SPAIN'S DECAY | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 1, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 48.

SPAIN'S DECAY.

The history of all the countries that shut out the light of the Reformation, says The Oriental Watchman, conveys a lesson that ought to be thought of more than it is in these days. The idea of enforced uniformity, and of the mingling of religion and politics, is taking possession in many quarters of professed Protestantism, and the spirit of the Papacy is being drunk in by all nations, just as the Revelation predicted of the last times. A writer in the London Echo tells the cause of Spain's decay in these words:—

When Ferdinand and Isabella had made Spain politically one, put down the infamous power of the nobles, and in a measure enfranchised the burghers, they, under the inspiration of papal priests, determined to have equal unity in faith and worship. Then emerged that monster of all time, Torquemada, the chief of the Inquisition. And years afterwards arose the Jesuits, more subtle, more refined, and, possibly, more devout than Torquemada, but not one whit less cruel. Unity in faith came by the suppression of thought, and with unity not only intellectual degradation, but moral atrophy. The unity was almost perfect. Spain has had no Protestantism, no Non-conformity worthy of the name. The priests have both reigned and ruled. Spain is of their making, or rather unmaking; and, standing amidst the mental decadence, the moral decay, the religious degradation of Spain, the priests might say, when asked to show the world the monument of their genius and skill, Look around.