The Unchanged Papacy

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 10.

The Unchanged Papacy

It has been stated over and over again that the Papacy of the nineteenth century is altogether different from the Papacy of the fourteenth, notwithstanding the Papacy claims to be the same. She declares of herself that she was the patron of learning and true religion then even as she claims to be now. Weak-kneed Protestants are Rome's apologists now. Those who know Rome, know that her claims to the fostering of education and true piety are false, and that she is the same now as ever. The Christian Commonwealth, of London, England, in speaking of a letter from Rev. H. J. Pigott, Wesleyan Methodist, who has spent many years in Rome, speaks thus:—

"Mr. Pigott has shown that, although the pope may make a bid for the new democracy, although he may favor the rights of women, he will himself be unchanged. The lines along which he will travel may be different; but he himself will still be the successor of Hildebrand, Innocent IV., and Boniface VIII., ready to put into his index of prohibited books our Darwin's and Herbert Spencer's and Matthew Arnold's, and Huxley's, to anathematize our Bible societies, and to insist that education shall be exclusively in the hands of the Roman Church. He will still teach that the grace of salvation can only come through the sacraments of the church, and that these are only valid when administered by the Roman Catholic priesthood. He will still aim to reduce 'every man and every woman, every potentate and every subject, in all relations, private or civic, in things to be believed, and in things to be practiced, to perfect unanimity of obedience to the law of his own lips.'"

Let no one be deceived; Rome is Rome still in spirit. She simply lacks the power and opportunity.