The papal conspiracy exposed...

Front matter

I

THE

PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED,

Introduction

PAGE

Chap. I. — The Romish Corporation against our Protestant Fathers, . . 18 Chap. II. — Illustrations of the Spirit and Aims of Popery, ... 16

^HAP. III. — The Central Power of Popery, 20

Chap. IV. — The Essence of Protestantism, . . . , • . .24

Part I

ROMANISM A FRAUDULENT AND PERSECUTING CONSPIRACY. Chap. I. — Romanism invades the Rights of Man as to Truth, Fidelity,

Property, and Life, 30

Chap. II. — Popish Principles of Veracity and Fidelity, . . . .32 Chap. III. — Popish Professions in Great Britain and America, . .36 Chap. IV. — What ought we to believe ? "What is the supreme Tribunal? 42

Chap. V. — Positions to be proved, 47

riTAP. VI. — Testimony adduced, . 50

CiiAi". VIJ. — Appeal^or Judgment to all true Americans, ... 81

Chap. VIII. — The Gallican, or French, Doctrine, 88

Chap. IX. — Evasion of Charles Butler, 92

Chap. X. — Evasion of Bishops Hughes and Kenrick 96

Chap. XI. — The Jesuits on Lying and Slander, 110

Chap. XII. — Cautions to Americans in View of modern Romish Examples of Lying and Perjury, 121

CONTEXTS.

PART II. ROMANISM THE ENEMY OF MANKINt)

I. — The Case stated, and Principles of Judgment,

II. — Popery a Religion, a trading Corporation, a Government

III. — Operation and pernicious Eflfects of the System,

IV. — The Celibacy of the Clergy, aud the Confessional,

V. — Reasons for a thorough Consideration of this Subject

VI. — The Voice of History and Experience,

VII. — Bishop Kenrick's audacious Defence,

VIII. — Testimony of Romish Priests, ....

IX. — The Result. — Infamoxis Character of the Romish Cor poration,

Chap. IV. — Nicholas I. and the Forgeries and Frauds of the Dark

Chap. V. — The Rock Peter and the Frauds of Leo the Great, . . SD6 Chap. VI. — The Plots and Frauds of Gregory VII., the patron Saint

of the Bishops of the United States. — The Bishops' Oath, . 331 Chap. VII. — Characteristics and Developments of Popery during the

Era of Gregory VIT., • • 342

Chap. YT. — What ought to be done ? 412

THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.

INTRODUCTION.

Chapter I. The Case Stated And The Issue Defin^id

The Pilgrim Fathers of New England and the other Protestant founders of this great nation came to this continent, soon after the reformation had shaken the European world, to lay the foundations of a new order of things, bv erecting a new social system upon the great principles of civil and religious liberty.

As one illustration of the results of this colonization, we now witness in New England a state of society which, -with all its defects, has never been exceeded, and rarely equalled, on earth. Our state of society, too, is the result of the principles and institutions of our fathers. It was their glory, in their own esteem, that they had receded to the uttermost point from the corruptions and pollutions of Rome in doctrine, organization, and morals. Their 2 (^3)

THE PAPAL coN^^PiriAOy EXPOSED.

foundation was the Bible, and the Bible alone — not the Bible neutralized or rendered poisonous by the traditions of man ; the Bible in the hands of the churches and of the people, and not in the hands of a hierarchy falsely calling herself the church. Under it have sprung up free governments in church and state, systems of education, purity in the family state, regenerated ministers and churches, benevolent enterprise, science, literature, and the arts.

Results similar to these are also extensively witnessed throughout our land ; and it is our fixed purpose, by the aid of God, to make them universal. At this we aim ; because it is our firm conviction that we, as a Protestant nation, have received our principles from God, and that he has assigned to us the sublime mission and the glorious destiny of making them universal.

But lo, whilst we are obediently moving on to attain our destiny, an assault is made upon us by a system unique and peculiar, and assuming the style and title of the Church of Rome, the Mother and Mistress of all churches.

We turn to listen to her words. They are bold and lofty. Laying aside all ceremony, she at once denounces us and our fathers as in rebellion against her, our only lawful and religious sovereign, and therefore against Almighty God himself.

We stop to consider more particularly the system which makes such charges and puts forth such pretensions.

We find it to be a system nominally Christian, yet not friendly to other Christian bodies, but excluding and anathematizing them all. It is confined to no nation or government, but exists under all. Its parts in various nations are not, like other religious bodies, independent of each other, but are all organized as one compact system around one head. That head is a temporal ruler in a

THE CASE STATED AXD THE ISSUE DEFINED.

territory exclusively his own. He is also a spiritual ruler, and to some extent a temporal ruler, over his subjects in all lands. He claims supremacy over all earthly governments ; and, so far as he has had at any time the ability, has exercised this supremacy, and at all times aims to secure the requisite power.

In our land the i^ystem has great and constantly increasing numbers. Seven archbishops, thirty-two bishops, one thousand five hundred and- seventy-four priests, and a population of three millions are subjected to its sway.

It has exerted great power in politics. Politicians have courted the favor of those who sway this mass of ^•oters. It has also constantly aimed, through pecuniary and political motives, to paralyze and control the Protestant political and secular press.

It has under its control numerous and dangerous organized societies, composed of unmarried men and women withdrawn from domestic life, and specially sworn to extend and defend the authority of the Pope of Rome, the head of the great system.

It is organizing seductive and proselyting systems of education, and aims by means of them to corrupt and enlist in their vast schemes the children of Protestant parents. It has at this time twenty colleges, with two thousand two hundred and forty-seven students ; twenty:nine theological seminaries, with upwards of four hundred students ; and one hundred and twelve female academies.

It is accumulating property and aiming to concentrate it in the hands of the bishops — the sworn vassals of a foreign monarch. It meets us at every turn in this and in all lands. It shows its true spirit as fast as it gains power : and it significantly threatens us with future retribution whenever it shall gain universal sway.

Chapter II. Illustrations Of The Spirit And Aims Of Popery

We will .illustrate these statements by a few impressive facts. It has ever been the policy of the Papists to charge on Protestants a tendency to all kinds of radical and disorganizing errors, and to assert that the only defence against it is submission to the Papacy. Whenever such tendencies appear to exist in fact, the Papists are emboldened to endeavor to produce a reaction towards their system. Accordingly, when signs of such a state of things began to appear in New England, they put forth new efforts to make proselytes ; nor were ^those efforts entirely fruitless.

In particular, one well-known personage, of New England parentage and education, Orestes A. Brownson, who had himself neared the gulf of infidelity and atheism, unable to extricate himself from the mazes of scepticism, fled for refuge to Home, and now pronounces the experiment of our fathers a failure, and calls on us to return from our revolt. Thus, in this centre of New England, this bold proposal is made by a descendant of the Puritans to the American mind. Our system is pronounced a failure. Romanism is offered to us in its place ; yea, urged upon us as our only refuge from ruin.

Listen to the following words, in which he discloses not only his own feelings, but also the purposes of the Papal corporation :

SPIRIT AND AIMS OF POPEKV.

IT

" The church may be assailed, will be assailed ; but we know it is founded on a rock ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It is now firmly established in this country ; and persecution will but cause it to thrive. Our countrymen may be grieved that it is so ; but it is useless for them to kick against the decrees of Almighty God. They have had an open field and fair play for Protestantism. Here Protestantism has had free scope, has reigned without a rival, and proved what she could do, and that her best is evil ; for the very good she boasts is not hers. A new day is dawning on this chosen land ; a new chapter is about to open in our history, and the church to assume her rightful position and influence. Ours shall yet become consecrated ground ; and hero the kingdom of God's dear Son shall be established. Our hills and valleys shall yet echo to the convent bell. No matter who writes, who declaims, who intrigues, who is alarmed, or what leagups are formed ; this is to be a Catholic country ; and from Maine to Georgia, from the broad Atlantic to the broader Pacific, the clean sacrifice is to be offered daily for the quick and the dead."

But these words are not original with him ; they are but an echo of the voice of the church. The society at Lyons for the propagation of the faith, a Papal organization of great power, to which I shall hereafter recur again, says the same. Speaking of the discovery of America by Columbus, and of the fact that France and Spain took possession for the church, the society says, —

" At a late hour heresy made her appearance, and led to the coasts of North America the most violent of her disciples — the restless Puritans. Soon other sects cast their scum on the same shores, and Protestantism gained sovereignty in the thirteen colonies which were destined to become the United States. Yet the Catholic church could never abandon the invaded territory."

After unfolding her plans and her vigorous prosecution of them, she says, —

" In view of such beneficial results, we may well believe that the creation of the American episcopate will rank as one of the most important events in the ecclesiastical history of the nineteenth century. Its efficacious activity recalls to mind something of those labors of organization- by which the illustrious bishops of primitive times, among the depraved Romans, the Arians, and the barbarians, provided for the future welfare of modern nations."

Nay, Mr. B. openly confesses that there is a system designed to exterminate Protestantism : "Not by force," he says, " but by argument and conviction. The church," he says, " never uses force." Just as true as this has been, so true will it be when they gain the power. We see the parts, therefore, of a universal system ; and they agree with the declaration of the Duke of Richmond. He, as is well known, declared that there was a combination of the despots of the old world to destroy our institutions in order to sustain their own. This and other statements of a similar kind will be fully detailed in the succeeding portions of this work. Let no man, then, call it illiberality or persecution if we subject this arrogant and invading system to a thorough scrutiny. We are still the majority. We have liberty and a free press; and God has raised us up, given us the power, and calls us to the work. Yet I desire to say, in passing, that my confidence of success does not rest on man. There is no sufficient power to prevent the spread of that system but God. Its

SPIRIT AND AIMS OF P0P1:RY, past sway is owing to its accordance with human depravity ; and the same cause will give it power in time to come if God does not interpose. But his glory calls for its ruin. He is strong enough to judge it ; and he will. That the time of this judgment is near, gathering signs foretell. The hosts are moving to the field of Armageddon.

Chapter III. The Central Power Of Popery

So long as men admit tho being of a God and believe in the immortality of the soul, their most powerful motives will be derived from their hopes and fears as to eternal life. It matters not whether these hopes or fears are founded on truth or falsehood, genuine religion or superstition ; so long as they exist they will sway the masses of mankind with resistless power. The sway of Popery over the popular mind is derived from this source. It all depends upon a false answer to the question, " What shall I do to be saved ? "

The sublimity and importance of the ideas called up before the mind by this brief question I suppose no one will deny. It calls up God ; a spiritual world ; a moral government ; a law and its penalty ; a revolt ; an atonement ; reconciliation to God, resulting in heaven ; eternal alienation, resulting in hell. But what has it to do with the central error of Romanism and the main issue between Romanists and Protestants? Much every way, as I shall soon show.

The answer to this question given by the great reformers is plain and distinct. It unfolds God, the correlation of the mind to him, the nature of his law, and of life in him by love, and shows that this perfects the mind and conducts it to its true end. It unfolds sin in its nature,

THE CENTRAL POWER OF POPERT.

forms, and effects upon the mind — its guilt, and desert, and eternal consequences. It unfolds the divinity and incarnation of the Son of God and his atonement, and the possibility of pardon on the ground of repentance, faith, and a holy life. And then, with the apostles, it says, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This is the answer of the whole evangelical Protestant world. In this they all agree. With them the church of Rome does not agree. Teaching a hell, she admits the need of the question, but answers it falsely. Her answer is. Believe in the church of Rome, and in Christ as the church of Rome believes in him, and thou shalt be saved ; believe not, and thou shalt be damned.

But you reply, I have had the Bible from childhood ; I have studied it ; I have been aided in my study by the instruction of holy men ; I think I know what sin is, and that I have repented of it, and trusted in Christ, and am striving to cultivate all the Christian graces and to lead a holy life ; and through the mercy of God, through Christ, I hope for heaven. Are not my hopes well founded ? But do you believe in the church of Rome ? No ; I believe in the Bible. But do you believe in the Bible in her sense and according to her interpretation ? In some things I do, and in some I do not. In a great multitude of things I regard her as utterly misinterpreting and radically corrupting the word of God ; and, on the whole, I regard that church as the man of sin spoken of by Paul and the great harlot spoken of by John. Then of course you cannot be saved ; since you not only do not believe in the church of Rome, but blaspheme her — the bride, the spouse, of Christ. But where has God told me to believe in the church of Rome ? My Bible says nothing about it. It says, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And Paul, in his letter to the church of Rome,

THE PAPAL COJfSPIRACY EXPOSED.

says, " Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved ; " but not a syllable about believing in the church of Rome any where.

Now, what has the church of Rome to say to all this, think you ? Why, as follows : —

1. You cannot tell what the canon of the Bible is except through the church of Rome.

2. After the canon is made out, you cannot so tell what the Bible means, without the aid of the church of Rome, that it is possible for you to exercise saving faith.

3. The Bible, without the traditions of the church of Rome, is so defective and imperfect that it is not safe to depend upon it.

4. There is only one thing upon which you can depend safely; and that is the church of Rome. Through her you can tell what" the canon of the Bible is ; through her you can tell what it means ; through her you can have all its deficiencies supplied ; and thus through her you can trust in Christ, be holy, and be saved.

But what is this church of Rome ? Does it mean the whole body of believers under the pope ? No, indeed ; we are not Congregationalists. It is not their duty to judge or teach ; but to hear their superiors, believe and , ! obey. What, then, is the church ? If you would know definitely, then hear. It is the body of bishops in union with the pope, their head ; and they are inspired, not as individuals, but in their corporate capacity. This is th@ church that we mean. It is the ecclesia docens — the teaching church. It is an inspired, infallible, indefectible body of teachers. These, as a corporation, are, as it were, an incarnation of God — the body of Christ. Through them ^ God speaks and acts. Through them he interprets the [ \ Bible and settles all questions of doctrine. Through I ] them he governs the church. Through no other body of i

THE CEXTRIL POWER OF POPERY.

men does he so act or speak. If you hear them, you hear him ; if you reject them, you reject him. They occupy precisely the same place relatively to the world that the apostles did of old. Indeed, they are the successors of the apostles, and inherit all their prerogatives and powers ; and as a rejection of the apostles would have been fatal then, so is a rejection of this inspired and infallible body of t^ieir successors now. Therefore, if you do not believe in the church of Rome, you cannot believe in Christ or be saved. Believe, therefore, in the church of Rome, and through her in Christ, and thou shalt be saved, is still the repl}'.

We have thus arrived at what is, beyond all doubt, the central power of the Romish system. This is the great citadel of spiritual Babylon. On this point comes up the main, the dividing, issue between Romanists and Protestants. The demand of faith in the Romish corporation as an infallible church, as essential to salvation, is the vital power of the great Romish apostasy ; its denial is the fundamental position of Protestantism.

Chapter IV. The Preceding Statements Confirmed

That the rejection of the pope and the corporation of bishops is the essence of Protestantism is exceedingly manifest, as will appear from the following among other reasons : —

1. Though there are numerous other errors in the system, — as image worship, transubstantiation, the mass, purgatory, <fe;c., — yet any one of them can be removed, yea, many of them, and yet leave the mainspring of the system in powerful operation ; but take this corporation away, and the system dies. As an ox smitten on the side does not die, nor if you cut oif a leg or a horn does he die, but if you smite him on his forehead, on his brain, his whole system is dissolved, and he dies, so is it here. This is the forehead beneath which lies the brain of the system ; smite it, and it dies. God has seven hammers, any one of which can smite it with omnipotent power ; how much more all I In the proper place I shall produce them. My object now is simply to bring forward the system and show where to smite.

2. Till this is smitten down, it is a wall of defence ; around all the interior absurdities of the system. In vain ! do you object against them ; it is all set aside as mere pri- 1 vate judgment. You deem them false, say they ; but what | is the worth of your individual opinion ? The church I deems them true ; and who is most likely to be right ? !

THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED.

Has she not God's promise to be with her always and to guide her into all truth?

3. It effects a ruinous perversion of the principle of faith — one of the most important and powerful of the soul, and the most injurious in its perversion. Any absurdity, however great, once taken into this enclosure, is exempted from the scrutiny of reason, and belief is debased to receive it.

4. It makes the system essentially, logically, and of necessity, intolerant and exterminating, regarding all other systems as the gospel does idolatry — i. e., as rebellion against God. Many Protestants do not seem to be aware of this, and think that Protestants ought to regard Romanism as one of the man}^ fraternal Christian sects. But they mistake its necessary logical relation to all other bodies. It does not acknowledge any of them as any part of the church of Christ, nor as Christians. It does not ask to be put on a level with them. It has no part or lot with them. They are sons of Belial, all of them — enemies of God, children of perdition, on the road to hell ; and its only duty and B^vowed end is to convert or exterminate them.

Indeed, it denounces them all as pagans. The celebrated Brownson, speaking, as he declares, under the sanction of the American Papal bishops, says, (Quarterly Review, January, 1854, p. 96,) " Our American society is pagan, not Christian.''^ Hence he affirms that the Papists are situated as were the first Christians under pagan Rome, and that they are an insulated system in which are all the hopes of society.

"Ahnost every where the faithful, as under the pagan emperors of Rome, must constitute a society of their own, independent of the pagan society in the midst of which they live, complete in itself, and adequate to all social 3

THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.

wants and necessities. This Catholic society is in the old world the remains of a once general Catholic society ; in our country it is, as under the pagan Cgesars, the germ or nucleus of a new Catholic state. All the hopes of the old world centre in these Catholic remnants ; all the hopes of the new in this Catholic germ. It is this Catholic society, sustaining itself or forming itself under overshadowing heathenism, that we must consult in our addresses and discussions. To save the non- Catholic society from continued decline and corruption is as hopeless as it was to save the Jewish state under the Roman governors, or pagan society under Nero or Diocletian. The thing is out of the question ; because modern society, as distinguished from the Catholic, has in itself no recuperative energy, no germ of life. All society must conform to the principles of our holy religion, and spring from Catholicity as its root, or sooner or later lapse into barbarism. The living germ in all modern nations, the nucleus of all future living society, is in the Catholic portion of the population. They are the salt of the earth ; they are the leaven that is to leaven the whole lump." — Quarterly Review^ pp. 97, 98.

The feelings of some Romanists, and even their common sense, may revolt from this ; nay, in view of the debased Romanist masses among us, it is both impudent and ludicrous ; but it is the stern, inevitable, logical result of the system, avowed in public formulas, fully brought out by Mr. B.

" ' It is the intention of the pope to possess this country.' Undoubtedly. ' In this intention he is aided by the Jesuits and all the Catholic prelates and priests.' Undoubtedly, if they are faithful to their religion. * If the Catholic church becomes predominant here, Protestants will all be exterminated.' We hope so, if exterminated as Protestants by being converted to the Catholic faith."

THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. 27

He at this time deems it politic to disclaim in behalf of the church all force but moral, and sajs that is enough, and also concedes equal civil rights. His subsequent doctrine as to extermination will depend upon the power of the church. He then proceeds : —

" Save, then, in the discharge of our civil duties and in the ordinary business of life, there is and can be no harmony between Catholics and Protestants. The two parties stand opposed ; separated, not by a mere paper wall, as some of the sects are, but by a great gulf. The people of Christ (i. e., the Romanists) are a peculiar people ; they stand out from the world, distinct, separate ; and must, if they will be the people of Christ. They can have no fellowship with Belial, nor live in peace and harmony with his children, (i. e., the Protestants.")

From such views he anticipates a Protestant reaction ; but he treats it with supreme contempt. He says, —

" The signs of the times seem to indicate that the several tribes of Goths, Yandals, Huns, and other barbarians are forming a league for a new invasion of Rome. Well, be it so. He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall deride them. The Episcopalians may read their destiny in that of the old Donatists, whom in many respects they resemble ; and all the Protestant sects combined are not so formidable to the church as were at one period the old Arians. The church triumphed over the Arians ; she will triumph over the Protestants. A union whose principle is hatred will not long subsist, but will soon break asunder. Protestantism is doomed. The devil may be very active and full of wrath and utter great swelling words for a season, because he knows that his time is short ; but Protestantism must go the way of all the earth."

This seems to be sufficiently explicit. Yet doubtless

THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.

there will bo still some charitable souls who w\W think it illiberal to suspect the RomaPxists of ulterior evil designs, and call even argun:ient in self-defence persecution, and wonder why we will persecute a sect of Christians who have been so far liberalized by modern progress as to outgrow their ancient bigotry and exclusiveness.

5. So far as it is believed, it becomes a corporation invested with the highest powers of despotism that the mind of man can conceive. It has the monopoly, not of banking, or corn, or wheat, but of the grace of God, of heaven and hell ; and such a body will bind men to their sway by the whole weight of eternal joys and eternal woes. It has logically carried out its views ; and kings and nations have quailed before its terrors. Its logical tendencies are still the same. Nothing but the counterpoise of Protestantism prevents it. On this it gnashes its teeth, and longs to exterminate it. To be sure, they tell us that it will be safe to put such power into the hands of such a corporation ; for God will not let his bride, his wife, abuse it. Gentle souls! As if the experience of more than a thousand years had thrown no light on that point!

6. It urges, in the nature of the case, the most important and momentous claim that a body of men can make. It involves not merely a question of truth or falsehood, as in the case of common historical facts. It admits of no middle ground between the highest and most momentous truth and a falsehood of the deepest and most damning guilt. God either sanctions the claim with his whole soul, or with his whole soul he abhors it.

7. If such a question is involved, it can be settled. There must be truth on such a point. Interest and | organic power may resist ; but God is almighty ; and ^ he can so wield truth that they will give way.

8. It is the great question of the age. For three hundred

THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED.

years Christendom has been divided into two contending camps. Things cannot remain so : there must be a decision ; there will be. The systems are diametrically opposed : one must and will exterminate the other. But it will not be without a moral conflict unknown before — the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

From this brief view of the state of the case one thingis clear — that it is a system that ought, especially at this time, to be thoroughly understood ; not misrepresented, not dealt with on grounds of prejudice, but studied, analyzed, understood in the light of history, philosophy, and Scripture.

We ought not to be simple, credulous, and the dupes of craft and delusion. The main stress of the conflict will be upon such points as these : Is there evidence in the nature of things, or in the word or in the providence of God, as developed in history, that the claims of this corporation are well founded ? Or do they prove them to be false, impious, and destructive ?