Vaticanism unmasked

Preface

The papal church is a human institution which throws her sacerdotal robes over the whole civilized world. The Pope usurps the authority of Jesus Christ as the supreme head of the church militant on earth, and claims the right to rule the world in God's stead. This audacious claim is rigidly enforced in all parts of the world by military power, where the claim is disputed, and where there are bayonets enough to insure success, at the command of the Vatican. In a Republic like this, diplomacy, strategy, intrigue and all manner of fraud and deception are used according to circumstances, until the civil power is under control, after which obedience to the supreme Pontiff is the law of the land. He usurps the prerogatives of both Christ and Caesar. This arrangement is quite convenient, inasmuch as there is but one source of authority, and nobody is in danger, by transgressing Christ's command "render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." This is a logical sequence of papal supremacy and infallibility. Once established, one mind can rule the world from a single point to wit, the Vatican at Rome. A syllabus ex-cathedra is better authority in the mind of a papist than a " thus saith the Lord " of the Bible. The Pope's bull of excommunication has more terrors in it than all the thunders of Sinai, and the penalties of God's broken laws.

These propositions may seem extravagant to those who have never examined the subject, but the reader will find them sustained in the following pages :

In the third decade of the present century, when fitting for college under a Jesuit priest, the writer was thoroughly instructed in the aims, plans and future prospects of the Roman Hierarchy, in this country, as well as in the doctrines of the papal church. During the last fifty years we have studied the nature and watched the progress of Romanism in this Republic, with intense interest, hoping to see some abler pen lay open its real character and designs to protestants of the nineteenth century.

In reading the histories of eighteen centuries it has become more and more apparent that the claims of the vatican to infallibility, to universal dominion, to an unbroken line of succession from the apostles, to the power of absolution from sin through time and eternity, are one and all stupendous humbugs, and the greatest frauds ever palmed off upon the human race.

To establish these blasphemous claims in these United States and territories, and upon this continent, is the work of the present century, by the Roman Hierarchy, through its cardinals, bishops and priests, as has been openly and boldly avowed by them from time to time.

It is the design of this pamphlet to lay open the true character of the institution which purposes to substitute despotism for republicanism in this country, and we have condensed the proofs from history so as to bring them within the reach of the protestant masses, before it shall be too late, to resist the encroachments of the papal power.

The histories to which we are chiefly indebted are ^' Millman's Latin Christianity," including the numerous authors quoted by him, both protestant and papal, to the " Period of the Reformation by Hausser," to the " Huguenots in France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by Samuel Smiles," to " D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation of the sixteenth century," and '* A Synopsis of Popery as it was and as it is, by William Hogan, Esq., formerly Roman catholic priest."

After the first three centuries of the Christian era, satan was permitted to take possession of the church, as he was permitted to take Job in hand more than fifteen hundred years before. The pure gold of Christianity was soon buried in the rubbish of sacerdotal religion and christians were well nigh smothered into silence for more than a decade of centuries. But Jesus Christ had said of his church (not the Pope's) " the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," and after satan had had ample time to extinguish it, God arose in his power, dug out of that mountain of rubbish, the ore, separated the gold from the dross in his great refiningpot of free discussion, and set the current in another direction. John Wicklifie, John Huss, Jerome of Prague, Martin Luther, Melancthon, Zwingle and others were evidences that the great principles of Christianity yet lived. Luther began the Reformation by attacking the papal system first in its corrupt practices and second in its doctrines. Pope Leo X flattered, threatened, raged and bellowed in turn His Bulls were issued and served as sandpaper to burnish the -old which had become dim by long disuse until all Germany was lighted up with gospel fires. Luther, armed wiiithe^Bible, lent out'to battle with the supreme Pontiff Tn his legate; as David with his shng and smooth stones g^ve battle%o Goliath and the Philistines. The one waa moral, the other a physical power, with an Almighty arm

'^Shriste'ntm has two systems of -"?^-' Chnstianity and Hierarchism, from which to choose God is the author of the first which is the only system that embraces human salvation The priest is the author of the second which is he Jystem we shdl lay open in this pamphlet, as delineated in hltory. In the hierarchial system, ecclesiastical ;.e«a«c. was substituted for christian repentance in Christianity. 1 he translation of the new testament was altered to conform to Ss counterfeit of a great fundamental principle in ch^istianitv, which substituted the Roman Pontiff for Je^us cS and placed the priest between the Creator and h.s creatures. In the protestant Bible repmtance^. .. exercnse of the heart, contrition for sin against God, and an act towards God. In the Douay testament penance is sub tituted for repentance contrary to the true rendering of the original Greek. This is the fundamental difference between

''%Tt^:^X'Z:\. Poman catholic church is the only institution in this world that claims 'nfalljbihty, and thaiit is, of all others, the most corrupt, ;?"g°'51y ^-i^i f^^^^ potic; and consequently it is no more entitled to the char acter of catholicity than satan it to that of saint.

We also propose to show from its own history that t has never reformed, that its character has been essentially the "L for the kst fourteen centuries, that when modifid in its professions at all in any country, it ^^^^J^*^" ^^.V while getting possession of the civil power, as "ow in «u» Republic, and'that the civil power when once in ts ban J has always been used to smother Christianity .and force tians into obedience to the demands of the Vatican. ^^^^^^^

Cambridge, Mass., 1877,

CHAPTER I. Romanism. — Civil Power. — Protestantism 6

Charges against the Papal Church 8—9

The Autocracy and Despotism of Papacy. — Union of Church and State 9

First Universal Bishop..— Apostolic Succession JO

A Feudal Sovereignty — half Spiritual, half Temporal 11

Death to Preach the Gospel — Cruelty to Heretics 13

Pope Innocent IV. and Frederick II. — Contest for Power .14

Boniface III. — Philip the Fair — Edward I. — Papal Despotism 14

Pope John XXII. — Control for Power continued — God and mammon combined. 18

The Hierarchy — Council of Pisa — John Wycliffe — The Reformation 19

John Huss — Jerome of Prague — John XXIII. — Benedict XIII. — Gregory XII. 19

Council of Constance — Pope John XXIII. Deposed — Cardinal's Hat 20

Luther and the Reformation , 21

Louis XIV. — The Huguenots — Edict of Nantes Revoked — The Inquisition. . .25

CHAPTER II. Vaticanism in the Nineteenth Century

4. France v 33

5. Mexico 35

6. United States 37

1. Germany 30

2. England 31

3. Italy 32

The Papal Church and the Freedmen . .

The character of the Papal System unchanged 39

1 Its aflaiiation with the Pro-Slavery Party before the war. Its rewards after ... 39 2. Its sympathy with the rebellion — Resistance of the Draft — New York Riots. .40

4. The Roman Catholic Opposition to our common schools 41

Chapter III

To the Freedmen of America. The Political Trinity of Despotism 46

1. The Democracy — 2. Slaveocracy — 3. The Papacy 54

Chapter IV

Despotism vs. Republicanism. The great battle between Despotism and Republicanism — The Hamburg Massacre — Protest of the Colored People 60

CHAPTER V. A limited ballot a substitute for universal 75

The Roman Catholic vote — Cardinal McCloskey 76

The ballot a sacred trust — How it should be guarded 77

Chief Justice Chase and President Lincoln 79

Attorney General Taft on the Educational qualification 80

President Grant on protecting the ballot 82

The Ballot not a natural right but a civil privilege 83

A second rebellion organizing — Boston Daily Advertiser and Gov. Chamberlain 86

Wade Hampton of South Carolina 87

The B alldozing democracy 90

Tilden's plurality all fraudulent votes — How obtained 91

Plan to intimidate the U. S. Senate — Its failure 92

The Electoral Commission — Senate intimidation 93

The last encyclical letter of the Pope 94

An appeal to save the Republic 98

A blow at Priestly influence in Canada — Supreme Court 99

CHAPTER VI. The Political Trinity Victorious 102

Gov. Chamberlain's letter to President Hayes on his peace policy 103

The New Orleans intimidating mass meeting lOG

The Hayes and Packard vote in Louisiana 107

The Hampton crack of the whip in South Carolina 108

American liberty the peace oflFering to rifle clubs 109

Gov. Chamberlain's address on the withdrawal of the troops 110

Gov. Chamberlain sacrificed and virtually deposed 113

The triune despot of bulldozing democracy to rule H'^

Protest against the sale of the Republican party 115

The colored people saved the American Republic in 1865 H^

Hayes elected in 1876 by colored votes 117

The Principia Club 118

VATICANISM UMASKED.

Chapter I. Romanism Civil Power — Protestantism

The history of the Latin church from its apostacy from the true church in the fourth century, is a history of crimes committed under the garb of religion. The assumptions of its long lines of Popes to rule the world as vicegerents of God have succeeded in every country on the globe where the political power could be added to the ecclesiastical. In this country the papal power has not yet gained the victory, but it has already captured the outposts of protestantism, and while satan is singing to the protestant church the lullaby of no danger, the cunning papacy is making rapid strides to the very citadel of protestantism.

Their priests already claim that their church embraces within its folds a majority of the officers of the army and navy of the nation.

In another chapter we shall show, what the newspaper press has already published as items of news, that a very large majority of the police force of our principal cities are Roman Catholics, and we will add here for the consideration of our protestant friends, the patent fact that they are organizing military companies all over the land — building immense cathedrals in all the principal cities, and especially in the Southern States for the negroes.

But what are the scattered forces of the protestant church about all this time? They have had the civil power in their hands ever since the landing of the Pilgrims and the organization of this republic. Their sons seems to have forgotten what their fathers taught them, to wit, that " eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.'*

They are like a family of children quietly sleeping while the house over their heads is on fire, or while the lighted fuse is quietly burning its way to a powder magazine underneath it and them.

Thus the churches are sleeping on, while the papal forces under the supreme control of the Vatican at Rome are intriguing for the possession of the civil power of this country, which means according to the most authentic histories of that church, the entire snuffing out and extinction of protestantism. That we do not overstate the case we appeal to history and beg our protestant friends to give the subject a thorough investigation. Two and a half centuries ago protestantism fled from the persecutions of the old world, and took possession of a howling wilderness on this continent, where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, with none but owls and Indians to molest or make them afraid. In process of time they constituted the Pulpit and the Press their watchmen and placed them on the watch towers of Zion to guard their liberties, and warn the people of their danger whenever it approached. Some twenty-three hundred years before that, under a theocracy, God revealed to his prophet Ezekiel the penalty a watchman incurred in not blowing the trumpet to warn the people of their danger when he saw the sword coming. These are his words : " But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, 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 hands." Ezek, 33: 6.

Watchman what of the night ? Do you not see the papal sword glistening in the distance? If not, it is only because it is hid under ths tinsel robes and gaudy trappings of the hierarchy, and wo to the watchman who does not blow his trumpet to warn the people of the approach of the enemy. We use the English language not to cover up crime, neither do we propose to tax our ingenuity to conceal great rascalities behind little "irregularities." The time has come to know who is for Christ and who for an ti- Christ.

And now that the Protestant powers are uppermost in a large part of Europe and no longer under the control of the papal power she is pushing for this country, landing her forces by the thousand in New York, where naturalization papers await them and where they are at once transformed into voters, supplemented by Jesuits and sisters of charity by the ship-load, to instruct them in their duties to the dominant party of that democratic city. In this way she hopes to hold the balance of power between the two political parties, until by the power of majorities, at no distant day, she can capture this country and wield its immense resources and power in her own interest. A disturber everywhere she is making herself felt a disturber here. Her nature and history are one, and she will never rest until she has gained the ascendency in this country, and when that day comes the Republic, as our fathers framed it, and as her sons have administered it, is no more. These are grave charges and should not be lightly made. But we do make them under the following count, in proof of which w^e summon her own history.

1. Her claim of universal power, temporal and spiritual, in heaven and on earth, exalts her above all civil governments, in the eyes of her devotees.

2. Her attempt to seize and exercise this universal

power, AS GOD ON EARTH !

3. This power disallows disagreement with her own dogmas, and enforces her authority with the death penalty, when and where she has military power enough to enforce it.

4. She has always sought alliance with the political powers to enforce her audacious claims.

5. She absolves her adherents from the duty of obeying the civil government in all cases when the government does not favor her schemes.

6. She instructs her adherents how to act, and how to vote on all matters touching her interests.

7. She is hostile to whatever is national and American in distinction to what is Roman catholic, to wit, free press, free speech, free schools, open bibles, a sacred Sabbath, &c.

8. She insists that her adherents shall in no way fraternize with protestant Americans, socially or religiously, nor imbibe the national spirit, and is bent on promoting among them clannishness, bigotry and intolerance, (catholic servants are not allowed to attend worship in protestant families or protestant meetings. The church demands separate schools, separate literary, benevolent and temperance societies.)

9. Her spirit has grown more intensely Romish and intolerant within the last twenty or thirty years than ever before in this country. Note the renewal of the Pope's claim to Infallibility, its admission, his anathemas against those who reject it — Maryolotry — the Guibord burial case — church celebrations — their prior right to our streets on St. Patrick's day — church building, consecrations, &c.

10. She is always on the side of oppression as against republicanism and gives her influence and support to the party that will most aid her schemes and interests, as for instance the democratic party in New York — and the Southern rebels.

11. She makes no concealment of her purpose to take possession of this country, and rule it in the interests of Rome ; e. g., " Father Hecker's '' boast — his mission ^abroad to stir up catholic emigration to this country for the purpose of increasing the catholic vote — Her efforts in the south to capture the colored people after they were emancipated and made voters, and the poor whites whose stupid ignorance is the best qualification for papal rule — the boasts of the priests that they have now a majority of the army and navy officers.

12. Probable understanding between the southern leaders of the democratic party, and the leaders of the Catholic church, the politicians to help the church to converts and spiritual power, and the church to help the politicians to voters and political power. Note the speech of Jeff Davis at New Orleans, the Pope's special kindness during the war, and the reluctance to educate either race, except in church dogmas and military tactics.

THE AUTOCRACY AND DESPOTISM OF PAPACY UNION OF

CHURCH AND STATE ECCLESIASTICAL AND CiVIL

POWER COMBINED.

In the early part of the fourth century, under Constantine the Great, the papal power began to make more serious inroads upon the democracy of Christianity. Two fearful strides were taken in that direction by the emperor, designedly or otherwise, to wit, 1st, the union of church and state under one supreme head, and 2d, the legal power given the papal church to hold real estate and other property in its own name. This opened the floodgates of corruption to such an extent that the supreme head of church and state on earth was hardly able to withstand it, and to which many of his successors implicitly yielded. This constituted the papal church, the great savings bank of the world, and confirmed its creed as the only legal Christianity. Its financial condition was improved, at the expense of the revenues of the state. For several centuries its immense wealth was lavished in building cathedrals, monasteries and nunneries. The priest's office became lucrative, and corrupt men pressed into it. For hundreds of years bishoprics were bought and sold in the market with impunity, and simony was the rule and not the exception. The Pope was not only the supreme head of the church but commander-in-chief of the armies. His cardinals and archbishops were his field officers caparisoned with sword and spear, boot and spur, and his soldiers were his most effective instruments for the " conversion " of heretics at the point of the bayonet. Some of their exploits in this direction throw the day of Pentecost into the shade.

FIRST UNIVERSAL BISHOP APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION.

The autocracy of the papal power culminated when Boniface III. was appointed universal bishop. In the early part of the seventh century, Pope Boniface HI. was appointed to that position, not by Peter or any of his successors in the church of Christ — not by election in any ecclesiastical body — not by any people — but by that pious fraud Phocas, an unmitigated tyrant and usurper, whose crimes were of the darkest dye, an unfortunate link in the chain of claimed apostolic succession. This is by no means the only break in that chain, for looking into the history we find in the eleventh century that the papal chair was vacant one year, after being occupied by a boy ten years old, and thrice driven from the throne — again in the thirteenth century there was no Pope for three years, and at another time in the same century the papal chair was vacant for two years and three months — in the fourteenth century eleven months at one time and two years at another, during which the cardinals were quarrelling for the position. If such be the "unbroken chain of apostolic succession" the protestant church is in no immediate danger of strangulation by it.

CONTEST FOR WEALTH AND POWER.

From the days of Constantine in the fourth century to those of Boniface III. in the seventh, and Innocent III. in the thirteenth, there was a continual contest for wealth and power between Popes and Emperors, Archbishops and Kings, church and state. When death vacated a throne, and the hereditary heir was in his minority, it afforded an opportunity for the opposing power to gain the ascendency. In some cases the empire was in the ascendant, but more frequently the church. During these centuries the papal power had claimed one prerogative after another, until the contest culminated in the autocracy of the Pope, and Kings and Emperors alike lay at his feet, the victims of an absolute and irresponsible power. The chief points which the Pope claimed as his exclusive prerogative were

1. General supremacy of jurisdiction ; a claim, it is obvious, absolutely illimitable.

2. Right of legislation, including the summoning and presiding in councils.

3. Judgment in all ecclesiastical causes, arduous and difficult. This includes the power of judging on contested elections, and degrading Jbishops, a super metropolitan power.

4. Right of confirmation of bishops and metropolitans, the gift of the pallium. Hence by degrees, rights of appointment to devolved sees, reservations, &c.

5. Dispensations.

6. The foundation of new orders.

7. Canonization.

A FEUDAL SOVEREIGNTY HALF SPIRITUAL, HALF

TEMPORAL.

In addition to the above claims or included in them, were many others established from time to time, to complete a feudal sovereignty, half spiritual and half temporal. Every monarchy in Europe had, one after another, become mere fiefs of the see of Rome. The supreme Pontiff of Rome was the God of earth. Practically, the God of heaven, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords — the Creator of all things in heaven and in earth, was a secondary power called upon only when necessary to strengthen the anathema of the Pope to bring rebellious Kings and Emperors into subjection to the church of which Innocent iii. was the supreme pontiff at this time. His word was law ; he claimed the power to forgive the sins of the greatest criminals, (or make them damnatory through all eternity) provided the criminal had wealth enough to satisfy the rapacity of the holy fathers and would cast it into the yawning maw of mother church. He could legitimatize the bastards of licentious kings and make them legal heirs to the crown, at a moderate price. He could grant absolution from all the sins of time, and also eternal happiness to any prostitute or undivorced queen, who could pay. He could not tolerate, marriage among his clergy, but could allow them, what most of them accepted as a substitute, free rein and uncontrollable license in the convents. There was no gulf fixed between the monasteries and convents that could not be passed with impunity and the cases of moral purity in either were the exceptions rather than the rule.

He could dispense crowns and kingdoms or withhold them for a higher bid, by declaring them feudatory to the see of Rome. We might quote pages, but will give a single specimen on the latter point. Pedro, king of Aragon in Spain, a descendant of Charlemagne, conceived a passion for the rich and beautiful Maria, but as she was already the wife of Count Comminges, to whom she had borne two children, and as the Count had two wives living at the time he married the said Maria, the matter seemed to be a little mixed. By an arrangement between Pedro and the pope the thing was easily done by constituting the kingdom of Aragon, a fief of the Roman see, and the annual tribute of two hundred gold pieces, to be paid by the said Pedro and his successors to the said Pope Innocent iir. and his successors. Thus Pedro and Maria were constituted husband and wife. Both had lived in open violation of the seventh commandment, without the endorsement of the pope, but now with it. All the commandments of the decalogue were at his disposal, to be enforced or abrogated at his sovereign will and pleasure.

WEALTH OF MONASTERIES.

The way to this pinnacle of fame and power had been paved by Charlemagne, Hildebrand and others until it was easy to lay the capstone of the edifice. The monasteries, which in the earlier centuries were the receptacles of the poor had become rich. As they increased in numbers, rank and influence, they ignored more and more the humbler classes. Their rules gradually relapsed. Their narrow cells grew into stately cloisters, deserts into parks, hermits into princely abbots. They became great religious aristocracies — worldly without impregnating the world with a religious spirit. It took hundreds of years to teach monastic Christianity that the way to subjugate the world was not to coop up a chosen few in high-walled and secure monasteries in order to subdue the world into one vast cloister. They seem never to have heard of Christ's simple method, "go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." It is certain they had never obeyed the command, if they had ever heard of it.

DEATH TO PREACH THE GOSPEL CRUELTY TO HERETICS.

To preach the gospel or embrace it after the apostolic pattern was heresy, and a crime in the eye of the Latin church, punishable with death. The popes claimed to be the only authorized successors of Christ and the apostles, and yet they put to the torture any one outside of the Latin church who believed and preached as the apostles did. The hierarchy did not require a belief in the apostles' doctrine, but only in the " holy catholic church " and the pope. If they believed and served these, they could with impunity cut out the tongue, put out the eyes, draw and quarter or burn alive heretics, and be rewarded for their amusemenU These things were repeatedly done by order of the pope and his legates. No temporal power without a powerful army at command dared oppose the edicts of the supreme head of the church, and no monastic order under Innocent in. recognized the democracy of Christianity with two exceptions, to wit, St. Dominic and St. Francis, and those were received with coldness by the pope and tolerated for a short time only. The monasteries were said to be the poor-houses of the middle ages. The crusades and holy wars of the church were not defensive but offensive wars, inaugurated and carried on for a double purpose in the interest of the church, to wit, the conquest of heretics and plunder, and the increase of the church in numbers and wealth.

POPE INNOCENT IV. AND FREDERICK II. CONTEST

FOR POWER.

After the death of Innocent iii. the contest for power and pelf was continued with redoubled fierceness and fury between Pope Innocent iv. and Emperor Frederick ii. These two autocrats, the one spiritual, the other temporal, were neither of them content with the prerogatives which properly belonged to them, but each contended for the supreme power. If the pope had been satisfied to rule supreme in the church, and allow the emperor to do the same in the state, much bloodshed and war would have been avoided. But the haughty, rapacious, and implacable pope was not so easily satisfied. When charged with heresy, Frederick did not hesitate to burn heretics by the hundreds to prove that he himself was not a heretic, but a true believer in the canons of the church. When hard pressed by the papal power, his appeal to primitive Christianity and the doctrines of the apostles, his promulgation of democratic laws, with justice and equity as their basis, were all master-strokes of policy to shake the fabric of medieval religion, and undermine the all-powerful hierarchy. The raising and equipment of armies and navies was a game that two could play at. Papal bulls, excommunications, and the dreaded anathemas from the Vatican, were hurled at Frederick with lavish profusion, but in return Innocent iv. found an adversary that was not afraid to hurl them contemptuously back into his teeth, especially so when a powerful army stood ready to vindicate imperial power.

BONIFACE YIII. PHILIP THE FAIR EDWARD I.

PAPAL DESPOTISM.

In the last decade of the thirteenth century the strife for the mastery between the temporal and spiritual powers still raged, but between different parties. The insatiate maw of the Pomish church had already gobbled up half the wealth of Europe, and her cry was still give, give. Boniface VIII. was a despot hard to match among kings and emperors. As supreme head of the church, the forgiver of sins, the peddler of absolutions, the granter of eternal happiness, and God on earth, he had had no superior if any equal. He even surpassed his predecessors in his rapacious claims of the revenues of empires and kingdoms, as well as the prerogatives we have specified. At the jubilee of the centennial, the abject submission of Christendom would indicate that the representative of St. Peter had reached the zenith of his fame, perhaps of the Roman pontificate. His ruling passions were intoxicated, his ambition tempted, his pride swelled and his avarice glutted by the immense treasures laid at his feet by millions of worshippers from all parts of Europe.