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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 42

Rome, And Liberty of Conscience

Rome, And Liberty of Conscience.

My Christian friends, the subject of my address is very painful to me. It is with a sad heart that I look back upon the rivers of blood and the torrents of tears of which the Church of Rome has been the cause. I am sad when I look back three hundred years, and see those priests of Rome lighting with their own hands the fires which consumed father, mother, and children alike; and going all over Europe, dagger and sword in hand, piercing the bosoms of the multitudes who differed from them in religion. The reason of my sadness is that I love the Roman Catholics, and the more you love a person the more you are sad when you know his hand is reddened with blood. If you have a dear friend in whom there is something exceedingly wrong, you are sad. The Roman Catholics are walking in the wrong track, their church has put them out of the pale of civilization. I need not say they are out of the pale of Christianity, as that is too evident. But they are outside civilization, and many of them do not suspect it. I do not come here to abuse my friends of the Church of Rome; but I come with the help of God, to open their eyes. I do not ask them to believe my mere word; I want them to open their own books, the records of their own Church, and judge whether I say a word which is not recorded in their own history. The Church of Rome is the deadly enemy of liberty. She is ever plotting against all the laws of God, and the liberties of men. And if to-day she could take away from herself her natural hatred of liberty of conscience, to-morrow she would fall. She lives by persecution; hatred of liberty is her life, her fundamental principle. I have read their councils for ten centuries back, and I challenge the Bishop of the Church of Rome here and his priests, publicly to deny that there is a single council that does not say that heretics must be burned. All proclaim that it is not only the right, it is the duty of the Church of Rome to kill heretics and to press Governments to put to death everyone who does not submit himself to the Pope. I need not speak of the Council of Constance, where they not only declared that every heretic must be killed, but where the bishops in that Council forced the Emperor to put to death one of the brightest lights of past ages. And what did Pope Leo say when writing to the Emperor about Luther? He said, "Why do you not go and burn that heretic?" And it is so much in the nature of the Church of Rome to live by the death of her enemies, that when the King of France committed the most horrible crime which the world has ever seen, when he did a thing which no nation the most savage and degraded would do, a crime which has left an eternal blot on the face of France, when he ordered all the Protestants to be slaughtered, and then expressed the hope that not one had escaped, when 75,000 Protestants were slain in cold blood in one night; the Pope, when he received the news and heard that the blood ran in the streets to the horses' knees, and that the river was choked with dead bodies, when he heard with his imagination the cries of the dying and the lamentations of mothers who were forced to witness the slaughter of their children, felt incredible joy. He raised his hands to God and said "May our mighty God be praised." He sent a letter of congratulation to the King of France; he gave a large sum of money to the man who had brought him the news; he ordered all the bells of the city of Rome to be rung, and all the cannons to be fired. Now, my friends, search from the beginning of the world in the histories of the most infamous nations, and tell me if you can find any deed of cruelty to be compared with that, if you can find any such want of humanity? I say, "humanity," not "Christianity," for there was no Christianity possible in the heart of such a man as that Pope. Now, was that Pope not a man, that he should do such things? He was a man, and his heart would have been as kind as that of the kindest man here, had he not been Pope of Rome. But he was at the head of the Church of Rome, and there was something in him which came from hell and destroyed every sentiment of humanity. When I was a priest, I had the reputation of being a learned man. I must confess I never was learned. I have studied exceedingly. I have read as many books I dare say as any man can read, but the more I read the more page 18 I find I am desperately ignorant. I see every day things which I knew nothing about. But here is something which I do know, and when I know a thing I know it. (Laughter.) And if the Romish bishop is brave enough to come forward and defend his church, I will bring him to confess that he has made a terrible mistake in so coming. Now, when I was a priest I studied their books, and here is one which I learned almost by heart. It is their best book on theology, their standard work. It is the book which every priest who wishes to raise himself must study. This book is written by their greatest theologian, a theologian who has been put among the fathers of the Church—Saint Thomas Aquinas; and it is called "Summa Theological." This book is not put into the hands of everyone. If you want to get it from the Bishop I think you will lose your time. (Laughter.) It is approved by the Councils of the Church of Rome, and once a year each priest of Rome goes down on his knees and with his Breviarum thanks God that it was written, and says it is so good that it is evident that the Spirit of God inspired Saint Thomas Aquinas to write it. As the book is in Latin, I wish, to avoid suspicion, that some person would come forward and read a passage and translate it. [As no one else offered, the rev. lecturer handed the book to the Rev. George Sutherland, who read the following passage and translated it—"Though heretics must not be tolerated because they deserve it, we must bear with them till, by a second admonition, they may be brought back to the faith of the Church. But those who, after a second admonition, remain obstinate in their errors, must not only be excomunicated, but they must be delivered to the secular power to be exterminated." Now. Mr. Chairman, do you understand what the word "extermination" means? (Laughter.) It is not said, We must try to convert them, to give them more light; no, it says, "they must be exterminated." When a priest of Rome, I had the reputation of being a gentleman, but it was a gentleman in the manner of the Church of Rome, and in the presence of God I confess to you that there was nothing I found so good, so according to the laws of my Church, as this sentence of condemnation to death, of all Protestants. I have been raised in their colleges in the belief that when the Church of Rome has killed, not thousand, but millions, she did well. When I read that in France four millions of Protestants had been killed, that in Piedmont more than half a million had been destroyed, that in Germany they had been slaughtered by hundreds of thousands, that in the Netherlands the blood of more than one hundred thousand Protestants had been shed, that in France 75,000 had been slain in one night, I felt so glad, I only regretted that they had not all been killed, and if it had been in my power to put a million barrels of gunpowder under the feet of the whole Protestant world, I would willingly have applied the match to blow them up, even though I knew I should lose my life in the attempt. God knows I say the truth. I would have done this with pleasure, because my church told me (and I believed her) that you Protestants are the enemies of God, that you are condemned to hell, and that you are the only cause why the Church of Rome is not mistress of the world. I hated the Protestants beyond all expression. And there is not a single Roman Catholic priest, who, if he is honest, would not make the same confession. It seems incredible to say this of these gentlemen, who always meet you with such fine manners and smiling faces. But it is true. Now, Protestants, is it necessary for me to bring you back to the days of the Reformation, the days when the voice of God spoke to your ancestors, and told them to take His Word for a lamp to their path, and when the Pope told the rulers to kill those heretics who read the Bible? Oh! how interesting it is to read of the noble young Hamilton, a young man connected with the noblest families of Scotland, who was condemned to death for reading the Bible. How touching it is to see that young man preferring to die rather than to kneel down before the idols of Rome. How beautiful it must have been to hear that noble young Scotchman at the stake when the fire was coming to consume his body, repeating these words—"How long, O Lord, shall darkness cover this realm? How long wilt thou suffer this tyranny of men? Lord Jesus receive my spirit." And then he died without any bad feeling towards his persecutors, and asking Jesus to receive his soul. Not long after, Russell of Glasgow was martyred He and another young man were condemned to die because they would not give up their Bible. He said to his young friend "Take courage! The sufferings through which we pass will be short, and an eternity of glory is there in store for us. Let us try with our Master, Jesus, to enter by the same strait gate through which he has entered. Be sure death cannot destroy us, for it is already destroyed by Him for whose sake we suffer." And then he died, blessing the Lord. And there was that woman whom Scotchmen should never forget, Mrs. Robert Lamb, of Perth. When She was asked by the Bishop of Glasgow if she would pray to the Virgin Mary, she said "No; I will pray only to Jesus my Saviour, who died for me. He told all sinners to come to Him. He did not tell them to go to Mary. I go to Him because He shed His blood on Calvary for me. Mary is a holy woman, but Jesus alone saved me." She was condemned to death. She page 19 asked the favour to die with her husband, which was granted. As she walked by his side she encouraged him to be firm. "We have lived together here, and before long we will be together in the Kingdom of Christ for ever. Jesus calls thee, and I follow thee." And when her husband was on the scaffold, with supernatural courage she bade him adieu. He died, commending his soul into the hands of Jesus. She was taken to the river to be drowned. She had in her arms her little child, which was only a few months old. She pressed it to her bosom, and as the waters were on the point of drowning her, she kissed it for the last time, and handed it to another woman to take care of. And with a courage whsch may be called divine, she accepted death; she sang a hymn and then passed from this land of misery to take the crown of glory which Jesus had prepared for her. Then there was Wishart, who was confined in a dungeon by the Cardinal of St. Andrew's, the Cardinal of all Scotland, and condemned to death, because he would not give up his Bible, because he would not invoke the name of Mary instead of the name of Jesus, because he would not bow down to the wafer-god of Rome. I have been in that dungeon. I have touched the walls where the Angels of God were the witnesses of his paryer, when that man knelt down and blessed his God because he had been shosen to suffer death for Jesus Christ; and I have seen the place where Wishart was burned. Perhaps some of you will say, "These things are of the past; why does Chiniquy come here to bring trouble between Roman Catholics and Protestants. We are good friends." I know some will say that, because, though I have not been long here, I know there are some weak-kneed Protestants among you. And that class of men is the most contemptible in the world. I will tell you why I allude to these things. It is not to induce you to have bad feelings towards the Roman Catholics, but it is because you are on a volcano, and you do not suspect it. My friends, you are condemned to death. This evening I have read your condemnation. Every priest here thinks he has the right, when he will have the power, to put you to death. Every bishop believes he has the right, not only to your property, but to your life. In the Church of Rome it is believed that no Protestant has a right which a Roman Catholic must respect. It is the law of the Church of Rome. I will tell you of a very strange thing which occurred in my experience. You know that the bishops of the United States determined to destroy me when I had given up the Church of Rome. At every session of the court my name was called by the sheriff, among the criminals. At every session of the court I had to stand there on the bench among the greatest criminals and the most infamous men. The lawyers of the Pope were paid to heap upon my head the most horrible abuses. Sometimes they spoke for two hours at a time trying to overwhelm me with insults, and calling me by every bad name. They called me "a murderer," "a thief," and they accused me of crimes so horrible that I cannot name them here. (Sensation). Well, after enduring this for fifteen years, I went to one of the best lawyers of Illinois, and asked if I had not the right to bring the bishop before the court, and make him swear that it was his duty to destroy me, make him prove from his own books that it was his duty to take away my goods, my honour, and my life. He said I had the right, and he expressed surprise when I told him I could prove that. The bishop was summoned to appear before the judge. He said to the sheriff, "I have no business at the court. I have no case against Chiniquy. I refuse to go." The sheriff said, "If you do not come I will put you in gaol." (Cheers.) Then he came. The court was crowded, many Roman Catholics being there. Then before the Court of Kankakee I took this copy of Aquinas, and I said to the bishop, "Do you know this book?" He turned the book over and over for a long time, but he would not answer. The sheriff told him if he did not answer he would send him to gaol. (Cheers.) He then said, "Yes, I know it." I then said to the judge, "Please ask that gentleman if that book is a book of the laws of his church." The judge put the question, but the bishop did not answer. When he had again to choose between answering the question and going to gaol, he said, "Yes, it is a book of the church." I then said to the court, "Please ask that gentleman to translate this into good English." And the poor bishop, under oath, was forced to say to the judge and to the Protestant lawyers there, and to the Protestant public, that heretics must only be tolerated when the Church of Rome cannot help it; but, that directly when she has the power, they must be exterminated. The judge said, "Is it possible you will exterminate me, sir? It is very strange; is it correct?" (Laughter.) The bishop said "Yes." That was not all. The bishop had, under oath, to swear to the correctness of this. "Though heretics who repent must always be accepted to penance, as often as they have fallen, they must not in consequence of that always be permitted to enjoy the benefits of this life. When they fall again they are permitted to repent, but the sentence of death must not be removed." Suppose Chiniquy were to repent, he would go to the bishop and receive his pardon and absolution, and he would then invite some one to cut his (Chiniquy's) throat. (Laughter.) They reason that though my sins would be page 20 forgiven, I would not have the right to live any more, and that I could not complain, because, my sins being forgiven, and I being killed, I would go to heaven straight. (Laughter.) Here is another oath to which the bishop had to swear—"We excommunicate and anathematise every heresy that exalts itself against the holy, orthodox, and Catholic faith, condemning all heretics, by whatever name they may be known—for though their faces differ, they are tied together by their tails. Such as are condemned are to be delivered over to the existing secular powers, to receive due punishment. If laymen, their goods must be confiscated. If priests, they shall be first degraded from their respective orders, and their property applied to the use of the church in which they have officiated. Secular powers of all ranis and degrees are to be warned, induced, and, if necessary, compelled by ecclesiastical censures, to swear that they will exert them-selves to the utmost in the defence of the faith, and extirpate all heretics denounced by the church, who shall be found in their territories. And whenever any person shall assume government, whether it be spiritual or temporal, he shall be bound to abide by this decree. If any temporal lord, after having been admonished and required by the Church, shall neglect to clear his territory of heretical depravity, the metropolitan and the bishops of the provinces shall unite in excommunicating him. Should he remain contumacious a whole year, the fact shall be signified to the supreme pontiff, who will declare his vassals released from their allegiance from that time, and will bestow his territory on Catholics, to be occupied by them, on the condition of exterminating the heretics and preserving the said territory in the faith. Catholics who shall assume the cross for the extermination of heretics shall enjoy the same indulgences, and be protected by the same privileges as are granted to those who go to the help of the holy land. We decree further, that all who may have dealings with heretics, and especially such as receive, defend, or encourage them, shall be excommunicated. He shall not be eligible to any public office. He shall not be admitted as a witness. He shall neither have the power to bequeath his property by will, nor to succeed to any inheritance. He shall not bring any action against any person, but any one can bring an action against him. Should he be a judge, his decision shall have no force, nor shall any cause be brought before him. Should he be an advocate, he shall not be allowed to plead. Should he be a lawyer, no instruments made by him shall be held valid, but shall be condemned with their author." So, Protestants, you see you have no right to your property, nor to your lives. They belong to his Holiness the Pope. (Laughter.) And this bishop had to swear that before the Court of Kankakee. Some will perhaps say that these laws are past and gone long ago. But I tell you they are still the laws of the Church of Rome. She has not repealed these laws, In her last Council, held eight years ago, she declared that those who do not believe in the justice and perfect holiness of these laws are going to hell, that it is a crime unpardonable to condemn the Church for passing these laws. And the bishops are bound by oath to believe that these laws of extermination come from God, and should be put in force directly everywhere they have the power. I will read you a few extracts which I have made from Roman Catholic journals in the States, because I want to make things clear to you. "The Church is of necessity intolerant. Heresy she endures when and where she must. But she hates it, and she directs all her energies to its destruction. If Catholics ever gain an immense numerical majority in this country (the United States), religious freedom is at an end. So our enemies say; so we believe."—The Shepherd of the Valley, St. Louis, November 23, 1851. You see they boast of it. "The Catholic world is the medium and channel through which the will of God is expressed. While the State has rights, she has them only in virtue, and by permission, of the superior authority, and that authority can only be expressed through the Church of Rome." "Protestantism of every form has not and never can have any right where Catholicity has triumphed, and therefore we lose the breath we expend in declaiming against bigotry and intolerance, and talking about religious liberty, or the right of any man to be of any religion as best pleases him."—Catholic World, 1852, New York, "The Church is instituted, as every Catholic who understands his religion believes, to guard and defend the right of God against any and every enemy at all times, in all places. She therefore does not and cannot accept or in any degree favour liberty in the Protestant sense of liberty." "No man has a right to choose his religion. Catholicism is the most intolerant of creeds. It is intolerance itself, for it is truth itself. We might as rationally maintain that a sane man has a right to believe that two and two do not make four as this theory of religions liberty. Its impiety is only equalled by its absurdity."—Freeman's Journal, New York, 26th January, 1852. "The American Catholic is to wield his vote for the purpose of securing Catholic ascendancy in this country. All legislation must be governed by the will of God unerringly indicated by the Pope. Education must be controlled by Catholic authorities, and under education the opinions of the individual and the utterances of the Press are included, and many opinions are to be page 21 punished by the secular arm, under the authority of the Church, even to war and bloodshed."—Catholic World, New York, July 1870. In his encyclical of 1808, Pius VII said: "It was proposed that every religious persuasion should be free, and their worship publicly exercised, but we have rejected that article as contrary to the canons and councils of the Catholic religion." Gregory XVI., in his famous encyclical of September 1832, wrote: "Liberty of conscience is a pestilential error: and tolerance is a pest." The late Pius IX., in his encyclical of December, 1864, addressed to all the Roman Catholic bishops, denounces, as damnable and perverse, the proposition that "Liberty of conscience and of worship is the right of every man; and that this right ought, in every well governed state, to be proclaimed and asserted by law." The syllabus of that same Pope, Pius IX., connected with his encyclical, condemns, in countries where the Roman Catholic Church is the established one, the allowance to other than Roman Catholics to "enjoy the public exercise of their own worship." That same syllabus denounces as corrupting, the opinion that civil liberty should be granted to every mode of worship, and that there should be freedom of speech and of the Press, with regard to religion. The Rambler, an English organ of Popery, of June, 1849, maintained that it is no more morally wrong to put a man to death for "heresy" than for "murder," and that, "in many cases, persecution for religious opinions is highly advisable and necessary." The Catholic Mirror, the public organ of the Bishop of Baltimore, lately addressing the Roman Catholics, says: "Let it be your first duty to extirpate heretics; but be cautious as to the manner of doing it. Do nothing without consulting the bishop of the diocese in which you may be located; and if there be no bishop there, advise with the metropolitan bishop; he has instructions from Rome, and he understands the character of the people. Be sure not to permit the members of our Holy Church to read the Bible: it is the source of all heresies. Let the land be purchased for the Pope and his successors in office. Never yield or give up the divine right which the Head of the Church has, by virtue of the keys, to the Government of North America, as well as every other country." I could keep you all night reading extracts of this kind. It is certain that before long you will hear that the Church of Rome is triumphing there, that she rules that great magnificent country, but you will hear at the same time of a terrible conflict—the Protestants will not bear that tyranny. (Loud applause.) Perhaps the Roman Catholics here will tell you in conversation and in their press, that the Protestants have killed the Roman Catholics. I know it. I acknowledge that the Protestants have killed the Roman Catholics; but why? Because the Protestants were forced to defend themselves and punish their murderers. If the Roman Catholics put these murderous laws into execution, the Protestants must defend themselves. Many times when I have been speaking in places where the Protestants were in a minority, the Roman Catholics have come round the building, and the stones have fallen round me like hail, so that I thought every moment would be my last. I have been surrounded many times be more than a thousand men, but by the Providence of God my life has been saved. The noble-hearted and fearless Orangemen were always ready to protect me, and received many times the blows that were aimed at me. Several, in protecting me, have been killed. Now, after several years of such persecution, four Orangemen went to Bishop Bourget, of Montreal, and said to him, "We conquered Canada about 100 years ago. When we conquered it, we gave you liberty of conscience; but it was on condition that we should have that liberty also. At present we have not that liberty. You think that you have the right to prevent us from worshipping God as we wish, and from speaking to each other publicly, and here is a man whom you have wounded, and whom we have invited here. We are come here to tell you something. If Chiniquy is killed, we are 200,000 men sworn to come to Montreal, and the next week after his death, not a priest or nun will be seen. All your Churches will be swept away as if by a hurricane. Now, good-bye." (Great cheering.) And the four men left. Well, the very same day the bishop sent his priest to tell the people not to kill Chiniquy, or those infamous Orangemen would kill them. It was so in Scotland and in England. After the Protestants had been burned at the stake, after their blood had run like rivers, they began to defend themselves. And the argument which the Roman Catholics deemed so good, they could surely not object to. Here is a question which I would like to put to Archbishop Vaughan, of this city. What assembly of priests and bishops have declared that it is bad to slaughter Protestants! In what year did the Romish Church declare that she was in error in putting Protestant's to death? I want him to tell me when the Church of Rome repealed the bloody laws which she passed in the days of old. You will see that he cannot answer. The blood of all the martyrs is still on her hands; she has never washed it away; she has never regretted it! Their priests come before you and make fine speeches in favour of liberty of conscience; and when you hear these beautiful words, you think they understand them in the same sense as you. But you are cruelly, shamefully deceived. When a priest of Rome speaks of liberty of conscience, it means that page 22 you must let him do with you as he pleases, and cut your throat when he can do it without any danger. Now, my friends, what must we conclude? Must we go to the Roman Catholics and hate them, and slander them, and punish them? No; among the Roman Catholics there are two kinds—good and bad. You have nothing to fear from the bad Roman Catholics. If the priests of Rome told them to molest you, they would not do it. But a good Roman Catholic would cut your throat as soon as he would cut the throat of a rat. The good Roman Catholic will obey his priest in everything. But by chance there are many Roman Catholics who have more sense than that. They have mixed with you Protestants, and the light of the gospel, the spirit of the gospel, the principles of the gospel, the principles of humanity and charity which are your life, the atmosphere which you Christian nations breathe, the atmosphere of liberty, of fair play, these things have had a powerful influence on them. They breathe in this atmosphere of liberty; and though they retain the name of Roman Catholics, they see that it is Protestant liberty which makes a nation great, and they will not obey their priests in these things. And that is your security. But pray God the time will never come when the Church of Rome will have the upper hand. I can prove to you by their own writings, which are in my hands, that Manning's intention is to do all in his power to bring a general war of extermination against the Protestants, and against all those who are opposed to his government. Manning, you know, was an Episcopalian, and turned to the Romish Church, as many of his school have done, and as many more will do, and the sooner the better. (Hear, hear.) These Ritualists are only Roman Catholics in disguise. These are the bloody words pronounced by Manning not long ago. "Now, when the nations of Europe have revolted, and when they have dethroned; as far as men can dethrone, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and when they have made the usurpation of the Holy City a part of international law, when all this has been done, there is only one solution of the difficulty—a solution I fear impending, and that is the terrible scourge of continental war, A War Which Will Exceed the Horrors of Any of the Wars of the First Empire. I do not see how this can be averted, and it is my firm conviction that in spite of all obstacles the Vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his own rightful place." Every word here smells of human blood. That man wants the Roman Catholics to take sword in hand and cover Europe with blood. He wants to implicate the Italians in a war till they be nearly all killed and when that beautiful country is bereft of men he will put the Pope on his throne though that throne be raised on the dead bodies of a million men, and though he will have swum through rivers of blood to reach it. And the Roman Catholics will be happy to look at Europe in ruins, if the Pope can only be put on his throne. I know it is the intention of the Church of Rome to bring on a general war of religion, and that war will come before long. I pray my God that you will not see those days, but I do not fear for the issue, because I know God will be, as He always has been, at the head of His soldiers of liberty. All these plots of the priests and bishops of Rome against human liberty will bring on them the wrath of God. But this result will come only after the whole world will have been plunged in a terrible war. Now, my friends, it is not Chiniquy who says these things; it is the Church of Rome herself. You remember that when our dear Saviour was approaching a certain city, the people would not receive Him, and they told Him to go to another place; and the disciples wished Him to allow them to bring down fire from Heaven on these people; Jesus told them that they did not know what they asked, that the Son of Man had not come to destroy men, but to save them. And when Peter at the last hour, when our dear Saviour was in the hands of His murderers, took his sword and cut off an ear of one of them, Jesus told him to return the sword to its scabbard, for he who used the sword would perish by the sword. In this particular, as well as in all her dogmas, the Church of Rome differs from the Church of Christ, and proves that she is the Church of the Devil. Jesus says, "I do not want men to be killed for not accepting Mr Gospel; I do not want them to be killed for injuring Me." But the Pope says, "I want all those who do not obey me to be slaughtered, to be exterminated." Here are the two religions, The reason the Pope and his bishops do not want their people to read the Bible is, because they want to teach them that it is their right to exterminate you, and because they will see by reading the Bible that those who make use of the sword to protect their religion, shall perish by the sword. May the great God of Heaven be blessed for the great privileges which your ancestors have transmitted to you: but remember that those privileges of a free Gospel and of liberty of conscience, are surrounded with perils; that the Pope and his bishops are determined to destroy them. When the day of conflict comes, I hope you will be true sons of the martyrs of old. I hope when the colours of liberty shall float to the breeze, and God shall call all his soldiers of liberty to rally round His banners to support the great institutions for which your ancestors bled, that every one of the citizens of Australia will respond to the call, and that all the enemies of liberty will disappear (Applause.)