A Comparison of The Roman Empire to America

A Comparison of The Roman Empire to the United States of America

Chapter 1

DIVINE HAND OVER THE UNITED STATES

The United States of America is on the brink of total collapse. Once a great and powerful nation, the United States is now in a free fall to disaster from which she will never recover. A few more steps in its decline and it will be ruined. These are not easy words for a patriotic American to read, but, nevertheless, they are absolutely true. Tragically, it need not have come to this.

As one looks at the history of nations, from Babylon to Rome to America, it is evident that a Divine hand was protecting and guiding America. This country began as a few colonies on the Eastern seaboard of this vast land and became a great nation.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French philosopher of the last century, came to our shores to discover what magical quality enabled a handful of people to defeat the mighty British Empire twice in 35 years. He looked for the greatness of America in her fertile soil, her limitless forests and natural resources. He examined America’s schools, her Congress and her unique Constitution without fully understanding the source of America’s strength.

I was not, he said later, until he went to the churches of America and found congregations ‘aflame with righteousness’ that he began to comprehend the secret of this power. Upon his return to France, de Tocqueville wrote; “America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” — Des Griffin, Descent into Slavery?, Emissary Publications, p. 267.

In her youth, the United States was very good. On her money, her trust in God was proclaimed, and the great blessing of God rested upon this nation. As the United States grew to greatness, she gradually abandoned the principles that made her great until today she is approaching a very tragic end. The process of the decline of America is similar to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Let us examine a little of the history of ancient Rome and notice the parallels.

As the early Roman Empire was beginning to develop, it was building on the solid premise that the family unit was the cornerstone of society. Morality and discipline were the cornerstones of the family unit. As the empire developed, liberalism crept in, and the morality and discipline that protected society began to disappear. By the beginning of the 2nd century AD, most families had given into the liberal trends, and their children were allowed to do pretty much as they pleased.

Having given up the habit of controlling their children, they let their children govern them and took pleasure in bleeding themselves white to gratify the expensive whims of their offspring. The result was that they were succeeded by a generation of idlers and wastrels, who had grown accustomed to luxury and lost all sense of discipline. –Jerome Carcopino, Daily Life in Ancient Rome, Yale University Press, pp. 78, 79.

While this was going on, Rome witnessed “an epidemic of divorces.” (ibid. p.97) From the same author, we find that a strong women’s rights movement developed in Roman society.

Some [wives] evaded the duties of maternity for fear of losing their good looks, some took pride in being behind their husbands in no sphere of activity, and vied with them in tests of strength which their sex would seem to forbid: some were not content to live their lives by their husband’s side, but carried on another life without him…. It is obvious that unhappy marriages must have been innumerable.–ibid. pp. 90, 93, 95.

Roman schools were in disarray.

They undermined Instead of strengthening the children’s morals, they mishandled the children’s bodies instead of developing them, and if they succeeded in furnishing their minds with a certain amount of information, they were not calculated to perform any loftier or nobler task.

The pupils left school with the heavy luggage of a few practical and commonplace notions laboriously acquired and of so little value that in the fourth century Vegetius [A Roman writer who wrote about the Roman military system.] could not take for granted that new recruits for the army would be literate enough to keep the books for the corps.–ibid. pp. 106,107.

This kind of education led to a continual decline in morality and discipline and also resulted in decreasing patriotism.

The Roman virtues — honesty, candor, frugality and patriotism — withered and died. What was left was a people whom neither the vices of the rulers nor the increasingly bold attacks of foreign enemies could shake out of their apathy….In all the great cities of the provinces, the theater held the same place of bad preeminence in the social life of the inhabitants.

The Roman stage was gross and immoral. It was one of the main agencies to which must be attributed to the undermining of the originally sound moral life of Roman society. So absorbed did the people become in the indecent representations on the stage, that they lost all thought and care for the affairs of real life. –Philip Myers, Rome; Its Rise and Fall, Ginn & Company, pp. 515,516.

Another leading factor in the demise of Rome was that is became a welfare country. People were encouraged to be idle and receive money from the government rather than work to make their own way. The welfare system was a leading fact of Roman life. The evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can hardly be overstated. Idleness and all its accompanying vices were fostered to such a degree that we shall probably not be wrong in enumerating the practice as one of the chief causes of the demoralization of society. –ibid. p.523.

It is obvious that the moral fabric of America today is where the morality of the Roman Empire was nearly 2,000 years ago. Do we not see the breakdown of the home, a strong women’s rights movement, a deterioration in the school system, moral decay as espoused by the news and entertainment media and the schools, and welfare eating the heart out of the American economy? With regard to these problems, how are we any different from the Roman Empire during its decay? Why are these things happening in America? But, that’s the wrong question. The question should be: Who has brought America to the brink of destruction?

As mentioned earlier, Providence had its eye on the United States. America was the land of opportunity. It was the place where those who were being persecuted for their faith could come and worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. It was a land without a king where one could come and breathe the air of civil liberty. It was the place where one could come and earn a good living for himself and his family. America was the place where dreams came true. There once was a Divine Hand Over America.

In 1759, twenty-five years, more or less, stood between the thirteen colonies and freedom from the British. Twenty-five years and the greatest Protestant nation to ever exist in the history of nations would fly its flag. Twenty-five years and the groundwork for the Constitution — republicanism, inalienable rights, and a government of the people, by the people, and for the people — was in sight. An experiment in government never before tried in history was to become the greatest nation the world had ever seen.

Many said such a government would not work. The Roman Catholic Church had ruled the world under her dictatorial control. She was, and still is, deathly afraid of such an experiment. For over 200 years, the Protestant Reformation had challenged the papacy’s authority. The papacy gradually began losing her power. An experiment like America was certainly not in the plans of the Catholic Church; no nation would be allowed to espoused principles that would bring the papacy down.

What of the monarchs of Europe? They ruled by permission of the papacy and had wielded tyrannical control for ages with no one to oppose them. Were they now ready to watch the development of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? A clearer rationale would be that they would unite with Rome to stop this American experiment with every weapon at their fingertips.

By the 1550s the Reformation had become so extensive in Europe that the papacy began to realize that they must do something to try to stop it. They realized that if it were not stopped, it would eventually undermine the position of the Catholic Church and destroy the absolute political power they had achieved. In order to accomplish the destruction of the Reformation, a new secret organization was formed within the Vatican called the Jesuits.

One of the major purposes of the Jesuits was to destroy every trace of Protestantism and its principles, including religious freedom, republicanism, representative government, and an economy built around a strong middle class. Another purpose of the Jesuits was to greatly expand the power and control of the papacy throughout the entire world.

I cannot too much impress upon the minds of my readers that the Jesuits, by their very calling, by the very essence of the institution, are bound to seek, by every means, right or wrong, the destruction of Protestantism. This is the condition of their existence, the duty they must fulfill, or cease to be Jesuits. Accordingly, we find them in this evil dilemma. Either the Jesuits fulfill the duties of their calling, or not. In the first instance, they must be considered as the bitterest enemies of the Protestant faith; in the second, as bad and unworthy priests; and in both cases, therefore, to be equally regarded with aversion and distrust. — G.B. Nicolini, History of the Jesuits: Their Origin, Progress, Doctrine, and Design, Henry G. Bohn, preface.

From their very beginning in the 1540s, the Jesuits did just that. They used any means they could devise to destroy Protestantism, including assassination to kill leaders who tried to bring freedom to their people. Two examples are William of Orange in 1584 and Henry IV in 1610. Both were slain by Jesuit assassins.

The Jesuits used deception in the extreme to bring about the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572, where 70,000 Protestant Huguenots, including women and children, were slain in one night. They also created the 30 Years War from 1618-1648 in order to destroy the Lutherans of Europe. The blood that reddened European soil for centuries can all be traced back to the murderous Jesuits.

Starting in the 1600s, the Jesuits created a communist regime in Paraguay that eventually brought the Jesuits’ demise in the 1700s.

The Jesuits, as is well known, held very large regions of Paraguay under missionary control from 1650 to 1750. More than a quarter million natives worked under their direction, and no payment was made directly to them…. They were educated, trained, housed, clothed, fed and, to some extent, amused, but what became of the surplus profits of their labours, and of the extensive trading that was carried on? Over two thousand boats are said to have been engaged in carrying merchandise and goods on the Parana River; and the economic value of the Reductions was beyond doubt very great: so great in deed as to have awakened the envy of Spanish and Portuguese traders. Robertson [contemporary historian] estimated that the reductions represented at least $25,000,000 capital for the Society. – Boyd Barrett, The Jesuit Enigma, New York: Boni & Liveright, p. 211.

The Reductions were communist communes set up as manufacturing facilities using the Guarani Indians as slave laborers. The products they produced were sold in Europe and greatly enriched the Jesuit order. The Reductions produced herbs, hides, tallow, clocks, and other goods, which the Jesuits traded in Europe with their huge fleet of ships. The profits were used to finance wars against the Protestant nations they had sworn to destroy. But all this wealth and power was acquired in secret, as the kings of Portugal and Spain knew nothing about the Reductions. – Eric Phelps, Vatican Assassins, Halycon Unified Services, p. 189.

By the middle of the 1700s, the Jesuit Order had become the powerhouse of Europe. According to Barret, the Jesuit Order at last reached the pinnacle of its power and prestige in the early eighteenth century. It had become more influential and wealthier than any other organization in the world. It held a position in world affairs that no oath-bound group of man has ever held before of since… nearly all the Kings and Sovereigns of Europe had only Jesuits as directors of their consciences, so that the whole of Europe appeared to be governed by Jesuits only. – Boyd Barrett, The Jesuit Enigma, New York: Boni & Liveright, p. 209.

The Jesuits ruled the world. The monarchs of Europe, and the pope himself had Jesuits as their confessors. The plans and plots were all alike known to them. Besides this, they were amassing a vast amount of wealth that allowed the Jesuits to do whatever they chose. With them controlling the world, how could the little colonies of America have had a chance to stand against the Jesuit-controlled monarchs of Europe? In an instant, the Jesuits could utilize any army at its disposal and crush the colonies. It was at this juncture in 1759 that something strangely divine began to happen. It began in Portugal. The Portuguese king, Joseph I, banished the Jesuits from his realm.

In Portugal the culmination point was reached by an attempt to assassinate the king….the deed had been incited by the Jesuits, who had impressed ignorant and fanatical minds with the idea that no wrong was committed by killing a heretical king; that is one who did not submit to their dictation….Hence, as a measure absolutely essential to the life of the nation, the king issued a decree of banishment against the Jesuits as traitors, rebels, enemies to, and aggressors on, his person, his States, and the public peace and the general good of the people. The Jesuits were then seized, transported to the States of the Church (Italy)…. – Richard Thompson, The Footprints of the Jesuits, Hunt & Eaton, p. 217, 218.

King Joseph’s Portugal was the first Catholic kingdom of Europe to banish the Jesuits from their realm. With this first banishment, the dominoes began to fall rather quickly. Catholic France banished them in 1762. The decree of Louis XV and the French Parliament reads as follows:

“Whereupon, the investigation into the constitution and statutes of the society [of Jesuits] …resulted in the enactment of a Parliamentary decree which shows the odium then attached to the society in France. It denounced their doctrines and practices ‘as perverse, destructive of every principle of religion, and even of probity; as injurious to morality, pernicious to civil society, seditious, dangerous to rights of the persons of the sovereigns; as fit to excite the greatest troubles in States, to form and maintain the most profound corruption in the hearts of men…that the institutions of the Jesuits should forever cease to exist throughout the whole extent of the kingdom.’—ibid. p. 219

The third sovereign to drive the Jesuits from their realm was King Charles III of Spain. He banished the Jesuits in His [Charles III] greatest work, the expulsion of the Jesuits, would never have been carried out if he had not been persuaded of its political necessity. The [Jesuit] order had already been driven out by Pombal from Portugal and by Choiseul from France when Charles III was convinced that a riot in Madrid…had been promoted by the Jesuits. – Encyclopedia Britannica, The Werner company, vol. XVII, p. 341.

One year later, yet another nation banished this evil brood from their realm. Under the leadership of Fra Manuel Pinto de Fonseca, the Jesuits were forced to leave the island of Malta in 1768. Of this, we read:

In 1768 the Jesuits, having given much trouble, were expelled and their property confiscated. – ibid, vol. XV, p. 343.

The mightiest Catholic nations of Europe had banished the Jesuits from their realms. These Catholic monarchs demanded that the Catholic Church abolish the society forever. Clement XIII, the pope at that time, resisted the pressure of the European monarchs, but finally capitulated. The night before he planned to abolish the Jesuits, he was poisoned to death.

During the night preceding the day appointed for the public ceremony of announcing the abolition of the Jesuits, Clement XIII was suddenly seized with convulsions and died, leaving the act unperformed, and the Jesuits victorious. Cormenin…records this event in the terse and expressive words: ‘The Jesuits had poisoned him.’

The Catholic Monarchies of Europe, however, insisted that the Jesuits be disbanded and threatened the Pope.

Clement XIII, after endless indecision, postponements, and unconvincing delays, finally decided to do what he had been advised he should do. He capitulated.

He made ready a proclamation announcing the suppression of the Jesuit order. It was said that the document was written and was waiting for the day when it was to be made public. To the surprise of all, however, the Pope was suddenly attacked by a mysterious illness. He died on the 12th of February (a coincidence in dates) 1769 with agonizing, unexplained convulsions.

Rumors had it that he had been poisoned. The suddenness of his affliction and the convulsions both pointed to it. The suspicions, however, were never proved. It was suggested by those in the know that the Pope had been made to die before he could publish the announcement of the official suppression of the Jesuit order. – Avro Manhattan, Murder in the Vatican, Ozark Books, p. 74.

Four years later in 1773, three years before the Declaration of Independence, mark it well, Pope Clement XIV wrote an order, the purpose of which was to abolish the Jesuits forever. (Unfortunately, a later pope reestablished them in 1814.) Of this, we read:

Again, in July 1773, Pope Clement XIV wrote an order dissolving the Society of Jesus. This bull, Dominus ac Redemptor, was published 16th of August of that year. After issuing it, however, the Pope relented, in fear of the consequences, and tried to withdraw it. Too late. The Spanish ambassador had already dispatched the document by special courier direct to Madrid.

The papal brief annihilated the Jesuit order throughout the world, closed its schools and cancelled its statues. Its houses were occupied and its general and other dignitaries were imprisoned. – ibid., pp. 74.75.

In a 14-year period, from 1759-1773, the Catholic monarchs of Europe and the pope, himself, were preoccupied with abolishing the Jesuits. Emmett McLaughlin’s tremendous book, An Inquiry into the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, summarizes these events very succinctly with these words.

Even their own Catholic countries finally became surfeited with Jesuit political intrigue and financial avarice and, in self-preservation, were forced to expel them, Portugal, Angola, Goa, and Brazil took the lead in 1759. France followed in 1754. Several Italian states such as Parma, Sicily and Naples followed suit. By sealed imperial orders sent to her colonies around the world, Spain threw out all Jesuits in 1767, This decree suppressed them in the Philippines, Argentina, New Granada (Columbia), Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, New Mexico and Arizona. Austria did the same in 1773.

Finally, Pope Clement XIV in 1773 issued the document, Dominus ac Redemptor, abolishing the Jesuit Order altogether, listing eleven popes that tried to curb their excesses. Among them were Benedict XIV, Innocent XI, Innocent XIII and Clement XIII.

He cited the Jesuits for opposition to “other religious orders,” for “revolts and intestine troubles in some of the Catholic states,” and “persecutions against the church in Europe and Asia. There remained no other remedy to so great evils…and this step was necessary in order to prevent the Christians from rising one against the other and from massacring each other in the very bosom of our common mother, the holy church.” Therefore, he wrote, “after a mature deliberation, we do out of our certain knowledge and the fullness of our apostolic power, suppress and abolish the said company.” – Emmett McLaughlin, An Inquiry into the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Lyle Stuart, Inc., pp. 84, 85.

The timing of these events in Europe in fascinating. Catholic Europe was in disarray. The Catholic monarchs were pre-occupied with taking care of the problems with the Jesuit Order. The Jesuits were reeling as one Catholic country after another drove them from their realms. While Europe was shaking, thirteen colonies across the Atlantic were looking at the very real possibility of war with England. The thirteen colonies were instituting principles of government never before heard in the annals of human history. Documents would soon be written that would codify such things as inalienable rights, government of the people, by the people, and for the people, free exercise of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms. These documents would soon be the hope of mankind throughout the would longing to be free.

What if the Catholic monarchs were no distracted by their dealings with Jesuits? What if the Jesuits were not reeling by their banishment from Europe? The monarchs and the Jesuits would have utilized their wealth and military power to smash the American colonies in the New World, and the Protestant dream in America would have never been a reality. Without a doubt, there was a Divine Hand Over America!