The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-07-11
serm On by Rev. MIR. Kcntlnge ut the Ply
mouth Church on "Reminiscences Of the
InQu1sitiOn.


serm On by Rev. Mr.. Kcnilnge mt the Ply
mouth Church on "Reminiscences Of the
InqulsitiOn.
The Rev. gentleman began by establishing
his identity at some length, showing and re-
ferring to high authorities both as to his stand
ing as minister and as to his present adher-
ence to the Dutch Reformed Church. The
church was densely packed with a most APP
preciative audience. The peculiar voice of the
speaker rendered hearing matter of great
difficulty. His first premise to the discourse
proper was the idea that the greatest fights for
freedom have been waged against Romanism,
He urged that Italian liberty is not yet dead
The modern liberal struggles of Italian ideas
through Garibaldi and the secret societies and
the defeat Of Aspromonti prove it, True re-
ligion cannot be the foe OF freedom. There
has been sixteen centuries of Romsh serv-
tude; that now there is an onward tendency,
and the present attitude of the Romish Church
shows that she intends to throw herself against
this tendency with redoubled energy. That
in this country we see Romanism made decent
by SO general an admixture of the Protestant
element He statistically strengthened this
point, and went on to say that Romanism, as
seen in Rome, was the foe of freedom; that
the horrible persecution which of old so
shocked us enter in the canon &c and 12) now
and become part of the code; that religion, leg
isative and judicial power is held by the same
hand. An arbitrary government is an evil
one. This confusion of spiritual and secular
powers is placed in the hands of men having
little in common with mankind in general,
none of the humanizing influences of home. of
children and of wives but in the hand of those
who openly avow that the chueh obliges them
to be sensual;sts BY that the Government is
carried on. They cling to the political econo-
my of the past feudal ages, returning its
errors and adopting none of the mproveme nts
of the present. An Italian, said he, uses holy
water and bows the knee, is not taught to
read but allowed to beg, and stealing is lot
suggested by starving only. Cardinal Anto-
neli was described in light, his origin, char
acters, his intrigues and debauchery. all stood
forth in clear detail. The prisons of the In
QUESTIONS were described. He quoted from the
guide book of nature" which he once as
Curator of the Archives. had under his care; ;
its author was Cardinal Caracci; spoke in de-
tail of several cells in tho prison, one in which
few hints remained of its fearful use, q wo-
mans dress, fragments of hair torn out by the
roots, furnace, showing that it was here that
the fire destroyed traces of some unfortunate
How, with cruel refinement, trap let fall
into fearful pit those told to ego in peace"
Other details, of which he gave many ex-
amples, we will pass by. He spoke CT the
moral philosophy of Peter Deane, a stand ard
used by the priests of this country, which
teaches that heretics are to be extirpated. The
oppression of the Jews under the present Pope
was spoken of; that of 1900 who existed
when his reign commenced only 5000 now re-
main; that the Romish church sided against
the cause of emancipation in our late conflict.
The sophstry of the Jesuits he dlated upon
their facility in avoiding matters of conscience,
&c. The effects of the confession. one is that
no young woman old enough to confess is con-
sidered virtuous; that no Catholic can be a
citizen for absolution and the confessional
frees him from the sins against law and order
When our land shook off an oppression more
in Theory than in fact, Lafayette said that this
country would only come to evil by the machi-
nations of Rome. The Romish church has
ever been an enemy of freedom, and has writ
ten her history in blood that six billions of
dollars will be taken into her Golfers by the de-
cision of infallibity on the 18th of July.