WOULD RESTORE THE INQUISITION.
By Uriah Smith
WHAT we might expect at the hands of Rome, were she in power to-day, is plainly stated in the following excerpt from the Libre Parole, a Jesuit and anti-Jewish journal of Paris: The anti-Semites do not blame the Inquisition. . . . They are convinced it assured the grandeur and independence of Spain; and their first care, if they were in power, would be to establish a tribunal which would be, it is true, exclusively laic [carried on by the laity], but which would much resemble the Spanish Inquisition.
Which is to say, they would have an Inquisition carried on by the laity, in order to relieve the church of the charge of burning and torturing heretics. At the same time, that organization would be founded on papal principles, and would be doing the bidding of the church. It is upon this very ground that the Catholic Church disavows responsibility for the death of the millions of Christians who sealed their faith with their blood during the Dark Ages. In the light of such facts as these, the todying of professed Protestants to that institution is unexplainable. Rome’s purpose, expressed by the pope himself, is to do for the United States what he has done for the countries over which the Catholic Church has held sway—Spain, South America, Central America, Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. These names are synonymous with stagnation in almost all lines of material or real spiritual progress; and in such countries religious liberty is hardly known. The present attitude of professed Protestantism in this matter portends a steady growth of Catholic power and influence in these United States. It indicates an apathy as dangerous as it is deceptive, and portends a melting away of barriers which will eventually throw the formal churches of Protestantism into the arms of Rome. This is not the dream of an alarmist. It is what is coming—coming with a swift and powerful current, and coming soon.