Subject: The Pope—Foe of Mankind. Part II. The Romanist Hierachy’s Ruthless Cruelty.

ROMANIST SOCIETIES AGENTS OF INQUISITIONAL SAVAGERY.

Going the rounds of a portion, at least, of the non-Romanist press is, still, the alleged oath of the Knights of Columbus. Some of the Knights deny the authenticity of this oath. I leave in abeyance, for the moment, any detailed discussion of that particular point. The leaders of the Knights of Columbus are, in many cases, infidels. They are Knights of Columbus and leaders of Romanism for political or personal profit only. The rank and file of the Order are well-meaning men used by skillful politicians. The Order itself is a passing phase of Romanist effort to fasten papal political hold on the governments at Washington and elsewhere. That done, the papacy will apply a liberal and vigorous segment of shoeleather to the Knights of Columbus. It is not, however, amiss to state here that the alleged oath of the Knights of Columbus should not concern the public so absorbingly, when oaths of cardinals (see “Romanism—A Menace to the Nation/ ‘ pp. 199, 200), archbishops, and bishops (further on recited) establish the diabolical, destructive hostility of papalism toward heretics and non- Romanists generally. The Knights of Columbus are bound, by strictest allegiance, to obey all commands of pope, cardinals, archbishops, and bishops. The servant is not, in this or any other case, greater than his master. The Knight of Columbus must, if true to his obligation of unquestioning subserviency—miscalled obedience — to his superiors, walk, when called on by these superiors, knee-deep in Protestant blood, as did the predecessors of the Knights of Columbus in the thirteenth-century massacres of “heretics” in Southern France, of which Professor Draper, in his “Intellectual Development of Europe,” states:

Language has no powers to express the atrocities that took place at the capture of the different towns. Ecclesiastical vengeance rioted in luxury. The soil was steeped in the blood of men, the air polluted by their burning. From the reek of murdered women, mutilated children, and ruined cities, the Inquisition, that infernal institution arose. Its projectors intended it not only to put an end to public teaching, but even to private thought.

Judge S. A. Miller, of Cincinnati, one of the most eminent jurists in his time, after thus citing Draper, goes on to declare:

The fourteenth century beheld the close of the Crusades, while it witnessed the relentless brutal murders of the Inquisition and the extirpation of whole classes and orders of people who ventured to examine the Scriptures or to think for themselves in any matters of learning or advancement. Light had begun to shine upon the minds of men in some parts of Europe, and hence the bloody massacres under the decrees of the pope to shut it out and continue the pall of darkness and ignorance.

The fifteenth century was marked by the same arrogance, crime, and brutality on the part of popes that characterized the preceding century. The canon law still prevailed over nearly every nook and corner of Europe. A single example will illustrate the respect which is due to it as then understood and enforced. John Huss was a professor of divinity in the University of Prague and an ordinary pastor of a church, but he endeavored to withdraw the University of Prague from the jurisdiction of Pope Gregory XII. His religious opinions were conformable to the established doctrine of the Church, except he declaimed against the infallibility of the pope. He was summoned to appear before the Council, which was assembled at Constance, where for these reasons he was declared a heretic and burnt to death, under the canon law, by the canonists themselves on the 6th of July, 1415, and his friend Jerome, who accompanied him to the Council, by the same canon law and at the hands of the same canonists was made to perish in the flames on the 30th day of May, 1416. This is the Council that enacted a decree branding the name of Wickliff, who was long since dead, with infamy, and ordered all his works and his books to be committed to the flames. — Argument of S. A. Miller before Supreme Court of Ohio, in re John B. Mannix vs. William Henry Elder et al, pp. 142, 143.

Well does Judge Miller insist that

Revived shall be, here in America, the fires of the Inquisition, just as soon as Romanism feels warranted by numerical strength and political control to order their rekindling. In the Altoona, (Pa.) Tribune of March 3, 1913, was a report of a sermon by a priest named Sheedy in that city, in which the priest said :

In thirty States the Catholic Church exceeds all other denominations in strength. In fifteen States 50 to 90 per cent of all Church members are Catholics. All the six New England States are overwhelmingly Catholic. Five-eighths of the Church membership in New York is Catholic. All the large cities are overwhelmingly Catholic. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were 85,000 Catholics in the United States; now there are 15,000,000 under the flag. The speaker said this growth has alarmed certain classes, despite the tolerance of the age, and that the hierarchy has been described as a political machine. President-elect Wilson has been warned against the appointment of a Catholic to his Cabinet. A Catholic is to be the President’s private secretary. The country is flooded with vile sheets full of foulest calumny against the Church and Catholic societies. All this, to every thinking man, is falsehood ; it is an appeal to the ignorant and the prejudiced, he said.

Priest Sheedy’s figures are gross exaggerations, but it is in and through exaggeration that such intolerants and bigots express the real purposes near their hearts. Mark well my words, American reader:—the Church that ordered St. Bartholomew’s massacre in France, that lighted the brutal fires of Smithfield, that slaughtered one hundred thousand Irish Protestants in the first half of the seventeenth century, will repeat on American soil all these and other atrocities as soon as her College of Cardinals deems the times opportune.

But, friends, in God we trust. Rome shall not, on this soil consecrated to freedom, ever acquire domination. The control she now enjoys, too extended in area and in population, the good citizenship— the brave manhood and pure womanhood of America—must first abridge and finally abolish.

Whatever the Knights of Columbus swear or do not swear, all persons having charge of cathedral and superior churches, monasteries, convents, houses, and any other places soever, of all regular orders soever, even of military ones, and all persons assuming dignities, canonries, and any other ecclesiastical benefice, are bound to take the oath of Pope Pius IV:

I recognize the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church as the mother and mistress of all churches ; and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman pontiff, successor of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ. All other things also delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and ecumenical councils, and by the holy Synod of Trent, I undoubtingly receive and profess; and at the same time all things contrary, and any heresies soever condemned by the church, and rejected and anathematized, I, in like manner, condemn, reject, and anathematize. This true Catholic faith, outside of which no one can be saved, which at present I readily profess and truly hold, I promise, vow, and swear, that I will most steadfastly retain and confess the same entire and undefined to the last breath of life (with God’s help), and that I will take care, as far as shall be in my power, that it be held, taught, and preached to my subjects, or those whose charge shall devolve on me in virtue of my office. So help me God, and these holy Gospels of God. — Judge S. A. Miller, Argument, etc., p. 167.

That the Inquisition has simply suspended its activities, but has not abandoned them finally, is well attested by the form of excommunication pronounced by a Roman Catholic Irish bishop against one Francis Freeman, who embraced the Protestant faith in 1765 :

By the authority of God the Father Almighty, and the blessed Virgin Mary, and of Peter, and Paul, and all the Holy Saints, we excommunicate Francis Freeman, late of the County of Dublin, but now of Juckmill, in the County of Wicklow, that, in spite of God, and Peter, and in spite of all the Holy Saints, and in spite of our most Holy Father the Pope, God’s vicar on earth, and in spite of Philip Dunn, our diocesan and worshipful Canons, who serve God daily, hath apostatized to a most damnable religion, full of heresy, and blasphemy; excommunicated let him be, and delivered over to the devil, as a perpetual malefactor and schismatic ; accursed let him be in all cities, and all towns, in fields, in ways, in yards, in houses, and in all other places, whether lying or rising, walking or running, leaning or standing, waking or sleeping, eating or drinking, or whatsoever thing he does besides: we separate him from the threshold and all good prayers of the Church ; from the participation of the Holy Jesus ; from all sacraments, chapels, and altars; from the holy bread and holy water; from all the merit of God ‘s holy priests and religious men ; and from their cloisters, and all pardons, privileges, grants, and immunities which all the Holy Popes have granted them; and we give him over, utterly to the fiend; and let him quench his soul when dead in the pains of Hell fire, as this candle is quenched and put out; and let us pray to God, our Lady, Peter and Paul, that all the senses of his body may fail, as now the light of this candle is gone, except he come, on sight hereof, and openly confess his damnable heresy and blasphemy, and by repentance make amends, as much as in him lies, to God, our Lady, Peter, and the worshipful company of this Church ; and as the staff of this holy cross now falls down, so may he, except he recants and repents.
Philip Dunn.

Alexander MacDonell, first bishop of Upper Canada, 1820-1840, pronounced in a Toronto church a frightful form of excommunication against certain Catholics, who had become guilty of the atrocious crime of differing from the bishop’s politics, and, in so differing, followed the lead of Eev. Dr. ‘Grady, a clever, cultured Irish priest, whom MacDonell had, out of political rancor mainly, suspended from ecclesiastical ministrations, which ‘Grady’s talents and merits had honored.

One of MacDonell ‘s successors, James Vincent Cleary, bishop and archbishop of Kingston from 1880 till 1897, pronounced at Kemptville, Ontario, abominable curses and blasphemous anathemas on one McGovern, guilty of marrying a Protestant. McGovern ‘s marriage was legal, but Rome is above all civil law!

The laws of the United States say that civil marriage and marriage by any legalized authority are recognized by law and are wholly legal. The pope and the priests say such marriages are not legal. Thus is the Church of Rome denying and defying civil authority just as clearly as Mormon priests and people denied and defied such authority in polygamous marriages.

The New York Times recently printed this item:

There is to-day, unfortunately, a disposition on the part of Catholics to contract irreligious marriages, said the Rev. Msgr. Edward W. Mc- Carty, pastor of the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church, Brooklyn, during his Lenten sermon last night. Frequently they go before ministers of other denominations, before justices of the peace and aldermen, and have the ceremonies performed. In such a case there is no marriage whatever. It is impossible for a minister of any denomination other than a Catholic priest to bind a marriage tie between two Catholics. There is no public official, whatever his name, who can effect this union. Those who go before a minister or justice of the peace for this purpose show that they have a low estimate of the sacredness of the marriage state and of the fixity of the marriage tie.

For anarchy does Rome, in truth, stand here in America and in all civilized lands.

I now offer for my readers ‘ consideration the declaration or oath of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, read by Mr. Joe Devlin, Irish Nationalist, M. P., before the House of Commons of England:

I do declare and promise I will keep inviolable all the secrets of this Society of Brethren from all but those whom I know to be members in good standing and the Roman Catholic clergy, and that I will support the constitution and by-laws of the Ancient Order of Hibernians to the best of my ability; and I further promise that I will not divulge or allow to be divulged the password of the Order, not even to a member of my own division ; that I will be true and steadfast to the brethren of this Society dedicated to St. Patrick, the Holy Patron Saint of Ireland; and that I will duly conform myself to the dictates of my legally-elected officers in all things lawful, and not otherwise; that I will not provoke or quarrel with any of my brethren.

If a brother should be harshly spoken of, or otherwise treated unjustly, I will espouse his cause and give him the earliest possible information, aiding him with my sincere friendship when in distress.

I also promise that I will not propose or assist in admitting any person of a bad or suspicious character, and that I will at all times be zealous for the interest of this Society, and will not wrong a brother to my knowledge. I do not, and will not, while a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, belong to any Society condemned by the Holy Roman See.

All this I pledge my sacred word of honour to do and perform so long as I remain a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and having made this promise of my own free will and accord, may God assist me in my endeavour to fulfill the same, and may He protect our friendship, and grant us to live in this state of grace.

As to the restless activities of Romanism, in America alone, I present the following from a non-Catholic source:

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF CATHOLIC SOCIETIES.

The American Federation of Catholic Societies was founded in 1901. It is composed of 19 National organizations, many State and County federations and parishes. Total membership, about 3,000,000. Its objects are the cementing of the bonds of fraternal union among the Catholic laity and the fostering and protection of Catholic interests. The Federation has the approval and blessing of 80 archbishops and bishops, and of Pope Pius X. National headquarters is at Victoria Building, St. Louis, Mo. The officers are as follows:

President, Chas. I. Denechaud, New Orleans, La. First Vice-President, Thos. Flynn, Chicago, 111. Secretary, Anthony Matre, St. Louis, Mo. Treasurer, F. W. Heckenkamp, Jr.
—N. Y. World Almanac, 1913.

No Catholic society, be it Knights of Columbus, Ancient Order of Hibernians, or any other, may call itself Catholic unless it remain in closest touch with and absolute subserviency to bishops and priests of the Roman obedience. Now, here is the oath that every bishop of the Roman Church must, on taking possession of his see, pronounce and subscribe to most solemnly:

I, N. N., Bishop-elect of the See of N., do swear, that, from this time henceforth, I will be faithful and obedient to the blessed Apostle Peter, to the holy Church of Rome, and to our Lord the Pope, and his successors canonically appointed. I will to my utmost defend, increase, and advance, the rights, honors, privileges, and authority of the holy Roman Church of our Lord the Pope, and his successors aforesaid.—I will not join in any consultation, act or treaty, in which anything shall be plotted to the injury of the rights, honor, state and power of our Lord the Pope, or of the said Church. I will keep with all my might the rules of the holy Fathers (i. e., of the Council), the Apostolical (Papal) decrees, ordinances, disposals, reservations, provisions and mandates; and cause them to be observed by others. Heretics, Schismatics, and rebels to our said Lord the Pope and his successors aforesaid, I will to the utmost of my power persecute and destroy. — Sub. Jul. Hi. An. 1551.

Among the papal decrees that the bishops are by oath bound to carry out is the celebrated bull, “In Coena Domini,” An. 1638:

First Article. We excommunicate and anathematize, in the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the authority of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and by our own, all Wickliffites, Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists, Hugonots, Anabaptists, and all other heretics, by whatsoever name they are called, and of whatsoever sects they may be ; and also all Schismatics, and those who withdraw themselves, or recede obstinately from the obedience of the Bishop of Rome; as also their Adherents, Receivers, Favorers, and generally any defenders of them:—together with all who, without the authority of the Apostolic See, shall knowingly read, keep^ or print, any of their Books which treat on Religion, or by or for any cause whatever, publicly or privately, on any pretence or color defend them.

What punishments were to be inflicted on Heretics, etc.?

If any Bishop be negligent (Cone. Benni. Tom. 11, p. 152) in purging his diocese of heretical pravity, he, by the 3rd Canon of the 4th Lateran Council, must be deprived of his episcopal dignity; and by the Council of Constance (Sess. 45, Tom. 7, p. 1122), and by the Canon Law (Decretal lib. 5. tit. 7, cap. IS), Bishops, by their above oath of consecration, are bound to do so. And the punishment to be inflicted on the heretics, must be excommunication, confiscation of goods, imprisonment, exile, or death, as the case may be. (Concil. Benii. Tom 8.)

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