The Black Pope – By M. F. Cusack
CHAPTER XIV. Conclusion.
Contents
I DO not conclude the present work without a very deep sense of personal responsibility, nor without a very clear knowledge of the danger to which I have exposed myself in writing it. It is always a serious matter to write history, but when the writing of the history of the past must so closely affect the history which we are all making at the present, then, indeed, truth and accuracy are of supreme importance.
No doubt I have omitted much which might have been said and said with advantage, but this omission has been the result of necessity, not of choice. To have said all that might have been said would have made it necessary to enlarge the work considerably, and this would have added to expenses, which are already difficult to meet. There is perhaps no more painful sign of the times than the difficulty in inducing the general public, and even some Christian people, to read any work which criticises Roman Catholic teaching. Witness the treatment which has been meted out to a recent biographer, not merely by his Roman Catholic brethren, but by the so called Protestant press. One might suppose that Rome was and had always been the greatest benefactor to the people of England, instead of having been the cause of wrongs and sufferings which we should never forget, because by forgetting we risk the non-enforcement of even ordinary precautions against the renewal of such terrible evils. How are our children to be warned by the true history of the past if it is to be studiously concealed from them?
Hear all Sides.
Again, a false charity has been the cause of much harm amongst those who as Christians should be eager, for the honour of their Lord, to protect the future of their country from the domination of an unchristian Church. Perhaps, it may be added that a love of controversial sensationalism has had its share, and no small share, in producing this distaste for truth and solid facts. Those who seek truth, and truth only, will certainly hear all sides, but the side of strict truth is above all things the side which we should choose in matters of such supreme moment.
Again, there is no doubt that some of the usual Jesuit wiles have been played all too successfully on earnest Protestants. The question as to whether there are or are not Jesuits in disguise has been disputed with acrimony. Acrimony always blinds to truth, and this is precisely what the Jesuit desires. In the face of history, which proves that Jesuits in disguise have been common and successful, and in the face of the fact that the Jesuits themselves, now become daring in England, have even given a list of those who have acted in this way, why should there be any doubt on the subject? But it should be remembered that the Jesuit in disguise is a Jesuit in disguise. Further, the Jesuit would be no Jesuit if he did not make the disguise suit times and circumstances. The plans which were carried out in the reign of Elizabeth of brave memory, or of James II., could not be carried out at the present day, as they would too easily be discovered.
We all live too much in public now to admit of men going about in multifarious disguises, however well these methods suited other times. I believe, and it should be remembered that I know Rome from the inside as well as from the outside, and this with no ordinary knowledge, that the danger today is from the relatives of Protestants who have become Romanists, and who have a power and influence which is unsuspected, and therefore a serious danger. In some families a mother has become a Romanist or a daughter has become a Romanist. The zeal of converts to Rome is proverbial. Family ties and affections are not easily loosened. What more natural than that the daughter should be influenced by the Romanist mother or the mother influenced by the Romanist daughter?
How Jesuits work Now.
I do not speak without knowledge and painful experience. The first object of these “converts” is the advancement of their Church. It is fashionable just now to be a Romanist. Rome is patronised in high quarters, and unhappily men and women who call themselves Christians are not always above the inducements of social advancement. They may be themselves persons of good social position, all the more, they desire, perhaps unconsciously, to maintain that position. They “wear their jewels still,” they still wish to make the most of both worlds. On the platform they are perhaps strongly Protestant, but in private they listen to their Roman Catholic friends, and are influenced by them, and yet they may appear to be very pronounced Protestants, but those who are true and sincere converts from Rome to Christ must always suffer at their hands.
Rome smiles at their folly, while she uses it to her advantage. If Rome apprehends danger from one who has renounced her faith, and who exposes her tactics well and fearlessly, she at once tries to silence the voice which would condemn her effectually. It is easily done. The Romanist mother or daughter has only to wait her time, and insinuate that after all this brave protester against Rome is “a Jesuit in disguise,” and the end is attained. Rome is a past master in duplicity and in understanding human mature, and how to work on the jealousy, pride, or other weaknesses of poor humanity,
If she can silence a tongue or a pen which has exposed her truthfully her end is gained, and it is all the more triumph to her if she can turn the arms of the enemy against the enemy. Rome has already described fully how successfully she worked in this way in former times, so that there is no excuse for ignorance.
There are two classes of English men and women to whom this work should appeal. Christian people should be aroused to save England from an unchristian power. Men who have even the least appreciation for, intellectual and social freedom, should leave no effort unmade to save England from the dominion of a Church which has been everywhere the grave of thought and intellectual freedom.
This book will have been written in vain if it is not realised that there can be no religious freedom where Rome has power, if it is not realised that there can be no political or intellectual freedom where Rome has power.
We have said elsewhere that it is a mistake to suppose that the Jesuits are in some way different from the Roman Catholic Church. Would the Church of Rome have supported the Jesuits as she has done, if they were not Romanists of the Romanists? The fact is that Jesuitism is Romanism carried to its logical conclusion.
Easy to be Popular.
It would seem sometimes as if we were living under the same social and moral conditions as those who lived before the Flood. They ate and drank, they married and gave in marriage, they mocked at those who warned them in the name of the Lord. But for all that, the Flood came and swept them all away. It is so pleasant to drift with the tide, it is so easy to be “popular,” and to let troubles pass us by. That there will be a future retribution, either in this world or the next, for these despisers of prophetic warnings, is certain, but they live for the, present, and they have their reward.
Sadder still is it for those who are truly called of God when they allow prejudice or self-interest to influence, if not warp their judgment, and who turn, from those who, having had long experience of Rome, can best help them in the controversy. It is the object of Rome to divide those who are most earnest in opposing her, and unhappily she too often succeeds in attaining her end. Surely a careful study of the attempts of Rome, and especially of the Jesuits to divide Christian people, should be a sufficient warning. It is, after all, simply copying the. worst characteristics of Rome when Christian people refuse to cooperate with each other because of trifling differences of doctrine or opinion. So it is, also lamentable when differences arise as to the manner in which the holy war against the enemy of God and truth should be carried on, it weakens the hands, and chills the zeal of those who should maintain a united front against an always united enemy.
If Christians only united as Rome does, how soon would there be a change which would alter the whole face of society.
Again, even Christians often, perhaps unconsciously, are ashamed of a quiet, steady, but open profession of their detestation of teachings which are distinctly contrary to the Word of God. Rome is never either afraid or ashamed of her religion, and proclaims it on all occasions, and at all times and places. Protestants are doing the work of Rome by their indifference and want of courage. The outposts are being surrendered to the enemy. It is the first step, and an important step, in gaining an entrance to the citadel.
Even those who do not oppose Rome because she is unchristian, or who have persuaded themselves that she is Christian because they do not take the trouble to understand what she teaches, should pause ere they give her power to take away all our liberties. Rome is the grave of intellectual progress and of moral rectitude.
Jesuits fail as Educators of Youth.
Mr. Cartwright, a calm and dispassionate writer on the Jesuits, says: —— “Much has been said about the intellectual eminence of the Order, as shown in educational institutions, its scholastic efforts have uniformly been directed to substitute for the occasional irregularities attendant on a buoyant nature that monotony which accompanies stagnant life— the dead-level of mediocrity. Independence of character, of mind, of research, are objects hateful to the Society, which must be expelled, and in lieu of these it has evolved a system of pseudo-culture, studded with the counterfeits of science—playthings adapted to natures that are being carefully nursed to grow up with stunted strength. Accomplishments of a captivating order—talents of handy and specious character—have largely distinguished those trained in the schools of the Society, but in the long roll of Jesuit Fathers—men of undeniably busy and sedulous habits—it will hardly be possible to pick out one name, the bearer whereof admittedly takes rank amongst the great discoverers in the fields of science and of thought—amongst the men who have materially advanced the knowledge of mankind. A glance at the Ecclesiastical annals of the last centuries is enough to reveal the increasing sterility within the officially recognised area of the Latin Church.
“In the seventeenth century, the French clergy, in corporate declarations with their names appended thereto, over and over again protested against, and 7 stigmatised as outrageous, the theological maxims propounded by Jesuit divines.”
This system of moral theology leaves every man at the mercy of the confessor, so that between man and man there can be no social or business confidence. The confessor decides on the rectitude of contracts, and dictates the policy of the statesman. He decides the conduct of the husband to the wife, of the wife to the husband, of the employer towards the employed, of the servant to the master, and from his decisions there is no appeal. Nor is this iniquitous interference with the rights of humanity confined to the Jesuit. The moral theology of the Jesuit is approved by the universal Roman Catholic Church, it is taught in every Roman Catholic college in the world. Rome is responsible for all the crimes which ever have been or ever may be committed by the Jesuit, for she has set the seal of her highest approval on his teaching. Even the present Pope, who is proclaimed, or proclaims himself, as one of the most learned and enlightened of his class, has, as we have shown elsewhere, bestowed the highest approval which pope can give on these men, and their soul destroying system. And are they to govern England, and are their pupils to be our legislators and rulers? It seems so.
Pius IX. On Convent Immorality.
Perhaps there is no more remarkable statement in a remarkable book than that in which the writer declares when the religious orders were suppressed by the revolution in Italy, Pius IX. said that though he was bound publicly to condemn the suppression of monasteries, in his heart he could not but rejoice, for it was a blessing in disguise. Mr. Purcell says he asked Cardinal Manning in 1887 if this statement was well founded. The Cardinal replied that it truly represented the views of the Pope. What a commentary on the supposed sanctity of the religious orders of the Church of Rome, and what an exposure of the failings of infallibility. We find popes and cardinals very ready to interfere in the affairs of those with whom they have no concern, but very slow to attempt any reform in their own Church, no matter how necessary.
Further, Cardinal Manning declared that the success of the revolution in Italy was “principally due to the laxity of morals in the clergy, and to defective education and religious training in the schools.”
And yet we are asked to support monasteries and convents, and to endow colleges and other institutions with public money where precisely the same system is carried out. Has England been bewitched by Rome? The Church which compelled Galileo to swear to what he knew to be a lie in order to obtain liberty to exist, has not changed. Today, if Rome had the power, all scientific discussion would be banned and barred, and she would find some theological reason for forbidding the investigations of Rontgen, and discover heresy in the X rays. Rome flourishes best in darkness, and Rome knows it.
But grave as these matters are, what shall be said of the frightful heresies which she approves and encourages? If scientific research is discouraged, theological disquisitions are allowed which border on blasphemy.
Huber, in his admirable work, “Les Jesuites,” calls attention to the heresy which teaches that the body of Mary is found in the sacrament with the body of Christ. This horrible, must we not say, blasphemy seems to have originated with Ignatius Loyola. Even so lately as the year 1851, Oswald, the professor of theology at Paderborn, taught in his Mariologie dogmatique, that priests, in reward for their virginity, received in the Communion not only the body of Christ, but also the flesh and the milk of Mary. Mgr. Malou, Bishop of Bruges, has taught that Mary wears a triple crown as the daughter of God the Father, the Mother of God the Son, and the spouse of God the Holy Ghost.
These are not mere medieval theological pastimes or refinements, they are taught today as part of the deposit of faith, and approved by the Church as such. Much more might be said, but of what avail? . The question of questions remains: Will Christian people support even by silent acquiescence a system which teaches blasphemy? Will they support by their indifference a system which places the forgiveness of sin in the hands of man, and deprives God of His chief attribute of mercy?
The Church above every Law.
Will Englishmen, who pride themselves on their love of liberty, support a system which is based on the right to deprive all mankind of all liberty except what the “Church” permits? Will they vote for the pecuniary endowment of men who teach that rebellion against their lawful sovereign is so noble a virtue as to deserve the highest honours which the “Church” can pay? Every endowment, every pecuniary help which is given, whether it be large or small, national or private, will be used to teach the coming generation that the “Church” is above every power and every law, and that in order to be a faithful Romanist abject submission must be paid to every dictate of Rome in matters social and political as well as in matters of religion. It is time that this should be clearly understood, and it is time that when understood men and women who love their God, and who love their country, should have the courage of their opinions, rather we should say of their faith, and stay the plague which is destroying the land, and which, if it but spreads a little further, will make a desolation of England as it has made a desolation of every land and every clime where it has been fostered and encouraged.
