," says Cardinal Hos-
tiensis ; "then the contract was made between
the parties by the words : ' Thou hast found favor
with the Lord,'" and so on.

Now if you compare this with ancient myths you
will find in it a very remarkable likeness to them.
The Egyptian God Khem, was called Kuh-mut, the
husband of his mother. That is identical with what
is said about Christ and the Virgin Mary. The
youngest Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis (brother
and sister) , and he too was husband of his mother.
In Rome, it was Fortuna and Jupiter. So concerning
Janus, he was both the son and husband of Cybele.
In Asia, it was Cybele and Deioius. In Greece,
Cybele was called Ceres, the great mother ; also
Domina, or Our Lady ; and she was represented
holding a babe. In India, we find the mother and
child as Isi or Parvati and Iswara. We also find
that Astarte, the Phoenician goddess, was said to be
the wife of her son. Yet again, the same strange
and awful blasphemous statement is made, that Mary
is the wife of God the Father !

8. She is also called the sole mediatrix ; that is,
the one standing between God and man, by whom all
favors can come to this world. Let me read to you
the exact language. In St. Bonaventura's writings it

330 Romanism and the Republic.

is said : " O, our Empress" (this is in a work called
the " Crown of the Virgin Mary ") , " and Lady most
benign, by thy maternal rights, command thy most
beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to vouchsafe to
turn our minds from the love of earthly things, and
direct them to heavenly thoughts. Since the blessed
Virgin is the advocate for sinners, the glory and
crown of the righteous, the wife of God, and the
couch of the whole Trinity to lie upon, and the
most beautiful bed for the Son to prostrate himself
upon, therefore sin had no place in her."

Then St. Bonaventura, in order to carry out this idea
of the divineness of the Virgin, made a paraphrase
on the Psalms of David, in which he puts her name
in place of the Divine name in every case, and thus
lauds and magnifies her as God, travestying the
Holy Scriptures in order to express the same. It
will sound strange to you to hear the Sacred Word so
read ; but let us hear it. The language was used in
the " Psalter of The Virgin Mary," and received the
sanction of the Pope. In Psalm 109, for instance :
" The Lord said to our Lady : Come and sit, My
mother, on My right hand, until I make thy foes thy
footstool." Psalm I: "Blessed is the man who
loveth thy name, Virgin Mary." Psalm II :
" Come unto her, all ye who labor and are heavy
laden, and she will give rest and comfort unto
your souls. Come unto her, when in tribulation,
and the light of her countenance will establish you."
Psalm III: "Our Lady! how are they increased
that trouble me. But thou art a shield for me ;

Romanism and the Republic. 331

with thy power thou shalt pursue and scatter them.
Have mercy upon me, O our Lady, and heal thou
my sickness." Psalm XXX : " Into thy hands, O
our Lady, do I commend my spirit."

Reading thus from this blasphemous perversion of
God's word, I might go on and give passage after
passage, taken from that Psalmody, by which the Vir-
gin Mary is elevated by this Roman Catholic saint to
the place of the Lord God. They even corrupt the
wonderful Te Deum which we sometimes sing. In
the Paris edition of 1852, you find the following as
standing for the Te Deum, in place of the familiar be-
ginning : "We praise Thee, O God ; we acknowledge
Thee to be the Lord ; " " We praise thee, O Mary,
we acknowledge thee to be the Virgin. All the
earth doth worship thee, the wife of the Eternal.
To thee all creatures continually do cry : Holy, holy,
holy, Mary, mother of God, mother and virgin. The
glorious company of the apostles praise thee, as the
mother of their Creator." The Litany also is adapted
in the same way.

Did you know that these were the sentiments of
saints, popes and divines of the Roman Catholic
Church ? Have you thought that we were surrounded
by idolatry identical with the worship of the ancient
heathen goddesses ? Had you supposed that these
unfortunate worshipers were so under the bond-
age of Papal superstition that they were standing
1900 years behind this age, in the dark of super-
stition, and calling on a human creature, deified as
. the ancient pagans deified their heroes and heroines,

332 Romanism and the Republic.

as though she were God, attributing to her divine
names and functions, making her the equal of the
whole Trinity ; saying that her power is infinite, that
she is eternal, and that she is the sole sacrifice for
human sin, and the veritable lamb of God? And
yet, this is all taken from Roman Catholic authorities,
and has been indorsed, and never protested against,
by this infallible church !

II. Mary is worshipped as God; not only called
divine, but worshipped as God ; having not only the
name of God, but the adoration due to God. Now
we know that there is a magical charm, to the Eng-
lish-speaking peoples, in the name of John Henry
Newman — the Cardinal Newman who left the Ensr-
lish Church, and was honored for his apostacy by
the Roman Catholic Church with the cardinalate.

1 . Cardinal Newman, unfortunately plunging him-
self into this abyss of superstiition, uses the follow-
ing language concerning the Virgin Mary : "There
was a wonder in heaven." "A throne was seen, far
above all created powers, mediatory, intercessory; a
title archetypal ; a crown bright as the morning star ;
a glory issuing from the eternal Throne ; robes pure
as the heavens; and a sceptre overall. And who
was the predestined heir of that majesty? Who was
that wisdom, and what was her name? 'The mother
of fair love, and fear, and holy hope,' 'exalted like a
palm tree in Engaddi, and a rose plant in Jericho ;'
'created from the beginning,' in God's counsel ; and
'in Jerusalem was her power?' The vision is found
in the Apocalypse : a woman clothed with the sun,

Romanism and the Republic. 333

and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a
crown of twelve stars. The votaries of Mary do not
exceed the true faith, unless the blasphemers of her
Son come up to it. The Church of Rome is not
idolatrous, unless Arianism is Orthodoxy ! ! "

Thus speaks the chief dignitary of the Romish
Church in Great Britain, in his " Essay on Develop-
ment." And this he says after such a panegyric upon
the Maid of Nazareth, who, if she were alive and here
iu our midst, would deprecate his idolatry as much
as any one of us can.

There was an attempt made by some of the Rom-
ish writers to assume that the worship paid to the
Virgin Mary was different from the worship paid to
God ; and they had two or three Greek words by
which they described the shade of difference between
the worship of the Virgin and the martyrs and the
worship of God. They said that the worship of the
martyrs was "dulia," that the worship of the Virgin
was "hyperdidia," that the worship of God was
"Latvia." Confusion only follows these words,
which have hardly a shadow of difference in their
meaning, and they were pronounced by Cardinal
Bellarmine totally unequal to the work of preventing
the same worship being paid to the images and to the
Virgin as was paid to God Himself.

2. They worship the Virgin Mary as a goddess.
In the city of Lisbon, Portugal, there is a church
dedicated to Mary as a goddess, in the following
words: "To the Virgin, goddess of Loretto, the
Italian race, devoted to her divinity, have dedicated

334 Romanism and the Republic.

this temple." I have seen kindred inscriptions to
that on old Roman temples, where some object of
their idolatry had received the dedication from their
votaries of the palaces in which they were worship-
ped. Here they have spoken in no uncertain tones,
and the Virgin of Loretto, a divinity and a goddess,
has a modern temple dedicated to her, in one of the
most Roman Catholic countries of the world !

III. Mary is repeatedly praised as Saviour. This
praise runs through nearly all that is said of her, and
is so generously given that it does not seem as though
there is any necessity for any other God, since she
fulfills all the functions of the same. It is said, for
instance, in one of the standard writers of the Roman
Catholic Church : " I and my Father are one," par-
odying the same and applying it to the Virgin Mary.
Again, there is a plate of the crucifixion with Mary at
the foot of the Cross, having a sword in her breast,
and the inscription : " Thy beloved Son did offer in
sacrifice His flesh for us ; but thou didst offer in
sacrifice thy soul, — yea, both thy body and thy soul."
You see pictures of the bleeding heart of Mary in
Roman Catholic book and picture stores, and the
sword thrust through her heart indicates, as above
stated, that she suffered more than Jesus ; while He
gave His body to suffer, she gave the sufferings of
her soul. She is idolatrously worshipped : worshipped
as any one would worship the supreme Deity.

Liguori had occasion to express himself on the
Divine powers of Mary in the following words (I
do not think I will take time to read it all, but his

Romanism and the Republic. 335

" Glories of Mary " contains an extended portrayal
of her powers, some portions of which are not fit to
be repeated. Suppose I tell the substance, without
reading it, to save time) : Liguori tells a story, and
the incident is also narrated by Father Chiniquy and
Hallam as a sample of Romish fable, displaying the
divine power of Mary. He says, that a certain nun,
becoming tired of her vows, forsaking the nunnery
in which she lived, plunged into a life of sin ; after a
period of ten years, she came back and inquired if
sister Beatrice (meaning herself) was missed from
the nunnery, and they answered: Oh, no; she had
never gone away or been missed ; she was there, and
was one of their most devoted nuns. And then it
came to pass, says Liguori, that Beatrice found out
that the Virgin Mary, out of love for her, had
taken her place and performed her duties for the
space of ten years or more ; whereupon, of course,
she penitently enters the nunnery again, and becomes
a most devoted nun.

There is a similar fable told of a young girl who
was beloved of two men, and these men contending
about her, in the conflict her head was accidentally
cut off and thrown into a well. (Now it is a great
misfortune to lose your head under such circumstan-
ces.) But presently the head appeared on the well-
curb and remained there for two days. It desired to
confess, saying: " I was in mortal sin when my life
was taken. I have come to confess." And after she
had confessed, and variously exhorted the people, I
suppose the head went back into the well. But St.

386 Homanism and the Republic.

Liguori, telling this as a sample of Mary's power, says
that the reason why the murdered girl had this oppor-
tunity to get out of perdition by confession was,
because she had been very faithful in her use of the
rosary of Mary ; and Mary, out of her marvellous love
for her, undertook to save her in this astonishing
manner.

There are stories that are not so fit to be repeated,
in which Mary is represented with very remarkable
power over her special votaries, and the wonders that
she works are as marvellous as they are fabulous.

And these narrations are taught as history to
Koman Catholic youth. I prefer Swinton's History.

Pope Sixtus IV., of whom I told you on last Sunday
night, who erected a triumphal arch on the bridge of
St. Angelo, on which he called himself God, granted
to those who prayed to the Virgin Mary an indul-
gence of one hundred thousand years. I should say
that if an indulgence of one hundred thousand years
is so easily obtained, the believers in Mary had
better bestir themselves and get as many indulgences
as they can. It must be very convenient for some
of them to have a little surplus of indulgence to keep
them out of purgatorial fire.

In the prayer-books of this time, there is a prayer
to the Virgin Mary to which Pope Sixtus IV. had
attached an indulgence of 11,000 years for all who
should devoutly recite it. In a Dutch prayer-book
of the beginning of the next century, there is a prayer
to Mary which carries an indulgence of 100,000 years,
together with many other such graces of shorter

Romanism and the Republic. 337

periods. Some of these indulgences of 20,000 years
are given to every one who shall say five Paternosters
before such and such an image, and are full of super-
stition. There is one of the Popes who granted an
indulgence, Pope John XXII., (he was the man
who cursed the Council of Constance and got as good
as he gave,) that any one who should kiss the meas-
urement of the Virgin Mary's shoe ( I have not
learned how they got that), was granted an indul-
gence of 700 years. I suppose in some place they
have what they allege to be the measurement of this
sacred foot, and whoever should go to that place and
kiss the proper spot should have an indulgence of
700 years.

The rosary of Mary, says Dr. Barnum, in his book,
is the most popular of all the forms of Roman Catho-
lic devotion. That rosary has on it 15 beads, and
every one of these has associated with it a special
thought of prayer. These prayers are offered vari-
ously, with certain changes of form and manner, to
the Holy Virgin Mary.

But returning now to Liguori. I wish to read
to you what he says in his " Glories of Mary " con-
cerning the excellence of this divinity that he wor-
ships. I can only read a part of his praises and
ascriptions. On the fourth page of this book, which is
put into the hands of the people as a manual of devo-
tion in the Eoman Catholic Church, and which Father
Chiniquy says he studied when he was a student
in Canada, it is said : "It is the will of God that all
graces should come to us by the hand of Mary."

338 Romanism and the Republic.

Page 5 : "To reverence the Queen of Angels is to gain
eternal life." Page 8 : "All graces are dispensed by
Mary ; and all who are saved, are saved only by means
of this Divine Mother." Page 14: "The Eternal
Father gave the office of Judge and Avenger to the
Son ; and that of showing mercy, and relieving the
necessitous, to the Mother." Page 16 : "We believe
that she opens the abyss of God's mercy to whomso-
ever she will, when she will, and in the way she will ;
so that there is no sinner, however great a sinner,
who is lost, if Mary protects him." Again, on page
21: "I am thine, O Mary: save me." Page 34:
"We can say of Mary, that she gave her only be-
gotten Son to die for us, when she granted Him
permission to deliver Himself up to death."

On page 53 : " Neither on earth, nor in heaven,
can I find any one who has more compassion for the
miserable, and who is better able to assist me, than
thou canst, O Mary." She is "the only hope for sin-
ners," it is said, on page 67, "for by her help alone
can we hope for the remission of sins." Page 67 :
"He falls, and is lost, who has not recourse to Mary.
(Where are we all going to?)" Page 84: "Hail, O
certain salvation of Christians, . . . and salvation
of the world." Page 85 : "God has placed the whole
price of redemption in the hands of Mary, that she
may dispense it as she will. Thou, O Mary, art the
propitiation for the whole world." Pages 90, 85:
"Our only city of refuge : the only Advocate for sin-
ners : the only hope of sinners.' And later : 'O,
our Lady in heaven, we have but one Advocate, and

Romanism and the Republic. 339

that is thyself." Page 98 : "Before Mary, there was
none who could thus dare to restrain the arm of God.
But now, if God is angry with a sinner, and Mary
takes him under her protection, she withholds the
avenging arm of her Son, and saves him." Page
105 : "I worship thy holy heart : through thee do I
hope for salvation." And so on : who knows when
it will end? Page 129 : "The intercession of Mary
is ever necessary to salvation." Page 128: "Mary
was made the mediatrix of our salvation." Page
132: "In Mary we shall find life and eternal salva-
tion." (I think not.) Page 136: "All gifts, all
virtues, and all graces are dispensed by Mary, to
whomsoever, whensoever, and howsoever she pleases.
Page 143 : "The way of salvation is open to no one,
otherwise than through Mary. No one is saved, ex-
cept through thee." Page 144: "Our salvation is
in the hands of Mary : . . our salvation depends
upon thee." Page 251 : "Thou art omnipotent to
save sinners." Page 230: "Let us, therefore, go
with boldness to the Throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
The throne of grace is the blessed Virgin Mary. If,
then, we wish for graces, let us go the throne of
grace, which is Mary." Then, on page 479, the
following: " Jesus Himself said: 'Were it not for
the prayers of my mother, there would be no hope
of mercy.'"

That is a lie ; and so is the whole of it. Now,
concerning the alleged powers of the Virgin Mary,
just a little further. You read that she is made to

340 Romanism and the Republic.

be about all there is in heaven for the hope of sin-
ners. The Carmelite monks are her special favor-
ites. Do you want to know why ? There is a small
square piece of cloth devised by the Carmelite monks,
which is called a scapular. They put one on each
end of a string, or ribbon, and wear it on their
shoulders. That is called the scapular of the Car-
melites. Now the Virgin Mary has special favor
toward the Carmelite monks ; and it is said that the
Saturday after a monk dies, she goes down into pur-
gatory and takes him out. She spends her Saturday
afternoons that way, according to this declaration.
Have you seen these Carmelites ? I saw some Car-
melite monks in Venice and Eome. I remember
them very well : the vision rises before me now. I
think they were among the dirtiest of all the monks
that I ever saw ; and that is saying much. I do not
see why The Virgin Mary should go to purgatory for
them : positively, I think that, in the case of those
whom I saw, a little purgatory would have done
them good !

Now, to close, you remember that I brought
before you, some time since, the book called
"Judges of Faith," purchased in a Roman Catholic
bookstore, sanctioned by three hundred and eighty,
or more, distinguished dignitaries of the Roman
Catholic Church ; in which book we found a large
share of our information about their intentions to-
wards our public schools. On the 132d page of that
book it is said, that piety toward the Virgin Mary is
one of the things that is to be especially taught in

Romanism and the Republic. 341

the parochial schools. If I remember correctly, that
quotation is from the words of the Baltimore Plenary
Council. Piety to the Virgin Mary is especially to
be taught in the parochial schools ; I suppose, in the
one just started in Worcester, and those in Brook-
field, and in Waltham, and in Boston. What is piety
to the Virgin Mary ? We have heard Roman Cath-
olic answers to that question. I suppose they may
take Liguori's "Glories of Mary" as one of their
reading-books, possibly ; and may get not only what
we read, but a very great deal more of the same
tenor. Is that education ?

The Virgin Mary, as you may not know, has been
made the patroness of America, as St. George is of
England, St. Andrew of Scotland, St. Patrick of
Ireland, St. Denis of France, and St. James of Spain.
The Virgin Mary is to be the patron saint of Ameri-
cans ; and I suppose, therefore, they would teach
American youth more about her than they would
teach youth in any other part of the world. When
this teaching has been taught, what will be the
condition of the mind of those who are so instructed?
I confess, this whole thing staggers me, as I come
to see what Rome purposes to teach.

Some years ago, I read of a company of people,
in New York, who proposed to revive the old Greek
idol-worship. We were told that they had secured a
beautiful marble statue for a divinity, and a little
band of them had gathered together to worship the
statue. It was a very strange story, and very
highly interesting to me ; yet it caused a shudder,

342 Romanism and the Republic.

as I thus learned that, even at this late age of
Gospel civilization, there were yet people in our
midst who had so forsaken truth and dishonored God
that they were worshipping idols. And yet, my
friends, the power that is threatening to dominate
this country, is a power which does that very thing.
Last night, a friend, who is very familiar with
French literature, told me that Victor Hugo once
wrote a very impressive poem satirizing Romish
idolatry, developing the following ideas : The poet
imagines, in this work, that the Lord Jesus Christ,
in heaven, finds that he is receiving neither prayer
nor praise. When the Lord observes that neither
prayer nor praise is sent up to him, he has a feeling
of loneliness from being neglected, and he says :
"Why is this, that I do not hear from earth, either in
the way of prayer or praise? I must inquire about
it. I have a vicegerent down there, whom I have
appointed, and to whom I have given the power of
the keys ; and yet I get no words or messages from
the earth." And so the Lord resolved to descend
from heaven, and see what was the reason of this
neglect; and he said: "Because I have been on
earth in the form of a peasant, I shall be best known
to my church in that form ; and I will thus descend,
to see why it is." So he came down from the
heavens, in form as he was in Nazareth and Galilee ;
and he went to the great city where the Pope, his
vicegerent, lives ; and beheld the splendor of the pre-
lates, and the poverty, and vice, and superstition of
the people ; and when he came to the door of the

Romanism and the Republic. 343

palace there were the Swiss soldiers, in their yellow
and black uniforms, who denied him admittance.
They repulsed him rudely. At length he, by some
means, found his way in, and finally obtained an
audience with the Pope. No sooner did this humble
peasant come into the presence of the Pope, who was
seated on a throne in all the paraphernalia and splen-
dor of his exalted office, than He was frowned down
by His own vicar, spoken to in a contemptuous and
bitter manner, and bidden begone. Upon this, throw-
ing off His disguise, and assuming the majestic form
at which all classes of beinsrs tremble, the mighty
Saviour began to address deserved reproof to this
usurper, who had taken the place of the true Bishop
of souls. In terrific words of truth, he told the
trembling sinner that he was without the spirit of
the Master ; that he was the plunderer and destroyer
of souls ; that he was extorting from men a supersti-
tious and undeserved veneration ; that the prayers
which should ascend to God in heaven, were stopped
by saints, and images, and relics, and popes, and
bishops, on earth ; and that, instead of the ends of
the great plan of salvation being served, by leading
men to God, there had been built up a hierarchy as
selfish as it was hateful, which barred the way to
heaven.

The poet-satirist was wholly right in his dream.
When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with flaming fire, to take vengeance on those who
know not the Lord, and who have abolished and
degraded His truth, I believe that His vengeful

344 Romanism and the Republic.

lightnings will first strike that usurping power,
which, in the name of the lowly Jesus, has vaulted
to the very heights of blasphemy, and has sunk to
the very depths of superstition. And I hope that
the American people will see that certain purpose
of eternal justice soon enough to save themselves
from the desolation which this curse, this pagan
curse, has wrought in other lands.

Sermon Xffi.

SOME FURTHER ASPECTS OF PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS.

If you turn to the 60th Psalm, the third and the
fourth verses, you will find the following words :
"Thou hast shewed thy people hard things; thou
hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.
Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee,
that it may be displayed because of the truth."

It must be confessed that the stupendous scheme
of political tyranny which we have been compelled
to describe from this pulpit in the last three months,
is an astonishing thing for the Protestant Christian to
hear, and a hard thing for the American people to
comprehend. If we may trust their own statements
and rely on their own utterances, the Pope and the
hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church not only
claim the absolute political allegiance of every person
throughout the world, but they define themselves as
irreconcilable enemies of all that our fathers gave
their lives to purchase, and all that our brothers
died to preserve. No less true is it that against the
great institutions of the country, through which is
diffused the large intelligence necessary for the pre-
servation of a republic, have they put forth their

346 Romanism and the Republic.

utmost strength, and have resolved that Romanism,
not Americanism, shall be taught to little children in
schools. When they have swept away our public
system of education, they are resolved to teach that
creed and its practices which I described to you in
the last three discourses.

There were many, no doubt, who, listening, said :
"It is a hard thing, and who can believe that Roman
Catholic doctors of theology sanction the grossest
violations of the moral law ; that they teach the peo-
ple absolute paganism and idolatry ; that they are at
least nineteen hundred years behind the spirit and
doctrine of Protestant New England, in the type of
religion which they teach? " It is a hard thing ; and
we have "drunk the wine of astonishment " while
we have considered these discourses which have
brought it to our attention. But in the face of such
facts, is anything truer than the second verse of this
text, that if God has committed any trust to intelli-
gent men, He has intrusted us with a -banner by
which to represent His truth, an uplifted symbol of
our antagonism to all that enslaves the human mind,
and corrupts the morals of society. Can there be any
doubt as to whether God has given us a banner to
display in the face of such an assailant? Is it doubt-
ful whether it is a Christian minister's duty, or a
Christian patriot's obligation, to confront this organ-
ized tyranny which is threatening to subvert our
liberties and our laws? I think there can be no
doubt.

What, then, is the banner that we have been

Romanism and, the Republic. 347

entrusted to hold up? what is the symbol that
we display in the face of a foe who always displays
the black flag: of intolerance? what banner do we
advance in the face of the Roman Catholic Church, as
it marches from out the centuries where it has trod-
den down the nations in blood, to add another to its
list of prostrate peoples? I answer, that we elevate a
double symbol : the banner that we rear in the name
of patriotism, is the flag of a free Republic ; the stand-
ard which we present to them in the name of truth
and religion, is the open Word of God. No hatred
soils that flag ; no malignity disfigures that page.
And while they blaze with excommunications and
avowed hate ; while their instruments of torture are
red with the best blood of all nations ; we challenge
them with a flag which forbids slavery, and a book
that has never sanctioned superstition !

It seems a necessity at this time, as we move for-
ward in the line of argumentative conflict under such
standards, that we should gather up some of those
truths which are likely to have been dropped out and
forgotten in a discussion so protracted and one
involving so many particulars ; and because I do not
wish to leave the subject of parochial schools without
saying some things that I have not yet said, I propose
to-night to recur to that, a little out of the general
progress of the discourses, rather than to neglect
some really important phases of the subject. While
it is true that everything that I have said in the last
three months bears directly upon their effort to sub-
vert public education, what I shall say to-night is
specially upon that design.

348 Romanism and the Republic.

In a connection that will, I hope, make these
practical suggestions of value, I beg you to attend
first to the fact, that the agitation against American
schools, which we are now forced to consider, is
solely the work of the priests, and not of the laity of
the Roman Catholic Church. From first to last

it is the attack of ecclesiastics and not of laymen.
The authorities which I have cited to you, so adverse
to our public schools, are popes, cardinals, bishops
and priests ; but I have not cited to you from the
Roman Catholic Church, one lawyer, one physician,
one man of business, one merchant, one teacher. It
is therefore obvious to you, that the authorities, at
least those we have presented for the assault on pub-
lic education in the form that we have it, are priestly
authorities, not lay authorities. Indeed, it is evident
that the laity of the Roman Catholic Church have not
been consulted about this matter. When were they
ever consulted about any matter that had been
resolved upon by priestly power?

The Roman Catholic people, many of them, object
to being dragged into a position of hostility to our
schools ; they insist on keeping their children in the
common sohools, for a time at least ; occasionally
also, there is even a priest who favors public schools.
But whether or not they insist on keeping their
children in our schools, they are being driven, under
the lash of priestly despotism, to take them out
of those schools. I regard this as a very significant
impression to be left on the mind of every intelligent
American hearer, that this is not an attack of the

Homanism and the Republic. 349

people, who are deriving benefits from our public
schools, upon them ; it is not a revolt against our sys-
tem of public education by those who have enjoyed
the benefits of that system ; but it is an onslaught of
solely clerical tyrants upon the freedom of the peo-
ple, and upon the freedom of America ; and those
tyrants wear the priestly gown, the bishop's mitre,
and the papal tiara.

There have recently appeared in the New York
Independent a series of very remarkable articles,
written by a Roman Catholic layman. The editors
of the New York Independent are known to me, as no
doubt they are to many of you ; and while the paper
has a very high character, the editors have an even
higher character, if that were possible. These
gentlemen have vouched for the fact that this writer
is a layman of the Roman Catholic Church ; and he, in
speaking of the relation of the laity to the Church,
uses, in the issue of October 11 , the following words :
" One cause, and I believe the principal cause, of the
failure of the Roman Catholic Church to maintain a
continued hold of the love and devotion of the people
of any country, has been the complete isolation of the
interests of the laity. The Roman Catholic papers
are full of complaints of the indifference of the laity
to Roman Catholic interests. If these papers are
to be taken as true witnesses in their own case, this
indifference exists to an extraordinary extent even in
this country, and it is not a ' note ' of ecclesiastical
advancement. Now, there must be a cause for this
indifference, and we have some personal knowledge

350 Romanism and the Republic.

of this cause." He goes on and discusses at length
the reason why the laity of the Roman Catholic
Church are in a condition of bewilderment and indiffer-
ence, scarcely knowing what to do, and in course of
that discussion uses the following language : << Now
what is true of the general public and the influence
of the Pope on national politics, is true of the power
and influence of every bishop and priest in local poli-
tics. As members of an infallible body, they are
practically infallible ; as members of the most power-
ful combination on earth, their power to control the
Catholic laity is unlimited. If the commands of the
Pope must be obeyed by all nations and rulers at the
risk of eternal loss, the commands of the priests are
practically, if not equally, finding; or to all pur-
poses quite as effectually binding. Hence if the Pope
can change the policy of a king or emperor, the
bishop can change the policies and purposes of the
mayor or aldermen." And then he adds : "The Roman
Catholic laity have come to know this very well ;
hence their marked unwillingness to interfere in any
affair whatever which is in any way under ecclesias-
tical control ; and what is there that is not so con-
trolled? Nor are they willing to place themselves
in any position where they may be made to feel the
weight of the ecclesiastical arm. A priest, consciously
or unconsciously, uses his spiritual powers to attain
his temporal ends ; if he did not, he would be more
than human."

He then proceeds to speak of the fact that the
Polish Roman Catholics in the city of Chicago have

Romanism and the Republic. 351

revolted against their priests because of the priests'
attempted dominance over them in all minute affairs.
This is what they say in their declaration addressed
to the Pope : " The priests want to control the pri-
vate, as well as the religious, affairs of their parish-
ioners, and render them virtually slaves to do their
bidding, and failing in this, the priests have maligned
members of the Alliance, and sought to create preju-
dice against them. The petitioners represent that
they are true Catholics ; do not belong to any
socialistic, nihilistic or anarchistic organization ;
and in everything have deported themselves as true
sons of the Church." The spirit of Sobieski, who
labored to achieve universal liberty, has not wholly
died out of Polish Roman Catholics ; and it
seems that they, in the city of Chicago, have lifted
up their voices in protest against having the priest-
hood push them on to a position which they deprecate,
denounce and reject. Furthermore, we have here a
statement from a Roman Catholic layman in the
South, as follows : "A Southern gentleman, whose
opinion would command extraordinary respect if I
could give his name, said, not long since : " We (the
laity) have given up all interest in church affairs.
We do whatever we believe to be necessary
to save our souls, and we attend to our own
business. Several times when we have tried to
interest the Bishop in plans which we believed would
greatly benefit the Church and advance the interests
of religion, we found our suggestions were not taken
in good part, and were, in fact, considered as imper-

352 Romanism and the Republic.

tineut intrusion : and we heard so much of humility
and obedience that we determined for the future to
withdraw altogether from Church affairs. The
Roman Catholic Church in the South," continues this
representative Roman Catholic, " is dying of dry
rot : we have indifferent bishops, who are scarcely
ever seen by their people, and who do not care in the
least to consider any plan which they have not sug-
gested themselves ; and who only express an interest
in the laity when they want to get money." If this
is a representative utterance of the intelligent laity
of the Roman Catholic Church (and it comes cer-
tainly from that source) , then we have additional
proof that the laity, the main body of the Church, are
not interested in the overthrow of our system of pub-
lic education.

It simplifies matters somewhat, if we find that we
are only fighting gowned priests in this matter. If the
Roman Catholic people are being bullied and driven in-
to a position of hostility that they do not desire to take,
then, O my brothers, let us try with all our might, to
give them that moral sympathy, that enlightenment
and that help, which will make a clear division
between them and their oppressors, and will save to
America and to patriotism the warm-hearted Irish-
men and Frenchmen who are now being forced, by
priestly and foreign power, into antagonism to their
own best interests and the nation's welfare.

Now, although the laity are not consulted, the
vast cost of those schools is to be borne by the laity,
not by the priesthood. The founding of parochial

Romanism and the .Republic. 353

schools involves a very large expense : that expense
is to be met by the people, not by the priests. The
priests have no interests particularly in popular
education. I mean they have no families ; they have
no recognized children that are to attend these
schools. Many of them live in luxury, and have
few cares, except their churchly cares. You very
rarely hear of their giving large subscriptions for the
promotion of parochial education. While I was
visiting a little town in Connecticut, a man told me
that, on a recent occasion, there came ten priests to a
funeral, (I suppose of a priest) ; and he said, after the
funeral the ten priests went to a hotel and had a
dinner ; that the proprietor of the hotel said he never
had a company in his house who made such epicurean
demands as these. They called for all the best liquors
in his cellar ; they drank most freely ; and they were
exceedingly hilarious. They sang indecent songs
and told immodest stories, until he was glad to have
them leave his house ; but they made a very large
bill, which they paid; and I suppose the publican
who would sell rum, would not much object to the
circumstances under which the sale was effected.

The priests are not all used to luxury. Many of
them are noble, self-denying men ; but the priests
who control the great parishes of cities where the
parochial schools are being founded, are not denying
themselves for the sake of getting adequate funds to
build up these schools. The people have to furuish
the money.

We have pictures of extortion by priests drawn by

354 Romanism and the Republic.

their own laymen. I have been told in this very
city, by a man who knew the facts, in whose word I
can have only confidence, and a Roman Catholic, of
the priest's habit of going up and down the aisle him-
self and taking the collection ; not because there was
no one else able to take it, but because, in the arro-
gance of his priestly power, he compelled men to give
who otherwise would have refused. We have a case
not long ago, in a Massachusetts' town, where, when
a man declined to give as the priest presented the
box, the priest took off his priestly robe, and pro-
posed to throw the man out of doors, and actually
forced him out of the church, because he declined to
contribute.

This is the position of the priests ; but what is the
condition of the people ? We have the same author-
ity in the New York Independent of Sept; 27, giv-
ing us an idea of what is being done to oppress the
people in the matter of acquiring funds. It is an
article entitled: "Is the Roman Catholic Church
Advancing?" He says : "Its numerical strength is
the great point made by Catholics, when they wish
to impress on their own minds, or on the minds of
others, the great power of the Church in this coun-
try. And so far, the numerical strength of the
Roman Catholics in America has told, beyond all
doubt, in politics. But what is the real, rather we
should say, what is the spiritual value of this prepon-
derating influence? Is it to lessen crime? Is it to
lessen suffering? Has it elevated the moral or intel-
lectual condition of the masses in New York? He

Romanism and the Republic. 355

would be a bold man who dared to say, in the face
of facts, that the Roman Catholic Church has been
a powerful influence for good in that city."

If I should talk so about Congregationalism in this
city, and if I had justifiable occasion so to talk, you
would think that there was certainly need of a great
reform in that body. Thank God ! it can never be
said of any Protestant denomination of which I know,
that its presence is a moral curse. " But what solid
foundation lies underneath?" he asks. "The
Churches are magnificent, and costly, and heavily
burdened with debt ; but few are consecrated, though
they are built for many years. Is this creditable to
ecclesiastical management, or to religion? The poor
are heavily, I might almost say cruelly taxed to pay
these debts, or rather to pay the heavy mortgages on
these churches, and with little hope of reprieve."
And then he goes on to state, that Father Colton, the
successor of Dr. McGlynn, at the Church of St.
Stephen, where there is now a debt of $140,000,
proposes to add $60,000 to the debt, in order that he
may erect a parochial school, and adds, that Father
Colton is being very much praised for so doing ;
while he continues: "As in the case of Dr.
McGlynn's successor, each new priest must do some
new work to get credit for his zeal. But all this is
done at the expense of the poor of his parish. The
priest gets all the honor and the poor get all the bur-
den." He then quotes the Freeman's Journal as
declaring " that Father Colton is quite cheerful about
it, and he well may be, considering that not one

356 Romanism and the Republic.

penny of the expense will come out of his pocket,
and that he will get all sorts of ecclesiastical and
episcopal honor and glory for using other people's
money."

There is another little fragment here that he intro-
duces from the Freeman's Journal, a bit of supersti-
tious fraud, which is so good a morsel you must have
the benefit of it. The statement of the editor of the
Freeman's Journal is amusing in more ways than
one, and we give it here. He says : "St. Joseph is
a rich and powerful friend " (that is, the husband of
The Virgin Mary), " who has often proved himself a
benefactor to others, even in darker hours than now,
frequently causing magnificent churches, convents,
and other institutions to rise seemingly out of noth-
ing, as in the case of the splendid building erected
by the late Rev. Father Dromgoole, in this city
(known as the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin,
but erected by the St. Joseph's Union through the
medium of twenty-five-cent subscriptions), at a cost
of over $300,000, not including the property on
Staten Island ; which, with other expenditures, would
bring the total cost up to about half a million of
dollars. Would it not be well to try some special
devotion to St. Joseph with the above intention ;
such, for instance, as keeping a light burning con-
stantly before his statue until the debt is paid?"
And the Roman Catholic layman comments as fol-
lows : " Well, if burning candles to St. Joseph will
pay the debt, by all means let them be burned. But
we fear the poor Irish servant girls of the parish will

Romanism and the Republic. 357

have a good deal more to do with the payment than
St. Joseph, and that it will remain for another pastor
to increase."

This, from an inside standpoint, shows us where
the money is coming from that is demanded in such
vast sums for the purpose of creating parochial
schools. The people have to find that. There are many
in this congregation who have had their servant girls
come home and say they must have another fifty cents
or another dollar a week. Now you are not unwilling
that wages should be raised in proportion to service
rendered, but if you happen to overhear the arrange-
ment being made between the Sister of Charity soli-
citing, and the servant girl, by which the additional
wages are to go into the treasury of the Church, you
may naturally object ; not but what you want your
servant to have adequate wages, but you do not par-
ticularly feel under obligations to build the palaces
of bishops and parochial schools.

This question of the wages of the Roman Catholic
is an interesting question. You might raise the
wages of the Roman Catholic people as high as it
were possible, and they would be just as poor as
they are now. Why? Because their surplus is
grasped by the rapacity of priests, for the pur-
pose of erecting splendid churches and parochial
schools, and for increasing the luxury of the priests.
Sometimes our Protestant Christian people say : " Oh,
how Romanists raise money. I wish that we could
raise money as they do." God forbid ! God forbid !
If we raised money as they do, we would be no more

358 Romanism and the Republic.

a Christian Church. They raise money by all sorts
of oppression and threats. Aye, some of them frighten
even you, when they threaten. There came into
the store of a friend of mine the other day solicitors for
a Roman Catholic fair. They insisted that he should
give something. He said : " Gentlemen, I have noth-
ing to give for that purpose ;" whereupon the repre-
sentatives of the Papacy said : " Well, if you do not
give, we will boycott your store;" and he said, in
effect : ' ' Go and do it ; go now ! " He emphasized
the now, and they went. There is a merchant in
this city who, under similar circumstances, being
asked to give to a Roman Catholic fair, was told if
he did not give to their Church they would not trade
with him. He said : " I do not do business in that
way : I shall give nothing !" I am thankful to say
that this store-keeper is prosperous yet. Within
the last week I have been told that if I were
a merchant I should not dare to say what
I am saying, because the Romanists would bojr-
cott me. Thank Heaven ! I am not in any position to
fear the threats of Rome. My support depends on
Christians and freemen ; not on slaves, or creatures
of Romish priests.

There is a great amount of Protestant money put
into these schools and into these churches that ought
not to go there. Father O'Connor said to me, in
New York, the other day : " You are reaping in New
England what you have sown. You have made the
Roman Catholic Church what it is. You have given
the money to build their churches ; you have given

Romanism and the Republic. 359

the money to build their schools ; and now they turn
and try to destroy you. You have warmed the
viper in your bosom," said he, "that now is trying
to sting you to death." He spoke the truth. We
know that he spoke the truth. Business men have
stopped me on the street in this city, and said :
"What is our duty in regard to this matter of giving
money so that it goes into the treasury of the Roman
Catholic Church ?" I say : " It is your duty not to give
a dollar ; any more than you would have bought the
bonds of the Southern Confederacy, when Jefferson
Davis, at its head, was trying to ruin the country.
Not a dollar, not a penny, for Romanism in America,
from Protestant hands and pockets ! If that policy
were adopted, it would make a vast difference to the
strength of this enemy of freedom. Thus the people
have to furnish the money, and I have already inti-
mated that the Protestant people are furnishing too
large a part of it. This brings me to another very
interesting aspect of this matter of parochial schools.
There is a very large amount of Protestant
money invested in Roman Catholic Churches and in
Roman Catholic schools. You know that they have
erected magnificent churches in almost every city.
These churches cannot be consecrated until they are
free from debt. The Roman Catholic layman from
whom I have just read, says, that there are almost
no Roman Catholic churches in New York that are
consecrated. I was told by a Roman Catholic gentle-
man in this city, that probably not one of the Roman
Catholic churches in this city had been consecrated.

360 Romanism and the Republic.

That is, because there are heavy mortgages on this
property. But who has mortgaged this property?
who holds it, and owns it? Here is an interesting
question. If any Protestant church desires to secure
money on mortgage, it has a perfectly legal way of
proceeding, by which the corporate body, that
is the entire society, or its representative legal cor-
poration, incurs and becomes responsible for the
debt. Sometimes money is obtained for a Protes-
tant church by means of an individual becoming
responsible ; and it is the law in some States, that
trustees who are on the paper of a church when
the debt is incurred, cannot take their names off that
paper so long as the debt stands, because they are
held personally responsible. Now who holds the
property of Roman Catholic churches? and who
mortgages that property ?

Not Roman Catholic laymen, whose labor and
money must pay the mortgage. All the property of
the Roman Catholic Church in a diocese is held by
the bishop, and in the bishop's name. I think that
is so in the State of Massachusetts. I was looking
up the law ; and, as nearly as I can see, that is the
universal law of Roman Catholics, and the law in
this State. Very good. Who is the person that
owns the Roman Catholic churches of Worcester?
The men who built them ? the men who worship in
them ? the men whose wages and whose money have
gone into them? No; but a stranger, whom they
call "My Lord," and who lives somewhere else.

Is be responsible, financially, to such an extent

Romanism and the Republic. 361

that it is wise for banks to loan vast sums of money
on Roman Catholic property ? Whose money is this
which is loaned? Suppose the bishop should say, as
he might say ; "We default on these mortgages," and
the property were thrown on the market, who would
buy it? Those whose money was there, would lose
almost every dollar of it. And suppose that the
bishop was an honest man, but that the Pope should
send out word to America, where these mortgages
are so plentiful, "I protest against your paying the
heretics their money ; " every bishop would obey his
command, on penalty of perdition. We may be
exceedingly capable in the management of our busi-
ness, and our banks may be shrewd and wise ; but
when I mark the conspiracy of Romanism against
property, and against nationality, and against intelli-
gence, and against everything non-Romanist, then, I
say, Gentlemen, in managing your business, it seems
to me it would be well to understand who is going
to pay the mortgages that are on these vast prop-
erties, and by which parochial schools are being
created. Do you say, The Roman Catholic people are
going to pay them? If I were in their place, I
would not pay a dollar ; and I shall do all I can to
create a revolt among them against this lavish and
wicked expense, which they did not create nor con-
sent to, and which they ought not to pay. But you
say : The bishops are honest, and they will pay. Well,
their moral theologians, St. Liguori, Peter Dens,
J. P. Gury and others, concerning whom and from
whose works I have read to you here, are the

362 Romanism, and the Republic.

teachers of bishops ; and if the bishops choose to
follow their moral standards, they can repudiate
every dollar, and not feel one qualm of conscience.
Suppose they should follow their moral theologians,
and do it. I do not say that they will ; but I say,
that if I had money to lend I would not lend it to
them, with the risks that are involved, and the moral
principles that they teach.

Now, while thus impoverishing the people,
they do not take care of those whom they rob ; that
is certain. I find here a statement, in this same
article, by the Roman Catholic layman, that the
Roman Catholic Irish in this country embrace "a
few millionaires, a host of politicians, and a vast
population of thriftless, shiftless, ill-cared-for people.
Better, a thousand times better, that these people
should be back in the bogs of Conncmara, with their
pure, fresh air, and their pure, fresh life, than in the
crime-haunted liquor saloons of New York and Bos-
ton. Millions of Irish Catholics have fled to America ;
and when one thinks of their miserable state in this
country, it is hard to feel that the Head of the Church,
whom they support so loyally, has not one word to
say to stop this bleeding of the nation — this destroy-
ing of a people, who have loved him, one might dare
to say, 'not wisely, but too well.'"

While they furnish hosts of pauperized people,
and apply the moneys that they extort to building
up their ecclesiastical institutions, they do not take
care of the poor whom they make.

Go to the Roman Catholics countries of the world,

Romanism and the Republic. 363

and you are beset by myriads of beggars. Of those
who live at the public expense in this country, we
know that a very considerable proportion are Roman
Catholics. Why do they not take care of the poor
whom they make poor ? I will tell you why. Because
they expect you to do it ; and you do it. No mat-
ter how much they may plunder them, you support
the plundered masses of the Roman Catholic Church.
Did you ever have a beggar come to your door, who
impressed you as being altogether worthy of help,
and whom you found to be a Roman Catholic ? Did
you ever say to such, " Go to your priest ! Why do
you come to me, a Protestant minister? Go ask
your priest for help ! " I have done so ; and did they
ever go to their priest? Never. Why not? Be-
cause they knew they would not get anything from
him, if they did go. I do not say that some of the
priests of the Roman Catholic Church are not gene-
rous, self-denying men. I believe they are. I speak
now of the generality — of the class — and I say, that
I have never been able, in dealing with the poor of
great cities, — I have never been able, when I visited
them in their garrets and cellars, to get them to go
and apply for charity to their own priests. Why
not? The priests are spending their money in build-
ing up the hierarchy, and we are caring for their
poor. Noth withstanding all this — and all this is true
and well known — the plundered people still give to
these schools, and yield to priests their money to put
into them.

You say, Why do they not revolt? Why do

364 Romanism and the Republic.

they not come out and deny the right of the priests
to rob them ? We cannot hope that they will do that
at present. I do not see any signs of general revolt.
There is great unrest ; and Father O'Connor said to
me, he knew a thousand priests that would gladly
break away from Rome to-day. They are full of
unrest; but the likelihood of a present revolt from
the demands of Rome is not great. And why do I
so conclude? It is because, although they resist and
curse, they yield? Did not a gentleman say to me,
in this city, that his servant girl came home, swear-
ing and cursing? (Of course, that is according to
the practice of the Roman Catholic Church : the
Popes are distinguished for cursing.) And the lady
of the house said, "What is the matter ? " And the
girl, swearing at the priest, calling him bad names,
said he had demanded of her so much a week, and
she swore she would not pay it. A month from that
time she was still swearing ; but she had paid it.
That is the way they do.

As an illustration of the manner in which they
yield to the Papal power, ultimately, — yield under
pressure — yield by force of education and training —
we have a most graphic illustration in the present
paralysis of Irishmen concerning Home Rule in Ire-
land. We cannot recall that too often. A little
while ago, this city was full of agitation concerning
Ireland : the air was full of it ; the papers were full
of it. Home Rule was the great cry : it was almost
as prominent as the Tariff is now. Then came the
rescript from the Pope, who has been the enemy of

Romanism and the Republic. 365

Ireland from the first. I have in ray possession a
book, given me by an ex-priest, written by a man
trained a Roman Catholic, a judge of the Supreme
Court of California. He sets forth the fact, from
Romish sources, that since the day when the Pope of
Rome gave up Ireland to be ruled and plundered by
the King of England, — from that day to this, at
least five or six times, the Pope has interfered when
Ireland was on the verge of gaining liberty, taking
sides with her tyrants ; and prevented her progress
into a better national life. Irishmen ought to know
that, and some of them do know it.

Full of burning enthusiasm and energy, the Irish-
men were talking and giving, when, all of a sudden,
the man whom they call the "vicar of Christ," in
Rome, spoke. Their hands dropped powerless and
paralyzed. My friends, if my heart is not touched,
and I cannot say that it is, there is a little corner of
my mind which is partly filled with anxiety to know
what will happen to those agile American politicians
who, a little while ago, so carried Ireland on their
hearts, that in their agonized interests over " Home
Rule," you would have supposed, from great senators
down to ward politicians, that the dearest interest
of their lives was the state of Ireland. Since the
Pope has spoken, they, with their dupes, have been
in the condition that the farmer's boys put the
young turkeys in at Thanksgiving time ; when they
seize them by the neck, and hold them so tight that,
though their mouths are open, they can make no
sound. So the Pope has seized our politicians,
senators and all, by the neck. I listen to hear that

366 Romanism and the Republic.

cry of "Home Rule for Ireland." I listen to hear
a peep, if I cannot hear a cry ; but silence reigns
around. I should think they would burst in their
agony, because they cannot speak. No ; all are silent.
The Roman Catholic editors are silent. The Roman
Catholic priests are silent. Even the Roman Catholic
bummers are silent. And down under them, in a
lower grade, the American politician is silent. So
when you ask me why it is that the Romanists do
not break away from the power of Rome, when they
know that they are being plundered for measures
they have not sanctioned, I ask you, why New
England men here in Worcester have been muzzled
by the Pope, and speak or keep silent at his com-
mand? I can pity the Irish Roman Catholic; but I
can only despise the American politician.

There are those who, at this great juncture of
public affairs, do precisely what such men have done
in all exigencies of public affairs, who say that
" all this agitation is premature; the time has not
come for it. Better not say it." Did I hear any
pulpit in Worcester say that, when speaking of us?
I think I did. " It is true ; but better not say it."
So they said when Patrick Henry, in the House of
Burgesses, in Virginia, while George III. was
oppressing the colonies, cried: "Caesar had his
Brutus, Charles I. his Cromwell, and George the
Third" (then they cried " Treason, Treason" all about
the house : it was premature, this agitation ; hut
that man of thunder hurled out his final word) "and
George III. should profit by such examples." The

Romanism and the Republic. 367

men that dare to be called "premature" in agitating
great interests, are the men that we must look to for
leadership. Were not Samuel Adams and James
Otis called premature in their agitation in the Revo-
lutionary days? Were not Garrison and Phillips a
little premature in forcing the barbarism of slavery
on an unwilling country? Were they not? Are
those who deprecate agitation to consent to have
the millions plundered and the nation threatened?

Nor can we trust for leadership those who say out
of their sentiment and kind feeling : " I dislike very
much to make an attack on anybody, because I have
friends who are Roman Catholics, and it disturbs
me exceedingly to think that anything should be said
detrimental to them." My friends, I have never said
a word from this pulpit against Roman Catholics as
men, and never shall ; but if I should cease to speak
against the machinations of the Romish hierarchy, I
pray that God may let me die before my shame
becomes known to freemen.

I know men who sell liquor who are gentlemen in
their manner, beneficent in their gifts, in their social
life are delightful, and educated intellectually.
Because of my friendship for those men, am I to be
silent about the curse of the saloon ? We knew
men years ago who were slave-holders, who said that
they deprecated all the dreadful things of slave hold-
ing as much as we did. Beeause I shake hands with
the lily-fingered slave holder, should I lose by that
grip all the muscle which should break a shackle and
free a man ? I look on the Roman Catholic people

368 Romanism and the Republic.

of this city and of the world with kindness. Even
their priests are not the objects of my dislike in any
degree. But because I have a priest a friend, or a
layman a friend, shall I therefore permit them and
the nation to be trampled down for lack of a brave
word ?

My friends, we cannot look to timid sentimental-
ists or begging politicians to lead us. We want
leaders : whom shall we look to ? Let us do as men
have always had to do, who had heard God's call to
duty. Let us look to our God and to ourselves, and
do our duty without any other leadership, rather
than wait to follow blind leaders of the blind.

As an illustration of the want of leadership in
this matter, let me call your attention to a very inter-
esting fact. There is a law in this country forbidding
the importation of contract labor. There is great
zeal in enforcing that law, on the part of officials
generally. This law was made, I suppose, in the
interests ( ?) of the voter, and I suppose very largely
in the interests of the foreign voter : they who rose
up and said, You have imported enough, now wait
and give us a chance. And our subservient legisla-
tures said, No more contract labor imported. How
is that law applied? Not long since, the Rev. Mr.
Berry was called to Plymouth church, Brooklyn.
If he had come, he would have been compelled to
pay a fine of $1,000 to the United States government,
because he came under contract. The Rev. Dr.
Warren was called to Trinity Church, New York,
the richest Episcopalian Church in America : he was

Romanism and the Republic. 369

sued because he came over under contract and was
adjudged to pay a fine of $1 ,000. What have we seen
here in Worcester ? We have a parochial school formed
here, and as far as the chain of testimony is known to
me, we have the following facts : We have four
Irish Brothers imported from across the sea to teach
us — what? To teach us how to be like Ireland? I
hope not. How did they come ? I am told by those
who read the Roman Catholic papers, that it was
announced at a certain time, that a priest in this city
was ffoins; to Ireland to get such men. It was
afterwards announced that he had gone to Ire-
land to get such men. Then it was reported
that he had secured such men ; and the next
thing we knew, the men were in our midst.
Now the law of the United States says, that whether
contract be expressed or implied, if these men come
for their board, or come for ten thousand a year, it
makes no difference. If they are engaged for ser-
vice beforehand, then it is violation of the law of
contract labor. Why does not some lawyer in this
assembly rise up and test the law ? Why does not
the District Attorney find out whether the occupation
of the teachers of this city has been put in jeopardy
by having teachers imported in violation of the lawr
of contract labor? Why do not the teachers combine
to press the case, and learn their rights under the law ?
Surely, it is much better to have honest and compe-
tent workmen brought hereunder contract, than men
sworn to a foreign allegiance, to teach hatred of
American liberty and free institutions.

370 Romanism and the Republic.

A gardener coming, not long ago, I think, for a
gentleman in Massachusetts, a nice Scotchman, a
clean, fine man, was sent back because he came under
contract. Why not an emissary of the Italian prince-
pope ? It might not be best for a minister to prose-
cute this matter personally, perhaps ; for he does not
wish to be too much entangled with the affairs of the
world ; but if any man here is a lawyer, or a teacher,
or a business-man, and interested in the law of con-
tract labor, why, gentlemen, you have my permis-
sion, you have my sanction and my benediction, if
you will find out whether that law has been violated
by having those men imported hither ; and we would
be very glad to have you take up an evening on this
platform in reporting the results of your investiga-
tions, if it seemed best. But I am compelled to
draw to a close.

There are two or three remarks, however,
that ought to be made, before we part with this sub-
ject of parochial schools. They have a practical
bearing on the matter, and I think that they will so
impress you. Suppose all the Roman Catholic chil-
dren are taken out of our schools and put in paro-
chial schools, to be taught according to the standards
and purposes of the Roman Catholic Church. They
are not going to get the same kind of education that
is received outside those schools. If they were
to receive the same kind of education afforded by
our schools, then they would not be taken from our
schools. We are to have, then, on the one hand,
American education. — for the public schools are not

Romanism and the Republic. 371

sectarian, in any sense — and, on the other hand, Ro-
man Catholic education. All denominations of Chris-
tians, and people not Christians, send their children
to the public schools ; and they are taught according
to the general standards of truth on which this nation
exists. In this camp, then, you have American edu-
cation : in that, you have Roman Catholic education.
Now, do you not see that, from their earliest child-
hood, the children are to be brought into hostility
and antagonism to one another? For, while the
children of the public schools may cherish a mag-
nanimous feeling toward those of the Roman Catholic
schools, you know that Romish education is never
magnanimous — never. You remember the charming
talk we had the other Sunday morning from the Rev.
Mr. Beaudry, who said to me (speaking of his early
education) : "My mother, who was a saint, told me
the following, when I was a child : She said, 'Martin
Luther was so bad a man that, before he died, the
fires of hell burned within him. They burned so
fiercely that he would shriek and scream with anguish
because of their flame and heat. He used to be
put,' said my mother, 'in a tub of cold water, and
the water, in a few moments, would boil around him,
because of the fires of hell that were in him."' And
he said : "I believed that, and was trained up in
that belief; and Luther and Lucifer were inter-
changeable terms in my early thought." Now, he
told this, as being a matter of education in his early
life and experience.

372 Romanism and the Republic.

This gentlemanly man who stood here, who was
converted after nearly three years' study of the
Holy Scriptures, said that was what he was taught.
Do you not see that, if any approximation to that is
taught, — if the history which Rome teaches and
tolerates is taught, — we are to have hostile camps of
American citizens growing up ; or rather, American
citizens on the one side, and devotees of Rome on
the other? What does that promise for the future
of the nation? I see in it only threatenings of evil.
But in Roman Catholic schools, it is possible that the
study of history may be forbidden.

An ex-Roman Catholic, writing in the (Jongrega-
tionalist of September 27, states the following : "In
Ireland, where priestly power is supreme, no history
is allowed to be taught. The children may be taught
anything — Greek and Latin roots, algebra, chemistry
— everything, in fact, except history : but history
and the Bible are forbidden. Are the rising gene-
rations of the American children to be forbidden the
knowledge of history as it is, or of the Bible? The
Bible is forbidden : is history to be forbidden also?"
I am told that the History substituted for Swinton's
in Boston, leaves out the mention of Indulgences as
one of the causes of the Reformation. Is that his-
tory which suppresses fact? Is that history which
leaves out truth? Is that what children are to be
taught? Are facts to be left out, until only so much
remains as will indorse Romanism? If so, all will
be left out ; for there is no history that indorses

Romanism and the Republic. 373

Romanism, so far as I have ever been able to find
or read.

Finally, we are told that some of our schoolhouses
in this State are almost empty now ; and we are con-
fronted with the practical fact, that so largely have
the parochial schools drawn on the attendance at these
schools, that now there is no need of those buildings
for school purposes. They stand empty. Confronted
with such a problem, what are we to do with those
buildings? I have a little plan in my mind, which I
think would work well. There is a good deal said
now about industrial education ; and in those build-
ings, by means of the lathe, the chisel and the brush,
I would teach the young to earn their living by cun-
ning handicraft and skill. And, my friends, I would
turn some of those empty school-buildings into refor-
matories and penal institutions ; and I would see that
they were provided with proper guardians and over-
seers ; and that truth, morality, and righteousness
were taught in them. And if we should turn these
empty school-buildings into reformatory institutions,
and put over them proper persons, I think it is pretty
certain that we should have a very considerable per
centage of the attendants at parochial schools back
in them after a very short time.

Sermon XffiL

THE ROMISH CONFESSIONAL: WHAT IT IS, AND
WHAT IT DOES.

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if
ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses." Gospel according
to St. Matthew, 6th chapter, 12, 14 and 15 verses.
Also in the Epistle of St. James, 5th chapter, 16th
verse : "Confess your faults one to another, and pray
one for another, that ye may be healed."

In the presence of the great God against whom
we have all sinned, and in whose sight we have all
done evil, we solemnly undertake to-night, not
merely the ungrateful task of pointing out the errors
and crimes of the ecclesiastical confessional ; but, in
contrast thereto, of inquiring, What is the true con-
fession which every soul should make to a holy and
righteous God? As there is no creed, no system, no
form of faith which does not recognize the fact of sin
against God and his law ; so there is no creed or sys-
tem which must not, of necessity, recognize the de-
sirability and necessity of our becoming so adjusted

Romanism and the Republic. 375

to the God against whom we have sinned that we
can live in peace with Him. All systems of religion,
nearly, embrace the principle of sacrifice ; and sacri-
fice is always an attempt on the part of the sinner to
placate the God against whom he has offended.
Whatever may be our association with men, and
whatever may be our harmony, or want of harmony,
with the laws and statutes of the State, the relations
which we sustain to God, and those alone, can prop-
erly be designated as sinful or righteous. Against
the laws of the State we can say that we commit
crime, but we do not say we commit sin ; for sin is a
transgression of the law of God ; and he who com-
mits sin offends directly the Majesty of heaven.
Therefore, the sinner must come to God ; or hear
from God concerning a way of forgiveness, in order
that he may be saved.

Confession is necessary in order to pardon. "Who-
so covereth his sin, shall not prosper; but whoso
confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy."
On the deep principles of that philosophy which
understands thoroughly human nature, is based the
duty of confession. No one is in a condition to be
pardoned for the guilt that he has acquired, while he
covers and denies his fault ; but in that moment
when he honestly confesses the same, he has put
himself in a condition whereby, other arrangements
being made on the part of the just God, he, on his
part, can be relieved from the burden of guilt and
sin.

376 Romanism and the Republic.

In that wonderful prayer from which the first of
our texts is taken, our blessed Lord tells us where
to go, and how, in order that we may be forgiven
our trespasses and discharged of our debts. No sug-
gestion of any other interposition than His own is
implied ; no intimation that any other person than
God need be approached. Here, the child who ad-
dresses his Father-God, and who asks with the faith
of the little sparrows, assisted by the majestic reason
of the man, for daily bread ; and who, in his love of
righteousness, prays for the coming of that kingdom
which is the greatest blessing to all mankind, — the
child, recollecting his own sin, humbly entreats the
divine Father: "Forgive: forgive us our debts, as
we forgive our debtors."

Where is there any suggestion that any person
other than God need be present with this humble
and penitent soul when he prays, in order that he
may be relieved of his debt, and forgiven his tres-
passes? Or if we turn to the text in St. James,
which has been made much of by those who distort
the Scriptures to favor auricular confession, we hear
it said: "Confess your faults one to another, and
pray one for another, that ye may be healed." In
this Apostolic declaration, it is evident that one man
is under just as much obligation to confess his fault
as is another; and that if there is any law by which
a man is to confess his sins to a priest, by that same
law the priest is to confess his sins to that man ; and
if it be necessary that the priest should pray for a
man in order that the man should be forgiven, it is

Romanism and the Republic. 377

equally necessary that the man should pray for the
priest in order that the priest may be forgiven.
"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for
another, that ye may be healed." "The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much ;"
but if the man who offers the prayer is not a right-
eous man, whether he be priest, bishop, or pope, his
prayer availeth nothing.

The divine mystery of forgiveness has a deeper
signification than appears on the surface, with which
you who have heard the Gospel all your lives are
entirely familiar. The provision for human forgive-
ness and salvation is by one great sacrifice, that of
Jesus Christ, — by one great mediator, Jesus Christ,
— by one great high priest, Jesus Christ ; and by
Him alone.

Now, on the evidence of perverted Scriptural
texts — of casuistry, which is unreasonable — of super-
stitions, which cannot stand the light of truth — in
the interests of priestly tyranny and ecclesiastical
emolument, the Roman Catholic Church has built up,
in the face of Heaven, the tower of auricular confes-
sion, far more injurious to mankind than the tower
of Babel ever was, and producing more confusion in
the minds of their devotees than ever that Baby-
lonian tower produced in the tongues of its builders.
Auricular confession is one with the boundless cor-
ruptions of an immoral theology — of Pope worship,
image worship, mass worship, saint worship, — is a
part of paganism, from first to last ; creates a thou-
sand times more sin than ever it rid the world of j

378 Romanism and the Republic.

puts an iron collar around the neck of every Roman
Catholic, and drags him, heart-broken and unhelped,
behind the car of ecclesiastical espionage and of
papal power. Confession is necessary, according to
the reasoning of the Roman Catholic Church, in
order to absolution ; absolution is necessary in order
to the communion ; the communion, or the mass, is
necessary in order to salvation ; and, therefore, the
confessional must precede salvation, and every man
must be drawn through it to be saved.

I am reminded of those fires of Moloch through
which the children of the heathen were drawn in
order to be saved ; and I truly think that they got
as near to God when they were drawn through the
fires of Pagan idolatry, as the Roman Catholic can
get by being dragged through the slums of auricular
confession.

A very distinguished and learned priest, in New
York, only a few days ago, stated to me, that it was just
here the light dawned upon his mind with reference
to the falsities of the church in which hefound himself.
This very distinguished priest said : "I found myself
five hundred miles from any other priest in Dakota.
The nearest priest to me was an illiterate man — a
man, so far as I know, of no elevation of character.
I remembered while there, that if I were dying, it
would be necessary for me to confess and receive
absolution and extreme unction ; and I knew that it
was impossible for me to get the priest there, so that
I might confess and receive his absolution ; there-
fore," he said, "it dawned upon my mind that the

Romanism and the Republic. 379

church had exacted of me an impossibility ; that I
could not pass through the ceremonial of confession
and absolution and extreme unction, because I was a
missionary, and five hundred miles from any other
priest ; therefore I was sure to be lost." And he
said: "As I walked the hills of Dakota and medi-
tated on that, it so opened my mind to the falsehoods
of the theology to which I was bound, that at length,
having fully considered it and made up my mind that
it was all wrong, I sat down and wrote a letter to my
bishop, saying that I resigned my charge. I packed
up what little effects I had (I left three or four hun-
dred dollars of salary that I suppose I had a right to) ,
and directed my steps to New York, where I might
meet men who would tell me more plainly the way
of life." And I said : "I wonder why it is, Doctor,
(he held his doctorate of divinity from the Roman
University,) that you were so many years finding
this out." He said : "I cannot tell you, sir. It is
a strange fatuity that holds us ; but how plain it is
when once we turn our reason upon it."

It is in the confessional that Rome has its strong-
est hold upon its devotees. It is here that you find
the reason why the men who are ashamed of the
falsehoods of their faith cannot break with it ; be-
cause the spies of the confessional are continually on
their tracks, searching their inmost thoughts and
daily actions ; and there is not an hour in which
they are free from the oversight of their tyrants, who
watch them with the purpose of holding them still
captives.

380 Romanism and the Republic.

It is my purpose on this and on subsequent occa-
sions, to open the door of the confessional, and to
reveal, as it is, this sacrament, so-called, of the
Roman Catholic Church, which, more than any other
power, restrains the liberties of her people, mental
and spiritual ; and in order that in our consideration
of it you may know that what I state will bear the
scrutiny of the most careful eye,

1. I propose to state who are the witnesses
whom I summon in order to tell you about the con-
fessional. It is necessary, of course, that those wit-
nesses should be unimpeachable. I have heard no
answer yet to the suggestion which I made, that if
the Roman Catholic priests or people were disposed
to controvert my views publicly, they should have
the opportunity ; but, none the less, I am resolved
that every word that I speak shall be so established
that there can be no successful contradiction of it.
One of the authors from whom I shall quote most
freely to-night, says: " In contending with Rome,
be sure you give your authorities ; because it is the
fashion and usage of that Church to deny what is not
incontestably proven against it."

The first authority that I shall quote is De Sanctis,
concerning whom we have the following facts, which
will interest this audience. " Dr. De Sanctis was
thoroughly versed in the mysteries of the confes-
sional, as may be inferred from the fact that for
fourteen years he exercised the office of confessor,
and that for seven he held the highly responsible
post of parish priest at Rome — being thus, in con-

Romanism and the Republic. 381

formity with Papal usage, brought into intimate
relation with the secret police ; while for ten years
he fulfilled, though reluctantly, the office of consult-
er to the Roman Inquisition, and would hence be
introduced behind the scenes of the religious and
political drama enacted at the Papal See." It is
said further concerning him, that " fully aware of the
extent of the loss he was about to undergo ; knowing
that he exchanged honor for disgrace, wealth for
poverty, fame and distinction for obscurity and dis-
repute ; he heeded not the amount of the sacrifice,
but forsaking country, family and friends, he counted
all things but dross, so that he might enjoy the clear
sunshine of an untroubled conscience, and proclaim
with untrammelled freedom the rich mercies of the
Gospel, in all their purity and fulness. It is curious
that for his emancipation he was indebted to one of
the many honors heaped on him, till they almost
equalled in number the years he had been in Holy
Orders. Being appointed to deliver a course of
lectures against heretics, he received a license to
read their works. Gradually, the light of Divine
truth dawned more and more clearly on his mind ;
and the more earnestly he strove and prayed to be
led into the right way, the more did his growing
persuasion of the errors of the Church of Rome
deepen in intensity. To maintain a struggle against
conviction was inconsistent with the candor and
the integrity conspicuous in the character of De
Sanctis ; and henceforth he resolved to preach the

382 Romanism and the Republic.

faith which he lately studied to destroy." (Preface
to De Sanctis on The Confessional.)

There is no more reason for discrediting De
Sanctis than there is St. Paul : he followed that
illustrious apostle of the Gentiles in an almost
similar course. Pius IX. (at that time Cardinal
Feretti,) went to Malta, to which place De Sanctis
was exiled ; and, falling on his neck, entreated him
with all the art of which he was capable, to return to
the bosom of the Koman Catholic Church ; but he
preferred poverty and exile for the sake of the Lord
Jesus Christ. From him, as an authority, I shall
freely quote, holding in my hand a book of his writ-
ing, entitled: "Confession: a Doctrinal and His-
torical Essay."

2. I shall also quote Pierre Hyacinthe, whom we
know as Father Hyacinthe, the distinguished
preacher at the Church of Notre Dame in Paris.
Notre Dame is one of the grandest cathedrals under
whose arches man ever stood. In that vast church
thousands sat to listen to the rare eloquence of this
man ; who, finding himself at variance with the Pope
and the theologians of Rome, abandoned the highest
honors, and took an obsure position as preacher of
Jesus Christ.

3. I shall also quote Charles Chiniquy, known as
Father Chiniquy, of Canada, who was fifty years a
member of the Roman Catholic Church, and twenty-
three years a priest. Concerning Father Chiniquy,
the following facts may interest you, as showing
that he was fully accredited by the Roman Catholio

Romanism and the Republic. 383

Church, and that it is impossible to break down his
testimony.

It is said here by his biographer (Father Chiniquy
is still living ; he spoke in Boston two weeks ago),
that " the great city of Montreal, moved to gratitude
by his service to the cause of temperance, presented
him with a gold medal, on one side of which was:
"To Father Chiniquy, Apostle of Temperance,
Canada," and on the other, " Honor to his Virtues,
Zeal and Patriotism." Moreover, the Pope extended
to him his blessing. On the tenth of August, 1850,
a letter, of which the following is a translation, and
of which I will read a part, was sent to Canada by
Charles T. Baillargeon : "I have taken the oppor-
tunity to present to him (the Pope) your book, with
the letter, which he has received — I do not say, with
that goodness which is so eminently characteristic —
but with all special marks of satisfaction and of
approbation, while charging me to state to you that
he accords his Apostolic Benediction to you and to
the holy work of temperance which you preach."
Signed, after much more of the same import,
" Charles T. Baillargeon, Priest."

Moreover, the Bishop of Montreal, when Father
Chiniquy, in 1851, left his old field for a new one,
wrote him a letter that says, among other things :
" You ask me the permission to leave the diocese to
offer your services to the Monseigneur of Chicago.
As you belong to the diocese of Quebec, I believe
that it appertains to Monseigneur the Archbishop
to give you the exeat which you ask. For me, I

384 Romanism and the Republic.

cannot but thank you for your labors among us.
You shall ever be in ray remembrance and in my
heart, and I hope the Divine Providence will permit
me at a future time to testify to you all the gratitude
that I feel within me. Meanwhile, I remain, dear
sir, Your very humble and obedient servant,

Ignatius,
M. Chiniquy, Priest. Bishop of Montreal.

Many times since then, Roman Catholic mobs have
tried to kill this man, and still he lives to bear wit-
ness against the evils of Romanism and the wicked-
ness of priests.

4. I shall also quote the Rev. Mr. Aubin, of this
city, a Baptist minister, brought up a Roman Catho-
lic, and a highly reputable man among us, who has
told me some things concerning the confesssional.
I shall quote also from the Rev. L. N. Beaudry, who
stood in this pulpit not long since and addressed
this congregation, and who is an esteemed minister
of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

5. I shall quote also from J. Blanco White, who
for many years was a priest in the city of Seville in
Spain. He had a most excellent reputation among
all men, and was a member of the Protestant Church
for the space of fifteen years, after renouncing Rome.

6. I shall quote also fi'om Henrietta Carracciolo,
who was the daughter of Marshal Carracciolo. She
gives us the result of her observations and experience
in a work entitled "Twenty Years in aNeopolitan Con-
vent." The high character of this lady, not excelled

Romanism and the Republic. 385

by that of any woman in the world, guarantees, as
does the corroboration of her testimony, the reli-
ability of her words. But more than this. These are
but a few of the many on whose testimony I shall rely.
I shall read a letter in one of these books, signed by
forty-nine Roman Catholic women, testifying to the
abominableness of the confessional. These forty-
nine are only a part of hundreds and thousands that
in Canada have renounced the Roman Catholic
Church and have become Protestant Christians. I
shall quote also from numerous priests.

In order that you may know that what I state
cannot be controverted, even from the Roman Catho-
lic standpoint, I shall quote the theologians of Rome
in their confessions and their questions to priests.

7. For example, I shall quote from Kenrick's
"Theology," which devotes seventeen pages to a con-
sideration of the dangers resulting to priests in the
confessional, from the character of questions which
they are compelled to ask. I can give you the asser-
tions of Roman Catholic authorities almost without
number.

When I come to the final testimony, that is to be
relied upon as beyond all controversy, I shall have
in my possession the questions which the young priests
are taught that they must ask in the confessional.
I was given by a priest, the other day, the book
which he studied in the college of St. Mary in Balti-
more, where he prepared to be a priest, the work of
Bishop Bouvier, also the work of Peter Dens, also of
Liguori and of Debreyne, — all of these containing

386 Romanism and the Republic.

exactly what these priests are compelled to study
and to ask of their penitents in the confessional.

Now my friends, something is to follow our consi-
deration of this matter ; something is to be done when
we have learned the horrors of the confessional.
When I have given you testimony that cannot be
controverted, I want you to have so examined it, to
so listen and to so satisfy yourselves, that if you are
called upon to vote in this city as to whether Roman-
ism shall dominate our schools and ourselves, you
will not cringe and cower as so many times our
American municipalities have done ; but will know
enough, and have courage enough, and heart and
manhood sufficient to say to Rome, "Hands off!
You are not fit to take control of any municipality
in the nineteenth century." In other words, I want
you, my friends, to have the truth, so as to act right ;
to act with that vigor, that assurance, that honor and
that fearlessness with which our heroes acted in times
gone by, when their convictions had to change for a
time to defensive blows to save the nation from its
enemies.

What, then, is auricular confession? The word
"auricular" means, confession in the ear; and of
course it means confession in the ear of a priest.

1. Most copious authorities prove that Roman
Catholicism has borrowed this, as it has borrowed
many other things, from paganism. I have here a
list of a dozen authorities who agree in the following
facts: "Auricular confession was enjoined in the
Elusiuian Mysteries, by Zoroaster in Persia, Buddha

Romanism and the Republic. 387

in India, and was practiced by the ancient Babylonians
and Egyptians, the Mexicans before Cortez, the Peru-
vians before Pizarro, by the Japanese, the Siamese,
and others." In the list of those historians, not to read
them all, we have Wilkinson in his " Ancient Egypt,"
Bancroft in his "Native Races," and other equally
reliable authorities. We have also direct testimony
that the priests of Bacchus, who was the God of wine,
listened to auricular confession ; and I beg you to
notice what is said by a distinguished priest, confirm-
ing the truth of this statement : ' ' Nobody can be
surprised that the priests, the bishops and the Popes
of Rome are sunk into such a bottomless abyss of
infamy, when we remember that they are nothing else
than the successors of the priests of Bacchus and
Jupiter. For not only have they inherited their
powers ; but they have even kept their very robes
and mantles on their shoulders, and their caps on
their heads. Like the priests of Bacchus, the priests
of the Pope are bound never to marry, by the impi-
ous and godless laws of celibacy. For every one
knows that the priests of Bacchus were, as the priests
of Rome, celibates. But, like the priests of the Pope,
the priests of Bacchus, to console themselves for the
restraints of celibacy, had invented auricular confes-
sion. Through the secret confidences of the confes-
sional, the priests of the old idols, as well as those of
the newly invented wafer-gods, knew who were
strong and weak among their fair penitents ; and
under the veil "of the sacred mysteries," during the
night celebration of their diabolical rites, they knew

388 Romanism and the Republic.

to whom they could address themselves, and make
their vows of celibacy an easy yoke." "Let those
who want more information on that subject read the
poems of Juvenal, Propertius, and Tibbellus. Let
them peruse all the historians of old Rome, and they
will see the perfect resemblance which exists between
priests of the Pope and those of Bacchus, in reference
to the vows of celibacy, the secrets of auricular
confession, celebration of the so-called " sacred mys-
teries," and the unmentionable moral corruption of
the two systems of religion. In fact, when one reads
the poems of Juvenal, he thinks he has before him
the books of Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, and Kenrick."

It was not until the year 1215 that auricular con-
fession became a dogma of the Roman Catholic
Church. Prior to that time, confession was volun-
tary. At that time Innocent III. issued to the Lat-
eran Council the edict by which, from that time,
confession became compulsory ; so, evidently, it is
one of the later dogmas of the Roman Catholic
Church. As Roman Catholics are compelled to be-
lieve, since 1850, in the Immaculate Conception, and,
since 1870, in the Infallibility of the Pope ; so, since
1215, they have been compelled to believe in Auricu-
lar Confession, under penalty of mortal sin.

2. Where is this confession heard? If you go
into a Roman Catholic Church, you are likely to see
what are called confessional boxes. They are little
houses, large enough on the inside for one or two per-
sons to sit. There is a grated window, at which the
penitent kneels, on the outside. You find these in

Romanism and the Republic. 389

all the great Eoraan Catholic Churches of the Old
World ; and, I suppose, in this country, although I
have visited fewer Roman Catholic Churches here.
The priest, sitting in the inside of this confessional-
box, as it is called, receives the confession of the
kneeling penitent on the outside. But not only
there : the confession can be taken in a private house
or private room, as we have known in this city of a
priest taking the confession from his penitent in his
parlor. It may also be received in the sick room,
on the dying bed ; but is always, I believe, con-
ducted in private, only the priest and the penitent
being present. Now, who are compelled to confess?
3. The answer to that question is, that every-
body is compelled to confess ; and that everybody is
compelled to confess everything. For instance ; I
find here, from "Butler's Catechism" — a standard
authority — the following statement, approved by
several bishops of Quebec. On page (52 it reads :
"That all penitents should examine themselves on
the capital sins, and confess them all, without excep-
tion, under penalty of eternal damnation." We find
in this book of Do Sanctis, on page 21, that confes-
sion is absolutely necessary for forgiveness and sal-
vation. In Bishop Hay's "Sincere Christian," the
following question and answer occur: "Is this [au-
ricular] confession of our sins necessary for obtain-
ing absolution? It is ordained by Jesus Christ as
absolutely necessary for this purpose." We have,
on the 118th page, this statement: "In Rome, all
religious instruction consists in teaching the people

390 Romanism and the Republic.

to confess. Confession and Roman Christianity are
their convertible terms. Do you wish to know a
so-called good Christian ? It is he who confesses
frequently. Do you wish to carry a certificate of
Christianity ? Carry a certificate of confession. The
servants of the Cardinals cannot touch their wages
at the beginning of the month, unless they pre-
sent the certificate of confession. Meanwhile, relig-
ious ignorance is such, that they do not even know
that there is a book called the Bible, containing the
Word of God. The people's article of faith is : * I
believe all that the Holy Church believes.' Such
religious ignorance engenders superstitions, infidelity,
immorality, and the loss of souls. But what signi-
fies it ? Such ignorance maintains confession ? " That
is by De Sanctis, who himself heard confessions in
Rome for many years.

4. Now, as to the frequency of confession : the
more frequent the confession, the more pious the
person who confesses is supposed to be. When
Martin Luther was in the bondage of Rome, he was
accustomed to confess every day, and sometimes
more than once a day. Other priests of the Roman
Catholic Church are reported to confess once a day,
and once a week ; and sometimes the nuns, it is said,
remain for two and three hours in the confessional,
two or three times a day ! But it is absolutely neces-
sary, in order that a person shall have any standing
in the Roman Catholic Church, that he shall take the
communion at least once a year, and he cannot take
the communion without confessing prior to it, and

Romanism and the Republic. 391

receiving the absolution of the priest. Therefore,
the Roman Catholic must confess once a year, and is
commended for confessing as frequently as once a
day.

5. What must be confessed? I already have
read you one authority, "Butler's Catechism," with
reference to that. But, further, I answer, the person
who confesses to the priest, must confess every deed,
every word, every thought, every dream. He, must
confess everything that has passed in his mind, or
passed in his words, or in his acts, concerning which
he is doubtful, and concerning which he is not in
doubt. Let me give you an authority for that state-
ment: "When the Council of Lateran decide1 that
every adult, of either sex, should confess all their
sins to a priest at least once a year, there was no
exception made for any special class of sins, not even
those committed against modesty or purity. And
when the Council of Trent ratified or renewed
the previous decision, no exception was made,
either, of the sins in question. They were ex-
pected and ordered to be confessed as all other
sins. The law of both Councils is still unre-
pealed, and binding for all sins, without any ex-
ception." It is imperative, absolute; and every
good Catholic, man or woman, must submit to it, by
confessing all his or her sins, at least once a year.
The celebrated controversial catechism of Rev.
Stephen Keenan, approved by the bishops of Ireland,
positively says (page 186) : "The penitent must
confess all his sins." And anything left out of the

392 Romanism and the Republic.

confession so vitiates it, that it is not a good confes-
sion. If a person goes to the confessional and con-
fesses ninety-nine out of a hundred sins, and leaves
out that one sin, the confession is of nothing worth.
I want you to notice this ; because of the tortures that
it inflicts on conscientious people who go to the con-
fession. They are requested and desired to recall
every sin, every thought, word, dream, imagination
that they have had which may be considered a sin,
mortal or venial. If they try to do it, they may fail.
If they fail, they cannot be absolved for the sin ; and
if they fail in confessing everything, they are lost.
They struggle to find the sins — all of them, — and in
their struggle reveal a thousand things which should
never be on human lips ; at least, which should never
pass between any man or woman and the celibate
priest in the privacy of the confessional. But Father
Chiniquy says, that the fear and anguish which many
conscientious Roman Catholics have, lest their con-
fession is not a good one, is a source of continual
distress to them.

Moreover, these fears as to the quality of the con-
fession not only work exceeding grief to a soul, but
they afford an opportunity for the diabolical ingenu-
ity of the bad priests to question and search and
probe and discover the deepest, the minutest, and
the most sacred secrets of the soul. "Though the
penitent is told that he must confess his thoughts
only according to his best recollection, he will never,
never know if he has done his best to remember
everything ; he will constantly fear lest he has not

Romanism and the Republic. 393

done his best to count and confess them correctly."
" Every honest priest, if he speak the truth, will at
once admit that his most intelligent and pious peni-
tents, particularly among women, are constantly
tortured by the fear of having omitted to confess
some sinful deeds or thoughts. Many of them, after
having already made several general confessions " (a
general confession is of all one's sins from the begin-
ning of one's life,) "are constantly urged, by the
pricking of their conscience, to begin afresh, in the
fear that their first confessions had some serious
defects. Those past confessions, instead of being a
source of spiritual joy and peace, are, on the con-
trary, like so many Damocles' swords, day and night
suspended over their heads, filling their souls with
the terrors of an eternal death. Sometimes the
terror-stricken consciences of those honest and pious
women tell them that they were not sufficiently con-
trite; at another time, they reproach them for not
having spoken sufficiently plain on some things fitter
to make them blush."

But there is a deeper dread than this which makes
the confession an engine of torture. It is this :
Every sacrament may be vitiated and made of none
account by what is called the intention of the priest.
Now the Doctrine of Intention in the Roman Catholic
Church is this : suppose that a priest is about to perform
the mass, and he has not the intention of really per-
forming it, then the bread over which he has said the
mummery of the mass, is not, as they suppose, the
real body of Christ, but only bread ; and therefore,

394 Romanism and the Republic.

for them, all its character is vitiated. Suppose that
a priest stands up to many a man and a woman, and
in his intention he resolves that the ceremony shall
not be what it seems to be, then these people are
not married, according to the Roman Catholic Church.
Suppose that the priest hears a confession in the con-
fessional, and it is in his intention that the words of
absolution which he speaks shall not really absolve
the penitent, then the penitent is not absolved. So
a vicious priest, who has not the intention of carrying
out the sacraments as they appear on the surface,
may jeopardize the eternal salvation of every soul
who confesses to him. Do you see in what torture
the Roman Catholic is ?

Sometimes people are inclined to go over to
the Roman Catholic Church, because they are so
unspeakably lazy that they want somebody to attend
to their religion for them, while they attend to the
world, the flesh and the devil ; but remember, that if
you go over to the Roman Catholic Church, and if
you leave the intention demanded by your sins to a
priest, it may be that he will simply make an
inclined plane for you, through the confessional box,
to that ruin which you are trying to escape.

The probing questions of the priests enter deep
into the soul of the penitent. Back of every word I
say now, there is a revelation that I must not make
to you about the questions that the priests, from the
time they begin to take confession, are permitted,
commanded, and compelled to ask.

Romanism and the Republic. 395

I remember hearing the story told by Father
Chiniquy of a beautiful woman in the house of whose
father he had frequently been a visitor, coming one
day to his confessional box, when he was a young
priest. She knelt down beside the box at the little
grated window, and her deep sobs and ejaculated
prayers wrung his heart, for he knew not their cause.
When he gently spoke to her, she answered, and
besought him in the name of all that was good, for
the sake of her soul, that he would not ask her the
questions that her former two confessors had asked.
She said to him : " When I went to the first, I was a
spotless, stainless woman. He asked me those
questions that poisoned and degraded my soul and
blackened my life. The sin which followed was only
the natural consequence. I left him in the bitterness
of my spirit, and went, after a year of sin, to another
confessor, an old man. The same thing followed
again ; and now," said she, " I come to you, and I say
to you, if you will promise not to ask me those soul-
damning questions, I will confess to what a woman
ought to confess ; but unless you promise I will not
confess." He said to her : " I am compelled to ask
counsel as to whether you must confess or not. I
shall be obliged to go to my own confessor, to con-
sult the authorities of the Church." He went.
They told him that it was not in his province to decide
what he would ask in the confessional ; that he must
ask what the theologians and fathers of the Holy
Church had prescribed. He came back to the con-
fessional on another day. The broken-hearted and

396 Romanism and the Republic.

beautiful woman was there. Once more she prof-
fered her request ; and when he said to her : " I am
compelled by the law of the Church to ask you
those questions," she fell fainting on the cushions
where she knelt. He rushed out, lifted her up, and
and carried her to her home. The shock was too
great for her. She steadily declined, and was on her
dying bed. He went to visit her, in order to give
her the last rites of the Church. It was necessary,
before she could have extreme unction, that she
should be prepared for death by confession ; and he
said to her, " I have no alternative ; I must ask you
these questions." She said: "I will not listen to
them. You preached from the story of the Prodigal
Son ; it was that which awakened me when I was
living in sin with the priest who had ruined me.
Now I will not listen to those questions. I will throw
myself into the arms of my Saviour, and die as I
may." The lalt words she uttered were : "I shall
not be lost." Her mother heard that last word "lost,"
and rushed into the room to find her daughter dead ;
and lived in the belief, from which Father Chiniquy
could not deliver her, because of the secrecy of the
confessional, that her child had refused to receive
the last rites of the Church, and was lost.

One such fact as that will damn forever auricular
confession : and when I say to you that facts like that
are numbered by thousands and millions ; that the
witnesses to them are priests without number and
authorities uncounted ; then I give you an idea of the
kind of questioning, of the subtle inquiry, of the

Romanism and the Republic. 397

degrading methods for probing the conscience and
searching the soul, that are adopted in the Roman
Catholic confessional.

I believe there are priests who break the laws
of the Church ; that are too manly to ask those ques-
tions ; that evade them and avoid them : but if they
do, they do it at their peril, for the law of the Church
is against them.

6. What follows confession? Absolution. What
is that? Let me read the words, or part of them, in
which the absolution is given. When the penitent
has confessed, the priest uses the following language :
" The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits
of the blessed Mary always Virgin, and of all the
saints, and whatever good you have done, and what-
ever evil you have suffered, be unto you for the
remission of sins, the increase of grace, and the reward
of eternal life. Amen." This is a part, an illustra-
tive part, of the absolution which follows confession ;
and if the penitent believes that the priest has that
power, and can believe with easy conscience that he
has answered all the questions and confessed all the
sins, he goes forth fondly believing that he is forgiven
before God.

What follows ? Why is it that the priest stands up
in the presence of his congregation with that haughty
air of arrogant pride? Why is it that the priest, as he
walks among his flock, carries himself as if he had
positive and absolute authority over their thoughts
and their consciences ? Why is it that when you meet
him on the street he tosses up his head as though he

398 Romanism and the Republic.

were a demigod, and hardly needed to tread on com-
mon earth ? It is because he has the secrets of his
flock, the personal and private life of those who have
confessed, and those who have not confessed, whose
servants and families have brought him the informa-
tion. It is because he is virtually a spy in every
home, and knows every heart; and knows that, if he
wishes to, he can force them by his knowledge to
yield to his power and come under his sway. No
wonder that he carries himself in the pride of presump-
tion and arrogance as a master ; no wonder that from
the altar he threatens them with cursing if they refuse
to obey his will. And this, in my judgment, after
careful study, is the reason for auricular confession
in the church of Rome.

There is another point that I must touch before I
part with this theme to-night, in order that I may
get sufficiently along with the subject to meet the
further demands of another occasion like this. All
the confession of the penitent is declared to be abso-
lutely secret and kept in the bosom of the confessor.
That is the theory of the Roman Catholic Church.
Every word spoken to the priest in the confes-
sional is an absolute secret between him and the
penitent ; so that, I suppose, if a Roman Catholic
priest in this city had knowledge of any matter
whatever, whether relating to an individual or a
community, delivered to him in the privacy of the
confessional, he would not be compelled by any law
of the State to tell what he knows, even though disclos-
ure might lead to the protection of virtue or the

Romanism and the Republic. 399

overthrow of evil doing. Let me read you the theory
of the church in its own words : " It is not lawful to
reveal anything that is told in confession, though it
be to avoid the greatest evil that can happen ; or to
save a whole commonwealth from damage, temporal or
spiritual ; or to save the lives of all the kings in
Christendom. The seal of confession must be main-
tained even by falsehood and perjury ; though the loss
of a man's life, or the ruin of the State, be the conse-
quence : nor can the Supreme Pontiff dispense with
the obligation," says Dens, in his Theology. " The
seal is an obligation of Divine right most strictly in
every case, even where the safety of a whole nation
is at stake," says St. Liguori. " But, Father ! it
may happen that my confessor will make known my
sin to another. What do you say ? Know that the
confessor is bound to suffer himself to be burnt alive
sooner than disclose a single venial sin confessed by
a penitent." Such is the theory of the Roman Cath-
olic Church and under the pledge of such secrecy all
confessions are made.

Do you believe that they would be made if the
penitent were aware that the seal of the confession
was as easily broken as the other pledges of the
Roman Catholic church ? Can you imagine that man-
hood and womanhood would make absolute surrender
of all the facts, the thoughts, the dreams of their
lives to another if they supposed that that other
would ever reveal those secrets? And yet I say
to-night, on the most unimpeachable authority, that
the secrets of the confessional, from Popes who have

400 Romanism and the Republic.

been confessors down, are not only the subject of
rude jest and free conversation and open comment ;
but they have been the means of working ruin to
those who have made confession, by their betrayal
to the civil and other authorities, even when such
men have been only the friends of liberty and endeav-
oring to make free the State. So abundant is this
testimony that I hardly know how to take hold of it,
for the very brief moment which I can use to speak
upon it. I find De Sanctis saying, on page 122,
exactly what Father O'Connor said to me in New
York only a few days ago, as follows : " But while the
penitent arraigns his faults with all the fatuity of a
simpleton, what is the confessor doing? Laughing
at the simplicity of the penitent : and afterwards, in
the priestly orgies that follow a morning of great
confessions, in the hilarity that flows from wine,
amidst coarse explosions of laughter, they describe
the stupid folly of their penitents, and each priest
vies with his brother in rendering his own penitents
more ridiculous than the rest. To such a degree is
the individual debased and degraded by confession."
Further I find upon turning to a historical authority,
that Pius V., Pope of Rome, " for the punishment
of certain offences, took advantage of the confessional,
which ought to be an inviolable sanctuary." While
he was Cardinal, the extraordinary apparent piety of
his life made a great many flock to him for confession ;
"but they grievously misreckoned when they con-
fessed to a person who adroitly took care to assure
himself of name and surname, which he committed to

Romanism and the Republic. 401

his memorandum book, probably with the intention
of using the information at a fitting opportunity ; as
in fact he did. For no sooner was he made Pope,
than he gave the Governor of Rome a list of five per-
sons, three men and two women, supplying him
with the requisite particulars for finding them. He
took care, however, not to mention that they had
confessed to him, though he positively assured him
of the grave offence that each had committed. When
the Governor replied that justice was not accustomed
to imprisonment on informations, without the cer-
tainty of having witnesses, Pius answered : " When
you have imprisoned them, you can then, on the
assurance of our word and our conscience, put
them to the torture : for they will assuredly confess
the offences of which we inform you." This was the
act of Pope Pius V.

Pope Sextus V. summoned confessors, and said,
"That they could make a report to the Pontiff, with-
out any danger attached to revealing a confession, he
giving them absolution for the whole." That is, the
Pope, considering the fact that the confessors had
taken the oath of secrecy, absolved them from the
oath, and compelled them to tell the secrets of the
confessional to him, in order that he might enchain
the freedom of the mind, and in order that he might
destroy heretics. Page after page of testimony here
follows. Citations from historians of the highest
reputation are given to show how numerous the in-
stances, how unnumbered the occasions, on which
the confidence of the penitent has been betrayed

402 Romanism and the Republic.

rudely by the confessor. "The general opinion of
Roman Catholics is, that priests do not think of, nor
recollect, the sins they hear in confession, and much
less talk of or relate them to others ; but, with the
greatest regret, I can assert the contrary, and prove
the fact. Some lay people informed me, that they
heard several priests in company relating some sins
of a delicate nature, of which the said clergy acquired
knowledge in the confessional, under the seal of their
sacred tribunal, at which they were greatly scandal-
ized, but had not fortitude enough to reprimand, or
sufficient knowledge to report them to their superiors,
who ought to suspend them perpetually from their
office. I have been present in company at different
times, when I witnessed priests revealing heinous
sins sacramentally made known to them; some
priests informed, without the least necessity, of some
enormous crimes they heard in confession, perpe-
trated between . . . There it stops very properly.
(Rev. L. Morissey, Parish Priest, etc.)

Moreover, "several priests vie at times amongst
themselves, to know which of them can relate and
inform each other of the greatest and most odious
sins communicated to them in the sacred, confidential
tribunal. They take a secret pride in having it in their
power to make such communications." A bishop
informed me of the sins of one of his penitents, told
him in confession, who was a respectable lady, and an
acquaintance of mine. He even mentioned her name.
Some coolness existed between a certain priest and
myself, to whom I was in the habit of going to con-

Romanism and the Republic. 403

fession previous to our misunderstanding. In the
course of some time after, he revealed my sacra-
mental confession to others in my presence." So he
goes on to say : "I shall only say, that this sacra-
ment was considered before now as the pillar of the
Roman Catholic Church, through which grace was
conveyed and salvation obtained ; but now it is con-
sidered by many priests and prelates as the pillar of
the Holy Inquisition, the source of genuine informa-
tion for sanguinary purposes, the security of abso-
lute and universal influence, and the extermination of
heretical pravity." (Ibid.)

■ The following are the words of one who was him-
self a Popish priest for some time. Referring to
another priest, whom he occasionally met, he says :
"All our conversation ran upon the stories he heard
in confession. But he is not the only person who is
free in what he has heard, for it is the ordinary dis-
course of the priests, when they meet, to inform one
another of what they have heard in confession. This
I can assert, because I was often present at such con-
ferences, where the conversation was so indecent
that even an honest pagan would have blushed." (See
Elliot, "Delineation of Roman Catholicism.")

"Every day they [the Dominican monks] came,
and talked most licentiously, relating things that
had happened at the Holy Offiee at Perugia, confes-
sions they had heard, etc." This is from the bishop
of Pistoia, Scipio de Ricci, whose memoirs were so
scandalous that the Italian Government caused them
to be printed in order to give a reason why the Gov-

404 Romanism, and the Republic.

ernment had seized the property of the church, and
turned out the monks and nuns from the houses
which they had disgraced. My friends, only the
lack of time is a bar to my reading to you for half an
hour the most astonishing and undeniable testimony
on this subject. We have here an Italian patriot
telling us how the names of the patriots were dis-
covered through the confessional ; how the priests
delivered them up to the secular power and the In-
quisition ; and how, as a result, these men were im-
prisoned and exiled.

I will not take time to read you in his words the
fact that De Sanctis himself, when the Inquisition was
broken up and free Italy resumed control of the
Roman States, found in the library and archives of
the Inquisition volumes like ledgers, in which were
the names of the persons, whose confessions were on
adjacent pages, and there was the secret history
of their lives, written out for the use of the Papal
power, in order to the suppression of any revolt
against its authority. I have not time to tell you
how often the confession is betrayed ; how small a
tax is necessary in order that the priest may be
excused for it : nor have I time to tell you how the
priests bring their influence to bear upon the penitents
to get permission to reveal what they are determined
to reveal, whether the penitent shall give his consent
or not : for if the penitent refuses to give his consent
to the revelations of the confession, then the priest
refuses absolution, and the poor person stands, as he
supposes, in danger of immediate and final damnation.

Romanism and the Republic. 405

What does the confessional do ? These are proofs
of the manner in which its secresy is violated. Are
there Roman Catholics in this house to-night? are
there intelligent people here, members of that Church ;
who, unaware of the manner in which their confidence
is betrayed, have believed that this priestly absolu-
tion was simply the purpose of a good man to deliver
them from their sins? My friends, you are greatly
mistaken. The purpose of auricular confession is so
to enchain you that you shall not dare to break away
from the power of the priest ; and that you shall not
dare to think for yourselves in matters of religion or
anything else. It induces immorality and crime.
It degrades the priests and the penitents. It ruins the
State and assaults liberty. It plunders families by
means of the last and dying confession of their mem-
bers ; so that their wills are made in favor of the
church. It renders impossible religious progress. It
blights domestic happiness. It enchains all its devo-
tees ; and the truth of this statement I shall vindi-
cate by ample proof hereafter.

I turn from a picture so revolting — from a scene
so sad — remembering that multitudes of our fellow-
men are in this bondage : I turn to one of many
radiant lines of light from the Scriptures of Divine
Truth, which I pray you to carry with you in your
recollections of this hour. " Two men went up into
the temple to pray ; the one a Pharisee, and the
other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself: God, I thank Thee that I am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or

406 Romanism and the Republic.

even as this publican : I fast twice in the week, I
give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican,
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes
unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying,
"God be merciful to me a sinner." And what said
the Great High Priest of time and eternity concerning
this confession? " I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified, rather than the other : for every
one that exalteth himself shall be abased ; and he
that humbleth himself shall be exalted." O friends !
will not you preach this doctrine to our brethren of
the Romish Church ? Will you not carry this Bible
truth to those who sit in the shadow of religious
tyranny? Will you not tell them out of your own
heart, from your own experience, that the man,
however sinful, wherever he may be, who, in the
presence of God, smites upon his breast in humble
penitence, and confesses sin, praying " God be mer-
ciful to me a sinner," that man, by word of Jesus
Christ, is a justified man. Oh that the day may
come when the slaves of Rome shall have this justifi-
cation through Jesus Christ ; and when you and I,
and all of us, can tell them, that we, for our part,
know what it is by a blessed experience. Amen.

Sermon XW.

THE ROMISH CONFESSIONAL, WHAT IT IS,
AND WHAT IT DOES.

The Romish Confessional cannot have the sanction
of God.

We find the words of our text to-night, as we pur-
sue the subject of the Roman Catholic Confessional,
in the Second Epistle General of Peter, the second
chapter, and the nineteenth verse: "While they
promise them liberty, they themselves are the
servants of corruption ; for of whom a man is over-
come, of the same is he brought in bondage." The
eighteenth verse reads: "For when they speak
great swelling words of vanity, they allure through
the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness,
those that were clean escaped from them who live
in error."

Every person in this congregation, I hope, at some
time has thanked God for the story of the Prodigal
Son. Of all the words of Jesus Christ, the good
Shepherd of the sheep, who sought after us to save us,
there are none more tender than these. Many of
this congregation know, by personal experience, the
history of a youth who wasted his substance with

408 Romanism and the Republic.

riotous living, and awoke to his shame in a strange
land. Kneeling on the ground, with no great cathe-
dral roof above him, with only the swine for com-
pany, and God over all, this boy turns his heart and
thought and prayer toward home, and says : " I will
arise, and go to my father ; and will say unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy
sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."
The father's heart never had ceased to long for his
son, and ere the penitent reached the paternal man-
sion, the swift feet of love had met him, and fallen
on his neck, and kissed him; had given orders that
the best robe should be put upon him, the shoes and
the ring, and that the feast should be prepared, and
had directed that merriment and gladness should
reign around ; " for this my son was dead, and is alive
again ; he was lost, and is found."

If the Romish confessional were necessary in order
that men should get back to their Father, this story
would never have been written. If there need be
the interposition of a priest, who should hear in his
ear all the sin and sorrow of a wandering man, this
story of the Prodigal Son would never have been
spoken ; and perhaps the good God gave us this story
in order that, at this time, in the nineteenth century
of Christianity, we might lift up our voices against
the claims of ecclesiastical power, and the hindrances
which priests put in the way of those who will seek
their God, and say : " As came the prodigal to his
father; so, my brothers, let us come to God."

Romanism and the Republic. 409

The Bible is self-consistent in every part ; and there-
fore the theory of confession and pardon which you
find in one place must be congruous and harmonious
with that you find in all places. The prodigal came,
exactly as we were saying on last Sunday night that
they come who pray the Lord's prayer, and say,
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive." The
prodigal came precisely as the publican smote upon
his breast, and prayed, " God be merciful to me a
sinner." Nor can there be any contradiction from
Holy Scripture of this method of confession, and of
its acceptability to God against whom we have sinned.
This Bible theory of confession is taught by all
Protestant Christians, — that I may come to God
anywhere, at any time, without any interposition
but that of Jesus Christ ; and may have as definite
assurance that God the Father receives me as that
prodigal had of parental goodness, who felt the
arms of love about his neck, and the pressure of
love against his bosom, while the old man rejoic-
ingly said: "This my son was dead, and is alive
again ; he was lost, and is found."

But there are two passages of Scripture which, as
used by Romanists, are in diametrical contradiction
to this form of true confession. On those two,
more than on any other, they build up the alleged
Scriptural authority for auricular confession. The
first of those passages is in the 16th chapter of the
Gospel according to St. Matthew, where it is said by
our Lord, addressing Peter : "I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever

410 Romanism, and the Republic.

thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ;
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven." The Roman Catholics who are
in this congregation, know that from this statement
the deduction in all the Roman Catholic books is
this : The power of the keys given to Peter, the
power of binding and loosing sins, is now solely in
the Roman Catholic Church. The rights that Peter
had by this promise were handed down to Popes
following him, and bishops and priests, so that only
by them can the kingdom of heaven be opened or
closed, and only by them can the souls of men be
bound or released.

But the Roman Catholic Church itself says that
this promise was fulfilled as recorded in the 20th
chapter of St. John, where, in the 19th verse, it is
said that our Lord met his disciples, while they were
assembled secretly for fear of the Jews ; that he
breathed on them, and said : " Receive ye the Holy
Ghost : whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted
unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are
retained." The Roman Catholic Church, De Sanctis
says, tells us that this is the fulfillment of the prom-
ise. Here you will observe that at the fulfillment of
this promise all the disciples were present ; not Peter
only, not the apostles only, but the one hundred and
twenty men and women who constituted the infant
church; and that the power of "binding and loos-
ing," to use the Roman Catholic phrase, was given to
every one of them, to all the Christians present.
There can be no controversy whatever as to this fact,

Romanism and the Republic. 411

if people are disposed to be fair. The assumption,
then, that Peter had this power alone, is plainly con-
tradicted by the fact that our Lord gave it to all his
apostles, and to all his disciples equally with the apos-
tles ; that is to say, the power of opening heaven is
in the Church as such, and as a whole ; and the power
of binding and loosing, as it is called, is equally with
every Christian, as with every other Christian.

What, then, is that power? What is the key?
What is the binding, and what the loosing? Simply
and only, — and it is as plain as day to any who do not
want to corrupt the Word of God, — that the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is given to all men if
they will receive it, looses from sin those who take
it, and binds with a deeper condemnation those who
reject it. This is the condensed and concentrated
statement. There is no other key, excepting the
Gospel, for heaven, and deliverance from sin.

There is no other unloosing, except the unloosing
which you can give, as well as I, if you have this Gos-
pel to teach and preach. There is no binding, except
the binding that you can give as well as the Pope, if
you choose so to do, laying on men's consciences the
Word of God, and holding them to it as the only
way of salvation. And yet upon a childish perver-
sion, superstitious, subtle, selfish, of the^-e texts of
Holy Scripture, has been built up the most colossal
system of presumption, immorality and tyranny that
the world ever saw. I say this deliberately, and I
shall prove every word of it.

412 Romanism and the Republic.

By the misuse of these texts, Rome has locked
up men in the prison-house of superstition; has
bound the human mind with chains of darkness ; has
shackled states and imprisoned free thought ; has
shed the blood of men whose lives were freely given
for conscience and for principle. It has loosed no
one ; it has chained the world. The only govern-
ments that Rome has ever favored were tyrannies.
Has the Pope ever pronounced his benediction on
republics ? Has he ever espoused the cause of the
people against their oppressors? Why, the other
day, this old man of the Vatican, supposing the peo-
ple were all as blinded as Romanists would make
them, began to prate about the slave trade ; and the
Worcester papers, that dare not say that we are here
on Sunday night, said the Pope was moving in the
direction of the suppression of the slave trade. How
long ago was it that Protestant Christians, through
their legislatures, denounced the slave trade? How
many years have the guns of our navies on the coast
of Africa delivered the slave and smitten his captor
and kidnapper? And that old man has just woke up
and asked these powers to combine against the slave
trade ! Father Leo, if you are really against the
enslavement of mankind, get down on your knees
like a sinner, as you are ; ask Almighty God to for-
give your presumption, and let go free the millions
of Rome who are the slaves of superstition !

This utterly false and wicked idea of priestly con-
fession puts bonds upon men and women, soul and
body ; binds their spirit, conscience and mind ;

Romanism and the Republic. 413

grasps their family, their social system, and their
business ; seizes their property, and pursues them
into their graves with rapacious demands for money ;
robs them in such a way as monopolies never robbed
the people ; or rather, as a monopoly, would make it
appear that they monopolize Heaven's gifts ; assume
that heaven is Rome's gift, while hell is its standing
threat.

Now, instead of taking away sin, I am prepared to
show, God being my helper, and the devil and the
Pope to the contrary notwithstanding, that instead
of diminishing sin, which all true confession ought to
do, there is probably no force operative in the world
that has created more crime and more sin than the
Romish confessional. I use the language of one of
the most intelligent ex-priests in the world, who
gives it as his opinion that the social vice, at the
name of which we shudder and grow sick at heart,
has not created, in its common form, more immor-
ality, or dragged down more people, than the
Roman Catholic confessional. It is an author of sin,
instead of a saviour from sin. It creates sin, instead
of releasing men from sin.

I propose to show to-night, if I have time, first,
that it is a system of falsehood and hypocrisy, pro-
ducing crime and sin ; second, that it is a system of
spies, of espionage upon homes, persons and govern-
ments ; third, that it is against the peace, purity and
welfare of the family : fourth, that it is the oppo-
nent of liberty in the State ; fifth, that it is the foe of
pure religion and of religious progress.

414 Romanism and the Republic.

1. I say, first, it is a system of falsehood and
hypocrisy, producing crime and sin.

I have little less confidence in reading from De
Sanctis, who will be my chief authority to-night, than
I should have on matters of fact in reading from the
Holy Scriptures ; for while I believe them to be true,
most amply vindicated, I believe the same of this
distinguished man who was emancipated from the
Roman Catholic Church. When I say that the con-
fessional is a system of falsehood and hypocrisy, I
mean to say, that I do not think that a large majority
of the priesthood give any evidence of believing that
they can free men from sin by their absolution, and
that they regard the whole thing with a mixture of
superstition and contempt.

De Sanctis says, after speaking of the character of
the confessors: "While the penitent arraigns his
faults with all the fatuity of a simpleton, what is the
confessor doing? Laughing at the simplicity of the
penitent ; and afterwards in the priestly orgies that
follow a morning of great confessions, in the hilarity
that flows from wine, amidst coarse explosions of
laughter, they describe to each other the stupid folly
of their penitents ; and each priest vies with his
brother in rendering his own penitents more ridicu-
lous than the rest. To such a degree is the indi-
vidual debased and degraded by confession."

The ex-priests with whom I have talked, say to
me, that there are honest priests, and a good many of
them, who feel thoroughly degraded by having to sit
in the confessional and take the confessions that are

Romanism and the Republic. 415

given them. Some of them have said that the ear of
the priest is the sewer into which flows all manner of
evil and vicious conversation ; and that while the
priests sometimes in public, because of their fear of
the Church, praise and laud the confessional, those
same priests in private bitterly lament their own
degradation, in that they are compelled to take the
confessions of those that come to them. It generates
hypocrisy and recklessness in the penitent. Of that
there can be no question. Listen to De Sanctis, who
was so many years a confessor in Rome. He says,
on the 108th and 109th pages of his book :

"The facilities for obtaining pardon of sins, by
relating them to a priest, too often a boon companion
in the excesses of the penitent, pave the way to the
commission of new sins. ' Sin confessed, sin for-
given ;' ' Confessing a hundred sins is as good as
confessing a hundred and ten,' are popular proverbs
in Italy. But I take for an example Rome, the city
which boasts to be the centre of religion, the seat of
the pretended Vicar of Jesus Christ ; the city where,
more than in any other place, confession is largely
practised. I likewise take Rome as an example,
because of that city I speak with certain knowledge.
That city was my native place, and I discharged in it
for fifteen years the ministry of hearing confession : I
fulfilled in eight years the duty of a parish priest ;
these facts give me sufficient knowledge to speak
with certainty.

" Rome is the city which surpasses all the other
cities of Italy in immorality. But perhaps the blame

416 Romanism and the Republic.

ought to be imputed to the Roman people ? No.
The Roman people, noble and generous as its fore-
fathers, would be the people of the greatest virtue,
a heroic people, if it were trained to virtue, if it
were educated in the Gospel. But all the fine quali-
ties of that people are stifled by the teaching of its
Church, and the people are brutalized in guilt.
Blasphemy against God is the predominant vice of
the Roman ; but the blasphemer confesses, departs
absolved, and is no sooner out of the church than he
begins to blaspheme anew. Drunkenness, murder,
theft, fraud, adultery, are crimes incessantly
repeated ; but whoever commits them, confesses, and
believes himself absolved ; and immorality is not
only arrested, but, by the facility of pardon at the
cost of a few prayers, is committed again without
scruple. There is no society that had not annually,
(at least up to 1848) its spiritual exercises to pre-
pare for confession ; the number of individuals who
did not confess at Easter in so vast a city never
amounted to fifty ; yet, with so many confessions,
immorality was ever on the increase, and vice ever
triumphant ; and the increase was greatest (I speak
of notorious facts) in those who were most regular
in confession ; and to them is Rome indebted for the
current proverb, ' Better an unbeliever than a
bigot.'"

He then goes on to give criminal statistics of the
most startling character. For instance, he says :
" Let statistics be appealed to, and it will be seen
that if Catholic criminals are in ratio to the popu-

Romanism and the Republic. 417

lation as ten to a thousand, for instance ; Protestant
criminals are only one to a thousand. Let Protes-
tant England be attentively regarded, and compared
with Catholic Ireland ; the Protestant cantons of
Switzerland with the Swiss cantons ; the country of
the Waldensians with the rest of Piedmont. Let
statistics be consulted, and the difference will be seen
at a glance between Protestants who do not confess
to a priest, and Catholics who do ; it will be seen
that the latter are much more criminal and immoral
than the former." The man who had heard confes-
sions for so many years ought to know what the
effect of the confessional is. When I find that the
Protestant Irishman is so noble a specimen of Chris-
tian morality, I want to know why it is that men of
the same blood are furnishing so vast a proportion
of our criminals. We have not found out the reason
yet; unless we trace it to the Romish Church as a
cause and a source. Please to notice : " Those most
regular in the confessional," says De Sanctis, " are
the most notoriously irregular in their lives."

We have supposed, in our simplicity, resulting
from our lack of attention to this matter, that the con-
fessional caused a good deal of restitution to be made
in cases of theft, robbery and the like. What does
De Sanctis say of that, on pages 126-27? I have
never believed that the confessional favored honesty ;
but now I know it does not. De Sanctis says : " The
much-vaunted restitutions are, after all, mere dust
thrown in the eyes of simpletons " (rub the dust out
of your eyes my friends,) " that they may not observe

418 Romanism and the Republic.

the peculations of the confessor : so rare are they,
so insignificant, that they do not restore even a
thousandth part of the plunder. To these insigni-
ficant restitutions, which yet would be an advantage
to society, is to be contrasted the encouragement
given to theft, as to every other crime, by the facil-
ity of obtaining pardon ; and the absolutions given to
robbers, usurers, murderers, without their having
made any restitution whatever. They repair to the
confessor, present him with a goodly offering for a
mass ; or, if they are robbers of celebrity, men
* abounding in wealth, they found a chapelry, a bene-
fice, or something of the kind ; and who is the con-
fessor, to resist the force of such powerful arguments,
and send away the penitent without absolution ? At
Rome, the public robbers who are in the galleys con-
fess, all of them, once a year, and even oftener ; but
never from those places does there come a restitution,
though it is known that the objects stolen are
secreted; yet they confess and communicate." Now
further: "At Rome, for instance, every one knows
that Pius VII. granted to all who hear confessions in
the Holy house Ponterotto, the privilege of absolving
from the obligation of restitution all who have
defrauded the Rev. Apostolic Chamber, or the Gov-
ernment; and all defraud, and run there to receive
absolution. But this is not enough. Leo X., in his
Bull beginning with ' Postquam ad Apostulatus,'
gives confessors the privilege not only of absolving
robbers, but of permitting them to retain, in all good
conscience, the fruits of their usury, robberies, thefts,

Romanism and the Republic. 419

etc., on condition that part of the goods be given to
the Church." That is one way to get off, is it not?
The robber, the murderer, seizes his victim, his
plunder, and according to the Apostolic Bull of an
infallible church, by paying a portion of this to the
infallible church, has the power of binding and loos-
ing applied to him, and the key turns which opens
the kingdom of heaven, and he goes in, red-handed
and black-hearted ! I myself have seen in the chapels
of Rome, on the altars of their churches, in more
than one instance, the daggers of assassins which had
been placed there as an offering to the saint who had
helped them, as they supposed, in the murder of
their enemies.

2. It is a spy system in the interests of tyranny.
You remember the martyrdom of Bishop Latimer,
who is one of the uncanonized saints of the English
church, whom Romanists burned at the stake. Years
ago in England, he said, in his sermon on Matthew
viii., concerning the confessional: "And so they
came to all the secrets that were in men's hearts, so
that emperor nor king could say nor do, nor think
anything in his heart, but they knew it, and so applied
all the purposes and intents of princes to their own
commodities. And this was the fruit of their auric-
ular confession." That was said some centuries ago
in old England. They knew it then, and it has been
known ever since. It is a system by which the priest
who desires it, if you have a servant in your house
who goes to the confessional, knows what you think
and say and do ; as on the 132d page of this book of

420 Romanism and the Republic.

De Sanctis: "Confession in relation to society may
be defined as an universal spydom, organized and
complete. Confessors are not content to know the
sins of those who confess ; but they must learn the
regulation and management of the family : and when an
ingenious-youth or an innocent maiden comes under the
fangs of a knavish confessor (and which of them i3
not a knave?) they do not escape till they have first
revealed the secrets of the family circle — without,
however, being aware of it," (and then follows a
passage which I cannot read to you).

Now the testimony as to their espionage, and of
their reports to head-quarters concerning such action
everywhere transpiring, is so voluminous that it
is almost impossible to take out from it a little
abstract for this occasion. I read : "They were fur-
ther enjoined," (that is, the Jesuits), "in all cases of
doubt or difficulty, in which a sovereign sought
their counsel, to refer the matter to their superior
and obtain his decision, before giving their own reply :
in reference to which it must be mentioned, as an
essential part of the system, that the confessions of
sovereign princes were at all times communicated to
the General of the Order." Further it is stated, that
" By means of the religious Orders submitted to its
power and discipline, the Holy See was enabled to
penetrate into the secrets of the laws, and the feelings
of the people. The confessional of every Catholic
monarch found its corresponding echo beneath the
dome of the Vatican." Further, we are told, that the
messenger between the Council of Trent and the

liomanism and the Republic. 421

Jesuits of Paris, whose name is given, had for part of
the instruction given him this: "To take notice of
the confessions of the people of France, and especially
of the nobles and gentry, and in case they suspect
anything detrimental to the Holy See of Rome, then
to confer with three or more confessors of the sus-
picion, and so take memoranda to be asked of the
party so suspected the next time." And so the
history goes on multiplying the proofs. We are
told that even the boys in certain schools in Rome
are encouraged to write out as a confession, at a cer-
tain time in the month, all that they are, or think, or
feel, or dream ; and this is laid with ceremony on an
altar provided for the purpose ; remains in the hands
of the confessors for a month ; is copied into books ;
and so the secrets of ingenuous youth, and the house-
holds to which they belong, become the property of
the most unscrupulous spies of the most unscrupulous
power that the world ever knew. There is authority
given for breaking the seal of the confessional, as I told
you last Sunday night, and as I need not now repeat.
I presume that in three-quarters of the homes where
Roman Catholic servants are employed who go to the
confessional, your business, your words, your atti-
tudes, your secrets, as far as known, have become the
property of the priests. What do they do with them ?
They lay the astutest and profoundest plans that they
can possibly contrive for gaining such knowledge and
influence as will be to the advantage of the Church,
without reference to the advantage of anybody else ;
for the confessions that are recorded in the confes-

422 Romanism and the Republic.

sionals of Rome are always in the interests of oppres-
sion and tyranny.

3. But I must hasten to show, that against the
peace, the purity and welfare of the family, the con-
fessional continually conspires. Do you suppose
that Roman Catholic men know the questions that
are asked their wives and daughters in the confes-
sional? I do not believe they do. Father Chiniquy
says, they do not. He says, in a startling passage :
" But the betrayed husband knows nothing of the
dark mysteries of auricular confession ; the duped
father suspects nothing : a cloud from hell has ob-
scured the intelligence of them both, and made them
blind. On the contrary, husbands and fathers,
friends and relations, feel edified and pleased with
the spectacle of the 'piety' of their wives and daugh-
ters." (I have to read very carefully here.) " The
wife is brought under apostolic control, and so all the
family. In the Church of Rome, if the husband ask
a favor from his wife, nine times in ten she will in-
quire from her father-confessor whether or not she
can grant him his request ; and the poor husband will
have to wait patiently for the permission of the master,
or the rebuke of the lord, according to the answer of
the oracle which had to be consulted. If he gets
impatient under the yoke, and murmurs, the wife
will soon go to the feet of the confessor to tell him of
the fact." And this man was a priest of Rome, and
took confessions for twenty-three years ; and lives to-
day to defy the power of the Pope, notwithstanding
the most strenuous efforts to kill him.

Romanism and the Republic. 423

What is the influence on the home? He says
again : " Thus it is that that stupendous imposture,
the dogma of auricular confession, does completely
destroy all the links, the joys, the responsibilities
and divine privileges of the married life ; and trans-
forms it into a life of perpetual, though disguised,
adultery. It becomes utterly impossible in the
church of Rome that the husband should be one with
his wife, and that the wife should be one with her
husband : a ' monstrous being ' has been between
them both, called the confessor. Born in the darkest
ages of the world, that being has received from hell
his mission to destroy and contaminate the purest joys
of the married life, to enslave the wife, to outrage
the husband, and to damn the world."

Turning to another authority, I find a similar
statement in regard to intervention in family life, as
follows : " In important questions affecting the family
welfare — the education of his children, the profes-
sions of the sons and the marriages of the daughters, —
the father finds his rightful authority superseded by
the silent encroachments and underhand influences of
the confessor. The mutual confidences of home
disappear : its tenderest sympathies are destroyed ;
its fondest associations are marred and disfigured ;
and the cold shade of the priest casts a withering
blight over its best and purest affections." ** The
Confessional of De Sanctis," says his translator,
" will beat least a timely, and in many cases it is to
be hoped an efficacious antidote." Father Hyacinthe,
that famous priest of whom I told you on last Sun-

424 Romanism and the Republic.

day night, quoted by Chiniquy in "Priest, Woman and
Confessional," says, concerning the character of the
confessors, that 9$ per cent, of them live in sin with
their female penitents ; and Father Hyacinthe was the
greatest preacher in France, until he renounced
Romanism and left the pulpit of Notre Dame. 1
would not dare to say as much as he said. I do not
know as much as he knew. But the man who was
the companion of Popes, of Archbishops and Car-
dinals, of priests and confessors, would not say that
unless he had great reason so to say. De Sanctis
adds : " How can it happen otherwise, if immorality,
thanks to confession, is reduced by Catholic priests
to scientific principles? The most shameless liber-
tine could not read, without blushing, the filth which
is contained in the books of moral theology. And
it is upon these books that the education of the
young clergy in the seminaries is formed."

He proceeds still further to show how true that is.
Discords are fomented in families, by the confes-
sional, in the interests of the church ; as when it is
said : ' ' From the confessional proceeds the most
serious discords in families : the priest is determined
to rule at all costs ; hence you must either fall into
his ideas, and thus make yourself his slave, or else
prepare to wage a family war. If you conform to
his ideas, you will no longer be master in your own
house ; you will no longer be able to do anything
without the placet of the confessor : he will thrust
himself between you and your wife ; and, heedless of
that sacred bond, a meddlesome priest will interpose

Romanism and the Republic. 425

with his connsels, his insinuations : he will interfere
between you and your sons, and all your paternal
authority will only be allowed to exert itself in sub-
ordination to the dictates of your priest : he will
arrange the marriage of your sons ; he will preside
at their choice of a profession ; he, in short, will be
the true father of the family — you will only execute
his will. Suppose you determine to escape this
state of degradation, and propose to maintain your
position as father and husband, and then all family
peace is ruined : you will be looked on as an infidel,
and as such, with hypocritical compassion, the con-
fessor will describe you to your wife and to your
sons."

Do you ask why Roman Catholic men do not escape
from the Church of Rome ? Do you not see how they
are bound? " In continual contact with the priest,"
he says of women, lads and old men, "and feeble by
nature, they allow themselves to be imposed upon
by him, especially in matters of religion ; and hus-
hands, fathers and sons dare not hazard a word in
the family circle with a view to exposing the abuses
of the clergy on religious subjects ; they dare not
read the Bible, dare not enter into religious con-
versations— both to avoid throwing a gloom over per-
sons so dear to them, and for fear of being denounced.

For the priest cannot absolve a wife or a son, if,
with the knowledge that the husband or the father
speaks of the Gospel otherwise than in the sense of
the Church of Rome, they have not denounced him
to the Inquisition, where it exists, or else to the

426 Romanism and the Republic.

bishop where the Inquisition exists no longer.
Imagine, then, if religious progress is possible, where
the discipline of the confessional exists."

We have a record here which I will state and not
read, that in the days when Italy was struggling to
throw off the yoke of tyranny, both papal and civil,
wives, intimate friends, children, in the confessional,
were compelled to denounce their husbands, fathers,
lovers and friends as being liberals, in the sense of
loving liberty, and the result was their banishment,
or incarceration in the dungeons of the Inquisition,
and sometimes death. "Yea, the time will come when
he that killeth you will think that he doeth God
service."

4. The greed of the confessors, in the matter of
property, I must let you into the secret of. This
eminent man says, that confessors, from being poor,
become rich. "By confession, in fact, so many
families are immersed in poverty ; because the grasp-
ing confessor, taking advantage of the weak moments
of a dying man, has had the will made to the profit
of the clergy ; and facts of the kind may be reckoned
by the million. From confession arise so many
separations of married people — frequent in proportion
to the frequency of confessions."

Now you know, that where extreme unction must
be preceded by absolution in the case of a dying man,
the priest has a fearful control over that man ; and
that control has been repeatedly and continually used
to extort from the dying a very large share of their
property for the Church. De Sanctis says, that he

Romanism and the Republic. 427

has known confessors who were poor when they
began to take confessions, and afterwards came to
live in the splendid homes of families who were
reduced to absolute poverty by the changes which
those confessors made in the wills or minds of their
penitents. For example, we have it recorded from
very numerous authorities (this in De Sanctis ; it is a
historical statement supplemented by the names of
the authorities), that the "grasping cupidity of
ecclesiastical will-hunters, and the consequent ruin of
innocent and helpless families, formed the subject of
an indignant remonstrance of the German princes at
the Diet of Nuremberg. That the Popes should have
connived at these fraudulent artifices, need not be a
matter of surprise ; for a considerable number of the
multitudinous clerical host must, no doubt, have
died intestate, and all such property, by a decree of
Innocent IV., was to escheat to the Pope. To such a
length was this execrable practice sometimes carried,
that the last sacraments were denied to the dying
man till he consented to make a will in the priest's
favor. To facilitate their nefarious designs, the
clergy were provided with testamentary forms that
might be executed at a moment's notice. For the
further promotion of ecclesiastical interests, wills,
before they were proved, were subject to a private
preliminary examination in a ' special court ' called
St. Peter's Tribunal. And for still greater security,
Popes are equipped with the power of altering testa-
mentary dispositions in favor of the Church."

428 Romanism and the Republic.

Robbers that they are ! Equipped with power,
from what source? From hell ; whence lies, thefts,
corruptions and murders, of which they have been
among the chief agents in the history of time, have
been vomited forth. Changing testaments indeed !
Ay ! they have changed the New Testament of our
Lord and Saviour ; they have changed the Old
Testament ; and they change the testamentary wills
of men, that they may seize hold of their goods.
" Wycliffe, on his death-bed, testifies that the priest
attending on the dying, were commanded by the
Pope to extract bequests in favor of the Church."
Further, it is said: "How different the proposed
reform is from the present corrupt state of the Roman
priesthood, may be safely inferred from the numerous
trials in Irish courts of justice, in spite of numbers of
cases that are hushed up or compromised, where the
inheritance of the deceased is disputed between the
priest and the surviving relatives." When Gregory
VII., with a power equal to that which any tyranni-
cal ruler ever exercised, insisted on the celibacy of
the priests, — when he separated the married priests
from their wives and from their children, and forced
with prodigious earnestness the bond of celibacy on
the priesthood, — it was specifically declared, more
than once, that the purpose was, that the estates of
the priests might go to the Church, instead of going
to the wives and children of the priests. And BO
one reason why the priests of Rome cannot marry,
is that, grasping the property of their people, they
hold it till they die, and give it to other priests for

Romanism and the Republic. 429

the Church. Thus the Church and its ecclesiastics
abound in wealth, and their people abound in noth-
ing but poverty.

5. The confessional is the assassin of liberty in
the State. There can be no liberty (I have shown
you that fully in preceding discourses) where the
Pope of Rome has his way. There never has been,
and there never can be. What does one say who well
understands Rome, concerning the relation of the con-
fessional to liberty? Father Chiniquy says : " Have
not the Popes publicly and repeatedly anathem-
atized the sacred principle of liberty of conscience?
Have they not boldly said, in the teeth of the nations
of Europe, that liberty of conscience must be
destroyed, killed at any cost? Has not the whole
world heard the sentence of death to liberty coming
from the lips of the Old Man of the Vatican ? But
where is the scaffold on which the doomed liberty
must perish? That scaffold is the confessional box.
Yes, in the confessional, the Pope has his 100,000
high executioners. There they are, day and night,
with sharp daggers in hand, stabbing Liberty to the
heart." He says again: "In vain chivalrous Spain
will call Liberty to give a new life to her people.
Liberty cannot set her feet there, except to die, so
long as the Pope is allowed to strike her in his
50,000 confessionals. And free America, too, will
see all her so-dearly-bought liberties destroyed, the
day that the confessional box is universally reared in
her midst. Auricular Confession and Liberty cannot
stand on the same ground ; either one or the other

430 Romanism and the Republic.

must fall. Liberty must sweep away the confessional
as she has swept away the demon of slavery ; or she
is doomed to perish."

I refer again to the fact that Freemasonry has
always been an object of intense antagonism to the
Papal power, and j'ou can see better now than at any
former time why it is so. Freemasonry, in the old
country, has been to some extent a refuge and sanctu-
ary to men who were not in any sense political con-
spirators, but who had hope in one another and
trusted one another ; they dared to hold secrets one
with another, which they believed for their mutual
benefit and the welfare of the State, which secrets
they would not tell in the confessional, and which
even their wives and children could not know or tell
in the confessional. But the penalty of belonging to
that society; the penalty of harboring a member of
that society ; the penalty for failing to denounce a
member of that society, by the word of the infallible
Pope, was death. You know why, now. Because
the Freemason could not, and would not, by his obli-
gations, put himself under the power of the priest.
I have often thought there were things about this
great society that needed to be reformed. But I tell
you, my friends, it may be that even the most earnest
antagonist of Freemasonry may see in it one of the
bulwarks against the power of the confessional and
the Romish Church in this country. I do not say it
will be so ; but I tell you, it is getting to be easy for
me to love what the Pope hates.

Romanism and the Republic. 431

6. And now as I draw to a close, I must show
that as the Papacy and the confessional are the
enemies of liberty and the assassins of the same, so
the confessional is the foe of pure religion and relig-
ious progress. Can anything be the friend of pure
religion that creates immorality, that destroys liberty,
that invades and plunders the home, that steals the
property of the dying? Oh, do not talk to me, my
Roman Catholic brothers, — do not talk to me about
the glory that would come to God, through evil
doing. There is no glory to God in evil doing. If
the confessional, as seems obvious from those who
know all the facts concerning it, is the friend of
immorality and creates crime, as I shall have to show
next Sunday night more fully than I can to-night,
then it cannot be for the glory of God. God is not
glorified by wickedness.

But there is other proof than this that the confes-
sional is the enemy of pure religion. We are told
that it advances infidelity and ignorance, by this most
careful writer, De Sanctis, whom I quote once more :
"The horrible consequence, however, for religion
and for souls, is that infidelity advances with huge
strides, especially in Roman Catholic countries. The
enlightenment of the age no longer permits men to
believe in the priests blindly, as in the times of igno-
rance. Free discussion alone could show that the
doctrines of the Roman Church are not those of the
Gospel ; discussion, as it would prove their falsehood
to a demonstration, would establish the truth of the
evangelical doctrine. Discussion being prevented, it

432 Romanism and the Republic.

follows that, seeing clearly the falsehood and iniquity
of the Roman doctrines, men believe them, because
they are not discussed, to be the doctrines of the
Christian religion, and abandon them, and live in in-
difference and infidelity. Rome sees, knows, and is
silent : she never quarrels with infidels, unless they
speak against her ; but her quarrel rather is with those
who, laying bare her abuses, seek to bring back their
brethren to the Gospel, the religion of their fathers.
The unbelieving and the superstitious equally observe
the Church of Rome, and are equally beloved by it ;
the Gospel alone it detests, and for the destruction
of the Gospel it instituted confession."

Furthermore he says: " If confession is naturally
ruinous to faith and morals, religious progress under
such a system is manifestly impossible. Confession
is the great obstacle opposed by the Popes to the
re-establishment of the Gospel ; hence it is necessary
to demolish such an obstacle to religious progress."
And then he proceeds to the proof in great detail.

It was intended, especially at the outset, to uproot
heresy. The Popes' object for auricular confession
was more this than anything else. For example :
" Innocent III., the most knavish and the most auda-
cious of all who have ever occupied the Roman See,
resorted to the remedy." In the fourth Lateran
Council after having proclaimed crusades, after having
canonized persecution against those who published
the Gospel, he instituted compulsory confession for
all the followers of the Church of Rome, as a measure
of preventive policy, to compel denunciation of

Romanism and the Republic. 433

heretics under penalty of eternal damnation ; and
thus confession, which at first was free, became com-
pulsory, and was afterwards converted, by the deci-
sion of the Council of Trent, into a dogma of faith
and a sacrament. The aim of confession therefore, is
to prevent all religious progress, and maintain igno-
rance and superstition." Has it practically and ac-
tually corrupted religion ? There can be no doubt of
this. A word or two more : " Nor can it be alleged
that certain Popes have misused religion, and that the
abuses ought therefore to be attributed to the individ-
ual and not to the system. From Sylvester to our
time, all the Popes, some more, some less, have con-
tributed to transform the religion of Jesus Christ,
and to build up the system of oppression and politi-
cal annihilation on the ruins of liberty and progress.
Nay, the very Popes who have been most conspicuous
in this work of destruction, are adored as heroes on
the altars of Rome." Then, speaking of Gregory VII.,
he says : " Gregory. VII. is on the altars of Rome,"
(that is, he is a canonized saint), " and the ferocious
Ghislieri (Pius V.), who, in the name of God and of
the religion of the Gospel, taught the despot Charles
IX. that he could never obtain from God the pardon
of his sins if he did not shed, without the slightest
compunction, the blood of his subjects who asked for
the pure Gospel, — is not he also on the altars of
Rome?" See what they worship. "In canonizing
such men, the Popes have canonized their doctrine ;
hence it cannot be said that despotism, obscuration,
oppression of nations, and hatred for any kind of

434 Romanism and the Republic.

progress, exist through the mal-practice of any one
of the Popes ; they exist by the very system of the
Papacy. But the Popes, to establish their dominion,
have butchered them by the million. But among so
many Popes, has there been one, one only, who has
deplored such abuses? Therefore the corruption of
religion ought not to be attributed to abuse of it by
the individual, but to the system ; therefore the sys-
tem ought to be reformed ; therefore the Gospel
ought to reign in its purity, and ought to be delivered
from this great enemy ; and Italy and Rome ought
to confer upon the world this great benefit of despoil-
ing the Popes of their usurped power, and
re-establishing on the ruins of the Papacy the pure
religion of Christ."

We have come to the edge of a prceipice. There
are, no doubt, in this church to-night, many brave
hearts, who, with strength from purity, will dare
with me to descend, scaling the face of this precipice,
into the fearful abyss below. My friends, I beg you
to remember as I close, that if we have shown the
immorality and the hypocrisy of this system of con-
fession— if we have shown that it is a system of spies
for the overthrow of freedom — if we have shown that
it is a foe to the family and an assassin to liberty,
working the ruin of pure religion, in so doing we
have only touched on the beginnings of its actual
wickedness, and of the ruin which it works. And if
you have hearts bold enongh to hear, and God gives
me judgment and wisdom enough to speak, T will let
you down into those nether depths where you can

Romanism and the Republic. 435

see in all its horrors, the beastly immorality of
priests and people, of Popes, Cardinals and bishops,
of men, women and children, as the result of this
wicked, ungodly, unscriptural, and unchristian
system of auricular confession. '

Note by the Author. — The Author begs to say,
in closing this work thus abruptly, that already it
has grown nearly 150 pages beyond expectation.
Manifestly, the discussion is not here completed.
The patient reader has noted the logical order of the
book, and that up to the close, it is a compacted
whole.

The Introductory discourse leads to the second ;
which, of necessity, finds in the Jesuits the control-
ling force of the Papacy ; they furnishing, in their
principles and history, the key to the Papal inten-
tion. Their pope is portrayed, in the third chapter,
as the enemy of civil and religious freedom — as are
they. And particularizing, the Papacy is shown, in
the fourth and fifth discourses, to be antagonistic to
the Constitution and to the Laws of the American
Republic. Thus their hostility to universal educa-
tion is manifestly based on irreconcilable animosity
to the fundamental principles of our Government.
The sixth, seventh and eighth chapters develope the
purpose of Romanism to destroy our Public Schools ;
showing the alleged and actual reasons for their at-
tempt. Claiming, as they do, to educate, naturally
we ask and answer, in the ninth, tenth and eleventh

436 Romanism, and the Republic.

discourses, the burning question, What do they pro-
pose to substitute for Common School education ? or,
"The morality which Romanism would teach Ameri-
can youth."

A few general observations previously omitted,
upon parochial schools, make up the twelfth sermon.
And then, to show how Roman Catholic peoples are
suppressed and throttled ; to show also why they
yield though they protest, the Confessional is ex-
posed to view as the place where Papal tyranny
forges the chains which bind them.

Naturally, beyond these observations, much re-
mains. The two discourses unveiling the confes-
sional, spoken to men only, are needed to complete
the picture. The dogmas, the priesthood, the finan-
cial greed and its impoverishing consequences, re-
main to be discussed, and sharp contrasts drawn
between the policy of a true Christian Church, and
this politico-ecclesiastical tyranny. These the author
may sometime put before the public as complemen-
tary to the foregoing, believing that the free dis-
cussion of Romanism, in all its monstrous deformity,
is sure to detach from it those who, in the growth of
their knowledge concerning the true Christian re-
ligion, will behold in the Papacy the worst enemy of
a genuine Christianity, and of the civil freedom of a
Republic.

INDEX.

Abraham Lincoln, assassination of,
persons concerned in it all
Romanists, 272.
Absolution, letter of, 199.
case of a distinguished priest,

378.
what it is, 397.

the doctrine of intention, 393.
Absolute obedience, due to the

Pope, 66.
Absolutism of Vatican Council, 64.
Abstract of encyclical letter of

Leo XIII., 123.
Acton, Lord, on Gregory VII. and

murder, 271.
Adultery licensed, 280.

and Pius IX., 274.
Albert, Archbishop of Mentz, and
the selling of indulgences, 41,
198.
America, Jesuits in, 58, 59.
under Rome, 129.
her patron saint, 341.
Amendment, First, to the Constitu-
tion of the United States, 101.
antagonized by Church, 103.
Antonelli, Cardinal, 81.

on freedom of worship, 102.
Appropriation of property by

Church, 126.
Aquinas, Thomas, on images, 300.
Aracoeli, church and images, 301.
Attack on Prussia by Napoleon,

59,60.
Auricular confession, what it is,
386.
testimony on, 395.
when introduced, 388.
what confessed, 391.

Auricular confession, Butler's cate-
chism on, 391.
Avignon, Popes at, 206.

Baltimore Plenary Council, 167.
on civil rights, 95.
on crime among Romanists, 142.
on teachers, 230.
on parochial schools, 168.
on Papal Syllabus, 94, 95.
Bible, the, denounced, 75, 112.
paraphrased, 330.
in courts, Congress, &c, 188.
taken from public schools, 172.
Freeman's Journal on, 173.
ignorance of, 390.
errors of Vulgate translation,

172, 278.
why objected to, 193.
Barnum, Dr., on rosary of Mary,
337.
on suppression of command-
ments, 296.
Beaudry, Mr., taught concerning

Luther, 371.
Bellarmine, Cardinal, on temporal

power, 77, 78.
Biel, Cardinal, on transubstantia-

tion, 308.
Bismarck on the Pope, 37.
Books, authorized by the Sacred
Congregation, 260.
bulls on, 222.
forbidden, 223.
objected to, 229.

Montreal Institute and Joseph
Guibord, 225, 226.
Boston Pilot on Romanism in
America, 82.

438

Index.

BostOD Roman Catholic bishop
commends coercion and the In-
quisition, 109.

Boston public school controversy,
194 sq.

Brownson on rights of sects, 123.
on government, 129.
review of 1862, on Roman Cath-
olic schools and colleges, 236.

Bulls concerning books, 222.

Canonization, an example, 314 sq.
Carmelite monks and Virgin Mary,

340.
Castelar on Romanism, 122.
Casuistry, an example, 278.
Cardinal Manning on the Pope.

77.
Cardinal Newman on Virgin Mary,

332.
Catechisms and idolatry, 296.
Catholic Council, Eighth General,

on images, 299.
Catholic and Protestant countries

in contrast, 127, 128, 143, 417.
Catholic World on education, 162,
234.
on infallibility, 67, 79.
" Catholic Directory," Sadlier's, on

indulgences, 201.
Catholic emancipation in Great
Britain, 135.
on oaths and vows of bishops,

136.
Gladstone on, 137.
Celibacy, sacerdotal, character of,

H. C. Lee, 275.
Celibate priesthood, 35, 275, 387.
Character of Popes, 207, 210, 211,

353, 400.
Chiniquy, Father, 382.
on responsibility, 280.
on mass, 306.

on transubstantiation, 307.
on liberty of conscience, 429.
on confession, 395.
on Jesuits as teachers, 231.
Christian ministry, duty of, 19.

Church, Roman Catholic, no salva-
tion outside of. 240, 241.
Church, authority of, Mons. Segur,
98.
in sixteenth century, 41, 42.
idolatrous, 295, 305, 331.
Church, in politics, 132.

more than country, 133.
Civil power and Papacy, 97.
Civil rights and the State, Pius IX.

and Leo XIII., 92.
Civilization, modern, denounced by
Pius IX. in seventeen proposi-
tions, 73.
Coercion, what it includes, 97.
Rome's antagonism to the Con-
stitution of the United States,
98.
its meaning illustrated by Hugue-
nots, Waldenses, Albigenses,
and Lollards, 104-106.
testimony of De Sanctis, Ga-

vazzi. and others, 141.
relation to public schools, 159,

169, 171.
Dr. Newman on, 104.
Cardinal Manning on, 104.
Brownson on, 123.
New York Tablet on, 123.
Conscience, liberty of, 111, 186.
Constitution of the United States,
what it guarantees and what
it forbids, 144.
its character, 145.
violations by Romanism, 33, 124.
authority denied, 123.
downfall promoted, 130.
claims of supremacy over, 93.
religious freedom under, 101.
Confession, Archbishop Williams
on, 171.
Father Hyacinthe on, 382, 424.
Liguori and Dens on, 399.
De Sanctis on, 380, 415, 423. 431.
Ken rick's " Theology "on, 385.
Confession, betrayed by Popes, 401.
auricular, 386.
compulsory, 388.

Index.

439

Confession, purpose of, 405.

frequency of, 390.

secrecy of, 398, 399.

a system of falsehood, 414.

hypocrisy of, 415.

hor rowed from paganism, 387.
Confessional, the, falsity of Romish

claims, 409.

boxes, 388.

violations of, by Pius IX. and
Sextus V., 401.

made a spy, 419.

a conspiracy against family life,
422; and restitution, 417, 418.

against property and freedom in
bequests, 427, 428.

assassin of liberty, 429.

against all religious freedom, 433.
Copernican theory denounced, 80.

by sacred congregation, 224.

in Index Expurgatorins, 224.
Councils of Worms and Biescia on

Gregory VII., 211.
Councils and Popes cursing one an-
other, 206-212.

D'Aubigne's " History of the Refor-
mation," on indulgences, 197.
Decree of Vatican Council on In-
fallibility, 64.
Dens, Peter, who, 258.
on heretics, 113.
on murder, 270.
on Pope and oaths, 134, 263.
on confession, as secret, 399.
Denunciation of American liberty,

131.
De Sanctis, who, 380.

on confession, 381, 415, 423, 431.
Doctrine of merit, 203.

of intention, 393.
Dominican monks, 403.
Donahoe, Patrick and La Maistre's
letters on the Spanish Inquisi-
tion, 109.
Dr. McGlynn, 27, 192.
his successor at St. Stephen's
Church, 355.

Duty of punishing heretics, 113.
of Christian ministers, 19.

Early Christianity, spirit of, 22.
Ecclesiastical property, protest of
Baltimore Council against civil
control of, 95, 97.
Education, godless or godly as de-
fined by Romanists, 239-242.
relation of Church to, 29, 102.
result in Roman Catholic coun-
tries, 236, 243.
in United States, 246 sq.
Brownson's Review, 236.
teachers preferred by Romanists,

231.
Romanist theory of, 234.
American theory of, 235.
Encyclical, Papal, what it is, 72.
abstract of 1888, 123; of 1864,
73, 156.
Espionage in Rome, 141.

in the confessional, 420.
Excommunication and heretics,
273.
effect of, 113, 270.
bull of, by Pius IX., 113.
Expectation of Romanists, 111, 129.

Female divinities in paganism, and
Virgin Mary, 318.
prominence in Romish ritual, 319.
the Virgin Mary of Romanism
not the virgin of the Bible, 321.
Franchise, the, and Romanists, 138.
Fredet's History on the irregulari-
ties of Popes and their public
duties, 212.
Freedom, religious, and the Papacy,
102.
of education, 102, 131, 163.
of conscience, 111, 123, 186,429.
of the press, 112, 163.
of worship, 102, 123.
Freeman's Journal, on parochial
schools, 235.
on Bible in schools, 173.
on schools, 167.

440

Index.

Freemasonry, antagonism of the

Papacy to, 430.
French Republic, hostility to, 99,

100.

Garfield, President, on separation
of Church and State, 182.

Gavazzi, oil Roman government in
1865, 141.

Gladstone on Romanists and his-
tory, 204.

Governments and religion, tests of,
254, 255.

Government in Rome, Gavazzi and
De Sanctis on, 141.

Grant, General, on future contests,
181.

Gregory VII. and Council of
Worms, 211.

Guibord, Joseph, case of, 226.

Gury, J. P., and moral theology, 259.
on lying, perjury, etc., 267.

Hawkins, Dexter A., on evils of
parochial schools, 247.
on appropriations of public mon-
eys, 124.
Hecker, Father, on state religion,

82.
Heretics, Dens on, 113.
bulls of Pius IX. against, 222.
under rule of Queen Isabella, 142.
Historic methods of Romanism, 114.
History and Romanism, 194.
the Pope the judge of, 216.
"Judges of the Faith" on, 220.
in Ireland, forbidden, 372.
Home Rule, 26, 128, 364.
Hogan, William, indictment of the

Jesuits, 265, 266.
Hostility to public schools, real

reasons for, 175.
Hugo, Victor, on Papal education,

249.
Hyacinthe, Pe-e, on confession, 424.

Idolatry and Romanism, 295.
commanded, 298.
worship of images, 297.

Idolatry, worship of Pope, 311.
of virgin, 332.
of mass, 305.
Illiteracy, 30, 243, 246.
Immaculate Conception, decreed

by Pius IX., 321.
Immorality taught, 258.
theory concerning it, 258.
De Sanctis on, 415, 417.
allied to paganism, 293.
Independent, The New York, arti-
cles of Roman Catholic lay-
men, 349.
Indignation meetings, and Victor

Immanuel, 131.
Index Expurgatorius, 222, 224.
Indulgences, Tetzel, agent of, 41.
Swinton's History on, 195.
defined, 201.
examples, 202.
Pius IX. on, 202.
Infallibility of popes, 64.
Gladstone on, 65.
Catholic World on, 67, 69.
examples of, 80.
Innocent XI. and perjury, 263.
Inquisition, never repudiated by
Roman church, 75, 256.
its methods, 106.
in Spain, 108.
in Rome, 110.
Institute of Montreal, 226.
Isabella of Spain and heresy, 142.

Jean Antoine Llorente on Inquisi-
tion, 107.
Jesuits, their origin, 42.

objects, 49.

vows, 50, 51, 52.

methods, 53.

banished, 57.

Gladstone on, 62.

De Sanctis on, 63.
Jesuits, and secular power of Pope,
55.

and death of Popes, 58.

crimes of, 56.

and confession, 421.

Index.

441

Jesuits, Rosmini's book, 227, 228.

in America, 58.
"Judges of Faith," its authority
with Romanists, 155-6.

its utterances on schools, 157-60.

on school books, 220.
Jurisdiction of Pope, 270.

Keys of Heaven, 410.

La Maistre on Inquisition, 108.
Lavelaye on Protestantism and Ro-
manism, 143.
Law of intention, 264.

of reservation in oaths, 134, 264.
Leo X. on indulgences, 195.
Liguori on lying and perjury, 261.

on confession as secret, 399.

on Glories of Mary, 337-339.

on stealing, 268, 269.

on obedience and responsibility,
281.
Lincoln's assassination, 272.
Llorente on Inquisition, 107.
Loyola, Ignatius, 42.
Luther, Martin, 47, 199, 371.

Marriage, out of Romish church,
" filthy concubinage," 74, 274.
Mary, Virgin, an idol goddess, al-
lied to pagan deities, 319.
" Glories of," and prayer to, 337,

339.
Immaculate Conception of, 321.
proclaimed divine, 326.
her intercession necessary for

salvation, 338.
patron saint of America as St.
George is of England, etc., 341.
Mass, worshipped, 305, 311.
Father Chiniquy on, 306.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 115,

274.
McGlynn, Dr., 27.
Missions, Jesuit, 54.
Martin Luther. 47.
Miracles, alleged, 283, 301.
Money, public, appropriated, 124 sq.
raising money, 127, 356.
how used, 247 sq.

Morality and immorality as de-
fined by Romanists, 258.

Morrissey, Rev. L., on confession,
401.

Mortal sin, 268, 278.

Murder, Dens on, 270.
Lord Acton on, 271.

Newman, Cardinal, on Virgin Mary,
332.

Oaths, of Romanists, 132.

of Jesuits, 232.

of bishops, 133.

unreliable, 135, 136.

reversible by Pope, 137.
Obedience, to the Pope, 52.

above law, 132.

absolute, 66.

effect of refusal, 72, 113.

to be compelled, 104, 105.

responsibility placed on Superi-
ors, 280, 281.

Paganism, three kinds, 288 sq.
Paganism and Romanism, 292, 294.
Papacy, and civil governments, 25,

91.
" Papacy and civil power " on lib-
erty of conscience, 187.
the, and Peter, 205.
Papal church and immorality of

Popes, 276.
Papal Syllabus, 72, 94.
Psalms, paraphrase of, 330.
Persecution a duty, 78, 97, 140.
Perjury, Lateran Council on, 263.

J. P. Gury on, 267.
Peter and Rome, "Variations of

Popery" on, 205, 206.
Parochial schools and Baltimore
Plenary Council, 167.
Mons. Capelle on, 163.
Freeman's Journal on, 236.
Par ton on, 162.
Hawkins on, 247.
Their teaching not American, 370.
Political activity commanded by

Leo XIII., 130.
Poverty of Catholic countries, 128.

442

Index.

Purgatory, 213, 214.
Purcell, Archbishop, and school
libraries, 221.

Reformation, the, 41, 42, 197.
Republic, the, and common schools,

157.
Responsibility, doctrine of, 280.
Restitution, De Sanctis on. 417,

418.
Roman Church, the, a political
unit, 32.
idolatrous, 295.

sanctions perjury, theft, and de-
ceit, 2G5.
claims supreme power, 20, 27.
foreign in policy, 2-1.
hostile to public schools, 29.
to freedom, 98, loO.
to republics, 25.

the enemy of the United States,
82, 91 sq.
Romanism, not Catholicism, 23.
the Latin Church, 24.
a monarchy, 152.
a form of paganism, 292, 329.
Romanism and history, 194.
and science, 225.
and the franchise, 138.
in America, Boston Pilot, 82.
" Romanism and the Republic,"
title of book considered, 23-36.
reasons for considering the sub-
ject in this way, 23-30.
Romanists and politics, 130-134.
and the franchise, 138.
oaths of, 132.
and naturalization, 138.
Romanists and Russians, a supposi-
tion, 145.

Segur, Mons., on the authority of

the Church, 97, 100.
S. J., Society of Jesuits, 231.
"Sower, the. and the Virgin" on

images, 298.
Stillman, W. J., U.S. consul, on

persecution in Rome, 140.

Stealing, Liguori on, 268-270.
Seventeen propositions of Pius IX.,

73.
Suppression of liberty, 130.
Swiuton's History, proscription of,

in Boston, 195.
Syllabus, the, defined, 72, 94.

Tablet, New York, on rights of

sects, 123.
Teaching of Jesuits, 53.

its design, 232.
Training of .Jesuits, 51.
Transubstantiation, " Variations

of Popery" on, 307.
Ten Commandments, the, scope of,
254.
changed by authority, 295-297.
Temporal power and the Pope,
Tract No. 46, 67-09.
claims of Pius IX., 69-73.
Dens on, 90.

Cardinal McCloskey on, 76.
Cardinal Manning on, 77.
Cardinal Bellarmine, 77.
nature of Papal claims, 80.
oaths of ecclesiastics, 77.
Tetzel, permission to commit sin

and sale of indulgences, 200.
Threats in Roman Catholic Review
on New York Legislature, 132.

Victor Immanuel, an indignation

meeting in Pbiladelphia, 131.
Violation of the Constitution, 124.

Wafer, the, God, 282, 305.

made by priests, 308.
Williams, Archbishop, of Boston,
on withholding absolution, 171.
Wills and bequests controlled by

priests, 427.
Words of statesmen and agitation,

366, 367.
Worship of the Pope as God, 311.
of Mary as God, 332.
of images, 297-305.
of mass, 305.

APPENDIX.

THE BALTIMORE CENTENNIAL AND ITS DECLARATIONS.

The twelve hundred delegates of the Roman Catholic
Church assembled at Baltimore, Nov. 11, 1889, listened
to carefully prepared papers on many subjects, and to
addresses by her most eloquent and distinguished sons.
There are in these papers and addresses frequent expres-
sions of loyalty to the country, its liberty, its constitu-
tion and laws, which are satisfactory in phrase and form,
and which we would gladly accept as the policy of the
Papacy.

The very fact of these calls attention to another of
much greater significance, viz. : that no other body of
professedly religious people, save the Mormons, have in
a time of peace made such professions.

Their entire ecclesiastical system is now and ever has
been so inimical to all that freemen hold dear, and their
fundamental allegiance is so irreconcilably and trans-
parently antagonistic to true fealty, that we can hardly
be amiss in calling our readers' attention to a few frag-
ments that embody the spirit underlying all the utterances
of this assembly.

1. All the speakers avow absolute and unconditioned
loyalty to the Pope, who is now agitating all Europe and
America for the restoration of the temporal power.

Charles J. Bonaparte, in his paper " On the Independ-
ence of the Holy See," says, recurring to the past years
of the domination of the church : —

" She needs now as she needed then, a chief ruler who for what
he does or leaves undone shall answer at no human judgment seat."

This puts the Pope above the laws and the judiciary.
Again, said Mr. Bonaparte,

444 Appendix.

" Catholics will never accept any law of an Italian parliament as
assuring the independence of the Holy See. A law is the act of a
sovereign affecting those who are his subjects, or at least under his
legitimate dominion. That a national parliament should pretend
to legislate regarding the Holy See is a denial of its independence."

Suppose that national parliament were the Congress of
the United States ?

"Ifwe admit that he (the Pope) is such a subject, then the laws
of the Italian parliament bind him as much if he disapprove as if
he approve them. But in this admission is contained what Cath-
olics do not and never can or will admit. The matter of the law
goes for nothing, etc., etc., and for the Catholics of America we
say this now and here — a subject he cannot be."

Would Mr. Bonaparte and the Romanists who ap-
plauded these sentiments, to which he and they, in his
closing utterances, specifically pledged the Catholics of
America, support and defend the Pope in denouncing,
annulling, and overriding the laws, legislatures and courts
of the United States as he did in Austria, Sardinia, etc.?
(see page 100). Is this their boasted loyalty ?

In addressing the assembled hierarchy, Archbishop
Sotelli, as the representative of the Holy See, said : —

« ' The Pope doubts not that the Catholics of America will labor
that he may once more reacquire that independence and liberty
which by divine institution appertains to him as sovereign head of
all the church and representative of the person and authority of
Christ, and under which liberty and independence the power of the
free constitution of the states are founded, are maintained prosper-
ous, and their existence secured."

Are free American citizens expected to believe that
these amazing assumptions can consist with a spirit of
loyalty to our institutions ?

And finally, the whole Congress, in its last utterance in
the platform of resolutions, declared itself as follows : —

' ' We cannot conclude without recording our solemn conviction
that the absolute freedom of the Holy See is equally indispensable
to the peace of the church and the welfare of mankind.

" We demand, in the name of humanity and justice, that this
freedom be scrupulously respected by all secular governments.

" We protest against the assumption by any such government of
a right to affect the interests or control the action of our Holy Father
by any form of legislation or other public act to which his full appro-

Appendix. 445

bation has not been previously given, and we pledge to Leo XIII. ,
the worthy Pontiff to whose hands Almighty God has committed the
helm of Peter's bark amid the tempests of this stormy age, the loyal
sympathy and unstinted aid of all his spiritual children in vindicat-
ing that perfect liberty which he justly claims as his sacred and
inalienable right."

This is treason in Italy. What is it here ? Such an
utterance should put every one on his guard against
all the high-sounding professions of loyalty made at
Baltimore.

Submission to the Papacy involves, of course, the en-
dorsement of its ultramontanism, as represented by the
Jesuits, whom Archbishop Ryan eulogizes, without a
hint of criticism, as "the greatest society in the Catholic
Church." Yet this society is dreaded, doubted, hated, by
freemen everywhere.

Archbishop Ireland represented the Congress in its
thought of America and Protestantism in such language
as the following : —

"America is at heart a Christian country. As a religious sys-
tem, Protestantism is in hopeless dissolution, utterly valueless as a
doctrinal or moral power, and no longer to be considered a foe with
which we must count. The Catholic Church is the sole living and
enduring Christian authority."

Could assumption go farther ?
Dr. Clark affirmed : —

' ' The loyalty of the laity has been well exemplified by their
devout acceptance of the dogmas of the immaculate conception and
of papal infallibility, and in their docile support of the decrees of
the American councils."

Could servility go farther ?

And Archbishop Ireland would have these dogmas
accepted by everybody in the United States.

" Our work," he says, " is to make America Catholic. . . . Our
cry shall be, ' God wills it.' . . . We know that the Church is the
sole owner of the truths and graces of salvation."

Major Brownson of Detroit, speaking on " Lay Action
in the Church," said boldly : —

" The American system is anti- Protestant, and must either reject
Protestantism, or be overthrown by it"

446 Appendix.

Judge Dunne in his paper on " The State and Educa-
tion " claims America now as Catholic. He says : —

" Why, then, should we not love this land ? Is it not our own ?
Is it not Columbia, daughter of Catholic thought, of Catholic wealth,
of Catholic courage '? Is not this whole country really a Catholic
land ? Is it not under the care of Catholic saints ? With a Cath-
olic population, this land were surely Catholic. Well, we have
twelve millions of Catholic people now, and of them the end is not
yet," etc.

Daniel Dougherty, Esq., of New York, evoked the wild-
est enthusiasm by making similar preposterous claims.
Seven and a half millions is an outside estimate for their
population, while by more careful reckoning there is a
population of over fifty million adherents to Protestant
churches. This is not a Roman Catholic land, nor is it
likely ever to be.

Judge Dunne fiercely denounces the State in its rela-
tion to public education ; and time and again the differ-
ent speakers outspokenly declare for the sole right of the
Romish Church to educate their children, denouncing tax-
ation for education as now laid equally upon all. Never-
theless, Americans, thanks to Protestant and State
schools, can read, while Spanish, Italian, Mexican, and
South American Romanists do not know their alphabet.

Many things said at this gathering need to be ex-
plained, and we may perhaps illustrate this by their
references to the press and their professions of loyalty.

Dr. George D. Wolff, speaking " On the Catholic Press,"
said : —

"The Catholic press is to be the antidote for pestilential litera-
ture. Catholic editors are not the expounders of what the editors
may think in doctrine. Editors and writers are to declare the doc-
trine taught them by the authorized teachers of the church."

On the 13th of April, 1887, Archbishop Corrigan of
New York wrote a letter, of which the following is a
copy : —

452 Madison Ave., New York,
April 13, 1887.
Editor and Proprietor of Catholic Herald.

Gentlemen: — By this note, which is entirely private, and not
to be published, I call your attention to the fact that the Third

Appendix. 447

Plenary Council of Baltimore, following the leadership of Leo
XIII., has pointed out the duties of the Catholic press, and de-
nounced the abuses, of which journals styling themselves Catholic
are sometimes guilty. "That paper alone," says the Council
(decree No. 228), " is to be regarded as Catholic that is prepared to
submit in all things to ecclesiastical authority."

Later on it warns all Catholic writers against presuming to attack
publicly the manner in which a bishop rules his diocese.

For some time past the utterances of "The Catholic World"
have been shockingly scandalous. As this newspaper is published
in this diocese, I hereby warn you that if you continue in this
course of conduct, it will be at your peril.

I am, gentlemen, yours most truly,

M. A. CORRIGAN,

Archbishop of New York.

Does this consist with freedom of the press? As a
significant commentary on their professions of loyalty it
may be noted that, since the Baltimore Congress, the
president of the Mormon Church has spoken, insisting
that Mormons love the Constitution and the country,
and are the most loyal of Americans. But to harmon-
ize Mormon principles with Mormon professions is a
far less difficult and complicated task, in view of the
utterances of the Vatican in this generation alone,
than to discover accord between the Pope's encyclicals
and our laws ; the papal canons and the American
Constitution ; Bomish methods and civil freedom ;
papal history and American liberty ; Romish hierarch-
ical despotism and the progress and purpose of the
United States.

Our final judgment of the utterances at Baltimore
must be governed by such facts as these : —

In 1870 the seven hundred bishops composing the
Vatican Council that declared the Infallibility of the
Pope, reaffirmed the canons and decrees of the Council
of Trent, and individually "swore adhesion to them,
kissing the Holy Gospels in solemn token thereof."

This Council of Trent was the answer of Borne to the
Reformation, and its canons and decrees, as also the
Syllabus and Encyclicals of Pius IX. (see p. 73) are
now of infallible authority.

Romanism and the Republic.

By Rev. J. J. LANSING, MA.

With an Introduction by LEEOY m. VERNON, D.D., for
Eighteen Years in Italy.

A carefully prepared INDEX and a BRIEF APPENDIX
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Romanism and the republic