THE JUBILEE A FAILURE by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 5, 1877

THE JUBILEE A FAILURE.

By Uriah Smith

The present papal jubilee is said to be a failure. And this is worth noting only because it contributes one more proof in the line of evidence which now exists that the papacy is reduced to that condition of humiliation that was predicted to come upon it before the end. There were only 8,245 pilgrims present on the 2d of June. This was very few compared with the numbers present at other papal jubilees.

Boniface VIII., at the beginning of the 13th century, proclaimed a jubilee, the fame of which still remains. The numbers continually entering and going out of Rome were like an army. Historians estimate that during the year 2,000,000 people visited Rome.

Fifty years later, Clement VI. proclaimed a jubilee, during which the number of visitors was estimated at 1,200,000.

In 1450, the crowd was so great on the bridge of St. Angelo, that 200 persons were drowned.

At the jubilee by Alexander VI., A. D. 1500, 200,000 knelt at one time to receive the papal benediction.

“It is no secret,” says the Rome correspondent of the N. Y. Evening Post, “that the pope and all the clerical party are displeased not only with the number but also with the quality of the pilgrims. The greater number are either bishops and priests, or else peasants and persons of inferior condition. The sale of rosaries, crosses, crowns, statues, and other ‘articles of religion,’ has not equaled the expectations of those who had prepared unusual quantities of them for sale. Nevertheless, the jubilee has been the absorbing topic of the month.”

U. S.