The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-27
BISMARCK-VON ARNIM-PERSECU.
TION.

We have not published at length the &C
count of the arrest, indictment, trial and
final sentence Of the court Of Count Won Ar
MIN. These were matters which did not i'm
mediately concern us or the American public
But out Of these proceedings against Count
Won Arnim we may be permitted to make
some comments. Bismarck is genius He
is a marked man, of strong intellect, OF iron
will, and Of a temperament which will not
brook any opposition to his settled purposes.
He has willed that the Roman Catholic
Church shall be put down. On this subject
he is an enthusiast, and his enthusiasm drives
him into the extreme Of persecution.
All great men, welded to one idea, imma-
ferial what that conception may be, are, to a
certain extent insane, and this insanity upon
one subject makes them prosecutors. With
power, persecution, SO long as the power con-
hnues, is success, but it is success that
brings forth bitter fruits in the end, and
finally leads to the recognition and establish
gnent ofeternal truths. Let us 60 back to few
prominent events to prove that persecution,
in the long run, is never a success, Christ,
laying aside his divinity, was Jew, or to use
n word which may be less offensive, was an
Israelite.
His Apostles were Of the same race, as all
those who bear witness to His miracles, to His
doctrines, to His crucifxion, and to His res
direction, were Jews. Paul, the grandest Of
His Apostles, was, at first, the iercest persecu-
tor of the Christians. He was converted, and
like all converts, he became the most prOmi-
nent in proclaiming the divinity Of Christ.
The first Christians were Jews, and the
faith and belief of the civilized world, as now
recognized, is due to the early conversion Of
the Jews. But Judas was one Of the Apostles;
was Jew; and his betrayal of his Lord and
Master WIS the prime cause of his crucifxion.
His offense is the cause Of the persecution of
the Jews for the last eighteen hundred years.
In reading an account of the rise and pro-
gress of Christianity, we see that the promi-
nent cause is attributed to the persecution Of
the believers in Christ. Gibbon, in his won
derful work on the decline and fall of the
Roman Empire, attributes the success of the
Gross to persecution. As soon as the Church
became power in the land, persecution was
the main weapon used by it to bring into its
fold all unbelievers As Christianity was born
of the Jews, as its Apostles and early converts
was, from human point of view, impossible
to be established, for without the crucifxion
there could be no Christ, and no resurrection;
yet we know the Church, the moment it be-
came a power, commenced the persecution of
the Jews. and that that early persecution has
continued to this day, with more or less Of its
vindictiveness, in all parts of the world.
This vindictiveness brings forth both bad
and good fruits. The chief argument against
Christianity, in that magnificent production
of Shelly, Queen Nab, is the desolating wars,
the horrors and the crimes perpetrated in
the name Of the Most High.
Religious dogmas cannot be proved by any
scientific investigation. Dogmas rest upon
belief and faith. Ny dogma is my faith
Another's dogma is his faith. To force me,
10y the faggot and stake, to give up my dogma
is persecution; to force another to recant his
opinions is persecution on my part.
The whole theory Of the Crusades and of
all war waged to enforced the doctrines of
Christianity is based upon the fallacy that
conscience is not free. The Crusades may
have benefited the world in many ways, and
though the hosts of Europe were led by
Peter the Hermit and other enthusiasts, and
though the sepulcher Of Christ was rescued
from the intidel yet we know that that sepul-
cher is now under the guardianship of the
infidel.
We know still further that he who came Eve
hundred years after the advent of Christ es-
by the sword his dogma that there
is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet,
and whether his followers are what we would
call civilized or not, do not in numbers they
outrank the followers of Christ? We now ask,
in all sincerity, if there are not very many
who subscribe to the annunciation Of Ma
homet, leaving out his declaration that he was
the prophet?
We casually allude to the prosecutions Of |
The Church for conscience sake. Luther was |
The production Of the persecution of the |
Church, and without that any Luther would |
have been an impossibility. The Professionals,
when in power, in turn became prosecutors |
Calvin, the head of the Puritan order, had |
The most eminent scientist of his age, Serve |
tus, burnt at the stake for heresy, because |
the belief of Servetus was not his belief. And
10 seek for the extreme Of fanaticism, We have
only to refer to Cromwell and his Puritan war |
riors, and the subsequent corrupt and demon
Allied society during the reign Of Charles II. |
Persecution, for opinions sake, is crime
against nature. The Jews have been perse-
cuted by Christians for opinions sake. and
hat is the crime of Christianity. And what
good has come out Of it? None whatever It
has united the Jews and their union has been
their protection. For centuries they have
been spat upon and reviled-robbed and tor