Roman Paganism | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 13.

Roman Paganism.

JUDGED by its fruits, Roman Catholicism is evil, and only evil continually. As a religion, it fosters the grossest superstitions; while its system of education begets infidelity. The following extract from a recent letter to the New York Observer gives one feature of Romanism gone to seed:—

“At Chieti, near the Adriatic, I saw four brothers of some priestly society, dressed in long white robes, with blue cowls and capes, out on the road watching a glass case, about two feet square, in which was the arm bone of Saint Rosalie. The arm, no longer round, or fair, or graceful, was expected to work the miracle of bringing rain to Chieti, and as it was about the time for autumn rains, the miracle was probably wrought.

“But the crowning scene of paganism and idolatry was at Loreto, on the Adriatic, where the ‘Holy House’ of Jerusalem, where Christ was born, supposed to have been borne by angels through the air and deposited on this hill, is adored. Long before reaching the magnificent temple built around and over the ‘Santa Casa,’ the commerce on the streets, of rosaries, crowns, garlands, and pictures, proclaims that you are approaching this ‘temple of Diana of the Ephesians.’ Should a second Paul preach there the gospel in its simplicity, what an uproar would be created among these vendors of articles of religion who assail the traveler in Italian, in French, or in English, and are determined to sell their wares! A splendid square, built up on three sides with bishop’s palaces, and on the fourth by the front of the temple, is ornamented by a fountain and statues. The church within is in a continual festival. All day long and every day it is opened to the crowds of contadini, who flock there from all the surrounding country, and generally make this their wedding journey. Priests, in their magnificent robes, say mass at several altars in the morning, and the air is filled with the heavy fragrance of swinging censers.

“The rough, black stones, and low, jagged walls of the supposed ‘Santa Casa’ are hidden by a tabernacle of white marble, designed by Bramante, and adorned by sculptures and bas-reliefs of the first Italian artists. The interior, lighted by many silver lamps, is constantly filled with people on their knees, adoring the stones, and a black image of the virgin and child, that is literally covered with sparkling diamonds. Around the old house and its magnificent marble covering is a ledge or step, around which the devout adorers have dragged themselves on their knees until the white marble is worn away in two deep lines. When the peasants leave the church, they go out in companies, backward, step by step, reciting prayers, and looking upwards to the shrine where they have just paid their devotions—not to God, for he is forgotten; but to stones and images. Before leaving the building they often kneel near the door and kiss the dirty brick floor. The treasure of Loreto, consisting of jewels and other valuables, has been given chiefly by kings and queens, and is worth $250,000 without counting the artistic value.

“But although this trade is yet flourishing, all the inhabitants, even of Loreto, do not believe in it. A Catholic lady who lives in a beautiful villa on the hill near, said to me: ‘This is paganism. I cannot pray in that church;’ and the hotel-keeper said: ‘In 1860 the church of the Santa Casa was filled with wounded and dying soldiers of the papal army, when it was defeated by the Italians.’ The battle which received the name of Castel Fidardo, was really the battle of Loreto, and was fought on the plain a mile distant. It was a just retribution that this stronghold of popery should be the very place of its defeat. At that battle the reign of the pope over the Marche was destroyed.”