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Rome Unchanged

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 44, No. 6.

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Rome Unchanged.

THE following extracts from The Rambler, a Roman Catholic magazine, show that the persecuting spirit of that church remains unchanged, and that if it had the power it would be quick to reproduce its former scenes of torture and blood:—
“The church has persecuted, and on principle; there is no denying the fact; but the principle is one of policy and prudence, not of dogma, and in the present state of the world she rarely acts upon it; not that in itself the principle is indefensible, even on moral grounds, for the punishment of a religious offense by imprisonment and death is in itself no more incompatible with reason or with the Christian spirit than the infliction of the same punishment on the thief and murderer.”—January, 1854, p. 2.
“For our own selves, we are prepared to maintain that it is no more morally wrong to put a man to death for heresy than for murder; that in many cases persecution for religious opinions is not only permissible, but highly advisable and necessary.”—June, 1849.
And Catholic Opinion for Dec. 9, 1872 comparing the overthrow of the Commune in France with the Huguenot massacre says:—
“It was the duty of the sovereign to enforce the law against such miscreants (the Huguenots,) to bring them to trial, to hang them right and left. The good brought out of evil was gratifying to good men. Legitimate authority was secured, and the hornets that threatened France with devastation were destroyed; the deliverance of France was hailed with joy by Europe, and this happy result was commemorated as an act of the divine vengeance. The exterminating angel was represented on a medal struck at Rome, as charging sword in hand the flying rebels, and the inscription told who those rebels were: ‘Ugonotorum strages.’”
Those who desire to see an original of the papal medal, may do so by going to the medal-room of the British Museum, and the French medals, by a visit to the Paris Mint.