p. 1 | WHAT ROME WOULD DO

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 21, 1876

WHAT ROME WOULD DO.

Some easy-going Protestants do not relish the harsh things that are sometimes said by the evangelical press, of the Romish church and Romish ecclesiastics. They fail to see that there is any danger to be apprehended to liberty, in any of its phases, from the possible predominance of Roman Catholicism in this country. Though the Romish church, in every land where it has ever been supreme, has blotted out freedom of conscience together with the right of private judgment, the liberty of speech, and the liberty of the press, they affect to believe that history will not repeat itself in this age of progress and in this land of freedom and intelligence. The tolerance of such Protestants is the offspring of their indifference.

Let such lukewarm Protestants ponder the following blunt avowal of what the Romish church would do in America if it had the opportunity. It is taken from the Shepherd of the Valley, published at St. Louis, under the immediate supervision of Archbishop Kendrick:—

“We confess that the Roman Catholic Church is intolerant—that is to say, that it uses all the means in its power for the extirpation of error and sin; but this intolerance is the logical and necessary consequence of its infallibility. She alone has the right to be intolerant, because she alone has the truth. The church tolerates heretics where she is obliged to do so, but she hates them mortally, and employs all her force to secure their annihilation. When the Catholics shall here be in possession of a considerable majority—which will certainly be the case by-and-by, although the time may be long deferred—then religious liberty will have come to an end in the Republic of the United States. Our enemies say this, and we believe with them. Our enemies know that we do not pretend to be better than our church, and in what concerns this her history is open to the eyes of all. They know, then, how the Roman church dealt with heretics in the Middle Ages, and how she deals with them to-day everywhere she has the power. We no more think of denying these historic facts than we do of blaming the saints of God and the princes of the church for what they have done or approved in these matters.”—Christian Intelligencer.