The Unity of the Catholic Church
ROMAN CATHOLICS have much to say of the “unity” of the church as a mark of her divinity, and claim that that union is to be found in their church. But all the unity possessed by the Roman Church at best is a negative union. It is the result of the teaching of superstition, the repression of personal liberty, research, and faith, the degradation of human intellect, the morbid fear of curse and anathema. The great part of the unity seen in Rome is the unity of superstition, fear, and ignorance. But where was this unity when the great papal schism took place in which St. Peter’s was vacant and three popes were each anathematizing both the others, and which was settled at last by the Council of Constance? That council deposed two of the popes at the wish of the third, and then deposed the third and elected a successor. Council then was above pope. How is it now? The unity which stamps a church as divine is unity of spirit, of purpose, of voluntary consecration to God. In short, it is a union in truth, wrought by the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. 12:12, 13. For this union Christ prayed. John 17. The unity of the Council of Constance, which settled the popeship in a single man, decreed the death of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, because they held the word of God higher than the distracted Catholic Church. The union for which Christ prayed, and which comes through Him, converted three thousand souls in one day. It did it solely, not by the sword of state, but by the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, the only weapon to which the church has a right. Reader, which unity do you desire?