Chapter 16

With a few more brief comments upon "civil marriage," the "secularization of education," and the Jesuits, this extraordinary book is brought to a close by admonishing the faithful not to permit their children to receive "a godless education" in such public schools as are authorized by the laws of all our States—because all education should be under the supervision of the Church—and by announcing in serious and solemn phrase, that "Protestantism has filled the world with ruins!"[251]

What an extent of infatuation must have incited this last remark! There need be said of it only that, in former times, there were powerful Governments subject to the dominion of the popes, but all these have passed away—not a single one is left. Protestant Governments have risen out of the ruins of some, and are now rising out of those of others of them, and all these are happy, prosperous, and progressive; whilst the pope himself, with the vast multitude of his allies assisting him, is devoting all the power given him by the Church to persuade them to retrace their steps and return to the retrogressive period of the Middle Ages. The author of the work to which so much space has been appropriated, is one of his conspicuous allies, far from being the least distinguished among them; and for that reason the doctrines he has announced in behalf of the papacy have been set forth at unusual length. This having been done, in order that what he has said may be thoroughly comprehended, it needs only to be further remarked here, that, according to what he has laid down as the established religious teachings of the Roman Church, with an infallible pope at its head, it is impossible for any man to maintain those teachings and at the same time be loyal to the Government of the United States. There is no escape from this; but before further comments uponthis point, there are other evidences to show how, since the pope's infallibility was decreed, the lines of distinction between the popular and papal forms of government have been so distinctly announced that it requires very little sagacity to distinguish them, and even less to realize that they can not co-exist in the same country.

A reverend educator attached to St. Joseph's Seminary, Leeds, in England, has, since the Vatican Council, also entered upon the task of instructing the English-speaking world what are the only relations between civil Governments and the Church which an infallible pope can approve. His views were first communicated through the columns of theCatholic Progress, a periodical of extensive circulation; but they were deemed to be of so much importance and such an essential part of the permanent literature of the Church, that in 1883 they were published in book form so as to assure more general reading. This book, entitled "The Catholic Church and Civil Governments," contains but little over one hundred pages, and, being in cheap form, has found its way to the United States, where it is expected, of course, that its teachings will inoculate the minds of all the faithful, and furnish instructors to conduct education in religious schools. What it is expected to accomplish will be seen from the following references to its contents.

At the opening of the volume the reader is apprised beforehand of what he shall expect in the way of doctrinal teaching. It is dedicated to the present pope, Leo XIII, who, besides being designated as the vicar of Christ, is addressed as "The Christ on earth!"—not as man, with the faculties and frailties of human nature, but as God himself! Although the author is not represented as a Jesuit, it may well be inferred that he is one, from these blasphemous words, which shock the sense of Christian propriety, and ought to excite indignation in every intelligent Christian mind.

He starts out by assuming that the present pope "is still a king," and that "he exercises a real authority over his subjects, irrespective of the country to which by birth theybelong."[252]In this he agrees with the Italian P. Franco, and the English statesman Lord Montagu, that the principle of nationality can not be permitted to prevail against the pope in his march to universal dominion—that State lines and even ocean boundaries amount to nothing. Upon this hypothesis he bases the assumption that the Church "is a public society, a kingdom, a divine State," and possesses "the power of public jurisprudence."[253]Elsewhere he calls this "external power to legislate;" that is, to pass laws binding the consciences of her subjects, to take means to insure those laws being put in exercise, to be herself the judge of the sense of her laws, to punish them that trespass against the laws, and to bring them into the right path by coercion.[254]He endeavors, by various modes of statement, to establish the proposition that the Church is "independent" of all civil Governments, until he reaches the point of positively asserting it;[255]assigning as the reason that the "Church is the continuation of the authoritative presence of Jesus Christ in the world."[256]Turning away, only for a moment, from the idea of a "universal Christendom"—unlimited by the separate nationality of States—he draws a melancholy picture of the condition of the world, unless this independence of the Church shall be fully recognized. "Once grant," says he, "that the Church is subordinate to the civil State, and there will ensue a complete upsetting of the scheme of salvation, an entire submersion of divine truth, a total overthrow—nay, an utter destruction—of the kingdom of Christ."[257]"She knows that no earthly power can bind her," nor can she "swear fealty, or own allegiance to any other sovereign," which propositions he proves by the Syllabus of Pius IX.[258]Hence, he repeats, "The Church is a perfect society, and independent of the State;"[259]and emphasizes it by declaring "thatthe State is in the Church, as a college is in the State."[260]She has"the right of way. She has the right to enter every kingdom in the world, to set up her tents, to propagate her doctrine, to make subjects, ... to reign in every corner of the earth,"[261]and "to use the weapons most suited to accomplish her object."[262]She "is bound to use the means most conducive to her spiritual end," and "the illuminating spirit" that guides her "shows her the advantage of sometimes making use oftemporalmeans." Besides fasting, abstinence, excommunication, and interdicts, "even more severe measures have occasionally been found to be very salutary." She "is justified in usingextrinsic coercionwhenever it promises to be a help," according to "the principle of the coercive power," asserted by Pius IX in the twenty-fourth proposition of the Syllabus. Primarily these coercive measures are to be employed against "only the members of the Church;" but are subject to be employed at the discretion of the pope against all baptized persons. "Once baptized," says he, "then the Church has over them all the rights of a parent."[263]This includes baptized Protestants, who, by the decree of the Council of Trent, are considered as sheep gone astray, but still within the jurisdiction of the Church.

The Church, he insists, is subordinate to the State in nothing, but the State is "subordinate to and under the guidance of the Church in all matters which touch, even incidentally, upon the moral life of the State."[264]The State "is bound not to institute any law or sanction any custom which can in any way hinder the Church in gaining her supernatural end," and "is bound to aid the Church by amaterial assistancewhenever she deems such assistance necessary."[265]"At the present day there does not remain one truly Catholic State."[266]But this does not release them from the obligation of obedience to the Church, because the "greater portion of their subjects are baptized," and "baptism enrolls a man among the children of the Church; and hence, inspite of their denying the claims of their true spiritual Master, they are, as Christian States, still bound by one obligation; namely, to refrain from establishing any law which is against the conscience of their Catholic subjects."[267]Therefore the Church must "be obeyed by her subjects,with or without the good-will of the civil power."[268]"The Church has a right to carry out her divine mission in every land, and to do so, if need be,in spite of the civil power."[269]"The Church sends her ministers throughout the world," "independently of the favor or permission of the temporal powers," and invests them with "absolute power."[270]When the pope assigns them a duty, "he gives them a right to carry out that dutyin the teeth of every earthly power."[271]"For the civil power to endeavor to hinder the Church in the exercise of this right is a crime. It is to resist God."[272]He claims for the Church the right to go into all the countries in the world, with or without their consent, and "there to establish and unfold herself, to set up her machinery" in whatsoever way she may deem expedient.[273]"Hence," says he, "the Church has a right to erect her hierarchy, to set up her tribunals, to hold her synods, to open schools, to found colleges and convents, and especially to be free and unfettered in her communications with the pope. She has a right to spread the faith, andneeds not to sue for leave from any earthly power."[274]"And this right the Church can never lose. It can never become obsolete. No length of time can prescribe against it;"[275]that is, no Government can exist long enough to acquire the right to mature a system of laws which the pope may not rightfully command to be resisted and set aside, when he shall decide that the interests of the Church require it to be done.

Before closing, he treats of the separation of Church and State, and justifies the condemnation of it by Pius IX in theSyllabus, and says that "after such a declaration of the supreme pastor,no true Catholic can hold that politics and religion ought to be utterly separate." But not content with the authority of Pius IX upon this point, he adds that of the present pope, Leo XIII, whom he represents as having lifted up his voice "to teach the world that, while the Church and the civil Governments are orders distinct in their origin and in their nature, it is the will of heaven thatreligion lend its aid to the State, and that the State should support religion;"[276]that is, the Church and the State should be united together, and each aid the other in maintaining its authority, so that, by their joint alliance, they should be able to render a Government of and by the people impossible. In order to accomplish this and the other objects pointed out by him, he represents that the Church "brooks many affronts, and suffers many wrongs, and makes herselfall things to all men"—as the Jesuits did when they worshiped idols in China, and became Brahmins in India—so that she may bring all nations and peoples under her dominion, and the pope become the ruling power of the world, "independent of all civil Governments," and "subject to no earthly ruler."

Thus we have, in plain and authoritative language, a complete portrayal of the only form of government which the pope can approve. If he seems to be reconciled for the time being to any other form, it is merely because it is expedient to do so, so that by being "all things to all men," in obedience to Jesuit teaching, he may thereby make himself surer of ultimate triumph. Every man who shall take the pains to scan the foregoing evidence will find in it ample proof of the fact—to say nothing about other independent Governments—that the papal system is more antagonistical to the civil institutions of the United States than to any other in the world. Whatsoever professions to the contrary may be put forth, it is a palpable truth, absolutelyincontestable, that the fundamental principles of our Government are the subjects of constant and vindictive assault by the papal party—the followers of the pope—in and out of the United States. The framers of our Government secularized it by measures which resulted in separating Church and State, but the pope and his hierarchy, aided by the Jesuits, fling in our faces the accusation that, in doing so, they violated the divine law which it is their religious duty to restore. We have established a nationality of our own, recognized by all the nations of the earth, but they tell us that it possesses no authority to impose the least restriction, by any laws it can enact, upon the power of the pope or his army of ministers and employees within the borders of our own territory. We have guaranteed freedom of conscience, or diversity of religious belief, but they confront us with the charge of heresy on account of it, and openly avow their purpose to destroy this guarantee by employing the combined powers of Church and State to unify their own religion, to the exclusion of all others, by laws above and superior to our Constitution. We have secured freedom of speech and of the press, and have provided for civil marriages, and for the secular education of our children at the public expense; and they tell us that, on account of these and other equally important measures of public policy, we have become a "godless" nation, living under "godless" laws enacted for "godless" purposes, and that they have been divinely appointed to perform the holy duty of exterminating all these evils, in order to save us from the destruction inevitably awaiting us on account of them. One is required to give but a single moment to reflection to be assured that if the pope, by the aid of his hierarchy and the Jesuits, shall be permitted to achieve the results for which they are now so anxiously seeking, and acquire such dominion as they desire in the United States, our free institutions must come to an end. They can win success only by our defeat. Papal government can only prevail here when our present civil institutions shall be destroyed.

FOOTNOTES:[231]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Introduction, pp. 1 to 5; text, pp. 42 to 47.[232]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 122 to 136.[233]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 139-140.[234]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 193 to 196.[235]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 201 to 238.[236]Ibid., pp. 311 to 316.[237]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 318.[238]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 319.[239]Ibid., pp. 328-333.[240]Ibid., pp. 338-339.[241]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 361-365.[242]Ibid., pp. 356-357.[243]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 375.[244]Ibid., p. 381.[245]Ibid., p. 382.[246]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 387.[247]Ibid., p. 395.[248]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 396 to 398.[249]Ibid., pp. 400-401.[250]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 406.[251]Ibid., p. 427.[252]The Catholic Church and Civil Governments. By Rev. John Earnshaw. Preface, p. vi.[253]Ibid., pp. 18-19.[254]Ibid., p. 26.[255]Ibid., p. 31.[256]Ibid., p. 33.[257]Ibid., p. 34.[258]Ibid., p. 44.[259]Ibid., p 45.[260]Ibid., p. 46.[261]The Catholic Church and Civil Governments. By Rev. John Earnshaw. Pages 48, 49.[262]Ibid., p. 51.[263]Ibid., pp. 52-53.[264]Ibid., p. 64.[265]Ibid., p. 67.[266]Ibid., p. 68.[267]The Catholic Church and Civil Governments. By Rev. John Earnshaw. Pages 69-70.[268]Ibid., p. 71.[269]Ibid., p. 76.[270]Ibid., p. 77.[271]Ibid., p. 78.[272]Ibid., p. 79.[273]Ibid., p. 82.[274]Ibid., p. 83.[275]Ibid., p. 84.[276]The Catholic Church and Civil Governments. By Rev. John Earnshaw. Page 99.

FOOTNOTES:

[231]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Introduction, pp. 1 to 5; text, pp. 42 to 47.

[232]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 122 to 136.

[233]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 139-140.

[234]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 193 to 196.

[235]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 201 to 238.

[236]Ibid., pp. 311 to 316.

[237]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 318.

[238]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 319.

[239]Ibid., pp. 328-333.

[240]Ibid., pp. 338-339.

[241]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 361-365.

[242]Ibid., pp. 356-357.

[243]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 375.

[244]Ibid., p. 381.

[245]Ibid., p. 382.

[246]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 387.

[247]Ibid., p. 395.

[248]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 396 to 398.

[249]Ibid., pp. 400-401.

[250]Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 406.

[251]Ibid., p. 427.

[252]The Catholic Church and Civil Governments. By Rev. John Earnshaw. Preface, p. vi.

[253]Ibid., pp. 18-19.

[254]Ibid., p. 26.

[255]Ibid., p. 31.

[256]Ibid., p. 33.

[257]Ibid., p. 34.

[258]Ibid., p. 44.

[259]Ibid., p 45.

[260]Ibid., p. 46.

[261]The Catholic Church and Civil Governments. By Rev. John Earnshaw. Pages 48, 49.

[262]Ibid., p. 51.

[263]Ibid., pp. 52-53.

[264]Ibid., p. 64.

[265]Ibid., p. 67.

[266]Ibid., p. 68.

[267]The Catholic Church and Civil Governments. By Rev. John Earnshaw. Pages 69-70.

[268]Ibid., p. 71.

[269]Ibid., p. 76.

[270]Ibid., p. 77.

[271]Ibid., p. 78.

[272]Ibid., p. 79.

[273]Ibid., p. 82.

[274]Ibid., p. 83.

[275]Ibid., p. 84.

[276]The Catholic Church and Civil Governments. By Rev. John Earnshaw. Page 99.

CHAPTER XXV.

INTRIGUES AND INTERPRETATIONS.

Oneof the most conspicuous manifestations of the spirit now prevailing among the leading nations, is that all of them are struggling to go forward and not backward. Italy, in this respect, does not constitute an exception to this general rule, as her present prominent position in Europe abundantly testifies. Hence, every sensible man well knows that the Government now existing there can not be overthrown, so that the temporal power of the pope can be restored, except by another revolution or by the military invasion of a foreign power. Which of these remedies it is the purpose of the papacy to invoke can only be conjectured. But since one or the other of them must, from necessity, be in contemplation, it is essentially important that the true relation which the dogma of papal infallibility bears to the temporal power should be well understood, in order to see—what will be apparent to any careful investigator—the impress of the Jesuits upon the papal policy, and that, but for them, the Church would be left to the enjoyment of its religious faith, without disturbance by any of the nations.

The temporal power was always an enemy to the peace of the Church—rending it into hostile factions—separating the Eastern from the Western Christians, and introducing feuds and strifes and schisms between popes and anti-popes, cardinals and clergy, and those who followed them in their long and angry conflicts. Before this tremendous power was usurped, and papal ambition was incited by the desire to possess it, the Church of Rome embraced within its fold almost the entire Christian world. Now, however, it finds itself representing only a minority of those who profess Christianity.[277]All this, and more than this, has been accomplished by restless and ambitious popes, who, defying the example and all the admonitions, not only of Christ himself, but of all the primitive Christians, entangled the Church in vicious alliances with potentates and kings, in order that they might wear crowns of temporal royalty themselves, and give increased strength and vigor to the principles of monarchical government by keeping the multitude in superstition, ignorance, and inferiority. And when, in the present enlightened age, there is no excuse for not knowing the wars, the bloodshed, the persecutions, and the misery, which followed this unholy alliance between Church and State, in order to create and preserve the temporal power of these usurping popes, he must have but little regard for the welfare of the human race who would again afflict any part of the civilized world with these or kindred calamities. The Roman Catholic people of Italy have, of their own accord, removed them, and those who are now seeking to reafflict them by alliances with foreign and alien powers, make themselves disturbers of the world's peace, by seeking to embroil other peoples and nations in dangerous combinations for such a purpose.

It is not easy to overestimate the importance and seriousness of the issue involved in the proposition' to restore the temporal power of the pope—whether in its relations to Roman Catholic or Protestant populations. In so far as the former are concerned, it involves the conversion of their religious faith into the illiberality and selfishness of Jesuitism; the sacrifice of the ancient faith of the Church to the principles of a society which boasts that it has plucked out ofthe hearts of its members every vestige of human sympathy and affection, and has spent the whole period of its existence in sowing seeds of strife and contention, and in so opposing the acknowledged authority of the Church when employed to curb their worldly ambition, that one of the best and most enlightened of the popes was constrained, by a sense of duty to the Church and to the Christian world, not merely to suppress them, but to declare, infallibly andex cathedra, that the suppression was forever. To Protestants it presents but two alternatives, either to cast away all the rich fruits of the Reformation, or to rebuke the attempt to encroach upon the rights the people have acquired after centuries of conflict with monarchical and arbitrary power. Both these propositions command the most serious and thoughtful consideration, especially by citizens of the United States, where the form of government is designed to conserve all religions, and enable those who profess them—no matter how variant and conflicting they may be—to live in amicable and peaceful relations with each other. No intelligent mind can reflect upon the indisputable proofs of history and the philosophy they teach, without realizing that, with regard to this issue our own course is plain, clear, and unmistakable.

The ambitious popes—such as Gregory VII, Innocent III, and Boniface VIII, as well as others before and after them—acquired and maintained their temporal power by a long series of coercive and oppressive measures. In order to give these measures a religious sanction, they usurped the functions which pertained to the claim of infallibility, not only without the consent of the Church, but in face of the positive rejection of that dogma by several Councils, and against the almost unanimous sentiment of the multitude of Christians. The general polity of the European nations, under the dominion of monarchical power as it was united in Church and State, was favorable to them, as it kept the people in ignorance of their natural rights, and too feeble to assert them by revolution, if they had resorted to that remedy. Thus held in subjection, their non-resistance was heldto be acquiescence in their own humility. Taking advantage of this, popes and other kings, as the allies of each other, asserted their divine right to govern according only to their own united will, and endeavored to establish the infallibility of the pope as a dogma of religious faith, in order to retain and increase their monarchical power. Thoughtful and intelligent Roman Catholics denied and repudiated this doctrine, but were powerless to relieve the multitude from the severity of this joint rule, because the entire coercive power was in the hands of those whose ambition was promoted by it, and who kept themselves in constant readiness to employ it whensoever their interests, both spiritual and temporal, were placed in jeopardy. If history does not prove all this, it proves nothing.

When the Reformation period began, and the popes and the clergy refused the necessary reforms in the Church, those who supported that great movement detached themselves, in large numbers, from the papal party, but continued to assert their unfaltering fidelity to the primitive Christian faith. The reigning authorities were thus confronted with a disintegrating Church, occasioned by their own refusal to reform acknowledged abuses—some of which were so flagrant as to furnish a reason to the Jesuits for the recognition of their society. It was not an easy matter to arrest this disintegration after the treatment of Luther by Leo X, and the difficulties were increased by the circumstances connected with the Council of Trent, as well as by the proceedings of that body. There are many evidences of this. Prominent among these is the fact that the popes were opposed to a General Council, mainly because of the fear that it would refuse to affirm their assumption of infallibility, which would necessarily tend to weaken their hold upon temporal power. But for the Emperor Charles V, it is not probable that a Council would have been then held. He repeatedly urged upon the pope the necessity of convening one, but without success. He was coquetting with the Lutheran Protestants in Germany by means of his celebrated "interim" and otherwise, in order to strengthen his armies by accessions from them. But, at the same time, he cherished the hope that a Council would contrive some method of inducing his Lutheran subjects to reunite with the Church, from which they had been driven by the usurpations of the papacy and the acknowledged vices of the clergy. His main purpose, however, was to make the union between the Church and the State so indissoluble as to maintain and perpetuate the monarchical principle as protection to both. Finding the popes unyielding in their opposition to a General Council, he ordered a national one to be held at Augsburg, in his own dominions, to consider and decide upon such matters concerning the Church as he deemed expedient. Clement VII was then pope, and it required but little reflection to assure him that if the emperor succeeded in holding a National Council in Germany, it would, with almost positive certainty, reaffirm the decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basel, rejecting the dogma of infallibility, and thus inflict a dangerous and probably fatal wound upon the papacy. He was completely checkmated by the emperor, and nothing was left him but to call a General Council to supersede the National Council at Augsburg. It was a game of statecraft between rival contestants for the supremacy—neither having been restrained by any higher motives than those which have their birth in personal ambition. As for the pope, he preferred that the disintegration of the Church should continue rather than run the risk of having his infallibility denied by a General Council, and the possible loss of his temporal power which that denial would have threatened. All this is sufficiently indicated by the impediments thrown in the way of the meeting of the Council by the popes. Clement VII died four years after making the call, but without fixing the time for its assembling. His successor, Paul III, was constrained to fix it for 1537, and to designate Mantua as the place. But this did not exhaust all the expedients for delay. Mantua was objected to for reasons not fully explained, and Vincenza was substituted. The time was accordinglypostponed one year, until 1538. No meeting having then occurred, it was again fixed for 1542. Still, however, in order to gain more time, it was transferred to Trent, where it did not assemble until December 13, 1545—thirteen years after it was first called by Clement VII. Its last session was held December 4, 1563—eighteen years after it first assembled, and thirty-one years after it was first called—more than a generation of time!

During all these years the popes were striving after the surest method of perpetuating their claim of infallibility as the means of preserving their temporal power. While it is to be supposed that they, at the same time, desired to save the Church from overthrow, they so blended its cause with their own ambitious ends, that the Council, instead of being reformatory, was unable to accomplish anything more than the inauguration of a counter revolution to suppress the Reformation, which, by that time, was becoming more formidable everyday. The pope, Julius III, and Charles V had a common interest in keeping Church and State united, in order to ward off successfully any blows that might be aimed at the principle of absolute monarchism. But, apart from this, the pope had a separate and distinct interest of his own, in trying to secure, beyond the possibility of loss, the imperial rights and prerogatives of the papacy. Embarrassed as he was, with the eyes of all Europe centered upon him, he was compelled to look for support in every direction, and found no contribution to the papal pretensions likely to become more valuable than that offered by the Jesuits, who were then in readiness, under the lead of Laynez, their general, to devote themselves to whatsoever work should be necessary to extinguish the spirit of revolt against the monarchism of Church and State.

Remembering the services rendered by Loyola to the cause of absolute monarchy, and knowing that the central feature of the Jesuit constitution was specially designed for the advancement of that cause, the pope resolved to bring the united and compact body of Jesuits to his aid, by enlisting them as an army to defend the tottering cause of the papacy. The main object of Loyola during his life had been to drive back the tide of the Reformation; and, although he had signally failed in this, he exhibited such superior qualities as a general and commander of men, and had so succeeded in imparting these same qualities to Laynez, his successor, that the pope determined to send the latter as one of his legates to the Council, clearly indicating that he was both unwilling and afraid to trust the interests of the papacy in the hands of those who, by the existing organization of the Church, were intrusted with its administrative authority. He undoubtedly considered that the most certain, if not the only method of preserving the papacy, as distinct from the primitive Church, would be the infusion of Jesuit spirit and courage into the ranks of its defenders. We have heretofore seen how Laynez had succeeded at the French Council of Poissy in restricting the right of discussion to ecclesiastics alone, and it is fair to presume that the knowledge of this dictatorial spirit commended him to the pope. At all events, he was specially favored and distinguished as the representative of the pope and the Jesuits at the same time—a union that had but a single signification; that is, that the pope had accepted the Jesuits as his allies in preference to any of the existing monastic orders, because, as can not be doubted, the latter occupied the field of religious labor, while the former considered religious professions and practices as the stepping-stone to the acquisition of riches and temporal power. Thus favored above any other member of the Council, Laynez courageously entered into the contest between those who defended and those who denied the doctrine of the pope's infallibility, and exhibited his great ability in supporting to the utmost the extreme claim to spiritual and temporal sovereignty which such popes as Gregory VII, Innocent III, Boniface VIII, and others, now declared to have been infallible, had for centuries maintained in defiance of the enlightened sentiment of the whole Christian world. During the long and tedious sessions of the Council, it had been gettingfarther and farther away from such conclusions as would satisfy those who desired to see the integrity of the Church maintained; and it was not until the time for its closing sessions was approaching that Laynez announced the Jesuit doctrine with regard to the infallibility of the pope, and the authority and power it would confer upon the papacy. Although, contrary to the expectations of the pope, he did not succeed in procuring the affirmance of his doctrines by the Council—for if an effort had been made to embody the pope's infallibility in the articles of faith, the negative decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basel would have been repeated—yet he did succeed in assuring the papacy that its most formidable allies were the Jesuits, upon whom it could then and always thereafter rely to fight its battles in behalf of that dogma, as well as the temporal power, and whatsoever should become necessary to give strength and permanency to the principle of monarchism in the government of both Church and State. This having been accomplished, together with as much infusion of Jesuitism into the Creed as could then be safely ventured, the pope considered the papacy saved, at least for the time being, and dissolved the Council.

If this Council had been promptly called and convened when demanded by Charles V and the numerous body of Christians, much that has since transpired to the injury of the Church might have been avoided. One result would almost certainly have followed—the reaffirmance of the doctrine of the Councils of Constance and Basel by a denial of the pope's infallibility. What a multitude of evils would then have been avoided by the Church! With the question of infallibility disposed of by adhering to the ancient faith, which assigned it to popes and Councils combined as the representatives of the universal Church, composed of the whole body of Christians, the events then transpiring in Europe indicate that the prevailing sentiment in favor of reform would have been strong enough to check, if not to arrest, the progress of Church disintegration. That accomplished, the question of temporal power would have been left as amere domestic one to be settled alone by the Italian people; the ambition of the popes would have been no longer tempted by the desire to acquire universal sovereignty over the world; their meddling with the temporal affairs of the nations would have been rebuked; harmony and concord might have prevailed among all Christians, no matter what their differences of religious faith; all controversy about freedom of conscience would, in all probability, have ceased; the people of every nation would have been left to manage their own affairs in their own way, and there would, doubtless, have been ushered in such a period of general prosperity and contentment as it has required Protestantism to introduce, in despite the resistance and anathemas of the papacy, reigned over by disappointed popes.

But the doctrine of the pope's infallibility, as announced by Laynez in the Council of Trent, deserves to be well scrutinized, in order that its true and actual meaning may be comprehended. He who shall prosecute the laborious research necessary for this, will not be surprised to find that it required over three hundred years of controversy within the Church before the papacy was enabled to create a sufficient number of obedient and submissive prelates to approve the Jesuit teachings of Laynez, as the Vatican Council of 1870 did by decreeing, not only that the pope then reigning, Pius IX, was infallible, but that all the other popes from the beginning—good, bad, and indifferent—were also infallible! It will, however, excite no little astonishment when he reflects that this was done in the nineteenth century, in the face of the popular enlightenment now prevailing, and that such a period was selected for this Jesuit and papal triumph over the Church—which is neither more nor less than placing the future destiny of the Church under Jesuit control, with the helm of the ship which bears its most precious treasures guided by the followers of Loyola and Laynez and the Jesuit generals who have succeeded them.

The language employed by Laynez in this celebrated Council—speaking for the pope as his specially empoweredlegate—is not only expressive, but will be startling to some who may now learn it for the first time. It should be well scanned and considered by citizens of the United States, especially by those Roman Catholics whose silent acquiescence in what the papacy has been and is now doing, causes them to be regarded as approving what, in their honest consciences, vast numbers of them do not approve. On October 20, 1562—after the Council had been in existence seventeen years without settling the question whether bishops acted under Divine appointment or were the mere passive creatures and instruments of the popes—Laynez addressed the assemblage in a carefully-prepared and elaborate speech, which the historian says occupied "more than two hours." The occasion was a great one for him and the Jesuits—in the nature of a turning-point in his and their history. It was the first time during the existence of the Church when the voice of a Jesuit was heard in a General Council, and the first time when the general of that society had been made the special legate of the pope. It was also the first time when the Church had openly turned its back upon the ancient monastic orders by giving preference to a society expressly organized in antagonism to them, for the avowed reason that they were unfitted by corruption for rendering efficient service to the Church. Laynez was equal to the occasion—his speech having been, as all agree, a grand display of eminent ability. He pointed out the difference between the Church and human Governments—the former having been built by Christ, and the latter by human societies. Upon this premise he then developed the papal and Jesuit theory by saying: "That while Christ lived in the mortal flesh, he governed the Church with anabsolute monarchical government, and being about to depart out of this world,he left the same form, appointing for his vicar St. Peter and his successors, to administer it as he had done, giving himfull and total power and jurisdiction, and subjecting the Church to him, as it was to himself." This was a bold announcement of the infallibility of the popes—of the religious dogma that each one of them, in himself alone, possessed the"full power and jurisdiction" of an absolute and irresponsible monarch. This declaration extorted both praise and censure—the latter especially from the Bishop of Paris, who denounced it as having been invented, within fifty years before, in order that its author might gain from the pope a cardinal's cap; thus showing how well and distinctly it was understood that Laynez was the mouthpiece of the pope, and was merely echoing his opinions. Notwithstanding this rebuke, Laynez was not discomfited—for he well knew the potency of the power behind him—but proceeded to establish the proposition that Peter, like Christ, was anabsolute monarch, by an argument which has ever since answered the same end; that is, because Christ said to him: "Feed [that is,govern] my sheep [animals, which haveno part or judgment in governing themselves.]" Then, insisting that Christ intended this relation to subsist between the Church and "the Bishop of Rome, from St. Peter to the end of the world," he also declared that Christ, in addition, "gave him a privilege ofinfallibility in judgment of faith, manners, and religion, binding all the Church to hear him, and to stand firmly in that which should be determined by him." With the view of expressing more distinctly this pre-eminence of the pope over the universal Church he continued: "The Church can not err,because he can not, and so he that is separated from him who is the head of the Church, is separated also from the Church;" that is, none can remain within its pale who do not accept as infallibly true what the pope shall command with reference to faith, manners, and religion. And in order to give completeness to the papal and Jesuit system he was explaining, he humiliated the bishops by placing them, along with the other "animals," at the feet of the pope. He insisted that as "the apostles ordained bishops, not by Christ, but by St. Peter, receiving jurisdiction from him alone," therefore their powers and functions were conferred upon them, not by the divine law or will, but by the pope at his own will and pleasure—thus making them his creatures, mere agents to do his will, ready at all times to yield implicit anduninquiring obedience to his commands, and bound to accept the will and law of God as he shall instruct them.[278]

This palpable perversion of the words of Christ, which are of plain and simple meaning, has been since so persisted in, that multitudes who do not obey his command to "search the Scriptures" for themselves have accepted the papal and Jesuit interpretation as infallibly true. What he said—"Feed my sheep"—can not be tortured into the meaning which that interpretation gives to the words. The English word "feed" signifies only to supply or furnish with food for nourishment. In the Latin Vulgate edition of the New Testament the words of Christ are thus expressed: "Pasce oves meas." The word "pasce" signifies exactly what the English wordfeeddoes; so that the translation now accepted by the most enlightened portion of the world is precisely accurate. But Laynez, it will be seen, so perverted the wordpasce, orfeed, as to make it mean "govern;" whereas, if the authors of the Vulgate edition of the New Testament had intended to convey any such idea as that, they would have employed either the wordguberno, orimpero, ordominor, orrego, either of which meansgovern.[279]But he was, manifestly, looking more anxiously after the interest of the papacy and the welfare of his society than a correct interpretation of Scripture. The principles of the Jesuit constitution were deeply imbedded in his mind; and inasmuch as he was taught by these that the multitude ofmankind should be reduced to the degrading standard of absolute obedience to superiors, his assumption that all the members of the Church were "animals," without either the right or capacity to govern themselves, and therefore completely subject to the mastery of the pope, was a legitimate conclusion from his premise. What he evidently designed to accomplish was to infuse into the doctrines of the Church the fundamental and most distinguishing principle of the Jesuit constitution—that which makes monarchism the chief corner-stone in all spiritual and temporal government. He was the companion and confidant of Loyola, and undoubtedly considered himself as executing the purpose for which the society was established by him; that is, to bring the Church, through and by means of the papacy, to the point of casting off all the influences of the ancient monastic orders, and relying alone upon the Jesuits for its main defense in its conflict with Protestantism. In this he was serving the society as its general, while as the legate of the pope he was serving the papacy—manifestly, however, the first being his chief object. Considering only these ends, he omitted to notice the important fact that Christ, when addressing "a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered," had instructed them to "search the Scriptures" for themselves, because therein they would find those things which testify of him.[280]

The Council of Trent did not decree the infallibility ofthe pope, and would have failed in the attempt to do so if it had been persisted in, on account of the popular odium in which that doctrine was held after the schisms brought on by the papacy had rendered it absolutely necessary to the life of the Church that the Councils of Constance and Basel should expressly deny and condemn it, by declaring that a General Council, as the representative of the Church, was superior to a pope. This was especially necessary with regard to the former of these Councils, for the reason that the pontifical throne was then claimed by Gregory XII, Benedict XIII, and John XXIII, so that no one knew who the true pope was. But as John XXIII had possession of the office, he was tried by the Council upon "fifty-five heads of accusation," and, having been solemnly deposed, Martin V was elected in his stead, and constitutes one in the line of papal succession.[281]In the face of these well-known facts, however, the Council of Trent, under the artful manipulations of Laynez, with the pope to back him, went as far as it couldin that direction, without arousing the popular indignation. The legates of the pope—headed by Laynez—would willingly have passed a decree of the pope's infallibility, yet there were a number of bishops who were not prepared to accept the Jesuit theory, that instead of deriving their jurisdiction and authority from the divine law, it was derived solely from the pope. Besides, the representatives of the monarchs and princes were unwilling to concede to the pope the temporal authority which the doctrine of his individual infallibility was intended to embody in his spiritual sovereignty; for it was easy to see that, if admitted as part of the faith, they would hold their kingdoms and authority at his pleasure.

Although no direct vote was taken in the Council of Trent by which the advocates and opponents of infallibility could be numerically determined, the whole proceedings prove that the foundation was there laid, by its final action, for the ultimate triumph of the Jesuit doctrine. Laynez did not win the complete victory he hoped for, but obtained advantages of which his society continued to avail itself for three hundred years, when their triumph became complete under the pontificate of Pius IX. During that protracted period the fortunes of the Jesuits were shifting—favored by some popes and opposed by others—but during all these years the society clung, with the most stubborn tenacity of purpose, to the teachings of Laynez, as announced in the Council of Trent. Notwithstanding the members were held in almost universal odium in all the enlightened nations, and the society was tried, convicted of numerous public crimes, and suppressed by one of the most distinguished of the popes, and found shelter from the popular indignation under protection afforded them by the enemies of the Roman Church, they at last succeeded in being re-established to serve the "Allied Powers" in the defense and preservation of absolute monarchism. Thus regaining a share of their lost influence under the fostering care and patronage of the papacy, they ultimately became enabled, only about two decades ago, to hold the pen and steady the nerves of Pius IX when preparingthe decree of his own infallibility and that of all the popes "from St. Peter to the end of the world." Nor were the popes themselves idle during these three centuries of conflict between progress and retrogression, enlightenment and ignorant superstition. Like skillful politicians, as many of them were, they employed the appointing power confided to them by the Church to create a large body of cardinals and bishops, who were held together, like an army-corps, by solemn oaths of fidelity to the papacy. The march of this ecclesiastical army was slow from necessity, because those who had been supposed to be mere "animals," were gradually brought within the light of the Reformation. But it was steady, nevertheless, for the reason that the stake played for was great, and the courage imparted by the Jesuits was stimulating. At last the forces were sufficiently consolidated, and the cardinals and bishops sufficiently submissive, to hazard the fortunes of the papacy upon a single cast of the die. Accordingly, the Vatican Council of 1870 was brought to the point of decreeing the infallibility of all the popes as the last resort, in order, if possible, to drive back the waves of the Italian Revolution, and rescue the temporal power of the papacy from impending destruction, and make its future secure by engrafting a repudiated Jesuit dogma upon the settled and recognized faith of the Church.

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