THE Papacy is to-day, in aim, in object, in principle, just what she was in the Middle Ages. It is her own testimony that she has not changed. To admit that she has or should, would be fatal to her claim of infallibility. The Inquisition originated and was established under the sanction of the head of the Catholic Church, for the purpose of “sifting out and indicting heretics of every description.” Then—in the Middle Ages—“there was the greatest union of Church and State.” This union of Church and State made Spain what she was and is to-day. And now this unchangeable church believes there should still be “the greatest union of Church and State” in this country, with the dominant church the Roman Catholic.
And in this Roman Catholicism is perfectly consistent with her claims. Grant her premises, and we must concede her conclusion. If she is the only church of Christ, if authority is vested in her over and above the written Word, then she should be given the position she aims to obtain.
She also knows that the great dominating powers of earth are the Anglo-Saxon. Therefore she is working as never before to conquer Germany, England, and the United States. If these yield, the world will. And what vast strides she has taken in Germany and England! It seems, if possible, that she has taken longer, stronger strides in this country, where both the State and the Protestant churches have unwittingly helped forward her work.
We have not space to consider these steps at length; we therefore put them in brief, and in doing so shall borrow largely from a book which would have none too large a circulation in this land if five million copies were placed in the hands of the people.
But before we consider the attitude and aggression of the Roman Catholic Church, let us consider some matters which have opened the way for her advance and present attitude.
In the “Middle Ages there was the greatest union of Church and State. This union was the natural outcome of the beautiful marriage of civil and religious institutions.” But when this government was organized and established, it inscribed upon the reverse side of its great seal the animus of its existence, “Novus Ordo Seclorum” (“A new order of ages”). It was the beginning of a government in which there was the greatest separation of Church and State. This separation, absolute freedom in religious matters, was one of the dearest things cherished by the founders of our government.
How did Rome regard this government under that “new order”? Let one of her denominational organs reply. In the Catholic World, in the month of September, 1871, appeared a leading article, which thus referred to the Constitution of the United States:—
As it is interpreted by the liberal and sectarian journals that are doing their best to revolutionize it, and is beginning to be interpreted by no small portion of the American people, or is interpreted by the Protestant principle, so widely diffused among us, . . . we do not accept it, or hold it to be any government at all, or as capable of performing any of the proper functions of government; and if it continues to be interpreted by the revolutionary principles of Protestantism, it is sure to fail. . . . Hence it is, we so often say that if the American republic is to be sustained and preserved at all, it must be by the rejection of the principle of the Reformation, and the acceptance of the Catholic principle by the American people.—P. 736.
The true Protestant principle is absolute separation of Church and State. The Catholic principle is “the greatest union of Church and State.” While the former existed in this government, it was considered by Rome not to be “any government at all, or as capable of performing any of the proper functions of government.”
That was previous to the year 1892. Working up toward that condition of things, which laid a favorable foundation for papal aggression, the following items may be noted:—
1. The large influx of Roman Catholic population, settling mainly in our large cities. In this way the politics of the great strategic points of our country are manipulated by Roman Catholics. The Catholic vote is an element which any great party despises at its peril. The great cities of America are coming to hold the balance of power in pivotal States, and Rome controls the great cities.
2. The great daily papers of the nation, which largely mold politically public opinion, are, if not wholly controlled, at least wide open to the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, to whose interests more space is given than to all Protestant churches combined. The Papacy has shown its wonderful shrewdness in possessing herself of these two great vantage posts—the cities and the daily press.
3. In later years undue prominence has been given to one of the co-ordinate branches of our government, namely, the judicial. It has been kept before the people continually that this is the “highest branch of the government,” “the last court of appeal,” the court of the final adjudication of all questions, thus ignoring the people, in a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” In past decades the people were considered the court of last resort; now it is a creation of the people which is given that place; and those are denounced as traitors who presume to criticise the decisions of either the Federal or State courts. This elevation of the Supreme Court as a final tribunal for the decision of all questions is a parallel to Rome’s claim in religious matters. In her ecclesiastical system the Supreme Court of the world sits in the Vatican.
4. With this abnormal elevation of the judicial branch of our government has entered a new régime in court decisions. Formerly the courts were content to interpret and pronounce upon law according as it harmonized or not with the Federal Constitution and Bills of Rights of the several States; but in later years we seem to have entered upon an era of “judge-made law,” against which eminent men have unavailingly put forth strong protest.
5. With these things on the secular side has come a strong demand, on the part of so-called Protestant churches and reform organizations, that this government in its fundamental law should recognize God as ruler and Jesus Christ as king, not seeing that if their demand were granted it would inevitably accrue to the advantage of the Papacy. So have they worked on; their work has borne fruit, and the Papacy is reaping the benefit.
6. Feb. 29, 1892, the Federal Court rendered a decision in the Trinity Church case, which is in its effects far-reaching and revolutionary. In that decision it is declared that “this is a Christian nation.” It declares that the commission granted to Columbus by Ferdinand and Isabella, that the union of Church and State which existed in the colonial governments, under which Baptists were banished and “witches” burned, and that the Constitution of the United States, are in consonance in declaring that “this is a Christian nation,” thus interpreting the Constitution to be in harmony with laws and ordinances which had their origin in the Middle Ages, directly contrary to the intent of the founders of this government. The same year, Sunday, considered to be a Christian institution, was set forth as the sabbath by act of Congress in the famous World Fair’s legislation, and approved by the executive. These proceedings were hailed with joy by zealous professedly Protestant politico-religious reformers, who congratulated themselves that the nation was saved; but it will be seen that all these were but a well-paved pathway for the advance of the Papacy.
In our next some of the steps which she has taken will be set before our readers.