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invention of Satan for robbing that Gospel of its power, arresting its progress, and turning it into an instrument of iniquity, it claims the anxious attention of all who love the Gospel, and regard it as a duty to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints."

The shape in which we propose to offer our remarks in a paper or two on the subject, is that of several counts or charges to which we regard Popery as being liable, and which we shall endeavour, in a brief and condensed form, to substantiate.

First, then, Popery is unsupported by history. History is regarded by the supporters of the Papacy as one of its chief strongholds of defence. But to be a witness in favour of Popery, history should prove it to have been what it now is, as a system, from the first. Its claims to unity, infallibility, and supremacy should be shown to date from its birth, as the apostolic form of Christianity. But the merest reference to dates proves abundantly that Popery is a novelty, an innovation, a corruption. Let us look at facts. For a lengthened period the Christian Church, even in Rome, retained her purity, and exerted a corresponding power. She had the dew of her youth, and even the first of the leading features of Popery was centuries before it made its distinct appearance. The Bishop of Rome was first recognized as supreme in spiritual matters in the year 533, when John, the Roman Pontiff, was recognized by the Emperor Justinian as head of all the holy churches.

The still higher title of Universal Bishop was not conceded until the year 606 A.D., when it was bestowed by the Emperor Phocas upon Boniface III. His predecessor, Gregory the Great, had censured John, Archbishop of Constantinople, in the severest terms for assuming this title. "Priests," he says, "who ought to lie weeping upon the pavement, and in ashes, desire titles of vanity, and do glory in new and profane titles ;" and he denounces the title as "foolishly arrogated" and "blasphemous." Mosheim speaks of the Emperor Phocas, who conferred the title, as "that abominable tyrant who waded to the imperial throne through the blood of the Emperor Maxentius ;" and states that the disputes about pre-eminence between the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople proceeded, in this century, to such violent lengths, as to lead eventually to the schism which separated the Greek and Latin Churches.

Transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, and the worship of the host, are essentially Popish inventions and ceremonials. These organically related parts of the grand system of superstition took their rise in the eighth century, but were finally confirmed only in the thirteenth, when they were made articles of faith by the Fourth Lateran Council. The belief in purgatory, and the related practice of praying for the dead, seems to have sprung up in the seventh century. Purgatory was positively affirmed about 1140, but took its final form as an article of faith only by the decree of the Council of Trent.

The truly Papal doctrine of works of supererogation, based on that of merit, appears to have been adopted only at the end of the twelfth century. A little earlier the power of priestly absolution and excommunication was claimed; and then appeared that almost incredible system of barter, known as the sale of indulgences.

Ecclesiastical history shows that the power of granting these was not claimed by the Popes before the twelfth century. Auricular confession, another grand step in the development of the system, was first officially enjoined so late as the thirteenth century, by the Fourth Lateran Council. The celibacy of the clergy, universal and compulsory, was the act of Gregory VII., the fiery and relentless Hildebrand, about 1074 of the Christian era. That there are seven sacraments was first contended for by Peter Lombard in the twelfth century, but was made a matter of faith several centuries later by the decision of the Council of Trent. The doctrine of priestly intention, another important element of the power of Popery, was fully adopted by the Council of Florence only in the fifteenth century.

From this brief sketch, it is evident that Popery will not bear the light of history. The well-known question of the Jesuit to a Protestant, "Where was your religion before Luther?" received as its answer, "Where your religion never was-in the written Word of God." And it was also open to the retort, "Where was your religion before the Council of Trent?" This celebrated council, with Pope Pius IV., made several new articles of faith. The creed which takes the name of this Pope, indeed, contains twelve new articles, in addition to the Nicene Creed. 66 Surely," it has been justly said, "the twelve new articles were not a part of the old faith; for if they had been, they would form a part of the old creed." History, then, clearly shows Popery to be not the Christian system as it was left by Christ and his apostles, but a novelty, a thing of human invention, the patchwork of Popes and the manufacture of councils. It is not the glorious temple of our original Christianity, but a vast and gloomy structure of composite architecture, with some stately rooms, some long-drawn cathedral aisles and fretted vaults,

"With storied windows richly dight,

Casting a dim religious light;"

but also with many dark crypts and gloomy prison cells; a structure not reared at once from a plan perfect at the first, but the accretion of many centuries, a wing added in this century and a cell in that, its final form being comparatively but of recent date.

History, to be a valid witness for any cause, should be genuine ; but a large part of the history on which Popery has based its pretensions has been spurious. Sheridan said, with regard to some one to whose speech in Parliament he was replying, that he had drawn upon his imagination for his facts-a statement which is truc of Popish biographers and historians to an extraordinary degree.

The foundation-stone of the whole Papal structure is the supremacy of Peter, and it assumes two things: First, that Peter was head and prince of the apostles; and, secondly, that having been Bishop of Rome, his headship or supremacy has been transmitted to and through the Romish bishops who sit as Popes in the chair of Peter. Now, in proportion to the power claimed by Popery, should be the weight of evidence brought forward in support of its claims; the propositions just mentioned should be supported by proofs amounting to moral certainty, making the grand foundation-truth. clear as the sun at noonday. Instead of proofs, however, we have an

astounding series of assumptions, the fibrous threads of supposition for the cables of demonstration, and the testimony of the fathers instead of that of the apostles. "Expounding Scripture by the fathers," says Luther, "is like straining milk through a coal-sack." Of what value, then, is their evidence as to facts not only wanting in the Scripture narrative, but refuted by it? It would be impossible here to enter into the details of the argument, but one may show how entirely fictitious is the first of these assumptions, by a quotation from Barnes's Introduction to his Notes on the Epistle to the Romans. "The Roman Catholic Church have maintained that it (the Church at Rome) was founded by Peter, and have thence drawn an argument for their high claims and infallibility. On this subject they make a confident appeal to some of the fathers. There is strong evidence to be derived from this epistle itself and from the Acts, that Paul did not regard Peter as having any such primacy and ascendancy in the Roman Church as are claimed for him by the Papists. (1) In this whole epistle there is no mention of Peter at all. It is not suggested that he had been, or was then, at Rome. If he had been, and the Church had been founded by him, it is incredible that Paul did not make mention of that fact. This is the more striking, as it was done in other cases where churches had been founded by other men; see 1 Cor. i. 12, 13, 14, 15. Especially is Peter, or Cephas, mentioned repeatedly by the Apostle Paul in his other epistles (1 Cor. iii. 22; ix. 5; xv. 5 ; Gal. ii. 9; i. 18; ii. 7, 8, 14). In these places Peter is mentioned in connection with the Churches at Corinth and Galatia; yet never there as appealing to his authority, but, in regard to the latter, expressly calling it in question. Now, it is incredible that if Peter had been then at Rome, and had founded the Church there, and was regarded as invested with any peculiar authority over it, that Paul should never once have even suggested his name. (2) It is clear that Peter was not there when Paul wrote this epistle. If he had been, he could not have failed to send him a salutation amid the numbers he saluted in the sixteenth chapter. (3) In the Acts of the Apostles there is no mention of Peter having been at Rome, but the presumption from that history is almost conclusive that he had not been. (4) Peter was at Jerusalem still in the ninth or tenth year of the reign of Claudius (although the fathers say that he came to Rome in this reign), Acts xv. 6. Nor is there any mention made then of his having been at Rome. (5) Paul went to Rome about A.D. 60. There is no mention made then of Peter's being with him or being there; if he had been, it could hardly have failed of being recorded. Especially is this remarkable when Paul's meeting with the brethren is expressly mentioned (Acts xxviii. 14, 15), and when it is recorded that he met the Jews, and abode with them, and spent at Rome no less than two years. If Peter had been there, such a fact could not fail to have been recorded or alluded to, either in the Acts or the Epistle to the Romans. (6) The Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, to Philemon, and the Second Epistle to Timothy (Lardner, vi. 235) were written from Rome during the residence of Paul as a prisoner, and the Epistle to the Hebrews probably, also, while he was still in Italy. In none of these epistles is there any hint that Peter was then, or had been, at Rome

a fact that cannot be accounted for, if he was regarded as the founder of that Church, and especially if he was then in that city. Yet in these epistles there are the salutations of a member to those Churches. In particular, Epaphras, Luke the beloved physician (Col. iv. 12, 14), and the saints of the household of Cæsar are mentioned (Phil. iv. 22). In 2 Tim. iv. 11, Paul expressly affirms that Luke only was with him—a declaration utterly irreconcilable with the supposition that Peter was then at Rome."

If it were even certain that Peter had been at Rome, and had founded the Church there, it would still require to be proved that he was head and prince of the apostles, and against this assumption there are many and fatal objections. But what need is there to show how unsound is the second link of the supposition? The failure of the first is the failure of both. The New Testament clearly shows that the first link absolutely fails, so that the Papal supremacy, as founded upon Peter, falls to the ground, and the pretended history on which its claims rest is thus proved to be utterly worthless.

In the eighth century there appeared the famous Decretals of Isidore, the design of which was to support the paramount authority of the Romish See. "In this collection of pretended decrees of the Popes, the most ancient bishops, the contemporaries of Tacitus and Quintilian, spoke the barbarous Latin of the ninth century. The customs and constitutions of the Franks were gravely attributed to the Romans of the time of the emperors; Popes quoted the Bible in the Latin translation of St. Jerome, who lived one, two, or three centuries after them; and Victor, Bishop of Rome in the year 192, wrote to Theophilus, who was Archbishop of Alexandria in 395! The impostor, who had forged this collection, strove to make out that all the bishops derived their authority from the Bishop of Rome, who derived his immediately from Jesus Christ. Not only did he record all the successive conquests of the pontiffs, but he moreover carried them back to the remotest periods. The Popes were not ashamed to avail themselves of this despicable invention. As early as 865, Nicholas I. selected it as his armoury to combat princes and bishops. This shameless forgery was for ages the arsenal of Rome."* Even at the close of the twelfth century, Pope Boniface III. is found strenuously claiming the subordination of all secular power to that of the Church on the ground of these Decretals. What are we to think of the infallibility of the Popes who could be imposed upon by these shameless forgeries, if they were imposed upon; or, if they were not, of their morality in using them for their own purposes? And how evident it is that the Papal supremacy is wanting in true historical supports, since it has ever been so ready to avail itself of the spurious instead of the genuine-to build on the cloudland of fiction, rather than the rock of fact!

No improvement, moreover, seems to be made by the advocates of Popery in this respect. In "The Priest and the Huguenot," by Felix Bungener, an exceedingly intelligent French writer, and a writer who gives credit for any good qualities Papists may possess, it is shown that there is in modern days a systematic falsification of

* D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation." Vol. I.

facts in the interests of the system. After mentioning the attempt of one Abbé de Caveirac to soften down the horrors of the St. Bartholomew massacre, Rabaud, the Huguenot preacher, says :— "If I had not a thousand other reasons for being persuaded that the Roman Church teaches error, its condemnation might be taken, in my opinion, from this frightful facility in lying. Not a month passes, not a week, that I am not obliged to take up my pen to combat the most absurd falsities ;" and he goes on to name several bishops who attempted to cast all possible aspersion on the characters of Luther, Calvin, and all the Reformers; accused the Huguenots, or French Protestants, of undermining the principles of morality, authorizing debauchery and adultery, and befriending infidelity and sacrilege. "So much for written lies. Elsewhere it is still worse. In the pulpit, in the schools, in families, in the confessional, everywhere that we cannot follow our enemies step by step, they scatter and perpetuate the most absurd prejudices. It is not the fault of the priests, if the people among whom we live, who can see and speak with us every day, who have but to keep their eyes open, in short, to see what we are, do not look upon us as a kind of monster, scarcely belonging to the human race!" This was in the middle of the last century. "With certain exceptions," says M. Bungener, "the old accusations go on their way in our own time, some just as they were formerly, others a little rejuvenated, but all, or almost all, more audacious than ever." With such a proneness to fabricate facts for history, such a spirit of reckless and resolute falsification at work from age to age, what proportion of pure truth might we expect to find in the historical records of Popery and what are we to think of the Divinity of a system which invokes the very genius of calumny and falsehood for its support, and with which fairness, justice, and truth, in dealing with opponents, are evidently not regarded in the light of virtues to be practised, but of weaknesses to be scorned? The extreme credulity of Popish writers is equal to their falsehood. Our space will allow us but one example. M. Chavin de Malan published at Paris, in 1845, a History of Monasticism." In the life of St. Francis of Assissi, selected for criticism by Sir James Stephen, the most astonishing prodigies are related. On the annual festival of St. Michael the Archangel, while Francis, and Leoni, a member of his order, were worshipping in a church on Mount Alvernia, on the arrival of the hour of the holy sacrifice, the body of St. Francis "slowly ascended heavenward. When it had reached the ordinary height of a man, the feet were embraced and bathed with tears by Leoni, who stood beneath. Gradually it mounted beyond the range of human vision; but even then his voice was heard in discourse with the invisible, and a bright radiance attested the presence of the Redeemer. He was made manifest to the eye of his enraptured worshipper in the form of a seraph, moving on rapid wings, though fastened to a cross; and when the whole scene passed away, it was found that, by radiations from this celestial figure, the body of Francis, like wax beneath the pressure of a seal, had acquired the sacred stigmata-that is, on either hand, and on either foot, marks exactly corresponding with the two opposite extremities of a rude iron nail; and on the side, a wound such as might have been inflicted by a spear.

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